Reborn in a small village in the 1990s

Chapter 357

“We feed you and give you a drink, but you're such a traitor! You're only on the side of that outsider Cheng Jinxiang, and you don't even listen to your own mother anymore. You've talked back to her time and time again. If you don't want to hand over this nine thousand yuan, then get out of here, get as far away as you can!”

Wang Guixiang's action of throwing chopsticks onto Zhao Tiesheng's shoulder startled Zhang Cuilan half to death. She immediately turned around to see Zhao Tiesheng's reaction.

As a result, Zhao Tiesheng silently lowered his head, his arms with bulging veins and his fists clenched.

Wang Guixiang felt that throwing chopsticks wasn't enough to vent her anger. She glanced at her bowl, which was made of porcelain. No, she wouldn't do it; she would feel bad if she broke it.

So, Wang Guixiang decisively picked up the iron bowl that her grandson had eaten from and smashed it directly at Zhao Tiesheng.

"Clang—" That was the sound of the iron bowl falling to the ground.

Zhao Tiesheng's shirt was covered in food from the iron bowl, including vegetable leaves and rice grains. The iron bowl fell to the ground, and this impact completely shattered Zhao Tiesheng's mental defenses.

At this moment, all the grievances and anger erupted.

Zhao Tiesheng gripped the dining table tightly with both hands, then forcefully overturned it, causing all the dishes to slide to the side and the porcelain bowls to shatter into pieces.

Zhang Cuilan instinctively dodged to the side, her face showing panic. She was startled and looked at Zhao Tiesheng in shock, wondering to herself if Zhao Tiesheng had gone mad.

Everyone present was shocked. Wang Guixiang watched as the food she had painstakingly prepared was spilled all over the floor, and she barely ate any of the cured meat—it was meat! Wang Guixiang felt a pang of heartache.

Zhao Tingxu stared wide-eyed at his second son in disbelief. He never expected Zhao Tiesheng to do such a thing. Had he pushed him too hard? His second son had always been obedient, honest, and filial. He would never talk back to him. But now? He was acting like a madman!

Wang Guixiang shouted angrily, "Are you out of your mind? This is a meal I worked so hard to make, and you're just going to ruin it like this!"

Enraged, Wang Guixiang grabbed a broom and started hitting Zhao Tiesheng with it.

As Wang Guixiang hit you, she said, "What kind of bewitching potion did that woman give you to make you like this? If I had known it would turn out like this, I shouldn't have let her into our house in the first place."

Zhao Tiesheng didn't flinch, snatched the broom from her, and looked at his mother with reddened eyes. Recalling all the things his mother had done to him, he was extremely disappointed. He said, word by word, "Mom, you've never treated me like your son at all."

Zhao Tingxu grew impatient. His face turned ashen. His second son was becoming increasingly audacious, completely disregarding his father. Zhao Tingxu immediately scolded, "Zhao Tiesheng, if you have any complaints about this family, leave and go find your wife. Don't come back to the Zhao family. Get as far away as possible. If you still want to stay in this family, go find your wife and get the money back. My back is acting up, so I'll go to the hospital tomorrow. You can use this money as my medical expenses to show your filial piety. It's only natural for a son to be filial to his father."

Zhao Tingxu had his own selfish motives; he also wanted the money. A few thousand more yuan would allow him to buy alcohol. In the past, when he was short of money, he would use the excuse of being unwell and needing to go to the hospital to ask his second son for money for medical expenses. This excuse always worked for him, and he used it very skillfully.

Zhao Tiesheng sneered. He had seen through his family. They were all eyeing the money in his hand. Zhang Cuilan had persuaded him to hand over the money. He guessed that his mother had promised her something in return, asking her to speak up for him.

Zhao Tiesheng then looked at Wang Guixiang. Her heart was only set on her daughter who had gone to university, and she never treated him as her son. She was really biased.

Zhao Tiesheng looked at his father again. It was the same reason again: he was sick and needed to go to the hospital. He had heard this reason many times before. Whenever his family had some money, Zhao Tingxu would always use this excuse to go to the hospital and ask him for medical expenses, which would be a thousand or several hundred yuan each time.

After this happened several times, Zhao Tiesheng began to feel something was amiss. Why was it that only his family was contributing money? Why hadn't his eldest brother and third brother contributed anything? Yet Zhao Tingxu only asked him for money. The three sons were supposed to support their father and mother together, so the money should be shared by all three of them.

At that time, Zhao Tingxu always used a lot of excuses to fool himself. For example, his eldest brother was henpecked and didn't have the money on him. He couldn't ask his sister-in-law for the money unless she asked. His third brother didn't work much, so naturally he didn't have any income and couldn't come up with the money either.

After going around in circles, only he could afford to give the money. Zhao Tingxu even praised Zhao Tiesheng as a filial son, saying that the other two were unreliable. Zhao Tiesheng was happy to be praised at the time and didn't think much of it before giving the money over.

Looking back now, Zhao Tiesheng realizes how incredibly foolish he had been.

Looking at Zhao Tingxu, Zhao Tiesheng said, word by word, "Medical expenses? Dad, in the past you said your back hurt or your head hurt and you needed to go to the hospital, and I paid for that. But I'm not your son alone. My eldest brother and third brother can always come up with some money, right? Go ask them for that money. I won't give up the 9000 yuan I have here. I'm going to use it to build a new house."

Zhao Tiesheng rejected Zhao Tingxu directly, regardless of how unpleasant his expression was.

Then, turning to Wang Guixiang, he said, "Mom, I ask myself honestly, haven't I treated you badly these past few years? And what about you? How have you treated me? Compared to my younger sister and younger brother, I wanted to study, but you told me that someone in the family needed to go out and work to earn money. As the second oldest, I should take responsibility and take care of my younger siblings, so I listened to you and went to work in the fields early. But when it came to my younger sister and younger brother, you paid for their education. When my younger sister went to university, you didn't have money, so you asked me to contribute. Fine, I did. Do you know how Cao Xiaomei has treated me? You do, and you even indulge her."

“You only know that I caused trouble at my younger sister’s workplace. Do you know why? It was because I wanted to ask her for money. Before that, I went to see her again, wanting to have a proper talk with her. But she avoided me, even pretending not to hear me knocking on the door, pretending no one was home. In the end, she couldn’t keep up the act anymore and I caught her red-handed. If it weren’t for the fact that I might make a big fuss, she would reluctantly hand over her gold bracelet as a deposit, comforting me by saying that she would definitely pay back some money in the spring.”

“I believed that, but you and my younger sister conspired to lie to me, saying you had made money and would pay me back. You asked me to return the gold bracelet first, and then you paid me back. But where is the money? I haven’t received a single penny. If it weren’t for what you did before, would I have gone to my younger sister’s workplace to cause trouble?”

“I went to my younger sister to ask for the money, but she denied it. Instead, she lied to everyone, saying that my whole family owed her money. If it weren’t for the help of a benefactor, I wouldn’t have been able to get the money back and would have been wronged. And now? My younger sister comes to you and begs for the money, and you’re demanding that I hand over the money. Mom, your heart is completely biased.”

As he spoke, Zhao Tiesheng gave a bitter laugh, looked at the mess on the ground, and said to himself with self-mockery, "Since you don't consider me your son, I think we should divide this family as soon as possible. Call my elder brother back to discuss the division of the family property. I can't stay here any longer."

Zhang Cuilan's eyes widened, clearly not expecting Zhao Tiesheng to say such a thing.

Has Second Brother been provoked into a madness? How could he say something about splitting up the family? If they split up, then I'll have to deal with all the household chores and I won't be able to just eat and drink at home anymore.

Zhang Cuilan immediately shook her head, anxiously saying, "Second brother, you need to think carefully about what you're saying. Dividing the family property is no small matter."

Wang Guixiang was also furious. At first, Zhao Tiesheng accused her of favoritism, and she felt a little guilty. But after thinking about it carefully, she realized that she had raised Chunqin and Tiegang herself. What was wrong with favoring them a little? Besides, she had also put a lot of effort into raising Zhao Tiesheng, and yet this son dared to come and talk back to her. Zhao Chunqin wouldn't tolerate it and directly said:

"What division of property? Is there anything of yours in this house? Get out of here, I don't want to see you right now. You ungrateful wretch, I shouldn't have given birth to you in the first place, letting you marry such a wife and have such a daughter, who brings me bad luck. Ugh, what a nuisance."

Zhao Tingxu frowned. Wang Guixiang's words were too harsh. It was absolutely impossible to talk about dividing the family property. Zhao Tingxu knew this family. At present, only Zhao Tiesheng was filial and would take care of him. The eldest son, Zhao Tiebao, was henpecked. His eldest daughter-in-law did not allow him to give so much money to the family.

The youngest son is utterly useless; he's too lazy to even do chores, so there's nothing to hope for him.

The eldest daughter's youngest son has cerebral palsy, and the medical expenses alone are a considerable expense every month, leaving her with no money to support her family.

The second and youngest daughters are inherently selfish and self-serving. Asking them to give me money to support me is more painful than killing them.

After much thought, Zhao Tingxu realized that only his second son would be willing to provide financial and logistical support to take care of him. He was unwilling to split the family property.

Zhao Tingxu frowned in annoyance. "Forget it," he thought, "no matter what, Chunqin mistreated the second son today, so I won't get involved."

"I don't agree to the division of the family property, second brother. This is a private matter between you and Chunqin. Since you don't want to give the money, I won't force you. Hmph, so you won't accuse me of favoritism. Don't say things like that. Your eldest brother's family also gives me money as a sign of respect. As for your third brother, you know how useless he is. Getting him to give you money is harder than climbing to heaven. Only you are reliable and easy to manage. But look at you today, going crazy and overturning the table. What kind of behavior is this!"

Zhao Tingxu saw things clearly, but Wang Guixiang might not. She asked, puzzled, "Honey, what do you mean you're not forcing this anymore? Does this mean you don't want to get involved anymore and don't want to stand up for Chunqin?"

When Zhao Tiesheng heard Wang Guixiang say this, he smiled sarcastically. "Mom, since you're so fond of my younger sister, then let her take care of her. I won't contribute any money to the family anymore. Even if I were to contribute, there are so many children in the family, and I can't be the only one to pay for it. When my older brother, younger brother, and younger sister have time to get together, we can discuss how to take care of the elderly, who will contribute money and who will contribute effort, and make things clear."

Zhang Cuilan found it hard to believe. Her first thought was, "No, this absolutely won't do. If they get serious, won't she and Tie Gang have to pay for it? Then the division of labor will be clear, and she won't be able to slack off or freeload."

Wang Guixiang sneered, "Fine, if you don't want to support me, then I'll go find your little sister. Your little sister is much more filial than you."

Before Wang Guixiang could finish speaking, Zhao Tingxu interrupted her sharply, "Enough! Say less. Don't get involved in Chunqin and Tiesheng's affairs. Now that their matter is resolved and the money has been repaid, there's no need to delve into it further. These two are also your children, so treat them equally. Don't mention dividing the family property to me. I don't agree to dividing the family property!"

Zhao Tingxu was truly exasperated. How could Wang Guixiang be so blind? She believed that Zhao Chunqin could support and take care of her, but he didn't. After his youngest daughter got married, she was completely biased towards her husband's family, treating them even better than her own.

Zhao Tingxu had heard that during the Spring Festival, Chunqin gave her mother-in-law a 100-yuan red envelope as a sign of filial piety, while he and Wang Guixiang received nothing. Zhao Tingxu loved his daughter, but he was quite disappointed when he learned of this.

Zhao Tingxu knew that his second son was truly angry today and that his proposal to separate the family was serious. To appease Zhao Tiesheng, Zhao Tingxu directly said to Wang Guixiang, "Go and clean up the floor. I don't think we can eat today. Don't mention this matter again from now on. Since Chunqin has already returned all the money to the second son's family, you don't need to get involved in this matter either, do you hear me?"

After saying that, Zhao Tingxu glanced at Zhao Tiesheng and asked, "Second brother, are you satisfied now?"

Seeing that Zhao Tingxu was on his side and speaking in his favor, Zhao Tiesheng's resentment dissipated somewhat. However... he turned to look at his room, which was still a mess.

Zhao Tingxu understood Zhao Tiesheng's thoughts. He was just upset that his house had been ransacked; it was a simple matter.

Zhao Tingxu then said to Wang Guixiang, "You made a mistake. You shouldn't have just searched through Lao Er's room like that. Clean up Lao Er's room later."

Zhao Tingxu was basically in charge of the Zhao family. Wang Guixiang couldn't overpower him. When she heard Zhao Tingxu's words, she was full of confusion. She pointed to the mess on the ground and then to herself.

"Honey, you're not mistaken, are you? You want me to clean all this?"

Wang Guixiang was so angry she almost laughed. What kind of twisted logic was this? Her son overturned the table, and she, his old mother, was expected to clean up his mess. Moreover, this son was all on the side of outsiders and probably didn't care about his mother at all. He was a heartless ingrate. She, Wang Guixiang, was not going to clean up this mess.