Chapter 5: Schemes from the First Branch

Liu Chuxue looked at the simple, honest man on the hospital bed. Perhaps it was the emotions of the original owner acting up, but tears welled up in her eyes. "Dad, don't worry. We will raise the money as soon as possible and take you to the city for treatment."

Upon hearing this, Father Liu’s eyes dimmed, and he resigned himself to his fate. "Xue, let the family decide how to handle this. Don't get involved; just focus on your studies."

His parents were already unhappy about his three daughters attending school. Now that he was injured like this, he was terrified that the family wouldn't even wait these few months and would use his injury to force the children to drop out.

Liu Chuxue didn't agree, nor did she argue. "Dad, Grandpa and Grandma have gone back to discuss it with the family. I’ll go to the North Suburb Farm in a while to send a message to my sister and see if we can borrow some money from my brother-in-law."

Hearing this, Father Liu hurriedly raised his hand to stop her. "Don't mention borrowing money to your brother-in-law. Don't put your sister in a difficult position."

His eldest daughter’s in-laws hadn't divided the family property yet. If she asked her husband for money, it would likely make life difficult for her at her in-laws' house. He couldn't be that selfish.

Liu Chuxue understood Father Liu’s intentions. "Dad, don't worry. I won't make things difficult for my sister and brother-in-law."

The father and daughter chatted for a few more minutes. Fearing she might give herself away, Liu Chuxue lied and said she needed to head to the North Suburb Farm early.

As for what Ge Xiulan and her niece had done, she didn't tell her parents yet. Since she had just arrived, she could use this incident to test the depths of the Liu family.

Anyway, the people at the school and the health center could testify for her. If Ge Xiulan dared to stir up trouble, she would only be lifting a rock to drop on her own feet, acting like a clown.

That Kong Yizhang would probably take a while to arrive, so she found a secluded spot not far from the post and telecommunications office to sit down. Only then did she have time to carefully organize the original owner's memories.

*

Liushu Village

Ge Xiulan, who was working in the fields, glanced toward the mountain from time to time, struggling to suppress the excitement in her heart for fear that others would discover her abnormality.

Just as she looked up at the mountain for the Nth time, her second son, Liu Jiandong, leaned over. "Mom, how did things go?"

Ge Xiulan looked around, and seeing that no one was watching, she lowered her voice. "Naturally, it went very smoothly. You just wait to go to the city and become a worker."

Liu Jiandong said with some concern, "What if that girl finds out the truth and makes a scene?"

Ge Xiulan rolled her eyes at her second son. "Put your heart at ease. Once tonight passes and she loses her reputation, even if she knows the truth, so what? Besides, who would talk about this?"

She had suggested that Chuxue go to the North Suburb Farm this morning; in the eyes of outsiders, that was done entirely out of consideration for the second branch of the family. Who could use that against her?

Once the scandal of Liu Chuxue not returning home for the night broke out, it could only be said that she was unlucky.

Once the deed was done, their first branch would reap real benefits: the second son would have a job, her nephew would get a wife for free, and her maiden family could use this to manipulate Liu Chuxue for the rest of her life. It was truly the best of both worlds; just thinking about it made her excited.

As for whether the dead girl's ruined reputation would affect her own youngest daughter's future marriage prospects, she wasn't worried in the slightest. After all, her youngest daughter wouldn't be getting married for another four or five years; by then, who would even remember this?

Thinking about how the villagers often said this and that about how the girls in the second branch were better at studying than the children in the first branch, she had always held a grudge.

Now that the second brother was injured and unable to look after himself, as long as she fanned the flames with the old couple, she didn't believe those two money-losing goods in the second branch could continue their studies.

In this way, not only could the family save a sum of money, but those two dead girls, Chuxue and Chunxiao, would also have to crawl back home from school to earn work points. Let's see how the villagers would compare the second branch's children to her own children in the future!