Hearing these words from Yin Weiyue, the Old Lady and Mrs. Feng felt as if they were awakened from a dream by a single phrase. Over the past two years, they had indeed been constantly worried about their loved ones in prison on one hand, while feeling plagued by self-blame on the other because the other branches were searched and put under house arrest.
Yin Weiyue sneered lightly: “Fifth Brother having no thought of dividing the family estate doesn’t mean the others in the Third Branch don’t.”
In the book, it was written exactly like this: After Mrs. Chen finished making a scene at the Old Lady’s place today, she discovered that the First Branch consisted entirely of the old, weak, sick, and disabled, with no one capable of doing anything to her. Thus growing bolder, she went to instigate the two concubine branches, setting a date to go together before the Old Lady to throw a tantrum for dividing the family estate.
When Huo Kai found out, he strongly disapproved. He tried his best to stop Mrs. Chen and forbade anyone from the Third Branch from making a scene, but he couldn’t stop the two branches that had been provoked by Mrs. Chen. Except for Fourth Brother Huo Qiu of the Second Branch who disagreed with dividing the family estate and did not show up, not a single one of the remaining adults was absent.
At first, those people were fairly polite, but upon hearing the Old Lady’s words, “Knowing it cannot be done, why do it?”, every one of their expressions turned cold and indifferent.
The men present were still relatively calm, but under the lead of the Second Branch’s eldest daughter-in-law, Lady Jiang, the female family members began deliberately picking quarrels as if they had planned it in advance. Over a minor verbal disagreement, they began tearing and grabbing into the First Branch.
Two families against one—how could the First Branch be a match for them? With their fierce, wolf-like demeanors, they wished they could skin and debone every single person in the First Branch. Seeing the situation becoming increasingly heated, Huo Jun rushed forward to break up the fight.
The Old Lady had already been enraged by Mrs. Chen to the point of speaking unclearly. Now, this scene added rage upon rage. In her agitation, she trembled and fell from her armchair, tears smearing her face, yet not a single concubine son or grandson beside her went to help her up.
Third Uncle Huo Shan kicked the Old Lady aside with his foot, scooped up the armchair she had been sitting on, and shouted loudly: “Huo Jun! It’s a spat between women—what are you men going up there for? Your First Branch sure puts on grand airs!”
Using this as an excuse for assault, he swung the armchair down heavily onto Huo Jun’s head after speaking. The chair shattered in an instant, and the man was left bleeding profusely from his head on the spot.
“Seventh!”
“Seventh Brother!”
Several female family members of the First Branch were all pinned firmly to the ground, watching helplessly as Huo Jun bled uncontrollably without any way to help.
Huo Shan’s wife, Lady Jiang, had fought until her eyes turned red. She had long been resentful toward Mrs. Feng, the main mistress of the house. Prominent families shared a common affliction: not fearing scarcity, but fearing inequality.
Why could the Third Branch receive fifty taels of monthly allowance silver per person at the beginning of every month, regardless of male or female, old or young, while her husband only received twenty taels per month? She had long wanted to demand an explanation from the First Branch, but her concubine-descent status was like a pair of shackles, forever making her inferior to others.
Today, the opportunity had finally arrived. Seizing the momentum, Lady Jiang grabbed a broken fragment of the armchair and struck Mrs. Feng with force. Mrs. Feng felt a sharp pain in her chest—it was a broken rib piercing into her lungs.
Huo Kai hadn’t expected the Second and Fourth Branches to resort to violence. He and Huo Qiu hurried over to stop them upon hearing the sounds of fighting and crying, but it was already too late.
Second Master Huo Anmin took the opportunity to push forward his mother, the Old Concubine Lady Liu, to take charge and draft a document for dividing the family estate. Then, he coerced Huo Jun into bringing the Old Lady along to hand the division document to the guards, to be submitted to the imperial court.
Naturally, the guards refused. Under the pretext of “evading criminal responsibility,” they gave Huo Jun thirty heavy cane strikes.
The thirty heavy cane strikes given by the guards were of a completely different nature from the hundred strikes Yin Weiyue gave Mrs. Chen; just a few strikes down, and the flesh was torn open.
In less than half a day, a whole group of people in the First Branch was injured. With the outside world refusing to allow a physician to be called, Huo Kai could only use previously prepared herbal medicines to treat the First Branch’s injuries simply, but it was of little use.
The Old Lady was paralyzed on the spot from rage. Huo Jun’s injuries from the thirty cane strikes were extremely severe, and his left ear was deafened by Huo Shan’s blow. Mrs. Feng’s broken rib punctured her lung, while Lady He, Lady Su, and Huo Wanying were scratched until covered in bloodstains. With the family suddenly suffering such a catastrophic change, Lady He’s breast milk was frightened away, which indirectly led to two toddlers over a year old starving to death at the very beginning of the exile.
When Yin Weiyue first read the book, she felt the people of the First Branch were too useless. But after recalling it several times during her idle moments in the deep mountains, she finally understood: the First Branch consisted of the old and the young, with only a sixteen-year-old Huo Jun, who was merely a physically weak, big guy incapable of handling a weapon.
The phrase “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun” was far too accurate. When the order of the Huo family collapsed, the First Branch’s fists weren’t hard enough, so no matter how they responded, they could only end up taking beatings.
However, right now Yin Weiyue directly synchronized with Huo Jun’s pain perception, so he absolutely could not be injured in the future. And the starting point of Huo Jun’s injuries began right with the riot to divide the family estate.
Therefore, as long as the family estate was not divided, within the six months prior to exile, Huo Jun would not be injured, and she would not feel pain.
The reason Yin Weiyue spoke directly and clearly to Mrs. Chen today was precisely to firmly eliminate her idea of instigating discord to divide the family estate.
“I’ll just speak plainly with Third Aunt then: no matter how you and the other two branches scheme, dividing the family estate might have been possible before the Huo family met with disaster, but right now it’s strictly impossible. Setting aside the imperial laws, even those hoping for the Marquis Manor to suffer bad luck wouldn’t agree. Third Aunt doesn’t have a good father like mine as a backing, nor the good fortune to be able to obtain a divorce.
If you dare to make a scene again, the Old Lady will have a letter of divorce written to cast you out. But even if you are divorced, you won’t be able to step out of these Marquis Manor gates; your sons and daughters will still be surnamed Huo for life. If our First Branch can’t leave, they won’t leave even in death. The property Eunuch Wang left for the First Branch must be sent over as soon as possible—not a single cent or grain short! And the responsibility that the Third Branch owes in filial piety to grandmother cannot be lacking by even the slightest fraction.”
Yin Weiyue knew that the women of the First Branch were all thin-skinned. Doing things like asking for money and collecting debts could just be left to her.
“This grandson swears an oath here: we will absolutely never divide the family estate!” Huo Kai knelt before the Old Lady. “In the past, relying on the Marquis Manor’s glory, I only knew how to squander, without knowing the hardships of Eldest Uncle and my two elder brothers. Everything the Third Branch has was given by the First Branch. Tomorrow, we will deliver the property left by Eunuch Wang in full. Whether in life or death, we are all one family. From now on, our two branches will eat together, and the Third Branch will surely never chill the hearts of grandmother and Eldest Aunt again.”
“Good. For you to think this way means Eldest Uncle’s cultivation of you was not in vain. Take your mother back to apply her medicine.” The Old Lady waved her hand.
“Thank you, Grandmother.” Huo Kai picked Mrs. Chen back up onto his back. As the three of them were leaving, Yin Weiyue pulled Zhang Yulin’s hand.
“Fifth Sister-in-law, eating together between the two branches won’t be necessary; moving back and forth is actually inconvenient. But showing filial piety to grandmother is indeed what your Third Branch ought to do. In the past, grandmother ate with our First Branch for two years without eating well either, but we won’t dwell on that. From now on, we’ll rotate every six months—for the next six months, your Third Branch will deliver meals to grandmother: three meals a day, not missing a single meal.”
Yin Weiyue didn’t want the two branches to eat together at all; she didn’t want to look at Mrs. Chen’s face in the slightest. Furthermore, she still wanted to cook extra meals for herself in the future—wouldn’t eating together expose that? Besides, the First Branch had always been taking care of the Old Lady, but Huo Anzong was also her biological son, so the Third Branch ought to contribute a share of the food for the next six months.
It wasn’t about coveting the Third Branch’s things; showing filial piety to elders was a matter of principle.
“Alright, we will certainly deliver the meals every day,” Zhang Yulin replied softly.
Once the three of them left, Mrs. Feng felt exceptionally refreshed in her heart. Over the two years of house arrest, she had finally won against Mrs. Chen for once.
For these two years, Mrs. Feng had been bound by familial affection and tied down by guilt, weighed down so much that she couldn’t catch her breath all day. Yet today, this breath of air was actually vented for her by her least favorite daughter-in-law.
However, one matter was distinct from another. The fact that Lady Yin harbored feelings for Huo Kai was a reality, and her failure to observe womanly virtues was also a reality. A daughter-in-law who stepped out of bounds was someone she could not accept no matter what.
After Huo Kai and the others left, the sky had grown completely dark. Fortunately, the cloudy afternoon had turned clear, revealing a quiet night filled with stars and a moon high in the sky, casting delicate shadows across the ground.
Everyone carefully helped the Old Lady into her room, taking out a fire striker to light the oil lamp, illuminating a corner of the pitch-black room.
Today’s affairs had dragged on for quite some time, delaying the evening meal. Everyone had been hungry for the whole day, relying on this evening meal to sustain their lives. Mrs. Feng hurriedly took her daughter and daughters-in-law to the kitchen to cook.
Yin Weiyue also stood up to leave, but was called back by the Old Lady, who then looked at Huo Jun: “Look at how disheveled you are—hurry up and wash up to change into a clean set of clothes. Seventh’s Wife, go along and lend a hand.”
Yin Weiyue was rendered speechless. Did the Old Lady know they hadn’t consummated their marriage and wanted to create an opportunity for them to get intimate?
Huo Jun offered no opinion. Bowing to the Old Lady, he walked outside; being so dirty all over was indeed uncomfortable, so he needed to wash up quickly. Seeing this, Yin Weiyue could only follow him out, after all, she had just made a grand public declaration this afternoon about sharing the same blanket in life and the same grave in death with him.
Under the faint moonlight, Huo Jun walked in front while Yin Weiyue followed behind.
Looking at the man’s limping posture, she couldn’t help but mock him again. If he was in pain, she was in pain too, right? But as a full-grown man, could he really not even have this little ability to endure pain?
Truly a weakling.
Yin Weiyue was really, extremely curious: how on earth did the author of the novel *Transmigrating to Ancient Times to Be Empress* portray a man who panted every three steps into the high-martial big villain in her roommate’s mouth later in the story?
With Huo Jun’s beautiful yet frail appearance, writing him as a young male courtisan competing for favor in a gentleman’s brothel, or a power-grabbing eunuch in the palace, should both have been easier to write than a high-martial villain, right?
Unaware of Yin Weiyue’s inner thoughts, Huo Jun walked toward the well in the backyard. It was secluded there, a place where the female members of the family wouldn’t go, so he could draw water directly to wash up by the well.
Spring had already arrived, and now he used cold water to wash his body every day. Although the well water was still somewhat biting, they currently couldn’t afford hot water—firewood was too scarce and needed to be saved for cooking and for the female family members to use.
The man glanced back, only to find Yin Weiyue still following behind him, causing him to frown.
“Huo Kai has already left, and there are no outsiders present now. You don’t need to act anymore. Also, stop saying things about wanting to share the same blanket in life and the same grave in death even if executed.
We don’t share a blanket now, and if sentenced to death in the future, the grave crime of treason will certainly result in decapitated heads being displayed in public. Bodies with no one to bury them will be thrown into the wild to feed wolves, so there will be even less of sharing a grave in death. When you say these words, you don’t find them hypocritical and mushy, but I am unwilling to deceive grandmother and mother.”
While speaking, they had already arrived by the well. Picking up the wooden bucket tied with coarse hemp rope, he added: “Yin Weiyue, although you and I have felt mutual disgust for over two years of marriage, regardless of everything, you helped the First Branch today. You helped me uncover the truth from back then, helped mother resolve her heart’s ailment, and helped us win back our life-saving silver.
So I advise you: although the Huo family is wrongly accused, the final outcome remains unknown. For you to be able to obtain a divorce and leave the manor is something other women in this large manor couldn’t get even if they begged for it. Since you’ve already broken off with Huo Kai, why don’t we divorce, so you can leave this place of right and wrong completely?”
In two years of marriage, Huo Jun’s combined words hadn’t been as many as tonight. Today, he was genuinely and sincerely thanking her.
Yin Weiyue glanced at him, repeating the same line: “I’m not divorcing.”
Huo Jun thought she was staying to seek revenge on Huo Kai, but Yin Weiyue wasn’t the original host—she had none of those messy feelings toward the male lead, only wanting to save her own life.
Huo Jun couldn’t understand—were women all this stubborn? “Is it worth dying together for someone who doesn’t love you?”
Yin Weiyue didn’t refute. From the moment she transmigrated into the book, she never intended to maintain the original host’s persona—after all, acting like an insufferable person like the original host was quite difficult. But she was too lazy to explain, so she said: “I insist on eye for an eye, blood for blood.”
Huo Jun tsked twice—truly, the deeper the love, the deeper the hatred. He had said all he could say; if the other party wouldn’t listen, he couldn’t force it.
Thus, turning around, he threw the hanging bucket into the well. He shook the rope twice, without success; then shook it twice more, and two times again, yet still failed.
Yin Weiyue: “…”
Huo Jun felt somewhat embarrassed and annoyed: “I’ve spoken clearly—what are you still doing standing here? Could it be…” that she actually wanted to watch him undress and bathe?
Yin Weiyue delivered a sudden, sarcastic remark: “Are you sure you can draw water up from the well?”
The reason she had followed him all the way to the well was precisely out of fear that the slippery edge of the well in the dark would cause the man to accidentally slip in and drown—then she would truly die an unjust death.
Huo Jun choked.
In the past, he indeed couldn’t. But ever since they were put under house arrest and the servants were confiscated, drawing water naturally couldn’t be left to his mother, sisters-in-law, and sister, so he had learned.
Usually, shaking the rope left and right a few times would quickly fetch water, but today, due to his injuries, his entire body was aching with pain—especially his arms and shoulder blades. It hurt whenever he applied force, so even after swinging the rope for a long time, the wooden bucket in the well still hadn’t filled with water.
Huo Jun stiffened his neck, refusing to show weakness in front of Yin Weiyue: “Naturally I can.”
So he tried several more times, all to no avail.
Yin Weiyue snorted with laughter, stepped forward to snatch the coarse hemp rope, pulled the wooden bucket up, and tossed it back into the well. Holding the hemp rope, she swung it cleverly to the left with a skilled motion—the wooden bucket submerged, filling up with well water in an instant.
She bounced the bucket in the water twice before pulling it up, scattering the duckweed and floating dust in the well so that what came up was entirely clean water.
The entire process was done in one smooth motion, leaving Huo Jun staring in utter shock. He had never expected that this domineering, spoiled young lady actually knew how to draw well water.
After all, her washing water over the two years had all been drawn for her by the Yin family servants when they brought meals.
This woman had brought him far too many shocks today. If he didn’t disbelieve in ghosts and spirits, he would have suspected whether this abnormal wife today had been possessed by something.
Looking at this well, an overwhelming sense of familiarity brought Yin Weiyue’s thoughts back to her past life.
Although she didn’t have a well when living in the deep mountains with her eldest sister, fetching water to drink from mountain streams instead, she had lived in an orphanage in a remote mountain village from a young age. In the early years, the orphanage had no running water or pressure pumps at the well, relying solely on manual labor to swing ropes in the well to draw water for drinking.
When she was little, she often watched the orphanage director drawing water, and as she grew up, she gradually learned it herself. Later on, a pressure pump was installed by the well, so the orphanage no longer had to fetch water manually. But this method of swinging ropes to draw water ran through her entire childhood—a memory etched into her very bones—so naturally it came easily to her now.
“Go ahead and wash.” After speaking, Yin Weiyue walked back. She had no interest in seeing Huo Jun’s naked body; she didn’t like skinny ribs, she liked well-muscled ones.
After taking a dozen steps, Yin Weiyue suddenly turned back to glare at him: “So useless—can’t even pull up a bucket of water. Are you even a man?”
Having said that, the woman was in a rather good mood. Humming a little tune and treading upon the fallen, dappled shadows of the moon, she headed back to her quarters in the front yard.
Left standing on the spot after being scolded as not being a man, Huo Jun’s face flushed red with anger. Men were all like this—no matter how weak, none could stand being told they were incompetent.