Ch 147: The Farmer Ger in the Apocalypse

Zhao Aiye had not returned to the old Shen family home since the second day of the New Year when he went back to his maternal family, bringing Shen Xiaojian with him. His family, still holding a grudge against Old Lady Shen over a previous argument during the annual pig slaughter, encouraged him to stay longer.

Zhao Aiye himself was also harboring resentment! In the power struggles between the three daughters-in-law of the Shen family, Old Lady Shen couldn’t do anything about Li Jiaofeng, so she took out her frustration on him and Shen Xiaojian. But why should he put up with such mistreatment? It wasn’t as if he hadn’t given birth to a son! And not just a son—one who had grown up healthy and strong, reaching his teenage years safely. Meanwhile, that child in Li Jiaofeng’s belly—who knew whether it would even be a boy?

Li Jiaofeng, with her big pregnant belly, had Shen Zhigao’s support. Though his own husband wanted to stand up for him, Shen Zhiwei was too spineless. And with Old Man Shen and Old Lady Shen being openly biased towards the eldest son, even if Shen Zhiwei wanted to defend him, it was pointless. Instead, they would both end up suffering together. After enduring this too many times, Zhao Aiye grew resentful. Was he some kind of masochist? Why should he just accept being bullied?

Only after returning to his maternal home did Zhao Aiye realize how comfortable life could be! Away from the Shen family, he finally understood why Shen Qing and Miao Shi were living better and better—without an overbearing mother-in-law, life was infinitely easier! Although he still had to do chores at home, at least his parents, being his own flesh and blood, wouldn’t berate him like Old Lady Shen did. And as a married ger returning home, he was treated as a guest—his sisters-in-law and younger siblings shared the workload, leaving him with only the lightest tasks.

It was nothing like the Shen family, where after Shen Qing and Miao Shi left, all the hardest, dirtiest chores had been dumped onto him!

During the spring plowing season, the Zhao family all went to the fields, while Zhao Aiye only had to stay home and cook. If he had still been at the Shen family, given the current situation, they would have forced him into the fields for sure!

However, as comfortable as he was, he had never considered divorcing Shen Zhiwei. For one, despite Shen Zhiwei’s cowardly nature, the bond between them was still strong. True, Shen Zhiwei was utterly useless when dealing with his parents, barely daring to utter a word of protest. But in their private moments, he was a rare and considerate man.

He cherished and doted on Zhao Aiye from the beginning, never once despising him for being a ger or worrying about his ability to bear children. And after Shen Zhuang was born, he protected them even more fiercely. He always saved the best food for them in secret and even helped with the household chores. If Zhao Aiye were to divorce him, it would be near impossible to find another husband as kind as him.

On the other hand, Zhao Aiye also understood that it was precisely because he hadn’t divorced that he was able to live so comfortably at his maternal home. If he had truly divorced, what household would allow a ger who had been “sent away” to stay? His sisters-in-law and younger siblings would immediately change their attitudes, and his parents would waste no time in arranging another marriage for him!

No, this was much better. Zhao Aiye grew even more pleased with himself, even thinking that Miao Shi and Shen Qing weren’t as clever as they seemed. Miao Shi had two such good brothers—why didn’t she just do what he did and stay at her maternal home? Why suffer all those years at the Shen family, working like a mule?

He had been staying at his maternal home for months now, and the Shen family could do nothing about it!

Weaklings!

Zhao Aiye was smug, convinced that he had outmaneuvered the Shen family. But he hadn’t expected that his good days would come to an abrupt end today.

After lunch, Shen Xiaojian had said she wanted to go up the mountain with her friends to pick wild vegetables and gather locust flowers. This was a common pastime for village girls and gers, so Zhao Aiye hadn’t thought much of it. When dinnertime arrived and Shen Xiaojian still hadn’t returned, he simply assumed she had gotten carried away playing.

Then, a fellow fulang who was on friendly terms with him came rushing to his house. “Aiye, you need to hurry! Your mother-in-law is about to sell Xiaojian to pay for Li Jiaofeng’s son’s medical treatment! The slavers are already in the village! If you don’t stop them now, the child will be taken away!”

Zhao Aiye was so shocked that he dropped the ladle into the pot, splattering soup all over himself.

He sprinted toward the village entrance in a panic, with his family following closely behind. But this time, no matter what he said, it was useless—Old Lady Shen had made up her mind. She was going to sell Shen Xiaojian.

First of all, it was because Shen Qiang had fallen ill again. This time, their family had no way of borrowing money from anyone. Even their daughter, who had married into the county, had refused to help. But illness waited for no one—if they didn’t sell Shen Xiaojian, they would have to sell their land. And between a granddaughter and land, which was more valuable?

“She was just a girl. In a few years, she would be married off anyway!”

Moreover, Zhao Aiye had been staying at his maternal home with Shen Xiaojian for several months now, with no sign of voluntarily returning. Shen Xiaojian was out every day picking wild vegetables and gathering things from the mountains—all work benefiting the Zhao family! A child from their own family was doing work for someone else’s household. Instead of letting others profit, wasn’t it better to sell her?

“I’m her biological grandmother! Selling her is only natural! Even if you take this matter to the magistrate, I still have the right to sell her!” Old Lady Shen stood with her hands on her hips, hurling abuse at Zhao Aiye and the Zhao family. She finally had a chance to vent her frustration. “Selling a mere girl is nothing! And don’t forget, your Zhao Aiye was betrothed to our family long ago—he belongs to the Shen family! If I want to sell him, that would also be my right!”

“And you Zhao family! You took our betrothal gifts, yet now you keep our fulang at your house doing work, and you still want to hold on to our granddaughter to work for you? Is there any family more shameless than yours? Everyone here is watching! Who would dare to marry a Zhao family ger or girl if they think they can just run back to their maternal home and stay there for months? What’s the difference between marrying them off and not?”

In this era, parents had absolute authority over their children and grandchildren. If they wanted to drown a newborn, no one would question it—let alone selling them. On the other hand, if a child defied their parents and the matter was taken to the magistrate, the punishment could be as severe as exile or even death.

Even Shen Qing had only managed to escape the Shen family by taking advantage of Miao Shi’s divorce from Shen Zhigao. Without that justification, he would never have been able to leave so easily.

The Zhao family was left speechless by Old Lady Shen’s barrage of insults, but they couldn’t just snatch Shen Xiaojian away. After all, she was a Shen by name. While they weren’t afraid of Old Lady Shen, they also didn’t want the village to think they were being unreasonable, as that could harm the marriage prospects of their other daughters and gers.

Some villagers, who were either on friendly terms with the Zhao family or simply disliked Old Lady Shen, chimed in, “But this is too much! Shen Zhuang is the eldest son’s boy, and Xiaojian is the second son’s daughter. Selling the second son’s daughter to pay for the eldest son’s son’s medical treatment—how could you be so heartless?”

But Old Lady Shen immediately spat back, “What eldest son, what second son? I’m still alive, and we haven’t split the family! They are all my grandchildren. I can sell whoever I want! And you—don’t act all high and mighty! Ten years ago, when your eldest son got married, didn’t you sell your youngest daughter to that fool in Xiahe Village as a child bride? Now you’re accusing me of favoritism? Hypocrite!”

The villager who spoke turned red with embarrassment. “That was a proper marriage arrangement! We still maintain ties with them! That’s completely different from selling a child to slavers!”

“Selling is selling! We’re all from the same village—who doesn’t know each other’s business?” Old Lady Shen sneered.

Every time someone tried to argue with her, she would hurl their own past actions back at them. After a few rounds of this, no one dared to speak up anymore. The truth was, in this village, many families had sold or abandoned children over the years. Even if it wasn’t the same situation as Shen Laoniang’s, she could always find a way to twist the facts. No one wanted to risk their own reputation just to defend Zhao Aiye.

At this moment, Zhao Aiye had no time for stubborn pride. Shen Xiaojian was already being held tightly by the slaver’s men, crying so hysterically that each sob seemed to stab into his heart. He collapsed onto the ground, clutching Old Lady Shen’s legs and begging desperately. But all he got in return was Old Lady Shen’s smug scorn.

“Now you know how to beg me? Didn’t you think you were so capable before?”

“You really thought I couldn’t deal with you? Acting all high and mighty when you’re nothing!”

Zhao Aiye knocked his forehead against the ground repeatedly, his skin turning purple from the force. Shen Zhiwei was kneeling beside him, his face a mixture of pain, helplessness, and numb acceptance.

But in the end, Old Lady Shen still did not relent. Shen Qiang needed medicine, and whether she wanted to or not, selling Shen Xiaojian was now beyond her control. However, seeing Zhao Aiye’s utter despair filled her with satisfaction. Only after watching him plead for long enough did she finally go to settle the deal with the slaver.

“In the end, they really took Shen Xiaojian away—sold for eight taels of silver. That’s more than the betrothal price for a marriage, and they even saved on years of feeding her. Zhao Aiye fainted on the spot. That old hag of the Shen family sure knows how to do business,” Second Aunt Lian recounted the scene. She had gone purely to watch the spectacle, but after witnessing it, she felt a heavy weight in her chest, completely unsettled. “Shen Xiaojian was raised well and is at the right age to work, so she fetched a high price.”

“I never liked Zhao Aiye, always found him insufferable. But seeing him like that today… I actually felt bad for him. The way he cried made my heart clench.” Second Aunt Lian sighed heavily.

Shen Qing listened in silence.

He thought of Manao and Jade, the two young girls he had purchased for his household, both around Shen Xiaojian’s age. And he thought of himself—he knew very well that Old Lady Shen had originally planned to sell him off into the mountains as a fulang.

From a purely emotional perspective, hearing such a thing, even if it was about a stranger, would leave him feeling uneasy. But the fact that it was Shen Xiaojian… well, that complicated things.

Back in the Shen family, Zhao Aiye had bullied him and Miao Shi plenty of times. He had swapped out Shen Qing’s thick winter quilt for Shen Zhuang’s thin, worn-out one, forcing Miao Shi to wash clothes in freezing water during the dead of winter.

And Shen Xiaojian and Shen Zhuang had been just as complicit—spoiled beneficiaries of Zhao Aiye’s actions, sneering at him and Miao Shi whenever they got the chance.

Shen Qing recalled a phrase he had read in a book: If you repay evil with kindness, how will you repay kindness?

Shen Qing had always been someone who remembered both favors and grudges. When he set up his workshop and helped his fellow villagers, it wasn’t just for his own benefit—it was also because many people in the village had been kind to him. When he was still weak, when he had nothing, they had shared what little they could—two cucumbers, half a cornbread bun—just enough to help him get through the worst of it.

The saying went, A drop of kindness should be repaid with a spring of gratitude. Shen Qing believed in repaying kindness. He valued those who had helped him and made sure to return their generosity tenfold.

But he would never forget his pain or his enemies. To show kindness to those who had wronged him—wouldn’t that be a betrayal of his past self, the one who had suffered?

He was no saint.

Fortunately, Second Aunt Lian didn’t linger too long on Shen Xiaojian. Instead, she changed the topic. “You know, because of today’s mess, I finally found out—this isn’t the first time that old hag of the Shen family has done something like this. Do you know how my mother-in-law ended up holding a grudge against her?”

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