Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Xie Lanting was in a very good mood that day. And because he was in a good mood, he beat Tiedan in a fight.

Tiedan ran off crying to find his mother.

Xie Er’s Wife was so anxious blisters broke out around her mouth.

These past few days had been truly miserable for them. I had taken over their house, and they still had to wait on our whole group. Watching us use their things pained her to death, but she didn’t dare say a word.

She had tried asking her brothers from her maiden family to come help, but the moment they heard the people she had offended were from the Marquis’s Mansion, they didn’t even dare show their faces. They only told her to behave herself and not anger the noble folk.

A couple of days ago, when Tiedan beat Xie Lanting, she could at least feel a small sense of accomplishment.

Today, though, she could not be happy at all. Rage rushed straight to her head, and she nearly fainted. All afternoon she cursed one person while meaning another, found fault with Er Ya in every possible way, and was still making a racket late into the night.

I had the steward go warn her.

“Make another sound, and you won’t need your tongue anymore.”

The couple from the Xie Family settled down.

Over the next few days, Xie Lanting improved by leaps and bounds. Every day, he would stop Tiedan and give him a beating, chasing him around to hit him. At first, Tiedan still tried to fight back, but later he hid from him every day. Unfortunately, the courtyard was only so big. There was nowhere for him to hide, so he had to take a beating every single day.

Xie Er’s Wife was heartbroken.

At last, one day, she couldn’t take it anymore. With a thud, she dropped to her knees before me and begged me to hurry back home.

“We were wrong to Dog- ahem, wrong to Lanting before, but that’s all in the past now. You’ve beaten us, you’ve vented your anger. But if he keeps beating Tiedan every day, he’s trying to take my life.”

I had the steward hand her a sheet of paper. She held it, bewildered.

“Show it to Xie Er. If there are no problems, have him sign it.”

Early the next morning, Xie Er, who had been hiding for several days, came to see me.

Like his elder brother, he could read. The paper stated that he admitted to beating and abusing Xie Lanting, and it required his signature and thumbprint.

“You want me to sign this confession? Absolutely impossible.”

Then he and I had nothing to discuss. It wasn’t as if I was some kindhearted saint.

I had Xie Lanting beat Tiedan a few more times. Whenever he saw Tiedan, he was to hit him. If he saw Tiedan hitting Er Ya, he was to hit him for that too, until Tiedan was beaten into submission.

That night, we heard Xie Er and Xie Er’s Wife arguing fiercely.

The reason Xie Er refused to sign was that he still wanted to bask in the Marquis’s Mansion’s reflected glory. His ancestors had been poor for ten generations before his elder brother finally became somebody. If he let this chance slip away, he might never in his life be able to leave this poor mountain hollow.

Xie Er’s Wife cursed him, saying his life was almost gone and he was still thinking about the future. They had to get through the crisis in front of them first. Otherwise, he might even lose his son.

That night, Xie Er’s eyes were terrifying.

The steward said he kept moving his hand back and forth around Xie Er’s Wife’s neck, probably wanting to strangle her to death and push all the blame onto her. It was only when Tiedan stirred and Er Ya sat up, staring blankly and straight at him, that he panicked, pulled his hand back, and lost the nerve.

He really had calculated it well.

As long as he got past his elder brother, if his wife died, his brother would marry him off to plenty more wives.

In the original book, no one discovered the grievances Xie Lanting had suffered. Xie Er’s family came to mooch off them for many years, and yet Father Xie still made Xie Lanting be grateful to them…

Father Xie’s character setting in the book was not likable. He was a rough man. He could fight wars, but when it came to schemes and politics, he was hopeless. That was why he never saw the undercurrents between his son and Xie Er at all. He only thought his son was cold-blooded and ungrateful.

It was Xie Lanting himself who later plotted to make Xie Er lose his land and have his legs broken, taking revenge for himself.

But he had to wait so many years before succeeding. The enemy who had once been so aggressive and seemingly all-powerful became servile and fawning before the strong grown man he had become. I imagined that kind of revenge would not feel very satisfying. If anything, it would only feel more stifling.

Fortunately, everything was still in time now.

Xie Lanting still had time to become a decent person, instead of having to become a ruthless one.