TATLC Chapter 24 – Two Families Fall Out

When Chen Xiaomi returned home, he saw Xiaomai eating steamed eggs. The eggs were topped with a sprinkle of chopped mushrooms and smelled delicious.

By the time Chen Xiaomi got back, he already heard about Grandma Lu coming to make trouble. What he didn’t expect was that the moment the old woman left, Lu Lin immediately steamed eggs for Xiaomai.

Chen Xiaomi felt somewhat suspicious. Just a few days ago, Lu Lin said they needed to be careful with their egg consumption, and now he already broke that promise.

“Da-ge,” Chen Xiaomai smiled brightly at Chen Xiaomi, pushing the half-eaten bowl of egg custard toward him.

Chen Xiaomi gently rubbed Chen Xiaomai’s head. “You eat it.”

Chen Xiaomai puffed out his cheeks and tilted his head in confusion. It was so delicious! But Second Brother wouldn’t eat it, and now Big Brother wouldn’t either. Why?

“Da-ge, Lu Lin said that old hag stole money, but even though the old woman is annoying, she didn’t actually steal anything,” said Chen Xiaocai.

Chen Xiaomi looked at Chen Xiaocai seriously and said, “If Lu Lin says she stole money, then she definitely did.”

Now that Lu Lin had made such a claim, it would look bad if the villagers found out he was falsely accusing someone. In the village, even the smallest matters could cause a huge commotion. Since Lu Lin claimed the old woman stole money, even if some people believed she didn’t, they would still harbor doubts.

Chen Xiaomi didn’t expect Lu Lin to do something like this. It was quite a ruthless move.

Reputation mattered a great deal in the village. Because he had no reputation, he had few people who could help him. If their family situation did not improve, it would become a serious problem when Xiaocai needed to find a wife or when Xiaomai needed to get married.

Theft was considered a major crime. The Lu family had a scholar among them, and having an elder accused of stealing might negatively impact Lu Chengyu’s future. The Lu family must be in chaos by now.

…

When Chen Xiaomi walked into the kitchen, he found Lu Lin busy preparing food.

“The village head seemed displeased with you today,” Chen Xiaomi said.

Lu Lin smiled and replied, “Why should I care about him?”

Lu Lin narrowed his eyes. He knew about the Zhang family’s village head, who was different from his son Zhang Jin. The village head constantly dreamed of bringing honor to his ancestors, hoping someone from the clan would become a top-ranking scholar to elevate the village’s status. He regarded Lu Chengyu from the Lu family quite highly.

If Lu Lin’s accusation that Grandma Lu was stealing would spread to town, it would damage Lu Chengyu’s reputation. It was for this reason that the village head had warned him.

Lu Lin had no qualms about smearing the old woman’s name for two reasons: first, he didn’t want to deal with the Lu family’s nonsense; second, as a man who had married into Chen Xiaomi’s family, villagers typically viewed him as incompetent. With Chen Xiaomi’s own notorious reputation, Lu Lin’s reputation couldn’t get much worse anyway, so he might as well go all in.

Chen Xiaomi looked at Lu Lin, thinking, This man really is from somewhere else. He doesn’t act like the people here. “The village head has authority over many matters here.”

Lu Lin snorted lightly and said, “With enough money, what does the village head matter? If we could earn a few hundred taels and buy a shop in town, people would naturally call me capable.”

Chen Xiaomi listened to Lu Lin’s words, feeling a flash of admiration. Ever since breaking away from the Chen family and being ostracized by the entire village, Chen Xiaomi sometimes felt lost. With Lu Lin joining the household, Chen Xiaomi now had someone to discuss matters with and suddenly felt much more confident.

…

At the Lu family home.

“That damned Lu Lin! That bastard was born to ruin me!” Grandma Lu felt she was being terribly wronged.

After returning home, everyone in the family, including her eldest grandson, had scolded her.

There were no secrets in the village. Besides Lu Chengyu, two other children from the village studied at the county school, one of whom was Chen Jing from the Chen family.

Lu Chengyu’s academic performance was good, earning frequent praise from the teacher. In comparison, Chen Jing was quite inferior. The Chen family often complained to Chen Jing, telling him to learn from Lu Chengyu. After hearing this repeatedly, Chen Jing came to deeply resent Lu Chengyu. Although they were from the same village, Lu Chengyu considered Chen Jing stupid with no future. Despite living in the same village, the two never got along.

After rumors of Wang’s theft spread, Chen Jing was delighted.

At the county school, Chen Jing told others that the Lu family had sold their second branch’s son as a husband to his cousin for ten taels of silver just so Lu Chengyu could continue his studies, effectively ending that branch of the family line. Not only that, Lu Chengyu had allegedly instigated his grandmother to steal money from his cousin.

Lu Chengyu was well-respected at the county school, so when this explosive news broke, it caused an uproar.

In Chen Jing’s opinion, although Chen Xiaomi had separated from them, he was still part of the Chen family, so his money rightfully belonged to the Chens.

Chen Xiaomi spent ten taels of silver to bring Lu Lin into the family as a husband, which broke Grandma Chen’s heart. At home, Li¹ frequently cursed the Lu family for being heartless, saying they were already wealthy but still sold someone to Chen Xiaomi, swindling the Chen family’s money. She also said that troublemaker Lu Lin should have been drowned at birth.

Chen Jing often heard these complaints at home and formed a poor impression of the Lu family. Lu Chengyu excelled in his studies and looked down on Chen Jing, so when Chen Jing found an opportunity, he took revenge.

Several classmates from well-off families who weren’t very good at studying seized the chance to pile on, and suddenly the school instructors began looking at Lu Chengyu differently.

Lu Chengyu couldn’t bear this treatment and got into a major fight with Chen Jing, creating an ugly scene.

Left with no choice, their teacher sent both boys home to cool off for a couple of days.

Lu Chengyu suffered humiliation at school and came home full of complaints. When Grandma Lu learned how outrageously the Chen family had slandered them, she flew into a rage and rushed over to curse at them.

Grandma Chen was no pushover either. A massive argument erupted, with accusations that Wang was completely heartless for selling someone to their Chen family and then coming to steal from them, with a face thicker than a pig’s hide. Neither old woman was easy to deal with, and they dredged up many old grudges.

The two old ladies caused such a commotion that someone eventually had to fetch the village head before things quieted down.

Their quarrel became yet another joke for the villagers to gossip about.

Lu Lin did not expect his offhand accusation to cause such a massive fallout. Now, the Chen and Lu families seemed to have turned against each other.

When Lu Lin learned about this, he wasn’t particularly concerned. In his opinion, neither family was any good. It’s just dogs fighting dogs, all getting fur in their mouths.²