Chapter 34: Debate

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

“There won’t be a need for that soon.”

Da Bao was unusually calm. “We’ll separate from the family and have our own household registration. It has nothing to do with you anymore. We’ll just call you grandma, but it’s the second uncle’s family’s responsibility to take care of you.”

His words almost made the Qin family collapse from anger. This Da Bao did not learn anything good from Mo Ruyue, but he did learn to be disrespectful to his superiors.

“Da Bao’s words are also correct. Qin, if you can’t come up with an explanation, don’t say that we have to make the decision for you.”

As soon as the village chief spoke, Qin Shi knew that she had lost her power. It seemed that she would have to pay a huge price today.

“Village chief, my family doesn’t have many properties to share. You know that we just built a new house and we still have to pay for Qing Yuan’s studies. Everything in the family can’t be separated from money. We really can’t get a share.”

Seeing that the division of the family was inevitable, Qin Shi could only accept it. However, they had not decided what to divide yet. Thus, she racked her brain to find an excuse. Even if she could give away one less copper coin, it would be fine.

“Your family is using money, but it doesn’t affect the division of property with us. We’ll only take what we should take, and we won’t care for any extra.”

Da Bao had resentment towards the original owner Mo Ruyue, but he also had resentment towards the Qin Shi and the second branch. They relied on his father to live a good life and lived a more leisurely life than any other family in the village. In the end, his father had just died, and his first branch was swept out of the house.

Although there was a house to live in, when it was raining and snowing, it was heavy outside and light inside. There were not even enough buckets and basins to catch the rain. If there was a gust of wind, a few layers of soil would be blown off. They could only hold on like that, and it was uncertain when it would collapse.

As for money, there was definitely no such thing. Even their rations only had a liter of brown rice, which was sold by that “bad” woman, Mo Ruyue, for a few wens to buy a silk flower.

Da Bao remembered that he was so angry that he almost wanted to fight Mo Ruyue to death. However, he was too young and was almost beaten to death. If it wasn’t for his neighbor, Granny Liu, who was kind and secretly fed him rice soup and herbs, he would have died long ago.

Later, he went from house to house in the village to beg, help people chop firewood, herd sheep, farm, and carry feces in exchange for some food to feed his siblings. Only then did he manage to survive.

If one were to say that sixty percent of the trouble that the siblings had suffered was due to Mo Ruyue’s evil deeds, the other forty percent was due to the Qin family’s ruthlessness.

Da Bao had long lost his sense of belonging and thoughts to the Qin family, so how could he care about how embarrassed the Qin family would be after they split up? He only wished to completely cut off all ties. In the future, he would not be bothered by it and would not have to worry about being constantly disturbed.

“Hmph, as expected, you’re raised by your stepmother. She’s only been good to you for a few days, and you’ve already forgotten how she abused you in the past few years? You actually helped a person with a different surname to scheme against your own family’s property. You are really stupid! You’ll regret this in the future!”

Qin Shi was so angry that she cursed, but her curses only made Da Bao’s face turn colder and more disdainful.

“No matter how stepmother mistreated us, she at least let us live for a few more years, and now she has changed her character and is providing for us with good food and drink. You’ve been letting us live and die on our own for so many years, but have you ever given us a grain of rice or a drop of oil?”

“Grandma, I’m afraid you had forgotten what you said when I brought Er Bao to your house to beg for a bowl of brown rice. The Qin family and the first household have long been separated and have nothing to do with you, so naturally, you don’t need to care about our life and death. But how you let the dog bite us, I’m afraid you’ve also forgotten completely, right?”

“Nonsense! I’m your biological grandmother, and you’re my biological grandson. Even a vicious tiger won’t eat its cubs, so why would I let a dog bite you?”

Qin Shi’s expression suddenly changed. She could clearly hear the boos around her. The villagers who were originally watching the show all looked at her with eyes full of disbelief and contempt.

She wanted to explain in a panic, but her expression had already betrayed her heart and beat the truth to death.

“Old lady, if you’re worried that I’ll covet your little fortune, you can rest assured. Today, in front of everyone, I’ll make a promise that all the Qin family’s assets will belong to the five children. If I touch a single copper coin, I’ll be struck by lightning and die a terrible death.”

Mo Ruyue seemed to have been waiting for this opportunity. She immediately made a vow in public and won a wave of favorable impressions. The villagers who had always looked down on her changed their opinion of her a little.

“Compared to this, I’m more worried that someone is coveting my family’s property. You know, my stepmother has given all her money to me for safekeeping. Compared to the small amount of money that other people are reluctant to part with, I don’t know how many times more. She doesn’t need to worry about whether the property distributed to us will be taken by outsiders.”

Da Bao dropped another bombshell at the right time.

This time, everyone was shocked.

So the money that Mo Ruyue earned was all managed by Da Bao?

Not counting the wild game and vegetables that she had sold, just the big tiger alone was worth at least a few hundred taels of silver!

She actually gave all of them to an eleven-year-old kid to take care of?

Was Mo Ruyue crazy?

The way some people looked at Da Bao had also changed. They became passionate and meaningful, while more people sized up Mo Ruyue with very strange and judgmental eyes, as if they wanted to see through the reason for her sudden change in personality and why she had changed so completely.

“Since it’s like this, then you don’t have to worry about the Qin family coveting the property that the babies deserve after the first branch is divided.”

The village chief spoke again. This time, he was clearly on Da Bao’s side.

“I’ll repeat it to you one last time, the family property distributed to the eldest branch must be compensated on a fair basis. We all know why your family can afford a new house now, so if you want to cry about being poor, then save it. Speaking of which, your family’s life in the village can be considered unique. Everyone sees each other often, so don’t tell me you don’t know some details.”

Qin Shi looked at the village chief with her mouth agape and tongue-tied. She then looked at the few clan elders for help. She didn’t expect that they would all look at her with extremely serious expressions.

Clearly, they also agreed with the village chief’s words.

Now, almost everyone was supporting Mo Ruyue and Da Bao one-sided. This had left the Qin clan with no way out. It was impossible for her to divide the family property as little as possible. If she could not divide it to satisfy people, she was afraid that she would not be able to get over it with the village chief and the clan elders even without Mo Ruyue’s request.

“Then… Then how about this, the new house has just been built, and we haven’t had time to move in yet, so… We’ll give the three rooms facing the east to the six of them, and then we’ll give them some rice, flour, meat, and oil. That’ll do, right?”

Qin Shi said, but her heart was bleeding. Those three rooms were originally prepared for the second branch. The second son Qin Xu and his wife had one room, and the grandson Qin Qingyuan and the granddaughter Qin Qingfei had one room each. Now it seemed impossible.

However, Qin Shi still played a little trick. Those three rooms were still in the new house and couldn’t be divided. In this way, Mo Ruyue would have to bring the five babies back to live with them. At that time, she didn’t believe that she couldn’t find a chance to make a move.

She was still thinking about the mountains of gold and silver in Mo Ruyue’s hands, but she didn’t expect that someone’s appetite was even bigger than this.