Miao Xing and Miao Wang just discussed it secretly. They knew that Miao's life in the Shen family was not easy. But what's the big deal for a man in the village to beat his wife? It's even less of a big deal if she does more work. As long as it's not too outrageous, the woman's family won't interfere, especially since Miao doesn't have a boy, so the brothers don't have the courage to beat her. If Shen Zhigao hadn't really gone too far this time, they wouldn't have any reason to make trouble.
But if there is another way out, even if it is normal for the men in the village to beat the people in the house, even if everyone has gone through this, why should they endure it? After all, they are their sisters! Qing'er is capable and filial, and he works much better than the boys of the same age in the village. The mother and son can live alone, and even if they rent two acres of land as tenants, it will be enough to make a living. If their own family helps out, and they bring their own children to help Qing'er open up a few acres of wasteland during the slack season, it will not be difficult to make a living. If they can find a son-in-law in the future, Miao's life may be happier than in the Shen family!
The more the two brothers thought about it, the more they became angry. They no longer just wanted to persuade them to reconcile, and they didn't need to hold back on Shen Zhigao. Their sister had spent half her life with him, and he divorced her just because he wanted to. He also hooked up with a young widow and had a bastard. What a bastard, I'll beat him to death!
The Miao brothers took the lead in fighting, and the other people in Shiqu Village also felt itchy and couldn't help joining the battle. Only Miao Tongsheng, who was not good at fighting, kept pulling Zhao Youdang and muttering: "It's insulting! It's really insulting! You can fight as you like, but don't kill anyone!"
How could the Shen family watch Shen Zhigao get beaten? However, the men from Shiqu Village were all strong men, and Old Man Shen and Old Lady Shen were too old to dare to approach them. Zhao Youdang was tripped by Miao Tongsheng again, so he could only push Shen Zhiwei over, but two fists could not beat four hands. Soon, the Shen brothers were beaten by the Miao brothers and the people from Shiqu Village.
Seeing her two sons being beaten so badly, Old Lady Shen started to howl immediately, crying and cursing, and even pulling Zhao Youdang to her side: "Someone is being beaten to death... Village chief, you have to take care of our family. We are being bullied by the people from Shiqu Village... You are a hen that doesn't lay eggs, and it's a compliment to let you be my servant. Don't you think about who will want you if you leave our family! You even want to take our children away. It's unfair..."
Miao had also come to her senses at this point, and she cried even louder than Old Lady Shen: "Bah! If your son wants to stay with a bitch, don't drag me along! If Qing'er is not allowed to go with me, I will have no way to survive anyway, so I will just hang myself in front of this door. From now on, I will hang myself on the beam every day and watch how your family lives!"
The honest daughter-in-law, who had been bullied at will for many years and couldn't even fart after being kicked three times, spat in the face. Old Mother Shen was choked back with her cries. When she thought of the scene of Miao hanging on the beam and staring at her, her face turned pale and blue.
Shen Qing just stood behind Miao and said to the resentful old lady Shen and the gloomy old man Shen: "If anything happens to my mother, I won't worry about it. It is said that you can be a thief for a thousand days, but you can't guard against thieves for a thousand days. I want to see if the widow Li and the child in her belly have the ability to guard against them every day - or our whole family will be intact. After all, I can't allow the person who harmed my mother to live."
"Who, who harmed your mother!" Old Lady Shen was so frightened by the implication of Shen Qing's words that her tongue became clumsy. She stammered, "She wanted to die on her own. Who harmed her? How dare you lay hands on your own father and grandparents?!"
"Do you think I dare to do it?" Shen Qing pulled the hatchet off the table on the kang, weighed it twice in his hand, and only put it back on his waist after weighing it until Old Lady Shen was completely speechless.
Village Chief Zhao looked at the sharp hatchet and Shen Qing's tightly pursed lips, and felt that he had made the right choice to speak to Shen Qing in a kind voice. He had only heard that the young man of the Shen family was fierce, but as a village chief and an elder, he did not have the hobby of observing the young men in the village all day long. He just thought that no matter how fierce a young man could be, he would at most fight with the boys in the village and not show mercy.
Today is the first time I saw it with my own eyes - it is indeed extremely ferocious!
Even Zhao Youdang felt a chill on his back, let alone the Shen family.
As the saying goes, the arrogant are afraid of the stupid, and the stupid are afraid of the desperate. Once Shen Qing is desperate, the desperate ones will have to be cautious. Moreover, they can vaguely feel that Shen Qing is definitely not just saying it to scare anyone, he dares to do what he says!
At this point, Shen Qing, who is barefoot, is not afraid of those who wear shoes, but Shen Zhigao regards the lump of meat in Widow Li's belly as if it were his eyeball. Seeing the two sons screaming and crying after being beaten, the two elders of the Shen family had no choice but to let go: "If you stay at home, I can still give you a bite of food. If you insist on leaving, don't come to my door to beg for food if you starve to death! Get out now!"
However, apart from the Shen family, even Zhao Youdang thought this was a good thing. Although there was no precedent for taking children away in the surrounding area, Shen Qing was not the boy who would inherit the family line, but just a boy, who was 18 years old and would be married soon.
According to the thinking at that time, after a girl or boy gets married, she is no longer a member of her natal family, but a member of her husband's family. Sooner or later, she will no longer be a member of the Shen family, so why bother about whether it is sooner or later? At most, it will only make her look bad - but Shen Zhigao did such a shameful thing, how can the Shen family still have any face?
It would give Widow Li and the baby in her belly a status and a place to stay, and would satisfy both the Miao family and Shen Qing. It's a win-win situation. I don't know what the Shen family is making a fuss about. Wouldn't it have been better if they had agreed to it earlier?
However, he didn't know that Old Lady Shen was planning something in her heart. She was still waiting to squeeze Shen Qing dry and sell him to the mountains.
Finally hearing this, Shen Qing breathed a sigh of relief. He glanced at his father and second uncle, whose faces were covered with blood but whose mouths were still dirty, and at Shen's mother, whose eyes were full of resentment and she wanted to bite a piece of flesh off him. He no longer had any attachment to this home where he had stayed for nearly 19 years. He helped Miao up and said to Village Chief Zhao and his two uncles, "We're leaving now."
It has become such a mess, of course, the smart thing to do is to take advantage of the people in Shiqu Village to deal with all the important matters. Miao Xing understood, and said to Zhao Youdang: "Village Chief Zhao, please write the divorce letter now."
As the village chief, of course he had to say a few nice words to smooth things over. Village chief Zhao thought for a while before speaking: "Brother Zhigao is so determined. If Zhigao's wife stays here, her life will be difficult in the future. The brother you gave birth to is filial and will have good fortune in the future, so it's better for them to divorce. If the two families cannot become relatives in the future, don't resent each other and hurt the harmony between the two villages." The latter sentence was said to the Miao brothers.
Miao Xing snorted coldly, obviously not willing to buy this account. If he were to say that he would not see him again in the future, it would be fine, but if he met Shen Zhigao once, he would beat him up. Village Chief Zhao pretended not to hear, and glanced at the bruised and swollen Shen brothers, "This was an unjust thing done by Shen Zhigao, but you should also understand that he has no descendants at his age, and he doesn't even have anyone to help him when he's old. It's all fate. If Xiao Zhangzi was still alive, this wouldn't have happened. Let me make the decision and let the old Shen family compensate Qingge'er's mother."
Shen Zhiwei's husband Zhao was immediately anxious after hearing this. Originally, there was a big difference between divorce and amicable separation. There was a reason for this. The fault of divorce was on the woman, and when the woman left, she could only take her dowry with her. But divorce was different. As the village chief said, the fault was on Shen Zhigao, and Miao could divide a small amount of property. Now she had to pay compensation? "They beat our man like this, and took Qing Ge'er away. Why do they want us to compensate her? She took Qing Ge'er away, so the account has to be settled. Village chief, you can't be biased towards outsiders!"
Village Chief Zhao's face fell immediately, and he scolded: "How can a husband like you interrupt me when I'm talking here? Who is an outsider? Miao and Qing'er will still live in the village in the future, so they are members of our Lantang Village!"
Mr. Zhao didn't dare to argue with the village chief anymore, and only whispered "How can Qingge speak?" Zhao Youdang glared at him, and he was so scared that he shrank behind Shen Zhiwei and dared not say a word. But he was unwilling to give up, so he pinched Shen Zhiwei's arm and signaled him to come out and say something. But Shen Zhiwei didn't know what he was thinking, or maybe he was beaten honestly by the people of Shiqu Village, and he lowered his head like a gourd with a sawed mouth and didn't say a word.
Old Lady Shen was not willing to compensate Miao either. She opened her mouth to make a scene, but Zhao Youdang retorted: "Otherwise, forget about your half-formed grandson! Miao Tongsheng, go to the county government office immediately to report to the authorities and have that young widow and your son drowned in the pond!"
Before Old Lady Shen could say anything, Shen Zhigao couldn't wait to hear what she said and agreed: "Mom, just listen to the village chief! Nothing can happen to the baby in Jiaofeng's belly!"
Mr. Zhao was very angry, and he blamed Shen Zhigao in his heart. The family was not well-off, and the eldest uncle was still going out to have affairs, spending the public money to buy a wife! Old Lady Shen also glared at her eldest son, but after all, she was the eldest son she loved and loved, and she was thinking about the grandson in Widow Li's belly, so she snorted coldly and said nothing more.
Old man Shen picked up the pipe that had been knocked off the ground in the melee, knocked it on the edge of the kang, and sighed, "Let's do as the village chief says."
Old man Shen has seen clearly that the Miao brothers brought so many people from Shiqu Village. If he doesn't agree, there will be no peace today. If the fight continues, his two sons will be beaten to death by the Miao brothers. Qing Ge'er is also an ungrateful little wolf. He is cruel enough to dare to use a knife in front of his father. But this matter is indeed not decent by Zhigao. To the Miao family, some compensation should be given.
The head of the family nodded, and no one else could say anything even if they had other thoughts. Zhao Youdang also breathed a sigh of relief. After a busy morning, this not-so-glorious matter was finally settled. What remained was to discuss some details. He took out a pen and ink. Miao Tongsheng happened to be there, so Zhao Youdang dictated and Miao Tongsheng wrote the divorce letter and the document of breaking off the relationship with the Shen family. It was also a good opportunity for Miao Tongsheng to be a witness: In addition to the reason for the separation of the two, the distribution of property, the division of children, and all other matters should be written on it.
Zhao Youdang embellished the reason for the divorce, and for fairness, he also embellished the reason why Shen Qing severed his relationship with the Shen family. He only wrote that Shen Zhigao was forced to divorce because he had no heir, and did not mention the matter of Widow Li. As for Shen Qing, he said it according to his own words: he had fulfilled his filial piety to his father first, and now he should fulfill his filial piety to his divorced mother. In the end, he fulfilled his filial piety to both sides, and even if he severed his relationship, he was still the most filial child.
However, there was an inevitable dispute over the property: the dowry that Miao had originally brought was long gone, as most of it was spent by Shen Zhigao on drinking earlier. How to compensate her if it was converted into cash now was quite debatable; how to divide the property and how much compensation to give to Miao was also quite debatable.
At this time, thanks to the great efforts of Shen Qing's two uncles - the Miao brothers decided that if they asked for one more cent for Shen Qing and his mother, they would get one more cent for themselves and one less cent in the future. Therefore, the fighting power was very strong. After a lot of wrangling, they finally agreed that Miao's dowry would be reduced by half a tael of silver, and the Shen family would give Miao another half a tael of silver as compensation, a total of one tael. They would also be given a year's ration, and they would take away all their own clothes and bedding, and two sets of bowls and chopsticks.
The mother and son stayed in Lantang Village, and Zhao Youdang registered a female household for Miao. There was an empty courtyard at the foot of the mountain at the end of the village, which was the old house of Liu the hunter in the village. The Shen family spent 500 yuan to rent it for Shen Qing and her son for a year, and then Shen Qing and her son cut off all ties with the Shen family.
Both the Miao family and the Shen family felt that they had lost out in this outcome. The Miao family felt that the compensation was not enough, and it was not much more than the dowry that Miao had brought with her, not to mention that Miao had worked like a slave for so many years in the Shen family, and it was not enough to just get such a small amount of money. The Shen family simply felt sorry for the money, and after losing a laborer like Shen Qing, they had to pay so much more money, and it was painful to give even a penny more. It was only because the village chief tried hard to mediate and suppress both sides that this result was achieved.
All of this was written in the divorce agreement and the document of breaking off the relationship. After discussing everything, Miao and Shen Zhigao put their fingerprints on the divorce agreement, and Zhao Youdang and Miao Tongsheng also signed and sealed as witnesses. The divorce agreement was made in four copies, with Zhao Youdang and Miao Tongsheng each keeping one copy, and Miao and Shen Zhigao each keeping one copy. The two of them each kept their own divorce agreement and said nothing more. After being husband and wife for nearly twenty years, they finally came to an end in such an undignified way.
After they signed, it was the document of severing the relationship between Shen Qing and Shen Zhigao. Village Chief Zhao asked Shen Qing to kowtow to Shen Zhigao: "After all, he is your biological father. Kowtow to him to fulfill the last filial duty."
Shen Qing raised his eyes to look at Shen Zhigao, whose face was bruised and swollen. His expression, which had been stern all the time, now relaxed a little.
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