My Daughter Was My Sworn Enemy In Past Life

Chapter 6:  Destroying The Bridge After Crossing The River (1)

Seeing that her son had left with a displeased expression, Wang-shi felt her heart was extremely painful.

Her dilemma and heartache, who could discern? She was just the second wife, with the first wife’s son and first wife’s family staring at her. His aunt from the Chen family was not easy to deal with. If she neglected Tang Bai Nian for half a minute, those people would speak ugly words, like knives piercing her heart.

How could she hurt her own son, whom she gave birth to? If she could, she would even sacrifice her life for her son!

But there was no other way; to save her son from misery, she could only choose Tang Bai Nian. Except picking him as a stepson, what other choices did she have?

She lowered her head and silently wiped away the tears.

In the main residence of Tang Family, Li-shi was fidgeting from time to time. She got up and looked straight at the door until she saw the figure of her husband, Tang Bai Nian. She couldn’t wait to meet him and said, “Did you get everything?”

“This is all I could get!” Tang Bai Nian, with a sullen face, handed her more than 2,000 taels from Wang-shi.

“This is not enough!” Li-shi counted and frowned. “Didn’t you check the IOU earlier? Why is there only so much in Wang-shi’s hand?”

Tang Bai Nian hatefully refuted, “If it weren’t for Tang Song Nian, I would have gotten much more.”

He told the whole story of what had just happened in the Wang-shi residence.

As she listened, Li-shi sneered. “My aunt used to say that the mother and son have bad intentions. What’s more, I also defended her with a few words. Now it seems that everything she said was right: I’m afraid that Wang-shi is just pretending. This mother and son are playing good cop and bad cop. To top it off, they have also invited the second son to run on the bank.”

Tang Bai Nian became more and more resentful and clenched his fist. “One day, sooner or later, one day, sooner or later…”

Li-shi took a deep breath and uttered, “Tang Song Nian really calculated it all in front of you? Did he conceal something or cheat in any way?”

Tang Bai Nian’s face turned pale again. “A few days ago, I went to various stores to check it out.”

Though he couldn’t interfere in those businesses, he would always pay attention to them so as not to be taken advantage of. Therefore, if Tang Song Nian cheated on the total number, he would not be deceived at all.

There was nothing wrong with the total number. Besides, the proportion of the three brothers was indeed set by their father before his death. However, no one had mentioned it again over the years. Also, since he had the benefit of being the eldest son, no one had ever questioned how much they wanted to give to the other two sons every month.

So it was not that he didn’t want to be picky, but that he understood that he could not find any fault at all.

“Will the shopkeeper and the mother and son join hands?” Li-shi felt unresigned.

“Those people are all frogs in a well, stubborn and stinky. They can’t turn their heads, can’t recognize the situation clearly, and can only keep to Father’s orders.” Tang Bai Nian’s anger rose again.

He didn’t mind where their father came from. However, these stubborn people who couldn’t change their thinking were smelly and hard-tempered. They wouldn’t give anyone face and would only follow Father’s orders.

Li-shi also thought of their temperaments, twisted her handkerchief tightly, and said after a while, “Now, we have to think of other means. Fortunately, Lord Gong still has a sum of money and many valuable antiques. He pawned them off first to gather some funds. It’s estimated that he will be able to collect the required sum.”

“This is the only  good thing that has happened so far.” Tang Bai Nian repressed his anger to answer.

***

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Second Son’s Residence

Tang Zhang Nian told his wife, Lin-shi, about the whole matter. In the end, she sighed with emotion and said, “Over the years, Eldest Brother used his status to take advantage of us. However, it’s all thanks to our father’s wisdom before he died that saved us now. He gave some of his family wealth to each of you and marked a clear division. Moreover, he also arranged several trusted helpers like Uncle De, afraid that everything in the family would fall into the hands of the eldest son.”

“I looked on coldly for many years as my younger brother remained silent. After all, his biological mother favors the eldest brother, so he had to quietly endure. I thought he would persist in his ways. However, I didn’t think he would be the one to provide clarity and insight to all of us.”

“In the end, if you are a prefect, you can’t mix with officialdom without some tricks up your sleeves!”

“Third Brother is so clever; does that mean we’re splitting up the inheritance?” Lin-shi thoughtfully asked.

Only when they separated could she really be the head of her family.

Tang Zhang Nian shook his head. “My father said that in those days, it would take a hundred years for my mother to split up. He also informed Uncle De that the monthly income in the future will be deducted and handed over publicly, and the rest will naturally be allocated to each son in proportion, instead of being randomly distributed by the first son.”

After a pause, he told his wife, “If you’re free, take Mian’ger to play with younger brother’s children. Eldest Brother and his wife are unreliable, but Third Brother and his family are not so. Maybe we will depend on them for more help in the future.”

Lin-shi naturally nodded in response. “I understand.”

Although Tang Song Nian had achieved his goal, he felt like he was holding a breath continuously and still couldn’t rest easy.