“Why is that person coming?” He Jie momentarily forgot the lingering aches in his body and hurried toward the eastern wing. He shoved open the door and called, “Mother!”
“Why are you rushing about like that? There’s no physician around to treat you right now, and you’re still moving so fast. Are you trying to break your mother’s heart? Don’t go to the main hall later. Stay in your room and rest properly,” Zeng Qianqian scolded.
Panting, He Jie said, “No, no, cough! Mother, the person the village head asked to preside over the household division is Great-Uncle!”
“…What did you say?!” Zeng Qianqian cried out.
Elsewhere, when He Yi reached the main hall, he saw He Yongxing usher the village head to a side table and serve him brown-rice tea. The village head accepted the bowl and slowly blew across its steaming surface while looking toward an elderly man who had entered with him, his back stooped with age.
Noticing where the village head was looking, He Yongxing immediately wiped the ingratiating smile from his face. But since this man had been invited by the village head, he had no choice but to swallow his impatience, invite the old man to the seat of honor, and serve him a bowl of hot tea as well.
The instant He Yi saw the old man’s face, a vague impression surfaced in his memory. Compared with the person he remembered, however, the man was far older now. His hair had gone gray and his frame seemed to have shrunk. He was A’ma’s younger brother, which meant He Yi had to address him as Great-Uncle.
He Yi stepped forward and bowed to both men. “Great-Uncle, Village Head, forgive me for not coming out to welcome you. The village head helped me before, yet after returning home I’ve been so occupied with family matters that I haven’t found time to visit you. I’m truly ashamed. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
“Aiyo, what are you being so polite for? If you ever feel like coming to my house for a meal, just come.” The village head waved a hand and took a sip of tea. “We’re here on proper business today. Eldest He, where are your wife and son?”
He Yongxing was about to answer when Zeng Qianqian and He Jie happened to hurry into the main hall one after the other. Neither looked particularly pleased, but they still greeted the village head and offered a few flattering words.
How could He Yi fail to notice that something was off about their expressions? Still, he could hardly look delighted by it, so he remained standing to one side with his usual calm expression.
Great-Uncle was completely ignored by Zeng Qianqian and He Jie, but he did not seem to care. His gaze remained fixed on He Yi, and something strange seemed to glimmer in his clouded eyes.
Once everyone had arrived, the village head had them sit down and got straight to the matter at hand.
“As for dividing the household, the clan head has business elsewhere and couldn’t come today, so your uncle will preside instead. You have no objection to that, do you?” the village head asked He Yongxing.
Zeng Qianqian immediately reached over and pinched He Yongxing viciously where no one could see. He Yongxing glanced at the village head, raised no objection, and merely nodded stiffly.
Zeng Qianqian nearly lost control of herself, straining so hard to keep her expression in check that her face looked almost twisted. He Jie, seated below her, wore the same resentful look and glared straight at Great-Uncle.
He Yi had originally assumed they had gone to fetch the village head in order to discuss his earlier fight with He Jie. But once he saw Great-Uncle there as well, he began to suspect otherwise. Sure enough, they had not come over that minor dispute. Now that A’ma was gone, the household division Eldest Uncle’s family had been plotting for so long had finally been brought out into the open.
Great-Uncle told He Yongxing to bring out the field deeds, property deeds, and related documents, then immediately began tallying the farmland and property.
All of those deeds had been registered through the authorities and had to be disclosed during a household division. He Yongxing had no grounds to refuse, so he could only bring out every relevant document and spread them across the table.
He Yi glanced over several sheets and discovered that he could understand most of what was written. He did not know what the script was called, but the traditional characters were not very different from forms he had seen before. Unfortunately, he could only read and not write. Perhaps later he could find some books, brushes, ink, paper, and an inkstone in town and practice by copying from the books.
They began with the field deeds. The He household possessed twenty-eight mu of farmland in total: twelve mu of paddy fields and sixteen mu of dry fields.
Elio’s Notes: Mu (亩) and fen (分) are traditional land-area units. In this fictional dynasty, their scale does not map cleanly onto the modern standard, so the land amounts are left unconverted; ten fen make one mu.
Under the laws of the Qian Dynasty, a male received six mu of land during his lifetime. At his death, the court reclaimed four mu and left two. A female received only two mu in her lifetime, all of which was reclaimed at her death. Land allotted during a person’s lifetime could not be sold, though it could be leased. Whatever remained after death became ancestral land and could then be sold.
He Yi’s A’ye had been an undocumented displaced migrant and had only been able to settle in Chongzi Village by marrying A’ma. The land allotted to him at birth had become ownerless when he became a displaced migrant. Later, A’ye managed to acquire four mu through his own efforts. With A’ma’s two mu about to be reclaimed, the He family therefore had only four mu of ancestral land available for division.
Yet those exact four mu had been registered by Eldest Uncle under Juren Jiang’s name in town. The land tax had indeed been reduced, but according to the official paperwork, those four mu no longer belonged to the He family.
Elio’s Notes: Juren (举人) was an imperial-examination rank awarded to those who passed the provincial examination. It carried considerable local status and certain privileges.
As a result, the only land He Yi could receive was the two mu left after his father’s death and the six mu that had always belonged to He Yi himself.
Even so, Zeng Qianqian was still dissatisfied. “How can he just take those fields away? The cotton’s already planted and the rice seedlings have already been started. Our He family has managed those fields all these years. He Yi can keep farming them if he wants, but we’ll treat it as leasing them to him. At harvest, he can hand over half the grain and we’ll count that as the rent.”
He Yi was nearly amused by just how little regard Eldest Aunt had for anyone else. In a faint, almost leisurely tone, he asked, “Am I not surnamed He?”
Zeng Qianqian sneered and immediately wanted to fire back, but some instinctive caution remained. She glanced at the village head and ultimately swallowed whatever she had been about to say.
Great-Uncle cast Zeng Qianqian a sidelong glance and continued, “The crops already planted will be converted into copper value and deducted later when we settle the common household funds.” In other words, everyone would have to account for the original cost of fertilizer and seed, while any fruits and vegetables already mature would be included as well.
Calculated that way, whoever received more fields would clearly lose out. He Yongxing realized this at once and made the decision that they would not calculate the costs of those grains and vegetables after all. Whatever grew on a piece of land would simply go with that land.
He Yi agreed.
Next came the property deeds. The He family’s property consisted of the ancestral home and a fertilizer pit. The fertilizer pit stood on wasteland A’ye had reclaimed, which had therefore become his property automatically. The ancestral house had been built on land A’ye purchased from someone else, and the deed had originally been registered under A’ye’s name. After A’ye died, the deed to the ancestral home was transferred to Eldest Uncle and He Yi’s father. Not long afterward, He Yi’s father died as well. He Yi’s name should then have appeared on the deed, yet the document before them listed only Eldest Uncle.
That was because after He Yi’s father died, He Yongxing had privately gone through the village head to have the ownership changed at the government office. He removed the name of He Yi’s father, the second son, without adding He Yi’s. At the time, the original He Yi was still young, and both he, his mother, and A’ma depended on Eldest Uncle to live. Even after they learned what had happened, they did not make trouble over it, and the deed’s ownership remained as it was.
The deed to the fertilizer pit had been transferred at the same time and was likewise registered under He Yongxing.
He Yi thought grimly that he was completely ignorant when it came to ancient law and clan rules. The household division had come so suddenly that he had not even had time to study them. Yet the idea that he had no share at all in the ancestral house was absurd no matter how he looked at it. The original He Yi had worked himself to the bone for this family year after year. He could not simply stand by and hand over what the young man should rightfully have received.
He Yi decided to circle around the issue first and see whether he could coax anything useful out of them. He picked up the deed and asked, “My name isn’t on the deed to the ancestral house?”
“If it isn’t there, then it isn’t there. Why should your name be on it?” Zeng Qianqian cut in first. “You there… what was it, Uncle? Go on to the next item.”
“Village Head, may I ask something? Isn’t the ancestral home He family property? I’m A’ye’s biological grandson. Shouldn’t I have a share?” He Yi asked again.
“When family property is divided, it is indeed ordinarily divided among direct descendants by generation,” the village head said with a nod, his tone kindly. Then he changed tack. “But that generally applies before ownership has been transferred. Your deed was changed at least seven or eight years ago. At this point, we can only recognize the registered owner written on the deed.”
“…” He Yi tightened his grip on the deed while his thoughts raced, searching for another way through.
On the other side, He Jie finally heard something he actually understood and gave a smug smile. “Some people have lived in my house all these years for free. Seems you’ve never paid a single copper in rent, have you? If you kneel down and kowtow to me twice, I might be generous enough to waive that little sum!”
The shamelessness of this family truly ran in the blood. But He Yi was not so easily provoked. He had been nearly thirty in his previous life, and even apart from that, his temperament was naturally steady.
He Jie’s interruption shifted He Yi’s attention to the question of money. Thinking for a moment that he had found a way in, He Yi countered, “If we’re going to settle accounts like that, then year after year, month after month, day after day, I’ve worked in the fields, fed the livestock, shoveled manure, chopped firewood, heated water, composted fertilizer, weeded, turned soil, threshed grain, hulled rice, and done every kind of heavy work, errand, and animal slaughter around this household. Are you going to calculate all those wages for me too?”
He Yi rattled off the entire speech like beans spilling from a tube, stunning everyone present. The image of the old He Yi as quiet and withdrawn was simply too deeply rooted. Even though his temperament had clearly changed since coming down from the mountain, seeing him become this articulate and sharp-tongued was still difficult to believe.
Once the shock wore off, He Yongxing had to regain control of the situation. Furious, he slammed a palm onto the table. “You think you’re the only one who works in this family? Listen to the nonsense coming out of your mouth! You’ll say anything now!”
He Jie joined in. “My mother is the one who truly works hard! Who do you think washes the clothes for this whole family, cooks every meal, and cleans the house every day?!” Naturally, he did not mention that he himself did nothing and only spent money outside.
“How could the three of us possibly have done less than you?!” Zeng Qianqian stood and pointed at He Yi as she cursed him. “It’s your own fault you’re useless and can only stay home as some mud-footed peasant doing odd jobs and farmwork! Who earns the bulk of this family’s money? Without your Eldest Uncle, without Jie’er, do you think you’d have this house to live in or this kind of life today?”
The argument drifted farther and farther away from the actual issue until it became a quarrel over who contributed more labor and who earned more money. After two rounds of bickering, He Yi abruptly realized he had let them lead him in circles. This had never been about who worked more or earned more. He had an inheritance right to the ancestral home in the first place.
Yet every time he tried to steer the discussion back to the deed, Eldest Aunt and He Jie would drag in something else and talk over him.
The room descended into chaos, and the question of how the ancestral house should be divided made no progress whatsoever.
No one expected Great-Uncle to speak up just then. “When an elder of the household dies, the property deeds must be divided again. Regardless of whose name is written on a deed, the property remains a household asset. So long as the elder’s children and grandchildren have not been expelled from the clan register, they are entitled to a share of the ancestral home.”
At those words, everyone’s eyes turned toward Great-Uncle.
“…” Eldest Uncle’s entire family fell silent.
“…” There was actually a rule like that? He Yi froze as well. He had not expected Great-Uncle to speak with such clear reasoning and open a way through for him so directly.
Great-Uncle narrowed his eyes and secretly continued watching He Yi. He Yi was feeling grateful and noticed nothing strange, even giving the old man a friendly smile. The wrinkles on Great-Uncle’s face immediately bunched together, and the look in his eyes deepened. Stroking his beard, he continued the accounting on his own. “According to the deed, the ancestral home occupies one mu and four fen. It is a mud-brick house with a tiled roof…”
The final conclusion was that He Yongxing would receive the deeds to the ancestral home and fertilizer pit, but he had to compensate He Yi for the eastern wing. The total came to eleven taels of silver.
“Eleven taels?! Ten taels would be enough to buy that little bastard’s life!” Zeng Qianqian hissed furiously under her breath. She kept her voice low enough that only He Jie heard her.
When it came to the property deeds, Zeng Qianqian had hoped they could simply give He Yi nothing. Just now, after derailing the discussion so thoroughly, she had nearly managed to muddle her way through. Who could have expected Great-Uncle to intervene? Worse, there was no way for them to refute him. Rage jammed in her chest, unable to rise or fall, and she felt ready to explode.
But what came next was what truly drove her out of her mind.
After the deeds came the common household funds. Since A’ye’s death, those funds had been managed by the eldest son, so Eldest Uncle controlled all the household money. Great-Uncle could not possibly know the exact amount, and neither could He Yi.
Eldest Uncle’s family naturally had no intention of wasting such an opportunity. The moment they could, they insisted that hardly any money remained in the common funds, only two guan.
No one would believe such a claim, but they simply acted shamelessly. There was no way to verify the books, so they could say whatever they pleased.
He Yi, however, clearly remembered last year’s harvest after the taxes were paid: how much grain and cotton had been sold, how much silver it brought in, and the income from slaughtering and selling the family’s livestock.
Eldest Uncle’s family continued to argue dishonestly. They claimed all the cotton had been made into quilts, cotton-padded clothing, and jackets, so where would money from selling it have come from? Then they said the pigs had all been slaughtered for the family to eat, and He Yi had eaten some too. Maybe He Yi simply remembered wrong, and so on.
After all that wrangling, Eldest Uncle’s family intended to give He Yi only one guan, equivalent to one tael of silver. Yet even that one tael was not something they truly meant to let him keep. They wanted He Yi to pay them an additional tael instead.
That brought them to A’ma’s funeral expenses. Eldest Uncle claimed the funeral had cost four taels in all. They had invited more than half the village and conducted the rites very respectably.
Under clan rules, the grandchildren were required to contribute to funeral expenses, divided equally per person. He Yongxing, however, insisted that He Yi should pay half. Why? Because, according to them, He Yi had contributed no labor at all during the funeral while still proclaiming himself A’ma’s most filial grandson.
“Is your filial devotion nothing but talk? You’re going to haggle over this little bit of money too?” Zeng Qianqian asked, delighted that they had finally clawed back some ground.
This time He Yi genuinely laughed from anger. If he bargained over the funeral expenses, he would only appear unfilial and give them even more ammunition. Fine. It seemed he really did have to swallow this loss in silence. Otherwise, he would be failing A’ma and the original He Yi alike.
Just as He Yi was about to accept their division of the funeral costs, Great-Uncle rejected it for him. “That isn’t according to the rules. Whether someone contributed labor has nothing to do with how the monetary share is divided. If you want to tell everyone he did no work, you’re free to do so. But everyone knows He Yi was sent up the mountain for isolation. Anyone with clear eyes can see who had the crooked intentions in that matter.”
He Yi could not conveniently argue this point on his own behalf, but coming from Great-Uncle, it was exactly right.
They had deliberately spent so much effort and money making the funeral grand, yet now they could not profit from the funeral expenses at all. Zeng Qianqian finally lost her mind completely.
She stamped her foot, pointed at Great-Uncle, and began cursing him at the top of her lungs. “You favor him in everything! No wonder, when he’s your own flesh-and-blood grandson! Look how fiercely you protect him! The two of you, grandfather and grandson, plotted together to steal our He family’s money! You’ve got no respect for law or heaven at all! I don’t care who hears me today. You forced me to say it!!”
Everyone froze again, but the village head was especially stunned. What had he just heard? What kind of madness had Madam Zeng spouted?
He Yi’s brows drew tightly together as he tried to untangle the relationship in her words. His own grandson…? Who was grandfather and grandson with whom? Me and Great-Uncle? How could that be possible?
Unexpectedly, He Yongxing reacted violently. He slapped Zeng Qianqian across the face. The sharp crack rang unnaturally loud.
“Wake up! You spill every insane thought that enters your head. Have I become unable to control you? This is the He family. Your surname isn’t He. Have you stopped thinking about your son, whose surname is?!” He Yongxing appeared genuinely furious. The bright red handprint on her face showed just how much force he had used.
Zeng Qianqian’s hair had come loose and her head had been knocked to one side. She stared at He Yongxing in disbelief, tears spilling before she could say a word. Then, as though she had finally realized what she had blurted out and was afraid for anyone to see her in such a humiliating state, she hurriedly hid behind her sleeve and fled back to the eastern wing.
He Jie swallowed. Not daring to provoke either of his parents, he stood there with his mind completely blank.