Song Dingxiang [Completed]

C4. A Boy With Ideas.

Chapter 4

The Zhou family was in turmoil for several days because of this matter. Zhou Tiezhu seemed determined to split from the family, even threatening to report to the officials, to have them investigate whether he was stolen or taken by force.

Some people scolded him, saying that although the Zhou family had no birth favor, they at least had nurturing favor, so he shouldn't be so drastic.

Pointing to the brick and tile house, Zhou Tiezhu said, "Is my favor to the Zhou family not big enough?"

When they looked at the spacious house, many people fell silent.

Fearing the prospect of official intervention, the Zhou family reluctantly conceded to Zhou Tiezhu's demands. They divided the family assets, granting him fifty taels of silver and five mu of land.

Dealing with the authorities, even minor officials, was a terrifying prospect for them. The potential for retaliation was simply too great.

Zhou Tiezhu packed his things and prepared to leave. The village chief gave him a dilapidated house where no one lived, at least to provide shelter from the wind and rain.

Zhou Lao San sneakily gave him a bundle, inside was a jade pendant.

"This is what you carried with you since you were a child. I said I would give it to you when you became independent... Don't hold a grudge against us, your mother... your aunt is just too stubborn and strong-willed." Zhou Lao San was actually not a bad person, just too timid.

His wife was a strong-willed person, the type to clash with her mother-in-law after giving birth to a son, always competing with her sister-in-law over every little thing. After Zhou Lao San brought Zhou Tiezhu back home, she had a big argument with Zhou Lao San, but she tolerated it for the silver that he brought.

Giving some silver to Zhou Lao San made him feel smug. The reason he had been raising Zhou Tiezhu so well before was simply because he had hoped that his relatives would come looking for him after a few years.

But after raising him for several years without any news, he even went back to the village where Zhou Tiezhu had been entrusted as an orphan, but no one there knew about such a person.

When he returned home and told his wife about this, Zhou Tiezhu's life went from being the beloved young master of the family to suddenly becoming a beggar.

Human nature can be so cruel and brutal.

Zhou Tiezhu took the jade pendant and tucked it into his chest, packed up the small bundle, and carried his ragged bedroll as he left the Zhou family. The little clothes he had brought with him had long been worn out by the other children in the Zhou family, and after so many years, they had all been discarded, impossible to find again.

The owner of the dilapidated earthen house had moved to the county town after becoming successful, and the house had been left deserted for many years, falling into disrepair. Several young men who had been friendly with Zhou Tiezhu came over to help, repairing the roof and tidying up the adobe bed.

The weather was getting colder, and they couldn't let anyone freeze to death in that house.

Many people in the village shook their heads in regret, thinking that if Zhou Tiezhu had been separated from the family earlier, he wouldn't have been sent to the barracks.

What kind of place was that?

To the common people, it was a place that devoured people; going in meant risking one's life, and even if one managed to survive, they might end up missing limbs, facing a difficult life ahead.