After dinner that evening, Ye Yun cleaned up the kitchen and took Ye Chen back to the storage shed outside the courtyard. Chen Guihua would not let the brothers stay in the main house at night, claiming they interfered with her family's time together and that letting them live here was already a kindness.
In truth, she simply found the brothers an eyesore and drove them back to the storage shed.
The shed was extremely shabby, small and drafty, with hard wooden boards for a bed. To make his little brother more comfortable, Ye Yun had found some dry rice straw and spread a layer over them. But it did nothing to keep out the cold. In winter, Ye Yun had to pull out all their clothes and pile them over their bodies, or they would struggle to sleep all night.
"Brother, tomorrow is your birthday," Ye Chen said softly, tilting his head up to look at Ye Yun, who was now more than a head taller than him. Then he took a grasshopper out of his pocket and offered it to Ye Yun, cradled in his hands.
Only when his little brother mentioned it did Ye Yun remember. Yes, he had been rescued and brought home in the seventh month, so his parents had made that day his birthday.
Ever since their parents died, he had never celebrated his birthday again. Every year on this day, his little brother wove him a grasshopper out of grass as a birthday present, while Ming-ge'er would put the few copper coins he had left into a red envelope for him. Ming-ge'er knew that what Ye Yun wanted most was money.
Ye Yun took it and stroked his little brother's head with a smile. "Thank you for remembering, Xiao Chen."
Just then, he thought of Rong Zheng, who had been in the mountains for two days. If Rong Zheng knew it was his birthday, would he wish him a happy birthday too?
Over the past two days, he had missed Rong Zheng more and more.
As the brothers talked, faint sounds of an argument came from the main room.
"You wastrel! You owe the gambling house that much money!" Eldest Uncle Ye slammed his palm onto the table, unable to keep his voice down as he cursed.
This time, Chen Guihua could not spare a thought for defending her precious son. "My Yao'er, weren't you working as a porter in town? How did you end up at a gambling house? This-this is eighty whole taels! How are we supposed to pay it back?"
Ye Bao watched from the side, utterly shocked. Eighty taels, and owed to a gambling house at that! If word got out, how would she find a good family when marriage matches were being considered for her?
That wastrel Ye Yao-why couldn't he have just died out there? The more Ye Bao thought about it, the angrier she became, and she began cursing Ye Yao in her heart. But he did not dare say it aloud. Their parents favored Ye Yao, and if he cursed him, he would certainly get slapped.
Eldest Uncle Ye kicked Ye Yao to the ground, cursing all the while, though he kept his voice low for fear of airing the family's dirty laundry. Chen Guihua sighed endlessly and began blaming Ye Yao for being such a disappointment too.
Kneeling on the floor, Ye Yao begged through his tears, "Father, Mother, you have to help me pay it back! The gambling house said they'd chop off my hand if I didn't pay. How would I support you in your old age then? And they threatened to come to our house. You don't want to lose face in front of the whole village either, do you?"
At that, Eldest Uncle Ye kicked him again. Chen Guihua hurried forward to stop him. She had only one son, and she needed him to provide for her in old age.
Eighty taels was a considerable sum for an ordinary farming family. All their savings together amounted to only fifty taels, and that included the thirty taels they had plundered from Ye Yun's family four years ago, more than half of which they had already spent.
To repay it, they could only borrow from others, and they would probably have to tighten their belts afterward. The thought of taking out so much money at once pained Chen Guihua terribly. She pummeled Ye Yao fiercely, complaints spilling endlessly from her mouth.
But whatever fuss they made, Eldest Uncle Ye had only one son, after all. He did not want the whole village finding out about this mess either. If the debt collectors came knocking and caused an uproar, he would never be able to hold his head up again.
He slapped Chen Guihua across the face and said impatiently, "You've spoiled this son rotten, and you still have the nerve to talk? Get the money out."
"We don't have that much. Even if we use everything to pay them, we'll still be thirty taels short. Should we borrow from relatives?" Chen Guihua sighed. "We'll have to eat less meat from now on, and Ye Bao's dowry will have to be put aside..." She went on counting out the expenses.
When Ye Bao heard that paying this gambling debt would even wipe out her dowry, she grew anxious. She was already seventeen and had begun considering marriage matches one after another last year, but she wanted to keep taking it easy and did not want to serve another family, so she had been in no hurry. Now that she heard her own interests were at stake, she was beside herself with worry.
But he knew their parents were angry. From the looks of things, their decision was final: they clearly intended to spend all the family's savings to repay that wastrel Ye Yao's debt. He could only seethe and complain inwardly, not dare lose his temper. If he ended up getting beaten along with him, he would only suffer for it.
"Who could lend our family that much money? Shut up!" Eldest Uncle Ye was irritated beyond measure and did not want to hear Chen Guihua go on. He stepped forward and kicked Ye Yao again, saying viciously, "Once the debt is paid, you're staying in the village to farm. Don't even think about going back to town to fool around. If you dare run off, I'll break your damned legs!"
Chen Guihua said, "I'll go borrow some from my family."
Eldest Uncle Ye said, "How much could your family lend us? I heard a while ago that your eldest nephew only managed to scrape together his betrothal gifts by selling his little ger. Even borrowing from the villagers, we could scrape together ten taels at most. We'd still be twenty whole taels short. If there's no other way, we'll have to sell land. Sell two mu to make up the difference."
The moment she heard about selling farmland, Chen Guihua grew anxious again. "We can't sell our family's land. We country folk depend on the land for food. What would we eat if we sold it? Sell what your dead younger brother left behind. Don't they have ten mu too?"
"But that land was left to Ye Chen. If we sell it, we might need Ye Chen to handle it. The village chief would ask about it, wouldn't he?" Eldest Uncle Ye had intended to sell Ye Chen's family's land in the first place. How could he possibly sell his own?
Yet even selling land belonging to Ye Chen pained him. All that land was now registered under his name, and he was the one actually farming it.
"Those two brothers eat and live here for free. Do they get a say?" Seeing that they did not need to sell their own land, Chen Guihua had already begun lying through her teeth. She had completely forgotten the thirty taels they had plundered from Ye Yun's family back then.
Eldest Uncle Ye glanced at Chen Guihua, meaning that he would leave it to her to settle. He was particularly shrewd, always making Chen Guihua handle anything that would earn a bad reputation while he watched from the sidelines. He had always been that way. When Ye Yun and Ye Chen were beaten, he would casually say a few words for show, never trying to stop it.
Just then, Ye Bao spoke up. "Father, Mother, I have a way to make up those twenty taels." When she heard her father mention "selling a ger," her crafty eyes shifted, and she came up with an idea. She waited until her parents had calmed down a little before speaking.
Chen Guihua's eyes lit up. "What way?"
"Ye Yun is seventeen this year. He's old enough for a marriage match. You're his closest elders, his eldest uncle and aunt, so of course you can find him a marriage. Naturally, you'd keep the groom's betrothal money. Marrying off a daughter or a ger brings in fifteen taels these days." After a brief pause, Bao-ge'er cleverly thought of something else. "If we marry him off to one of those old widowers, we could negotiate an even higher sum."
Eldest Uncle Ye thought this was a good plan. Any plan that spared him from selling land was good in his eyes, but he put on his usual act. "Yun-ge'er might not agree."
In truth, as he saw it, a matchmaker's arrangements were decided by parents and elders anyway. He was Ye Yun's only eldest uncle. He asked this so that Chen Guihua, that shrew, would step forward to do the dirty work.
As expected, Chen Guihua was always the first to charge into battle. "He doesn't get to refuse. We've raised those two brothers for over four years. Do they intend to keep clinging to us forever?"
She deliberately ignored the full thirty taels her family had plundered from Ye Yun and the ten mu of farmland they had taken over. Ye Yun did all the heavy, exhausting work at home. Even Ye Chen had learned to cook and clean inside and outside the house, and he also had to work in the fields alongside Ye Yun.
In the end, Chen Guihua settled the matter. "I'll handle Yun-ge'er. Whether he wants to marry or not, he'll have to."
Eldest Uncle Ye had wanted Chen Guihua to play the villain all along, so naturally he had no objections. Ye Bao thought that with the family's finances eased, her dowry would soon be restored and she would not be held up until she became an old maid. She was very satisfied.
As for Ye Yao, he did not care. He only wanted his gambling debts paid off as soon as possible. The gambling house's men had hounded him for payment in town, and he had had no choice but to come home and hide.
The storage shed where Ye Yun lived was out by the courtyard, near the entrance, so he could not make out what was happening in the main house. He only heard the cursing. It must have been Ye Yao coming home for money again, something he had seen countless times.
He did not care about that family's affairs. He now had more than five taels saved, and in another year, he could reach ten. Next year, he would take his little brother away from here and make them return the ten mu of farmland. As for the money they had taken back then, he could forget about getting it back.
The thought that leaving next year would mean a new beginning made him happy. Filled with hope, he thought on and on until he gradually drifted into a deep sleep.
He did not know that his eldest uncle's family wanted to marry him off to an old widower, planning to push him into a pit of fire with their own hands.