When a villager returned from the county town specifically to inform the Yu family that Yu Laoda (Eldest Yu) had been ill for several days, the elderly Yu couple became extremely anxious.
Old Madam Yu no longer insisted on keeping Chen Shi in the village to work. Instead, she urged her to quickly go to the county town to care for her sick eldest son.
Chen Shi had long been eager to leave for the county town, mainly because life in the village was truly unbearable.
Not only did she have to handle the household chores, but she was also made to work in the fields.
One must know that ever since she married into the Yu family, she had never set foot in the fields to do any labor. She prided herself on being the daughter of a scholar and considered herself different from those rural women. How could she possibly engage in such bitter and exhausting work?
Every time Chen Shi saw her sisters-in-law, Liu Shi and Wang Shi, who were tanned and aged by the sun, she felt fortunate that she didn’t have to toil in the fields like them.
Her husband was a scholar, she had given birth to two clever sons, and her maiden family was strong. Who would dare to make her work?
Who would have thought that after the family split, she would end up like those rural women, even having to work in the fields?
Now, with all the adult men of the eldest branch in the county town, only ten-year-old Yu Jingzong was left at home. Even if he were sent to work in the fields, he wouldn’t be of much help, not to mention that he had never done farm work and didn’t know how to.
Although Old Master Yu and Old Madam Yu also helped out, it wasn’t enough with just the two elderly working.
As a result, Chen Shi was also called to the fields, leaving Yu Qin at home to wash clothes, cook, and feed the chickens and pigs.
The two pigs in the Yu family’s backyard were to be kept until the Lunar New Year for slaughter. When the family split, it was decided not to divide the pigs yet, but to slaughter them during the New Year and then split the meat.
Thus, the care of the two pigs in the backyard was rotated among the three branches of the family, each taking a turn for ten days.
The eldest branch fed the pigs during the first ten days of the month, the second branch in the middle, and the third branch at the end, rotating in this way.
Yu Qin had never done such tasks before. Not to mention cooking pig feed, she didn’t even know how to feed the pigs.
Every time she saw the two smelly pigs in the pen, she was filled with disgust and even fear when they approached her looking for food. She always felt as if they might bite her.
Because she didn’t know how to care for them, the pigs were often left hungry and cried loudly. Naturally, this brought scoldings from Old Madam Yu, and in the end, it was Chen Shi who had to take over the task.
After finishing the fieldwork every day, Chen Shi still had to cut pig grass and chop firewood…
By the end of the day, she was as busy as a spinning top, dizzy and disoriented. Where was there any trace of the dignity of a scholar’s daughter?
She had never so profoundly understood how bitter the lives of rural people were.
In the past, the Yu family had indeed treated her too well. Even when she stayed in the village, there were people to handle both the fieldwork and the household chores. All she needed to do was stay inside and focus on raising her daughter and younger son.
Now, every day felt worse than death for Chen Shi. She found life utterly unbearable.
Especially when she happened to glance into a mirror and saw the haggard, sun-darkened woman staring back at her. She looked as if she had aged ten years overnight and finally broke down.
She had always thought she was different from her two sisters-in-law. Her life was leisurely, refined, and cultured. She looked down on her two sisters-in-law, who were tanned, coarse, and worn down by life, lacking any trace of femininity and completely unpresentable.
She had never imagined that one day, she would become just like them.
The mere thought of this outcome was unbearable for Chen Shi.
Chen Shi had been eagerly anticipating going to the county town. She couldn’t bear to stay in this filthy, chaotic village with its endless toil for even another moment.
When she learned that Yu Laoda was ill, her first reaction wasn’t worry but joy—finally, she had a reason to go to the county town.
Not only her, but Yu Qin and Yu Jingzong were also thrilled. Without a moment’s delay, they quickly packed up their belongings, ready to accompany their mother to the county town.
Old Madam Yu stopped Yu Qin and Yu Jingzong, saying, “Your mother can go to the county town alone. Why are you two going along?”
Yu Qin clutched her bundle and whispered, “Grandma, I’m worried about Father. I want to go and take care of him.”
Yu Jingzong added, “I want to take care of Father too.”
If it had been before, Old Madam Yu would have been overjoyed to hear this, thinking how filial these two children were.
But now, her face darkened, and she said unhappily, “Take care of him? Your mother is enough to take care of him. What do you two know about taking care of people? Besides, the house in the county town is so small that there isn’t enough space for everyone. If you go, you’ll just cause trouble! Stay in the village.”
The siblings: “…”
In the end, only Chen Shi went to the county town.
She looked back at her two children, who were staring at her with longing eyes, and felt a pang of bitterness in her heart. However, Old Madam Yu had changed and was no longer as tolerant and loving toward them as she used to be. Chen Shi had no way to bring her children along and had to let them suffer for now.
Hardening her heart, Chen Shi turned away, quickly leaving the village, afraid that she might be called back halfway.
It was only when she arrived in the county town that she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
When Chen Shi reached the house in the county town, the door was opened by her two sons. Both of them looked haggard, as if they hadn’t rested properly for several days.
Seeing this made her heart ache. She wondered how her sons had managed these days without her around.
Indeed, she should have come to the county town sooner.
Yu Jingde and his brother were overjoyed to see Chen Shi.
Since Yu Laoda fell ill, they hadn’t had a proper rest. To care for their sick father, they had taken leave from the private school and stayed home to nurse him.
For some reason, Yu Laoda’s temperament had become extremely erratic during his illness. Sometimes, while drinking his medicine, he would suddenly become furious, throwing the medicine at them and shouting curses.
“Mother, Father has changed. He gets angry so easily now,” Yu Jingli said with a furrowed brow. “My brother and I didn’t do anything, but he gets angry out of nowhere, scolds us, and even tells us to get out.”
Sometimes, his words were so harsh that it felt as if he saw them as his enemies.
Yu Jingde, his face grim, was equally baffled by their father’s volatile temper.
Chen Shi’s gaze darkened slightly, as she understood the reason behind Yu Laoda’s behavior.
But there was nothing she could do. She knew how proud her husband was. As a scholar, he always considered himself superior to others in the Yu family, and everyone had to listen to him. This had fostered his arrogant and aloof nature.
Now, to be forcibly made to kneel and to have this incident lead to the splitting of the family, causing him to lose face in front of everyone—how could he possibly endure this?
It was no surprise to her that he had fallen ill.
Chen Shi said to her two sons, “I understand. You’ve worked hard. Get some proper rest and don’t let your studies suffer.”
The brothers nodded. Their mother’s arrival finally gave them some relief.
Unaware of the family split, they welcomed their mother into the house and asked, “Mother, why didn’t Sister Qin and Brother Zong come with you to the county town this time?”
Every time Chen Shi visited the county town, she would bring her younger son and daughter along.
In her words, the family should always stay together.
Although the house in the county town was small and couldn’t accommodate the whole family, Yu Jingzong could share a room with his two older brothers, while Yu Qin could stay at her maternal grandparents’ house with her cousin from the second branch of the Chen family. In this way, everyone could be accommodated.
Chen Shi’s expression stiffened slightly. After steadying herself, she decided to tell them about the family split.
Yu Jingde and Yu Jingli were stunned.
“Why did the family suddenly split up out of nowhere?”
Chen Shi briefly explained the reason for the split, naturally skipping the part where Yu Laoda was forced to kneel by Yu Li. She didn’t want to upset her two sons.
Old Master Yu had also explicitly instructed them not to mention this incident, fearing it might affect their studies.
Even so, Yu Jingde and Yu Jingli were still very angry, and their anger was naturally directed at Yu Li.
“How could she do this? Li Niang has gone too far! She’s already married; what married woman comes back to her natal family to stir up trouble and cause a split? What’s her intention?” Yu Jingli said furiously.
Yu Jingde frowned deeply, his gaze dark and somber. “No matter what, she shouldn’t have done such a thing.”
As they spoke, they regretted not returning with their parents earlier. If they had been there, they would never have allowed Yu Li to act so outrageously. They would have made it clear to her that a married daughter should abide by the rules and not treat her natal family as a place to act recklessly.
They believed they could have prevented the Yu family from descending to the point of splitting.
Chen Shi looked at her two sons’ naive expressions and didn’t know what to say.
If they knew just how terrifying Yu Li’s strength was, they probably wouldn’t say such things.
Suddenly, she felt a bit relieved. Thankfully, her two sons hadn’t been there that day. Otherwise, given their temperaments, they definitely would have tried to intervene and might have been beaten as a result. Who knows? Yu Li might have broken their legs on the spot.
Thinking of this, she shuddered and quickly said, “You must never provoke her. Promise me you won’t provoke her, do you understand?”
The two brothers were baffled, but seeing how solemn their mother was—she even made them swear—they reluctantly agreed.
Afterward, Chen Shi went to the room to check on her sick husband.
When she saw Yu Laoda, who now looked haggard and decrepit like an old man, she was shocked.
Yu Laoda had once been a meticulous and refined person. Even while working as a bookkeeper at the rice shop, he maintained the demeanor of a scholar, giving the impression of a man well-versed in literature and poetry. But now, he looked like a greasy, down-and-out old man.