Chapter 250 Utter Despair

Familiar faces, chattering amongst themselves, all had their eyes fixed on his hands, as if he were the one who could conjure food out of thin air.

Zhou Jianguo has a criminal record. Several years ago, he was taken to the police station for fighting, and it is clearly recorded in his file.

Which reputable factory would dare to hire someone like that?

Even security guards find it troublesome, let alone hiring.

What about Zhou Liguo?

He spends all day holed up in his drafty room, lying on the kang (a heated brick bed) smoking, unwilling to move an inch, and constantly complaining that "my family is biased and mistreats me." He doesn't even want to lift a bowl, yet he has a whole repertoire of words to say.

As for Zhou Anguo, he was even less of a hope.

He took the college entrance exam twice, and his score was lower each time. Now he is determined to take it a third time, saying that he "must get into university and get out of this broken home".

He could only half-understand what he read, and his family still had to provide him with food.

Zhao Lin, Shen Cuifen, Zhou Xiuli, and the entire Zhou family—the whole family was a tangled mess in Zhou Nuli's mind. Just thinking about it made his head feel like it was about to explode.

He sighed deeply, raised his hand and vigorously wiped his face, his knuckles rough, as if trying to wipe away some unseen tears, or as if trying to rub the heavy reality off his face.

"Not a single one of them is any good!"

He finally couldn't hold back and growled, "None of my three sons are pillars of society! None of them are reliable!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xiuli immediately chimed in, her voice sharp and shrill: "Our son is all grown up, with hands and feet. How can he let his parents support him for the rest of his life? With the village chief here today and all the neighbors here, let's just divide the family property cleanly and efficiently!"

Zhou Nuli did not refute, but silently squatted back on the threshold, his body hunched over, like an old tree bent under the weight.

He remained silent, his fingers repeatedly tracing the rough wood of the threshold, crumbs embedded in his fingernails, clearly expressing his acquiescence through silence.

Upon seeing this, Zhou Jianguo immediately became anxious. He rushed forward a few steps and urged Zhao Lin, "Mother, didn't you say you still had three hundred yuan? Take it out quickly! While everyone is here, we need to divide the family property quickly and efficiently, and the money needs to be divided clearly too!"

So, the orchard contract, the land in front of the house planted with fruit trees, the ancestral house deed, and the three hundred crumpled bills in cash were all laid out on the old wooden table in the center of the main room, like a piece of meat about to be cut, waiting for the three brothers to make their cut.

Zhou Jianguo, Zhou Liguo, and Zhou Anguo were scrambling around the table, each trying to grab something from the other, none of them willing to give in.

Zhou Jianguo insisted on the orchard plot near the roadside, Zhou Liguo insisted on the flat residential plot in the middle, and Zhou Anguo insisted on having his name on the contract so he could "cash it out" in the future.

The argument grew louder and louder, with spittle flying everywhere, even shaking the dust off the roof.

Zhou Nuli huddled in the shadows at the far corner of the room, remaining completely silent.

He hung his head, like an outsider, as if the conflict had nothing to do with him.

Zhou Xiuli watched coldly from the sidelines, standing with her arms crossed, a slight upturn at the corners of her mouth, and a hint of mockery in her eyes, as if she were watching a carefully orchestrated farce.

Zhao Lin and Shen Cuifen stood quietly at the edge of the crowd, heads down, their expressions somber, like shadows, almost invisible.

Finally, the three brothers reached an "agreement," each clutching their share, and turned to face the village chief and the surrounding villagers, loudly announcing: "Today, all the villagers present, listen up, our Zhou family has officially divided its property!"

Zhou Jianguo, with the loudest voice and full of confidence, practically shouted: "The house was left to us by our parents, and as their sons, we dare not touch it! But the orchard and the land in front of the house were built with our hard work, and they should be divided equally among the three of us brothers! One share for each of us, and no one should take more!"

Upon hearing this, Zhao Lin couldn't help but interject in a low voice, "Then... what about my wife? She's worked so hard for this family all these years, doesn't she get a share at all?"

Zhou Nuli whirled around, his eyes bloodshot, slammed his fist on the table, and roared, "She gets a pension! The money that Zhongguo sacrificed himself for, she didn't contribute a single penny! That's what she deserves! Anything else? Don't even think about it! Not a single penny!"

Seeing that the hundred yuan had already been divided among the three brothers, Zhao Lin reached out to stop them, but no one paid him any attention.

His voice trembled with anxiety: "That land... when you wanted to open an orchard, Cuifen and I agreed! We agreed that I would get half of it! How can you take it all now?"

Zhou Nuli was furious and slammed his hand heavily on the table, making the teacup jump: "Who do you think you are? A woman from another family, you brought a few tattered quilts when you came in, you ate our food and lived in our house, and now you dare to ask for land? Dream on!"

Zhou Jianguo sneered, then immediately took out a pen and scribbled down a family division agreement on a yellowed piece of paper.

Before the ink was even dry, the whole family crowded around to sign and affix their fingerprints.

Except for Zhao Lin and Shen Cuifen, everyone else pressed their fingerprints or signed their names on the paper.

Zhao Lin was illiterate and could only stare blankly at the words on the paper.

He quietly tugged at Chen Cuifen's sleeve and asked in a low voice, "It's fine if I didn't get anything... but what about Mother? What did she get?"

Shen Cuifen held back her tears, which swirled around the edges of her eyes but refused to fall.

She stared intently at the thin sheet of property division agreement in her hand, her fingertips trembling slightly. Sniffling, her voice choked and low, she said, "The house...maybe...belongs to Mother...I'm just trying to get what she deserves, I don't want her to have nowhere to shelter from the wind and rain when she's old..."

Zhou Nuli suddenly jumped up, his face flushed red, veins bulging on his forehead. He kicked over a small stool and yelled at Zhao Lin, "You've ruined everything! You've torn our family apart! You still want to stay at the Zhou family home? Dream on! If you dare stay another day, I'll beat you with a stick! I don't believe I can't deal with an ungrateful person like you!"

Zhao Lin didn't dodge or retaliate. He just stared intently at Zhou Xiuli's smug yet cold face and asked in a hoarse voice, "If I don't keep her, what about her? Who is she? What gives her the right to stand here and point fingers? Have you all forgotten how she destroyed this family?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Xiuli immediately pounced on Zhou Nuli like a mother hen protecting her chicks, tightly hugging his arm, her nails almost digging into his flesh.

She didn't care about the money or the few acres of land, but the house—that was her lifeline, something she had to hold onto at all costs.

She had long experienced the bitterness of having nowhere to live, sleeping on the floor at a relative's house with her child in the dead of winter, being looked down upon and kicked out—a feeling she would never forget.

At that moment, she raised her head, her gaze sharp as a knife, and stared coldly at Zhao Lin, saying each word clearly, "My brother said he wants to divorce you and marry me. He promised that himself. Tell me, can I stay? Shouldn't this house belong to me?"

Zhao Lin looked at his three sons standing to the side, his eyes shifting from hope to disappointment, and then to utter despair.