Zhang Qiquan took a deep breath, his eyes unusually red, "Dad and mom, I'm your eldest son, but I've lived up to this family. It's you who can't stand to see me doing well, thinking I have no heir, and unwilling to leave me a penny. You are biased to the extreme, how dare you blame me for being unfilial?"
"You still want to say your parents are wrong? There are no perfect parents in this world." Zhang Old Lady wailed loudly, partly fake and partly truly afraid, "Tell me, don't you want to take care of me anymore? I'm your mother, how can you not take care of me? You unfilial thing, I'd rather have given birth to a dog than you."
Village old ladies were always like this, when they couldn't win an argument, they'd stop making sense.
Although unafraid, Zhang Qiquan still felt wronged.
Liu Cui could no longer restrain herself, rushing over to stand in front of her husband. She scolded Zhang Old Lady, "You call yourself his mother, have you ever cared for him at all? What family sends their 13-year-old child away as an apprentice, why wasn't it one of the other two? Just because you wanted to take advantage of the most filial child, is this what a mother does, targeting the softest persimmon to pinch? Let me tell you, you're not my mother, if you continue to bully my man of the house, I will fight you to the death."
Some things were better left unsaid, not because of lack of courage, but out of filial piety.
Yet the parents always picked on the most obedient child to pinch.
But even the filial child had a breaking point.
The usually gentle Liu Cui scolding these fierce words stunned Zhang Old Lady.
The villagers gossiped amongst themselves, some sympathizing with Liu Cui, some cursing the Zhang family in whispers, and some unable to help but speak up for justice.
Qian Village Chief in particular frowned and yelled, "Zhang family, you've gone too far!"
Zhang Old Lady plopped down on the ground, unable to make a sound for a long time.
Zhang Qiquan regained his composure, sniffing his nose, about to seize the chance to promote the land purchase plan.
Unexpectedly, someone tugged him from behind.
Glancing back, he saw Jiang Sheng's smiling brows and eyes.
"Brother Zhang, look there." She pointed across the way.
Zhang Qiquan looked again to see Zheng Ruqian walking over foppishly, waving a folding fan, looking somewhat like the young masters he'd seen in the county town, yet also seeming off, rather awkward.
"Ahem." As soon as Zheng Ruqian stood still, he flicked open the fan and acted suavely, "You're the Zhang family? What a coincidence, Zhang Qiquan signed a contract with me saying he'd earn me fifty taels of silver in a year, but not only did he not earn it, he lost money, so I've come to get the money back from him today. Since you're his family, just pay back the fifty taels of silver."
He opened up a paper, covered in words, with Zhang Qiquan's name at the bottom, imprinted with a bright red fingerprint.
The Zhang family was badly frightened.
They were illiterate, but could recognize Zhang Qiquan's name, and knew the red handprint and red stamp meant it had gone through proper official channels, a valid contract.
In other words, the fifty taels loss was set in stone.
The two Zhang brothers were scared witless, exchanging a glance before turning to run away.
They were just brothers, with no real connection, and could get away without any responsibility.
Zhang's parents also wanted to flee, but were blocked by Zheng Ruqian.
"You're his parents, if he earned money you'd benefit, so you have to bear it when he loses money too." Zheng Squire grinned sinisterly, "Fifty taels of silver, not a penny less."
The previously aggressive Zhang Old Lady was badly frightened, repeatedly pleading, "No, no, we have no relation anymore, he's not my son."
"Really?" Zheng Ruqian sounded skeptical.
"Really, really." Zhang old man pointed around, "The villagers are all watching, even Village Chief Qian sees, from now on our third son has nothing to do with us."
All the onlooking villagers spat on the ground.
They'd stuck to him when it seemed he could earn money, but hearing of losses, were slippery as eels.
What kind of family was this, wretched.
Qian Village Chief's heart went cold for Zhang Qiquan too, yelling hoarsely, "Since this is the case, write a document renouncing relations!"
Within the village, wanting to clarify boundaries with parents, with agreement from the village chief and villagers, was already enough.
But Jiang Sheng and Zheng Ruqian weren't reassured, scheming together to frighten away the Zhang family with Zhang Qiquan's profit sharing contract, even obtaining a written disavowal of relations.
After going through proper official channels, filing it at the government yamen, whether Zhang's parents lived or died would have nothing to do with Zhang Qiquan, not even pursued if reported to the authorities.
Zhang Qiquan and Liu Cui were sincerely grateful, energetically touting the land purchase plan.
"This is Master Zheng, come to our village to buy land. In the future he'll plant peas, and prioritize hiring those who've sold land, paying daily wages. Long term hired hands will be even better treated."
Qian Village Chief also spoke up to guarantee it.
The villagers lowered their guard, those short on cash stirred with interest. First one family sold land, then quickly it became two, three, five families.
Soon, six acres of land were purchased.
At the market rate of five taels of silver per acre, it totalled thirty taels.
Zheng Ruqian acted swiftly, immediately having Qian Village Chief help draft contracts on the spot, handing over money in one hand and signing contracts with the other.
After going through proper channels, the land ownership would transfer to Zheng Ruqian and his sister's names, truly becoming petty landlords.
At the village chief's entrance, Zheng Ruqian was discussing with Zhang Qiquan about better treatment of villagers who sold land, in order to attract more villagers from the surrounding ten li town to sell land.
Just receiving the news, Zhou Zhiqiang cursed as he ran over.
Jiang Sheng whispered in Zhang Xianglian's ear, "See, trash is trash, even making trouble they lag behind."
Zhang Xianglian, originally somewhat nervous, couldn't help laughing upon hearing this, the last remnants of unease fading away completely.
What did she have to fear?
He was just an ex-husband, they'd long divorced, without even foster care obligations to threaten her.
So as soon as Zhou Zhiqiang stood still, Zhang Xianglian just coldly spat out one word, "Scram."
When gentle people hardened, it was most frightening.
Someone who had endured beatings and curses, lying beside her intimately familiar to the bone, was now so foreign.
She had become prettier, younger, fatigue and suffering vanishing from her features, indistinctly restored to the gentle beauty of when she first married.
Zhou Zhiqiang retreated several steps.
Jiang Sheng took the opportunity to hug over Qian Village Chief's puppy, pushing it towards him, also mimicking her brother's habit of whistling.
The puppy cooperated perfectly, peeing a puddle on the ground.
Zhou Zhiqiang lowered his head, saw his reflection, and could bear it no longer, turning to flee.
Liu Cui held Zhang Xianglian's arm, quietly asking, "Sister, how did you become so strong?"
She smiled lightly, "Would you want to return to how things were before?"
Liu Cui immediately shook her head vigorously like a rattle drum.
And that was that.
Zhang Xianglian smiled shallowly, her face gentle and beautiful.
The land purchase progressed rapidly. Zheng Ruqian acted especially quickly, signing multiple able-bodied men from families who'd sold land to come work the fields the very next day, for five wen per day.
The two landlords of Ten Li Town usually only paid two or three wen per day for farmhands, and would dock pay for poor work.
Zheng Ruqian generously gave five wen, and settled accounts daily, without any deductions.
This news quickly spread, immediately causing a stir. Those who'd been wary at first enthusiastically responded. Whether they sold land or not, they were mainly interested in the five wen daily wage work.
Zheng Ruqian remained noncommittal about this.
He'd purchased what he wanted in Shili Pu Village, for other villages he wanted contiguous plots of land, with good terrain and fertile soil, so he naturally dragged things out a bit.
Dragging it out until the villagers were anxious enough to sell their connected plots of land.
Gradually taking on the air of a profiteer.
But before the Zheng siblings could enjoy it, the original two landlords of Ten Li Town were unhappy.
