Although Chen Yuan hadn’t taken part in the argument, her psychic ability allowed her to hear everything that had happened in the main hall with perfect clarity.
Yes—every one of the abilities she had possessed during the apocalypse had come with her.
That gave her far more confidence about surviving in this unfamiliar world.
Lying in bed with nothing to do was boring anyway. Watching the family drama unfold was surprisingly entertaining.
What she hadn’t expected, however, was that the matter of dividing the family would come so soon.
Little Madam Zhao wasn’t demanding a division of the household solely because of the military conscription. More than anything, it was because of the death of Madam Cui, the second son’s widow.
Before this, the entire family had relied on the second branch to wait on them. Everyone had lived like pampered masters while Zhang Youlu’s family did all the work. Now that the person who shouldered the chores was gone, who was going to take over?
Zhang Laosi’s wife, Taohong, was an expert at slacking off whenever work needed to be done.
As for Zhang Laowu’s wife, Little Madam Zhao knew her aunt all too well. Old Madam Zhao would undoubtedly continue favoring her precious youngest son and make everyone else serve his family.
She refused to accept that.
Zhang Laoda was thinking even further ahead.
His branch had the most able-bodied men. If military conscription or forced labor happened again in the future, his mother would undoubtedly keep protecting Zhang Laowu. That meant the men drafted would once again come from his family.
He had no intention of continuing to take the fall for his younger brother.
Why should they?
If anyone had to serve in the army in the future, then everyone would go together. No one was getting away with it.
With Zhang Laoda and Little Madam Zhao standing firm, the decision to divide the family was all but settled.
It was specifically the eldest couple’s decision because the fifth branch had no desire to separate.
Their two children were still very young. Zhang Laowu’s wife had been pampered since childhood. She had never done household work while living with her parents, nor after getting married. She was still recovering from childbirth, leaving Zhang Laowu as the only person capable of working.
Unfortunately, he was useless at it.
As long as they remained one household, Old Madam Zhao’s favoritism ensured they lived quite comfortably.
If they split off… how was their little family supposed to survive?
Taohong, Zhang Laosi’s wife, wasn’t particularly eager to divide the family either.
Like the fifth branch, they also had two young children. Zhang Laosi was crippled and couldn’t do much heavy labor. The eldest branch had the greatest number of strong workers. As long as everyone stayed together and shared the workload, her family would never go hungry.
If they divided the household, things wouldn’t be as bad for her as they would be for the fifth branch, but she’d still have to shoulder much more work herself.
As for Chen Yuan…
No one cared what she thought.
In everyone’s eyes, she was already as good as dead.
Each family member harbored their own thoughts, and by noon, no one had even bothered making lunch.
Of course, some people weren’t going hungry.
For example, Zhang Laowu took the leftover pastries from his daughter’s Third-Day Celebration and shared them with his wife, who was still in confinement, and their three-year-old son.
If Chen Yuan had known, she would have cursed them to hell.
Both babies were newborn girls, yet the difference in treatment was outrageous.
If she hadn’t transmigrated into this body, Daniu probably wouldn’t even have had milk to drink, while Jinju had actually been given a proper Third-Day Celebration.
When Daniu was three days old, Zhang Laowu’s daughter Jinju happened to be born.
On that very same day, government officials arrived to carry out the military conscription.
From then on, Old Madam Zhao branded Daniu a broom star—a harbinger of disaster.
She insisted the conscription had been brought on by Daniu’s birth, claiming the family had been forced to send a son to the army because the baby had cursed them.
Seriously?
What kind of twisted logic was that?
Every household had to send men to serve. How was any of that Daniu’s fault?
Besides, if anyone really wanted to call someone a bad omen, shouldn’t it have been Jinju, who had been born on the very day the conscription officers arrived?
What a perfect example of blaming someone simply because you wanted to.
When people dislike you, everything you do becomes a mistake.
That morning’s huge quarrel had even caused Old Madam Zhao to faint.
Yet it still hadn’t stopped the family’s determination to divide the household.
That alone showed just how desperate the eldest branch was.
They didn’t even bother eating lunch.
As soon as it was past the noon meal, they hurried off to invite the clan leader and the village head to witness the division.
By then, Old Madam Zhao had also been helped into the main hall.
She had actually regained consciousness long ago and hadn’t intended to come.
But her niece, Little Madam Zhao, had threatened her.
If the family wasn’t divided today, she would divorce Zhang Laoda, take the children, and return to her parents’ home.
The mere thought of her elder brother and sister-in-law filled Old Madam Zhao with dread.
As sharp-tongued and overbearing as she was, she still couldn’t compare to her sister-in-law.
She wasn’t only afraid of the woman making a scene.
She was even more afraid of losing her ties to her natal family altogether—or driving a wedge between herself and her eldest son.
After all, she would have to rely on Zhang Laoda to support her in old age.
As for Zhang Laowu’s family…
She had never expected to depend on them.
Did she regret spoiling her youngest son so much?
Not in the slightest.
As she often said,
“My fifth son was born to live like a young master. He was meant to be waited on by others. He was simply born into the wrong family. Since fate treated him unfairly, I have to make it up to him.”
No one knew where she found the confidence to say such things.
The villagers paid her no mind.
The most common response was simply:
“So what if the fifth son is a little more handsome and fair-skinned? Everyone in your family would be fair if they never had to work in the fields.”