Chapter 3342 Split Sect Two
Zhou Man and Bai Shan stood side by side outside the yard, listening intently, but couldn't hear anything. Just as Zhou Man was hesitating whether to pay points to ask Ke Ke to eavesdrop, he heard Bai Shan say, "Look—"
Zhou Man looked up at him and saw him pointing at the sky. He then looked up and saw a bunch of strange clouds floating slowly in the sky.
Zhou Man exclaimed, "It looks like a sheep, and a camel, and it's golden."
Bai Shanxiao asked, "Does it look good?"
Zhou Man nodded, "It looks good!"
Bai Shan reached out and took her hand, pinched her fingers, and asked, "Are you feeling better?"
Zhou Man nodded.
"Don't worry," Bai Shan said, "The Xia family is not big or rich. They are afraid of power but also like profit. They can solve the problem with money."
He smiled and said, "Things that can be solved with money are not a big deal. For someone like me, if I want to split the clan, it would have to be either that I'm too powerful to be retained by the clan, or that I'm too poor to be retained by the clan."
But the Bai family is a noble family, the former is too difficult, and the latter is not easy either.
Xia Rui bargained with Patriarch Xia in the house from morning to noon, and finally opened the door and came out.
Xia Rui directly pulled the two of them aside and said, "I promised the clan leader sixty taels of silver, and I will donate another eighty taels of silver to the clan."
Zhou Man breathed a sigh of relief. "It's okay. It's within my expectations. Thank you, Uncle Xia."
Xia Rui smiled and said, "Don't be polite with me."
Bai Shan said, "This amount of money is quite a bit. We can pay the eighty taels as a donation to the clan, but we have to pay the sixty taels to the clan leader in two installments. We will pay thirty taels first, and then we will pay the remaining thirty taels when we leave after the family tree is established."
Xia Rui hesitated and asked, "Is this a lot of money?"
Bai Shan sighed and said, "Of course. According to the current copper exchange rate, it's a full 160,000. It's Zhou Man and I's annual salary."
Zhou Man was stunned for a moment and then nodded repeatedly, "Yes."
The sound was neither loud nor soft, just loud enough for Chief Xia, who was standing in the yard listening with his ears perked up, to hear it. He felt a little better. It seemed that Zhou Man's life was not easy either.
But it’s indeed a lot of money.
Sixty taels, it would take their family three years of frugality to save that much.
So Chief Xia agreed.
With the intervention of the Xia clan leader, the Xia clan elders in Hongtian Village, although they had some objections, finally agreed to divide the clan for them.
Zhou Man agreed that after the division of the clan, the sacrificial land used by her lineage to support the clan school would not be taken back, and it would be considered a gift from her lineage to the main family, and it would only need to be recorded in the family tree;
And when the clan was divided, Xia Mu would give another eighty taels to the clan, both to provide clan education and to take care of the orphans and widows in the clan.
Of course, Zhou Man didn't know whether this money could fall into the hands of a real widower.
After the matter was agreed upon, Patriarch Xia chose an auspicious day, and Zhou Man and Bai Shan brought Wu Yuan over. Old Lady Liu and Zheng also brought their eldest daughter to join in the fun.
Bai Shan held Wu Yuan, dressed in new clothes, in his arms and handed him to Zhou Man outside the Xia family's ancestral hall.
Zhou Man hugged him and stood in the first row.
The ancestral hall opened, and Bai Shan stepped aside and stood with little Bai Jingxing.
Little Bai Jingxing looked at his mother standing in the middle and his brother in her arms with surprise. Then he looked at them again and couldn't help asking, "Daddy, why are we standing here and not with our mother?"
Bai Shan touched her little head and said, "This is for ancestor worship. We are outsiders now, so we can't go in."
Little Bai Jingxing couldn't understand, "Aren't we a family? Aren't they outsiders?"
Bai Shan hissed and said, "I'll tell you when you're older. Well, in a few years you should be able to memorize the 'Clan Records'. When you've memorized it, I'll tell you why."
Madam Liu glanced at her grandson and pulled her great-granddaughter to her other side. "Don't bully the child."
Bai Shan: ...He started to recite the "Records of the Clans" when he was six years old. Why did no one say that they were bullying him at that time?
The Xia family was not large, and the ceremony for dividing the clan was not complicated. Witnessed by clan elders and heads of households, the clan leader separated Zhou Man's branch from her grandfather and wrote down the reason in the family tree.
Of course, the words were modified, saying only that the heir, Xia Mu, was young and needed his parents' guidance, so he would live in Chang'an. For the sake of the family's plans and his future development, they decided to split the clan...
The Xia clan leader took out a blank booklet and wrote Xia Yan's name at the top of the list. Next to it, he mentioned his wife, Ning, who gave birth to a daughter, Xia Xin. He married Zhou Yin from Mianzhou and had another daughter, Xia Man (Zhou Man). Due to misfortune when returning to his hometown, his young daughter went into exile with her maternal grandparents, so he changed his surname to Zhou. Later...
When the Xia clan leader wrote Bai Shan, he paused, then wrote Longzhou Bai, who had a son named Xia Mu to inherit...
Patriarch Xia put down his brush, dried the ink, and handed it to Zhou Man. "This is your family tree. Do you have any questions?"
Zhou Man took it and saw the two characters "Xia Mu" at the end. His eyes sparkled. Although it was much simpler, it was not a problem. So he shook his head and said, "No problem. Then the family tree here..."
Patriarch Xia handed it to her to read. The records on it were similar to those in her new family tree. In this way, when future generations were looking for their ancestry, they would be able to know the reasons and find their original family through this family tree.
Zhou Man returned the genealogy to Patriarch Xia, and knelt on the cushion with Wu Yuan, bowing to the spirit tablet enshrined in the ancestral hall.
Wu Yuan couldn't kneel steadily, so after Zhou Man finished the ceremony, he hugged him from behind, held his little hand and taught him to bow down little by little.
After both mother and son had completed their ceremony, Patriarch Xia handed her the new family tree in front of everyone.
Zhou Man took Xia Mu's hand and asked him to hold it tightly. He whispered, "Wu Yuan, you will be the leader of our branch from now on. You just need to be happy and grow up healthy."
The Xia clan leader said, "Although your branch has separated, your great-grandfather is still in the ancestral hall. You should still come back often to pay respects to him."
Zhou Man responded respectfully.
She knew that, just like Master Bai, although the clan had split up, whenever there was a major event in Longzhou, especially something as important as repairing a tomb, they would still find him because his ancestral tablets were still enshrined in the ancestral hall.
Zhou Man held Wu Yuan in his arms, and Wu Yuan walked out of the ancestral hall holding the family tree. They looked at Bai Shan who was standing outside, and a smile instantly broke out on their faces, which they couldn't suppress.
Old Madam Liu was also very happy. Her great-grandson had formed his own branch and had become the head of the clan. She rejoiced for a while, then came to her senses and saw the two children still laughing at each other, laughing like two idiots. She couldn't help but pat her grandson and said, "What are you still looking at? Go and get Wu Yuan. This child is so big and still being held by his mother."
Bai Shan came back to his senses and hurried forward to take the child.
Xia Rui led the two children over and said, "Congratulations."
Xia Rui, the lobbyist, was the most important factor in making this go so smoothly. So Bai Shan and Zhou Man bowed together, "Thank you, Uncle Xia."
(End of this chapter)
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