After Jiang Yeqian finished counting the notes, he asked Qi Qingyao, “How about you? What are you planning to do when construction of the house is underway?”
“I’ll stay here and teach these three illiterate little kids how to read,” Qi Qingyao ruffled Xiaobao’s hair as she spoke. Xiaobao was excited, and the eyes of Dabao and Erniu lit up as well. Could they finally learn how to read?
Jiang Yeqian: “…”
He respected this benevolent idea of hers. He also did not bother to ask how and where she had learned to read and write. She harbored a lot of secrets to start with, but he reckoned he would eventually figure out everything anyway.
…
The next afternoon, outside the Zhang family house, Zhang Tieyuan was drinking another pot of liquor. While he had his arms around the pot, he saw his son Zhang Tiezhu and daughter-in-law Zhang Caixia in the house, spacing out. Zhang Tieyuan entered the house and barked, “Why haven’t you packed up your things yet? What are you waiting for?”
Zhang Tiezhu looked as if he had not slept for two days. His eyes were bloodshot and red. He screamed at Zhang Tieyuan like a beast that had lost control of its emotions, “I’m not packing up! I’m not leaving! This is my house! I won’t leave even if I die!”
Smack—
Zhang Tieyuan rushed over and slapped his son on the face. He drank another mouthful of liquor. He said heavily, “We lost. The land and our property now belong to someone else. Do you understand?”
Zhang Tiezhu glared at his father venomously. He cursed, “I don’t understand! I’ve lived here for more than ten years. I didn’t do anything wrong. Why should this house and our land belong to someone else?”
After that, Zhang Caixia bellowed at her father-in-law, scolding him, “If not for you! It’s all because of you! You lazy, gambling fool!”
Smack!
Zhang Tieyuan was so furious that he slapped his daughter-in-law on the face as well.
He had not expected them to turn on him. “You’re only a woman. What right do you have to scold me? I’m your father-in-law!”
“I said nothing wrong!” Madam Zhang’s eyes turned red after she was hit. She wiped her tears, looking at Zhang Tieyuan as if he was her enemy. “You’ve done nothing but hit me and your son. What are you capable of? You’ve done nothing in your life except for gambling! Mother-in-law died because she was angry at you for gambling. Now because you gambled, we’ve lost our house and land. Everything is because of you!”
At Zhang Caixia’s mention of the old woman, Zhang Tieyuan could not bring himself to hit his daughter-in-law a second time. He turned his head back furiously and said to his son, “Zhang Tiezhu, aren’t you going to say something against that?”
Zhang Tiezhu looked like he had lost all his strength. He sat there, out of sorts, as he spoke in a soft voice, sounding helpless, “Father, we’ve lost everything.”
That was it.
Zhang Tiezhu then put more force behind his words as he articulated derisively, pausing between words, “We. Have. Lost. Everything!”
“…” Zhang Tieyuan was cowed at the sight of the fire in his son’s eyes. He took two steps back. Had he become the enemy of his whole family?
Zhang Tieyuan felt like he was abandoned by his family. Anxiously, he looked outside, at Zhang Cuiyun’s silhouette. He said to his son, “We… Our lives won’t be so difficult. Your elder sister hasn’t married yet. We just have to…”
Zhang Cuiyun, who was packing up her things, paused when she heard her father’s words. She trembled from head to toe for a few seconds and then turned back to look at her drunk father. “You do this all the time. When something happens, you sell off your daughters. All my elder sisters have been sold and I’m the only one left. Now you have plans to sell me too. Go on then, sell me! See if I can fetch you two taels!”
When his daughter, who never talked back, did so, Zhang Tieyuan’s lips trembled.
He was unable to utter anything in response.