No wonder Ernie Su Yitian was angry, always staring at her as if she were her mortal enemy.
Su Qiao understood.
This family could not be split up!
"Mother, if we split up, who will provide Father with paper, brushes, and ink? Who will support Big Brother's studies? His annual tuition alone costs two taels of silver."
"And all those brushes, paper, ink, and books are terribly expensive. Father and Brother spend five or six taels of silver a year."
"If we split up, we'll have to pay for all of that ourselves."
"Besides, Brother isn't young anymore. It's time for him to get engaged. The betrothal gifts probably won't be cheap either. Will you pay for them when the time comes?"
"And then there's Little Brother. He's already eight years old and should be starting school soon. That'll be another considerable expense."
"Mother, are you sure you can come up with that much money? What will you use to support this entire family?"
The eldest branch had absolutely no ability to make money.
Su Yaohui had taken the licentiate exams several times, but had failed every time. Now, he was merely a student.
He was too good for the lowly jobs and not good enough for the respectable ones. Even the private school in town refused to hire him as a teacher.
He couldn't do other work either. He was useless in the fields, and he couldn't bring himself to do business. He considered himself a scholar, believing that going into trade would disgrace a scholar's integrity.
So he had remained idle at home all this time, neither here nor there, without any income at all.
Big Brother Su Yichen was sixteen. Not only did he bring no money home, he spent money all day long.
As for Zhou