Chapter 15: Something Strange Must Be Going On 

Something strange must be going on, he definitely has bad intentions.

Jiang Jiuyue leisurely crossed her legs, not planning to pay any attention to the news.

After all, she wasn’t the original host, so what did her nephew’s wedding have to do with her?

Even if they were inviting her as a guest, she wasn’t interested. Who wants to attend without a gift?

Although she had the twenty liang of silver for tuition that Zhao Kun gave her, it wasn’t enough, and she didn’t want to waste her money on things that didn’t matter.

Thinking about money, Jiang Jiuyue straightened up, remembering something.

When Jiang Jiuyue’s parents were still alive, the family had been relatively well-off with several acres of land and a cow. The original host hadn’t inherited a single coin, but could she go back and claim some of the inheritance that was rightfully hers?

Jiang Jiuyue had no concept of family inheritance passing through the male heirs, so she believed that since the original host was also the biological child of the Jiang family, she should have the right to inherit part of the family’s assets.

Though a few acres of land weren’t much, if she could get half, it could be exchanged for dozens of liang of silver.

In an instant, Jiang Jiuyue started to reconsider visiting the Jiang family.

In the afternoon, Jiang Jiuyue told Zhao Kun that she would be visiting her family and delayed his self-defense lessons again.

Zhao Kun didn’t mind. His holiday was ending soon, so he could come back to continue learning next time.

After finishing her lessons in the afternoon, Jiang Jiuyue went back to her room to pack.

It seemed like she would stay for more than one day at the Jiang family. If she got some land, she might have to sell it, so it wouldn’t be completed in one day.

As soon as the Liang family heard Jiang Jiuyue was going back to her family for a few days, it was like the New Year had come early—they nearly set off firecrackers to celebrate.

Jiang Jiuyue packed her things and then decided to take all the grains in the house and put them into her space.

Once everything was packed, Jiang Jiuyue went to the shabby house where Du Jinhua lived.

Du Jinhua looked at her with suspicion. “What are you here for?!”

Jiang Jiuyue smiled sweetly. “I’m going to visit my family. My nephew is getting married, and as his aunt, I need to give a gift, don’t I?”

Du Jinhua shook her head rapidly. “No, no, all my silver is already spent on you!”

Jiang Jiuyue moved closer and looked down at her. “No silver? How did you get the headman to come for you? Who doesn’t know that he only acts when he sees the bait?”

Du Jinhua retracted her neck, stubbornly refusing to admit she had bribed the headman.

Jiang Jiuyue sneered. “I tried to talk calmly, but you didn’t listen. Now you’re going to get a beating before you finally come clean.”

Saying this, Jiang Jiuyue grabbed Du Jinhua’s arm, the one she had crushed earlier, and when she started to apply force, Du Jinhua screamed like a pig being slaughtered.

“Ahhh! I’ll give it! I’ll give it, just stop!”

Jiang Jiuyue released her grip. “See? If you had just given it earlier, you wouldn’t be in this pain now.”

Du Jinhua, nearly crying in agony, dragged her injured arm and led Jiang Jiuyue to a corner of the wall.

“Under the third brick on the left, there’s silver buried. You dig it up yourself.”

Jiang Jiuyue glanced at Du Jinhua, who could only use one arm, then took a hoe and, with a few swift movements, unearthed a small jar.

She smashed the jar with the hoe and found a small cloth bundle inside.

Opening the bundle, she found about five liang of silver.

Du Jinhua’s heart bled at the sight. Five liang of silver!

Jiang Jiuyue weighed the silver in her hand, satisfied. But this wasn’t a gift; it was the compensation Du Jinhua owed her.

Now, her savings had risen to twenty-five liang of silver. If she could successfully get half of the family’s assets from the Jiang family, it was estimated that her wealth would exceed fifty liang.

Once she found a job as a bodyguard, she would be able to save up a decent fortune in no time and eventually strike out on her own.

The next morning, Jiang Jiuyue set off for her family home with her three daughters.

Not long after she left, the first and second branches of the family began to take action.

They wanted to take advantage of Jiang Jiuyue’s absence to force Du Jinhua, that old witch, to divide the family assets, and go their separate ways.

Du Jinhua was so furious that she started jumping up and down. “Divide the family? You unfilial wretches! As long as I’m alive, you’ll never get your division!”

With Jiang Jiuyue gone, Du Jinhua resumed playing the domineering mother-in-law, adamantly refusing to let the first and second branches separate.

Ma Guichun and Chen Cuihong wouldn’t back down either. They had finally found an opportunity, and they had to act quickly to divide the family and leave before Jiang Jiuyue returned!

“You old hag, today you’ll either divide the family or we’ll make you! Hand over the land deeds and the silver!”

The reason the two branches hadn’t run away yet was because they didn’t have a single coin between them. There was no way they could take the whole family back to their maternal home to live off their relatives, right?

Du Jinhua screamed wildly, “Don’t even think about it! You want to leave me here alone to suffer? Dream on! If I die, you’ll die with me! No one’s leaving here in peace!”

Ma Guichun and Chen Cuihong were desperate now. They rushed forward and started fighting with Du Jinhua.

The three women were in a tangled mess. Du Jinhua’s already injured arm was pinned under them, causing her to scream in agony. Soon, the neighbors living nearby heard the commotion.

When Du Jinhua heard the neighbors coming, she cried out even louder, desperately shouting for help. Her cries were so pitiful that the neighbors felt a chill down their spines.

However, her screams were so heart-wrenching that the neighbors had no choice but to rush over and save her.

Du Jinhua was no match for her two daughters-in-law. She was beaten badly, with scratches all over her face and her clothes torn in several places. The worst part was her arm, which caused her to shed tears from the pain.

Seeing Du Jinhua being beaten so severely by her two daughters-in-law, the neighbors couldn’t help but criticize them.

“She’s your mother-in-law, no matter what! How can you, as daughters-in-law, beat her like this? Look at what you’ve done to her, her arm is broken!”

Old Lady Lin, a neighbor, wasn’t very close to Du Jinhua, but seeing her being beaten so badly by her two daughters-in-law, she couldn’t help but scold Ma Guichun and Chen Cuihong.

“This isn’t us! It’s the third daughter-in-law who broke her arm, don’t drag us into this!”

Ma Guichun quickly defended herself. While she and her sister-in-law had fought with Du Jinhua, it was the third daughter-in-law who had broken her arm!

Du Jinhua’s eyes flickered. Now wasn’t the time to drag Jiang Jiuyue into this. She needed to make the neighbors take her side and suppress her daughters-in-law’s arrogance. She couldn’t let them divide the family!

“They’re the ones who broke my arm! I was fine, but they forced me down and stomped on me!”

Du Jinhua directly blamed the two daughters-in-law for breaking her arm. The neighbors looked at the two of them with even more suspicion.

Chen Cuihong panicked. If everyone believed this old woman’s accusation, wouldn’t their whole family be publicly humiliated?

They weren’t like Jiang Jiuyue, who had the strength to resist and defy the concept of filial piety.

If they were truly accused of beating their mother-in-law, they would never be able to hold their heads up again.