Fortunately, the fourth child was a boy, and Lin Jianling personally went to paste red paper on the door. But unexpectedly, the red paper had only been up for three days before it turned to white paper. The baby boy had died.
This really infuriated Lin Jianling, who sulked for several days, displeased with everyone he saw.
But now, it was all good. With this little brother, Lin Yuan and the rest no longer feared the idle gossip of the villagers.
Those who loved drama pretended to pass by the door on purpose, with some eagerly inquiring Lin Yuan, "Da Ya, has your mother given birth? What did she have?"
Lin Yuan looked at them with wry amusement, seeing the schadenfreude in their eyes. She flashed her brightest smile and exclaimed loudly, "My mother gave me a little brother! Aunt Wang says he’s about six jin, and he cries so loudly."
Seeing the stunned expression on the questioner’s face and the few others who were all ears, Lin Yuan finished pasting the red paper and called out, "Don’t forget to come to our house for red eggs when my brother’s full moon celebration comes around!"
Leaving behind a crowd of bewildered onlookers, Lin Yuan hummed a tune and went back to check on the little baby.
The news that Lady Liu had given birth to a boy spread throughout the entire Lin family village in less than an hour. Even Lin Yuan was astonished by her family’s influence nowadays.
Quite a few nosy people came holding red eggs to see Lady Liu, offering all kinds of auspicious phrases. As for how many of them genuinely came to visit out of kindness, Lin Yuan couldn’t say; certainly many were there to see if the boy would be another short-lived ghost.
One particularly nosy old woman even ran specifically to the old house to tell Lady Yang and the others the news, only to be chased out by Li Feng’e.
Upon hearing that Lin Jian’s family finally had a male heir, Lady Yang, who had not shown a smile for many months, hurriedly shuffled into the house to share the good news with Lin Jiazhong.
Lady Ma, who was in the house caring for her own young son, acted as if she hadn’t heard anything, her face indifferent. Ever since she learned about the inhumane conditions her son endured in the prison, Lady Ma truly felt anguished. Had she known this would happen, she would not have listened to Lin Jiazhong and sent both sons to town to study.
What was the use of studying? Lin Jiazhong studied too, and now he was nothing more than Mr. Accountant, earning those silver coins each month.
Then, look at Lin Jian’s family’s Little Disaster Star—no, she should no longer be called that—now with opening stores and building houses, and now even Lady Liu, who used to be considered a losing bet, could give birth to a son. Could she still be called Little Disaster Star?
Without studying, weren’t they living just fine?
Thinking of studying, Lady Ma let out a deep sigh. Her eldest son had already sent several messages; he had run out of silver at school and was in danger of going hungry if she didn’t send more soon.
Lady Ma took out a brick from the kang bed to reveal a small cloth bag underneath. What used to be bulging was now left with barely more than two taels of silver. To bribe people for Lin Yongle’s sake, all the family’s silver had been spent. Jiazhong had also advanced quite a bit of silver from the Boss.
"Ah!" Lady Ma sighed again, taking out one tael of silver. After a moment’s thought, she took out the remaining tael as well. Her son, being out and about with no silver, would not do. They would make do at home somehow. The remaining few silver pieces should suffice.
Every time she thought about the family’s current situation, Lady Ma felt suffocated. The entire household’s expenses, food, and drink all fell on the shoulders of Boss’s family. Lin Jian and his wife pretended to be fools, living off them, yet they had the audacity to hit her!
No, she would not swallow this injustice silently!