"Just now Aunt Feng also mentioned, father you sold the He Family’s land. I don’t know the exact price, but the market price is clear. Even if it’s not twenty coins, it’s fifteen coins. So, I’ll count it as fifteen coins for you!"
"Additionally, when I returned to my parents’ home, I brought a total of one hundred jin of mixed flour and two hundred jin of sweet potato noodles. In this more than a month, my mother and I consumed less than fifty jin, leaving two hundred and fifty jin of grain."
"The donkey cart outside the cave, from the braying donkey to the cart frame and canopy, were all bought with money by Xiaobao’s father, and they belong to the He Family. I will take them away too!"
Ms. Hetian stood there coldly, her words filled with a chilling resolution.
The people around initially thought Mr. Tian and his wife were too unreasonable.
But now, hearing Ms. Hetian’s resolute words and her clear intention to settle accounts with her own parents, they wondered if Ms. Hetian might be a bit "unyielding in the face of reason"?
No matter what the parents did, they are elders after all.
How could Ms. Hetian do such a thing as a daughter—
"They say a married daughter is like spilled water. Since I’ve married He Erniu, I belong to the He Family, eating their food in life, and buried in their ancestral tomb in death!"
Ms. Hetian argued with the most universal and accepted "rules" of that era.
She made a pretense of self-blame, saying, "In the past, it was my fault, always thinking of repaying the gratitude of my parents’ upbringing, forgetting that I am already a daughter-in-law of the He Family!"
"I was using the He Family’s money to support my maiden family, and it was just because Erniu is kind and honest. If it were another more conventional family, perhaps I would have been divorced long ago!"
"Now Erniu has been made missing by my actions, as a daughter-in-law of the He Family, I must protect the family estate and properly raise the only heir of the He Family!"
"Father! Mother! You poisoning me is actually not a big deal, after all, you gave birth to me, gave me life, and now taking it back is only natural!"
"But you shouldn’t have plotted against Xiaobao. He doesn’t bear the Tian surname and hasn’t received any favors from you. On what basis do you sell him?"
"Riding the He Family’s donkey cart, eating the He Family’s grain, spending the He Family’s money, yet you still want to sell the only male of the He Family! Father! Mother, don’t you find this too much?"
Ms. Hetian’s accusations suddenly made the crowd realize.
Oh~~~
No wonder Tian Daniu exploded.
A woman giving herself to her maiden family could be understood, but how could she give away her only son too?
Tian Daniu might have been brought up by Old Lady Han to only think of her maiden family like a fool, but a mother’s instinct in Tian Daniu should still exist.
A mother becomes strong!
Mr. Tian and Old Lady Han, this couple was too oppressive, no wonder Tian Daniu exploded.
Even those who instinctively wanted to side with Mr. Tian and his wife couldn’t find a way to speak up.
What could they say?
Should they say that Ms. Hetian, as a married daughter, should use her in-laws to support her maiden family? Should she sell her own son to support her brother and nephew?
Haha, they themselves also have daughters-in-law, they themselves are "in-laws"!
If their daughters-in-law were to follow suit, how would their lives continue?
Rules are rules, and they mustn’t be broken!
Once a woman marries, she belongs to another family. Even if she’s childless, any inheritance issues are for the male relatives to handle.
The maiden family has no valid claim!
"Father! Mother! When Erniu married me, he gave six thousand coins as a bride price, which should count as repayment for your upbringing!"
"And in the past, the money and things I supplemented to the Tian Family amounted to at least thirty or forty coins altogether. With that money, I could have bought several Tian Daniu’s!"
"But now that Erniu is missing, as a daughter-in-law of the He Family, I must support the He Family!"
"From now on, the Tian Family is the Tian Family, and the He Family is the He Family. I cannot break the rules, nor can I set a bad example for others!"
"You can blame me for being unfilial, or scold me for being ungrateful, but I must stand up for the He Family!"
After saying this, Ms. Hetian didn’t care about the reactions of the crowd, pulling He Xiaobao away as she walked out.
Wow!
The crowd quickly made way, watching Ms. Hetian and her son leave.
Mr. Tian was the first to respond. This time, he couldn’t rely on Old Lady Han to step forward, and he shouted with a stiff neck: "You unfilial daughter, walk away if you must, but you are not allowed to take away items belonging to the Tian Family!"
The donkey cart, grain, and money, no matter whose name they bore in the past, now belonged to Old Tian’s Family!
And just now, Ms. Hetian made it clear, as if she was calculating every account.