Transmigrated as a Peasant Girl with Prophetic Dreams: Using My Space to Become the Richest Person - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Agreement to Split the Family

Wang Dani shrieked instantly: “I’ll beat you to death, you heartless wretch! I raised you all this way, and this is how you repay me?”

“I provided your food, your clothes, and kept your entire family of ‘money-losing goods’ (daughters) eating white rice at home every day, yet you dare mention splitting the family? We aren’t even dead yet!”

Lying on the ground, Yang Xue heard Wang Dani’s words and nearly burst out laughing. If she hadn’t been acting, she would have snapped back fiercely.

If it weren’t for the fact that Yang Lao-san’s (the third son) family did most of the heavy lifting and chores for the household, they likely would have been kicked out long ago. Now, the old man Yang and his wife refused to split the family simply because they hadn’t finished sucking every last drop of blood out of the third son’s family.

“Grandmother, we don’t eat white rice for free. We work,” Yang Shuang, who had remained silent until now, said calmly.

Yang Yu and Yang Tian immediately followed suit: “We don’t eat for free, we work!”

“You—you lot! A pack of white-eyed wolves! I’ll beat you to death!”

Wang Dani kept screaming about hitting them and was actually preparing to do so, but she was held back by several neighborhood women, which infuriated her to no end.

Seeing his threats fail and seeing that Yang Lao-san was still adamant about splitting, Old Man Yang felt his pride wounded. He said coldly, “Old Third, don’t you regret this.”

“If you truly move out, don’t expect your mother or me to ever help you again.” This was yet another threat.

How could Yang Lao-san not understand? But suddenly, he felt a deeper chill in his heart.

Help? If his parents just stopped making life difficult for them, it would be a blessing. In all these years, when has there ever been any “help”?

Since things had reached this point, Yang Lao-san knew there was no turning back. If he grew cowardly now and compromised because of a threat, their lives would only get harder in the future. He didn’t matter, but what about the children?

“Father, I don’t regret it.” Having said that, Yang Lao-san turned to the Village Chief and spoke firmly: “Chief, we want to split the family. Please, preside over this for us.”

“You see Xue-ya’s condition. If I don’t take her away to safety before the flood comes, she won’t be able to escape. But if we don’t split, my parents won’t let me take her or the rest of the family away. So, I have no choice but to split.”

“Chief, it doesn’t matter what happens to me, but I cannot watch my wife and children suffer. They’ve had it too hard. As a husband and father, I must do something for them. Splitting the family is my only option.”

Some of these words were taught to him by Yang Xue beforehand, but some were Yang Lao-san’s genuine feelings. These words brought tears to the eyes of the bystanders who had long pitied his family.

“Old Man Yang, just let Old Third’s family go. They are your own flesh and blood after all. Do you really have to torment them to death to be satisfied?”

“Let them go.”

At that moment, Yang Xue coughed weakly twice, then tremblingly reached out to grab Old Man Yang’s pant leg: “Grandfather, save me, I don’t want to die.”

Old Man Yang was driven nearly mad with rage. “Fine, fine! Split! We’ll split the family! Yang Lao-san, I hope you don’t regret today’s decision.”

Qian Yue’e tightly squeezed Yang Lao-san’s hand. He took a deep breath: “I won’t regret it!”

The Village Chief looked at Yang Lao-san with newfound respect today. He had thought the man would spend his whole life being ground down by his parents. Who would have thought he’d finally grow a backbone?

Based on Yang Lao-san’s performance today, even if Old Man Yang had refused, the Chief would have forced the split. But now that Old Man Yang had agreed, it saved him the trouble of playing the villain.

Hearing that the old man agreed, Wang Dani spat toward the couple: “Pah! You really think your wings are strong enough? I can’t wait to see what kind of miserable state you end up in without us.”

“When the time comes, even if you come back crawling on your knees begging us, don’t expect a single bite of food from us.”

Yang Lao-san and Qian Yue’e said nothing, letting her curse as she pleased; as long as the family was successfully split, nothing else mattered.

Yang Lao-san had worried about exactly what his mother said, but his wife and daughter were right—as long as the family stayed together and worked hard, they wouldn’t starve. Not only would they survive, but they wouldn’t have to face daily beatings and verbal abuse.

“Splitting is fine, but the house was robbed. We have nothing to give you. We’ll give you five catties (approx. 2.5kg) of brown rice, and that’s it.”

Yang Xue had warned him that the old man wouldn’t give them much. She told him to be mentally prepared and not to get hung up on the amount of goods; the most important thing was getting the official “Family Separation Document.”

Still, hearing his father say he would only give them five catties of rice made Yang Lao-san’s heart ache.

“What? We’re giving them rice? Where do we have enough grain to give? Everything was stolen! Nothing!” Wang Dani shrieked. “They’re the ones who asked for the split, why should we give them anything?”

Yang Lao-san felt a surge of bitterness. Haha, this is my father, and this is my mother.

He remembered Yang Xue’s instructions: the items weren’t important; the document was. Let the old Yang family keep the stuff. When the flood came and washed it all away, that would be heartbreak enough for them. If they forced a fair split now, the old family would just come hounding them for supplies once the floodwaters receded. It was better to take nothing now.

However… they couldn’t take anything, or they’d be letting the old family off too easy.

“Old Man Yang, you say the house was robbed. Fine, I’ve heard about that, so I’ll act as if you have no grain. But what about the silver and the land? How do you plan to split those? And the pots, pans, and farm tools?”

Before Yang Lao-san could speak the words Yang Xue had taught him, the Village Chief questioned Old Man Yang with dissatisfaction.

“What? Silver and land? Keep dreaming! Does this family of ‘money-losers’ even deserve it?” Wang Dani shrieked again.

The Village Chief was fed up with her shrewish behavior. “What? Name one family that splits without dividing assets. Go on, tell me.”

Wang Dani crossed her arms. “Anyway, I’m not giving anything.”

After speaking so much earlier, Yang Lao-san’s nerves had settled. He looked at Old Man Yang: “Father, Mother, I only want two tales of silver and two mu (approx. 0.3 acres) of land. Nothing else.”

“What? Two tales of silver? And two mu of land? Yang Lao-san, are you dreaming?” Wang Dani’s voice was deafeningly loud.

Naturally, Old Man Yang was also unwilling to part with money or land. “No!”