"Thank you so much, Uncle Village Chief!" Qiu Yan expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the village chief.
Village Chief Zhao shook his head slightly and said, "No need to thank me." As the head of the village, dealing with family conflicts was simply his duty.
Once the paper and pen were brought, he quickly began drafting the family division document.
Yang secretly cursed the village chief's ancestors for eighteen generations, but still could not quell her hatred.
Isn't the village chief bullying her? Twenty taels? Even if you put a knife to her throat, she wouldn't be able to come up with that much money.
She kept looking towards the door. The third son's wife had taken Qiu Hui to the county town to sell wild vegetables early this morning, and it was already past noon. Why hadn't they returned yet?
The third son is a cart driver and is on his way right now. The fourth son is at the academy and only returns when the academy is on break. As for the fifth son... with his rebellious nature, she can't count on him at all.
After the document was drafted, Qiu Yan looked at the heavy document severing ties with Qiu Xu, and they exchanged glances, their faces breaking into long-lost smiles.
With the documents in hand, the next step is for Village Chief Zhao to get the official seal stamped at the government office, which is also easy to resolve.
A gentle breeze blew by, scattering the dark clouds and turning the overcast sky clear.
Finally, they were free.
The Yang family was notoriously stingy and refused to hand over the money and land deeds.
Qiu Yan also knew how to behave appropriately and politely saw the village chief off.
After Village Chief Zhao left, Qiu Yan took Qiu Xu back to their room first.
Yang glared fiercely at the large house, her chest heaving with anger as she gasped for breath. "Hmph, when the third son comes back, I'll make him skin you alive!"
She felt that Qiu Yan was acting strangely today, and dared not provoke her again.
After struggling for a long time, her body couldn't take it anymore, so she went back to her room and lay down.
She had just lain down when the door was kicked open.
"What...what are you going to do?" Madam Yang tried to get up, but heard a creak in her waist and felt as if her body was about to fall apart.
Qiu Yan glanced around the room, then casually picked up a pair of scissors from the table and brandished them at Yang's chest, scaring her so much that her face turned pale.
"You...you mustn't do anything reckless...your third uncle will be back soon. If you dare to disrespect me, they won't let you off the hook..."
"Shut up! Old woman, listen carefully! If you dare to throw another tantrum, I'll send you to the Western Paradise right now!" Qiu Yan was only thinking about leaving and didn't want to waste any more time with her.
Even though she was completely exhausted at the moment, she was more than capable of dealing with Yang.
When she came out of Yang's house, she had three things in her hands: two land deeds, an IOU, and three copper coins.
That's right, only three copper coins!
Just now, no matter how thoroughly she searched the entire house, she only found three copper coins.
Qiu Yan looked at the copper coins in her hand, feeling like crying. Did she really have to be this poor?
In the Qiu family, Qiu Lao Er never handed over his earnings to Yang Shi.
Qiu Laosan was a burden brought by Yang Shi. He was the same age as Qiu Laoer, only slightly younger. He made a living by doing odd jobs, earning very little.
Qiu Laosi was studying in the county town and had just passed the imperial examination at the beginning of the year, so he had many expenses. The fact that Yang was the mother of a scholar made her arrogant and disdainful of everyone, which made her somewhat disliked by outsiders.
Qiu Laowu was a good-for-nothing who had recently racked up a gambling debt of fifty taels, emptying his family's coffers. Qiu Laosan was also badly affected by him.
Upon hearing that Old Master Qiu had died on the battlefield, Madam Yang was deeply saddened and cried for several days. Those who didn't know the situation might have thought she and Old Master Qiu shared a deep mother-son bond.
But the truth is, the Qiu family lost its source of income.
The Qiu family simply couldn't afford to send Qiu Laosi to school with just the land, which was a major reason why Yang insisted on selling Qiu Yan for money.
Now that Qiu Yan has separated from the family and is living separately, the Qiu family can only hope that this year's autumn harvest will yield more grain.
Qiu Yan carefully recalled her second uncle, Qiu Dafu, who was born of the same mother as her father. He was tall and strong, and at the age of thirty-two, he was still unmarried.
A few months ago, shortly after Qiu Laoda passed away, Yang Shi intensified her torment of the three children.
Qiu Dafu is a craftsman who works away from home most of the year and rarely returns.
When he returned home, he was enraged to find that his nephew and niece were being treated inhumanely!
On their way home, Yang dared not scold or beat the child in front of him. This time, he just happened to catch them.
His elder brother's death was a huge blow to him. He already felt guilty towards Qiu Yan and the other two, and now it was even more so.
In order to support Qiu Yan and the other two, he proposed to Yang that the three children be adopted into his own name.
It's easy to imagine that Madam Yang had already made up her mind and would never agree. After saying a few words, she started to throw a tantrum while crying.
She said that as long as Qiu Dafu gave her 500 copper coins every month, she promised to treat her three children well in the future.
Qiu Dafu was no fool; he firmly refused and secretly gave the original owner five taels of silver, asking her to take good care of herself and her two younger siblings.
He could only afford to take out five taels at most.
However, the money was discovered by Yang and stolen directly.
Qiu Dafu's demands went unanswered, and he was even splashed with swill by Yang.
He was immediately enraged and, in a moment of impulse, grabbed Yang by the collar and threw her directly into the cesspool outside the Qiu family's courtyard, causing Yang to lose all face.
Yang went to the county government office in tears, and Qiu Dafu was imprisoned as a result!
Filial impiety is second only to treason and rebellion, and is one of the ten heinous crimes!
Qiu Yan suddenly thought of Kong Rong from the Three Kingdoms period, who was sentenced to death for his unfilial remarks...
Before leaving home, she planned to bring some food from Old Qiu's kitchen.
However, Old Qiu's family was extremely poor, and apart from some wild vegetables and three sweet potatoes, she couldn't find anything else.
Qiu Xu held the neatly made bedding in his arms and began to wake Qiu Ling'er. "Ling'er, wake up, we're getting ready to go."
Qiu Yan entered the room, shook Qiu Ling'er, and stuffed three sweet potatoes into the bundle on the bed.
The bundle contained nothing but a tattered handkerchief and a patched, ill-fitting gray dress.
This outfit was worn by the original owner's mother, and it's been ten years now.
Qiu Xu and Qiu Ling'er didn't even have a change of clothes. Whenever their clothes got dirty, their older sister would wash them at night, and they would wear them the next morning.
The clothes that their second uncle had given to the three of them were all worn by the cousins.
As for Xiao Ling'er's set, it was actually given by her third aunt to her niece from her maternal family.
Thinking back on these things, Qiu Yanzhen felt really aggrieved for the original owner of this body!
"Sister, brother..." Qiu Ling'er rubbed her sleepy eyes and quickly woke up. She was a very light sleeper because she had been frightened earlier.
Qiu Yan carried a bundle on her back, Qiu Xu held a quilt, and Qiu Ling'er carried a wooden basin. The three of them walked briskly out of the Qiu family courtyard.
Just as she stepped out of the courtyard gate, Qiu Yan turned back as if she remembered something, then went back into the courtyard and took a tinderbox from the kitchen.
Looking through the dilapidated window at the departing figures of the three people in the courtyard, Madam Yang was too angry to utter a single word. After all the commotion today, her throat was itchy, and she didn't even have the strength to pour herself a drink of water.
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