Chapter 1669: The farce of separation

"Since the second branch wants to sell farmland and mountains, the Hou Fu will come forward to buy them. The family business saved by the ancestors cannot be sold to outsiders. Announce to the whole clan that in the future, whoever wants to sell family property can only sell it to the clan. Anyone who dares to sell privately to outsiders will be expelled from the family. Tell them again that all transactions are at market price. If they are dissatisfied with the price and think they have been bullied within the clan, come to the Hou Fu to reason. The Hou Fu will handle it impartially and will never be biased!"

Chen Guanfu made a decision decisively, not trying to stop the second branch from selling family property, nor thinking about making up for the second branch's deficit. The Hou Fu is not a charity; there are so many prodigal sons in the family, if you help the east side, do you have to help the west side?

Do not worry about scarcity, but worry about inequality!

What the Hou Fu needs to do is ensure that the assets will not fall into the hands of outsiders and that the core interests of the family will not be shaken. Internal strife, they can't manage that much.

After being silent for a while, he ordered: "Send someone to investigate the two brothers and see what is going on. In just a few years, such a large deficit has occurred that they have to sell family property; is someone deliberately calculating? Is someone transferring assets?"

Chen Guanqiang was obviously stunned, and after coming to his senses, he asked cautiously: "Is my lord suspecting that the eldest wife of that mansion subsidizing her maiden family is fake, and in reality, she is turning public money into private property?"

A woman's dowry is not counted as public property.

A family, as long as it is not poor enough to be unable to open the pot, will not intervene in a woman's dowry.

Except for those who are shameless.

This leaves room for some bold and dark-hearted people to drill loopholes.

Chen Guanfu shook his head and denied: "Wang Shi doesn't have such great courage. I suspect that my good cousin is secretly hiding money. Arrange capable people to investigate well."

When the second branch separated, besides fixed assets, gold, silver, and jewelry were an astronomical figure.

He absolutely does not believe that it could be squandered in just a few years, to the point that there is no money on the books.

There must be something fishy here.

Must investigate clearly.

Lest someone doesn't know the truth and mistakenly thinks the Hou Fu is stingy and mistreated the second branch when they separated. Who can you reason with?

Chen Guanlou went to an antique shop for a transaction.

The imprisoned officials in the Grade-A prison like to use antiques to offset silver, and he is also very happy.

Walking into the familiar antique shop, the shopkeeper personally received him to discuss the price, giving the real price. The price was negotiated, just waiting for delivery.

During the wait, Chen Guanlou looked around, looking at the various antiques on the treasure shelf, and was suddenly attracted by a jade Buddha as high as a palm.

"Does Official Chen fancy this jade Buddha? If you want it, I can give you a discount."

"Where did it come from?" Chen Guanlou pursed his lips and asked the shopkeeper.

"This was collected from below."

Chen Guanlou raised his eyebrows. "Collected? Is it surnamed Chen?"

The shopkeeper was a bit confused. "As for the specific surname, this old man doesn't know."

Chen Guanlou smiled softly. "I have seen this jade Buddha before. Look at the base, is there a vertical line? That was accidentally bumped."

The shopkeeper was suspicious, carefully holding up the jade Buddha and looking directly at the base. Sure enough, there was a vertical line.

"This..."

Chen Guanlou smiled half-heartedly; the Hou Fu has produced a prodigal son.

This jade Buddha was a treasure he sold to Marquis Pingjiang more than ten years ago. He never expected that it would appear in an antique shop for sale many years later.

He didn't say much to the shopkeeper, and after leaving the antique shop, he went directly to find Chen Guanqiang and told him about this matter.

Chen Guanqiang had been busy with the second branch's affairs these days, busy until his mouth was inflamed. Hearing that a jade Buddha once treasured by the Hou Fu appeared in an antique shop, he was immediately furious. "So they started secretly selling family property so early, and I didn't hear a single sound. They hid it deep enough."

"Listening to your meaning, the second branch did it? The Marquis's treasures, when they separated, the second branch took them away? Could the Marquis agree?"

"If the Marquis didn't agree, who would dare to open the treasury to divide the treasures. When they separated, I don't know what kind of ecstasy soup the second old man gave the Marquis, but the Marquis wrote a letter back, letting the young master open his private treasury, allowing the second branch to take away five treasures. Who could have thought that these treasures would enter the antique shop in the blink of an eye. A true prodigal son."

Chen Guanlou heard this and immediately teased: "The Marquis is indeed deep in brotherly love. Although he and the second old man are not born of the same mother, the brotherly friendship cannot be fake. Five treasures, worth at least tens of thousands of taels, he gave them away as soon as he said so. It's a pity, brotherly friendship cannot withstand a prodigal son."

Chen Guanqiang gritted his teeth. "The Marquis's treasures must be bought back; they cannot flow outside. I will report this to the young master, and when I finish my work tomorrow, I will invite you to drink."

"You are polite! You go ahead and do your work, drinking can be done at any time. Did the young master say how to deal with the second branch?"

"They have already separated; there is not much he can manage. The second branch insists on being a prodigal son; no one can stop them."

Makes sense!

Chen Guanfu is indeed a qualified clan leader. Heaven wants to rain, mother wants to remarry, let them go.

A month later, the Chen family held several internal meetings, and Chen Guanlou attended twice, mainly discussing the prodigal son's affairs, and added several rules to the clan rules. The most important one is that selling family property can only be sold to the clan.

He felt the meeting was long-winded, and after attending twice, he didn't go again.

After a period of time, I heard that the second old man of the second branch had his leg broken outside and had to lie down for at least a year or a half.

I also heard that the eldest old man of the second branch lost money doing business outside, went home to make trouble with his wife, forced his wife to take out her dowry to subsidize, and didn't even want his face.

I also heard that the second old man was furious and had a stroke and hemiplegia.

Taking advantage of his clear mind and ability to express clearly, he simply divided the second branch among the brothers. To avoid the family property being stolen and squandered by the rats in the family.

The second branch has many sons, seven or eight including legitimate and illegitimate ones.

The separation of the family has its own rules for a big family.

The legitimate eldest son who inherits the family business inherits at least sixty percent of the family business. If it were in the Hou Fu, it would be at least seventy percent, so as to ensure that the legitimate branch would not fail because of the separation.

The remaining forty percent is distributed equally among legitimate and illegitimate ones.

As for the old man's private property, it is distributed according to the old man's personal wishes. If he loves someone, he gives them more. If he loves a concubine, giving a little to the concubine, no one stops him.

If the descendants have objections, they can only hold it in.

Chen Guanfu, as the clan leader, took half a day to preside over the second branch's separation.

The brothers of the second branch were all dissatisfied with the separation.

The eldest disliked that sixty percent was too little, wanting at least seventy percent. In the future, he will be the main branch of the second branch. After a hundred years, if they split the clan, it will also start from him. Not taking seventy percent is inappropriate.

Other brothers accused the eldest couple of managing the family for these years, causing the family business to fail, with assets less than half of when they separated from the Hou Fu. They asked the eldest couple to hand over the embezzled money to make up for the brothers' deficit.

Both sides went back and forth, arguing endlessly, and in the end, they staged a full-scale martial arts performance, the brothers fighting inextricably, fist to fist.

The clan elders were terrified and furious, wanting to pull them apart but were stopped by a look from Chen Guanfu.

"Let them fight! Only after they have fought enough will they be willing to sit down and separate the family honestly." ===== CHAPTER 1670 =====