The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure
Chapter 216: Scapegoat

Chapter 216: Chapter 216: Scapegoat

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Lady Lin’s heart was aching, unable to let go. Seeing Jinguan ask such a question, she hugged Jinguan tightly, "Jinguan, your mother really has no other choice! Look at the state of our family now; it will be hard even to have enough food in the future. What can a woman do all by herself? Jinguan, will you come with your mother, please? Wherever your mother has food, you will have food. You are the one your mother cherishes and can’t bear to part with. Without your mother, what will you do, Jinguan?" As she spoke, she started to weep inconsolably.

Jindou was so angry that his brow twitched, and he growled, "We are members of the Wang Family, and if we are to starve, we will die in the Wang Family! No one is stopping you from remarrying, but dreaming of taking Jinguan with you? Forget about it!"

All Lady Lin could do was hold onto Jinguan and cry, "Jinguan, please go with your mother..."

Jinguan struggled free from Lady Lin’s embrace and hid behind Jindou before speaking, "I don’t want to go with you, you don’t want us anymore! You are looking for a stepfather for us, and none of them are good. They will beat us! And you’re going to have children with him, and once you have the stepfather’s children, you won’t want me anymore! If the stepfather beats me, scolds me, and treats me like an animal in the future, I don’t want to go! I’ll stay right here at home. I will stay with my father and my brothers!"

Lady Lin tried to explain in desperation, "Jinguan, where did you hear such nonsense? Your mother loves you the most, how could she not want you? Who has been filling your head with this? Could it be your grandmother?"

Old Granny Zhang was sitting inside the house as if fortune had fallen from the sky.

Originally, as soon as Lady Lin entered the courtyard, Old Granny Zhang could barely restrain herself from rushing out to slap her twice and then scolding her profusely.

She was stopped by Wang Yongzhu, who pleaded with her not to do so.

Whether Lady Lin would leave or stay depended on the decision of the main house, and on Wang Yongfu.

If Old Granny Zhang drove Lady Lin away, it might provide momentary satisfaction to everyone, yet Wang Yongfu had been married to Lady Lin for over a decade, and the children born to the main house were hers by blood. The bond between mother and children couldn’t be severed.

In the future, it would be Old Granny Zhang who was remembered as the one who drove Lady Lin away, not that Lady Lin had wanted to remarry.

The decision to let the main house make this choice meant they could keep Lady Lin if they wished, as they had their own ways of keeping her in line.

If they didn’t want Lady Lin anymore, it would be just as well; it would save everyone from the trouble she might cause if she stayed.

Having watched quietly for half the day, it seemed to her that Wang Yongfu still harbored feelings, or maybe it was something else, but he appeared to be willing to forgive and forget, and continue living with Lady Lin.

On the contrary, it seemed Lady Lin, upon hearing of the Wang Family’s downfall, had resolved to flee this "pit of fire" and remarry.

Seeing that both Jinhoo and Jindou disliked Lady Lin was no surprise—they were older and knew better. Lady Lin’s actions, plainly speaking, were akin to abandoning her husband and child, only able to share in prosperity but not adversity, ready to escape when the Wang Family was no longer prosperous, leaving behind her man and her sons.

As the ones being abandoned, men and boys of Jindou’s age could hardly save face; they must have felt intense hatred.

Yet what surprised her was Jinguan. She had thought he would be swayed by Lady Lin’s words and agree to go with her to remarry.

Unexpectedly, his mind was still clearer than that of his muddled father; he knew that life wouldn’t be easy if he went with Lady Lin to remarry. He chose to stay with his father and brothers, showing he still had some conscience.

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But Jinguan was unwilling to go, why has the pot suddenly become Old Granny Zhang’s problem?

Seeing Old Granny Zhang’s livid face, Wang Yongzhu didn’t stop her.

Old Granny Zhang rushed out from the inner room, stood on the steps and started cursing furiously, "Lin Xinghua! You heartless, conscienceless creature! Even a tiger doesn’t eat its offspring, but you! You’re even more poisonous than a tiger! Back when your Lin Family was poor, a girl in her teen years, huddled up butt-naked under the covers with her own brother, only you could play the pity card. It was because of Eldest Brother’s foolish trustfulness and your acting pitiful every day, that our Eldest Brother was hoodwinked into marrying you.

Wasn’t our Wang Family’s life a hundred times better than the Lin Family? When you married into the Wang Family, you brought nothing but a box of rags, not even a single needle! What you wear, eat, and use, isn’t it all from the Wang Family’s money? Even your period didn’t start until you had been eating well for several months at our Wang Family’s house!

Without our Wang Family, would you be where you are today? Now that you’ve seen our Wang Family become destitute, you immediately turn your back on us? I have never seen a woman as heartless as you! Your man isn’t even dead yet, and our Wang Family hasn’t given you a letter of divorce, yet you can’t wait to go and see other men? Have you never seen a man in eight lifetimes? Can’t even go a day without one? Isn’t it just because you see our Eldest Brother is crippled, and you’re afraid of being a widow? You promiscuous wretch! An ungrateful beast! Wearing clothes bought with the Wang Family’s silver, showing off for other men! Shameless! Rushing to become someone else’s stepmother, you cruel-hearted witch! I’ll wait and see what kind of man you can marry again! I’ll wait and see you having a good life—"

Her tirade, it was as if she had stripped Lin Xinghua naked, exposing all her little schemes and calculations to everyone present.

Enraged and humiliated, Lin Xinghua didn’t care about Jinguan or Jinhoo anymore, and directly pushed the divorce letter in front of Wang Yongfu, "Put your thumbprint here, and from now on, we will go our separate ways without any further entanglements! I won’t waste my words with you. I am determined to get a divorce, and if you don’t comply, I will go to the Yamen and sue you! Now that you’ve lost your second brother to back you up, do you think you can still force me to stay?"

At her words, Wang Yongfu, who had been silent up to this point, gave Lin Xinghua a deep look. That look made her shiver, and her brazenness wilted away in an instant.

She wasn’t even sure whether to hand over the letter of divorce or to take it back.

But Wang Yongfu reached out his hand, slowly accepting the letter of divorce and carefully read each word one by one.

Once upon a time, when Wang Yongan studied, he had followed along and learned the "Thousand Character Classic." He recognized some of the characters, and now as he looked at that line on the letter of divorce: "Thus, this letter is made to part ways; henceforth, we shall marry separately and never dispute again," he seemed to take these words to heart.

Seeing Wang Yongfu accepting the letter of divorce, Lin Xinghua breathed a sigh of relief, Old Granny Zhang stopped cursing, and the rest of the Wang Family, who had been watching, also came out to look at him.

Taking a deep breath, Wang Yongfu finally spoke, "I can put my thumbprint, but shouldn’t you leave behind the things that don’t belong to you?"

Lin Xinghua was startled, "What do you mean? Wang Yongfu, are you still a man? After so many years of marriage, I can’t even take a few sets of clothes with me when we divorce?"

Wang Yongfu looked at Lin Xinghua silently and said deliberately, "What about the pair of family heirloom silver bracelets my grandmother handed to you?"

Lin Xinghua was dumbfounded. How did he know about that? Hadn’t Aunt Granny said that no one else was told about it except for herself?

No, this was her very foundation, her last bit of hope. If she gave these up, she’d have no confidence in remarrying.

"What nonsense are you talking about? What silver bracelets? Why would your family heirlooms be passed down to me? You don’t want to divorce and try to blackmail me, do you? Wang Yongfu, I never expected you to be this kind of person!" Lin Xinghua adamantly denied.

Dismayed, Wang Yongfu shook his head, "I never expected you to be this kind of person either! When grandma passed the bracelets to you, bypassing my mother, she later told me! At the time, I just thought, since you were the eldest son’s wife anyway, these things were originally meant to be passed down to you, and eventually to Jindou’s wife, so I didn’t mention it. But now that we are going through a divorce, you are no longer a wife of the Wang Family, should you still wish to take these bracelets to marry another man?"