After returning home, Zhao Dayong shooed his daughter out of the house and locked the door.
"How much was distributed?"
"Old woman, what do you think about us buying Mother's little courtyard? Mother's house is a brick and tile house with heated walls, which is perfect for us to live in."
His chronic leg pain made him feel incredibly comfortable sitting in his mother's house for half a day during the winter.
"How much?"
"In total, it will cost about twenty-seven taels of silver for the eldest and third brothers."
Li immediately exploded, "Are you crazy? Where would we get the money?"
"Today we've divided the land, plus a house, and the money from selling the servants, so we should get about forty taels."
Li was speechless. Had the old man gone senile?
“These are all things we can see but can’t touch, and we can’t exchange them for silver, can we? Listen to me, we don’t want Mother-in-law’s house.”
Why move when we're living comfortably in the old house? My eldest brother moved away, my mother moved away, and my third brother moved away too. The old house is all ours now.
"I finally made it to the end, and you're telling me to buy a new house? Have you got too much money to burn?"
Zhao Dayong had to admit that he and his wife seemed to have lost their tacit understanding and were no longer as united as before. In the past, they could always think alike and had the same ideas about everything.
"We're not feeling well, it's warmer over there."
“If Mother-in-law gives us the house, we can move in without any problem, since there are only four of us in the family right now. But now we have to buy it, a full twenty-seven taels of silver. How can we afford that? Old man, don’t be confused, okay?”
"We'll live here even if we don't buy it."
"Isn't this place nice? We're not rich, old man, can you please stop acting like this?"
Li thought the old man might be frightened by her illness, so now he just wanted to spend money to recuperate.
The key people need to recognize reality: are they people who can enjoy life and are particular about things?
Zhao Dayong fell silent, looking very unhappy. He sat on the kang (a heated brick bed) smoking his pipe, sulking.
"Old man, don't blame me. I was thinking of using this money to buy a wife for Dazhuzi next year. Once we have a daughter-in-law, won't we have someone to do the work at home? Isn't that better than buying a house?"
"Wife, wife, wife"—these are the two words that the two of them can't escape whenever they chat these past two years.
"Who do you think can live with him? He doesn't do any work, and he can't even get a woman pregnant. What if the woman we paid to marry becomes unfaithful? What if she runs away in a few years? Wouldn't all our money have gone down the drain?"
"How could that be? How could they run away? Dazhu is so good..."
"He's a good man, he beats and scolds his wife, doesn't do any housework, and is full of bad ideas. Who can live with him?"
He and Madam Pan used to get along quite well, right? Look at what happened to Madam Pan in the end. Don't you think the girl was afraid?
Li threw down her needlework. "So you want to buy a house, right? I'm making this clear today: we absolutely cannot buy a house. I don't agree."
"I can spend my money however I want, and I'm going to buy a house no matter what, so what can you do about it?"
The two were deadlocked.
The couple hadn't argued in ages, and this was the first time they'd ever had such a fierce fight.
Li sat at the end of the kang (a heated brick bed) and cried, while Zhao Dayong sat at the head of the kang and just kept smoking.
Zhao Dashu strolled home leisurely and handed the money to his wife, saying, "Look, this is what your husband earned for you."
Besides gaining some land and four people, he also had to put money out of his own pocket, but he didn't care; as long as he was happy, that was all that mattered.
You bought all four of them?
"Of course. I promised them they would be loyal to me, and I would protect them in the end. A person cannot break their word. From now on, let them live in this house in the village and work with everyone."
"Okay, we didn't argue about splitting the money today, did we?"
Zhao Dashu took off his shoes and stretched his feet onto Song's legs. "No, I paid for everything, what can they argue about? If I had said it was all split into three parts today, they probably wouldn't be back by now."
That's all they're good for; I can't be bothered to argue.
"What about Grandma's room? How was it divided?"
"My second brother wants it, but he said he needs to think about it and discuss it with his wife."
"Second sister-in-law will definitely agree. Second brother is sick, and it's definitely more comfortable for him to stay with mother to recuperate."
Zhao Dashu smiled meaningfully, "I don't think so. People really can change. Sometimes you can't judge things by appearances or by her past behavior."
"What's the meaning?"
"My second sister-in-law has changed. I don't know when she changed, but I can tell she has."
"You mean she doesn't miss her second brother anymore?"
"It's not that she can't completely ignore it. She can't be so heartless after a lifetime of companionship. But I'm not sure if her second brother is more important to her, or her children, or even more important money."
Yesterday I went to tell her that my second brother was very ill, and I was really sad, but how could I put it, I just cried and didn't say anything substantial for half a day.
My daughter used to say that if a man isn't willing to spend money on a woman, he's not truly sincere. I think my sister-in-law is definitely unwilling to spend money.
Song felt that her husband was talking nonsense. She believed that her eldest sister-in-law ignored her eldest brother, and she was extremely disappointed and heartbroken. But she would never believe that her second sister-in-law was unwilling to make sacrifices for her second brother.
"Don't talk nonsense. They're doing great. Second sister-in-law cares a lot about second brother."
"You'll find out whether it's nonsense or not later. My second brother is so pitiful. I feel sorry for him. If I were him, I'd rather die. What's the point of living?"
Or they might go all the way and spend all their money before they die, leaving no one with an advantage.
Song chose to remain silent; she was certain her man had gone mad again and was rambling incoherently once more.
Where is your daughter?
“The whole family went up the mountain to sweep the tombs. They didn’t even visit Xiao Lei’s mother when they came back this time. They took the children up to see their great-grandmother and grandmother.”
"It's time to go and take a look."
If it weren't so cold, he would have liked to go up the mountain to visit his father.
His eldest son, whom he loved most, was completely controlled by Wang and became her tool for making money. His second son was even worse off; when he fell ill, his wife refused to pay for his medical treatment.
How could he not know?
He should teach his two daughters-in-law a lesson for bullying his son while he's away, and scare them to death.
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