TATLC Chapter 95 — A Complete Mess

Under the witness of the clan members, Chen Xiaomi formally signed the severance document with the Chen family.

The agreement stated that Chen Xiaomi would pay thirty taels of silver to sever all ties with the Chen family, and from now on, no matter what happened to the Chen family, they could not come looking for Chen Xiaomi and his two brothers.

Grandma Chen scowled and kept cursing about bad luck.

The clan hadn’t seen something like this happen in a long time, so a lot of onlookers watched with great interest.

After getting the severance document, Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi left Dashi Village.

Lu Lin glanced over the document a few times and said, “With this, even if that old hag really hangs herself at our entrance in the future, it won’t matter.”

Chen Xiaomi grumbled, “I guess so, but it cost fifty taels of silver, just for this.”

He felt the price for this piece of paper was a bit too high.

The house in the village couldn’t be sold right away, so Chen Xiaomi left it for the clan leader to handle.

Lu Lin glanced at Chen Xiaomi and said, “Sometimes, certain investments are necessary.”

Chen Xiaomi nodded. “A few days ago, those loan sharks in town told Chen Jing it was one hundred taels, but it’s been several more days now, so it’s probably more than one hundred taels already.”

Lu Lin agreed, “Yeah.” Once they get tangled up with high-interest loans like that, if they’re not careful, it could easily lead to family ruin and death. But now that they had the severance document in hand, whatever happened over there had nothing to do with them.

At the Lu’s

Wang was full of resentment, “Chen Xiaomi actually sold their house and even paid thirty taels of silver. That Li woman is really shameless.”

She cursed and complained, but she wasn’t really standing up for Chen Xiaomi. She was just heartbroken about the money.

Thirty taels! The Lu family had been living tight lately, and Wang valued even one tael of silver highly. Before, she had even wanted her son to do corvée labor for one tael of silver, which made Lu An very resentful.

The fact that Chen Xiaomi paid thirty taels to settle Chen Jing’s debt felt like a knife twisting in her heart. In her eyes, Chen Xiaomi’s money was Lu Lin’s money, and Lu Lin’s money should rightfully be used to show filial piety to her. How could it be wasted on those Chen family people?

Wang felt indignant and walked out of the village, cursing Chen Jing as a bastard who made a Shuang’er who had left the family pay for the debt he owed from buying test answers.

Chen Jing owed one hundred taels of silver, which seemed like an astronomical sum to the villagers.

Everyone was also curious about how Chen Jing ended up in such debt. The Chen family was being vague about it, which only fueled speculation. Wang suddenly revealed the “inside story,” causing the villagers to gossip endlessly.

Actually, Tang had already secretly leaked some “inside information” before, but since it was done privately, many people still didn’t know.

The way Wang openly exposed the scandal now had a much more shocking effect.

Getting caught cheating on the imperial examinations would not only result in a lifetime ban from taking exams, but you might even go to jail.

Grandma Chen had originally wanted to keep it secret, so when the truth came out, she was absolutely furious.

However, the Chen family was too busy cleaning up after Chen Jing to have any time to cause trouble for the Lu family.

In the end, Chen Xiaomi’s house was finally sold by Clan Leader Chen Ding for seventeen taels. Because it was sold urgently, the villagers didn’t offer high prices.

Chen Xiaomi had given another thirty taels, making it forty-seven taels total.

Grandma Chen took out the twenty-something taels of silver from her savings, but they were still thirty taels short. To make up the difference, they sold three mu of land.

“How come Chen Xiaomi’s house only sold for seventeen taels?” Grandma Chen grumbled unhappily.

“That house was a bit old, so it was cheaper,” Old Man Chen said.

“The clan leader sold that house to his nephew! I think he took a cut,” Grandma Chen muttered resentfully.

Old Man Chen sighed and said, “Well, it’s an emergency now, we have no other choice.”

Grandma Chen fumed, “Right, you’re right. The whole village is laughing at us now. Remember how the Lu family sold their poor-quality land for nine taels per mu? But when it’s our turn, those people only offer six taels. Isn’t this just bullying people?”

Old Man Chen took a deep breath. The loan sharks wouldn’t wait forever, and dragging this out wasn’t helping. If they had to sell the land cheap, then so be it.

It pained him to sell the land he had worked so hard to acquire.

Grandma Chen estimated they could ask their daughter to cover the remaining ten taels.

Chen Chun’er was tricked into returning to the Chen family last time. After learning that her father was fine and it was just Chen Jing who had caused trouble, she went back home.

To her, since Chen Jing could get into such a huge mess, the Chen family was nothing but a bottomless pit that could never be filled. The old couple originally expected their daughter to bring money, but she didn’t even show up.

“Husband¹, I think Chun’er isn’t coming back,” Grandma Chen said glumly.

Last time when Chen Chun’er came back, the old woman hoped to squeeze some money out of her, but Chen Chun’er only brought two hundred wen, which was a huge disappointment. “I think that girl has no intention of caring about this family anymore. Waiting for her to bring us money is hopeless. We should go to her house and ask for it.”

Old Man Chen said with some difficulty, “But Chun’er married a butcher.”

The old woman snorted dismissively, “So what if he’s a butcher? Chun’er came from my belly. She’s been married for so many years, and that man doesn’t even know to come show filial piety during holidays.”

Thinking about their family’s desperate situation, Old Man Chen finally said, “Then I’ll find a few people to go together.”

When the Chen family arrived, Chen Chun’er’s husband was in the middle of slaughtering a pig.

A large pig had been cut open, and a lot of blood poured out. Butcher Zhang was covered in blood.

Butcher Zhang already looked rough, and now drenched in blood, he looked murderous, scaring the dusty villagers who had come to watch the excitement.

The butcher slammed his three-foot-long butcher knife, which was still dripping with blood, onto the cutting board. The two elders, who had originally intended to squeeze some money out of him, could only turn tail and flee in disgrace.

The villagers who had followed the two also felt it was unlucky.

The story of the Chen family elders going to their son-in-law’s house to demand money and coming back empty-handed also quickly spread in the village, giving the villagers another show to watch.

That Old Man Chen really was a bully who only picked on the weak. Rumor had it that the moment his son-in-law brandished that butcher knife, it scared him so much his legs went weak.

“I heard Chun’er’s husband told the old woman that there was no money, but if they wanted meat, they could cut two jin and take it. But what kind of person is Grandma Chen? She was so scared she didn’t even dare take the meat.”

When Chun’er left home back then, she didn’t take much money with her. After all these years, it just wasn’t right to bother a married daughter over their grandson’s troubles.

“If you ask me, this whole thing was caused by Chen Jing, but we haven’t seen him show his face. This person has no sense of responsibility.”

“Exactly! He always seemed so promising, but when it really mattered, he showed his true colors.”

“Who knows what the old Chens were thinking, spoiling such an irresponsible grandson like he was the greatest treasure under heaven.”

In the end, the Chen family had to sell another acre of land to resolve the problem. Because they delayed for a few more days, the debt had already grown to one hundred and five taels. When the old woman heard the price had gone up again, she started cursing loudly, but the loan sharks weren’t people to be trifled with.

A few burly men showed up and immediately intimidated Grandma Chen into silence. Left with no choice, she could only borrow some money for emergency from relatives house by house.

This time, the Chen family used up all their savings, sold five mu of land at once, and still ended up with some debt. It was a devastating blow to their finances.

Because of this incident, the eldest branch and third branch completely fell out.

Although the old man had managed to save Chen Jing’s life, he was completely disappointed in his grandson. He no longer planned to send Chen Jing back to school.

“The Chen family’s foundation is really thick!”

“Yeah, but selling five mu of land at once means they’ll have to live more frugally from now on.”

“This old woman had so much silver all along, yet she kept pretending to be poor. When Chen Xiaomi and the others first left the Chen household, they had to sleep in a cave!”

“With all that money, she still wanted to sell her own grandson as a servant. How heartless.”

“They originally wanted their daughter to contribute too, but Chen Chun’er’s husband is a butcher, and he’s quite fierce.”

“Extremely fierce. I heard that the day they went, the butcher slaughtered a pig weighing over two hundred jin, blood was everywhere, and the old Chens were so scared they didn’t dare say a word.”

“Chen Xiaomi sold his house. Does this mean he doesn’t plan to come back to the village in the future?”

The villagers had originally sympathized with the Chen family for this sudden disaster, but seeing that the Chen family seemed to solve the problem without much damage, they became sour again.

At the Chen’s

“Dad, Chen Xiaomi sold the house?” Chen He asked.

Chen Shouren nodded. “Yes, he left it for the clan leader to handle.”

Chen He said agitatedly, “Dad, Grandma originally promised me she would get that house for me.”

Chen Shouren also felt resentful. “There was no choice because of your eldest cousin’s trouble.”

Chen He said angrily, “It’s so unfair, Grandpa and Grandma are too biased. Eldest Cousin caused the trouble himself, why couldn’t he solve it himself?”

Chen He had his eye on a girl from a neighboring village, and the two families were recently discussing marriage. This had almost been settled, but when Chen Jing’s matter came out, the girl’s family said they’d wait and see. Actually, even if the girl’s family agreed to continue with the marriage, the Chen family couldn’t afford the bethrotal gifts anymore.

Originally Old Man Chen had promised Chen He eight taels of silver for the betrothal gifts. But after Chen Jing’s incident, the family spent all their silver to resolve his problem.

Chen Shouren looked at his son, feeling somewhat apologetic, but the family’s silver was all gone. There was no way to produce more.

Chen Shouren was also anxious about his son’s marriage. Under normal circumstances, many families would have been willing to marry into theirs. But now, the family suffered significant losses, everyone in the village knew the situation. At this time, no one would likely be willing to marry in.

If they waited a few more years, his son would be too old to find a good match.

Worrying about his son’s marriage prospects, Chen Shouren gritted his teeth in frustration and felt deep resentment towards Chen Jing.