Chapter 34 A Blunt Knife Injures

The eldest brother is bullying the third brother again.

Song Chunxue put on her shoes, slipped off the floor, coughed a few times, and appeared at the kitchen door.

"What are you doing, boss? ...cough cough, what are you yelling about again?"

Seeing the eldest brother snatching something from the third brother's hand, Song Chunxue couldn't help herself. She went into the house, picked up the rolling pin from the chopping board, and hit him hard on the back.

"Let go!"

The eldest brother, wincing in pain, reluctantly pushed the third child away and glared at Song Chunxue.

“Mother, Sanwa is holding a piece of floral cloth. He bought it with your money.” The eldest son pointed at Sanwa, whose face was flushed, and said, “He must have bought it for that Xia Mulan.”

Seeing that Song Chunxue didn't speak, the eldest brother added fuel to the fire, "I also saw that he had something hidden in his arms, he must have bought something else."

"No wonder he was so kind and diligent, going to the market to buy you medicine right after herding the sheep. Turns out he wanted to use your money to buy things to please the girl. He's shameless..."

"Slap!" Song Chunxue stepped forward and slapped him hard. "Shut up! He spent his own savings. I didn't even know he went to the market. He didn't ask me for money."

Jiang Yeming was stunned, then covered his cheek in anger and annoyance.

"As for you, even if he uses my money to buy this and that, you've already distributed the money among yourself. Is it any of your business to interfere in these matters?"

“Sanwa can use his own money to buy me medicine, what about you?” As she spoke, she couldn’t help but cough a few times, realizing that her throat really hurt.

"I won't force you to buy me ginseng. Go and get me two hundred coins now. I won't spend a single extra coin of yours after this. Once the land is divided, we'll each live our own lives and not interfere with each other!"

Jiang Yeming gritted his teeth, "I can't afford two hundred coins either."

With that, he angrily shoved them aside and stormed out of the kitchen.

The third brother had a bloody scratch on his cheek and a bruise on his chin, clearly indicating that he had been beaten by the eldest brother.

Outraged, Song Chunxue turned around and chased after Jiang Yeming, hitting him twice on the back with a rolling pin.

"All you do is bully Sanwa! How could I have given birth to such an ungrateful child? Get out of here, and get as far away as possible!"

Jiang Yeming knew he was in the wrong, so he didn't argue with Song Chunxue and slunk away.

Song Chunxue came to the kitchen and saw that Sanwa had been beaten badly, his eyes were red, and he was obviously angry.

"From now on, fight him without holding back. He doesn't deserve to be your older brother."

“If he beats you like this again next time, you’re not my son, do you hear me?”

Sanwa nodded.

Seeing that Sanwa had his back to her, Song Chunxue realized that he had left before noon and probably hadn't eaten yet.

Her tone softened considerably. "Have you eaten?"

"Go back and rest. I just have a bad cough. You need to reheat your lunch. I'll heat it up for you."

Sanwa placed the food on the cutting board. "No need, I can heat it up myself."

"It's alright, I'm fine. You got the medicine according to the prescription I gave you, right?"

Sanwa nodded, bent down to take out a tinderbox, lit a handful of wheat firewood, stuffed it into the stove, and added another handful of hard firewood.

His voice was soft and slightly nasal. "I asked around, and the cheapest ginseng costs twenty taels of silver. Maybe I should sell my flock of sheep; that should buy at least half a ginseng."

"No!" Song Chunxue walked over and pulled him up. "I'm not sick, I'm faking it. Otherwise, the eldest brother wouldn't have allocated the land according to my wishes. I don't want to give him the land in Shuichuan, or the good land at home."

"Huh?" Sanwa glanced at the kitchen doorway and lowered his voice, "You pretended?"

"Cough, cough, cough, it's just a bit of a cough. The prescription I had you get is the one that's more suitable for me." She sat down to tend the fire. "Go wash your face and rest. I'll bring you your food later."

Sanwa smiled and said, "I'm so glad you're not sick. You scared me to death."

He happily took a handful of candy from the stove and handed it to her, saying, "I bought some candy to give to Xia Mulan, but my older brother found out."

“I don’t want it,” she shook her head. “My tooth hurts, I don’t want this kind of candy.”

I never expected him to dare buy Xia Mulan candy, and he even bought her floral fabric.

In their past life, when Sanwa met Xia Mulan, it was during their engagement ceremony, and they didn't even exchange a word.

After they got married, they played around at first, but Sanwa didn't talk much, while Xia Mulan talked a little more.

Every now and then, they would argue over the smallest things, and Sanwa never gave in to Xia Mulan.

Perhaps it was because he had heard the fallacies of those lousy men in Zhuangzi since childhood, who said that women should be suppressed when they first enter the house, and if they can't be suppressed, they should be disciplined, otherwise they will become arrogant and unruly.

Back then, Song Chunxue always wanted to go to the eldest brother's house and live with him, and she disliked Sanwa and Xia Mulan.

She even wanted to see Sanwa and Xia Mulan argue.

Looking back now, I realize she must have always been the one stirring things up.

At first, Sanwa sided with her, which often made Xia Mulan secretly wipe away her tears.

Humans, indeed, are just prone to being foolish.

If she had truly lived with Sanwa's family back then, wouldn't she have suffered less pain in her old age and been able to die a more peaceful death?

Make fewer mistakes, and you'll have an easier time when you're old.

While Sanwa was eating, Song Chunxue was lying on the kang (a heated brick bed).

"Don't give yourself away. When the eldest brother comes back tonight, we'll divide the land. If he tries to take advantage, I'll ask him for money to buy ginseng, and he'll definitely back down."

Sanwa nodded, "Understood."

“Take this hundred coins. You’ve already been beaten, why would you need to spend money on medicine?” She tossed a string of coins into Sanwa’s arms. “Keep it safe, don’t let your older brother find out.”

Sanwa laughed, "What's this? He used to beat me to death, but it didn't hurt."

"..." It felt like a kitchen knife had stabbed into her heart, and Song Chunxue shuddered in pain.

Yes, she used to believe what the eldest and second eldest brothers said, thinking that the third child was stubborn and that she always turned a blind eye when the eldest brother hit him.

Thinking about it now, it feels like a knife is cutting into her heart.

"Don't just sit there and take the beatings. Fight back, you know? He hits people even when he has no reason to. You know how much the boss likes to push his luck."

Sanwa nodded silently. "Actually, my older brother used to be really nice. He would hit me and then give me candy. He would take us to the mountains to pick apricots and teach us how to roast potatoes in the mountains. He was my older brother. But after we got married and separated from the family, he was like a completely different person. He was a stranger to me."

A dull knife wounds silently.

Sanwa was right. In the past, the brothers always liked to play together. The people in the village didn't like the Jiang brothers because they were unruly. Even though there were ten cousins ​​in the Li family, they couldn't beat the four Jiang brothers.

Back then, the eldest brother was still quite decent; he knew that he could fight his younger brother, but others couldn't, and he was very loyal.

What made him become like this?

It was greed, and Song Chunxue's pampering, that made him see only benefits and interests.

"Oh, right, Mother, I saw Fourth Brother at the market. He was still hanging out with those people. I told him about your illness."

Song Chunxue was very curious, "What was his reaction? What did he say?"