I bring bad luck to my husband, you bring bad luck to your wife.

The Yang brothers are keeping the fact that their mother, her sister, and Shanshan went inside a secret.

That evening, Yang Tongchuan told Xiangxi about it.

"Is it really going to jail?" In Xiangxi's mind, only the most heinous criminals should go to jail.

"It's hard to say. I inquired today and the tea merchant wants to compensate us for the damage to the house. If my uncle and his family don't pay, my aunt and Shanshan will really be going to jail."

Do you think your aunt's husband will actually give you the money?

"What do you think?" Yang Tongchuan asked in return.

"I don't think so. If he were willing to pay to ransom her, my aunt probably wouldn't have been taken away."

Xiangxi understood things even better than Yang's mother.

"I think so too. So I discussed it with my older brother, and we decided to listen to him and find an excuse to have him and my sister-in-law take our parents out for a few days tomorrow, so that my aunt's husband won't come to borrow money." Yang Tongchuan originally didn't want to go through all this trouble, but the shamelessness of the Tong family was more serious than he had imagined.

"It's already late autumn, and winter is just around the corner. Where are you going to send the two old people to hide?" Xiangxi had put on a thick vest because of the low temperature these past few days.

"The Beginning of Winter is just right. In October, we send out winter clothes for the Beginning of Winter. I'll have my elder brother and sister-in-law take our parents back to our hometown to visit their graves. Our father's hometown isn't here, so it'll take a few days to travel back and forth, and then they'll stay for a couple more days. I'll also get things done here as soon as possible."

"There's no other way." Orphans like Xiangxi and Xiangqiang really don't have the trouble of dealing with weird relatives.

"You don't understand Mother. She's sharp-tongued, but she's soft-hearted and easy to coax. If she knew that my sister was in jail and needed money to ransom her, she might actually help. The other party asked for 150 taels of silver. Even if we sold our whole family, we wouldn't get that much money." Yang Tongchuan thought to himself that if his aunt's family was reliable, he would try to find a way to help them.

The problem is that there isn't a single reliable person in this family; they're all ungrateful wretches who would devour you without a second thought.

Wasting money on them is simply insane.

"One hundred and fifty taels?" Xiangxi had never seen so much silver in his entire life.

"That house is so valuable." Xiangxi had never seen Tong Shanshan's house before and didn't know what kind of mansion could be worth 150 taels.

"What they burned certainly wasn't worth 150 taels, but they're insisting it's that much money; they want to kill my aunt and Shanshan. And Officer Wang even reminded me today not to get involved. I guess they've already paid tribute to the yamen."

Speaking of Constable Wang, Yang Tongchuan still kept a close eye on him.

Xiang Qiang had mentioned to him last time that Wang Butou's wife wanted to sell the house, and Yang Tongchuan remembered it.

He made a special inquiry over the past two days, and indeed, the house was listed for sale in the brokerage circle.

The price wasn't high; it seemed like they were in a hurry to sell.

Strangely, Officer Wang's family was in a hurry to sell their house, but not at all in a hurry to look at a new one.

This made Yang Tongchuan suspicious, so he has been extra careful when talking to Constable Wang lately.

The eldest brother, Yang Tongshan, acted quickly and arranged the trip back to his hometown to visit the ancestral graves in just two days.

They didn't even give Yang's mother a chance to refuse.

Yang Tongchuan also deliberately put on a "show" in the prison cell, hurling insults at his aunt, making everyone think that he had abandoned the mother and daughter.

Then he took the initiative to go to Officer Wang to ask for leave, saying that he needed to avoid suspicion and would come back after the case was judged.

After a token attempt to persuade Yang Tongchuan to stay, Chief Constable Wang granted him a long leave.

Yang Tongchuan, Xiangxi, and Yanzi were left at home.

This time, Yang's mother insisted on not bringing Yanzi with her, and told her to stay and serve Xiangxi instead.

Xiangxi's feet have started to swell recently, and Yang's mother is worried that Yang Tongchuan doesn't know how to take care of people properly.

As expected, three days after Yang's parents left, the Tong family father and son came to their door.

That morning, Yang Tongchuan had just coaxed Xiangxi to finish a large bowl of red date porridge when Yanzi came to report that there were guests.

"Hmph, they actually dared to come. Stay inside and don't go out, I'll go chase them away." Yang Tongchuan comforted Xiangxi, telling her not to worry.

"Be careful, don't cripple him." This was the first time Xiangxi had seen such obvious anger on Yang Tongchuan's face.

"I won't hit anyone, don't worry."

Yang Tongchuan stormed out, not even intending to let the father and son in.

"My dear nephew, only you can save your aunt and sister now. That old bastard is really going to drive us to our deaths." Tong's father had truly inherited his aunt's talent; in his wailing and shouting, the two were seven parts alike.

"How could I save them? Because of this incident, I can no longer work as a constable, and now I'm just sitting at home doing nothing every day."

"What does this have to do with your aunt? Is your mother home? Eldest sister, eldest sister, your sister is in trouble, please save her." Tong's father was now counting on his daughter-in-law's older sister to help.

He didn't care about saving face anymore and started shouting at the door.

"Uncle, you don't need to call me anymore. My parents aren't home; they've gone on a long trip."

"Going on a long trip, going on a long trip at this time, what does your family, surnamed Yang, mean? Are you going to leave them to die? You heartless bunch, how can you be so cruel? They are your relatives, how could you do such a thing?"

"Brother Tongchuan, Aunt and Uncle are really not home. I want to go in and check." Tong Shenghu said and was about to rush inside.

Yang Tongchuan stopped him.

"My husband is resting at home during his pregnancy. What are you doing barging in? If you startle him and cause a miscarriage, don't blame me for breaking your legs."

"I... I just want to see my aunt. She won't abandon my mother."

"How do you expect her to manage things? Even if you sell our house, it's not worth 150 taels of silver. We'll cover your expenses.

"What can I do? I can't just watch my mother and Shanshan go to jail."

"That's your problem. I've been dragged into this and I'm out of work. I don't know what to do." Yang Tongchuan deliberately said this outside the door, hoping that the neighbors who were watching the commotion would hear it.

"You have to give us some advice. We're just ordinary people who've never dealt with government officials before. What should we do now?"

"You should pay compensation. My aunt burned down someone's house, so she should pay compensation."

"That's Shanshan's house. It was that old bastard's family who tricked us and wanted to harm us."

"Uncle, it's written in black and white that the house belongs to that tea merchant. That's a done deal. If you really want to get Aunt and Shanshan out, you'd better hurry up and raise the money for him."

"We really have no money left. Shanshan's savings are all gone. Tongchuan, quickly call your older brother and parents out, let's sit down as a family and think of a solution."

"Uncle, my eldest brother and parents really aren't home. They went back to my father's hometown to pay respects at his graves this winter. All the neighbors saw it. It can't be fake."