I survived the famine by scavenging and supported my family.

Old Zhao, who had been cowering behind Granny Qian, realized he couldn't escape, so he had no choice but to hunch over and slowly move out.

He raised his perpetually droopy triangular eyes, first glancing sideways at Ning's mother, then coldly sweeping over Zhao Ningning, before speaking in a gruff voice: "Village head, village chief, don't listen to this little brat's nonsense, it's all baseless."

"Yes! It's that brat spouting nonsense!" Granny Qian immediately straightened her back, her finger almost poking Zhao Ningning's nose. "Our Zhao family is an upright family, would we do such a heartless thing? It's clearly this brat who's disobedient and talks back to her elders! And this daughter-in-law..."

She abruptly changed the subject, pointing at Ning's mother, slapping her thigh and wailing, "Oh my god, she was just swinging a stick at me! Heaven, have you opened your eyes? Why didn't you send down lightning to strike this unfilial and disobedient child!"

Even before they saw the figure, Ning Ma had already thrown the stick far away, and Zhao Qi, quick-witted as ever, shoved it back into the depths of the woodpile. The yard was now spotless; those who had been yelling about being beaten had no injuries whatsoever, except for the dust they'd picked up when they fell to the ground. For peasants, having a little dirt on them was perfectly normal.

"Alright!" The village chief turned his gaze to Zhao Tieniu, who was leaning against the earthen wall, his face ashen. His voice deepened, "Tieniu, what happened to that slap mark on your face?"

Ning's father trembled slightly and slowly pointed at Granny Qian: "It was...it was Mother who hit her. Mother wanted...wanted to sell Wuya to the Sun family in town...as a child bride."

"Wu Ya is only eight years old. I... I can't bear to part with her. Mother got so angry that she..."

As he spoke, his head drooped even lower, his tone growing increasingly dejected: "It's all my fault! My legs are crippled, I can't work, I've become a burden... Mother had no choice but to sell Wuya so that there would be one less mouth to feed in the family."

"Bullshit! What do you mean by selling! That's called marrying! A proper marriage!" Granny Qian screamed like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, and was about to pounce again, but was stopped by the village head's pipe that was lying across the room.

"The Zhao family!" The village head's voice wasn't loud, but it carried the authority of someone who had seen much of the world. "Everyone in the surrounding area knows what kind of family the Sun family is. Their son—" He paused, ultimately not uttering the word "idiot" in public, only letting out a heavy snort, "Is that the kind of family we should be marrying into?!"

The Sun family has had only one son for three generations. Old Master Sun died young, and not long after Sun Da got married, he got into trouble while drinking and was punished so that he lost his fertility. He was hoping that the child in his womb could carry on the family line, but the child was born with a disability. Now he is almost twenty years old and is still following behind cows on the street, fighting for cow dung. People collect it to use as fertilizer, but he just grabs it and stuffs it into his mouth!

Such people, any family with enough to eat, would be willing to push their daughter into that family.

"If you really send Wuya to the Sun family," the village chief interrupted, his sharp gaze sweeping over the younger members of the Zhao family in the courtyard, "what will become of Wangli Village's reputation? From now on, when girls in the village are looking for marriage partners, won't people think twice? Is your Zhao family the kind that sells its daughters for personal gain? And these granddaughters of yours," he pointed to the girls hiding behind the crowd, "do they still want to marry into good families?!"

These words were extremely harsh, almost an insult accusing them of corrupting the entire village's morals.

Granny Qian's face flushed red and then turned pale. After stammering for a long time, she finally managed to argue, "That...that wasn't selling..."

"If it were a good thing, would it be for an eight-year-old girl?!" Even the usually strict village head was genuinely angry. Everyone knew that the Zhao family's forty mu of land was entirely managed by Zhao Tieniu's family working like oxen and horses. Wu Ya was barely a little girl, yet she followed her parents around carrying water to irrigate the fields, her little face tanned dark by the sun. Making a little girl work in the fields on such a hot day—the only family in the whole village like this!

"Our Wangli Village hasn't reached the point where we have to sell our children to make a living!" The village head slammed his pipe on the ground and said this.

"But...but with the current situation, there's really no way to make ends meet!" Seeing that she couldn't get anywhere with the hard approach, Granny Qian immediately put on a distressed face, slapped her thigh, and began to complain about being poor. "With my second son's leg broken, it's like half the sky has collapsed in our family. We've lost a strong breadwinner, how are we going to feed this whole family in the future..."

Seeing this, Zhao Laosan, who had been huddled to the side, quietly moved to Granny Qian's side and said in a low voice, "Mother, in my opinion... it would be better to separate the family."

"Separate the family?" Granny Qian's eyelids twitched.

"Second Brother's leg... I'm afraid it's ruined." Zhao Laosan's voice was even lower, laced with calculation. "Keeping him at home is just a waste of food. With the harvest getting worse every year, if we send Second Brother out, there will be four fewer mouths to feed. As for the work in the fields... aren't there still my sister-in-law and my wife to do it?"

Granny Qian's eyes flickered, and she subconsciously glanced at the second son's family in the corner. Zhao Tieniu was limping, his face ashen; Zhou Shi tightly hugged the thin Wuya, her eyes like a mother wolf protecting her cubs; Zhao Qi, that brat, also had his neck stiff.

Yes, the second son is useless. What good are Zhou Shi and her two immature children? They just have four mouths agape and their bellies are like bottomless pits.

"Anyway, you don't have to do any work," Zhao Laosan said, seizing the opportunity. "The sooner we distribute the land, the less it will be a huge expense when our third son gets married in a couple of years..."

The scales of hesitation in Granny Qian's heart tipped completely. She abruptly looked up and shouted at the village head, "Divide! Village head, village chief, we want to divide our property! Divide it today!"

"Mother! No, Mother!" Ning's father seemed struck by lightning. He struggled to lunge forward, but stumbled due to his leg injury. He pounded his crippled leg, "My leg is useless, but I can still serve you tea and water! Mother, you can't abandon your son!"

He cried so earnestly, his dark, thin face streaked with tears and snot, that even the onlookers couldn't bear to watch.

The village head and the village chief frowned. Zhao Tieniu's leg injury hadn't healed yet, and dividing the family property at this time would be tantamount to driving this branch of the family to the brink of ruin. The Zhao family's intentions were far too ruthless.

"Mom! I've made up my mind, I won't separate from the family!" Ning's father said urgently, as if grasping at a straw. "Although my leg is broken, my hands are fine! I can cook, feed the chickens, and weave baskets! Eldest brother, third brother, you work so hard in the fields, I'll take care of all the work at home! I will never eat for free!"

"No way! We have to separate!" Granny Qian said firmly. "Raising you is worse than raising a dog! At least a dog knows to protect its owner, but look how your wife treated me today! You didn't even try to stop her, you ungrateful wretch!"

"Mother—!" Ning's father slid down the mud wall and sat on the ground, covering his face with his hands, his shoulders heaving violently, and sobbing in a muffled voice, "Without you, how can your son live..."

Zhao Ningning rushed over, hugging her father's leg, and looked up at him crying, "Grandma! If you want to sell me, then sell me, but please don't abandon Daddy! Daddy has been drinking only water for three days, and we haven't even seen a grain of rice! We're going through a lean season, and if you separate us, our whole family will starve! Waaah..."

"Water?" The village chief's eyes sharpened as he looked at Granny Qian. "Granny Qian, Tie Niu is injured like this, and you're just giving him water?"

"You little bastard, talking nonsense! That's porridge! Thin porridge!" A hint of panic flashed across Granny Qian's face, then she became even more enraged. "Divide it! Even if the King of Heaven himself came today, he would still divide this place up!"

Her mind raced: the harvest would be ready in half a month, and dividing the family now would save them half a month's worth of food. Tie Niu's leg was going to be a burden sooner or later anyway, so it was better to cut it off early. As for the ten taels of silver from selling Wu Ya… she glanced painfully at her eldest grandson, whose face was ashen.

Sure enough, Zhao Wenyuan couldn't hold back any longer. He flung away Granny Qian's hand, which was trying to appease him, and roared in a low voice, his face flushed red, "Grandma! If we separate the family now, what will I use to offer betrothal gifts to the Cao family! Miss Cao... they can't wait any longer!"

He glared at Zhao Ningning with venomous eyes. It was all that brat's fault! If she hadn't resisted and run away, he would have already gotten the ten taels of silver! Miss Cao wouldn't have been forced to become that old master's concubine!

The village head and the village chief were both shocked when they heard his words. So it wasn't because of a famine at all, but to raise money for the eldest son's betrothal gifts?!

The eldest son's family wants to marry off his granddaughter-in-law, what does that have to do with the second son's family?!

Zhao Ningning lifted her head from her mother's arms at the opportune moment, pointed at Zhao Wenyuan with trembling hands, and asked, "Father, Mother, is Grandma going to sell me to get money to help him get a wife?"

While seemingly asking about his parents, he was actually pulling down the cloth covering that Granny Qian had brought and throwing it directly on the ground.

"Fifth Girl! Have you lost your mind? What nonsense are you spouting? If you keep talking nonsense, I'll tear your mouth apart!" Granny Qian said viciously, her face turning extremely ugly.

Zhao Ningning was so frightened that she kept burrowing into her mother's arms.

"Mother, you don't need to say anything. We all know that you want to marry Wuya off so that the money can be used to help Wenyuan get a wife." Ning's mother hugged Zhao Ningning. She didn't know how this family had survived on just a thin layer of porridge. Zhao Ningning was so thin that she was practically skin and bones.

The thought of secretly kidnapping the child and selling her to someone else filled Ning's mother with rage. She burst into tears, her voice sharp with sorrow as she spoke: "Ningning is only eight years old!"

She suddenly looked up, her eyes red, at Er Ya, the eldest daughter-in-law who had been hiding in the shadows, dressed impeccably. "If we're talking about marriage, Er Ya is sixteen, the perfect age! Why doesn't she get married?! Why does she insist on marrying Wu Ya, who's from a different branch of the family?!"

"How can that be!" Zhao Wenyuan was the first to jump out, reacting vehemently. That was his own sister!

"Why not?" Ning's father limped forward. "Mother! Er Ya is older and more sensible. She can manage the household after marriage! The Sun family will definitely be more willing, and maybe... they can even increase the dowry! This is much more cost-effective than Wu Ya!"

"Bullshit!" Granny Qian was so angry that her vision blurred and she almost fainted.

Er Ya was pampered and spoiled by the eldest son's family, never lifting a finger, and was destined to be married off to a wealthy family so she could enjoy a life of luxury in the city! How could she possibly be involved with that idiot from the Sun family? She wouldn't even look at a dowry of thirty taels, let alone ten! That scoundrel of a second son actually dared to set his sights on Er Ya!

When the Zhao family was doing well, they always supported Zhao Laosan and his eldest grandson's education. It was only in the last two years, when even food became a problem, that they had to stop sending the two to private school.

But the tuition fees paid over the years were not wasted. The teacher always praised Zhao Laosan and Zhao Wenyuan for their literary talent, saying they were capable of passing the county-level examination and that Zhao Wenyuan was even a few places away from passing the county-level examination.

Er Ya will very likely become the scholar's sister in the future! At that time, she will be worthy of being the scholar's wife, let alone a wealthy family!

Seeing the farce escalating further, the village chief could no longer tolerate it and said in a deep voice, "Shut up! If you want to divide the family property, do it according to the rules. After the division, each branch of the family can decide their own marriages and not interfere with each other."

Zhao Ningning's eyes lit up. That's great! Now that the family has separated, at least she doesn't have to worry about being sold off.

"No!" Granny Qian objected shrilly.

Now, it was she who disagreed with the separation of the family.