Chapter 380: Chapter 380: Light a Candle for the Ji Family
Some say men are the most consistent creatures on earth. At eighteen, they like eighteen-year-old girls. At twenty-eight, they still like eighteen-year-old girls. At thirty-eight, forty-eight... even at eighty-eight, they still like eighteen-year-old girls.
There are exceptions, but most men are no exception.
Furthermore, among that unexceptional majority, most men, even if they live to be a hundred, remain utterly confident in their own virility. They would never, ever believe they’ve been made a cuckold.
When Widow Xie heard this bizarre theory, she was dying to cover Ji Huan’s mouth. ’What if Guan Shan heard this...?’
Ji Xuelan, on the other hand, burst out laughing. "You know, you actually have a point."
"Right?" Ji Huan winked at her, then patted Widow Xie’s shoulder. "No need to be so nervous. There are no outsiders here."
’When I was still an unmarried girl, I wasn’t allowed to say this or that. Now that I’m married, nothing is taboo.’
Besides, Ji Huan truly didn’t think there was anything that couldn’t be said about the topic.
Things like "infidelity in old age" were nothing new to her; she’d seen it all the time back at her old job.
Some perfectly respectable-looking old men would come to the hospital behind their families’ backs. Barring incurable diseases, they were mostly there for shameful afflictions.
Some were messing around with their housekeepers, some had danced their way into an affair with a partner from the public square, and others were spending money to fool around on the side.
Their wives at home were kept completely in the dark, some even getting infected without a clue...
Her colleagues used to say that some people were proper their entire lives, only to become wild and unrestrained in their old age.
Ji Huan thought, ’Maybe a lifetime is just too long, and being faithful to one person from beginning to end is simply too hard.’
"But the Ji family this time..." Widow Xie seemed to want to show some sympathy, but the smile she was trying to suppress gave her away.
"The whole village is treating it like a joke. The more arrogant they were back then, the more humiliating this is for them now. They thought they were marrying a Sudhana, but as it turns out... That Du Caizhu is something else, though. I heard Ji Liantang was beaten to a pulp, she even picked Aunt Kang right up and threw her out the door, and Ji Qingshan was so furious with her he fainted three times."
Ji Huan felt it was necessary to first clarify her own stance on the matter.
She was against domestic violence, whether by men or women.
But if the one being abused was Ji Liantang, well... it just went to show that everyone is a hypocrite by nature.
There was no helping it. Some scum just deserved a harsh lesson from the world.
If an outsider were to beat him, they’d face legal action. But being beaten by his own wife? That was a domestic affair. Outsiders couldn’t interfere, and even the law had to turn a blind eye.
It seemed that whether in ancient or modern times, as soon as violence was cloaked in the name of marriage, it somehow became legitimized.
So, to all the men and women out there, if you can’t be sure your partner isn’t a beast in human clothing before you get married, you’d better make sure your own fists are tough enough. Whoever has the weaker punch is the one who’ll lose out.
Ji Xuelan wasn’t thinking that deeply about it. She just felt pure, unadulterated satisfaction.
Aunt Kang had spent half her life walking all over her daughters-in-law and lording her power over them. Now, the tables had finally turned. It was her time to pay.
"Hasn’t Ji Liantang thought about divorcing Du Caizhu, then?"
’Swallowing his pride and suffering in silence,’ Ji Huan thought, ’that doesn’t sound like the Ji family’s style.’
"Who knows? It’s like she has some kind of hold on him. Some people couldn’t stand watching it and went to talk some sense into Du Caizhu... They all came back saying there’s something not quite right with her. She doesn’t argue or debate, but she gets an idea in her head and you just can’t reason with her."
She gave off the impression of a clay statue, just sitting there, stiff and vacant. She’d seem to be listening, but her eyes would be locked onto Ji Liantang on the bed. It was a little unsettling.
Ji Huan just couldn’t figure it out. If Du Caizhu could beat the Ji family into submission with sheer brute force, how could she have just stood by and watched as her own father took a concubine and her mother was cast aside?
"What else could she do but watch? He’s her father, after all. No matter how wrong a father is, it’s not a child’s place to speak out, and besides, he doted on her for so many years..."
Ji Huan sighed.
’A son doesn’t speak of his father’s faults, a daughter doesn’t speak of her mother’s indiscretions,’ and ’there’s no such thing as a parent who is ever in the wrong.’ ’Are these really such golden rules?’
’Her father may have doted on her, but her mother was the one who gave birth to her and raised her. How could she just watch her own mother get bullied, then go off and get married with a clear conscience... And all just to marry Ji Liantang?’
But then again, everyone’s experiences and thoughts were different. She couldn’t truly empathize, so she shouldn’t judge others by her own standards, let alone pass judgment so casually.
In any case... she’d just light a candle for the Ji family.
With the gossip out of the way, they finally got down to business.
Widow Xie and Ji Xuelan had come over this time mainly to ask Ji Huan if she wanted to hire more people.
The vegetable harvest was nearly complete, and the Hu Family’s place and the space at West River Gully were full. So, as originally planned, the overflow was being stored at Aunt Gao’s and Sixth Sister-in-law Feng’s homes.
The operation was now split across four production sites.
Ji Xuelan was the general manager for all four locations, while also personally overseeing the one at West River Gully. Widow Xie, Aunt Gao, and Sixth Sister-in-law Feng were each in charge of the production sites at their respective homes.
The sixty-five hired hands, however, weren’t so easy to divide. Split four ways, each site would have fewer than twenty people.
That would have been enough for last year’s volume, but with production having doubled this year, manpower had become the key to efficiency.
But they had already hired nearly all the suitable people in their own village.
"What do you think about hiring from other villages? We can screen them carefully and just have them sort and wash vegetables. We could pay them a bit less... The weather’s turning; it could snow any day now."
Lately, quite a few people from other villages had come to Ji Xuelan and Widow Xie looking for work, willing to do it for just three or four cash a day. But without Ji Huan’s go-ahead, neither of them dared to make that decision.
’Other villages...’ Ji Huan tapped her chin.
"Alright, go ahead with your plan. By the way, Aunt Xie, didn’t you know a few people from Huangban Village back when you worked at the workshop in town?"
"I do know a few..."
Ji Huan said decisively, "If there are any you trust, hire them."
Over the next two days, things at the Ji family household didn’t quiet down. In fact, the drama only escalated.
This time, it was mainly Mrs. Zhu causing the uproar.
She had finally seen the light. Ji Liantang was never going to pass the Scholar’s examination, not in this lifetime. Now, even his "rich wife" had turned out to be a sham. In the future, they’d be lucky if he didn’t drag down their third branch of the family, let alone provide any benefits!
That being the case, why should they keep supporting a good-for-nothing? The family’s money should be spent on her Mingmao!
Based on this, Mrs. Zhu presented three major demands:
First, send Ji Mingmao to the academy in town.
Second, reassign the two rooms in the east wing, which had originally belonged to the second branch, to her third branch.
Third, split the family! 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂
In a way, Mrs. Zhu could be considered an "Awakener," though her awakening was confined to the interests of her own little household.
Of course, she didn’t dare to pick a fight with Du Caizhu, so she could only direct her tirades at Aunt Kang and Ji Qingshan.
On one hand, Aunt Kang felt it was utter rebellion; now even Mrs. Zhu dared to boss her around.
On the other hand, she truly no longer had any effective means of keeping her two daughters-in-law in line.
Against Du Caizhu, neither curses nor reason had any effect; brute force decided everything.
Against Mrs. Zhu, Ji Liantang’s halo had shattered completely. Who would believe any more empty promises?
As for the third son, he didn’t make a peep, simply letting Mrs. Zhu raise hell.
And because of Aunt Kang’s years of blatant favoritism, the children of the third branch were certainly not going to stand on her side.
Aunt Kang was isolated and helpless, and oh, how she seethed with hatred!
She didn’t reflect on her own actions at all, only feeling that the heavens were conspiring against her. It went without saying that she cursed the heavens and the earth, and she could still battle Mrs. Zhu for three hundred rounds a day.
After being angered into several fits, Ji Qingshan collapsed again, and his condition showed signs of worsening.
Only then did the two women call a truce.
When Ji Qingshan woke up, he had Aunt Kang summon the village chief and several village elders. He ignored Mrs. Zhu’s first two demands entirely and agreed to the third.
Normally, in the Ji family’s current state, splitting the family was the last thing they should do, otherwise they would truly be torn to pieces.
Besides, once the family was split, who would they rely on in the future?
But then again, even if they didn’t split, it wasn’t like they could rely on the third branch anyway...
The one who was truly dumbfounded by this was Mrs. Zhu.