As soon as Tian Tian’s parents heard their daughter’s tone, they knew exactly what she was trying to do. Tian Tian’s father was the most eager. He wanted to jump right in and lay out the facts one by one. But his wife immediately stopped him.
“You stay out of this and watch from the side.”
With that, Tian Tian’s mother planted her hands on her hips and, with fierce momentum, shouted toward the eldest uncle’s house next door: “Chen Xia, if you’ve got the guts, come over here. We’ll settle this face to face, loud and clear. Let’s see who’s been taking advantage of whom all these years!”
The villagers gasped in surprise. Most of them thought Tian Tian’s mother had lost her mind.
The eldest uncle’s wife curled her lip in disdain. Her old sisters, meanwhile, burst into mocking laughter.
Seeing everyone’s reactions, Tian Tian’s mother just chuckled to herself. Over the years, it wasn’t that she hadn’t heard the gossip. But bringing certain things out into the open would hurt family feelings. Now, though, someone was pushing their luck, so the family had no reason to be polite anymore.
So Tian Tian’s mother took a deep breath and shouted loudly:
“Over the years, a lot of people in this village have said that our second branch has been bleeding the first branch dry. Our family never bothered to argue. Brothers are brothers for life—there’s no need to ruin that bond over trivial matters. Besides, back in the production team days, if our eldest brother hadn’t been working so hard out front, my husband couldn’t have had such an easy time of it…”
“See? Liu Shuya, you just admitted it yourself—you’ve been bleeding the first branch dry!”
He Chunhua, one of the eldest uncle’s wife’s old sisters, immediately jumped out, spraying saliva as she pointed at Tian Tian’s mother, looking smug as if she’d caught her in a trap.
“He Chunhua, are you a pig? Which sentence of mine admitted anything? If you don’t want to listen, then get the hell out of here.”
The other onlookers were listening with great interest and didn’t want He Chunhua to ruin it. They all started berating her. Meanwhile, one of He Chunhua’s own family members went up and tried to drag her away.
Tian Tian’s mother was quite satisfied with this turn of events.
Tian Tian, for her part, felt like laughing. Noticing the sour expression on her aunt’s face, she felt even more delighted. Just wait—soon she’d make sure her aunt lost all face.
—
“People say our Tian Baomin didn’t like working the fields as a child. We admit that. But Tian Baomin had a father and mother. Before he turned eighteen, both of his parents were still working the fields and earning work points. And my father-in-law was the village accountant at the time. No matter how you look at it, they could certainly support Tian Baomin.”
That argument was reasonable. Quite a few people nodded along.
Seeing this, the eldest uncle’s wife finally couldn’t hold back anymore. “Shuya, that’s not right. The money your in-laws earned didn’t belong to just your family. By rights, our family should have gotten half as well.”
A flicker of a smile crossed Tian Tian’s mother’s face. Tian Tian’s father made faces at his daughter.
Tian Tian silently gave her mother a thumbs-up. It was time to let her aunt-in-law show her true colors.
“Sister-in-law, that’s not wrong either.”
He Chunhua jumped out again. “If you calculate it that way, Tian Baomin still bled Chen Xia and her husband dry. Otherwise, after splitting your in-laws’ earnings, there wouldn’t have been enough to support your family of three.”
Tian Tian’s mother snapped at He Chunhua’s family, “Are you going to deal with He Chunhua or not? If not, I won’t be polite anymore.”
The moment she finished speaking, several of Tian Tian’s mother’s old sisters rolled up their sleeves, ready to throw down.
Seeing this, He Chunhua’s family panicked. This time, they didn’t dare leave her there. One grabbed her arms, another her legs, and they carried the still-struggling He Chunhua horizontally back home.
Everyone burst out laughing again. Tian Tian’s mother laughed too. After the laughter died down, she looked at the eldest uncle’s wife. “Sister-in-law, you don’t need to rush to argue. I don’t know all the expenses from before we got married. But right here, I have all the household account books from before the family split. Now, let’s do a final reckoning.”
Hearing this, Tian Tian’s father popped up again and handed over two thick ledgers.
Watching her parents’ coordination, Tian Tian covered her mouth and snickered. The other villagers were curious how Tian Tian’s mother had gotten hold of those account books.
But the eldest uncle’s wife’s heart skipped a beat. She had a bad feeling that something was wrong.
Tian Tian’s mother, however, wouldn’t give her any chance. She opened the ledger and began reading out numbers one by one. Someone nearby had already grabbed an abacus and started clicking away, calculating.
—
“What’s going on here?”
Just as Tian Tian’s mother reached the part about Tian Tian’s school expenses, a voice rang out from the quiet crowd.
Everyone looked over and laughed again.
“Eldest brother! You’ve come at the perfect time!” Tian Tian’s father grinned at his older brother.
One of the eldest uncle’s friends quickly pulled him aside and explained the whole situation in a few sentences. The eldest uncle’s temple veins bulged with anger.
Tian Tian watched her uncle.
In her previous life, he had always been quite good to her. Apart from staying silent when her job was sold to Tian Xin cheaply, he had treated their family well at all other times. She wondered whether her uncle had known about that ten-thousand-yuan matter in her previous life.
Tian Tian wanted to believe he didn’t know. But people who share the same bed don’t sleep with two different natures. If her aunt-in-law had embezzled that ten-thousand-yuan compensation, could her uncle, sleeping beside her every night, truly have been unaware?
Was her uncle, who had always maintained such a stern, upright image in her previous life, truly as consistent as he appeared?
Tian Tian didn’t know. And she didn’t want to find out anymore.
This time, she would settle all accounts clearly. The two families would part ways cleanly. From now on, they’d minimize entanglements.
The only thing was, when Grandpa and Grandma came back and found out, they would probably be heartbroken.
Heartbroken that the brotherly bond they had maintained for most of their lives had developed a rift that could never be fully repaired.
—
After Tian Tian’s eldest uncle learned what had happened, his already dark face turned even darker.
“Second Brother, this matter was your sister-in-law’s fault. Don’t be angry, you and your wife. And don’t talk about a final reckoning—that’s too cold. We’re brothers for life; we don’t need to calculate everything down to the last penny. I’ll have your sister-in-law apologize to you right now.”
Tian Tian’s father looked at his elder brother, who, just like when they were children, still spoke in a way that brooked no argument. The brothers had once had a very good relationship. He didn’t know when things had slowly started to change.
But Tian Tian’s father had long since learned not to dwell on it. He had his own wife and children now. Everything came second to them. His elder brother also had his own family. It was only natural that he would put his own family first.
An arrow shot from the bow never returns. Having made the decision to settle all accounts today, there was no stopping now.
“Elder Brother, our relationship is good, so it’s natural that you don’t think we need to make things crystal clear. But what about the next generation? Not to mention Yingxiong, but Tian Xin has always been hostile to my Tian Tian. If we don’t settle these accounts properly, those kids won’t have a brother-sister relationship left in the future.”
These words were very honest. The eldest uncle fell silent.
Tian Tian muttered quietly to herself, “Whether we settle things clearly or not probably won’t make much difference anyway.” From her previous life’s memories, the eldest uncle’s family and theirs had remained distant over the next decade—even after she sold her job to Tian Xin cheaply.
The eldest uncle was about to refuse the reckoning again, but his wife, who he’d been holding back, wouldn’t have it.
“Baoguo, if a rotten guy like Tian Baomin has the nerve to be ungrateful and not acknowledge all the sacrifices you’ve made for this family over the years, why should you still save face for him?”
“Enough. Stop talking. Let’s go home.”
With that, he grabbed her and started walking home.
No one tried to stop the couple. But Tian Tian’s mother wasn’t about to let it go.
“Elder Brother, Sister-in-law. Whether you stay to listen or not, I’m going to settle these accounts clearly. If we’ve spent your money, we’ll pay it back. But if we haven’t spent your money—if it’s the other way around—then I’m sorry, but you’ll have to pay us back.”
The crowd had been listening quietly up until the first part. But when she said that, everyone froze.
They all thought Tian Tian’s mother had lost her mind. How could Tian Baomin possibly have let his elder brother take advantage of him? That would be turning the natural order upside down.
The crowd buzzed with chatter. The eldest uncle’s wife wanted to set off firecrackers in celebration.
“Sister-in-law, since you’re so insistent, as your elder brother and sister-in-law, it’s really not our place to stop you.”
She spoke pretty words, but inside she was already calculating how much compensation they might get back. The thought made her unable to suppress a smile.
No one thought this would end well for Tian Tian’s family. People started advising Tian Tian’s mother and father not to go through with it. What if, in the end, they ended up owing a lot of money?
When the two brothers hadn’t split the household yet, there was no way to calculate things that clearly.
But Tian Tian’s mother just smiled and ignored their well-meaning advice. She continued reading the ledger aloud.
At first, everyone thought Tian Tian’s family would end up at a loss. But as she continued reading, their expressions grew strange.
When she reached the entry from 1976—200 yuan given to the eldest uncle’s son, Tian Yingxiong, to buy a job—the crowd gasped again.
“Hey, wait. Did I hear that wrong? Tian Baomin gave 200 yuan for Tian Yingxiong’s job?”
“Yeah, seriously. Did we mishear? Where would Tian Baomin get that much money?”
It wasn’t just the onlookers who didn’t believe it—the eldest uncle’s wife didn’t believe it either!
“Sister-in-law, you must have misread! When did your family ever give money for my Yingxiong’s job?”
The eldest uncle looked equally shocked, but then something seemed to dawn on him, and his face turned ashen.
Seeing everyone’s reactions, Tian Tian’s mother raised her voice: “We really did give that money back then. Sister-in-law, you came to our house to borrow money, and the eldest brother stopped you. Baomin saw that and gave the money to Mother-in-law instead, asking her to pass it to you privately. Did you get that money or not?”
Hearing this, the eldest uncle’s wife turned green. She had indeed taken 200 yuan from her mother-in-law back then. She had thought it was her mother-in-law’s private savings and had been thrilled that her family had gotten one over on them. Now she was being told that money had come from the second brother?
She didn’t believe it.
“Where would Second Brother get that much money? Oh, I see—when the family split, Grandpa and Grandma must have secretly given money to your branch.”
“Aunt, don’t change the subject. We’re settling accounts right now. Leave the great-grandparents out of this.”
Tian Tian stepped forward at that moment.
The great-grandparents—Tian Tian’s father’s own grandparents—had adored him. When the family split, they had indeed secretly given him a fair amount of money. And not just then—most of the money used for his wedding and for sending Tian Tian to school had also come from them.
The eldest uncle’s wife immediately shouted, “Don’t think you can hide this!”
Tian Tian replied, “We never intended to hide anything. No matter how much the great-grandparents gave my father, that was their affection for him. You have no right to question it. As for the 200 yuan for the job—just acknowledge whether you received it or not.”
“Mom, keep reading.”
The eldest uncle’s wife wanted to argue further. But Tian Tian’s mother had already continued reading, and the abacus beads clicked away noisily. Finally, a final sum emerged, stunning everyone in the crowd.
A moment ago, everyone had been guessing just how much Tian Baomin had received from his grandparents. Now, they heard a shocking number.
“After calculating everything, it turns out that Tian Baomin’s family not only didn’t take advantage of Tian Baoguo’s family—instead, Tian Baoguo’s family owes Tian Baomin’s family 58 yuan and 28 cents.”
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