"Since you wanted a division of property and we’ve divided it all, and Nianji is getting married and needs the ceremony, what does that have to do with us?" Xu Zhong interrupted him, clearly impatient, saying, "Qinghe, it was you who wanted to split the property. Now you’ve got the house, the food, and the fields. You’re not expecting this old man also to hand over his retirement savings, are you?"
"Zhiyuan needs to attend university, and we need a lot of money for that." Xu Zhong’s attitude was clear—having divided those assets, that should be the end of it.
Grandma Liu Sanmei said with a troubled face, "Qinghe, Qinghe’s wife, it’s not that we parents don’t want to give money, but we genuinely don’t have it."
"Nobody believes we don’t have a penny."
Xu Nian’an muttered. All these years, the money his parents earned hadn’t spared a cent; it all went to the grandparents.
And his elder brother, who had been working for over a year, had his earnings just vanished into thin air?
"Grandpa, if you don’t give us a single penny, are you trying to starve us to death?" Xu Nianhua, her cheeks flushed from the fever and her voice weak, said as her clear and bright eyes, moistened as though drenched in tears, looked towards Xu Zhong.
"Aren’t you afraid the people in the village will criticize you? My parents have slaved away for the Xu family for half their lives, and everyone has seen it." Struggling to stand, Xu Nianhua’s feeble voice was pitiful. After speaking, she fainted.
This fainting spell gave Xu Qinghe and the others quite a scare.
Xu Qinghe, seeing Xu Nianhua looking as red as a boiled shrimp, anxiously touched her forehead and said, "Nianhua, wake up quickly."
"Nianhua, don’t scare your mom," Ji Ying said, extremely worried, looking helplessly at Xu Qinghe.
"Little sister." Xu Nian’an looked anxiously at Xu Nianhua, fearing the worst, and said, "Dad, mom, perhaps we should take little sister to the county hospital."
Xu Zhong and Liu Sanmei exchanged glances, looking at Xu Nianhua’s frail condition and considering her recent words, thinking that refusing to share any money indeed seemed unreasonable.
Just as they were preparing to take Xu Nianhua to the county, she faintly woke up.
"I’m fine, just powerless. I’ll feel better after some sleep," said Xu Nianhua, leaning on Ji Ying, dizzy and disoriented.
Xu Zhong cleared his throat, thinking about the thirty yuan Xu Nianji contributed every month—just consider one month not given to him, to avoid the claim of not sharing at all.
He said, "There isn’t much money in the house, at most we can only give you thirty yuan. But let me be clear, if I get sick in the future, even if we’ve divided the property, the eldest still has to care."
"Dad, I’m still your son," Xu Qinghe said. "Once dad gets older and can’t work, I definitely won’t neglect him."
Thirty yuan is, after all, better than nothing.
Xu Nian’an added, "Grandpa, you won’t be asking us for money for every little headache or fever, will you?"
"I’m not that poor yet," Xu Zhong’s face darkened.
"That’s good," Xu Nian’an seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
Xu Nianhua quietly asked Ji Ying, "Mom, how can we prove the old house is ours?"
Actually, Xu Nianhua meant to inquire about the property deed, but then thought that in these times, there was no such thing as a property deed.
Reminded by her daughter, Ji Ying immediately addressed it, and Xu Zhong, with a grim expression, said, "We’ll make a trip to the village committee tomorrow."
With that, Xu Zhong started shooing people away.
"Dad, it’s late at night, and the old house isn’t ready for us to move in yet," Xu Qinghe was taken aback, completely unprepared for Xu Zhong’s urgency in kicking them out.