Allure of a Country Maiden-Chapter 79 - 77 Cutting Ties
Chapter 79: Chapter 77: Cutting Ties
Chapter 79 -77: Cutting Ties
After more than a month of constant hammering, Xiao’er’s new house was finally completed, and they were now building the courtyard walls.
Xiao’er planned to enclose even the wasteland and barren mountains, which made the villagers consider her family crazy.
The amount of money it would cost to encircle such a large piece of land could build them several more houses.
Xiao’er didn’t care about what others said, she asked Shen Chengzu to hire twenty well-reputed men from the village to help.
They would be paid 25 coins a day, without meals included.
When villagers from other villages heard this, they scrambled to sign up, and Shen Chengzu picked up some diligent and honest ones, hiring a total of forty-eight people.
She planned to dig several more ponds on the wasteland to raise fish, shrimp, crabs, and river clams.
This would make it convenient later to sell the fish and pearls from the space.
As for the two barren mountains, one would be used to grow herbs and the other to grow fruit.
The idea was to facilitate the selling of herbs and fruit from the space too.
She also asked Foreman Liang to build two simple houses at the foot of each mountain, each with two rooms, a living room, kitchen, and bathroom.
They hosted a modern layout and were made of brick, but only had one floor and would be used to house the people who would tend to the crops on the mountain.
At dusk, when the three siblings came home, they were immediately called into the main house.
“Why did you three hire people to enclose all the wasteland with walls?” Mr.
Shen didn’t let them sit down as soon as they walked in and got right to the point.
“This way it’s more secure, we won’t have to worry about others stealing our things!”
“Nonsense!
What do you have that people could steal!
We don’t even know if those wastelands can produce anything!
Do you realize that the money it took to build those walls could have built a house?
People have been laughing at me all day!” Mr.
Shen was so angry his beard pointed straight up.
“Exactly, landlords’ fertile lands aren’t even enclosed, surely the things that grow on their good land are better than your wasteland, right?
Do you think thieves in this world are blind?” Mrs.
Li chimed in sarcastically.
“You’re reckless prodigal sons.
How did your mother raise you?
Are you trying to ruin the Shen family while your father is away?
Let me tell you, when we run out of silver, don’t ask for it from me.
We’ve already split the households.
However your house fares, it will be on you.” Mrs.
Shen was exasperated by what she had heard that day, about the foreman still not being paid the construction fee.
“Although I did make some money from my trip to the south, I plan to buy land, build a house, find a suitable daughter-in-law for Jinghua, and afford the education for Jingye and Jingzhi.
With those plans, I won’t have enough money left, so don’t count on borrowing from me, to avoid making me uncomfortable.” Shen Chengzong pompously chimed in, looking very arrogant.
“Handing the house affairs over to children when the third sibling and sister are not at home – this isn’t a task children should be given.
The third brother was too reckless and overly indulgent with the children.
If our mother had been managing household affairs, this wouldn’t have happened.
She has always taught us to live frugally.” Mrs.
Lan remarked, shaking her head.
On hearing this Mrs.
Shen stood up straight and announced, “Now that we’ve split our households, you can see how important I am.
Not everyone can manage a household well!”
The three siblings came in and said just one thing before they were pounced upon by the others.
“Grandma, Uncle Chengzong, don’t worry.
If we have to borrow money, we won’t come asking you.” Jingrui retorted indignantly.
What!?
They actually needed to borrow money?
“That’s settled then, don’t go back on your words later.
No matter how you beg, I won’t lend you anything!” Chengzong declared emphatically.
“I have raised you for so long, it’s unreasonable that I would have to pay you when I’m old!
If anything, you should be supporting me!”
“Have you paid for the house construction yet?” Mr.
Shen asked Jingrui.
“Not yet, we’re waiting until Dad returns to do that.”
“Is the payment for building materials complete?”
“Some of it is, but we haven’t paid for the glazed windows and floor heating yet.” Upon hearing the words “colored glazed windows”, everyone gasped.
Colored glaze, that’s a lot of silver!
“Is the money for the bricks for the courtyard wall paid up?” Mr.
Shen was also starting to feel alarmed.
Jingrui shook his head, “We only paid the deposit.”
“You reckless things, with all that unpaid silver, you’re still daring to build the walls.
Tomorrow, have your fourth uncle persuade those men to leave.
We’re not building the walls anymore!”
“But if we don’t build it, we’ll lose even more!”
“Are you using colored glaze for the windows?
How many have you made?” Mrs.
Lan asked, feeling uneasy.”We’ve already ordered all the windows to be made of colored glaze and they’ll be delivered in a couple of days!” Xiao’er was almost amused to death by everyone’s wild speculations, it was making her slightly exasperated!
She had never met anyone who, based on vague guesswork, was attempting to resolve things as if they were real!
“Do you know the price of colored glaze?
How much silver does one colored glaze window cost?”
Everyone shook their heads.
The colored glaze shop hadn’t opened yet and the price hadn’t been determined.
How could they know?
However, they believed that the cost was very low!
“Father, mother, I once saw a colored glass cup in the County Magistrate’s house, a cup that the Magistrate’s wife bought for 20 taels from the precious goods pavilion!”
When Mrs.
Shen heard this, she turned pale.
If one cup was 20 taels, and the windows in the new house of the third child were particularly large with numerous windows.
How many colored glasses would be needed?
How much silver?
100 taels, no, not enough for one window with 100 taels! freewёbnoνel.com
Several hundred taels for a window, that means tens of thousands of taels for the colored glasses.
My God!
Where could they get so much silver to give to others?
As for those toys, she couldn’t believe they could make tens of thousands of taels.
They could only borrow at high interest.
Thinking about the fate of many people who borrowed at high interest, she became so scared that her face turned pale and she was turning blue with fear!
Everyone present thought of that, and everyone felt panic.
This was more than the Shen family could afford!
Wait, they had already divided the family, why should they be dragged into this!
They weren’t even living in that house!
“Master Shen, do the parents and brothers who have divided the family have to repay the high-interest debt for their sons and brothers?”
“Mother, whether the family is divided or not, they are still parents and brothers!
This relationship can’t be severed!” Mrs.
Lan said casually.
Can’t sever the relationship?
Can’t they just break up?
Upon hearing this, Mrs.
Li was inspired and she clapped her hands and shouted loudly: “I want to break off relations with the third child’s family.
I have old parents and young children.
I can’t risk my life!”
Upon hearing this, Mrs.
Zhuang’s eyes light up, she agreed with severing relations.
“That’s right, my family too will sever all relations with you, from now on things concerning your family are no longer related to mine!”
Mrs.
Lan didn’t say a word.
The elders followed the main family’s decision, including Mrs.
Zhuang’s ‘my family’, so there was no need to say anything.
When Shen Chengzu heard this, he was extremely anxious: “Mother, what are you doing?
Second brother, how can you break off relations with the third brother?
Father, you are not going to interfere!”
“Third Brother, you don’t break it off, no one says you have to.
If you want to help the third brother bear the high-interest debt, I certainly don’t, and at that time, you should not implicate me, you can’t harm us, you know, I want to live a few more years!”
Master Shen’s eyebrows were knitted tightly: “Breaking off relations is too…”
“Master Shen, don’t be stubborn at this time, this is a matter of ruin!
One mistake and we could end up as slaves!”
“Before, it seemed that the Third Brother was the most reliable and hardworking.
I never thought that once the family was divided, he would be so reckless.
We can’t help with the amount needed for a glazed window even if we pooled all our resources together!
It’s not a matter of one or two taels of silver.
How much silver would we need to repay?
Do we plan for our descendants to be in debt because of that house?” Mrs.
Lan sighed.
Master Shen fell silent after hearing these words.
Breaking off relations was something he felt unbearable, but if they didn’t, it would implicate Wen’er, who wouldn’t have silver to go to school and prepare himself for an officialdom career, which would be a great loss.
Just as Jingrui was about to speak up, Xiao’er gently tugged on his sleeve, signalling him not to say anything.
She was curious to see how big their imaginations were and how this matter would ultimately end!
“Bao’er, go call your brother to write up two statements.
Hurry up!” Mrs.
Zhuang was worried about Master Shen changing his mind and decided to cut the Gordian knot.
Soon, the two letters of severance were written.
Without hesitation, Mrs.
Zhuang and Shen Chengzong pressed down their fingerprints and then handed them to Jingrui, “Your father isn’t here, so you should do it!”
Jingrui felt overwhelmed, “Grandfather, can I not press?”
How did things escalate to them being kicked out of the house?
“No, press it now!” As soon as Mrs.
Zhuang heard, she refused promptly and even went over to Jingrui, pressed his fingers down on the documents.
Xiao’er didn’t know what to feel at this moment.
While she found the foolishness of these people amusing, she also felt sad for Shen Chengyao!
