Chen Gensheng and the others shouldered their hoes and followed Jiang Baozhen toward the fields.
This time, the Chen family had been allocated ten acres of land, mostly located at the foot of West Mountain.
However, Jiang Baozhen didn’t head toward West Mountain.
Instead, she walked all the way south toward the reed marshes.
The three most fertile acres next to the reed marshes were Jiang Baozhen’s dowry, but they no longer belonged to her.
Chen Huaiyuan had yielded them to the first branch of the Chen family.
“Mother, are we going the wrong way?” Chen Chunsheng asked.
“No, we aren’t,” Jiang Baozhen replied, keeping her hoe on her shoulder as she continued south.
Chen Gensheng and his brothers suspected that Jiang Baozhen was leading them to the south fields to pick a fight with the first branch of the Chen family.
Left with no choice, they braced themselves and followed behind.
Chen Huaiyuan had regretted this the moment they stepped out the door!
In his rush to please Jiang Baozhen, he had forgotten about his swollen, bruised nose.
Meeting the scrutinizing gazes of the villagers, Chen Huaiyuan felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.
He was too embarrassed to even care that Jiang Baozhen was marching straight toward the land he had already given away to the first branch.
Carrying his hoe, Chen Tianhao felt his steps lighten compared to the past few days, knowing that Jiang Baozhen had agreed to let him study.
Even so, he still harbored some resentment and made up his mind that unless she spoke to him first, he wouldn’t initiate a conversation.
Each harboring their own thoughts, the Chen family followed Jiang Baozhen to the edge of the fields.
Chen Dazhu, Chen Huaiyuan’s older brother, and Mrs.
Tian were in the field with their youngest son and his wife, straightening the soil ridges.
They had already turned the soil and plowed these three acres meticulously several times.
The ridges were almost ready, just waiting for the seeds to be sown.
Jiang Baozhen looked over the field, quite satisfied with the first branch’s plowing speed.
Seeing Jiang Baozhen approach with the second branch, Mrs.
Tian stood up and mocked, “Oh my, don’t stand in front of our ridges.
You’ll ruin our feng shui.”
THUD.
Jiang Baozhen slammed her hoe onto the ground and said, “This is my land.
Get out of my field right now.”
Mrs.
Tian curled her lips disdainfully.
“This land has already been allocated to our family.
Huaiyuan said so himself.” She figured that while Jiang Baozhen looked imposing bringing her whole family to demand the land back, not a single person in her family would actually dare to stand up for her.
If even one of them had taken her side, she wouldn’t have fainted from anger on the day the land was divided.
She thought it would be best if she fainted from anger again today.
“You bitch, I’ll show you exactly whose land this is today.”
Jiang Baozhen had come prepared.
Pulling the title deed from her chest, she showed it to Mrs.
Tian and Chen Dazhu.
“The deed states it clearly in black and white.
This land is mine.”
Mrs.
Tian and Chen Dazhu couldn’t read, but they knew Jiang Baozhen wouldn’t possibly forge it.
Chen Huaiyuan, on the other hand, was literate.
Seeing the deed, he finally realized that while he had verbally agreed to yield the land, he had forgotten to remind Chen Dazhu and Mrs.
Tian to process the transfer.
Since the deed was in Jiang Baozhen’s hands, she would absolutely never agree to give the land to them.
“Huaiyuan, you are the head of your household.
Does your word mean nothing?” Chen Dazhu pressured him.
Chen Huaiyuan originally wanted to persuade Jiang Baozhen to give the deed to the first branch.
Then he remembered how she had already confiscated her daughter-in-law’s jewelry to fund Chen Tianhao’s studies.
Afraid that mishandling this land would anger her again, he chose to keep his mouth shut.
To the first branch, Chen Huaiyuan’s silence was a clear signal that he intended to take the land back.
Chen Dazhu and Mrs.
Tian’s expressions turned incredibly grim.
Jiang Baozhen turned to Chen Tianhao behind her.
“Tianhao, do you know why I’ve been so irritable these past few days?
I originally planned to sell these three acres to pay for your education.
But your father, how generous of him, just gave it away to others.
If this land hadn’t been given away, you would already be at the private school in town by now.”
Those few words successfully ignited Chen Tianhao’s fury toward Chen Huaiyuan and the first branch of the Chen family.
“This land belongs to our family!
Get out!” Chen Tianhao roared at Mrs.
Tian.
Seeing a wet-behind-the-ears brat like Chen Tianhao daring to bypass Chen Huaiyuan and yell at her, Mrs.
Tian jumped up and slapped him across the face.
After slapping him, she clapped her hands and wailed that the land belonged to her family.
Thinking of Chen Huaiyuan going back on his word, she pointed right at his nose and cursed the second branch for being bullies.
Seeing the villagers from neighboring fields gathering to watch the spectacle, Chen Huaiyuan felt his face burn with embarrassment.
He swatted Mrs.
Tian’s hand away and said displeased, “What can’t be resolved in private?
Why must you make such a scene out here?”
Mrs.
Tian let out a screech and headbutted Chen Huaiyuan, hollering, “Hit me then!
Come on, hit me!”
Chen Huaiyuan staggered back from the impact.
Unused to handling such situations, he turned his head and called out helplessly, “Baozhen.”
Jiang Baozhen remained expressionless.
Lin Yingxue leaned closer to Jiang Baozhen, marveling inwardly that Mrs.
Tian was quite the shameless piece of work.
This thick-skinned woman had fought with the fierce Jiang Baozhen many times before.
Every time, Chen Huaiyuan had either played the peacemaker or forced Jiang Baozhen to compromise.
Now that Chen Huaiyuan was directly facing Mrs.
Tian’s physical assault, she wondered if he could still maintain his detached facade.
Just as Lin Yingxue was lost in her thoughts, Chen Huaiyuan was pushed back by Mrs.
Tian until his foot slipped.
He crashed to the ground, covering himself in mud.
Flustered and exasperated, Chen Huaiyuan shoved Mrs.
Tian hard.
Instantly, Mrs.
Tian began to squeal like a slaughtered pig.
“Chen Ergou is hitting people!
Chen Ergou is hitting people!”
Chen Ergou.
The spectating villagers exchanged bewildered glances, silently asking each other who Chen Ergou was.
Right then, Huang Qiuju’s mother from the Cao Family hurried over from her own field and casually informed the crowd, “Chen Ergou is my in-law’s birth name.”
Everyone suddenly understood.
Chen Huaiyuan wanted the ground to swallow him whole.
Ever since he started attending the private school at the age of eight, he had changed his name from Chen Ergou to Chen Huaiyuan.
After so many years, aside from the elderly in Jiangya Village, very few people knew his birth name was Chen Ergou.
Meanwhile, seeing Chen Huaiyuan lay a hand on Mrs.
Tian, Chen Dazhu and his youngest son, Fusheng, rushed over with their hoes.
Chen Dazhu slammed his hoe into Chen Huaiyuan’s waist, hitting him so hard he nearly knocked the wind out of him.
Chen Huaiyuan grabbed a rock and hurled it in retaliation, striking Chen Fusheng right on the head.
This instantly broke Mrs.
Tian’s and Chen Dazhu’s hearts.
The couple had three daughters before finally getting this precious son.
They couldn’t even bear to lay a finger on him themselves, yet Chen Huaiyuan had smashed him with a rock.
Chen Dazhu and Mrs.
Tian lunged at Chen Huaiyuan.
He was completely defenseless against the couple’s coordinated assault.
“What are you all just standing there for?!” Chen Huaiyuan, utterly unable to fight back, barked at Chen Gensheng, Chen Chunsheng, and his other sons with bloodshot eyes.
Furious that the first branch was bullying their family in public, Chen Gensheng and the others didn’t care that Chen Dazhu and Mrs.
Tian were their elders.
Gripping their hoes, they charged into the fray.
The situation reversed in an instant.
Chen Dazhu and Mrs.
Tian were beaten until they howled in pain.
Seeing his parents losing the upper hand and knowing he couldn’t beat Chen Gensheng, Chen Tiansheng, and Chen Chunsheng, Chen Fusheng swung his fists and went after Chen Tianhao instead.
As the most scholarly young man of his generation in the village, Chen Tianhao had been trying hard to maintain his refined image.
Aside from yelling at Mrs.
Tian earlier, he had stayed out of it.
When the two families engaged in a chaotic brawl, he had quietly retreated to the edge of the field to keep his distance.
Because standing alone made him such a conspicuous target, he was easily cornered by Chen Fusheng.
Beaten until his vision went dark, Chen Tianhao scrambled away with his arms covering his head.
This chaotic field brawl didn’t stop until the newly appointed village head, Jiang Shouren, arrived.
Of course, the two families were so red-eyed with fury that they didn’t stop on their own.
Jiang Shouren had to order several burly laborers to forcibly pry them apart.
Jiang Baozhen and Lin Yingxue stood at the edge of the field, looking at the bruised and battered crowd before them.
Their lips twitched as they tried their hardest to suppress their laughter.
“Watching those dogs bite each other sure let out some of my pent-up anger.” Jiang Baozhen was overjoyed, the corners of her lips curling uncontrollably as she spoke to Lin Yingxue.
In the end, the three acres of land were returned to their rightful owner.
The title deed was crystal clear in black and white.
Bypassing Chen Huaiyuan and Chen Tianhao, Jiang Shouren invited Scholar Wang, who had recently moved to the village, to read the contents of the deed out loud to Chen Dazhu and Mrs.
Tian.
The couple from the first branch wanted to deny it, but Jiang Shouren laid down the law: if they refused to acknowledge the deed, he would tie both troublemaking families up and haul them to the government office for judgment.
Seeing the land slip right through her fingers, an infuriated Mrs.
Tian sat on the ridge, pounding the dirt and cursing at the top of her lungs.
Not daring to curse Jiang Baozhen, she insulted eighteen generations of Chen Huaiyuan’s ancestors instead, and eventually even turned her wrath on Chen Dazhu.
What angered Mrs.
Tian even more was that her entire family had worked day and night on these three acres.
They had dug through the frozen topsoil to churn up the fresh earth, meticulously pulled out every single weed root, and repaired the irrigation channels.
Since they didn’t own an ox, they had even spent a sum of money renting one to plow the field.
After all that backbreaking work, they gained absolutely nothing and even lost money in the process.
They had basically handed Jiang Baozhen a free advantage.
If Chen Huaiyuan hadn’t always been so magnanimous and respectful to the first branch, Mrs.
Tian would have suspected that this whole ordeal was a trap orchestrated jointly by him and Jiang Baozhen.