Chapter 274: Chapter 114: Severing Ties (Part 2)

"You were both born to the same parents. If you two brothers sever ties, isn’t that just like stabbing your father in the heart?"

Chen Dachang hung his head listlessly, not saying a word. The old woman frantically pinched his arm. "Old man, say something, will you!"

Chen Dachang remained silent, slowly pulling his pipe from his sleeve to smoke.

The old woman slapped the pipe out of his hand and onto the ground. "Smoke, smoke, smoke! You’ll smoke yourself to death one of these days! Your two sons are about to sever ties, and you still have the mind to smoke? Have you smoked yourself stupid?"

Chen Song glanced at the old woman, then at Chen Dachang. His father today was no different from the man he’d always been—listless, quiet, and incompetent. ’It’s as if he lost his soul during that flight from the famine,’ Chen Song thought. ’What’s left is just an empty shell.’

Seeing this, Chen Song turned away from them. "Mr. Zhao, please write the document. We are severing our ties. From this day forward, we will have nothing more to do with each other for the rest of our lives."

The members of the Chen family, seeing they couldn’t be persuaded, all sighed and turned away. Out of sight, out of mind.

Mr. Zhao picked up his brush and meticulously recorded the day’s events on the document. When he was finished, he passed it around for everyone to inspect. Once they confirmed there were no issues, he prompted Chen Song and Chen Lin, "Time to add your thumbprints."

Chen Song signed his name immediately. Chen Lin, however, dragged his feet on his way to the ink pad.

Chen Song, annoyed at the sight, kicked the stool out from under him. "Hurry it up. I have to go clean up the courtyard soon."

Chen Lin reluctantly pressed his thumbprint onto the document of severance. From that moment on, the two families were to have no part in each other’s marriages, nor any concern for one another’s lives or deaths.

Once it was done, Chen Song called to the constables and his wife and daughter, "Let’s go. We’re heading back."

As she was leaving, Chen Wanqing glanced back at Chen Wanyue. The look in Wanyue’s eyes at that moment was one she felt would make her wary of her cousin for the rest of her life.

She looked away and said to her mother, "Wanyue is a lost cause."

"She’s been a lost cause for a long time!" Xu Suying muttered a few resentful words about Chen Wanyue’s misdeeds, then added in a low voice, "It looks like your uncle really hit a windfall. Otherwise, he couldn’t have paid out ten taels of Silver."

"Dad must have been the one who demanded that amount."

"But Chen Lin still had to have that much to be able to pay it. When we get home today, I’m going to have your father go to the pawnshop and find out what that old woman pawned. We’ve been so busy these past couple of days, I completely forgot about it."

When they arrived back at their house, Xu Suying found it so filthy she refused to even step into the courtyard.

Chen Song had to clean up himself, but he couldn’t very well ask the two constables to do the work. He told them to head back first, report what had happened to the County Magistrate, and request half a day of leave for him.

Chen Song also sent away the onlooking villagers.

Chen Song went into the courtyard, loaded all the hopelessly filthy things onto the ox cart, and dumped the entire lot into the river gulch.

He wouldn’t be buying any new things for the time being. They could buy replacements if and when they ever came back to the village to live.

But after this disgusting ordeal, the chances of them ever coming back to live in the village were slim.

After all, the rooms had been trashed so badly... Just thinking about it was nauseating. ’Who could possibly live here now?’

If there was a wedding or funeral in the village, couldn’t they just crash somewhere for a night?

At worst, they could just head back to the county seat. It was close enough that traveling back and forth wasn’t a big deal anyway.

Only after Chen Song had thrown out everything that could be thrown out did the mother and daughter who had been waiting outside walk in.

Stepping inside and seeing the house stripped bare, both mother and daughter felt a pang of sorrow.

Xu Suying couldn’t help but break down in tears.

"Every brick and tile in this house was put here by your father and me. I drew the designs for every bed and every cabinet, and your father built them with his own two hands."

It had taken them so much to finally have a home of their own, so of course they had wanted to make it nice. But with no money, they had to do everything themselves.

Xu Suying had lived here for nearly twenty years and had a deep emotional attachment to the place. But now, she never wanted to live here again.

So, Xu Suying said, "Out of sight, out of mind. Let’s just sell it and be done with it."

Chen Song said, "Let’s not be hasty. Our land is still in the village, so we’ll have to come back sometimes. When I’m earning enough to cover all our family’s expenses, we can sell the land and this house along with it."

"Why not just rent the land out to someone else? Things are different now. We’re all in the county seat, so busy we can’t catch our breath. Who has time to come back here and farm?"

"That’s a good point. In that case, after we bring in this season’s harvest, why don’t we just have our daughter manage the land? We can have her collect the rent, too?"

"Let’s just give it all to our daughter, then."

Chen Wanqing: "..."

’And just like that, for no reason at all, the family’s remaining three mu of land was going to be hers, too.’

’Well, if they were giving it to her, she was going to take it.’

Chen Wanqing planned to take back Zhao Jing’s family’s land, as well as the two mu of land her parents had given her as a dowry. She would cultivate medicinal herbs on all of it. When the time came, she would give them a share of the profits based on the amount of land they had contributed.