Chapter 90

Chapter 90

"Old Wang, why are you being so extravagant? Can't we just walk back? And what’s going on with you? You’re blaming me out of nowhere." Yang Chenggong chased after Wang Shoucheng to the bus station.

He was even more bewildered. He had known Old Wang for decades; how could he suddenly act this way?

"Cut the crap. I’m annoyed just seeing you. Those two people you met are nothing but trouble. They weren’t looking for their child; they were here to extort money! I think you’re in cahoots with them. Not one of you is any good!"

Wang Shoucheng grumbled and said a few words to him.

Seeing the bus arrive, he quickly got on.

Yang Chenggong was left speechless, but he still had work to do and couldn’t go back.

When Wang Shoucheng arrived at the village, a few old ladies chatting at the entrance greeted him.

"Old Wang, you came just in time. We have something to ask you." The old ladies at the village entrance all knew Wang Shoucheng and were about his age.

Although he usually maintained a stern demeanor, he enjoyed talking to these old ladies, who found him respectable and likable.

Wang Shoucheng walked over.

Among them, Widow Qiu asked directly, "Big Brother Old Wang, I heard today that someone lost a child in the provincial city. The place where they lost the child is somewhere you’ve been before. Was it the same place where you and Sister-in-law fled during hard times? What’s that place like? Is it fun? Was your eldest born there?

Do you know the people who lost their child? Did you help them today?"

"What? Who told you?" Wang Shoucheng’s head buzzed, and his mind exploded.

How could this be revealed?

He wished he could bury the past, but now even the gossipy old ladies at the village entrance knew? It was as if the whole village knew!

"Jinhua, she mentioned it today when she brought some things from the Women's Federation to the elderly ladies. She talked to me about it. Big Brother Old Wang, you’re truly a good person. Even though it happened so long ago, you still helped them."

Widow Qiu looked at Wang Shoucheng with enthusiasm, remembering the pork the Wang family had shared.

How much pork was it? If given to her, she wouldn’t know what to do with it.

Wang Shoucheng didn’t know what she was thinking. All he wanted was to tear Chen Jinhua’s mouth apart! How could anyone be so talkative?

Now the whole village probably knew that someone had lost a son in the city, and it was a place he had visited. His attitude towards his eldest... and the fact that his eldest was a premature baby in Xuan City?

Wouldn’t people start suspecting over time?

Wang Shoucheng felt weak in the knees.

He collapsed onto the ground in panic.

"Big Brother Old Wang, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Widow Qiu was also stunned by his sudden collapse.

"No, no, I’m fine. I need to go home. I remembered something important." Wang Shoucheng scrambled up and ran off.

"At his age, he’s still so impulsive. Why run so fast? Is there a ghost chasing him?" Widow Qiu stared at him, causing the other old ladies to laugh.

Wang Shoucheng rushed home. At that moment, Zhao Guifen had also returned.

She was boasting to her daughters-in-law about the job, confident that it would bring great fortune to the family.

The money from the jobs of her two sons would allow her and her husband to provide financial support without appearing to do so, leaving others speechless.

Her second and fifth sons would become workers.

How wonderful! She couldn’t believe it.

Finally, their bad luck was dissipating. When her eldest daughter-in-law, the jinx, returned, she would show off.

But she needed to discuss this with her husband first.

As she was pondering, Wang Shoucheng burst into the courtyard.

His terrified appearance startled Zhao Guifen: "Old man, what’s wrong? What happened?"

Zhao Guifen also felt scared, fearing that the negotiations had failed.

That would be disastrous.

"Let’s talk inside. You should go back to your tasks." Wang Shoucheng glared at his second and fifth daughters-in-law and his working sons.

Everyone was confused by his outburst.

Wang Shoucheng took Zhao Guifen inside, extremely anxious: "Old woman, where’s our money? Get it for me right away."

"Are you crazy? You want money as soon as you get home? How much?"

"Four thousand, all of it."

"What? How much?" Zhao Guifen was shocked.

Had her old man gone mad?

"Our family's money, both public and private, adds up to just this much. If we give it all away, how are we supposed to live? Our two sons are still waiting to buy their jobs, and their uncle has already said that it will cost three hundred and fifty each to arrange it.

Then they'll be official workers.

If you take the money now, you're taking our family's lives."

Zhao Guifen was on the verge of tears.

"I think you're the one who doesn't care about our family's lives!" Wang Shoucheng felt extremely unlucky whenever he looked at this old woman. But he knew that if he didn't explain the situation clearly, she wouldn't hand over the money even if she died.

So he explained the situation to her.

After hearing it, Zhao Guifen was stunned: "How could something like this happen?"

"How should I know? You manage our family's money, yet you didn't even think about this matter for me. Now I've been taken advantage of. And when I came back,

the whole village knows about our family's troubles!

Everyone knows I went to the city and that we visited the place where the child was lost.

When our eldest son brought back a child a few months after saying you were here and had a premature birth, no one thought much of it then. But now, combined with this, how many people might start suspecting something?

We need to pay the money to avoid disaster. Those two people are clearly here to extort us. After we give them the money and they leave, we'll separate the eldest couple from the household. Then life will be better."

Wang Shoucheng spoke faster than usual, feeling very anxious.

"What about our second son and Old Fifth?" Zhao Guifen was reluctant.

"What can we do? Have their wives go back to their families and find a way. We'll repay them later. At least we have the autumn harvest coming up; the grain distribution is imminent." Wang Shoucheng calculated that they should be able to gather enough money for the jobs, but there would be some turmoil at home.

But right now, they couldn't worry about that.

"There's no other choice." Zhao Guifen took out the hidden money from under a brick on the ground.

She had to dig up more than fifty bricks to get all the money.

At the commune, Bai Xiuxiu was feeding the child lunch. The lunch consisted of biscuits she had brought, which she was now soaking in hot water with brown sugar, making them sweet and fragrant.

"Jinhua, our team will be distributing the grain the day after tomorrow," the team leader said as he entered the room.

Hearing this, Bai Xiuxiu was also happy. Once the grain was distributed, they could divide the household.

She and Wang Qinghe still needed to split the money that the Wang family publicly had.