Both Master Ren and Ren Yiyan couldn’t help but retreat several steps, their expressions filled with disbelief.

Ren Yijun turned back to glance at the scattered and toppled tablets, saying with certainty: “Father, you are lying.”

Master Ren’s face turned pale: “This…”

“Father, how long do you intend to continue deceiving us? Do you dare deny what I just said again?”

Master Ren’s mouth trembled, but he could no longer utter a single word.

Ren Yiyan looked at Master Ren’s expression, his heart also filled with shocked uncertainty. He couldn’t help but call out: “Father?” He was a scholar, and scholars do not speak of strange powers and supernatural phenomena. He still hoped to hear his father openly deny Ren Yijun’s words – he would rather believe this was his younger brother making trouble.

But Master Ren couldn’t make a sound, as if something was stuck in his throat, preventing him from denying Ren Yijun’s words any further.

Ren Yijun said, “So you do admit it after all?”

Ren Yiyan waited a long time without seeing any response from Master Ren. His gaze also gradually became complex, and he said with some disbelief: “Father, could what the third brother said be true? This residence and the Zhai family…” Thinking of what Ren Yijun had said, Ren Yiyan couldn’t help but feel a chill in his heart.

Master Ren closed his eyes and finally said, “How did you come to know these things?”

So this was an admission?

Ren Yijun slowly clenched his fists.

Although Ren Yijun’s behavior had appeared somewhat aggressive throughout, in truth, his heart, like Ren Yiyan’s, had hoped that Master Ren would deny everything to the end. He hadn’t expected…

“These are all matters from two generations ago…” Master Ren’s tone was filled with weariness and vicissitudes.

Although he had previously known some of the grievances between the Ren and Zhai families, some of the specifics were only told to him by Old Master Ren in the few days before his deathbed. After hearing them, Master Ren had also felt unease and terror in his heart, but a father’s dying words could not be disobeyed. He couldn’t watch the Ren family’s foundation crumble in an instant.

So Master Ren had originally not wanted the younger generation to know these things. He only wanted to first find that fortune to help the Ren family weather this crisis, then keep this matter buried in his stomach. As for the Zhai family, if there was an opportunity in the future, he would make amends.

Hearing Master Ren’s explanation, Ren Yijun sneered coldly and said without any courtesy: “You are delusional! The Ren family has monopolized all the benefits, but have you asked what the Zhai family thinks?”

Master Ren closed his eyes, having nothing to say. His entire body’s weariness and exhaustion made him look as if he had aged ten years.

After all, this was his birth father. Seeing Master Ren like this, Ren Yijun finally temporarily swallowed his belly full of harsh words, but what needed to be said still had to be said: “Father, we can’t continue living in this residence. Those mines can’t be kept either. If someone wants them, give them away – consider it returning things to their rightful owners.”

Master Ren shook his head: “Your grandfather’s dying words instructed…”

Ren Yijun impatiently interrupted: “What damned nonsense dying words! When he gave those instructions, did he consider whether his descendants would live or die? Did he consider whether his descendants would have troubled consciences or suffer retribution? Matters of the living should be decided by the living.”

Seeing that Master Ren remained silent, Ren Yijun turned to Ren Yiyan: “Say what you think! Even if the Ren family found that fortune, would you dare spend it?”

Ren Yiyan glanced at Master Ren. After a moment of silence, he still said with difficulty: “Father, let’s just forget about it.”

Ren Yijun’s expression softened slightly, but his next words were still sharp as knife blades, cutting so that one’s heart, liver, and lungs all ached: “You heard that? If you still insist on going your way, naturally, we can’t make the decisions. However, I will leave the Ren family like Third Uncle and Fifth Uncle did! From now on, everything that happens to the Ren family will have nothing to do with me!”

If it were normal, when Ren Yiyan heard his younger brother say such things, he would have tried to persuade him no matter what. But today, after looking at Ren Yijun once, he said nothing, only frowning tightly and keeping his head down in silence.

Ren Yijun glanced at Ren Yiyan and said to Master Ren, “Big brother and I will no longer take over the Ren family business. In the future, you can hand it over to whoever you find pleasing. However, our branch probably can no longer find any males capable of inheriting the Ren family. I wonder if grandfather, who left those dying words, would feel that despite all his scheming, in the end it was all for nothing.”

Master Ren couldn’t help but be stunned upon hearing this.

The Ren family’s East Manor and West Manor had completely severed relations. On the West Manor side, among Master Ren’s generation of brothers, the third and fifth had already left the Ren family, leaving only Master Ren’s lineage. But if both Ren Yijun and Ren Yiyan abandoned the Ren family, then the Ren family would truly have no successors.

“You…” Master Ren stared dead at Ren Yijun, then looked at Ren Yiyan.

Ren Yiyan noticed his father’s gaze. Having always obeyed his elders’ commands, he was silent for another moment, but ultimately still didn’t dare meet his father’s eyes. His meaning was expressed very clearly – he would advance and retreat together with Ren Yijun.

Master Ren closed his eyes tightly, then staggered and couldn’t stand steady.

Ren Yijun pursed his lips: “Think it over carefully.” After saying this, Ren Yijun was no longer aggressive. He turned back to look at those tablets once, the corner of his mouth revealing a somewhat sarcastic smile, then left the ancestral hall without looking back.

Afterward, Master Ren and Ren Yiyan also left the ancestral hall. Master Ren didn’t dare let people know about the situation outside the ancestral hall at that time, and could only wait for the Eldest Madam to come and instruct her to handle it personally.

What no one expected was that just as Master Ren and Ren Yijun left, the covering cloth on the altar suddenly moved, and then a person crawled out from under the table. Finally knocked in the knee by the tablets on the ground, she cried “Ouch” and sat down on the floor.

After realizing where this place was, she rolled over and got up, clasping her hands together and begging forgiveness from the tablets: “Honored ancestors, please don’t blame me, don’t blame me. I also wanted to save the Ren family descendants, because I heard that doing too many unconscionable things leads to having no sons or grandsons, and I’m afraid… Hehe, you can understand, right?”

After saying this, the woman quickly and decisively fled from the ancestral hall in a scrambling crawl, as if ghosts were chasing her from behind.

The matter of Ren Yijun angrily storming the Ren family ancestral hall was ultimately suppressed by the highly capable Eldest Madam and didn’t spread.

From that day forward, Master Ren never had another peaceful night’s sleep. He always had dreams at night – no one knew what he dreamed about, but he always woke up with a start in the middle of the night.

Those people who had been digging wells also all stopped, and the Ren family returned to its long-lost quiet. For the declining Ren family, this eerie quiet was unsettling. Old Madam Ren was completely unaware of these matters.

However, Master Ren still hadn’t relented on the matter of selling the residence.

Ren Yijun couldn’t stand Master Ren’s completely irresponsible behavior. After waiting three days, his patience was finally exhausted, and he instructed Qi Shi to pack their belongings and leave the Ren family.

Ren Yijun was serious. He was a proud man and wouldn’t even allow Qi Shi to take a single needle or thread from the Ren family when packing.

After the Eldest Madam received the news, she hurried to stop them. But Ren Yijun was completely unmoved by the Eldest Madam’s tears, only saying: “Although I’m leaving the Ren family, you will always be my mother. When the Ren family collapses later, you can come find us in Yunyang City, and your son will support you in your old age and see you through to the end.”

The Eldest Madam had originally wanted her eldest son to help stop her younger son, but Ren Yiyan didn’t come. The Eldest Madam was nearly desperate and finally could only go see Master Ren, weeping: “The sons are all leaving – what’s the point of guarding this residence? Sell it, sell it all! Whoever wants it can have it! Without sons, even if you earn mountains of gold and silver, who will you leave them to in the future? If you don’t sell, keeping this residence will only scatter the family! Anyway, if they leave, I’m going to follow my sons too! You can struggle however you want!”

After decades of marriage, this was the first time the Eldest Madam had quarreled with Master Ren.

After a long while, Master Ren covered his face to hide his eyes, his voice carrying a barely perceptible tremor: “Then let’s sell it…”

Upon hearing this, the Eldest Madam immediately had people stop Ren Yijun and Qi Shi, who had already walked out of the second gate. Learning that Master Ren had ultimately compromised, Ren Yijun didn’t insist on leaving.

Master Ren had people contact the Gao family, expressing his desire to sell the Ren family’s residence and the few remaining mines in their possession, asking if the Gao family was interested in taking them over.

Although selling the family property wasn’t Master Ren’s original intention, with his wife and children insisting and himself being tormented to exhaustion, he had no other choice. Thinking that the Ren family’s foundation would ultimately be destroyed in his own hands, Master Ren didn’t leave his study for several days.

Before the Gao family had responded, news of the Ren family selling their property had already spread, and the Ren family servants began to feel anxious about their futures.

Then the most troublesome thing for Master Ren happened – Old Madam Ren somehow learned of this news and began making a life-and-death scene in her courtyard.

The Eldest Madam had instructed that this news should be kept secret, especially from Old Madam, but somehow Old Madam still found out.

Master Ren went to see Old Madam Ren once. The mother and son talked for less than a quarter hour before Old Madam Ren began throwing a tantrum, hurling a teacup that left Master Ren’s forehead bleeding.

Old Madam Ren refused to agree to selling the Ren family’s residence and property, thinking Master Ren had gone mad.

Finally, the Eldest Madam had people help Master Ren withdraw, then personally came to comfort Old Madam Ren, saying gently, “Mother, don’t be angry. Master is just momentarily confused. I’ll go persuade him again – he’ll change his mind.”

As she spoke, the Eldest Madam handed Old Madam Ren a cup of warm tea.

Old Madam Ren was finally somewhat appeased by the Eldest Madam’s coaxing, and she was indeed somewhat thirsty, so she took the tea bowl and drank half of it. After finishing, she was about to lecture the Eldest Madam, but her eyelids became too heavy to open, and she inexplicably collapsed unconscious on her kang.

The Eldest Madam bent down to help Old Madam Ren lie down properly, even covering her with a quilt, then calmly instructed the maids: “Old Madam hasn’t been feeling well mentally lately and sleeps a lot. Take good care of her.”