Su Fu’an and Su Fuhua were surprised to hear Madam Zhao say that. They clearly remembered that when the brother and sister had been fished out of the river there was no one there who heard what Su Tang said but them. And they didn’t tell anyone. So how did Madam Zhao know?
Su Yonggui looked at Su Tang and her brother, “Is what she said true?”
The reason why Su Fu’an had not told anyone was because he felt that it would not be good for their reputation. If it was spread everywhere, wouldn’t life be even more difficult for the brother and sister in the future? Maybe if someone wanted to get married to one of the siblings in the future, he could tell that person in private, but how could he want Su Yonggui’s family to hear about it? He gave Su Tang a warning with his eyes.
Su Tang saw the warning Su Fu’an’s eyes and knew he was well-intentioned but, unfortunately, she wanted to spread this kind of reputation. So when she heard Su Yonggui ask her that question, she nodded directly.
“Yes, the River God said that we have a fate filled with adversity, so he let us come back. Grandma, we could not serve the River God well, I’m sorry! Please don’t hit me and Dalang.”
When she said those words, everyone looked at Madam Zhao with condemnation in their eyes. Although they all lived in poverty in Sujia Village, that did not mean they approved of abusing children.
Before when people saw the sister and brother dirty and always dressed in rags they would privately talk about their terrible stepmother. But now hearing Su Tang say that, it seemed certain that the two children had not been treated properly by the whole family. The onlookers all whispered to each other about it one after another.
Su Yonggui was a person who was afraid of trouble and who liked to save face. When he saw everyone gossiping about his family, his face reddened in shame. When he heard Su Tang’s words, he did not respond to her, instead he said, “Old Qiang you heard it yourself. These two children have an adverse fate. Our family doesn’t want to end up the same way Su Laochuan’s family did, we have no choice!”
After Su Laochuan died there was no one to continue his family line. It was the most pitiful and talked about story currently circulating the village. Su Yonggui felt like these two children were stars of misfortune so he did not want to take them back.
That was why he wanted to offer them to the River God in the first place, but who could have expected that even the River God couldn’t tolerate their adverse fate. His branch of the Su family had been getting worse and worse the past few years, and he knew it must have been the work of those two children.
“That’s right, we raised our children with our own blood, sweat, and tears. Now that we finally have children and grandchildren we just want to enjoy happiness for a few days. If those two come back, we may all lose our lives soon. We really don’t dare take them back.” Madam Zhao said.
On one side, Madam Wu heard those words and her face showed a trace of disappointment. She really wanted to get rid of those two evil seeds directly but she would at least be a little happier if they were thrown out of the family.
When she thought of this, Madam Wu looked at the two siblings standing there. She listened to the villagers all around who were pointing at her with blame and she just continued to keep her head down. As long as those two were around her reputation would never get better. But the days ahead were still long, she did not believe that they could always be this lucky.
Regardless of Madam Wu’s thoughts, Su Yongqiang looked at the Su family. When he heard them say they didn’t want to raise them, he looked at Su Dafu and wanted to ask him. After all, he was the real father of the two children, “What do you think Dafu?”
Su Dafu and Madam Wu stood together on one side. It was a bit ironic that they were still holding Su Sani, whom they had brought along to watch the hustle and bustle. After hearing the question, without even looking at Su Tang or her brother, Su Dafu said, “I’ll listen to my parents.”
It was really chilling to see such a father.
Su Yongqiang sighed and said, “These children belong to your family but you don’t want to raise them. Who do you think should raise them? The genealogy says that they are your family’s children.
“Then strike them from the family genealogy. We don’t want such children with adverse fates like them.” Madam Zhao said without hesitation.
Su Yongqiang was enraged and he looked at Su Yonggui, “In your family are the women in charge?”
Su Yonggui angrily reprimanded Madam Zhao for speaking ahead of him but then went on to say, “Old Qiang, you’ve seen it. Anyone who dares to raise these children would be going against the River God. We really don’t dare to take them back.”
Su Yongqiang sighed, “Our Sujia Village still has to answer to our ancestors before us. Even if you don’t want to raise the children, it’s not as if you can just throw them away. It just so happens that there is no one to inherit Su Laochaun’s line now that he has died. If you agree, then sign this adoption document. Then, in the future, these two children will belong to Su Laochuan’s household. Anyway, Su Laochuan and his whole family are all already gone so they are not afraid of the children’s adverse fate.”
After Su Yongqiang finished, when he saw Madam Zhao looked like she wanted to speak, he immediately added, “If you don’t want to sign it, then you find another family who is willing to take them back and raise them, or if not, you can take them back and raise them yourself. After all, they are your children!”
Su Laochuan’s family used to be somewhat well-off but now they had nothing left but a broken-down grass and mud house. Otherwise, he wouldn’t need to struggle so much to find someone who was willing to be adopted into Su Laochuan’s household. After all, people who would be willing to let their children be adopted into another family were all living in poverty themselves, so if they were going to give their children up the minimum condition was that their children could at least be well fed.
But Su Laochuan’s family had nothing for an adopted child to inherit but, despite that, the child would have to carry on Su Laochuan’s household. What kind of parent would be willing to give away their children to another person’s family and have their children call someone else their parents? Especially if the new ‘parents’ couldn’t even feed them.
Su Yongqiang was the head of the Su family so it was impossible for him to really let this brother and sister be removed from the family genealogy. People removed for their family genealogy did not have the qualifications to take the imperial examinations and were despised everywhere. To do so would make the children’s lives much harder.
He couldn’t just destroy the lives of the two children, so now there was basically nothing he could do except adopt them into Su Laochuan’s household.
When Madam Zhao heard Su Yongqiang’s words, she swallowed the retort that was on the tip of her tongue and shut up. The two children had an adverse fate and she still wanted to live for a few more years to see her grandson become an official and bring back a wife.
The witch Old Lady Huang had come to her house the other day and said personally that there would be great wealth in her family in the future. If she brought these two children back and allowed them to kill her, how could she enjoy the happiness that would be coming in the future?
When Madam Zhao did not speak, Su Yonggui hesitated for a moment and looked around at the rest of the Su family. But whenever his eyes moved to them everyone would dodge his gaze. None of them dared to raise these children with an adverse fate. Plus, they all had children of their own, so why would they raise another person’s children?!
Su Yonggui knew that if he didn’t agree now he would have to take the two children back himself. If he didn’t want to do that, he had no choice but to adopt them into Su Laochuan’s family. Su Laochuan’s family was already dead so they were not afraid of fate, no matter how adverse it was.
“Back the Su Laochuan helped our family a lot while he was still here, so why don’t we let them go and carry on his family line.” Su Yonggui fumbled for a while but eventually found a reason to make it sound like he was being very generous.
Everyone knew in their hearts exactly what was going on though, so when he said those word the only response from the onlookers were mocking smiles.
Madam Wu listened to the discussion and her hands clenched into fists while she looked at the brother and sister pair. She could not let those two evil seeds affect her reputation so right now she couldn’t do anything but later, later…
‘Anyone can tell your stepmother had bad intentions at a glance but you want to just let her go?’ The orange cat had been following Su Tang all this time and even right now it was lying in front of her, just no one else could see it.
Seeing the dialogue bubbles that popped up over the cat’s head, Su Tang sneered and murmured, “For a gentleman’s revenge, ten years later is not too late. She owes Su Dani a life, don’t worry, I won’t forget!”
She ? Oh dear, whole family owe her a life