Seeing An Xia’s “dead pigs don’t fear boiling water” attitude, Old Mrs. Qian hurriedly scolded, “Stop your mouth!”
Without waiting for An Xia to respond, she turned her head and glared at An Fugui, saying impatiently, “Do as she says and write another one!”
An Fugui had always been afraid of Mrs. Qian. Upon being glared at, he got up quite reluctantly and wrote another family-splitting document.
This time, he didn’t dare to be sly or cut corners; he wrote exactly what An Xia had dictated.
Regardless, it was just a formality—these few little wretches wouldn’t live for more than a few days anyway.
A moment later, after Old Mrs. Qian and the others had pressed their fingerprints onto the document, they once again dropped it onto the ground.
An Xia picked up the document, and after confirming everything was correct, she pressed her own fingerprint onto it. She then gestured for An Chun and An Qiu to come over and do the same.
Seeing that the deed was done, Old Mrs. Qian’s expression was indifferent, her voice filled with urgency. “Since you have gotten what you wanted, get out immediately!”
She only wanted to sweep these three harbingers of doom out the door as quickly as possible.
An Xia looked at An Chun and said gently, “Big sister, go to the woodshed and pack our bundles.”
An Chun readily agreed, but her brow could not hide her concern. “I will go right away, but if we just leave like this, what will we eat…”
An Xia smiled at An Chun, reassuring her, “Don’t worry, big sister, leave that to me.”
Seeing that An Xia appeared confident, An Chun stopped asking further questions and went into the woodshed to pack their belongings.
“Grandma, there are a few more things I must take back,” An Xia said, looking at Old Mrs. Qian with a determined expression.
Old Mrs. Qian’s face immediately lengthened, her expression quite displeased. “You three have been eating for free for all these years. Where does this family owe you anything?”
“Don’t even think about taking anything from this house!”
Logically speaking, when a rural family splits up, there should be a distribution of everything from fields and houses down to pots and pans. Old Mrs. Qian was afraid that An Xia would ask for these things, so she immediately blocked the path.
Watching Old Mrs. Qian’s anxious demeanor, An Xia said unhurriedly, “Grandma, don’t be so anxious. I really don’t covet the An family’s things. It’s just that my mother left a few pieces of dowry; I’ll trouble you to hand them all over, without missing a single item.”
The original owner’s mother, Mrs. Zhao, although born in the countryside, came from a well-off family and had brought some jewelry with her when she married. If it hadn’t been for the fact that she had caused a rift with her own family to marry An Laifu, her dowry would have been the largest among the girls in the surrounding ten miles.
As soon as these words were out, before Old Mrs. Qian could even speak, Mrs. Zhang jumped up.
She said indignantly, “Why should we give them to you? When your mother married into the An family, she was a person of the An family in life and would be a ghost of the An family in death; her dowry naturally belongs to the An family as well.”
Mrs. Zhang spoke very loudly, as if that made her argument more valid. However, in her heart, she knew very well that she was bluffing.
Under the laws of this dynasty, if a woman’s dowry was of any significant value, it would be registered with the local authorities. If the woman passed away, her dowry would pass to her children; if she had no children, it would be returned to her natal family. A husband was not allowed to dispose of a woman’s dowry as he pleased.
An Xia’s expression turned sharp. She sneered, “Is that so? Do you assume that we three sisters are too young, inexperienced, and ignorant of the law?”
“If you don’t hand over my mother’s dowry, I will go find the Village Chief and the local magistrate and have them judge who is in the right.”
Mrs. Zhang was choked with anger. She had not expected this little wretch to understand the matter so clearly.
Seeing the standoff, An Qiu, whose eyes were like black crystals, turned them a few times. She immediately splayed her legs and sat on the ground, tilting her head back to wail loudly, hitting the ground with her hands as she cried.
“Wooo, mother, your daughter is living such a bitter life!”
“Not only am I being driven out of the house by my stepmother because I have smallpox, but she even wants to steal your dowry!”
“Mother, I miss you so much. Can you come back?”
An Xia watched as An Qiu spoke clearly while howling without shedding a single tear, and the corners of her mouth twitched slightly.
An Qiu was much sharper than their big sister; she had already learned how to follow suit.
However, after An Qiu’s howling, the sky, which had been bright and sunny, suddenly became overcast. The sun was completely blocked, the sky darkened significantly, and distant thunder could be heard.
Old Mrs. Qian looked up at the sky, her old face wrinkling into a ball. In broad daylight, could it be that Mrs. Zhao really dared to return to stand up for her daughters?
She was terrified of Mrs. Zhao returning. After all, back when Mrs. Zhao was giving birth to An Qiu, she had experienced complications; if it hadn’t been for her (Mrs. Qian) refusing to let An Laifu go fetch a doctor, perhaps Mrs. Zhao would not have died.
All these years, she had often dreamed of Mrs. Zhao returning to seek revenge. Furthermore, she was afraid that An Xia, that little wretch, would really bring the Village Chief and the magistrate, and if that happened, their whole family might be driven out of the village.
She was certain that if she didn’t grant the wretch’s wish, she would really go and call for the officials. With An Qiu’s voice so loud, it would be troublesome if the neighbors heard as well.
“Shut up! Stop wailing! I’ll go get them for you!”
Old Mrs. Qian scolded An Qiu, who was still sitting on the ground howling.
When Mrs. Zhang saw that Old Mrs. Qian had compromised, she became anxious. “Mother, what are you doing? Why give it to them? Without these, how will we afford to send Yu’er to school!”
After saying this, Mrs. Zhang winked at An Laifu, signaling him to stop Old Mrs. Qian.
An Laifu understood and echoed, “Mother, you must be senile. Yu’er is the foundation of our An family.”
Old Mrs. Qian closed her eyes, her face full of fury. “Do you think I don’t know that? But they have smallpox! Do you all not want to live? If the disease is passed to Yu’er, our An family will be finished.”
An Laifu and Mrs. Zhang were suddenly jolted into awareness!
That’s right—these three harbingers of doom had smallpox, and smallpox was highly contagious. Perhaps because they didn’t look overly weak, they had often forgotten that these three were people who were about to die.
Old Mrs. Qian ignored Mrs. Zhang and An Laifu. She returned to the main room, moved a wooden board from under the bed, and pulled out a wooden box. She took out a silver hairpin, a pair of silver earrings, and a silver bracelet, then pushed the box back under the bed.
She then stood up and walked out of the main room, her face full of reluctance as she looked at the high-quality jewelry.
“Here, take your things.” Old Mrs. Qian threw the jewelry onto the ground as if it were cutting her own flesh.
An Qiu scrambled up from the ground, picked up the silver jewelry, and carefully tucked it into her bosom, terrified that someone would snatch it away. This was the only memento her mother had left for the three sisters.
Old Mrs. Qian kept a cold face, driving them away like a plague.
“You have your things; you can get out now!”
An Xia rolled her eyes at Old Mrs. Qian and said coldly, “Even if you begged me to stay, I wouldn’t want to. We three sisters will definitely live better lives than you in the future!”
“And as for you, after all the heartless things you’ve done, you will suffer retribution sooner or later!”
Mrs. Zhang scoffed, “It seems you still don’t understand what smallpox is?”
“Wait until you actually have a future to talk about it! You short-lived ghosts!”