Unlimited Resources: Raising a Minister with a Space Supermarket-Chapter 426 - 395: It’s Either Coincidence or a Prosperous Wife

Jiang Dingcai glanced at Lu Shi, and Lu Shi hurried back to their west room and brought back Old Lady Jiang’s money pouch.

Old Lady Jiang’s pouch was quite hefty, and when Lu Shi placed it on the table, it made a loud clang.

Old Lady Jiang’s pouch was large, sewn from old clothes and patched in several places. The opening was drawstring style, and it was filled with many things, mostly copper coins with a few pieces of silver.

Inside were the proceeds from recently sold winter wheat, which she hadn’t had the chance to hide yet. In total, it amounted to two taels, two qian, and seventeen wen, Old Lady Jiang recalled clearly.

She took out the strings of copper coins, one string after another, from the worn cloth bag and found that a one-tael piece of silver was missing. She immediately cursed, "Good for you, taking money from my purse and claiming it’s a loan from your mother-in-law. You truly are a good son, aren’t you? Fooling your mother like I’m an idiot? I’m not senile yet!

Keeping such a son who’s always scavenging from within the family, you’ll strip the house bare eventually, and I’ll be driven to my grave by you! From now on, just like your elder brother, live on your own!"

Old Lady Jiang was so furious that she said whatever came to her mind without thinking.

"Mother, what do you mean by this? Are you saying you don’t need us to look after you in your old age?" Lu Shi’s tone shifted; she didn’t want to endure any longer.

If her in-laws were truly thinking of moving to the eldest son’s place, the matter of dividing the family needed to be reassessed from scratch. They couldn’t possibly let the two elderly ones take all the wealth and property to the eldest’s household.

"Pooh! You talk about taking care of us in our old age. It’s us who have been supporting the three of you all along. Stop flattering yourselves!" Old Lady Jiang put the strings of coins back into the cloth bag, pulled closed the drawstring, and tied it tightly.

"What you’re saying, Mother, how do you claim you’re supporting the three of us? The family’s land is divided among three people, and my husband and son take up two shares. We do most of the work in the fields, so how is it you’re supporting us?

We earn the money, just handed it over to you. If you want to live separately, I actually agree with it, as we have arms and legs, we won’t starve!" Lu Shi brushed her hair back.

Today, her hair was truly unlucky. Having been yanked a bunch by Xun Shi, and another bunch pulled out by her mother-in-law at home, she couldn’t understand why women always pull hair during a fight, leaving her scalp sore and numb.

"What nonsense!" Old Man Jiang lightly scolded Old Lady Jiang, "Just talk about the money, why bring up family division?"

He couldn’t afford for his household to split any further; if it did, when he died, there might not even be a soul to smash the funeral basin, which would make him a laughingstock.

Since he had chosen the younger son over the elder at the beginning, he had to accept that.

Even if it was the wrong choice, he’d follow it through to the end because he had no way out.

Today’s matter, just reprimanding the younger son and his wife would suffice, as for dividing the household, that was impossible.

He and his wife were getting too old to handle the toil of the fields. When sick in the future, they would need caretakers, so a division was out of the question.

Old Lady Jiang grumbled back defiantly when rebuked by her husband, "Like these two are so filial, can you really rely on them to support you in your old age?

I think we’d be better off taking this silver and going to the eldest right away!"

Old Man Jiang rolled his eyes, "You think the eldest will take you in? Don’t dream!"

The eldest was already thoroughly offended, so he couldn’t risk falling out with the younger. Otherwise, he’d truly end up alone with no one to care for him.

"This second child is still filial; the silver he took from us must have been a last resort.

Old Man Jiang decided to give Jiang Dingcai a chance to explain himself. "Er, why did you take the family silver?"

Jiang Dingcai’s eyes darted around, and he stammered, "Well... the Autumn Examination is soon, and, um, Haifu said he knew a classmate who could get the test questions.

I thought if we knew the questions, then Haifu would surely pass the keju exam, so I took the family money to buy the questions for Haifu."

As Jiang Dingcai spun his excuse, he suddenly felt it was quite a plausible cover.

"So... it was Haifu who told you to steal?" Old Man Jiang frowned, originally thinking his grandson was unaware of this, not expecting it involved his contribution.

"No... no, it wasn’t. Haifu doesn’t know I took the money. I just wanted to help the child," Jiang Dingcai quickly absolved his son from blame, as indeed, Haifu was unaware.

Old Man Jiang looked at his younger son suspiciously, "I see that Qi Shanbao isn’t half as clever as our Haifu, yet why is it so easy for him to pass the keju exam while our Haifu struggles?"

Old Man Jiang indeed favored his younger son and grandson, but the thought of exchanging all his savings for his grandson to become a keju graduate, he hesitated.

Keju graduates – what good are they? For the family’s prospects, one needed to be a Scholar. Yet seeing his grandson’s struggles, Old Man Jiang thought maybe giving up the exam for farming wouldn’t be so bad.

Had he not, when young, saved a wealthy young man from snake venom in the mountains, receiving twenty taels of silver in thanks, the family would have been on the brink of collapse long ago.

"Father, Qi Shanbao struggled to pass the keju exam too—he failed several times before.

If he hadn’t married Yu Fu Temple’s cousin, he wouldn’t have passed!" Lu Shi also spoke in defense of her son.

"What’s becoming a keju graduate have to do with marrying Sun Manxi or with Yu Xiaolian?" Old Lady Jiang sniffed.

Lu Shi, with a you-don’t-know expression, exaggeratedly said, "Mother, don’t you see? Qi Shanbao failed the keju exam for years, but the year after marrying Sun Manxi, he passed."

"Chance, perhaps!" Unless it was that Sun Manxi was good fortune for her husband!

"Oh, Mother, how naive. How could it be by chance? There’s a huge intrigue here!"

Lu Shi began to explain in detail to her mother-in-law, "Mother, cooped up in the village all day, you know nothing. I heard from Sun Dalin’s wife that each exam season, people in the city all try to send gifts and curry favor with Yu Xiaolian.

Tell me, if Yu Xiaolian had no skill, would folks try to curry favor with her?

Just a while ago, wasn’t there that issue between Sun Manyu and Li the squire’s son? That too was related to Yu Xiaolian; I heard Yu Xiaolian gave Li Wenyuan some questions, which Sun Manyu tore up, angering Li Wenyuan to the point he hit her and then refused to marry her anymore."