Ch 4: The Unfilial Children Trembles in Fear (QT)

The mayor’s secretary worked very efficiently. The very next day, he took Yun Xi to complete all of her employment paperwork and then led her around several offices to introduce her to everyone.

No one who worked in the municipal government was stupid. Nothing needed to be said explicitly. Everyone was already very friendly toward Yun Xi. After making a few inquiries about her afterward, they became even more cordial.

She was even assigned a private room in the dormitory.

Although it was small, tucked away in a corner, and farther from the restroom and washing facilities than the other rooms, Yun Xi was delighted to have a place to herself. She specifically treated the mayor’s secretary to a meal.

The secretary did not refuse.

Relationships lasted longest when favors flowed both ways. After all, this was the savior of the mayor’s family. Becoming a little closer could only be beneficial.

After staying one more day at the mayor’s house, Yun Xi finally returned to the village.

The first thing she did was go to the brigade leader’s house to return the bicycle. She even brought a strip of pork with her.

“Brigade Leader, sorry for borrowing your bicycle for two days. Take a look, not a scratch on it. I was very careful.”

Just like the original owner, Yun Xi walked in as if she were family, sat down on the heated kang bed, and immediately started chatting.

The brigade leader’s wife was curious about why she had not returned for two days. Original translation at HololoNovels dot com. She said that if Yun Xi had not come back soon, they would have had to send people out to look for her.

Yun Xi wiped at her eyes.

“Isn’t it all because of my unfilial children? My son wants my coffin money, my grandson calls me a shrew, and my daughter and daughters-in-law think I’m embarrassing. Tell me, what’s the point of living anymore?”

The brigade leader’s wife jumped in fright.

“You mustn’t think like that! If children misbehave, you scold them or beat them. If that doesn’t work, I’ll have my husband go teach them a lesson. But you absolutely can’t give up on life!”

Yun Xi sighed.

“Sister-in-law, this time I’ve figured things out. At our age, what are we still working for? If children and grandchildren aren’t filial, then we should treat ourselves better.

You know what?

I got lucky in the city and met a wonderful older sister willing to help me. She found a job for me.

I’m about to start working.

Oh, and Brigade Leader, I’ll need you to help me with the paperwork to transfer my household registration. In the future, if you ever need ration coupons, come find me. I can trade for them with the food we have in the countryside.”

The brigade leader and his wife exchanged glances.

Both were a little stunned.

When they tried asking more questions, Yun Xi refused to elaborate.

Then they thought about it.

Finding a job was already difficult enough. Transferring household registration was even harder.

Of course she would keep that kind of thing secret.

And besides, now that Yun Xi was in the city, she was still willing to help them exchange ration coupons. They would have someone in the city they could rely on.

That was a good thing.

The brigade leader immediately issued the necessary documents without another word.

He did not dare try too hard to persuade her.

What if the old woman became upset and jumped into a river?

Then he, as brigade leader, would be in serious trouble.

Yun Xi also asked him to accompany her home and witness the division of the family property.

The moment she returned home, Yun Xi sneered.

Sure enough, putting everything into the Qiankun Mirror’s space had been the right choice.

Her room had clearly been searched.

Even the dust that used to sit in the cracks of the cabinet had been rubbed away.

And judging from the state of things, more than one person had gone through it.

The others hurried out when they heard movement.

“Mom, why did you come back so late?”

“Mom, where did you go?”

“Mom, did you buy the job?”

Yun Xi invited the brigade leader to sit down.

Then she crossed one leg over the other, pulled out a handful of sunflower seeds, and began cracking them leisurely.

“I bought the job.

For myself.

Today we’re dividing the family property.

I’m moving to the city, and from now on I won’t be taking care of any of you anymore.

You can run your own households however you want. That way you won’t have to spend every day complaining about me.

Let’s see whether you can actually live a good life on your own.”

“What?!”

Dong Zhihong’s eyes widened.

“You bought a job for yourself?”

He was both furious and shocked.

“Stop fooling around! You’re an old woman. What kind of job can you possibly do? What do you even know how to do?”

“What business is it of yours?”

Yun Xi looked at him with open disdain.

“I raised all four of you by myself and still managed to build houses and marry you off.

And what about you?

You can’t even support your own wife and child.

Yet you want to empty out my retirement savings.

What gives you the right to look down on me?”

The neighbors had already gathered to watch.

Dong Zhihong’s expression stiffened.

“Look at you, being unreasonable again. When did I ever look down on you? I’m just stating facts. Ask everyone here whether they’ve ever heard of someone your age buying a job. You were obviously scammed!”

“Even if I was scammed, it’s my retirement money. It has nothing to do with you.”

Yun Xi pulled a notebook out of her cloth bag.

It was filled with crooked numbers and misspelled characters. The original owner had used it to keep accounts.

She began reading aloud.

“When you were little, you got sick all the time. Every treatment cost more than ten yuan.

Then there were your school fees.

And despite all that, you still barely finished elementary school.

When you got married, building your house and furniture cost two hundred and thirty yuan.

Eighty-eight yuan was spent on your wife.

Then when your child was born, you kept shouting about being the eldest son and producing the eldest grandson, and you took another hundred yuan…”

If she had not calculated it, she would never have known.

Once she did, she discovered money everywhere.

Raising Dong Zhihong had cost a fortune.

Especially because Yun Xi repeatedly emphasized how many times Dong Zhihong had personally asked for money.

The villagers’ expressions toward him began to change.

Normally, the eldest son in a village family was the backbone of the household.

He did the most work, cared for his younger siblings, and helped his parents make decisions.

From the outside, the Dong family had seemed no different from anyone else.

Now they were learning that whenever anything happened in the family, it was Yun Xi who handled it.

The eldest son fought with his siblings over resources, avoided work, and looked down on his own mother.

What kind of person was that?

Wang Huijuan hurried forward and tugged on Yun Xi’s sleeve.

“Mom, why are you bringing all this up? It’s family business. It doesn’t look good for everyone to hear it.”

Yun Xi slapped her hand away.

“What’s wrong with letting them hear?

Today I’m settling all the accounts once and for all.

Otherwise, you’ll keep throwing mud at me later.

Do you think I don’t know you’ve been telling people I mistreat you?

Bah!

Since the day you married into this family, you’ve eaten an egg every two or three days. During your confinement after childbirth, there was never a day without chicken soup.

And you still say I mistreated you?

You ought to be ashamed of yourself.

Get out of my sight.”

Wang Huijuan immediately burst into tears.

“I never said that…”

The villagers began discussing it loudly.

“She never said it directly, but somehow I always had the impression she was suffering.”

“That’s because every time someone mentioned Aunt Li, Wang Huijuan would act like she wanted to say something but wouldn’t, and she’d always look upset.”

“Exactly! Wasn’t she deliberately misleading us? Turns out she’s been eating better than I do at home!”

Yun Xi then started reading through the money spent on Dong Zhijie.

Books, notebooks, writing supplies.

There had been plenty of expenses.

Because he was a teacher, he owned the most respectable clothing in the family.

He even had a pair of leather shoes.

His house had been built, and he had been married off as well.

Dong Zhijie and Wang Xuefen were both thin-skinned and cared deeply about appearances.

They hurriedly said,

“Mom, please don’t be angry. We know how hard you’ve worked all these years. Now that we’re adults, we’ll definitely be filial to you. We won’t ask you for money anymore.

Big Brother, hurry up and apologize too. Emptying out the family savings to buy a job for yourself was never appropriate.”

The way they said it made them sound very reasonable, as though all the blame belonged to the eldest son.

And sure enough, the villagers looked toward Dong Zhihong.

After all, this entire mess had started because of him.

Dong Zhiyong and Dong Zhizhi hurriedly joined in.

“Mom, we never got married or had houses built for us. You hardly spent anything on us.”

Yun Xi immediately replied,

“You two studied longer than everyone else.

And after finishing school, neither of you worked properly to earn work points.

How many years of labor did the family lose because of that?

All you did was grow bigger mouths to feed.

Wasn’t it just the other day that Third Brother was saying that if Eldest Brother got a job, he deserved one too?

Not one of you ever thought about me.

You’ve grown up without learning any useful skills, yet all you know is how to demand money from me.

Are you trying to suck me dry?

This is how things stand.

Today we divide the family.

From now on, whether your lives turn out good or bad, don’t come blaming me.

As for money?

There isn’t any.

I already spent enough raising all of you over the years.

I’m still wearing clothes from ten years ago.

The little money I had was used to buy myself a job, and that will be my retirement plan.

I won’t need any of you to support me in old age.

Everything left in this house will be divided equally.

The brigade leader and all the villagers can witness it.

From now on, everyone lives their own life.”

Dong Zhihong shouted,

“I refuse!

Everyone, tell me honestly. Has my mother gone crazy?

She spent all the money on some so-called job. Who knows whether she was scammed?

And now she wants to divide the family and move to the city.

How can anyone feel at ease about that?”

A few people had just begun nodding when Yun Xi jumped up and slapped him.

“You just want me to stay here as a workhorse until the day I die!

I spent my entire life sacrificing for all of you, and now that I’m old, you still won’t leave me alone.

What?

Are you trying to drive me to my death?”

“Calm down, Sister-in-law. Calm down!”

The brigade leader hurriedly intervened.

“Zhihong, enough already.

You’re always making your mother angry.

You complain that she’s ignorant and uneducated.

Now she wants to live on her own, so stop trying to stop her.

It’s not like staying with you has brought her any happiness.”

That statement practically nailed Dong Zhihong’s reputation for being unfilial to a pillar of shame.

Both he and Wang Huijuan desperately tried to explain themselves.

But Yun Xi continued speaking to the crowd.

“I work every day and earn full work points.

I pinch pennies and calculate every expense for this family.

And they complain that I’m stingy because I won’t let everyone eat until they’re stuffed.

Tell me, which family in this village can afford to eat as much as they want?

How am I supposed to tolerate that kind of accusation?

From now on, they can manage their own household.

Everyone can watch and see whether they actually manage to eat their fill.”

At that point, who could possibly persuade her not to divide the family?

Who could possibly tell her to keep living with the eldest son?

Wouldn’t that just be forcing her to suffer?

Some people were still confused and wondering whether Old Madam Dong’s life had really been this miserable all along.

But there were far more people who simply enjoyed the spectacle.

Before long, everyone was urging the brigade leader to divide the family immediately.

The second son and his wife were anxious too.

This was humiliating.

But things had already reached this stage.

It was obvious Yun Xi would never hand over the money.

For them, dividing the family was actually beneficial.

They would no longer have to secretly cook extra meals for themselves.

They could openly enjoy a better life.

After all, among the entire family, they had the best jobs and earned the most money.

In their minds, they were the real victims being drained.

So Dong Zhijie was the first to step forward.

“Then let’s divide the family.

Mom, you’re angry right now, so I won’t argue.

But once you calm down, don’t forget that we’ll still be filial to you.”

Seeing the situation unfold like this, Dong Zhiyong became frantic.

“This isn’t fair!

Eldest Brother and Second Brother both got houses and families.

I got nothing.

I’m the one taking the biggest loss!”

Dong Zhizhi was equally anxious.

“Mom, what kind of job is it?

Maybe… maybe let me take it instead?

I’ll give you half my salary every month.”

Ordinarily, that might have sounded reasonable.

But Yun Xi’s face remained completely cold.

Without giving the villagers any chance to mediate, she said directly,

“If you two had ever been filial, I would have given you everything.

But you’re both ungrateful ingrates.

You won’t even pour me a cup of water most days, and now you want to suck my blood too?

Get lost.”

She pointed at the house behind her.

“I’m moving to the city.

I don’t want my room anymore.

The two of you can split it.

I’ve already done everything I possibly could for you.

Back when I was still in confinement after giving birth, I got up to work so I could feed you all.

I damaged my health and shortened my lifespan.

For all these years, I never even allowed myself medicine or treatment.

I’ve done more than enough for you.

From now on, the greatest act of filial piety you can show me is leaving me alone.

Having children like you is the worst luck I’ve suffered in eight lifetimes!”

The siblings were being openly called unfilial in front of everyone.

They immediately burst into tears and started protesting.

The villagers had never seen anything like this.

Even when children truly were unfilial, mothers usually covered for them in public.

Who openly declared before the entire village that their children and grandchildren were unfilial?

From the sound of it, she did not even intend to associate with them anymore.

Everyone discussed it among themselves.

They all agreed that Yun Xi must have been completely heartbroken by her children.

Otherwise, she could never have acted this way.

After all, they still remembered the countless times she had fought with other people to defend her children.

Before long, every villager was pointing fingers and whispering about the Dong family.

It became the most humiliating moment of their lives.

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