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Upon hearing this, Xie Kui looked at Xie Dazhu, who had just opened the door. “Did you hear what she said?”
Xie Dazhu couldn’t believe it. Even at this point, Chai Shi still didn’t realize what she had done wrong.
So what if Wang Jinhe’s family was wealthy? It was their hard-earned money, and it had nothing to do with her. Just because someone else earned more money didn’t mean they owed her anything.
If Xie Dazhu had any lingering doubts before, hearing Chai Shi’s words now only strengthened his resolve to send her back. What if allowing Chai Shi to stay at home continued to negatively influence the upbringing of their three children?
“You should leave,” Xie Dazhu said sternly to Chai Shi.
Chai Shi never expected Xie Dazhu to open the door at this moment.
“I… Dazhu, I know I was wrong, and I…” Chai Shi began.
“You don’t know what you did wrong. You just don’t want to go back to your parents’ home,” Xie Dazhu said. If she truly knew her mistake, would she have said those things before?
“Dazhu…”
“Don’t force me to write a divorce letter at this moment,” Xie Dazhu said coldly and angrily to Chai Shi.
Chai Shi immediately fell silent, but in her heart, she began to resent Wang Jinhe.
Chai Shi left with her belongings, then turned back to glare at Xie Dazhu with malice. She blamed Xie Dazhu for everything.
Xie Dazhu, unaware of her intentions, turned to Xie Kui. “Village Chief…”
“I’m giving you the seeds. There are four types of vegetables. If you don’t know how to plant them, come to me for help,” Xie Kui said, trying to reassure Xie Dazhu.
Xie Dazhu nodded repeatedly. “Thank you, Village Chief.”
“Afterward, take three hundred wen and deliver it to Xiao He yourself. Don’t refuse just because it’s a small amount of money. It’s important to follow through with this,” Xie Kui said, advising Xie Dazhu.
“Okay, I’ll go in a while.”
After delivering the items, Xie Kui left, leaving the fate of Xie Dazhu’s household in his own hands. As for Chai Shi, if he allowed her to return, their family’s future wouldn’t be too bright.
Returning home with the vegetable seeds, Xie Dazhu looked at his children and said, “Don’t worry, next year, I will definitely send you to school.”
His three children looked at him with joy, but then their expressions turned somber. “Dad, our family doesn’t have money. We don’t have to go to school.”
“These are the seeds I bought from the county Princess. Once we grow and sell the vegetables, we’ll have money. Then I can buy you new clothes and meat to eat,” Xie Dazhu said, showing the seeds he had obtained from Xie Kui to his children.
Xie Dazhu’s daughter, Xie Chunni, looked happy. “The vegetable seeds from the county princess’s house are great. Dad, we will help you grow the vegetables.”
“Dad, I don’t like my mom. Can we not let her come back?” Xie Chunni asked cautiously.
“From now on, it will just be the four of us. As for her, it’s no longer our concern,” Xie Dazhu said, having made his decision.
He knew that in order to give his children a better life, he had to make a decision.
“There are things that your mother won’t do. From now on, you will have to endure hardships with me,” Xie Dazhu said.
“Dad, we’re not afraid of hardship. I know that Mom has done a lot of excessive things, and she hasn’t been good to my little sister,” Xie Dazhu’s eldest son said, frowning.
He didn’t have much affection for Chai Shi. Every time his dad brought home money, his mom only wanted to buy herself nice clothes, never thinking about buying something good to eat for the family or getting his dad a couple of nice clothes.
Now that she was leaving, he was happy.
Hearing his son’s words, Xie Dazhu had no doubts. He felt an overwhelming disgust towards Chai Shi.
“Don’t worry, it won’t happen again. Take the seeds and put them away. I’ll go and pay the princess,” Xie Dazhu said.
“Okay.”
After delivering the money to Wang Jinhe, Xie Dazhu felt a sense of relief.
On that night, while Xie Dazhu was sleeping, he suddenly smelled a choking odor.
He abruptly opened his eyes and saw that the room was filled with thick smoke. He quickly got up and woke up his three children.
He took them outside, and at that moment, the people around also noticed the fire at Xie Dazhu’s house and rushed to help put it out. Xie Kang even threw someone to the ground.
That person was Chai Shi.
“Look at what kind of person you’ve married,” Xie Kang said angrily, glaring at Chai Shi.
Xie Dazhu looked at Xie Kang in bewilderment. “What do you mean, Kang?”
“Don’t you understand? The one who set fire to your house is either someone else or this woman,” Xie Kang said, frowning.
Xie Dazhu looked at Chai Shi’s smug expression and was completely dumbfounded. He stared at Chai Shi and asked, “Why would you do this? What do you gain from it?”
“Let’s not talk about that for now. The most important thing is to put out the fire and minimize the damage,” Chai Shi said.
Xie Dazhu wiped his face. “Okay.”
Even with the help of neighbors, it took a considerable amount of time to put out the fire.
Xie Kang cursed angrily, “Damn it, this woman poured tung oil. The house is definitely beyond saving.”
“Let’s put in more effort to extinguish the fire.”
The commotion quickly woke up the entire village, and even Xie Kui arrived.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s this woman’s doing. She poured tung oil on the house. If it weren’t for Xie Kang alerting us, someone would have been burned to death inside,” a person said. It was the dead of night, the perfect time when people were most vulnerable and tired.
“Tie her up and hand her over to the authorities at daybreak,” Xie Kui couldn’t tolerate such an incident.
The women who had come along quickly tied her up to prevent her from escaping while they were putting out the fire.
It took nearly an hour for the fire to gradually die down. Xie Dazhu looked at the devastation and felt utterly helpless.
This family was never well-off to begin with, and now it has been burned down. Everything they had, including the money and the newly purchased seeds, is gone.
Tears kept streaming down Xie Chunni’s face. “Dad, do we not have a home anymore?”
“It’s okay, we will have a home,” Xie Dazhu said, trying to comfort his children with a forced smile in the face of their confusion and helplessness.
Xie Kang went home and returned with a key in his hand. “This is the key to our old house. Take the children and go live there for now. Here’s ten taels of silver. Use it to get things settled.”
“Thank you, Kang.”
“Don’t be polite with me. Just pay me back when you have the money. You can live in the house without any worries. I’ll give you some grain for now.”
Grain…
That’s right, there’s still grain.
Xie Dazhu hurried to the cellar and, upon seeing the intact grain inside, he finally found some comfort.
“Kang, we don’t need the grain. I’ve stored a lot in the cellar,” Xie Dazhu said.
In the past two years, although he couldn’t earn money by growing melons and vegetables with Wang Jinhe, he had planted high-yield crops. He hadn’t sold much grain, so there was still plenty left.
Chai Shi’s face turned sour when she saw the cellar that Xie Dazhu had opened. “You even built a cellar.”