Chapter 167
167 The Truth About the Wang Family’s Huge Debt
Everyone in Hu Family Village knew that Old Madam Wang was extremely lucky and had four sons.
Perhaps it was because she had only given birth to sons, and her sons had all given birth to boys, and there was not a single female descendant in the family.
Everyone said that the Wang Family did not have the fate for a female descendant.
Naturally, some people were jealous, and more people were secretly envious.
Most people believed that a son was a treasure. As long as he could survive the stage of poverty, he would be a great help when he grew up.
Sons did not have to marry out. They also had the strength to farm at home and could even support their parents in their old age.
Once a daughter is married off, it would be very difficult for her to come back.
There were even some in-laws who were so strict that they would not allow their daughters-in-law to return to their family for more than ten years.
They would not provide assistance to the girl’s family for no good reason.
However, no one in Hu Family Village knew that before Old Madam Wang entered Hu Family Village, she had set off with her four sons and one daughter.
At that time, the Emperor was muddle-headed and obsessed with cultivation all day long. The Imperial Court was extremely corrupt, and the people complained.
Because the heavens were not kind, disasters were everywhere. There were uprisings in many places. The place where the Wang Family originally lived was affected by the war and they had no choice but to leave their ancestral land and survive in the wilderness.
They wanted to find a remote and quiet place to live. In the beginning, although the journey was difficult, the family supported each other.
On the way, they saw many people selling their children or even trading their children to eat. They pretended not to see these things.
Wang Chuanman and Wang Aibao were a pair of twins. They were also Old Madam Wang’s favorite children.
It was said that the Emperor loved his firstborn and the people loved their youngest child. Old Madam Wang was no exception.
Wang Aibao was very smart. When she was two or three years old, she displayed extremely good talent. At that time, even though they were surviving in the wilderness, the little Wang Aibao was always happy.
She liked to follow her brothers around. She would also pluck wild vegetables and find wild fruits. Sometimes, she foraged more than her brothers.
Old Madam Wang taught the children how to read and recite poetry. The young Wang Aibao was always the fastest to learn.
When she was four or five years old, Wang Aibao fell in love with Old Madam Wang’s embroidery skills and pestered her to teach her every day.
At that time, they had no fixed residence. Sometimes, they would stay in one place for two to three months before leaving. Old Madam Wang did not have the time to teach her daughter, but she would also occasionally guide her in embroidery.
Wang Aibao was extremely talented. Even though she was only five years old, she still looked good when she picked up a needle and thread. However, at that time, she did not know much about embroidery, but she liked to write and draw on the ground with a branch.
She had invented a flower with six petals and imagined the color of the flower and the shape of the leaves.
Old Madam Wang made an embroidery based on her imagination and told Wang Aibao, “Bao’er, this will be your intrinsic flower in the future. Whatever you like in the future, embroider one on it.”
“I like Mother. Can I embroider one on your body?” Wang Aibao asked mischievously.
Old Madam Wang scratched her little nose, amused and angry. “Then you can try and see if I’ll spank your butt.”
Wang Aibao giggled.
When Wang Aibao was six years old, they entered a county city and happened to encounter a disaster in the county city. A large number of refugees surged in. Perhaps because they had been hungry for too long, the refugees were not satisfied with the free porridge distributed every day and began to commit robbery.
Once this round of robbery started, it developed into a chaotic situation.
The Wang family was scattered during the chaos.
The government directly suppressed the rioters and killed many people. At that time, blood flowed like a river and corpses were everywhere.
The Wang family was lucky enough to remain alive, but Wang Aibao was frightened and had a high fever for a few days.
In order to save Wang Aibao, Old Madam Wang could only go up the mountain to pick herbs and find something edible.
At that time, most of them could only eat tree bark.
Tree bark was not something that could be eaten just by peeling it off. Some tree bark could be boiled in water and eaten directly, but most tree bark had to be dried and ground into powder before being made into paste.
Wang Aibao’s body was weak, so she could not eat tree bark at all. Old man Wang could only go further away and beg some kind people to give him some food.
At that time, they really met a kind person who gave them a bag of food. He even helped them buy medicine from the county city and took good care of Wang Aibao.
The Wang family let down their guard and thought that he was really a warm-hearted person. In the end, when they were not careful, Wang Aibao was kidnapped by that person.
Old Madam Wang was almost going crazy.
However, at that time, the place was in chaos. It was already good enough that they could survive, let alone find a missing child.
She could not be found at all.
But Old Madam Wang did not believe it. She searched everywhere crazily.
Other people said to her, “There’s no need to look anymore. Think about what will happen to the child after she’s kidnapped.”
Perhaps in the harmonious years of the past, if a child was kidnapped, she would be taken away to be raised. Boys would be groomed as the successor, and girls would be sold away to be a child bride.
However, everyone did not have enough to eat now, let alone raise other people’s children. Therefore, the most likely possibility was that Wang Aibao would be treated as an exchange item…
Someone said coldly, “What’s the use of having a daughter? She’s just a resource consuming machine! So what if she’s lost? Why are you still looking for her? I don’t think you really want to get your daughter back. Perhaps you want to exchange her for someone else’s child to eat.”
The person who spoke was chased two kilometers by Old Madam Wang with a large rock and ended up with a huge bump on his head.
In this chaotic world, there was no law. That person could only admit his bad luck and stay away from Old Madam Wang.
It was from then on that Old Madam Wang seemed to have suddenly become a different person. She was no longer gentle and weak, and her words were no longer gentle and polite. She was also even stricter with the four remaining children in the family.
Old Madam Wang never stopped looking for her youngest daughter. They walked and stopped all the way until they suddenly learned that the Emperor had died and the Crown Prince had taken over. The country entered the era of Minghua.
The rebels were destroyed one by one, and the war gradually subsided. There seemed to be fewer disasters.
Everything was returning to a state of order, but Wang Aibao was nowhere to be seen.
Old Madam Wang’s heart was like dead ashes. She was like a zombie all day long, making the family’s heart ache.
For the sake of her children, she gritted her teeth and endured it.
With this, they endured until their eldest son, Wang Chuanfu, met Madam Feng. The two of them almost got married in private. Coincidentally, at that time, they arrived at Hu Family Village.
Old Madam Wang’s body could no longer take it and collapsed, falling unconscious for more than a month.
When she woke up again, the first thing Old Madam Wang said was, “Stay here. We’re not leaving.”
She was tired.
At this point, Old Madam Wang seemed to have lost all her strength and was almost unable to support her body.
Seeing this, Old man Wang hurriedly helped Old Madam Wang up.
“Old woman, you have to hold on! Go to your room and rest first. We’ll talk about the rest tomorrow. We’ve already waited for 17 years, there’s no hurry.”
Old Madam Wang calmed herself down and looked at her sons and daughters-in-law. “Haven’t you always wanted to know how our family ended up with a large debt? Then I’ll tell you.”
“That debt amounts to 2,000 taels. I borrowed it from a pawnbroker. I didn’t use the money to do anything else. I used it all to get someone to look for my beloved daughter. You don’t have to be anxious. There’s no need for you to return this money. Just pretend that you don’t know. In the future, even if we don’t return it, the pawnbroker won’t find trouble with you.”
Old Madam Wang looked at the handkerchief on the table again, her eyes deep. “Since the heavens let me see this handkerchief, I definitely won’t miss this chance. If you’re dissatisfied, just hold it in your heart. In any case, as long as I’m here, I can be the head of the family. Even if you have different opinions, I don’t intend to do anything.”
The younger generation looked at each other and felt that their mother had gone a little crazy.
What could a handkerchief mean?
Moreover, Wang Aibao was only six years old back then. It was hard to say if she still remembered what happened when she was young.