Chapter 35 Land Distribution

Song Chunxue thought that the fourth brother was still young and innocent, so at least he would care about her health.

He asked, "Does this mean I can't continue my studies?"

Sanwa held the bowl, looked down at the old wooden table, and said in a low voice, "He thinks you deliberately lied to him, that you don't want him to study anymore. He said that poor people's illnesses can't be treated by doctors, so he should buy ginseng."

Although the retelling was incomplete, Song Chunxue could imagine the expression and posture of the fourth brother when he spoke.

Although I felt a little sad, it wasn't unexpected.

Indeed, if he knew how to be considerate and care about his elderly mother, he wouldn't have refused to acknowledge her even after years of being away from home and achieving success.

It is said that parents' hearts are with their children, while children's hearts are like stones.

She deeply understands the decades when her children left her side one after another and gradually became unwilling to have any contact with her.

"I understand," Song Chunxue said calmly. "I'll bring him home in a few days."

“Since he doesn’t like studying, I don’t need to use the money you earn from herding sheep to pay his tuition.”

"Do you want to study?" Song Chunxue looked at Sanwa. "If you were given the chance, would you drift through life like Lao Si?"

"Clang."

Sanwa stared blankly at Song Chunxue, "Mother, I'm sixteen, isn't that a bit too late?"

"It's just studying, what's so late about it? Look at the old scholar's father, he studied until he was thirty-five and failed the exam five times before he was considered old. How can you be considered late?"

With that, Song Chunxue made a decision; her mind was made up.

“I said I would give him a chance, but now I’ve changed my mind.” She didn’t want to waste time on someone who was hopeless. “You will go to school next month.”

"But……"

"But before you start your studies, I will arrange your marriage with Xia Mulan, so don't worry." Song Chunxue smiled slightly at Sanwa, "I won't let her marry someone else."

*

That evening, Jiang Yeming and Chen Feng reluctantly entered the courtyard.

In front of them, Song Chunxue picked up the dark-colored herbal medicine and swallowed it.

She coughed a few times and groaned in discomfort.

Sanwa kept his head down, afraid that he would give himself away.

"Boss, I'm so sick, are you really sure you can't afford a single penny? Cough cough cough, not even fifty coins?"

The eldest brother glanced at Chen Feng, then looked down at his fingers. "I didn't have any money to begin with, but the baby is due soon, so I have to prepare some for the baby, and the baby also needs to take medicine."

Sanwa clenched his fists tightly, staring straight at Jiang Yeming, his eyes filled with disappointment.

But he quickly realized that old habits die hard, and a person who has changed their nature cannot turn back.

He looked down and played with his fingers, ignoring his mother and older brother.

"Cough cough cough, I understand." Song Chunxue sighed. "Then you can take the land. From now on, I'll pretend I don't have a son like you. You have no right to interfere in my affairs with Sanwa. If I see you hitting him again, I will take back the land I gave you."

"..."

"Did you hear me?" Song Chunxue slammed her hand on the table and coughed violently.

"I heard you." Jiang Yeming said stiffly, his face expressionless. "Which land are you allocating to me? I don't want any that's too bad or too far away."

Song Chunxue mentioned several flat plots of land and several steep mountain areas. "Tomorrow, we'll have to ask the village head to come and measure them. The land won't be divided too much or too little. I'll divide the good water-conserving land into five parts. Any objections?"

Jiang Yeming was about to retort when Chen Feng kicked him.

“No objection,” he said, keeping his head down and not looking at Song Chunxue. “Then I’ll wait for you in the field tomorrow.”

"Alright, you can leave now," Song Chunxue said curtly, "Don't get in my way."

Chen Feng was the first to get up and walk out of the north room, followed closely by Jiang Yeming.

Sanwa followed behind them and closed the courtyard gate.

Then, he ran to the north room, closed the door, and laughed, "I didn't expect it to be so easy today. Even my brother didn't suspect you."

"Hmph, he was afraid I would change my mind, so he bought all the land to treat his illness. He was afraid of catching his cough if he stayed any longer. Why would he suspect anything?"

Looking at the dark night, Song Chunxue asked, "Did you tell the village head about our land division?"

“They did,” Sanwa said with some doubt. “The village head and the pavilion chief were very nice. They even saw me off at the gate with smiles on their faces. They were nothing like what everyone said, that they no longer cared about our affairs.”

“That’s normal. They think we were too obsequious before and will look down on us. Now that we don’t have to cater to their whims, and you brothers have all grown up, they certainly can’t see me as that weak widow anymore. They will naturally have to reconsider their attitude.”

The most important point is that the second son went to the army camp; he was the only one from the village to be selected.

They all felt that if someone from the Jiang family were to receive a government salary in the future, they naturally couldn't be treated the same way as before.

But little did they know that while the second son was receiving a government salary, he would never return.

There's no difference between a son who flies away and a son who marries far away. She never understood this before and cried again and again at night.

Now, she doesn't cry; tears are the most useless thing in the world.

Instead of crying over being abandoned, it's better to stand up, cut your losses, and treat yourself well.

Having lived her life a second time, she finally understood that one can only rely on oneself, and that the person who loves you most and is kindest to you in this world is yourself.

She didn't understand it before, but later she learned what the old Taoist priest meant by "seeking within."

Seeking within means seeking from oneself, providing care and warmth to oneself; seeking within means sustaining oneself.

Seeking refuge outside oneself is a futile endeavor and leads to endless disappointment; do not attempt to find shelter from anyone other than yourself.

The next day, the village head and the pavilion chief came to the Jiang family's house, carrying ropes and books, and measured the acreage of the land that Song Chunxue had mentioned.

Song Chunxue knew that dividing it into five parts was unfair to the eldest son, because the second son would not be coming back. If it were someone else, she would not have divided it like this.

But the eldest son is the kind of person who takes an inch and then a mile. He also has a father-in-law who is very good at giving advice. After the child is born, he will ask her for land under the pretext of being the eldest grandson of the Jiang family.

Therefore, she had to keep a backup plan.

The eldest brother didn't mention the Shuichuan land again. Song Chunxue, looking tired and weary, watched them divide the land.

The village head and the pavilion chief had also heard about Song Chunxue's serious illness. Now, seeing her in person, her face was pale and her occasional coughs made their scalps tingle.

They didn't dare delay, fearing the woman might faint on the ground, as if she could cough up her lungs at any moment.

Jiang Yeming and his wife followed along the whole time, but neither of them helped Song Chunxue or advised her to go back.

Sanwa followed behind Song Chunxue, wanting to help her, but Song Chunxue refused.

Although he knew his mother was faking it, Huang Xiong did indeed prescribe a medicine for her. He could read some characters and knew some herbs. The prescription was for tonics, which showed that his mother's health was indeed not good.

Looking at his elder brother's heartless back and his expression that was like that of a stranger, his heart grew colder and colder.

Are their years of brotherhood and the bond of blood ties from the same mother really less important than a few pieces of land?

If it weren't for his mother's insistence, he wouldn't have wanted that piece of land in Shuichuan.

"Sanwa, sign and put your fingerprint on my behalf. From now on, you'll have to learn to manage things in this family."

"Mother, Sanwa is still young. How can he make decisions about the family? I don't agree!"