Transmigration: A Farm Girl’s Brocade
Chapter 398 - 224 Disaster_2

Chapter 398: Chapter 224 Disaster_2

Qian Dagui said, "My second brother acts without rules on normal days, always listening to Lady Tang. He should have hired a couple more workers long ago to lighten his load. Because Lady Tang feels reluctant to spend silver, he chose not to hire anyone, and works himself to the bone every day. Now, he doesn’t even bother to help his daughter and son-in-law, who he usually supports. Why should father go there? You are of such an age, a fall would be serious. Even if his household has suffered from the disaster this year, they wouldn’t be unable to carry on."

Old man Qian thought it was time for his second son to learn a lesson through hardship, so he didn’t go.

After ten days, when the heavy rain finally stopped, Lady Tang used her crutch to sneak back home to check the damage from the disaster. She heard that the family’s fish had mostly escaped from the lotus pond, and the crops in the field had also been seriously damaged. Moreover, her son had fallen and gotten hurt, and her husband was sick from overwork.

She cried bitterly, cursing as she wept, "The third branch is a pack of ingrates after all the work that their head of the household and Manhe did for them in past years. Now that our family is short-handed, they have so many people yet offer no help. And what about the eldest branch, with its many people and workers—why don’t they come to help?"

Qian Manhe said angrily, "Mother has offended everyone to death, yet blames the third branch for not helping. They helped our family so much before, but you not only didn’t appreciate it, you also had ill intentions. With such extreme actions, why should they help us now? Besides, my younger sister and her husband always come to our house for free meals; they never help, so why should the eldest branch do so? I’ve decided—our house is not the Benevolent Hall. My wife takes care of my parents, and there’s no reason for her to also look after my married sister and her family. Also, we will hire two more workers to ease father’s burden, as he is getting too old for such hard work."

"What? Hire more workers after the house has suffered a disaster? No, I don’t agree," Lady Tang shrieked.

It just so happened that Old man Qian came to the second branch with Old woman Qian and heard their mother and son’s conversation.

Old man Qian spat at Lady Tang fiercely and gave her a thorough scolding, calling her greedy, lazy, and muddled, without any concern for her husband and son, and even cruelly wanting to anger Qian Sangui to death. Then, he ordered her to relinquish control of the finances and take out all the second branch’s money to give to Lady Xiao Wong, declaring that Qian Manhe would now run the household, with Lady Xiao Wong in charge of the silver. He threatened that if she did not comply, he would have Qian Ergui divorce her. However, if she complied, she could return home.

Lady Tang didn’t want to give up financial control, but she also didn’t want to return to her maternal home. Because of her stinginess, she could not bear to give even a penny for living expenses to her sister-in-law, who would throw and bang dishes every day, giving her dirty looks and speaking very rudely to her.

So Lady Tang agreed to hand over financial control. Initially, she only handed over six taels of silver, claiming that was all the family had. Old woman Qian, after catching a secret signal from Qian Manhe, then found over a hundred taels of silver in one of Lady Tang’s cabinets, which were all given to Lady Xiao Wong.

Seeing so much silver being found, Lady Tang cried her heart out as if it were being ripped out.

Old woman Qian hit her with a crutch and scolded, "You have such a wicked heart. With all this silver, you were too stingy to pay for a few workers, preferring to let your husband get sick from exhaustion and your son to get injured." Saying this, she hit Lady Tang with the crutch a few more times.

Old man Qian looked at the shiny silver with clenched teeth and said, "In the past years, your family wouldn’t have even five taels saved up, let alone this much. All this silver was earned following Sangui, but you ingrate still want to anger my son to death." He then turned to the flushed-faced Qian Ergui and said, "You are a man; you better keep your troublemaking wife in check. If she continues to make a mess of things and can’t see reason, just divorce her straight away."

As August arrived, West Lake and Moonlit Lotus Pond again began to yield lotuses and a great abundance of fish. Su Sanwu led several workers to gather lotuses and fish in West Lake, with ox carts hauling them away, bringing life once more to Hexi Garden.

Old man Qian approached Qian Sangui to plead, asking the Jinxiu Embroidery Workshop to help sell the lotuses for the eldest and second branches as in previous years. Qian Sangui had already thought of a strategy and said, "Jinxiu Embroidery Workshop is in the business of making money; we will do business with anyone who has money to make. In the past, the workshop merely helped out without taking a penny from them; I paid the extra work the clerks did out of my own pocket. This year if they can’t find buyers, they can still cooperate with Jinxiu Embroidery Workshop, but we will charge for the service."

Old man Qian went back to discuss with the eldest and second branches, and they ultimately decided that even if it meant spending money, they would have Jinxiu Embroidery Workshop help with the sales, because selling through the workshop was much more profitable than going through other merchants.