“Second Son, say that again. What exactly are you trying to do?” Old Master Zhou gripped his tobacco pipe tightly, kicked his chair aside, and strode toward Zhou Kun.
It looked as though the moment Zhou Kun said another word he didn’t like, that pipe would come crashing down on him.
“I want to split the family.”
Crack!
The tobacco pipe came down hard across Zhou Kun’s forehead. Blood immediately trickled down his face.
“Kun!”
Lin Hongmei rushed over and pressed a hand against his wound.
Zhou Yuwei dashed into the kitchen and came back carrying a cleaver.
Meanwhile, Zhou Yulan hid behind everyone before quietly running outside.
“Perfect! I’ll beat you too! You capitalist brat! If it weren’t for a woman like you poisoning his mind, my second son would’ve never turned out like this! I’ll beat you to death!”
Old Master Zhou raised the pipe again and swung it toward Lin Hongmei’s head.
Zhou Kun immediately wrapped his wife in his arms, shielding her with his own body.
The pipe slammed hard into his back.
A burning pain shot through him.
His father…
His father had really intended to beat his wife to death.
Old Master Zhou lifted the pipe once more.
“I’ll chop you to pieces, you old bastard!”
Zhou Yuwei charged over with the cleaver.
She remained perfectly clear-headed. She wasn’t trying to hack him. Instead, she aimed for the tobacco pipe, bringing the cleaver down with a loud crack.
The wooden pipe split cleanly in two and fell to the ground.
Then she raised the cleaver again as if she were about to strike Old Master Zhou himself.
“Yuwei, don’t!”
Lin Hongmei panicked.
If Yuwei really injured someone, her entire life would be ruined.
Zhou Jinshui and Zhou Jinlong hurried over to restrain Zhou Yuwei.
“I’ll kill every last one of you blood-sucking monsters! Nobody’s leaving today! We’ll all die together! If you’re not going to leave us a way to live, then none of us will live!”
Zhou Yuwei punched Zhou Jinshui in the face, then kicked Zhou Jinlong to the ground.
“What’s going on here?”
At last, the women from the neighborhood office finally arrived.
“Grandpa, if you hit my parents one more time, I’ll die right here.”
The moment Zhou Yuwei saw people arriving, she immediately pressed the edge of the cleaver against her own neck.
“Yuwei! What are you doing? Put the knife down! Don’t hurt yourself!”
Li Meifeng, the director of the neighborhood office, nearly lost the color from her face.
If something really happened…
How could they possibly explain it?
The neighbors from the courtyard all rushed over as well.
But Zhou Yuwei pressed the blade even closer to her throat, enough to draw a thin line of blood.
“Uncles, Aunties, you’ve all seen it yourselves. My family can’t live in peace anymore. If my grandfather insists on beating my parents to death today, then what’s the point of my sister and I staying alive? We’d might as well all die together as a family.”
“No, no, there’s no need for that.”
Li Meifeng tried to calm her.
“Listen to Auntie. You’re still so young. Why throw your life away over something like this? It’s not worth it.”
She turned toward Old Master Zhou.
“Comrade Zhou, if I may call you that… tell me exactly what you came here for today. Did you come here to force your own son’s family to their deaths?”
Seeing Zhou Kun’s forehead covered in blood, anger crept into her voice.
“Yuwei, don’t do this.”
Lin Hongmei was terrified when she saw the blood running down her younger daughter’s neck.
Old Master Zhou had never dealt with any government officials before, especially not city officials.
He couldn’t help feeling intimidated.
This wasn’t Dahe Village.
No one here would back him up.
“My friend,” Uncle Hu said with a sigh, “what are you doing? Anyone seeing this would think Zhou Kun wasn’t your son, but your sworn enemy. Are you parents really trying to force your own son’s entire family to death?”
Every family had troublesome relatives.
But this…
This had gone far beyond that.
They had pushed a timid young girl into picking up a cleaver just to protect her parents.
“You don’t understand!” Old Master Zhou protested. “That ungrateful brat actually said he wanted to split the family! Your auntie and I are both still alive! How could he dare bring up dividing the family? Shouldn’t I teach him a lesson?”
Li Meifeng blinked in surprise.
“Weren’t your families already divided?”
“You are…?”
“This is Director Li from the neighborhood office,” Grandma Xu explained.
“Director Li, you have to handle this. If this isn’t resolved today, people will keep coming here making trouble. Our entire courtyard has been disturbed for long enough. How are we supposed to live peacefully?”
“Don’t worry, Granny. I’ll take care of it.”
She knew Grandma Xu sounded like she was complaining, but she was actually helping Zhou Kun’s family.
Whether a family had officially divided or not could be settled with a single sentence.
Besides, Zhou Kun’s household registration had long since been transferred out of the village.
Lin Hongmei and both Zhou sisters also held household registrations through the furniture factory.
“Exactly.”
Another resident chimed in.
“Once someone’s household registration is transferred out, doesn’t that mean the family has already split?”
“If this isn’t handled properly today…”
They were genuinely afraid Zhou Yuwei might die right in front of them.
“The household registration was transferred out,” Old Master Zhou admitted, “but that doesn’t mean we’ve divided the family.”
“You don’t know?”
Li Meifeng frowned.
“Once the household registration is transferred and Zhou Kun becomes the head of his own household, with his own household booklet instead of yours, that’s considered a separate household. You don’t even live together anymore. If that isn’t dividing the family, what is?”
“That’s right!”
Everyone else immediately agreed.
“I don’t agree!”
“If you don’t agree, then we’ll all die together today!”
Zhou Yuwei waved the cleaver in front of him.
Li Meifeng felt a headache coming on.
“Whether you agree or not doesn’t matter. The neighborhood office agrees.”
If this continued much longer, the residents’ committee would be forced to intervene.
Once they got involved, the nature of the matter would change entirely.
It would mean she had seriously failed in her duties.
“Dad.”
Zhou Kun stared at the bloody cut on his daughter’s neck and slowly clenched his fists.
“For twenty years, every cent of my wages went to the family. That adds up to at least ten thousand yuan.”
“I’m not asking for that money back.”
“Consider it the retirement support I’ve already given you.”
“From today onward…”
“…you two have nothing more to do with my family.”
Seeing his daughter driven to this point…
He realized it was because he had been too weak as a father.
So now…
He no longer wanted to simply divide the family.
He wanted to sever all ties completely.
“What did you say?”
“If you don’t want to divide the money I handed over all these years…”
“…then you have to agree to my condition.”
The moment Zhou Kun’s two brothers heard that, they immediately grabbed hold of their father.
Twenty years of wages.
Over ten thousand yuan.
There was no way they were letting that money be returned.
Even losing a single cent would make them heartsick.
“You unfilial bastard!”
Old Master Zhou tried to charge forward again but was firmly held back by his two sons.
“Dad, agree to it,” one of them whispered.
“Then make him hand his job over to Jinshui.”
“As long as we get the job, we don’t care about this family anymore.”
“Cutting ties is even better.”
“Second Brother doesn’t even have a son.”
“He’ll regret it sooner or later.”
Old Master Zhou panted heavily before barking,
“Did you hear that? Give your job to your nephew.”
“I already sold the job.”
Zhou Kun answered calmly.
“So I can’t give it to Jinshui.”
“What?”
“You sold your job?”
“Dad!”
Zhang Lihua hurriedly reminded her father-in-law.
“And the money from selling the job! Plus this house!”
“If you want to cut ties, fine.”
“Hand over the money from selling the job!”
“That’s right!”
“Hand it over!”
“So you really won’t let us live?”
Zhou Yuwei had no intention of arguing with them any longer.
“Fine then.”
“No money.”
“My life is all I’ve got.”
“Let’s see who dares take it.”
At worst, their family could simply move away.
The times had changed.
There were opportunities everywhere.
As long as they stayed together, they would survive.
“This house belongs to Grandma Xu, not to you. How exactly are you supposed to hand it over?”
Li Meifeng said coldly.
“Don’t push things too far.”
“If this continues, the neighborhood office will officially intervene.”
“When that happens, you’ll be required to return the wages Comrade Zhou Kun handed over during the past twenty years.”
“The neighborhood office will oversee the family division.”
“As his parents, you’ll receive only the support you’re legally entitled to.”
“You won’t be allowed to take anything else.”