Old Xu shot Xu Ergen a vicious glare.
Hmph. What a “good daughter” he had raised.
Carefully, Old Xu pressed the cigarette butt against the wall to extinguish it, then tucked the remaining half-smoked cigarette behind his ear to save for later.
“Ahem… here’s the situation. Duoduo mentioned splitting the family this morning. Second Son, what exactly are your thoughts on that?” Old Xu cleared his throat, putting on the full air of the family patriarch.
“Duoduo’s opinion is our whole family’s opinion,” Xu Ergen replied calmly while looking at him.
Old Xu nearly felt a heart attack coming on.
Did this second son really think he didn’t dare divide the family?
“Your mother and I discussed it after going home. After all, when a tree grows large, branches split off. When people grow up, families divide. Your mother and I aren’t old yet and can still work, but we don’t want you younger folks finding us troublesome. So today, we’ll officially split the family.”
Old Xu stared directly at Xu Ergen.
Didn’t you want to threaten me with splitting the family?
Fine. I’ll split it for you.
Today, he absolutely had to teach this stubborn second son a lesson.
“Split the family?” Xu Sangen looked surprised.
Taking the afternoon off work had truly been worthwhile.
“Duoduo is hospitalized, and Second Son can’t leave, so we’ll settle the family division right here in the hospital today.” Old Xu gestured for Xu Sangen to sit down first.
“Since ancient times, it’s always the eldest son who supports the parents, so your mother and I will naturally live with the eldest branch.”
Old Xu paused and looked toward Xu Ergen, expecting some emotional reaction.
But Xu Ergen remained expressionless.
Grinding his teeth inwardly, Old Xu continued.
“Since we’ll live with the eldest branch, all the family property and house will belong to Eldest Brother’s family.”
“Second Son, your three girls will eventually marry out anyway. When you grow old, you’ll still rely on your four nephews for support. So you can continue living in the current rooms for now, but once you two pass away, the house returns to the eldest branch.”
“As for Third Son, your family hardly stays home anyway, so no rooms will be reserved for you.”
Halfway through, Old Xu stopped again, preparing to enjoy Xu Ergen’s grateful reaction.
But once again, he was disappointed.
Xu Ergen still showed no expression.
“As for family savings…” Old Xu forced himself onward. “There hasn’t really been much money saved over the years. So… we’ll give Second Son thirty yuan.”
“Eldest and Third Son never turned in wages after they started working, so there’s nothing to divide for them.”
Finally, Old Xu finished announcing the family division plan in one breath.
“Dad, Mom… is this even called dividing the family?” Xu Sangen protested immediately. “You’re basically kicking my family out empty-handed!”
“Oh? And didn’t your marriage cost money?” Old Madam Xu snapped while frantically winking at him. “You’ve been married six years without contributing a single cent to the household. Why should you get any money?”
This stupid son.
All that favoritism wasted on him.
Did he really think they’d refuse him a share during an actual division?
Wasn’t this obviously fake?
Didn’t he have any awareness at all?
Unfortunately, in Xu Sangen’s angry eyes, his mother’s frantic winks just looked like huge eye-rolls.
A complete misunderstanding.
“Hah.” Xu Ergen suddenly laughed bitterly. “Eldest Brother and Third Brother don’t receive money because they never contributed household expenses. But what about my family?”
“I’ve worked for seventeen years now. Since marrying me, my wife has constantly done side jobs at home without ever stopping. For seventeen years, every single yuan we earned was handed over honestly without secretly hiding even a cent.”
“That’s at least four or five thousand yuan altogether.”
“And now Father and Mother are only dividing thirty yuan to us?”
Xu Ergen laughed at himself.
He really had been blind and foolishly filial all these years.
“I should never have raised you!” Old Madam Xu exploded. “Did your three girls grow up drinking northwest wind? Didn’t your marriage cost family money too?”
This time, her eye-roll was genuine.
“Mother,” Xu Ergen replied slowly, “during the famine years, you sent me away to Grandma’s countryside home right after I was born because your health was poor. I was raised by Grandma until I was fifteen.”
“When I got married, the bride price I gave my wife was from two wild chickens I hunted myself in the mountains. The family didn’t spend a single cent.”
“Even our wedding bedding was part of my wife’s dowry.”
“And the year after marriage, I started working. Haven’t the monthly wages my wife and I handed over been more than enough to support our family?”
He spoke quietly, recounting the truth of the past seventeen years.
For once, Old Xu and Old Madam Xu had no response.
Because it was true.
They had never really raised Xu Ergen.
After giving birth to him, Old Madam Xu’s health had been poor, so she simply sent him away to his grandmother in the countryside for fifteen years.
“Second Son, we gave birth to you. Shouldn’t you repay us?” Old Xu tried once more to use filial piety as pressure.
“Grandpa, Grandma,” Xu Duoduo immediately interrupted, “so your meaning is that after handing over four or five thousand yuan in living expenses for seventeen years, our family only deserves thirty yuan?”
“And the rest counts as repayment for giving birth to my father?”
“Then this isn’t splitting the family at all. You’re cutting ties with my parents.”
Xu Duoduo instantly seized the weakness in Old Xu’s argument and refused to let go.
Old Xu nearly choked from anger.
Pointing at Xu Duoduo, he wheezed speechlessly for half the day.
“You ungrateful white-eyed wolf! You unfilial son!” Old Madam Xu shrieked. “Didn’t your wages go toward food and drink?”
“Then let our family do what Eldest Uncle and Third Uncle’s families did too,” Xu Duoduo shot back immediately. “No household contributions, still eat and drink at home, and don’t do any work.”
“If that’s the case, then our family doesn’t need any division money either. Sound fair?”
Her strategy was simple:
Whatever they said, she countered directly until they choked on their own words.
“Second Son! Is this how you teach your child to talk back to elders?” Old Xu’s finger trembled with rage.
“Father, Mother,” Xu Ergen said quietly, “isn’t Duoduo simply speaking the truth?”
“If this is how you divide the family… then I refuse.”
Though he had mentally prepared himself for separation already, hearing Old Xu divide things this way still hurt deeply.
After speaking, he sat down heavily beside Duoduo’s hospital bed and lowered his head.
“Second Son, Father decides how the family is divided. You don’t get to disagree!” Xu Dagen lifted his neck proudly like a victorious rooster.
“I…” Xu Sangen stood up as if about to speak, but Liu Wei immediately covered his mouth, pulled him back down, and shook her head.
Silence filled the ward.
Xu Duoduo quietly watched Xu Ergen, waiting for him to fully process this humiliating reality.
For years he had worked like an old ox for the family, earning four or five thousand yuan for them.
And in the end, thirty yuan was enough to dismiss him.
Anyone would feel suffocated by that.
“Father.” Xu Ergen slowly raised his head again. His eyes were now startlingly clear and firm. “We don’t want the thirty yuan anymore.”
“Just write a severance document instead.”
“From now on, even if our family has to beg on the streets, we’ll never return to the Xu family again.”
Break ties, then.
He was still young and capable of earning money.
He could always build a home for his three daughters somehow.
Chen Hehua quietly tugged Xu Dagen’s sleeve, gesturing toward Old Xu while subtly raising one finger, then pinching three fingers together.
Xu Dagen instantly understood.
“Dad,” he immediately said, “I know the family doesn’t have money. I can borrow one hundred yuan from my father-in-law. Give Second Brother a little more money. As the eldest brother, I can take the loss.”
“Uncle, don’t talk as if you’re suffering losses,” Xu Duoduo cut in immediately. “You, Auntie, and Brother Dayou earn sixty-four yuan every month.”
“And wasn’t the excuse always that you were saving money to compensate Auntie’s family for unpaid bride price? Brother Dayou is already seventeen now.”
“So your family has probably saved five or six thousand yuan over the years. Auntie’s bride price sure was expensive.”
Another direct hit.
Family division? Severing ties?
Xu Duoduo wanted to cut through everything swiftly and force Old Xu and Old Madam Xu to agree to a real separation.
As for completely cutting ties…
That could wait a few more days.
“Two hundred!” Xu Dagen hurriedly raised the amount.
If Xu Duoduo kept talking, this family division would completely fall apart.
Fine.
More money, then more money.
Afterward, his wife could claw it back anyway.
“If it’s two hundred yuan,” Xu Duoduo continued mercilessly, “then does that mean you won’t need us to provide elder support anymore?”
“How could we not?” Old Madam Xu jumped up screaming. “We raised your father when he was young, so you must support us when we’re old!”
“Grandma,” Xu Duoduo replied sweetly, “just a reminder — if you attract the nurse again, you’ll definitely be thrown out of the hospital.”
“And besides, my father was raised by my great-grandmother. According to your own logic, shouldn’t he support Great-Grandma instead of you?”
Press forward relentlessly.
Her goal now was to confuse Old Xu with anger.
Though she personally didn’t care much about money thanks to her apocalypse supplies, every visible benefit they deserved still had to be fought for.
“Then your great-grandmother’s old countryside house can belong to your family!” Old Xu snapped angrily without thinking. “You can go support your great-grandmother there!”
“Grandpa,” Xu Duoduo replied innocently, “Great-Grandma passed away last year. Only our family went back for the funeral. You probably forgot because you didn’t go.”
“And speaking of elder support…”
“She raised you too when you were little. So why didn’t you support her in her old age?”
Old Xu’s face instantly turned pale.
His head tilted back, vision darkening as he leaned heavily against the hospital bed wall in silence.
Because what Xu Duoduo said…
was the truth.