An earthquake, followed by a drought. The fields yielded nothing.
Lin Xiaoman had just lost her parents, and now her grandparents, treating her and her younger brother like burdens, called them to the main room to discuss splitting the family.
Old Madam Lin let out a cough. Old Man Lin shuddered twice, knocked the ash out his pipe against his shoe, and then spoke. “I called everyone together this morning because there’s something I need to say.”
“There’s only a little over three hundred catties of grain left in this house, and with more than ten mouths to feed, let alone making it to next year’s harvest, I’m not even sure we can make it through the winter. So your mother and I figured, instead of all starving together, we’d split the family. From now on, whether you eat chaff or fine bread, it’ll be up to your own abilities.”
“What your father said is right. We’re old, and we can’t look after such a big family anymore—especially the ones who slack off at work and the ones who never stop eating!” As Old Madam Lin spoke, her big eyes kept darting toward Lin Xiaoman and her younger brother, Lin Erhu.
“Your parents died young, and things are hard in this household right now. Xiaoman is already sixteen and still refuses to marry. The family can’t afford to feed so many idle mouths. Don’t blame your grandparents for being harsh. We’ll split the three hundred catties of grain into thirteen portions based on the family headcount, and you two will get two portions. As for the house, it was built after your parents passed away, so don’t even think about it. You two will move to the old house later. The two acres of land in front of it will go to you.”
Lin Erhu shot her a sideways glance with his triangular eyes. “Granny, if you want to kick me and my sister out, just say so. No need for all these insinuations!”
“What’s this about ‘slacking off at work’? And what’s this about ‘never stopping eating’?”
“Every time you buy meat or kill a chicken, you send me and my sister away! My sister is sixteen, sure, but our parents died last year saving you and Grandpa! We’re still in mourning, and you’re trying to force my sister to marry some thirty-something widower. That’s not right by any measure!”
“You say my sister eats too much, but you don’t say how strong she is—she can do the work of three grown men by herself!”
“I can’t do the heavy work in the fields, but tell me—wasn’t it me who brought back every single piece of firewood from the mountain? Why don’t you talk about how Uncle and his family are never in the fields when it’s time to work? Just because we don’t have our parents to back us up doesn’t mean you can dump all the blame on us!”
Lin Erhu’s little mouth rattled off this string of accusations, angering his eldest uncle, who slammed his hand on the table. “You little brat! Is this any way to talk to your elders? What’s this about ‘never in the fields when it’s time to work’? Your cousin is studying at the academy. You don’t expect him to abandon his education to work in the mud, do you?”
“Hmph, my cousin studies. Do Uncle, Auntie, and all the other cousins study too? And besides, Granny was the one who started slinging mud at us first! I’m just following her example as her grandchild.”
Old Madam Lin slapped her thigh and wailed, “Heavens above! He’s blaming me and his grandpa for killing his parents! My second son was flesh of my flesh! Don’t you think I feel pain? What sin have I committed? If I’d known Second Son’s wife would give birth to something like this, I should have drowned him in the chamber pot the moment he was born! Then I wouldn’t have to suffer this indignity when I’m almost buried up to my neck!”
Lin Erhu was about to retort again when Lin Xiaoman tugged at his shirt from behind, signaling him to stop.
Lin Erhu listened, clamped his mouth shut, and sullenly turned his head away.
Lin Xiaoman stood up, gave a slight bow to Old Madam Lin and Old Man Lin, and said, “Grandpa, Granny, since you’ve already decided to split the family, there’s no point in me or Erhu saying anything more. As the saying goes, better to do it today than to wait. Why don’t we invite the clan elder over to serve as a witness? However this family is divided, I’ll abide by the clan elder’s decision.”
Old Madam Lin immediately stopped her wailing. “Splitting the family is our own business. Why would we need the clan elder? Don’t think just because that old fool of a clan elder favors your father that you can make unreasonable demands! Fine, I’ll add a little extra for you. Make it sixty catties of grain. Not one tael more!”
Lin Xiaoman gave a faint smile. “If we’re not inviting the clan elder, that’s fine too. But aside from the sixty catties of grain, we’re also taking our mother’s dowry. That includes the canopy bed in Grandpa and Granny’s room, the cabinets and chests in Uncle and Aunt’s room, the tables and chairs in Third Uncle and Third Aunt’s room, as well as one iron wok and one brass basin…”
“Why don’t you just rob us?” Old Madam Lin jumped three feet high, her eyes bulging like brass bells. “Once you marry into the Lin family, what’s yours belongs to the Lins! Don’t even think about taking it out!”
Lin Xiaoman wasn’t the least bit upset. Instead, she smiled sweetly and said, “According to the laws of this dynasty, if a mother passes away, her dowry is rightfully inherited by her own children. Since our branch of the family hasn’t died out, if Granny refuses to return our mother’s dowry, we’ll have no choice but to ask the clan elder to step in and mediate. I still have the dowry list from when our mother married into the Lin family. Aside from what I’ve already mentioned, there were eight whole palanquins’ worth of dowry items. That silver hairpin Granny is wearing, the ring on First Aunt’s hand, the bracelets in Cousin’s dowry chest, the thirty acres of paddy field the Lin family cultivates… Once the clan elder gets here, I’ll take out the list and go through it item by item. We can even go to my cousin’s in-laws’ house to check there as well.”
Old Madam Lin’s hand instinctively went to the silver hairpin on her head. Ever since her second son and his wife had passed away and she had claimed her second daughter-in-law’s dowry, every time she went out wearing this silver hairpin, people looked at her with envy!
There was no way she was giving it back—absolutely no way!
The old lady’s face turned bright red with rage, but all she could finally spit out was an insult: “Fine! Take it all! You ungrateful, unfilial little beasts!”
News of the Lin family splitting up that morning quickly spread through the entire Hedong Village. The former clan elder, Lin Youwang, got word of it and brought along his son, the current clan elder, Lin Daqiang. They also gathered a few sturdy farmhands and drove their ox cart over to help.
Lin Erhu was directing the movers in the yard, hauling cabinets, chests, and dismantling the bed, while Lin Xiaoman busied herself packing up the ragged clothes belonging to her and Lin Erhu.
When their parents had passed away, she and her brother were so consumed by grief that they never imagined their grandparents, who had always been so sweet-talking, could act so inhumanely!
By the time they came to their senses, their mother’s dowry had already been hidden away, with the grandparents claiming it had simply disappeared.
Too many people had been coming and going from the house back then, and Lin Xiaoman and her brother never thought that the grandparents their parents had sacrificed their lives to save would treat them so badly. They just assumed the items had been stolen.
If it hadn’t been for her cousin’s wedding last year, when she spotted her mother’s things among the dowry, she would never have believed her grandparents were capable of such a thing.
In the end, Lin Xiaoman only packed up two bundles of ragged clothes. Even though they couldn’t be worn anymore, she figured she’d rather use them as rags than leave anything behind for this household.
When Lin Erhu saw Lin Youwang approaching, he ran over and said, “Second Grandpa, my granny said you’re a senile old fool. When they split the family, they wouldn’t let me and my sister come to you to settle things.”
Lin Youwang was so furious his nose practically crooked. Standing in the yard, he launched into a tirade: “You two old bastards! All those years you’ve lived, and they’ve been wasted! If it weren’t for Second Daughter-in-law marrying into this family back then, your whole lot would still be begging in some gutter somewhere! Now that the couple is gone—died saving the two of you—you turn around and bully their children! Aren’t you afraid Second Son and his wife will come looking for you in the middle of the night to settle accounts?”
Although Lin Youwang hadn’t been clan elder for many years, his son held the position now. As he stood there hopping mad and cursing them out, Old Man Lin and Old Madam Lin cowered inside their room, not daring to utter a single word in return.
Old Madam Lin watched as the carpenter dismantled the bed, piece by piece, her heart aching. “It’s such a fine bed. It’s not even broken. Are they really just taking it away like this?”
“What else can we do? If we don’t let them take the bed, what if they start demanding Second Daughter-in-law’s dowry again?”
“Those damned little beasts! They learned it all from that little hussy, He—their mother! I should never have let that hussy give birth to them!”
With every word out of Old Madam Lin’s mouth, she hurled insults, calling her second daughter-in-law a hussy. Old Man Lin’s head was buzzing from the noise. And outside, Lin Youwang was still cursing them out. Was there anywhere he could go to find a bit of peace?