That night, not only did Su Zhiyuan and his wife have a long talk, but the other three couples also stayed up, chatting in their blankets.

After Su Ming and Gao Laidi put their two daughters to sleep, they lay down together. Gao Laidi couldn't sleep, so she nudged Su Ming.

"Honey, tell me, do your parents regret it?"

Su Ming suddenly opened his eyes and stared at the roof beam.

"Hmph, it's certain they'll regret it. After all, this house was built by the fourth son, so he must still have money. His parents don't want to give him up because of the money."

Gao Laidi's eyes lit up, and he rolled over and lay down next to Su Ming. "Boss, tell me, how much money does the fourth brother still have?"

Su Ming was taken aback. "How would I know?"

"Guess."

"I can't guess."

Gao Laidi rolled his eyes. "If you ask me, Lao Si must have at least three or four hundred yuan left. Otherwise, would he have been willing to spend money to build a house? In the end, he didn't even want the house and gave it to us?"

Su Ming narrowed his eyes. "I think it's probably more than that. Over the years, the fourth brother has been traveling a lot. Who knows what he's been doing every time he goes out?"

Gao Laidi thought for a moment and said softly, "Tell me, what has he been doing outside? Where did he get so much money? Just to divide the family property, he actually gave up the new house. What was he thinking?"

Su Ming closed his eyes. "Who knows? Maybe he has more money than he can spend."

A casual remark caused the two to open their eyes again, their gazes filled with greed as they looked at each other.

...

Su Qi, from the second wife's side, glanced at his eldest daughter, Su Sanya, who was still awake, and said, "Put your brother to sleep before you go to sleep."

Su Sanya nodded hurriedly, picked up Su Tiedan and retreated to the head of the kang (heated brick bed). She didn't care that the kang was hot from the fire and the head of the kang was hot to the touch, so she sat down and didn't move.

Su Tiedan was uncomfortable being held by Su Sanya and grumbled a couple of times, which startled Su Sanya so much that she hurriedly looked up at Su Qi.

Su Qiyin looked over with a sinister gaze, and Su Sanya hurriedly said, "I'll put my little brother to sleep right away."

Su Qi nodded slightly, "Don't make a sound."

After saying that, he pulled Duan Hong down onto the kang (a heated brick bed) and blew out the oil lamp.

Soon, inappropriate sounds filled the room. Su Sanya was already used to the sounds and didn't take them seriously at all. Instead, she breathed a sigh of relief when Su Qi extinguished the oil lamp.

An hour later, Su Qi let out a long breath and pulled Duan Hong to turn over and lie face down on the kang (a heated brick bed).

"Dad mentioned the fourth son tonight. He probably misses him. Go see his wife tomorrow and see how she's doing."

Duan Hong was puzzled, but she obediently agreed without daring to ask why.

A cold glint flashed in Su Qi's eyes in the darkness; his deep, unfathomable gaze made it impossible to discern his thoughts.

Duan Hong didn't care what he was thinking. All she knew was that as long as she obeyed, she wouldn't be beaten, and Su Qi would let her live a good life.

...

Su Guo chuckled as he teased his youngest son, Da Tou. There was no trace of the fact that just moments before, he had been cursing Su Lu with his two older brothers at the dinner table. In a very good mood, he hugged and kissed Da Tou repeatedly. Then, he lifted his eldest son, Tie Zhu, and tossed him into the air a dozen times, making Tie Zhu shout with delight.

Ma Mingming pulled Da Tou over and wiped his sweat, then slapped him on the butt, "Go to sleep."

Seeing that her eldest son had gotten into bed, Ma Mingming picked up Tiezhu and then gave him another thorough cleaning.

Seeing that her two sons were lying together, Ma Mingming took the basin of water, turned around and went out of the house. She quickly brought back a basin of clean water, soaked it, wrung it out, and handed it to Su Guo.

"Wipe yourself off, it's hot outside, this will help you cool down."

Su Guo took the towel and wiped his face. "Da Tou's milk powder is long gone, isn't it?"

Ma Mingming nodded, "That's right, it was gone two months ago. Before we split up the family, I wanted to talk to the fourth brother and ask him to get some more, but who would have thought that slut Qin Xiaoxiao would show up halfway through? If it weren't for her, Da Tou would have been drinking milk powder long ago."

Su Guo threw the towel into the basin of water. "Hehe, it's too late to say anything now. I told you from the beginning that we couldn't split up the family, but who listened to me?"

Now it's all over. The fourth son's side doesn't get any advantage, and my son suffers along with him. So which branch of the family can benefit?

The fourth son doesn't earn work points, but he's given his mother a lot of money. Who knows how much money his mother has now?

Ma Mingming threw away the water and went back to her room to lie down next to Su Guo. "I don't think it will be less. Fourth Brother can earn money; he can even get milk powder. He definitely won't be short of money. He's rich and filial; would he give his mother less?"

Su Guo let out a long sigh of relief. "Actually, among us brothers, the most filial one is the fourth brother. Otherwise, he wouldn't have built a house for our parents after the family split up. It's just that those two idiots in the eldest son's family can't see clearly. They think that after the family split up, the new house is theirs. But they don't know how many good things they've lost by doing this."

"Aren't you related to Aunt Qin? Try going over to her tomorrow and try to build a relationship. Who knows, we might need her someday."

Ma Mingming paused, looking troubled, and said, "You know perfectly well that our family and Aunt Qin's family don't have much contact. We're relatives beyond the fifth degree of kinship, but we live in the same village. There's no affection between us anymore."

"You have to have one even if you don't have one, and you have to force a relationship to become close, otherwise you'll regret it later."

After finishing his sentence, Su Guo ignored Ma Mingming, turned over, and quickly fell asleep.

Ma Mingming sighed as she watched Su Guo's retreating figure, but there was nothing she could do but try again tomorrow.

...

The next morning, the three families gathered in the main hall to prepare for breakfast. As soon as they sat down at the table, Gao Laidi smiled and looked at Su Zhiyuan.

"Dad, I'm not going to work today. I need to take a day off."

Su Zhiyuan looked at Gao Laidi with a puzzled expression.

Ever since the eldest son's wife married into the family, she's worked every single day without fail. To earn more work points, she rarely even goes to the county, and she only returns to her parents' home in the winter. What's wrong with her today? She actually wants to take a day off?

Duan Hong quickly followed suit, saying, "Dad, I also need to ask for leave today."

Upon seeing this, Ma Mingming quickly added, "Dad, I'd like to ask for leave too."

Even if Su Zhiyuan was stupid, the situation in front of him made him realize that something was wrong.

He looked at his three daughters-in-law, put down his chopsticks, and asked with a stern face, "Tell me, what happened that made you all have to take leave? Don't try to fool me, I'm not senile yet."

Su Zhiyuan's stern face was quite intimidating, all because he had been an official for many years and had been attending meetings with leaders of all ranks in the commune. He had met many important figures, so his aura was naturally incomparable to that of ordinary people.

Su Zhiyuan released his aura, and the members of the Su family felt an inexplicable pressure on them, a pressure that made it hard for them to breathe and unable to speak.

A hint of helplessness flashed across Su Zhiyuan's serious and rigid face.

If it were the fourth brother here, he probably wouldn't be scared at all. He would probably be eating and drinking as usual, completely unaffected by him. Even Qin Xiaoxiao probably wouldn't care about his imposing aura.

But these people in front of me...

You're so useless!

These are the sons he protected, even if it meant suppressing his most promising son.

Is he blind?!

Your heart is still blind! (End of Chapter)