Yu Luo turned her head, looked at her grandmother calmly, and comforted her.
"Just this morning, I went to the dental clinic and signed the documents."
After she finished speaking, her gaze slowly shifted back to her dumbfounded great-uncle and his family.
"So, this place you're making a scene in now is no longer my home."
"I have no idea whether the new homeowner has a good temper or not."
“When they arrive, they’ll see you crying and making a scene in the yard. If they report you to the authorities, they’ll say you’ve broken into someone’s home…”
Yu Luo paused, a slight smile curving her lips.
"...Don't blame me, your grand-nephew, for not warning you."
Her words were spoken slowly and deliberately, yet every word was piercing to the heart.
My great-uncle's finger, which had been frozen in mid-air, suddenly trembled.
The old woman, who was throwing a tantrum on the ground, had her pig-like howls stuck in her throat, neither coming out nor coming out, making her old face turn red.
"As for one hundred taels of silver?" Yu Luo chuckled lightly, as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world.
“I would like to ask my great-uncle.”
“When I went to take the exam, my family couldn’t afford the travel expenses. My mother and sister-in-law shamelessly went to your house to borrow two taels of silver for emergency use.”
"What did you say at the time?"
“I remember you wouldn’t even let us into your house. You just said through the crack in the door that our two families had already separated, and that it was none of the business of outsiders to worry about the affairs of the Yu family.”
Yu Luo's gaze swept over the faces of every neighbor at the gate of the courtyard.
“When I had no money, was traveling on an empty stomach, and almost died on the way, you didn’t give me a single copper coin.”
"Now that I've earned some money through my own abilities, you have the nerve to reach out and ask me to give your precious grandson a free education?"
She suddenly raised her voice, and her clear voice echoed throughout the alley.
"Neighbors, you be the judge!"
"Is there any logic to this?"
“When our family was so poor that we couldn’t even afford to eat, they would avoid us like the plague!”
"Now you're coming to talk to me about clan honor?"
These words resonated deeply.
The deathly silence at the alley entrance was instantly ignited.
"Oh! I remember now!" A quick-tongued old woman slapped her thigh. "Back then, when Sister-in-law Yu went to borrow money, they really did yell at her and drove her away! I heard it all clearly!"
"Exactly! They hid from us faster than anyone else back then, but now that they've made it big, they come running to take advantage. Is their skin made of a city wall?"
"What clan honor? Bah! Isn't this blatant robbery?"
Zhang, the scholar next door, also cleared his throat. His old face was burning from those words about clan righteousness.
He shrank back sheepishly, not daring to say another word.
"I told you this family is scum!" someone said in a low voice, but loud enough for everyone to hear. "Just a couple of days ago, I heard their second son bragging at the alley entrance, saying that once Scholar Yu and his family leave, this house will be theirs, and they'll bring his parents over to live here!"
"My God! Is that true?"
"So it was all planned all along!"
"Tsk tsk tsk, what an ingrate! A real ingrate who can't be tamed!"
"I think this house sold well! It sold brilliantly! If it hadn't been sold, it would have been taken over by these locusts sooner or later!"
If just now everyone thought that their great-uncle's family's eating habits were unsightly...
Now, that's downright morally corrupt, worse than an animal.
Disdainful and contemptuous gazes fell upon the great-uncle's family.
My great-uncle's face changed from white to red, then from red to purple, and finally turned into a liver color.
He never imagined that his proud clan identity would become a laughing stock that everyone wanted to beat.
The old woman got up from the ground, her face no longer showing any trace of her shrewishness.
Her precious grandson seemed to sense that something was wrong. He stopped crying, grabbed his mother's clothes, and shrank his neck like a frightened quail.
"Let's go! Let's go!"
My great-uncle squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth, unable to stay any longer. He grabbed his wife and practically fled.
His son and daughter-in-law quickly picked up the crying chubby boy and followed behind him sheepishly.
The courtyard finally returned to silence.
Grandmother watched her great-uncle's family's disheveled figures, let out a long sigh, and looked at them with a complicated expression.
She turned around, walked up to Yu Luo, and her lips moved slightly.
"An'er, why are you so resolute?"
“Once this house is sold, the Yu family’s roots in the county will be completely severed.”
The old man's voice carried a hint of weariness and sadness.
The mother, however, came over and took her grandmother's arm, for the first time not agreeing with her mother-in-law.
"Mother, I think An'er is right!"
"You saw it for yourself, what kind of family they are! If we don't sell this house, they can break in and move in the moment we leave! We'll be far away in the capital, unable to do anything about it, and they'll just be getting the house for nothing!"
The eldest sister-in-law nodded repeatedly, her face filled with lingering fear and relief.
The grandmother listened to her daughter-in-law's words and fell silent. She knew they were telling the truth.
Yu Luo walked to her grandmother's side and gently held her wrinkled hands.
"Grandma, the roots aren't in the house."
Her voice was gentle, yet carried an undeniable power.
"As long as our family is together, healthy and happy, our roots will always be there."
"If we want to come back in the future, we can just buy a bigger and better house than this one, right?"
A glimmer of light slowly appeared in Grandmother's cloudy eyes.
Yes, she guarded this old house, guarded her so-called "roots," but in the end, all she got in return was the scheming and humiliation of her clansmen.
On the contrary, it was this granddaughter, whom she thought was just a little girl, who protected the family's reputation and wealth.
"I was too attached to appearances..."
Grandmother murmured to herself, as if she had unloaded a heavy burden, and felt much lighter.
She grabbed Yu Luo's hand in return and patted it hard.
"Good! Good boy!"
"you're right!"
A resolute glint flashed in the old woman's eyes.
"I'm not leaving! I'm not waiting until tomorrow!"
"Let's leave today!"
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