Chapter 142 What is shameless? This is called shameless!
The kid from the second brother's family was able to spend money to get into Changshan Academy, so why didn't his family want to spend money to send him to Changshan Academy?
If he had been sent to Changshan Academy earlier, he would have been admitted to the imperial examination by now!
Gu Liansheng lost his mind due to jealousy. He glared at Gu Lianshan beside him with a vicious look: "You are born stupid, and so are the girls and boys in your house! Why don't you just stay in your place and know who you are, and why do you have to squander the 100 taels of silver?
Are you doing this on purpose? Are you resentful that my parents favor me, so you want to spend all the money in the family so that I won't have money to study in the future?"
Hearing this, Gu Lianshan didn't even look at him. He just rolled his eyes to the sky and imitated Gu Tang, poking Gu Liansheng in the heart.
"What kind of bullshit is that? You and I are both born of our parents, and we have the same blood in our bones. I was born stupid? What? Do you think you are smart? After decades of studying, you haven't even become a scholar. You deserve to be called stupid!"
"You!" Gu Liansheng stood up suddenly, and the next moment, he felt dizzy and sat back down immediately.
Maybe it was because he was so angry that he got sick, or maybe he got up too fast, but the sudden dizziness made Gu Liansheng's face turn pale.
If he hadn't held onto the table next to him, he would have fallen off the stool.
Mr. Gu's face was in a panic: "But you're dizzy again?"
Gu Liansheng didn't say anything. He just closed his eyes and leaned on the desk to slowly recover from the dizziness.
"Second brother!"
Seeing his eldest son like this, Mr. Gu raised his eyes and scolded his second son: "You know your eldest brother can't be angry, but you still dare to deliberately make him angry like this! How can you compare with your eldest brother? He was born to be an official!"
"Yes, yes, yes! He was born with good luck in becoming an official, but he studied for decades and still couldn't even become a scholar! I can't compare with him! What bad luck!" Gu Lianshan said viciously.
These words successfully made Mr. Gu very angry.
But at this moment, Gu Tang suddenly added fuel to the fire. He went out and called Gu Ping'an, asking him to come into the main room.
Gu Ping'an was boiling water in the kitchen. He was going to go to the backyard to kill a chicken later and boil some hot water to burn the chicken feathers.
When he heard Gu Tang calling him, he didn't think much about it. He pushed the burning firewood in the stove inside, then closed the kitchen door and quickly went to the main room.
When people came in, the eyes of everyone in the room looked at him with happiness, hatred, complexity, etc., which were intertwined and extremely hot, making Gu Ping'an's hair stand on end!
Gu Ping'an didn't know what was going on. He forced himself to remain calm and greeted his elders one by one.
The clan leaders and elders all responded with a smile, praising her continuously: "She is so talented! She has such an extraordinary temperament at such a young age, she will definitely become a great person in the future..."
Gu Pingan:……!!!
What happened to the clan leaders and elders? They didn't drink, so why are they talking nonsense? !
What about a person with a beautiful mind, extraordinary temperament, and a great future? Who is this talking about? !
No matter how thick-skinned he is, he would not dare to accept these compliments!
It is no wonder that the clan leaders and elders would say this. Gu Ping'an's appearance is like Zhang's, but he also has the advantages of his father Gu Lianshan. Although he is not very old, he has beautiful eyes and clear eyebrows.
Her skin color was also like Zhang's, fair and rosy. No matter how tanned she got in the summer, her skin would quickly turn white in winter.
With such looks, it is hard to find anyone who can match him, not only in the Gu family, but also in the surrounding villages.
Even the Lin brothers and sisters who were born of the same mother cannot compare to them.
In the eyes of the clan leaders and elders, this is what a scholar should look like, much better than Gu Liansheng!
Faced with everyone's inexplicable praise, Gu Ping'an felt uneasy.
He secretly glanced at his father, but got no response. He then secretly glanced at Gu Tang, but got a look in response.
Before he could figure out what this look meant, Old Man Gu, who was sitting in the main seat, suddenly interrupted the clan leaders and elders' praise and belittled Gu Ping'an.
"Sanlang has never even touched a book, how can he deserve such praise? He is also a dull person on weekdays. No matter what work he does, he will not move until you tell him. He also ignores his brothers and sisters at home. He has no tact and no warm heart..."
This was such an obvious and deliberate put-down that everyone in the room could hear it.
Gu Tang ignored him and thought he was talking nonsense. He continued talking to Gu Ping'an: "When you listened to your uncle reading at home, you memorized a few articles. Now you recite those articles for me and your uncle to listen to. We didn't spend a penny, but we are still better than those who spent a lot of money."
The room suddenly fell silent. Everyone knew who Gu Tang was talking about when he said "the man who spent so much money".
Gu Ping'an was still confused, but he always listened to Gu Tang.
Since Gu Tang asked him to carry it on his back, he just did it.
"Then let's recite 'The Great Learning'? This is the one that my uncle taught the most when he taught my brother. 'The Way of the Great Learning is to manifest the bright virtue, to love the people, and to stop at the highest good…'
The boy's voice with ups and downs rang in everyone's ears, with accurate punctuation and sincere tone, without any pause or hesitation, and the whole article was extremely smooth.
Obviously, Gu Ping'an really remembered this "University" by heart.
The article of more than a thousand words was memorized in no time, and Mr. Gu could no longer utter the four words "木头木木闹".
Gu Liansheng, who was feeling dizzy, was not only feeling dizzy at this moment, his head was buzzing and he felt heartbroken!
Patriarch Gu was also a scholar, but he failed the exam for a long time, so he gradually gave up the idea.
Although he no longer took the imperial examination, he never gave up studying.
Seeing that Gu Ping'an had truly recited the article today, word for word, he felt extremely happy and couldn't help but ask him a question.
"Although you have memorized it, do you understand its meaning?"
"I understand a little bit. I wrote it down when my uncle and cousin were explaining it."
"Well, let me ask you, what does this opening sentence mean?"
The opening sentence...
Gu Pingan thought about it and said quickly: "The first sentence is about 'the way of university is to promote upright and honest virtues and to make people abandon the old and pursue the new①..."
"Everything has its root and its branches, and every matter has its end and its beginning. If you know what comes first and what comes later, you are close to the truth."
"Everything has its roots and branches, and everything has a beginning and an end. If you can understand the principles of the beginning and the end, you can get close to the laws of things in this world②..."
…
Gu Ping'an did not apply all of Gu Liansheng's explanations. After all, anyone who was educated knew these explanations.
At the end of his explanation, he shared some of his own insights, some of which were right and some were wrong, but they made Patriarch Gu even happier!
The head of the Gu clan, who originally only intended to preside over the division of the family and not to take care of these matters, turned around and reprimanded Old Man Gu: "You have been blind all your life. You have bypassed all the good things, whether they are people or things, and only picked those inappropriate loves! Now that your grandson's cleverness is in front of you, I am afraid to see whether you will continue to be blind!"
Old Master Gu’s face was pale and blue, his eyes were complicated and difficult to read, and his heart was filled with resentment.
Why didn’t this cleverness fall on the eldest brother and his son?
It happened to fall in the second brother’s room!
Compared to Mr. Gu's unwillingness, Gu Liansheng was awed in his heart, and his gloomy face looked hideous and terrifying!
The look he gave Gu Ping'an was full of malice, which made the elders on the opposite side frown and secretly say that something was wrong.
The eldest son of the Gu family must be determined to get out of this situation, and this family must be separated!
One of the most senior elders looked at Mr. Gu steadily and said, "Although a girl who has not married into a family cannot have private property, it is not absolute. As long as her parents agree, it will be fine.
Now that Zhang has been divorced, as long as your second son has no objection, then the one hundred taels of silver should belong to your fourth daughter."
Old Master Gu and Gu Liansheng, father and son, froze in a daze and suddenly became angry. They didn't expect that the clan elder would openly favor the second branch!
The elder ignored the anger on the father and son's faces and continued, "Your Si Ya is a good girl. This was her own money, but she didn't spend any of it. She spent it all on your San Lang, and bought him a better future.
Just for this reason, you can no longer mention the one hundred taels of silver, and don't even think about splitting it in half. Sanlang is like this, he will definitely have a great future. If you embarrass the second wife like this today, how will you face the second wife when the child becomes successful in the future?"
These words softened Mr. Gu's heart a little, but when his eyes swept over his sickly eldest son and Sanlang who was looking at him coldly, the soft heart immediately disappeared.
"If it were in the past, I would have forgotten about the money, but now I am ill and cannot work. The mother of my child is even worse than me. She is paralyzed in bed and cannot even walk."
"My second son said yesterday that my mother needs to take medicine all year round, one pack a day, and each pack costs fifty copper coins, which means eighteen taels of silver a year! If I don't take this silver, I'm afraid I can only watch my mother die of illness!"
Hearing this, Gu Lianshan almost laughed out of anger, and then he told everyone that his mother was not seriously ill, but just couldn't walk.
He also told everyone what the doctor from Bei'an City had said and what Feng had done, without missing a single word.
The clan leaders and elders had heard a few things about Feng's medical treatment, but they didn't know the details.
After hearing what Gu Lianshan said today, I looked at Old Man Gu meaningfully and didn't know what to say.
This old couple...it's really hard to describe!
One is clearly fine, but he insists he will die if he doesn't take medicine.
A man who knew clearly that the medicine was useless still forced his son to buy it, and refused to come back until he bought enough for a year!
How come everyone is so confused all of a sudden?
Glancing at the brother and sister standing aside, everyone understood that the old couple was probably trying to use the medicine issue to cheat their fourth daughter of the family out of the one hundred taels of silver.
For a moment, everyone looked at Mr. Gu with contempt, looking down on his behavior, which was not worthy of being treated decently!
Sensing that the clan leaders and elders were looking at him in a strange way, Mr. Gu felt ashamed and angry, and he wanted to kill his second son right away!
He took a deep breath and decided to go for broke: "No matter what the mother's condition is, it is true that she needs money for treatment! I don't want more than the 100 taels of silver, you must hand over half!"
Patriarch Gu was furious: "Didn't you hear me just now? The money has been spent, where can I get money for you?"
"Then write an IOU! Ask all the family members of the second house, regardless of age, to put their fingerprints on it!" Old Master Gu's eyes were dark.
As soon as these words were spoken, they instantly aroused public anger.
Gu Tang secretly glanced at the old man and couldn't help but curl his lips. It was such a beautiful thought, just like a dream.
They forced the second wife to write an IOU and had the whole family put their fingerprints on it, with the intention of continuing to control the second wife afterwards.
Faced with his own father's shamelessness, the bad-tempered Gu Lianshan finally couldn't hold back and said, "If you want to calculate it this way, then let's calculate how much money my eldest brother has spent in the past few decades. I don't want more, I just want half!"
Mr. Gu was not panicked at all and said something shocking: "Your eldest brother is the eldest son. The eldest son inherits the family business. The money in this family originally belongs to your eldest brother. No matter how much he spends, it is what he deserves. What does it have to do with you?"
"Wait a moment!" Patriarch Gu, who noticed something was wrong, immediately interrupted.
He asked seriously, "From what you said, you don't intend to share the things in this house with your second son at all?"
“No difference.” Mr. Gu said calmly, lowering his eyes and not looking at his son.
Then he continued to defend himself: "My family is not rich and cannot afford the trouble of dividing the family property, so I simply won't give the second son anything. They can continue to live in the west wing, which can be regarded as a share for their second son."
Anger appeared on Patriarch Gu’s face.
But before he could get angry, he heard Gu Lianshan on the opposite side readily agree to it!
"Okay! Just do as my father wishes!"
The clan leaders and elders all looked over and looked at Gu Lianshan with an expression that said "Are you stupid?"
Gu Lianshan wiped his face and said, "My second branch does not want any of the things in the house. We don't want the west wing either. We will move out soon! However, my second branch will not ask about anything concerning you and my mother, and we will not show any respect to you during festivals!"
"Unfilial thing!" Old Master Gu was furious and threw the crutch in his hand directly.
Gu Lianshan dodged swiftly and was not hit.
This made Old Master Gu even angrier: "You are not the eldest son, and the things in this house have nothing to do with you! You want to use this to threaten me, but you won't listen no matter how hard you try! Your mother and I gave birth to you and raised you, which is a great favor! You must repay the favor!
I'll make it clear to you now. Hand over the fifty taels of silver, and your mother and I will live with your eldest brother. You will pay for your mother's monthly medicine, and your eldest brother will pay for my monthly medicine.
In addition, you need to give me 50 kilograms of rice and flour every month. Your mother and I need to take care of ourselves, and rice and flour are good for our health, so we can’t go without them!”
What does shameless mean?
This is called shameless!
The clan leaders and elders were amazed and gradually came to their senses.
No wonder he suddenly changed his mind and agreed to split the family. Under this condition, after the split, the Gu family will still be supported by the second branch, but the second branch cannot touch a single cent of the Gu family!
What a good plan, it’s really a good plan!
When things got to this point, Gu Lianshan suddenly stopped being angry.
He stood up and knelt before the clan leader: "Today this family will not be divided."
No more separation?
The clan leaders and elders looked at each other.
You've already knelt down, and now you say you don't want to separate?
The clan leaders and elders had no idea what Gu Lianshan was saying and could only wait in silence for him to continue.
Old Master Gu, who was sitting in the main seat, felt a pang in his heart when he saw his son like this, and thought to himself, this is not good, he is up to some bad intentions again!
①②From Wikipedia
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