Chapter 8

When Xiang Dagen heard that his wife was sick and that his parents were unwilling to spend money on her treatment, even resorting to borrowing money from others, he felt unbearable pain in his heart. His rough, calloused hands rubbed repeatedly on his pants, and his nose tingled with a hint of tears.

“For the past twenty years, I’ve been serving in the army. I could earn three or four taels of silver a year. I don’t expect it all to be spent on you and the children, but when I’m sick, I can’t even get a few copper coins. We’re eating thin porridge and vegetables every day, and I really can’t stand it.”

Mrs. Xiong gently patted her husband’s head and said, “Dagen, why don’t we just separate our household?”

Xiang Dagen suddenly lifted his head at the suggestion, then shook it. “Dad and Mom definitely won’t agree. They won’t let the second or third sons go to the army.”

Mrs. Xiong said unhappily, “You know your parents can’t bear it. The family has so many men. Even if the second and third uncles don’t go, Dalang is already nineteen, and Erlang is sixteen. 
There are so many who can go, but they make you go alone. I can’t bear it either. Pear Blossom and the others can’t bear to part with their father either.”

Xiang Dagen felt guilty. “Xiufang, didn’t we agree before? If we separate, the oldest branch will have to send someone to the army in the future. I’m still strong now, but if something happens and I can’t do it anymore, Daniu will have to go. 

He’s still too young. If we don’t separate and something happens one day, the second and third branches could send someone from their side. With more people in the family, it wouldn’t be so hard if we took turns.”

Mrs. Xiong still felt distressed. “You say we can take turns, but for the past twenty years, hasn’t it been just you doing all the work? Why don’t you talk to Dad and Mom tomorrow? Ask them to send someone from the second or third branch, not just have our eldest branch do all the work.”

Xiang Dagen could almost predict how his mother would react if he brought up this request. He was not good at talking, and the pressure of filial piety always weighed heavily on him. He never won an argument with his mother. 

With his father always mediating and the second branch constantly provoking things from the sidelines, every argument would end before it even started. The villagers didn’t dare offend his unreasonable wife, and the village head would always say that “it’s difficult for a just official to resolve family matters,” unwilling to intervene in their household affairs. Trying to reason with his family was never going to work.

But he couldn’t bear to disappoint his wife, so he nodded and said, “Alright, I’ll bring it up tomorrow. By the way, what’s the story about Pear Blossom being sold?”

Seeing that her husband finally cared about their daughter, Mrs. Xiong sighed and told him everything that had happened the previous day.

“Mother doesn’t admit it, but Pear Blossom never lies. You know your mother is capable of such things. Over the years, I’ve never slacked off on the farm work. I don’t know why she’s always had something against me. Now, she even wants to sell my child,” Mrs. Xiong said, her voice trembling, and her tears fell down her cheeks.

Xiang Dagen felt a sharp pain in his heart as he looked at her. His children were his heart and soul. He wasn’t around when they were born, and as a father, he felt terribly inadequate.

“If Mother really did this, then the family is definitely going to split. At most, I’ll just be more careful. I can still work for another ten years. By then, Daniu will be grown, and he’ll be able to support the family…”

Hearing this, Mrs. Xiong felt a bitter taste in her heart, like eating bitter gall. She would rather that their ancestors had committed a crime and been executed than live with this endless suffering. It was a fate that would drag on for generations, making the family serve as soldiers forever, with no end in sight.

Now, Mrs. Xiong was firmly convinced that she hadn’t sold her granddaughter. Even if she confronted her mother-in-law, she wouldn’t get any result. Her mother-in-law certainly didn’t want to separate the family and lose Dagen, the man who could support the family’s military service. It seemed difficult.

The more Mrs. Xiong thought about it, the more uncertain she felt.

The only thing she was grateful for was that her husband had finally seen through the true nature of his father-in-law and mother-in-law, as well as the second and third branches of the family. He no longer blindly accepted everything those two old people said, like he used to.

“Did you really lose that money, or did you secretly hide it?” Mrs. Xiong couldn’t help but ask again.

Xiang Dagen glanced at her, a trace of helplessness flashing in his eyes. “I don’t have the mind to hide money. But when I was feeling it in the village, it was still there. By the time I got home, it was gone. It’s really puzzling.”

Hearing this, Mrs. Xiong felt a bit of schadenfreude. “Anyway, all the money you earned, none of us in the family have ever been able to spend even a copper coin. If it’s lost, fine. It’s better than giving it to the second and third branches.”

Xiang Dagen looked at his wife’s rare small gesture and smiled, but soon felt a deep sadness. “I was truly blinded by pig fat. When you complained to me before, I didn’t take it to heart. All these years, I never knew you were living such a hard life at home.”

Mrs. Xiong had indeed complained a few times before, but Xiang Dagen hadn’t paid much attention. Other soldiers also complained to him about family matters, and he just thought his wife was venting. He even advised her to be more understanding, as their parents had worked hard to raise him.

But then, he also went to speak to his parents, telling them to treat his wife better since he couldn’t take care of things at home. In front of others, they promised to be good, but behind the scenes, they still continued their oppressive ways.

Mrs. Xiong leaned on her husband’s arm. “It’s also my fault. Out of respect for filial piety, not wanting you to lose your good reputation as a filial son, I kept all these things in my heart.”

In the end, it was those two old people who were truly ruthless—one using harsh words and filial piety to pressure the two of them, and the other using his position as head of the family and his father’s status to paint a picture of peace. 

Dagen, whose mind was simple, was no match for the two of them. Since he had been suppressed since childhood, he never felt there was anything wrong with the way his parents treated him.

The two comforted each other, and Dagen’s mood finally lifted from the discouragement he had felt when he first came back.

Having walked for half a day to get home, Xiang Dagen hadn’t eaten a single bite. By the time he was going to bed, his stomach was growling incessantly. Mrs. Xiong, hearing the sound, felt heartbroken. She gritted her teeth and got up to find him something to eat in the kitchen.

In the past, Mrs. Xiang wouldn’t let them enter the kitchen, but now that her husband had returned as the pillar of the family, Mrs. Xiong felt that no matter what, Mrs. Xiang shouldn’t stop her own son from eating.

Xiang Dagen originally planned to sulk and not eat to see how heartless his parents could be.

But being so hungry wasn’t a solution. He thought of the many years he had spent serving in the military, only to be treated this way when he returned. 

He also remembered how his parents had treated him worse than his two younger brothers before he joined the army. Even when it came to marriage, his younger brothers married before him.

The more he thought about it, the more unfair it seemed, so he let his wife handle it and went to the kitchen as well.

Pear Blossom, from the next room, heard her parents going to the kitchen to cook a late-night snack and eagerly followed them. She had only entered the Xiang family’s kitchen a few times before, but now, with her father home, she could finally enter without any concerns.

Mrs. Xiong hadn’t been in the kitchen much either and couldn’t even find the rice.

Fortunately, Pear Blossom was there and directly asked the system where the ingredients were stored.

Soon, they found a half pig’s head hidden at the bottom of the cupboard, a small bag of white flour, and half a bag of rice. Mrs. Xiong rolled up her sleeves and washed the rice, while Pear Blossom helped start the fire. Xiang Dagen busied himself preparing the pork.

The family of three worked quickly in the kitchen, and soon, the Xiang family’s parents and the second and third branches came in. 

Mrs. Xiang was the first to enter, seeing Xiang Dagen slicing the pork, and her sharp voice immediately rang out.

“Dagen, what are you doing? It’s late at night, and you’re sneaking into the kitchen to eat?”

Xiang Dagen frowned and said, “What do you mean sneaking? This is my house. I returned from the army, didn’t eat a single grain of rice, and there wasn’t even a bowl of porridge left for me. Should I just wait to starve?”

Mrs. Xiang looked displeased. “You ate official food in the army. Why should you come back here and eat if you don’t want to eat official food? How could this be?”

“Mother, you must have forgotten,” Xiang Dagen replied. “The army is half a day’s journey from the village. Even if I ate there and came back, I’d still be hungry by the time I got home. I’ve always been frugal in the army, saving three or four taels of silver each year for the family. Now, I come back and can’t even have a hot meal. Isn’t this unreasonable?”

Mrs. Xiang scolded, “Last year is last year. This year, you didn’t bring any silver back. If you had brought silver, I would have already killed a chicken for you.”

Xiang Dagen stared at his mother in disappointment and said, “Mother, you’re really biased. If I hadn’t served in the army all these years, Dad, and my two younger brothers, as well as Dalang and Erlang, wouldn’t have had a peaceful life at home. You should be grateful, but instead, you treat us, the first branch, like outsiders.”

“You’re the eldest son, so you should have gone to the army. How could you think of shrinking behind your younger brothers and letting them go to the army?” Mrs. Xiang was relentless.

Xiang Dagen’s chest heaved in anger. He couldn’t believe how biased his mother was.

“Mother, I’ve been in the army for twenty years, and I’ve spent less than ten days at home each year. I wasn’t even with my children when they were born. I’m your son—how come I’m not worth anything? How can you devalue me like this?”

Mrs. Xiang, however, wasn’t moved by his words. Instead, she became even more insistent: “In our Xiang family, the eldest son must serve in the army. It’s the family rule. Unless you’re dead or crippled, you can’t escape.”

Xiang Dagen never expected his mother to say such a cold-blooded thing. His heart seemed to bleed. All those years in the military, he had hoped to let his parents and brothers live a peaceful life, not needing to suffer in the army. But now, all his efforts had been discarded by his family.

If they treated him this way, he couldn’t even imagine what his wife and children were going through when he wasn’t at home.

Thinking of this, he slammed the knife in his hand fiercely onto the chopping board, speaking in a deep and muffled voice: “Since Mother doesn’t care about me, let’s split the family. Our branch will split off!”

Mr. Xiang was initially startled by the fierce look in his eyes, but upon hearing his words clearly, she immediately jumped up, “Xiang Dagen, you heartless beast! After all the hard work your father and I put into raising you, you’re now talking about splitting the family? Do you know how unfilial that is?”

“I joined the army when I was seventeen, and now it’s been nearly twenty years. I’ve repaid all the debts of raising me. Father and Mother have raised the second and third brothers for over thirty years. It’s time for them to join the army to repay their elders.”

Mr. Xiang trembled in anger, “How can you compare them to the second and third brothers?”

Before she could finish, a voice from the doorway interrupted, “What’s all this yelling about in the middle of the night? You haven’t even fed your son dinner, and now you’re causing a ruckus in the kitchen. Is this how a mother behaves?”

Mrs. Xiang looked at Xiang Laotou in the doorway, begrudgingly swallowing her anger, but still persistently complained, “Listen to what this ungrateful child is saying. He wants to split the family, and we’re still alive and well. Doesn’t he wish for us to die?”

“Shut up!” Xiang Laotou, with a dark expression, strode forward and slapped her hard across the face. “You women gossip all day long, spreading rumors. Go back to your room and sleep.”

Mr. Xiang, stunned by the slap, felt her head ringing, still wanting to say something, but after receiving a fierce glare from Xiang Laotou, she reluctantly retreated out the door.