After shouting at Huo Jun, Yin Weiyue turned around and went into the kitchen. She picked up a bowl, poured a tiny bit of clean water into it, and grabbed a pair of chopsticks. Once prepared, she quickly returned to the hall.
Then, an unbelievable scene unfolded.
Except for the members of the first branch, starting with Little Lady Liu and Lady Peng, every single adult present was punched squarely in the nose by Yin Weiyue—not a single one spared.
Covering their noses, everyone cursed furiously; the chaotic scene looked as though they wanted to swallow Yin Weiyue alive.
Seeing this, she quickly tossed out a sentence: “Dividing the family is everyone’s business. Pooling together ‘ink’ cannot be borne by my Seventh Brother alone! Anyone with an objection can either not divide the family, or step up and fight me.”
Hearing that last sentence, everyone chickened out. However, making Huo Kai back down was unrealistic; unfortunately, he was held back tightly by Zhang Yulin, who was also bleeding from the nose.
The situation was brought under control. One by one, Yin Weiyue caught the nosebleeds into the bowl and stirred continuously with the chopsticks. Very quickly, a bowl of thick yet temporarily uncoagulated “nosebleed ink” was created. This was her experience from her previous life in the deep mountains when learning to make pig blood sausages from her eldest sister; though a bit disgusting, it was extremely practical.
She handed it to Huo Jun. The man stared at the bowl in a daze for three seconds before silently taking it over.
At this point, Yin Weiyue feigned a serious expression and asked on behalf of the Old Lady, “Are we truly dividing the family? Think it through carefully, everyone. Once it is set in black and white, we will strictly be four separate families from now on, with no further ties whatsoever.” After saying that, seeing Huo Kai about to open his mouth again, she quickly added, “Huo Kai and Huo Qiu are juniors; you have no right to speak.”
Huo Kai was so angry he laughed. If he was a junior, then what on earth was Yin Weiyue?
Covering her nose, Lady Peng glared at Yin Weiyue with deep hatred. Yet, she also understood that during a family division, it was best not to offend the Yin family to avoid further complications, though certain things still had to be said.
According to the setup in this novel, dividing the family meant bringing out the family’s shared communal assets to distribute, while private assets belonging to individual branches did not need to be pooled together for equal division.
“The family must be divided, but right now it is the Huo family dividing its estate, not the Yin family dividing hers! The communal assets must be distributed fairly! If you rely on the Yin family to force an unfair division, I will definitely… definitely…”
“Definitely what?” Yin Weiyue raised an eyebrow, asking back with utter indifference.
“If the division is unfair, you will surely face retribution!” Lady Peng’s face flushed bright red. They were meat on the chopping block; even if the division was unfair, she realized that apart from putting a curse on Yin Weiyue, they had no other recourse.
*Ha~*
Yin Weiyue scoffed. If curses actually worked, all of humanity in the world would have died out long ago.
Huo Jun’s expression darkened. “The entire manor was thoroughly ransacked long ago, and we have been under house arrest for nearly two years. Our first branch has been struggling to keep things afloat—where would there be any communal assets left? Once you sign the family division deed, leave immediately.”
As the man finished speaking, Lady Du and several others ran in from outside weeping, their cheeks swollen and red. “Mother, those guards aren’t human! They took my money, but turned back on their word and refused to fetch a doctor, and they even beat us!”
“What?!” Little Lady Liu felt a surge of rage rush to her heart and nearly couldn’t stand firm. Looking at her unconscious son, her heart burned with anxiety. Finally, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Listening to Seventh Boy’s words, it seems you intend to dismiss us with just a single piece of paper.”
“Otherwise?” Huo Jun asked back.
“Hmph, dream on! Either do not divide the family and go fetch a doctor for my son, or bring out the communal assets to negotiate with us! It’s true that the Yin girl is very good at fighting, but if you don’t agree, then beat all of us to death right here today! We might be helpless against you now, but let’s see if the ancestors of the Huo family and the King of Hell can forgive your first branch once we’re down in the underworld!”
Seeing Little Lady Liu acting like a dead pig that didn’t fear boiling water, Yin Weiyue felt somewhat annoyed. It was completely impossible to slit the throats of so many people; even if she could win in a fight, she wasn’t a bloodthirsty killer.
For a moment, the family division reached a stalemate. Lady Chen watched the drama unfold from the side; this was precisely the scenario she most wanted to see. Let the first branch distribute what little assets they had left; when the time came that the first branch could no longer support themselves and came to her for silver, she would only need to flash the family division deed, and the first branch wouldn’t get a single dime.
Indeed, Eunuch Wang had said back then that half the assets should be left for the first branch, but who asked them not to retrieve them before dividing the family? As long as the family was divided, everything from before no longer counted. When that time came, she would put on a slight pretense, charitably taking out thirty to fifty taels to give to the first branch, thus shutting the mouths of her husband and her unfilial son.
Even if they ultimately couldn’t leave the Huo Manor, their third branch would suffer no loss. If God blessed them to leave, she would use the jewelry she had hidden to buy property and land to live a carefree life. As for the first branch, let them be locked up for as long as they wanted—it would be best if every single one of them starved to death.
Thinking of this, even the pain in her buttocks seemed to lighten up considerably.
At this moment, the Old Lady spoke up: “Seventh Boy, go and divide the items your wife took away last night into four shares—one for each family—and write them all onto the family division deed.”
“Yes, Grandmother.” Huo Jun nodded. He knew that what they were dividing now were all items belonging to the first branch itself. Although they were taking a loss, this was the only way right now; otherwise, who knew how long this uproar would continue.
Thankfully, however, there was still half of the first branch’s assets over at the third branch, which should tide them over for quite a while. No matter how unreasonable Third Uncle and Third Aunt were, they were still family after all, and certainly wouldn’t withhold those items just because of a family division deed.
Yin Weiyue thought about it and felt this was improper.
The Old Lady was doing this because she placed absolute trust in her son and daughter-in-law. But once the family was divided and the first branch went to ask for the assets left behind by Eunuch Wang, Lady Chen would only need to bring out the family division deed, and the first branch would be completely dumbfounded.
As long as Lady Chen made up her mind to throw a life-or-death tantrum, Huo Anzong and Huo Kai would absolutely not dare to use force to demand them. Therefore, the Old Lady was gambling on bloodline and kinship this time, and the outcome was bound to be a loss.
Although the money and goods left behind by the original body were more than enough to support the first branch, Yin Weiyue simply refused to watch Lady Chen, the instigator of all this, succeed.
However, if she publicly revealed right now that Eunuch Wang had left assets for them during the house search, then the fourth branch would definitely have to divide it as well. Moreover, thinking of their two years of cutting corners on food and clothing, the second and fourth branches would surely harbor deep resentment. Even if Eunuch Wang’s remaining assets were divided equally today, they wouldn’t feel grateful; they would only feel it was rightfully deserved.
Furthermore, when they discovered that they couldn’t leave the manor at all after signing the family division deed, these resentments would multiply exponentially, and who knew if they might do something insidious to the first branch one day.
Thus, the matter regarding Eunuch Wang two years ago must absolutely not be spoken of. Just as she was at her wit’s end, Yin Weiyue suddenly seemed to realize something. She raised her eyes to look at Huo Wangyu, who, caught off guard by her gaze, felt inexplicably guilty and hurriedly lowered her eyes.
Yin Weiyue smiled. At this moment, confident of success, a plan surfaced in her mind.
She pulled back Huo Jun, who was about to go into the room to fetch the items.
“Auntie Old Ladies, the first branch is dirt poor; we can only afford one meal a day, and everyone is as thin as bamboo poles. What is the point of dividing these paltry scraps?”
Little Lady Liu glared at her: “The Old Lady has spoken—on what grounds do you stand in the way? You wouldn’t be trying to hoard the assets and refuse to divide them, would you?”
“Hmph, biting the hand that feeds you, failing to recognize good intentions!” Yin Weiyue sneered. “I originally intended to take out my own private savings to share with you all, but who knew you would be so ungrateful!”
“Your private savings?” At once, all eyes in the room turned to look at her in unison.
“I am the beloved darling of my father and mother. You surely didn’t think that over the past two years the Yin family only delivered three meals a day for me, did you?”
“My mother secretly sent over a large amount of money and goods. But as you all know, a few days ago I was still madly in love with Huo Kai, so I didn’t give these money and goods to the first branch. Instead, taking advantage of my visits to pay respects, I gave all of them to Third Aunt every single time.”
As soon as these words were uttered, the eyes of the people from several branches nearly popped out of their sockets, especially Huo Kai, who wore a speechless expression that practically screamed “I really owe it to your great uncle.” He immediately confronted Lady Chen: “Mother, why did you accept them?!”