Lin Changsong strode away, leaving behind a group of bewildered villagers.
Sixth Uncle said, “Tsk… Is this Second Son Lin really stupid, or is he pretending to be stupid?”
Someone nearby sighed. “Maybe Minghai is a sure bet to pass the examination this time. Old Madam Liu has pressured the whole family into supporting a single scholar. He might actually manage to pass!”
Someone else agreed, “It’s possible. Otherwise, why would the second son and his wife sound so certain? A family knows its own affairs best!”
The topic had gone completely off track.
By the afternoon, the subject had once again become how confident Lin Minghai was of passing the examination this time, how he was certain to become a xiucai, and how the old Lin family was about to prosper! The Second Branch and the Third Branch would all be able to follow him into the city and enjoy a life of comfort!
At noon, Old Madam Liu returned to her room to rest, and Wang Ya and Lin Xiaowei finally had time to go to their secret base and replenish their energy.
They drank mildly sweet astragalus water and ate soft, glutinous roasted yams.
Lin Xiaowei clicked her tongue twice. She was getting a little tired of eating yams.
The moment Lin Changsong saw his daughter’s expression, he knew what she was thinking. “I set some traps in the mountains. We might be able to catch a pheasant.”
The eyes of all three people lit up. Their longing for meat reached its peak, and they swallowed involuntarily.
Lin Minghao asked incredulously, “Dad, you know how to do that, too!?”
“Oh, listen to you. Your old dad was born in the countryside, and later I was always going up into the mountains and working in the fields. I know a little of everything.” More importantly, in his previous life, pheasants and the like had all become protected animals. Eating one could earn a prison sentence of at least five years, so he had never had anywhere to show off his skills.
Lin Xiaowei said, “I’ll go pick some mushrooms later and dry them. Then we can have chicken stewed with mushrooms!”
The day before yesterday, she had spent half a day making three earthenware jars. Two of them had cracked during firing, but one was usable. She had also found yellow mud and stones and built a little stove. It would be no problem to stew an entire chicken!
Wang Ya could not help sighing. Her daughter’s millions of followers were proving their worth more and more.
Back when her daughter had graduated from a top-tier university and decided to become an internet celebrity, she had found it somewhat impossible to accept. Now, she actually felt that it had all been “predestined” somehow!
Lin Minghao swallowed hard, too. Chicken stewed with mushrooms!
Ignoring the hungry expressions on both their children’s faces, the couple exchanged information about the morning’s results.
Lin Changsong sighed. “The old woman is actually just a paper tiger. She isn’t clever, nor does she possess any particularly impressive methods. All she did was brainwash me, my third brother, and our younger sister from childhood, making us willingly sacrifice everything for our eldest brother.”
Wang Ya nodded repeatedly. “Mhm, I don’t think it’ll be long before they start demanding to split the household themselves.”
That afternoon, Old Madam Liu and Xiao Liushi walked around the village. When people inexplicably showered them with praise, the aunt and niece pair felt rather pleased with themselves. However, where there were people eager to curry favor, there were naturally also people who were jealous and envious.
When the two of them heard Auntie Zhang’s uninhibited laughter as she told everyone about “The Journey of the Floating Underwear” and its accompanying “Declaration of Enjoying Blessings,” the aunt and niece nearly stopped breathing. They suffered a complete and utter public death.
The moment Wang Ya and Xiaowei stepped through the gate of the old Lin family home, Wang Ya felt a chill run down her back.
“Mom, there’s killing intent!”
Before the two of them could react, Xiao Liushi shrieked and lunged at her, trying to claw her.
“Wang! You shameless wretch! You still have the nerve to come back!”
Old Madam Liu’s broom also came crashing down on her head. “I’ll teach you to spout nonsense! I’ll teach you to let your hand slip! You’ve ruined the reputation of the entire Lin family!”
Wang Ya had been prepared. She immediately ducked and fled, dodging from side to side while displaying acting skills worthy of an award-winning actress. Her voice carried a sobbing tone and an abundance of “injustice.”
“Mom! Sister-in-law! What are you doing? What did I do? Wasn’t I doing it for the good of our family? Whenever I went out, didn’t I praise Mom and Sister-in-law, and say how wonderful Minghai was?”
“That pair of underpants… they slipped away by themselves! The river was flowing so fast—how could I have fished them back out? I was even thinking that once we were enjoying a life of comfort, I’d buy Eldest Brother ten or eight new pairs to make amends!”
“Which part of what I said was wrong? Aren’t Mom and Sister-in-law hoping for us to do well? If Minghai becomes successful in the future, shouldn’t he help his own uncle and aunt? Aren’t we all one family?”
Every question she asked sounded foolish and “sincere,” yet each one was like a soft knife stabbing into them.
Neither woman had ever realized that Wang could be so slippery and impossible to pin down.
Old Madam Liu chased after her. One swing of the broom missed Wang Ya and instead overturned the bamboo basket in the courtyard. The next nearly smashed a crock.
Old Madam Liu’s arms grew sore from swinging the broom. Panting heavily, she cursed, “Who’s family with you?! Who wants you to bask in our glory?! Go dream your autumnal dreams somewhere else!”
Xiao Liushi also wept and cursed, “You did it on purpose! You’re just jealous of our First Branch! You want to ruin my son’s reputation!”
Wang Ya immediately put on an expression of sudden realization, as though she had finally understood. Then she looked even more “wronged,” with a trace of sorrow at having been “betrayed.”
“Mom! Sister-in-law! You… you didn’t say that before! Didn’t you clearly say before that although things were hard and exhausting now, we were doing it all for Minghai, and that once he became successful, we wouldn’t be short of benefits? How come we’re not family anymore now? How come we’ve suddenly become jealous of you? Could it be… could it be that you were lying to us all along? Were you just fooling us because the Second Branch was stupid enough to work like oxen and horses for you?”
Her voice was not quiet. The neighbors could probably hear this live broadcast as well.
The people of the Third Branch were all shaken when they heard her words.
Old Madam Liu and Xiao Liushi were so choked by her turning the blame back on them that they nearly passed out!
They could neither admit it nor deny it. But could they really tacitly acknowledge that the Second Branch would be allowed to suck them dry in the future?
The two women trembled with rage, yet for a moment, they were rendered speechless.
Seeing that the fire had been stoked enough, Wang Ya pretended to be frightened and shrank her neck. She grabbed her daughter and slipped back into their room.
She left Liu and Xiao Liushi standing where they were, struggling to vent their anger and feeling as if their lungs were about to explode.
The successive dramas at the old Lin family home truly gave the villagers several days of entertainment.
After dinner, Village Head Lin Baozhu and his wife also discussed the matter.
“The Fifth Branch has become a disgrace, but that’s also because Fifth Son is useless. He can’t control his wife and is so biased that there’s no limit to it. Even a clay figurine has three parts temper. Now he’s made the entire household a place of unrest.” Lin Baozhu sighed.
His wife, Madam Meng, asked in a low voice, “What do you think about Minghai’s examination this time…?”
Lin Baozhu shook his head. “Hard to say… Mingyuan says he’s considered one of the best at the private school. But that’s only the private school in town. Tutor Zheng has only taught one xiucai in the past few years. In recent years, some students have passed the county examination, but they all failed at the prefectural examination.”
What Lin Baozhu did not say was that even if Lin Minghai passed, there was no guarantee he would look after the clan. He had met countless people, and Lin Minghai always wore an expression of looking down on everyone. He did not even take the uncles and aunts who supported him seriously, so would he really look after the clan?
However, scholars cared about their reputation and could not possibly cast aside their clan. If he truly became a tongsheng or a xiucai, the reputation of the Lin clan would also rise considerably.
Putting everything else aside, whenever the officials came to collect taxes each year, they would not make things too difficult for them out of consideration for his father, an old tongsheng.
In neighboring Liujia Village, there was little land and the people were poor. The clan had produced no promising scholars either. Whenever officials came to collect taxes, their village was always harassed, and whenever corvée labor was assigned, the most difficult tasks were always given to them.
Lin Baozhu said to his wife, “As long as the Fifth Branch’s affairs don’t go too far and don’t make their way to us, leave them alone. Changsong and Changgen can’t stand on their own. There’s no use helping them.”
Madam Meng nodded. She was too lazy to concern herself with it, too. Her youngest grandson would soon be taking the county examination, and she had no spare energy to care about the Fifth Branch’s affairs.
Old Madam Liu went around loudly proclaiming how clever and studious Lin Minghai was. That alone would have been fine, but she even compared her own Mingyuan to Minghai. She wanted to see whether the “star of literature” of the Fifth Branch could actually bring home a xiucai this time!
No one knew about the conversation between the clan leader and his wife. Meanwhile, in the old Lin family home, inside the First Branch’s room—
Old Madam Liu and Xiao Liushi sat huddled together, their faces so gloomy they seemed capable of dripping water.