But before he could finish speaking, Liao Chunmei began shouting.
“No! Absolutely not! Why should we take care of him? And you want us to hand over the money too? No way! I’ve already made arrangements for that job, and the money has to be paid next week…”
Li Guihua was equally opposed.
“Exactly. He’s not that delicate… That money is much more important for buying a job for my eldest grandson!”
Shen Youtian looked at the two women, then at the brothers Shen Erguang and Shen Sanzhu standing nearby.
They, too, wore expressions of complete disagreement.
He couldn’t help sighing inwardly.
The entire Shen family was truly beyond saving!
He had no choice but to turn to Shen Dajun.
“Dajun, what do you think?”
Shen Dajun lowered his head for a moment, then looked at his daughter. When he saw her nod firmly at him, it was as though he had finally made up his mind.
He took a deep breath.
“I think… we should separate from the family. The way I am now, I’m just a burden at home, and all I do is make people resent me. I’ll move out and live on my own…”
When he actually brought up splitting the household, the Shen family’s expressions varied.
Li Guihua and Shen Jinzhong were incredulous.
“Son, what are you talking about? Since ancient times, sons don’t split from their parents while the parents are still alive. What are you trying to do?”
Shen Jinzhong cast him a displeased glance and took a deep drag from his tobacco pipe without saying anything.
The second branch and third branch, however, looked as if they had just discovered a whole new world.
Liao Chunmei immediately clapped her hands happily.
“Oh, that’s a wonderful decision, Big Brother! Splitting up is great! Once we’re separate households, there won’t be so many annoying problems anymore. I agree to splitting up!”
The third son and his wife exchanged a glance and silently raised their hands.
“We agree too! I want to split off just like Big Brother!”
“What?!”
Compared with Shen Dajun wanting to split from the family, Li Guihua found it even more unbelievable that the third branch was proposing the same thing.
“Third Son, have you gone crazy?”
Then she thought about it and realized something was wrong. She pointed at her third daughter-in-law, Zhou Hongxia, and cursed:
“It must be you, you little vixen, stirring him up, right? Otherwise, our Third Son has always been so filial. How could he suddenly turn against me? It must be you! Just wait—I’ll tear that mouth of yours apart!”
As she spoke, she lunged toward Zhou Hongxia.
Terrified, Zhou Hongxia hurriedly hid behind Shen Sanzhu.
Looking at his mother, Shen Sanzhu still resolutely stepped in front of his wife and children.
He had actually had enough long ago.
“Mom, do you know how biased you are? You always side with Second Brother’s family in everything! You say we’re going to spend all that money to buy Qingfeng a job, and you don’t even hesitate. But when my wife gave birth years ago and wanted to slaughter one of the chickens to nourish herself, you refused. Yet when Youyou came home for her wedding visit, you agreed!
“Everything always goes to Second Brother’s family. All these years, the brothers and I have worked together to earn work points, and we’ve handed every bit of money we made over to you. So why are you willing to spend it all on Second Brother’s family?
“Besides, I heard that land will soon be divided among individual households, and our commune will be implementing it soon. Everyone will have their own land. We’ll farm separately and live separately. At least then there won’t be any arguments over how things are divided…”
Li Guihua truly hadn’t expected her third son to say something like that.
If Shen Dajun accused her of being biased, she wouldn’t have had anything to say, because she really was biased.
But as for her third son, she genuinely believed she had treated him fairly.
Her heart felt ice-cold.
She couldn’t help wiping away her tears.
Shen Jinzhong, who had remained silent until then, also put down his tobacco pipe.
“Third Son, don’t you realize how much those words hurt your mother’s heart? When you wanted to get married back then, didn’t the family spend every bit of its money on you as well? What did your older brothers say? Your second sister-in-law wasn’t exactly happy about it, but in the end, didn’t she agree?
“You say your mother is biased, but she has never been any less biased toward you!”
Those words left Shen Sanzhu speechless.
But he was still dissatisfied deep down.
Yes, when he got married, the family had spent all its money on him. But after he got married, his parents’ hearts had shifted entirely toward his second brother’s family.
He didn’t even want to talk about his eldest brother.
But just look at how Second Brother’s family lived compared with his own family.
How could he possibly feel good about it?
“Anyway… anyway, if Big Brother is splitting off, then I’m splitting off too!”
Those words left Li Guihua and Shen Jinzhong speechless.
Seeing that he was determined, the elderly couple were deeply disappointed and said nothing more.
Liao Chunmei, however, was unhappy.
“Fine! If both of your families are moving out, then our family gets stuck taking care of Mom and Dad, right? Third Brother, you’ve really calculated this one nicely!”
Shen Sanzhu glanced at Shen Dajun and pursed his lips.
“I’m not going to abandon them completely. I-I can give Mom and Dad twenty jin of grain every year, plus… twenty yuan!”
He had originally wanted to say ten yuan, but seeing that all the villagers were watching, he simply went with twenty.
Liao Chunmei was still dissatisfied.
“Twenty yuan? What do you think that’s supposed to accomplish?”
Shen Sanzhu became irritated.
“I can’t be the only one paying! Big… Big Brother has to contribute too. How about this: Mom and Dad get forty jin of grain a year, plus forty yuan. If you include your share, then that’s sixty jin of grain and sixty yuan a year. Tell me, what elderly couple in the village gets that much support money?”
What he said was true.
Which elderly people in the village had ever received that much money in a year?
Forget the elderly—even young, able-bodied adults couldn’t save that much money over an entire year.
At that time, one hundred yuan was almost enough to cover a large family’s living expenses for a whole year.
For the elderly couple to receive sixty jin of grain and sixty yuan, that was indeed quite a lot.
Village Chief Shen Youtian also felt that it was sufficient.
He turned to Shen Dajun.
“Dajun, do you think that’s acceptable?”
Shen Dajun hesitated.
The main issue was that he didn’t know whether he would be able to earn enough money to pay that much.
But Shen Niannian answered for him first.
“Yes. As long as we can split from the family, Dad is willing. Even if Dad can’t afford those twenty yuan, I’ll pay it for him!”
Hearing her say that, Shen Youtian finally felt reassured.
“All right, then. Aunt Guihua, Uncle Jinzhong, what do the two of you say?”
When Li Guihua heard that they would receive more than sixty yuan a year, she couldn’t think of anything else to object to. After discussing it with her husband, she simply nodded.
“Fine. We agree! We’ll stay with Second Brother’s family. As for the house, besides this newly built one, our family also has an old house at the eastern end of the village. If either of you brothers wants it, you can move in there.
“There isn’t much else in the household worth dividing. Just take whatever belongs in your own rooms and move it out!”
The moment Zhou Hongxia heard that, she immediately objected.
“Mom, that won’t do! If we’re splitting up, then everything in the household needs to be properly divided into three portions. It has to be fair and impartial!”
Li Guihua was so angry she nearly lunged forward and scratched her face.
The village chief also felt that they couldn’t divide everything so casually. So, in the end, he had people inventory all of the Shen family’s possessions and roughly divide everything into three portions.
As for the old house at the eastern end of the village, everyone knew it had quite a history.
It consisted of only two large tiled rooms, and they had been neglected for many years. The courtyard was fairly spacious, but after all these years, it had become overgrown with weeds. Half of the surrounding wall had even collapsed.
Just repairing the house alone would cost a considerable amount of money.