In the past few days, the news that Ding Youtian's land had been rented out reached the ears of Old Ding and Mrs. Meng. The two of them only cursed a few words and did not take it to heart. Anyway, their fifth son had connected with King Zhao, and the two of them were waiting for the fifth son to come and bring them endless wealth and glory.
Who would have thought that after waiting for so long, they would receive the news that Lao Wu and his wife had passed away. When they first heard the news, it was like a bolt from the blue exploding over their heads!
It's totally unacceptable, okay?
As the eldest brother, Ding Youwang, came over to help Old Dingtou, he handed him a bamboo hat, but Old Dingtou slapped it to the ground. "It's already this late, and you're still concerned about getting wet, you heartless bastard!"
Old Ding stamped his head and feet and rushed out in the rain.
Meng stumbled and ran after him, screaming at the top of her lungs. She couldn't understand why her fifth son, who had married Prince Zhao, had died so suddenly!
There were already many people wearing straw hats gathered by the river, watching the melons. When they heard the wailing sounds coming from the rain and fog, they turned around and saw that it was Old Ding and Meng, so they all moved away.
The bodies of "Lao Wu" and "Lu" were discovered and salvaged by craftsmen from the base who were fishing by the river and were placed on the grass by the shore.
The faces of the two dead bodies were swollen, but the onlookers could still identify them as Lao Wu and Lu at a glance. Meng was crying loudly with the support of Liu and Gao, but various discussions around her could still be heard.
"Most likely he owed gambling debts and was murdered!"
"Who let him develop that bad habit? How much money do we farmers have to afford to gamble?"
"Since ancient times, few gamblers have had a good ending!"
Listening to the discussions around her, Meng's heart skipped a beat. She knew that Lao Wu was gambling. She stopped crying immediately, shook off Liu and Gao, and went forward to pull Lao Ding back home.
After being married for decades, Old Ding knew that she wouldn't pull him back for no reason. He couldn't ask her on the way, so as soon as he entered the house, he asked with tears in his eyes, "What's going on?"
"Wipe it off first, change your wet clothes and shoes, and be careful not to catch a cold later." Meng gave him a dry towel and took one herself, wiping herself as she spoke, "No one but me cares about you now, and likewise, no one but you cares about me. Children are all enemies, all here to collect debts. We two have to take care of ourselves, otherwise, if we die one day, I'm afraid we won't even be able to afford a coffin."
Old Ding was confused, but seeing that she was calm and composed, obviously she had made up her mind, he followed her instructions, wiped his hair, and changed his clothes, shoes and socks.
After packing up, Meng sat cross-legged on the kang. "Listen, old man, that short-lived, unlucky old fifth brother might still have gambling debts. Anyway, we've divided the family business, so no matter who comes to collect, we have to make it clear that we won't acknowledge them."
"Of course." Old Ding nodded. "Why should I pay off his gambling debts?"
"Another thing, isn't the land allocated to the fifth brother temporarily registered in our names? This land can't be given to the fifth branch either. We can't even rely on our sons, so how can we rely on our grandchildren?"
"That's impossible." Old Ding paused, stretching his neck. "Does that mean Ding Fu and those two money-losing bastards really want us to support them?"
"Bah! We're over a hundred years old combined, and we're still raising a child for him? That's impossible. It doesn't make sense."
"What should we do? Let the other four families raise him?"
"Where does the fourth branch come from? The sixth one hasn't married yet, so he's still on our side. Just like before, let the three branches above take turns raising him. Having more mouths won't make them broke. They are their dear nephews and nieces, not outsiders."
Old Ding also calmed down, pondered silently for a while, and slapped his thigh, "Let them take care of what the kids eat, or else we can give each family one and put it under their name. I'm old now, and I can't take care of so much land by myself, so we can rent it out to farm."
"Okay, since no one in our village wants to rent the land, let's go to other villages and find someone to rent it to. We don't mind if no one wants to farm the land. There are so many poor people out there. Whoever rents the land can just harvest enough food to keep them half full and not starve to death. The rest is ours!"
"It's fitting that way! How many prodigal sons like Lao Si are there in the world? He's so rich and poor, he's crazy! He passed the imperial examination, doesn't have to pay taxes, and has a few acres of land. Look how happy he is, he's lost his name!"
After the discussion was complete, the two of them were no longer saddened by the death of the fifth and fifth couple, leaving all matters to the eldest brother. Since they all knew that the fifth brother was addicted to gambling, no one thought of reporting the death to the authorities. Furthermore, since the fifth and fifth couple were under the age of forty, according to local custom, deaths under the age of forty were considered sudden deaths, so there was no need to bury them. They were hastily taken to the mountain and buried.
As for the three children of the fifth family, their grandparents were still alive, so why should they be raised by the third branch of the family? Liu and Gao were naturally dissatisfied. After arguing for several days, they finally invited the village head and the clan leader to come. After some mediation, Fang took the initiative to adopt Xing'er.
Ding Fu, the daughter of the fifth wife, and Ding Ping, the eldest, were both able to work. Seeing that the second wife had adopted Xing'er, and that the matter was already settled, Liu rushed to adopt Ding Ping. She still had no news of her daughter Ding Zhu, and no one knew where that bastard Wu Fengfu had sold her to. Adopting a daughter would give her a chance to get a dowry when she got married.
Since both the first and second wives had adopted Ding Fu, Gao had no choice but to adopt Ding Fu reluctantly. She didn't know what had happened to her Ding Gui. Now he was weaker than Ding Youtian before and could not do any heavy work.
It’s good to adopt Ding Fu, as it will provide more laborers.
Liu and Gao thought they had taken advantage, secretly laughing at Fang's folly. Xing'er was so young, yet she needed someone to take care of her when she couldn't do any work. Little did they know, Ding Youtian had secretly informed the second brother and his wife that he would give them one tael of silver a year until Xing'er turned eighteen. He then paid it off in full, leaving them with seventeen taels of silver.
Spring plowing and autumn harvest, make good use of time.
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