Chapter 95: Chapter 96: Planning to Reap the Benefits
Zhilan’s mother couldn’t remember a single time in her life she had been this humiliated. Her legs quivered as she felt disgrace not just in her own village, but now in another’s village as well.
Even though Tang Zhinian decided not to pursue, the villagers didn’t agree. How could they accept it when a child had been beaten up in someone else’s village? Being already irate due to the recent flood, their resentment had only grown stronger.
Zhilan’s mother was from Sha Village, which was on higher ground and thus the houses were in good shape. Yet, even well-built houses had been severely damaged by the flood. Everyone in the village was trying to recover their losses. Zhilan’s mother thought of her son-in-law, no, her former son-in-law. She wondered if she could exploit the situation somehow.
Everyone in the villages around knew about Tang Zhinian and his brother making quite a sum of money from their coriander plantation.
Coriander was high in demand that year. Even a small yield could bring in good money. So with several acres of it, the earnings would bound to be substantial. Zhilan’s mother regretted her actions deeply.
If only she had delayed the divorce, she could have had a share in it. She didn’t believe for a second that Tang Zhinian would dare not give her the money she deserved. At least four to five thousand wouldn’t have been a problem.
How could the Sang family not be green with envy at the money the Tang brothers were making this year? They regretted their decision of not cultivating coriander in their lands. Now, their fields were flooded leaving them with nothing. They were on the brink of starvation and had coaxed Zhilan’s mother to get money from Tang Zhinian. Despite the village being washed away by the flood, money wouldn’t be. Only fools would keep their money at home and not in a bank.
The excuse was simple – the grandmother missed her granddaughter. Once the little girl was home, Tang Zhinian would obediently pay up the money. Even if he had divorced Sang Zhilan, the granddaughter still belonged to the Sang Family.
Just as the brothers were contemplating what to do with the money, they heard a commotion at the door. They saw their wives arguing with some strangers on their return.
Their mother was sitting on the ground, her pant legs dirty and a foul smell pervading the surroundings.
They also spotted Tang Zhinian and his brother in the crowd.
“Tang Zhinian, what are you up to?”
Tang Zhinian casually glanced at the two irritated Sang brothers. They once ragged on him relentlessly, reducing him to a shadow of his former self. The thought of it filled him with sadness. Looking at the items in the Sang household, every single one of them was moved from his house. Everything from table and chairs to small kitchen utensils, and the larger furniture, all belonged to them.
“Tang Zhinian, what’s the meaning of this?” Sang’s eldest brother was enraged. He was unable to comprehend the sudden shift in his status. Before, Tang Zhinian treated them with utter respect. But now, he was showing complete disregard. Why was his mother sitting on the ground? This was the mother-in-law of the Tang family. Did his sister marry into the Tang family just to be a birthing machine?