It made sense to return money which was owed and people had the right to accept or refuse a gift too. If one looked at this situation from this perspective, Jiang Ruyi had enough reasons to return the money and items Xia Lei had given her. Once he took them, however, it meant that their relationship of over 20 years was completely over and they would just be debtor and debtee. 

Would Xia Lei be able to do something like this with his personality? Let Jiang Ruyi and her parents lead frugal lives? He didn’t even want to think about it. He was a person who returned the kindness he was shown, and Jiang Ruyi’s father had lent him a lot of help when he had been forced to become breadwinner...