Chapter 17: Indirect Accusations, Afraid to Speak Openly

Madam Li was a woman with some petty cunning. The way she had Wu Erlang wrapped around her finger made that obvious.

She knew she couldn’t cause a direct scene, so she resorted to insinuations—her words stung, but you couldn’t argue back.

Because if you confronted her, she’d say, “I wasn’t talking about you. Why are you jumping into a latrine pit like a blind man, squatting down for nothing?”
Then she’d spit on the ground and shoot a sidelong glance at you—disgusting to anyone who witnessed it.

Madam Song had once been a rich family’s young lady. Her years of proper upbringing made it impossible for her to stoop to vulgar bickering like a fishwife. She was so angry she couldn’t even speak.

As for He Yanxin, he was half a scholar. He couldn’t bring himself to shout at or hit a woman.

Besides, out of respect for the rest of the Wu family—who, other than those two rotten turnips, had always had a good relationship with them—it was difficult to take any serious action.

But from then on, He Yanxin began charging Granny Ge a small sum for the grain he gave her, clearly stating that it was the food cost for Wu Erlang and his wife.

This made Madam Li constantly curse and complain toward their house next door. When He Yanxin wasn’t around, even Wu Erlang would sometimes join in.

After all, they had been getting free food before. Now the more they paid, the less they would get when it came time to divide the household property. How could they accept that?

Whenever Madam Li saw the couple, her eyes would roll so hard they might fly off. She wouldn’t dare touch them, and her mouth would stay shut tight.

Even so, the two of them still didn’t dare go too far in front of He Yanxin and his wife. Madam Song may have had a good temper, but He Yanxin protected his wife!

True, the support from the neighboring Wu family helped, but for someone as young as He Yanxin to be holding up an entire household—how could he be someone to mess with?

Back when he was twelve, He Yanxin had once beaten up a grown man who tried to bully his mother. He left the man bleeding and bawling like a child. That incident made the Wu couple realize—they couldn’t afford to mess with him!

All they could do was curse anonymously through the wall.

He Yanxin and Madam Song, on the other hand, pretended not to see or hear a thing—completely ignoring them.

But these indirect jabs made Granny Ge deeply ashamed. After countless fruitless attempts to lecture them, she only grew more devoted to helping He Yanxin and his wife.

“I really owe you both so much!” Granny Ge said with reddened eyes.

“Don’t cry—what’s happened?” Why was she suddenly crying? He Yanxin glanced at Song Yeqing for an explanation.

Song Yeqing immediately shook her head. It wasn’t her doing—she had no idea what was going on either.

“I, I…” Granny Ge couldn’t go on. She lifted her sleeve to cover her face and began to sob.

“It’s alright, take your time,” He Yanxin said gently. He couldn’t bear to see the frail old woman crying in front of him, so he fetched a stool for her to sit down.

Song Yeqing went to pour her a cup of water.

Granny Ge, looking embarrassed, took the cup and downed it in one go.

She hadn’t had a drop of water since morning, and after crying like that, she was parched.

She hadn’t meant to cry. At her age, what was the point of putting on such a display? It made it look like she came over just to gain sympathy.

But in front of people she was close to, she couldn’t hold back. Her grief, shame, and resentment all surged at once.

After venting, the dizzy anger she’d felt earlier finally subsided a bit.

Since they weren’t outsiders, she handed the cup back to Song Yeqing and shared some of what had happened that morning.

In the end, she was outnumbered and got chased out by her daughter-in-law’s family.

It didn’t stop there—her daughter-in-law’s mother even loudly told people in the village that her daughter’s mother-in-law had chased her all the way over for a bit of rice. That her daughter had been so filial, providing food to her in-laws, and so on.

The villagers pointed fingers at her, and some even accused her of bullying a girl from their village just because she married out, as if it meant there were no men left in their village to protect her. Someone even threatened to beat Granny Ge and send her home.

Fortunately, the family realized things couldn’t be blown out of proportion and held that person back. After all, their daughter still had to return to her in-laws.

What? Let her stay and eat their own grain? Dream on! A married daughter is like water thrown out—no taking it back.

Granny Ge had no choice. She hadn’t gotten the rice back and had to trudge back to Anshan Village, defeated.

After hearing Granny Ge’s abridged version of her rice “adventure,”

He Yanxin said bluntly: “I thought it was something serious.”

Now that he had over two hundred taels of silver at his disposal, he honestly didn’t care about such a small thing. When he gave it to her, he hadn’t even planned on collecting payment.

“You two should keep the meat for yourselves. I’m not sure if this is enough money, but here—please take it,”

Granny Ge said as she handed the paper-wrapped bundle to Song Yeqing.

It turned out to be the remaining piece of meat. Her grandchildren had been eyeing it hungrily, drooling even, but she had steeled herself and brought it back to return.

Then she pulled out a handkerchief from a hidden sleeve pocket, revealing a piece of broken silver and dozens of copper coins. She handed them to He Yanxin.

“Don’t worry about the money. You keep it for yourself,” he said.

At first, He Yanxin didn’t want to take it. But when he heard that the two qian of silver had been forcibly taken by Granny Ge from Wu Erlang’s room, his expression darkened.

Granny Ge had truly run out of options. There were only fifty-three wen left in the entire household. She couldn’t accept that high-quality rice and meat from Yanxin for free. But this little money clearly wasn’t enough.

She had no choice but to go to her second son. And besides, it was money they should have handed over anyway.

In large extended families, before property was formally divided, hiding private funds was not allowed. So her second son hadn’t dared stop her from searching.

She hadn’t expected much, but to her shock, she discovered that the couple had secretly stashed away more than two taels of silver in bits and pieces.

In the end, she only took two qian worth of broken silver, not touching a single wen more. If you’re so capable, then…

She had told He Yanxin the source of the money because she didn’t want him and his wife to hold too much resentment toward Wu Erlang.

After all, he was still her son. Even if he was unfilial, she had to plan for him. Children were a lifelong debt…

But this time, she had made up her mind. Since the younger couple’s hearts were no longer with the family, it was better to take this chance and finally split the household.

“I’ll just take this,” said He Yanxin, taking only the silver piece. “No need for the rest.”

(End of Chapter)