Chapter 3328: Breaking off Relationship
Old Zhou said, "If we don't let him come, who else can we let? He's the most educated person in the village. In Qili Village, who isn't related to my family? If we talk about favoritism, no one else would be suitable. We can only go to the government office."
When they heard about going to the yamen, not only the Zhang family, but also the Zhou family was not very happy. Who would like to go to the yamen for no reason?
Both sides fell silent, and Old Zhoutou immediately decided: "Let the son-in-law be the host."
Bai Shan waited for a moment, and seeing that no one objected, he smiled and said, "Since both sides have agreed, then let's be bold for once."
Zhou Man and Yin Huo quietly stood behind the Zhou family group. Batou gave them two wooden blocks and whispered, "There are no more stools or chairs."
Zhou Man didn't mind and sat on the wooden stool.
Yin Huo looked down for a long time before sitting down carefully.
Bai Shan stood between the two families and said, "The Zhou and Zhang families are relatives by marriage and by blood. We should help each other and benefit each other."
"Right, right, that's right," Zhang Sanlang immediately agreed, "but their family doesn't know this. Once they become rich, they forget about us poor relatives. They just come to them and ask for help, but they refuse and even beat us up!"
The villagers watching groaned, and someone leaned over the wall and said, "Zhang Sanlang, who said Uncle Jin's family forgets their poor relatives? We are all poor relatives, so we haven't been forgotten."
There was a chorus of responses all around. Bai Shan reached out to stop them from talking and asked, "I wonder what you mean by asking for a favor? What do you want the Zhou family to do for you?"
Zhang Sanlang thought about what he had confessed yesterday, swallowed hard, and said with a stiff upper lip, "That's right, I just want to ask Zhou Silang for a job. Doesn't he have a caravan traveling around?"
Bai Shan asked, "Anything else besides this?"
Zhang Sanlang swallowed his saliva and said nothing.
Bai Shan asked, "I remember the Zhou and Zhang families haven't interacted for over a decade, right? The last time was when we were only seven or eight years old. Have there been any formal exchanges in between?"
Zhou Dalang replied on behalf of the Zhou family: "No."
He said, "For the past ten years, the Zhang family has never invited our Zhou family to any of their weddings or funerals, and our Zhou family has never invited our Zhang family to any of their weddings or funerals."
Bai Shan: "It's been more than ten years since the last visit from the Zhang family. I wonder how many relatives came to visit yesterday and what gifts they brought?"
Zhou Dalang replied, "Eight people, all here, come in empty-handed."
"Nonsense, nonsense, we brought a gift."
"Oh," Zhou Dalang seemed to have just remembered. He turned and went into the kitchen, took out a small bag and threw it on the ground. "I brought this bag with me. It was left at our house. The bag was tied up, so we couldn't open it to see, so I don't know what's inside."
"Isn't this the gift you brought?" Zhou Silang rolled up his sleeves and said, "Let me open it and take a look."
So he opened the bag in front of everyone and showed it to everyone, "What a big gift."
There was a grain of millet inside. Zhou Silang said with a sigh, "This is a meal for welcoming guests at my house. I have to grind the millet into rice first."
Zhou Erlang glared at him and scolded him, "What nonsense are you talking about? Whose welcoming meal is made with the millet brought by the guests? Even if our family is poor, we still have rice to welcome guests."
The Zhang family blushed, and the elders tried to smooth things over, saying, "It's true they were ignorant. A few young men didn't know the proper etiquette and made a fool of themselves. But we're all relatives, so please be more tolerant."
Zhou Silang opened his mouth to refute, but Bai Shan stared at him and he had to hold back.
Bai Shan nodded slightly to the Zhang family elder and continued to ask, "What did the guests say when they came to visit?"
He smiled and said, "When they were fighting yesterday, I asked several cousins and nephews of the Zhang family, and even had them record it."
He took out a few sheets of paper from his pocket and unfolded them for everyone to see, then divided them into two parts for the people on both sides to read. "But their memory may not be as good as Brother Zhou's, and there may be some mistakes or omissions. Why not ask Brother Zhou to recall them again?"
Zhou Silang became excited. He was good at speaking and had traveled all over the country. When he came back, he would always tell his children about what he had seen and heard outside. He was very familiar with this kind of thing.
Yesterday, the people of the Zhang family were interrogated. They answered one question at a time, in a dry and dull manner. How could it compare to Zhou Silang's vivid and colorful narration last week?
He also started to perform, bringing the eight characters to life.
The onlookers watched with great interest, but the Zhang family, including the elders, turned pale.
This was really embarrassing. Even Zhang Sanlang, who always felt self-righteous and believed he was right, blushed.
"You, you are slandering me!"
"Yes, it's slander. We didn't do that yesterday."
"I'm not slandering you. I saw it yesterday," said a man leaning against the wall. "I was just coming back from harvesting rice yesterday and saw it when I passed by Uncle Jin's house. That's how they are."
"You are from Qili Village, so you are naturally on the side of the Zhou family, and your last name is Zhou."
Bai Shan raised his hand to stop their quarrel, not arguing about whether this matter was right or wrong. "Although one family is surnamed Zhou and the other is surnamed Zhang, their family is the same as yours. They are all relatives of my father-in-law's family. Why do the two relatives have completely different understandings of my father-in-law's family?"
"It's more than just two families. All the relatives in our Qili Village are different from the Zhang family."
Bai Shan looked at the Zhang family elders and said, "Elders, we all know the relationship between our two families. We have all heard about what happened yesterday. I wonder what your assessment is?"
"How else can it be resolved?" one person said, "It's just some quarrels between relatives. Everyone should go back to their own homes and find their own mothers."
The Zhang family elder stood up to leave. Zhang Sanlang was unhappy and shouted, "Then we got beaten for nothing? We were even locked up all night yesterday."
"So what else do you want? You guys look clean and unharmed. I only pushed you twice yesterday, and you fought back quite a bit."
Bai Shan also stopped the Zhang family elders, "The Zhou family also has something to say."
He said, "Ordinarily, the relationship between the Zhou and Zhang families has become much weaker by this generation. Relatives, unlike close relatives like parents and brothers, are not as closely connected as they are to each other. The less they visit, the weaker their relationship becomes."
"But the Zhou family still needs to make it clear that the Zhou family and the Zhang family should sever their ties."
"What did you say?" The Zhang family elder's eyes widened, his face darkening. "What do you mean? Are we going to sever our ties just for such a small matter?"
The Zhou family elder said, "The two families haven't had any contact for over ten years, which is no different from severing ties."
"Since you think there's no difference, then we can just stop communicating from now on, just like before. Just consider it a severed relationship. So, do you, the Zhou family, want to put it in writing now?" The Zhang family elder said angrily, "Don't go too far."
good evening
(End of this chapter)
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