Chapter 2: Uncle Has Been Reborn!

Chapter 2: Eldest Uncle—Reborn!

"I know, I know, my dear precious, you have to think of a way for your dad! The debt collectors said they’d be back in three days. What am I supposed to give them? Would running away work? I don't even dare mention this to our 'leader' (wife). Life is hard enough as it is; if I add this twenty taels of gambling debt on top, I’m afraid she won’t be able to take it..."

Just kill me now, boo-hoo!

They had just made up their minds last night to accept reality, let go of the past, start over, and work hard to build a better life.

Who would have thought he’d drop the ball today and end up with a heavy debt of twenty taels?

"Dad, you need to confess immediately. We’ll figure it out together. In this current climate, we can’t go anywhere without a travel permit. Besides, how would we run? On foot? We don't even have transportation. It takes two hours just to walk to the nearest town. Eldest Uncle here can't survive without someone to care for him, and we have to keep an eye on Big Sister to make sure she doesn't do anything rash. And what about that hooligan eyeing her? If we leave, what happens if she gets bullied?"

Don't let her current appearance as a short, five-year-old little girl fool you. Through tireless effort over the past few days, she had made a few friends and pieced together some information from the limited details she gathered.

The hooligan targeting Eldest Uncle’s daughter was the youngest son of the village head.

He usually hung around town, and at some point, he ran into Big Sister, took a fancy to her, and insisted on marrying her.

The village head had sent someone to propose, but was politely refused by Eldest Uncle, who was a scholar.

The matter should have ended there, but the village head’s youngest son was a rotten scoundrel. Since the proper path was blocked, he resorted to crooked ways.

He went around spreading rumors that he and Big Sister were in love and had pledged their lives to each other, hoping to force a marriage through scandal.

When Eldest Uncle went to reason with them, he was insulted and beaten. The village head’s family was so arrogant that they dared to lay hands on a scholar with an official title. She was truly afraid they would do something even more extreme.

"Then what do we do?" Yan Dad was so anxious he pulled up the shirt sticking to his body and fanned himself back and forth.

"I was hoping to harvest the wheat in the fields and sell it for some capital to start a small business and earn some living expenses, but a hole as big as twenty taels... even if we sold all our wheat, it wouldn't be enough to fill it!"

The Yan family were outsiders. The grandparents had some savings and bought quite a bit of land; they were small landlords back in the day. Later, the old couple passed away one after another, and between medical bills, medicine, and funeral expenses... they sold several acres.

The Yan family had three scholars over two generations, and the annual tuition fees alone were quite high. Relying solely on the land's yield wasn't enough, so they sold off more land bit by bit.

Currently, they only had ten acres left. They had always paid for hired help, but this year's conditions were terrifying. The heat was unbearable, and it hadn't rained in a long time. It was hard enough to manage their own fields, let alone help others.

There were families with many brothers and plenty of strong labor who could barely spare the time, but the usual rate for day labor was twenty wen a day; now it was thirty, and their family couldn't even scrape together a single copper.

They had no choice but to do it themselves.

"Let's figure it out tonight," Yan Erya said miserably. Their family of three were just the most ordinary commoners.

Her mom was an elementary school teacher, her dad ran a stationery shop at the school gate, and she had just graduated from college and was preparing for the civil service exams. They lived in town with low expenses, owned two apartments and a car, and their savings were at most five figures.

Suddenly transmigrating, she hadn't mastered any skills. She wanted to try selling recipes, but her dad’s cooking skills were limited to home-cooked meals.

These past few days, Big Sister had been lighting the fire to cook. They had been eating coarse grain cakes for days, with wilted greens from the backyard served in rotation. Thanks to the few old hens they kept, they could collect a few eggs a day, which barely counted as meat.

This family was truly poor—there was no doubt about it.

If there was no other way, they would have to follow the Yan family's ancestral path—selling land.

But the family land was all under Eldest Uncle’s name, so selling it definitely required his consent.

Given Yan Lao-er’s past behavior, how could he make Eldest Uncle believe that he had truly repented and turned over a new leaf, that he would sell the land to clear the debt first, and that the whole family would work hard to buy the land back later...

If it were her, she wouldn't believe it at all.

Eldest Uncle was still lying there unable to get up. If he knew his younger brother had gone gambling and owed twenty taels, he might never get up again.

What a miserable Eldest Uncle!

"Sigh! I’m going to go turn your Eldest Uncle over." Even while sighing, Yan Dad didn't forget to care for the patient. His "leader" was busy with work, and he had been the one to care for his own parents and his parents-in-law until they passed away.

When it came to nursing the sick, he was a professional.

He scooped half a ladle of water from the vat; the sun-dried cloth still held the heat of the scorching sun.

"Eldest Brother, I'm coming in." Yan Dad called out at the door, not waiting for a response before entering.

He touched his brother's forehead; it wasn't hot.

He dampened the cloth and wiped him down bit by bit—head, neck, front and back, limbs. It was very methodical; one could tell he was used to it, and he was very efficient.

As he wiped, he kept talking.

"Eldest Brother, life is too hard. It’s like a furnace outside. The village elders say the conditions are bad and a disaster is coming. The village head has people watching the old well, and each family is only allowed to draw four buckets of water a day. That’s not even enough to water the fields. Your sister-in-law is so anxious; she doesn't want to wait for the wheat to ripen and plans to harvest it early to be safe. So, we went to cut wheat early this morning—we were the first in the village! The villagers laughed at us, but we had no choice. If we don't do it early, I'm afraid we won't finish. The price for day labor has gone up again; it was thirty wen the day before yesterday, and today they won't do it even for thirty. Luckily, we weren't planning on hiring anyone anyway. Even if we work ourselves to death, we have to bring in our wheat. Every little bit helps. If a disaster really hits, as long as we have grain in our hands, we won't panic..."

"Eldest Brother, please get well soon. You collapsing like this scared your brother to death. You are the backbone of this family; nothing must happen to you!"

His daughter was right. They had replaced the original family of three, so their speech and actions would definitely be different from the originals. They had to find a reason to smooth it over. With the family's pillar collapsed, they were terrified and helpless, so a change in behavior was barely justifiable.

"Tian... You..." Eldest Uncle suddenly spoke, giving Yan Dad a start.

This daughter, why didn't she say her Eldest Uncle was awake and could talk?

*Cough, cough, cough, cough...*

Another series of coughs followed.

"Help me... up..." Yan Huaiwen tried his best to suppress the pain and itch in his throat, speaking very slowly.

"Yes, yes, I'll help you." Yan Dad closed the inner garment, put down the cloth, and used his strength to prop him up. He supported his back with one hand to give him leverage, and with the other, he grabbed the chamber pot from the floor and asked in a low voice, "Eldest Brother, do you need to relieve yourself?"

He had timed his return perfectly; it was about time for his brother to take care of his personal business.

Yan Huaiwen had served through three reigns and reached the pinnacle of officialdom; he had truly seen it all.

Having risen through the ranks as a harsh official, he was iron-faced and ruthless, always calm in the face of trouble, unshakable as a mountain.

Even with something as absurd as living a second life happening to him, he remained calm and composed.

Beyond enduring the high fever and the torture of illness, he had been reflecting on the past he didn't want to remember, watching his deceased loved ones appear before his eyes—feeling both emotional and grateful.

His daughter was still here; she hadn't hanged herself because of being bullied.

His son was still studying hard at the academy in town; he hadn't been dragged down by him and killed by someone's scheme.

As for his second brother’s family...

They hadn't yet been driven to a bitter family split because of gambling debts.

From the 1st to the 5th of the review, it finally passed!

The new book needs care, please give it some love o(*￣︶￣*)o

My precious child finished their exams today, and this anxious old mother is waiting for the judgment of the scores ￣□￣｜｜

(End of chapter)