Having reached this point, Third Master Chen no longer cared about anything. He laughed coldly several times and asked him: “What silver?” His heart full of resentment, he hadn’t expected his elder brother to still play dumb with him at this moment: “Didn’t Father receive the two hundred thousand taels from the Zhou family? Since Father took people’s silver to handle their affairs, now that great disaster has arrived, he should have the courage to take responsibility. We never benefited from Father before. Now that something has happened to Father, I’ve already married and have children—I must make plans for them. I don’t dare implicate Father and legitimate mother any further, so I request to divide the family myself…”
Before Third Master Chen could finish speaking, Old Madam Chen’s face already showed shock. Her expression turned ugly as she collapsed onto the couch. This time she was truly enraged. Her hand trembled as she pointed at Third Master Chen, suppressing her agitation for a long while before saying: “You—you’re trying to kill your father!”
Second Master Chen couldn’t listen anymore either. Seeing his mother so angry, while Third Master Chen kept saying such incomprehensible nonsense, he couldn’t help but reach out and give Third Master Chen a hard slap across the face, following it up with a kick.
Speaking of which, this was also a Chen family tradition—elder brothers disciplining younger brothers had always been taken for granted. His temperament was relatively good, and he had never raised a hand against this third brother before. But when the eldest brother had still been alive, he had beaten and scolded Third Master Chen quite often.
Third Master Chen, having been struck, felt all his temper surge forth. When he was young, he was constantly beaten and scolded by his eldest brother—this had always been a hidden pain in his heart. Now he had grown to adulthood, married and had children. His daughter was already of marriageable age, yet his second brother still laid hands on him so mercilessly in front of his niece and nephew. His blood rushed to his head. He shoved Second Master Chen hard, staring at him with eyes so red they seemed ready to devour someone, looking at Second Master Chen with resentment: “Don’t touch me! From now on, if you dare touch me again, I’ll chop off your hand!”
The usually docile Third Master Chen had suddenly transformed into a vicious wolf. For a moment, everyone in the room couldn’t react. They watched as Third Master Chen grabbed a cloth from the table and wiped the filth from himself, yet no one spoke.
After wiping himself clean, Third Master Chen grabbed his wife’s hand. Surveying everyone in the room, he aggressively made his threat: “I’m sending word to the clan today. This family should be divided.” He only had one life and had no time to waste fooling around with these people.
Without waiting for anyone in the room to speak again, he was first out the door and quickly disappeared. Eldest Young Master Chen hadn’t expected the usually mild-mannered third uncle to have such a temper. Belatedly realizing what had happened, he cursed: “That bastard!”
Old Madam Chen’s face had already turned blue-purple with rage, even her lips were purple. Her lips trembling for a long time, she finally looked at her second son: “We can’t let him go out and talk nonsense! Did you hear what he was saying just now? He said Old Master received silver. He doesn’t just want to divide the family—he clearly wants Old Master to die!”
Second Master Chen also recalled Third Master Chen’s words and couldn’t help breaking into a cold sweat. Although Third Master Chen was clamoring to divide the family, he was after all Elder Chen’s son. By identity, he was naturally a member of the Chen family. Even he was saying Elder Chen received silver—if someone with ulterior motives found out… He felt all his body hair standing on end. He hastily nodded at Old Madam Chen and looked at his eldest nephew: “Come! Let’s go talk sense into your third uncle!”
Right now was a critical time for the Chen residence. They couldn’t allow chaos to start from within the family.
Chen Mingyu silently served Old Madam Chen as she sat down again. The storm of shock in her heart still hadn’t subsided. With some disbelief, she said: “Has Third Uncle gone mad?!”
Unless he had gone mad, how could he say such reckless words and anger Grandmother to this state? Divide the family? What a notion! At this time, he still thinks about dividing the family!
Old Madam Chen let out a cold laugh: “Born of a slave, if you can’t raise them well, you can’t raise them well. Naturally a coward’s seed.”
Second Master Chen and Eldest Young Master Chen simply couldn’t reason with Third Master Chen at all. The uncle and nephew pair already had rather bad tempers to begin with, and Third Master Chen was also at the height of his anger. By the end, the three of them nearly came to blows. Second Master Chen accidentally even kicked Third Master Chen’s son, who had come to break up the fight. Third Master Chen became even more crazed with rage. That very night, he had people move things and sent someone to the clan to deliver a message. He was determined to divide the family, to separate from the Chen family’s lineage.
Second Master Chen and Eldest Young Master Chen were both half-dead with rage. When they returned to Old Madam’s room and reported this, both hung their heads dejectedly: “He’s making too much of a fuss. He’s completely like a madman. How can you reason with a madman?!”
Eldest Young Master Chen also chimed in: “Third Uncle has lost his mind. He keeps insisting he doesn’t want to be implicated by us… Absolutely insisting that Grandfather received two hundred thousand taels of silver. Two hundred thousand taels—what nonsense is he spouting?! If outsiders heard this, they’d really think Grandfather received silver!”
Third Master Chen dividing the family was now inevitable. The messenger to the clan had already left. Tomorrow the clan would probably receive the news, and outside there would be a huge uproar.
Old Madam Chen steeled her heart: “This man truly has no heart or conscience. If he wants to divide the family, then let him divide it.” She instructed Second Master Chen: “You go to the clan and find the clan elders…”
They couldn’t let Third Master Chen splash dirty water on the family. At this time, for him to still say such things—clearly he wanted to see Elder Chen suffer misfortune. To have given birth to such a son was truly the family’s ill fortune.
After Second Master Chen agreed, she continued: “Go, go watch them move things. Everything that belongs to the family’s common property should be divided into three equal portions. Don’t let them think they can move everything out. For such a wolf-hearted and dog-lunged person, don’t give him a single extra thing. Better to feed it to dogs than give it to such people!”
Second Master Chen was already nearly driven mad with rage by Third Master Chen. Hearing his mother say this now, he had no objections. While agreeing, he went back to fetch his own wife to go watch them move things from the rear courtyard.
With one look, something seemed wrong. Second Madam Chen was not easily fooled to begin with. Keeping a close eye, she discovered something amiss. The third branch seemed to have far too many things. Just the trunks and boxes alone filled several carts. Although Third Madam Chen’s dowry back then had been fairly substantial, no matter how you counted, it shouldn’t be this much!
Sensing something wrong, she went over to inspect. The more she looked, the more wrong it seemed. Not to mention some loan documents, there were also property deeds for residences, some land deeds, and actual silver! Even if you sold Third Master Chen and Third Madam Chen, even if you sold everyone in the third branch, they shouldn’t have this many things! Second Madam Chen stood rooted to the spot, stunned and gaping.