“How about I help refresh your memory?”
With a flick of Chen Zui’s little hand, the sheet of rough paper—covered in writing and stamped with bright-red thumbprints—rustled loudly in the wind.
“Black words on white paper, witnessed and guaranteed by Village Chief Chen himself. It clearly says: the third branch of the Chen family leaves with nothing. Aside from one broken house and two mu of barren land, they take none of the family property. From that day forward, whether in life or death, neither side has anything to do with the other!”
Chen Zui’s voice was crisp and clear, popping out like beans in a hot pan. Every word landed squarely in the ears of everyone present.
She couldn’t read?
That didn’t matter.
Her memory was excellent. When the village chief had read the document aloud, she had engraved every word into her mind.
“The rich need not visit; beggars need not be welcomed.” Grandfather, weren’t those your exact words when you forced my father to press his thumbprint onto this agreement? What happened? It’s only been a few days. Have you forgotten already?”
Old Master Chen’s face twitched.
Under the gaze of Chen Zui’s clear black eyes, he unexpectedly felt a trace of guilt. But after living for so many years, his skin was thicker than a city wall.
“Those were words spoken in anger!”
Old Master Chen straightened his neck stubbornly and pointed his pipe at Chen Zui.
“Blood ties can’t be severed! I’m his father! If he has meat and refuses to let me eat it, that’s unfilial! No matter where you go, that’s the truth!”
Seeing her husband stand firm, Old Madam Chen wailed even louder.
“What a sin! I raised a thankless wolf! He eats meat while his own mother starves!”
The villagers began wavering again.
After all, they were still his parents. Even after splitting the family, could he really just watch them go hungry?
Chen Laosan lowered his head once more.
Shame and anger twisted together inside him, making him wish he could disappear into a crack in the ground.
Chen Zui watched the scene and let out a cold laugh.
Reasoning with shameless people was pointless.
To beat them, you had to be even more shameless—and even more pitiful.
“Starve?”
Suddenly, Chen Zui turned and ran into the house on her short little legs.
A moment later, she emerged carrying a battered bamboo basket.
Bang!
She dumped it heavily onto the dirt in front of Old Madam Chen.
Several blackened sweet potatoes rolled out.
They were shriveled and hard as stones. Some had already rotted halfway through, oozing black liquid and giving off a nauseating moldy stench.
“This was the ‘food supply’ Grandma gave us when the family split!”
Chen Zui pointed at the rotten sweet potatoes.
Her eyes instantly reddened, and tears poured down her cheeks like broken strings of pearls.
Her acting was even more convincing than Old Madam Chen’s.
“That night, my stomach hurt from hunger. I wanted to eat one, but Mother said they were the only thing keeping us alive through winter. Our family of five guarded these rotten sweet potatoes, and we almost starved to death that very night!”
She picked up one of the rotten potatoes and held it right under Old Madam Chen’s nose.
Her voice turned sharp with grief.
“Grandma! You say we’re trying to starve you? Then can you eat this? You gave Brother Dabao meat, but you gave us rotten sweet potatoes! The meat my father brought back today was earned by risking his life in the deep mountains against a wild boar! He paid for it with blood!”
Chen Zui pointed at the bloodstains still visible on Chen Laosan’s leg.
Some came from dragging the boar. Others were old wounds.
“My father’s leg is already injured like that, and he still had to risk his life! Yet you’ve come here to steal our meat. Are you trying to force us to die? Will you only be happy when our entire family is dead?”
Her tearful accusation, combined with the sight of the rotten sweet potatoes still leaking black sludge, was devastatingly effective.
The villagers’ expressions changed instantly.
If they had thought Chen Laosan was unfilial moments ago, the sight of those sweet potatoes completely tipped the scales.
“That’s too cruel…”
“Even pigs wouldn’t eat something like that, and they gave it to their own granddaughter?”
“This wasn’t dividing the family. This was trying to kill them.”
“No wonder Laosan won’t give them any meat. If it were me, I wouldn’t either!”
Old Madam Chen stared at the rotten sweet potato shoved in front of her face.
The foul smell made her lean backward instinctively.
Her crying stopped abruptly.
She sat there with her mouth open like a chicken being strangled, her face turning the color of liver.
The truth was, she really had picked those sweet potatoes up near the pigsty and tossed them to the third branch simply to disgust them.
Who could have guessed that this damned girl would keep them until now?
“Y-you’re lying…” Old Madam Chen stammered.
“I’m lying?”
Chen Zui smashed the rotten sweet potato onto the ground.
Black liquid splattered all over Old Madam Chen.
“Should we invite Village Chief Chen over to verify it?”
Speak of the devil.
A dignified cough sounded from outside the crowd.
“Ahem! What’s all this commotion?”
Village Chief Chen Fuhai entered with his hands clasped behind his back, parting the crowd as he walked forward.
Earlier, he had eaten the fried pork-crackling cakes sent by the Chen family. The warm knee braces they had gifted him were still tied around his legs.
At the moment, he was very much indebted to them.
He glanced at the rotten sweet potatoes on the ground.
Then he looked at Old Master Chen’s embarrassed face.
His expression immediately darkened.
“Brother Chen, this is your fault.”
Chen Fuhai stepped into the center of the yard and pointed at the severance agreement.
“I wrote this document. My signature is on it. Back then, you forced Laosan’s family to leave with nothing and declared that both sides would have nothing to do with each other from then on. Now that they’re finally seeing a bit of good fortune, you’ve come to pick the fruit?”
“Brother Fuhai, this…”
Old Master Chen hadn’t expected the village chief to arrive so quickly, much less take the side of the third branch.
“Elders should act with dignity!”
Chen Fuhai’s voice grew stern as he publicly reprimanded him.
“If you don’t want to help your children and grandchildren, that’s one thing. But driving them toward death? And these sweet potatoes—how could you even bring yourself to hand them over? If word of this reaches the county, will your precious Dabao still be able to sit for the civil examinations? With a reputation for being cruel and heartless, he might not even be allowed into the examination hall!”
That single sentence struck Old Master Chen’s greatest weakness.
Dabao’s future as a scholar was the Chen family’s greatest hope.
Old Master Chen’s face turned deathly pale.
Looking around at the villagers’ contemptuous stares and then at Chen Fuhai’s dark expression, he knew there would be no advantage gained today.
If anything, he would leave covered in disgrace.
“Hmph! Women and petty people are the hardest to deal with!”
Trying to salvage the last shred of dignity, Old Master Chen flicked his sleeve and shot Chen Zui a vicious glare.
Then he turned and kicked the still-dazed Dabao.
“What are you staring at? We’re going home!”
Seeing her husband leave, Old Madam Chen no longer dared continue her performance.
She scrambled to her feet, dusted off her backside, muttered curses under her breath, and hurried after him.
Zhang Shi cast one last unwilling glance at the fat boar.
But when she noticed Chen Zui casually picking up another stone, her neck immediately shrank.
She fled after the others with her tail between her legs.
At last, the farce came to an end.
The villagers gradually dispersed as well, still discussing the cruelty of the Chen family’s main household as they left.
Only the third branch remained in the courtyard.
Chen Laosan’s legs gave out, and he leaned against the doorframe, gasping for breath.
That confrontation had exhausted him more than killing the wild boar in the mountains.
“Dad.”
Chen Zui walked over and carefully folded the wrinkled severance agreement before placing it back into his hands.
“Keep it safe. If they come again, use this to slap them in the face.”
Chen Laosan looked down at his daughter, who barely reached his knees.
Moments ago, she had cried so pitifully in front of everyone.
Now there wasn’t a trace of tears on her face.
Her eyes were calm enough to unsettle him, yet they also filled him with an indescribable sense of reassurance.
“Little Six… your father… your father is useless.”
His voice choked with emotion.
“Dad is useful.”
Chen Zui hugged his leg and pressed her face against the patched fabric of his trousers.
“Dad carried the wild boar home. Dad protects us.”
A warmth rose into Chen Laosan’s eyes.
He reached out and gently stroked his daughter’s dry, yellowing hair.
Li Shi, along with the eldest and second daughters, gathered around as well.
The family looked at the enormous wild boar in the courtyard, relief shining in their eyes after surviving yet another crisis.
“Such a huge boar—we can’t possibly eat it all.”
Chen Yinuo frowned.
“The weather is cold, but it will still spoil eventually. And the smell is too strong. It’ll attract wolves.”
The “wolves” she referred to weren’t only the beasts in the mountains.
They also meant the greedy people in the village.
They had driven off the old family today, but there was no guarantee someone else wouldn’t become tempted.
Chen Zui released her father’s leg and circled the boar.
The animal was in excellent condition. Its hide was intact, and the meat was firm.
Selling ginseng at the medical hall had been hidden income.
This boar, however, was completely legitimate and could easily be turned into honest silver.
“Sell it.”
Chen Zui made the decision.
“Tomorrow morning, we’ll hire a cart and take it to town. We’ll sell it to a restaurant. Once we have the silver, we’ll tear down this thatched hut and build a proper tiled house!”
At the mention of building a house, Chen Laosan’s eyes lit up.
For farmers, owning a good house was often a lifelong dream.
“Good! We’ll do as Little Six says! Tomorrow we go to town!”
Night gradually settled over the thatched cottage.
Lying beneath her blanket, Chen Zui listened to her parents discussing the details of selling the boar in hushed voices.
She touched the jade pendant hanging around her neck.
Yet her thoughts were elsewhere.
Once they had money and a new house, life would finally become stable.
Then it would be time to find her sister.
Third Sister…
Where are you?