Elder Cen and Kang Rui didn’t understand why Shao Yunan imposed such harsh conditions. Shao Yunan smiled. “You don’t want it, then forget it. Anyway, Shijing has no money, so if your family still dares to come to him, be prepared to be scolded by me. I don’t care. In fact, whether this deed is signed or not, it has no effect on me. If it is signed, I will only lose 1300 taels of silver, which is all I have.”

Wang Shijing’s face twitched. Elder Cen and Kang Rui’s faces also twitched. In other people’s eyes, their expression was filled with heartache, but they themselves knew why they were twitching.

“Senior Brother, write it down.”

“Yunan…”

“Write it! Otherwise, I won’t recognize this deed! I won’t even give you the money!”

“Senior Brother, write it.” Wang Shijing also spoke up, so Kang Rui had no choice but to write down all the additional terms Shao Yunan requested. Wang Chunxiu looked at Kang Rui as he put down his brush and was terrified. “Mother! You can’t sign it!” Shao Yunan sneered. “It’s fine if you don’t sign it. Shijing, let’s go back. I am freezing to death!” He then turned around and left.

“I’ll sign it!”

“Mother!”

Kang Rui’s hand shook, almost writing down the wrong words. It could be said that his eyes have really opened today. What kind of mother is that?! Wang Dali stared at his wife with wide eyes, while Wang Chunxiu’s face was white. Shao Yunan turned around as Old Lady Wang yelled, “Give me the gold and I will sign it!”

“I don’t want to sign!” Wang Dali slapped his hands again, but was knocked to the ground by Old Lady Wang, followed by the other person scolding. “You might not want gold, but I want it! Who wouldn’t want more money at home?! Can you earn money for Wang Zhisong’s examination? I was blind to marry such a useless coward like you! Even if I were not his mother, would he dare to sell me? Dare to sell you?”

No one was sure if she didn’t understand it clearly or intentionally, but Shao Yunan’s additional conditions did not include Wang Shijing.

“Mother! Don’t sell me!” Wang Chunxiu, who knew her mother too well, completely collapsed on the ground hugging her mother. Crying and begging, never expecting her own mother to trade her life for money to such an extent.

Old Lady Wang, who was already insane, waved Wang Chunxiu away. “You are just a loss of money. If you didn’t insist on being the wife of the county magistrate and ended up ruining your own reputation, I would have married you to a rich family. I need some betrothal gifts. Now it’s already good if someone would be willing to marry you! While I still have to spend money to support you!”

“Wow, wow, wow, wow…”

The crowd boiled, Wang Chunxiu wanted to be the country magistrate’s wife? This was just too shameless! Wang Chunxiu cried and fell to the ground, her eyes blackening. Old Lady Wang no longer cared if her daughter’s reputation was completely ruined. At this moment, she only had eyes on the gold in Shao Yunan’s hands. Gold she would never see again in her life.

Old Lady Wang reached out again. “Give me the gold and I will sign.” Wang Dali looked at Old Lady Wang as if looking at a lunatic and shouted in a daze… “Can’t sign… can’t sign!”

Shao Yunan didn’t give Old Lady Wang the gold, but instead spoke to Wang Dali. “Wang Dali, you are the head of the house, right? If you agree to sign the deed, I will give you the money. Anyway, as long as you don’t try to go against the conditions of the deed, none of the conditions I attached would be of any use to you, right?  If you don’t sign it, it only means that you still have the idea of ​​not recognizing the deed, so we could only meet at the yamen in the future.”

Wang Dali slowly turned his head to Shao Yunan, as Shao Yunan asked, “You don’t want to sign, what are you afraid of? If you abide by the deed in the future, there would be no loss for you, right?” With a devilishly seductive smile on his face, he was just waiting for Wang Dali to take the bait.

Old Lady Wang shouted, “I am the master of our family! I promise! Give it to me!” Shao Yunan ignored Old Lady Wang, only looking at Wang Dali. Wang Dali’s body shook twice as Shao Yunan continued to add wood to the fire. “Who is the master of your family in the end?”

“I am!” Wang Dali once again fiercely pushed away Old Lady Wang, making her lose her footing. But Wang Dali did not look at her, as he just stumbled a few steps to the table, figured stuff out on his own, dipped his hand in the red juice, and pressed his handprint on the three deeds. At that moment, his body shook like a falling leaf in the wind.

“Okay! Have it! 50 taels of gold.” Shao Yunan simply stuffed two golden ingots into Wang Dali’s hand. Wang Dali felt that these two gold ingots were so hot, he almost couldn’t firmly hold them in his hands.

“Give it to me! It’s mine!” Old Lady Wang struggled to get up to grab the gold ingot, then she pointed at Shao Yunan’s nose and cursed. “You’re kidding me! It’s 1300 taels, not 500 taels!”

Shao Yunan laughed. “You didn’t press your handprint on it, so why should I give it to you?” Upon hearing this, Old Lady Wang limped over and couldn’t wait to press her handprint. Then she immediately reached out. “Give it to me!”

Shao Yunan picked up the three deeds in satisfaction, then he took two steps big and retreated to Wang Shijing’s side, while looking innocently at Old Lady Wang. “What will I give you? 500 taels of silver or 50 taels of gold. A total of two gold ingots, but I have already given them to the head for your house. The other 800 taels of silver should not be given to you, right? You are not the head of the Wang clan. It’s okay for you to embezzle your own family’s money, but you can’t embezzle the whole clan’s money.”

The Wang clan had not thought of this, but when Shao Yunan said so, they immediately thought, ‘Yes! Wang Shijing moved out of the clan, so it’s not Old Lady Wang’s turn to get more money! That 800 taels of silver should be the clan’s money!’ Old Lady Wang froze for a moment, then she went crazy and jumped on Shao Yunan. “You lied to me! That’s mine!”

“Wang Zhu, how can you be so shameless? It’s the entire Wang clan’s money!” The people of the clan scolded one after another. The lunatic, Old Lady Wang, was pulled from behind and slapped twice, followed by an angry rebuke. “Escort Wang Zhu to the ancestral hall! Open the ancestral hall!”

The one who slapped her was the tough Fourth Aunt Wang, who had been itching to do it for a long time. She was also helped by Wang Shen, Wang Wenhe’s wife, who had put up with Old Lady Wang for a long time already. Wang Wenhe, if he was not a man and the patriarch, would have slapped Old Lady Wang too.

“It’s mine! These 800 taels should also be mine!” Old Lady Wang had been driven completely crazy by the dazzling gold and only had money in her eyes. She carried out a bullying scene completely. Zhu Wencai and Zhu Wenhua watched their younger sister being taken away and neither of them pleaded for mercy. They just felt extremely ashamed to have a younger sister like her.

Wang Chunxiu watched her crazy mother being taken to the ancestral hall, then looked at her father holding the two ingots of gold. She then looked at her tall and mighty elder brother and Shao Yunan who laughed uncontrollably. She suddenly burst into tears, crying her heart out. However, no one took pity on her. Even poor people need something to hate and Wang Chunxiu had brought the blame on herself at this point.

Witnessing all this absurdity, Father Guo felt a bit foolish. Even he couldn’t understand what Old Lady Wang just did, by ‘selling’ such a rich son? As for the Wang family’s male wife, Father Guo could not help but shiver. Such a terrible person, just his simple words made the Wang family sell their own son and even sold themselves without knowing it.

Shao Yunan looked at Father Guo, who shuddered again. Shao Yunan showed an angelic smile. “Grandpa Sun, please take a look at these people’s injuries. How much silver will you need for their treatment? You can ask me for it later. Shijing and I have to go to the ancestral hall.”

“Go ahead and don’t worry about it.” 

Shao Yunan took the initiative to hold Wang Shijing’s hand, then he turned his head. “Elder Cen, Senior Brother, do you want to go?” The two people replied at the same time… “Go.”

Edited by: Jaisland

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