Chapter 250: Chapter 106: Seeking Death (Part 2)

Having thoroughly vented her fury, Xu Su Ying felt some of her anger finally subside.

She pulled Chen Song toward the exit. Just as she looked up, she saw the window of the east room being quietly shut from the inside.

’No doubt about it, Third Brother was just in there, watching.’

’But Third Brother was a spineless coward. She’d beaten his daughter’s face black and blue, yet he still didn’t dare to show himself.’

’Pah, what a gutless piece of trash. And he has the gall to take out usurious loans and fool around with a young widow? He’s got some nerve, I’ll give him that.’

As Xu Su Ying left with her husband and son, the old lady and Dachang didn’t dare make a peep the entire time.

Chen Lian’s heart ached for his sister’s swollen face, but at the same time, he felt his aunt had a point.

He had tried to persuade her just yesterday, saying that since things had come to this, she should just break off the engagement with some dignity. But Wanyue had just accused him, "You just can’t stand to see me happy!" and "Break it off? Over my dead body!" She had pushed and shoved him, infuriating him to the point of collapse.

He was powerless and couldn’t bring himself to be harsh with her. But if his aunt could knock some sense into her, then he felt the beating Wanyue took was worth it.

As the only one in his household with any sense of propriety, Chen Lian saw his uncle’s family to the door.

His aunt was still fuming, his uncle’s face was grim, and his cousin gave him the cold shoulder.

Chen Lian rubbed his nose awkwardly. "My sister doesn’t want to break off the engagement... it’s probably because she doesn’t want to lose that small courtyard."

Chen Song looked over. "What do you mean?"

"I don’t know what my sister said to Grandmother, but she and my father agreed to give Wanyue that small courtyard as her dowry for marrying into the Li family. If the engagement with Li Cun is called off, she’ll definitely lose the courtyard. I figure that’s the main thing she’s unhappy about."

De’an’s eyes widened in shock. "Give Wanyue the courtyard as part of her dowry? Grandfather and your father actually agreed to that? Are they out of their minds?"

Chen Lian scratched his head again, looking as if he wanted to say more but was holding back.

’There was something... uncanny about Wanyue, a fact he couldn’t share with his cousin. But it was precisely because of this quality that his grandfather and the others were so wary of her. Wanyue had pestered them relentlessly and promised them all sorts of things, so they had finally given in.’

Chen Lian didn’t know the specifics of their conversation. When he had gotten up in the middle of the night, he’d faintly heard a low buzzing coming from the main hall.

They were being very cautious, keeping their voices hushed in the dead of night. He didn’t know the details of what they said, but he knew the result, and that was enough.

’Now that Wanyue can’t marry into the Li family and bring them wealth and connections, there’s no way she’ll get that courtyard.’

De’an couldn’t connect the dots, but Xu Su Ying could.

Then there was Chen Song. He might not have looked like he knew anything, but after working at the government office for three or four years, he knew a little about things he should and things he shouldn’t.

Such "uncanny individuals and strange phenomena" were not common among the people, but they weren’t exactly rare, either. If you inquired carefully, you could always dig up something useful.

The three of them said no more and, in a moment, arrived at the ox-cart.

As Xu Su Ying was about to climb onto the ox-cart, another thought suddenly struck her. "That high-interest loan your family owed—has it all been paid back?"

Chen Lian braced himself and said, "It’s paid."

There was clearly something about this matter that couldn’t be revealed to outsiders, so Chen Lian hung his head low, trying to prevent his uncle’s family from seeing the look on his face.

But his evasive posture itself told them all they needed to know: there was something fishy about it.

’So what was the catch?’

As the three of them drove the ox-cart toward the graveyard, Xu Su Ying speculated, "The Chen family’s savings are definitely not enough to repay that debt."

"Three years ago, Third Brother gambled away their flatbread shop in the county seat. The old lady wailed and screamed, taking out the old couple’s coffin money just to barely plug that financial hole."

"How many years had it been since then?"

"Without selling that small courtyard for cash, how much could they have possibly saved?"

"The flatbread shop is definitely not that profitable. Earning one or two taels of silver a month would be considered amazing."

"But Third Brother was always stealing money to gamble or meet his lovers, and the family still had to pay for Li’an’s education. If they could save ten taels of Silver a year, that would be the absolute limit."

"Ten taels a year is only thirty taels over three years. But just a little while ago, the family returned all the holiday and betrothal gifts the Zhao Family had given them over the years, converting them to Silver. All told, that was twenty or thirty taels."

"That must have wiped out their savings. So how could they have any Silver Coin left to pay off the debt?"

Chen Song had a theory. Fearing they might be overheard, he lowered his voice and said to Xu Su Ying and De’an, "They must have taken something valuable from the human traffickers’ carriage."