Chapter 8: I'll Put Up With You One More Time

"Mo... Mother, why are you looking at your son like that?"

Bai Yunxi leaned against her pillow, looking at his cowardly appearance with utter disdain.

"Eldest, your father has passed away. As the eldest son of the family, do you have any plans for the future?"

"In reply to Mother, our Song Kingdom governs the world through filial piety. Mother is the matriarch of this house, and your son is willing to follow your arrangements." Bai Anchen thought for a moment, bowed, and spoke solemnly.

Listening to his insincere tone, Bai Yunxi really wanted to kick him out just to get him out of her sight.

Matriarch, my foot. To hell with your "matriarch."

"Then are you filial?" Bai Yunxi looked at him and asked quietly.

"Your son is unfilial; please punish me, Mother."

Bai Anchen dropped to his knees with a thud. Only now did he realize that his mother was still angry with him.

*‘Women and small-minded men are difficult to deal with; the sages truly did not deceive me.’*

Bai Yunxi clenched her fists and ground her back teeth. *I’ll endure you one more time.*

"Your father is gone, and I’m afraid the private school can no longer stay open. After this courtyard is used to pay off debts, all that will be left is two mu of dry farmland and a two-guan debt owed to Doctor Yang."

"Life must go on. The fields have always been farmed by your second brother and his wife. Your wife handles all the laundry and cooking for the family. From now on, the fourth and fifth sons must also do what they can to help with household expenses. Think about what you are suited for when you go back; you can't fall behind your brothers, can you?"

"...Yes, your son will go back and plan carefully."

Bai Anchen was stunned. Thinking about this whole family, he couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

Watching her "cheap" eldest son leave, Bai Yunxi finally couldn't help but roll her eyes at his retreating back. Cowardly and selfish—even if she used his status as the eldest son to pressure him, it would be hard to make him useful even after reform.

Holding a hand of rotten cards, no matter how she played them, it was frustrating.

Looking at the furnishings in the room—the storage cabinets, the simple vanity—they were nothing compared to a great noble family, but in an ordinary household, these were items they wouldn't bear to throw away for generations.

Life for commoners was hard, and saving up any family property was even harder. In the original owner's family, both her grandfather and father had held the title of *xiucai*.

Because there were many children in the family and no room to live after they married, the grandfather had decided to divide the family property among his sons.

Each family was subsidized with money to build their own houses. By her generation, her parents had only given birth to her, a daughter.

Even so, it had taken three generations to build up this much property; one could imagine how difficult it had been.

She hadn't expected it all to go down the drain in the blink of an eye.

This was also the reason why the original owner, knowing she was in the wrong, had still tried desperately to protect this house.

Bai Yunxi sighed powerlessly, turned on her side, and began to sort through the memories in her mind.

The village where the original owner lived was called Willow Bay. With about eighty or a hundred households, it was considered a medium-sized village.

By the time the Bai family reached her generation, they had only one daughter. As the only girl in the family, she had been pampered since childhood, was aloof and arrogant, and had a domineering personality.

The deceased old *juren* was both the adopted son of the Bai family and her live-in son-in-law.

This was because the old *juren* had been picked up by the original owner's father.

She still remembered that when she was very young, her father had gone out to visit friends and returned with a child covered in blood. It wasn't until his wounds were healed that they discovered the child had lost his memory. Following the suggestions of others, her father had taken the boy in as an adopted son and named him Bai Yunhui.

From then on, the original owner had an adopted older brother.

Bai Yunhui studied and read with the old *xiucai*, and at fifteen, he passed the *juren* examination.

Before his bright future could even begin, his adoptive father passed away from illness. His adoptive mother was devastated, fell ill, and never recovered. Before she passed away, she entrusted her daughter to her adopted son and watched them get married before she finally closed her eyes.

(End of chapter)