Chapter 24: Split Up 1
◎Jinjiang exclusive◎
"Elders, please stay. I have something to say."
After Zhou Jin sent the servant Song away, he saw that Lord Zhou and others were also about to leave, so he hurried forward and stopped them.
Some of the people who had dispersed nearby who were curious saw this and turned back.
Lord Zhou and the others also stopped and waited for Zhou Jin's next words.
What Zhou Jin wanted to say was very simple. Now that he had already torn his relations with his adoptive grandfather's family, he planned to take this opportunity to completely cut ties with them. He wanted to split the family.
To be precise, he planned to separate their third branch from the Zhou family.
After listening to Zhou Jin's request, Lord Zhou felt that although the brothers Zhou Wangzu and Zhou Wangye were not doing anything,
But Mr. Zhou, as a grandfather, did not do anything wrong. As a grandson, Zhou Jin was so unreasonable and insisted on separating the two families. It was inevitable that people would criticize him in the future.
I just wanted to persuade Zhou Jin to stop. He had already taken Qian's life and beaten Zhou Wangzu several times. Although they deserved it, Zhou Jin's family didn't suffer any losses after all. Why keep harping on it?!
He's so serious at such a young age, and outsiders would inevitably think he's too cold-hearted...
Zhou Zelin, who was standing by, saw that his father was about to lecture him again, so he quickly stopped him.
"Father, you should listen to what your uncle has to say!"
Lord Zhou agreed after thinking about it. Logically speaking, his elder brother Zhou Ruiquan was the head of the Zhou family, and he had indeed overstepped his authority. So he nodded and said nothing.
Zhou Ruiquan is much more tactful than his younger brother Zhou Ge Lao, who is devoted to studying, but he is not good at studying, so he can only stay in his ancestral hometown to manage the family business, look after the family sacrificial fields, assist his younger brother in the rear, and serve as the head of the Zhou family.
Zhou Zesheng, who went out shopping with Zhou Jin, was Zhou Ruiquan's youngest son. Therefore, Zhou Ruiquan also heard about Zhou Jin from Zhou Zesheng.
Knowing that this boy was extremely capable and kind, he gave his son, who was not good at shopping, a lot of advice when making purchases.
So Zhou Ruiquan naturally had a good impression of Zhou Jin when he saw him. He thought that how could a child who dared to risk his own life to snatch his mother back from the bandits be an unfilial son?
As for Zhou Ruifu's statement that the first and second wives robbed the third wife and intended to kill their relatives, it was all the Qian family's mastermind, and he, the head of the family, was completely unaware of it, Zhou Ruiquan did not believe a word of it.
He saw it clearly at that time. Qian tried to speak up to explain several times but was stopped by Zhou Ruifu.
Zhou Jin obviously knew this, so he was making a fuss about splitting up the family.
Zhou Ruiquan looked down on Zhou Ruifu, a strange cousin who didn't care about his own flesh and blood relatives and let them fight with each other. After hearing what his nephew said, he spoke directly to Grandpa Zhou.
"I think it's better to split up this family! Otherwise, it would be embarrassing if there was a fratricide in the future, wouldn't it?!"
Will I push my daughter-in-law out to take the blame when the time comes? This sentence turned around in Zhou Ruiquan's mouth several times, but he didn't say it in the end.
There was no other way. With his entire clan being exiled because of his brother, his status as the clan leader was no longer as high as before, and he could no longer say whatever he wanted to say.
Old Master Zhou had already gone back and had just arranged for Zhou Zhu and others to dig a hole to bury Qian. However, because Zhou Jin asked to divide the family, he was called back by Lord Zhou.
Although he was very dissatisfied with the fact that the Zhou brothers were exiled and still acted like the head of the clan, he cursed their whole family in his heart.
But considering that Song the yamen runner was so polite to them, Mr. Zhou naturally didn't dare to openly offend these two.
Seeing that the brat Zhou Jin was not going to give in no matter what he said, and it was obvious that he wanted to hold on to this matter and split the family, Mr. Zhou knew that even if he didn't agree to split the family, it would be no use, otherwise the brat Zhou Jin would make some more trouble!
He was not afraid of that brat, he was afraid of the yamen runner Song.
Just now, Qian was beaten to death in front of everyone by Song Yashi, which really scared him. He had no doubt that if Song Yashi disliked him, it would only take a few minutes to kill him!
I really don't know what benefits that brat gave to Song Yayi that made Song Yayi like him so much and protect him so much! ?
Old Master Zhou really couldn't understand. That brat only had three hundred taels on him. After buying the supplies, he would only have two hundred taels left at most. Even if he gave all of it to the yamen runner Song, he wouldn't have worked so hard for him, right?!
You have to know that there were many people in the exile team who gave gifts to Song Yayi. Even he had given nearly 200 taels of money in batches, but Song Yayi didn't show any care for him at all.
Could it be that Zheng Shi hid some silver? Old Master Zhou thought to himself, that doesn't seem likely.
Zheng's mother and others had been locked up with the rest of the family. When her family came to see her, they were in public. Even the things sent by her family were rummaged through by the old woman. Shouldn't there be a chance for her to hide the silver?
Old Master Zhou was really puzzled as to why Zhou Jin caught the eye of Song Yayi, but this was not the time for him to continue thinking about it, as Zhou Ruiquan and others were still waiting for his reply.
He couldn't afford to offend him, so Mr. Zhou could only hold his anger and think:
That's all! It was his own fault. He had to listen to Qian's ignorant instigation and agreed to take action against the third branch at this time, which led to this difficult situation.
Let’s split up the family. Let that kid run around for a few more days. Once we get to Liaodong and Song the yamen runner is no longer there to protect us, it won’t be too late to deal with him!
So he lamented to Zhou Ge Lao and the others:
"Alas! My fellow clansmen, I am ashamed. If I had not been lax in my management of the family, such a disaster would not have occurred. Now that things have come to this, I am afraid that Brother Jin has also developed a grudge against his two uncles. Even if I force him not to divide the family, he will probably not give up.
Forget it, forget it! The children are all grown up, and we old people can’t control them anymore, so let’s just divide it!”
He looked extremely distressed, pounding his chest. To outsiders, he looked like a grandfather who was forced by his own grandson to split up the family business.
The Great Yan Dynasty attached great importance to filial piety and had a tradition of not dividing the family property while the elders were still alive. If the elders had not committed any major faults but their descendants proposed to divide the family property, they would not only be cursed by outsiders, but would even alert the government and be charged with disobedience and unfilial piety.
Although Zhou Jin had just been nearly killed by the Qian family, Old Man Zhou hadn't done anything wrong and had never complained about the punishment against the Qian family. Now, the people had been killed and the crime had been punished, but Zhou Jin still insisted on dividing the family, making his own grandfather so sad. Everyone couldn't help but feel that Zhou Jin was being unreasonable.
This was exactly what Lord Zhou was worried about just now, fearing that the clansmen would think Zhou Jin was too cold-hearted.
Mr. Zhou's artificial acting successfully won the sympathy of outsiders, but it also angered Zhou Yu who had been supporting Zheng!
Zhou Yu thought to himself, "It's already this late, why are you still acting out this pathetic drama? Do you want to clear your name? You're dreaming!"
So he took a few steps forward and asked loudly to Mr. Zhou:
"From what Grandfather said, does he think our family shouldn't feel resentful about what happened today?
Or do you think that because Second Aunt and her friends failed and were punished, and Second Aunt even lost her life, our family should show some mercy?
Should I even feel guilty and unbearable towards them?"
While asking Mr. Zhou, Zhou Yu glanced at the crowd of onlookers, meaning that many of you probably think the same way!
Just like those keyboard warriors in the previous life, don’t they always take sides based on who appears to be weaker or more miserable, without asking who is right or wrong?
Everyone... Well, you have successfully expressed our feelings...
"Haha," Zhou Yu saw that everyone's eyes were avoiding her gaze, and she couldn't help but sneer, then questioned her grandfather:
"Grandfather, you keep saying that our third branch is causing trouble, but your granddaughter wants to ask, did we invite the eldest uncle and the second uncle? What did our family do to deserve this unprovoked disaster?
My eldest brother has been trying his best to support us all by himself, and he hasn't asked for help from his uncles, so how did he offend them? We were just lying quietly and resting, and then this disaster happened!
Grandfather and Second Aunt both admitted it in front of everyone. They wanted to kill us! The fact that our family survived wasn't because they were merciful, it was all thanks to my brother's vigilance!
Just because my brother was vigilant and prevented us from getting killed or injured, shouldn't we resent those who wanted to kill us? Shouldn't we stay away from them to avoid such a fatal disaster again?
A murderer can't be exonerated just because he didn't kill an adult, right? A thief caught stealing can't just return the item and then claim he didn't steal, right?
What's more, the second aunt and the others were punished because they, as prisoners, dared to cause trouble on their own. They had malicious intentions in the first place, and they deserved it!
Are we being punished just because they wanted to kill us? Should we bear the blame for their death or injury? Grandfather, why don’t you tell your granddaughter, what’s the logic behind this?”
Zhou Yu's barrage of questions left Old Man Zhou speechless. She wasn't just speaking to Old Man Zhou, she was also speaking to the people around them. Don't feel sorry for Qian just because she died; they were the victims, okay?!
Mr. Zhou...
How blind had he been? For all these years, he hadn't realized that Zhou Jin was a ruthless person, and how could he not have realized that his granddaughter was also a sharp-tongued person?!
Lord Zhou...if this girl were a boy, she would be a good candidate for the Censorate!
"Okay, since both parties agree that the third family should be divided, let's quickly talk about how to divide it."
Seeing that Mr. Zhou was about to say something, Zhou Ruiquan interrupted him with a partial look:
"There are several people in your family who are seriously injured. After we finish talking about this, you can go back and deal with it quickly."
I thought to myself, what are you talking about? Don’t think that just because you’re wearing a vest, I can’t tell that everything your two sons did was instructed by you behind the scenes!
Unexpectedly, just as the words fell, Feng Shi, who was next to Mr. Zhou, jumped out again. Feng Shi had just heard the person calling Mr. Zhou say that Zhou Jin was making a fuss about being separated, and she was afraid that Mr. Zhou would suffer, so she followed him.
The author has something to say:
Dear friends: Cai Cai's new novel "Fei Shi Yan Ran" is being updated. If you are interested, you can go to the author's homepage to check it out...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
