Chapter 650: The 1950s Motherhood System (7)

Cao Guihua said with a stern face, "It's not that it doesn't count, but that the matter of a Child Bride should never have existed in the first place."

She had been attending advanced studies in the county for the past few days and had thoroughly digested the new Marriage Law, so she took this opportunity to educate everyone on the law:

"The feudal dross of a Child Bride violates legal regulations and should never have existed in the first place."

"But Xie Yang has been at the Zhuang family for ten years; if you say this marriage doesn't count now, then what is she supposed to do?" someone asked.

At this moment, Xie Yang came out from the woodshed. Ignoring Qiu Caohua, who was glaring at her with a dark face, she dragged her "injured" right leg and limped over to Cao Guihua. She gripped Cao Guihua's hand with emotion, tears shimmering in her eyes as she said:

"Thank you, Cao Zhuren! Thank you, Women's Federation! Thank you, government! If not for your keen insight, I wouldn't have known how much longer I would have been deceived by the Zhuang family!"

"……"

Qiu Caohua was so angry she stepped forward to hit her.

This ungrateful Wolf!

After eating the Zhuang family's food and living in the Zhuang family's house for all these years, she actually dared to say such things!

But before she could flare up, she heard Cao Zhuren say: "Good child! You have been wronged all these years! The township and the Women's Federation will stand up for you. Come with me to the township first; I will open a room for you at the guesthouse to stay for a while. Your old house hasn't been repaired in years and has long been too dilapidated to live in. Once the township provides the funds to help you rebuild it, you can move back. Additionally, we will make the Zhuang family spit out the Gold bars your father left you and return them to you; if they can't return them, they will be converted into cash..."

"What? My family has to pay money back? On what grounds!" Qiu Caohua protested as soon as she heard this.

If the ungrateful Wolf wanted to leave, let her leave, but why should her family have to return Gold bars?

"This is the unanimous decision of the higher-ups! If you have any objections, go find the leaders." Cao Guihua glared at her.

The villagers chimed in one after another:

"Auntie Lao Zhuang, did Xie Yun really give you Gold bars back then?"

"He definitely did! I was puzzled back then; the Zhuang family was so poor, but as soon as Xie Yun died and his daughter entered the Zhuang family's door, the Zhuang family suddenly became rich. Now I realize it was the dowry Xie Yun left for his daughter!"

"Since it's a dowry, and now the marriage between Mingcheng and Xiao Xie doesn't count, it should naturally be returned to her."

Qiu Caohua panicked: "Who said it was a dowry! It was clearly what Xie Yun gave our family as a betrothal gift..."

"You stupid woman!"

Zhuang Laotou, who had been hiding in the house listening for a long time, couldn't take it anymore and rushed out to shout at his wife.

But it was too late!

There were plenty of smart people in the crowd who had already pieced together the cause and effect from the words that had slipped out of Qiu Caohua's mouth:

"Oh—so it was a betrothal gift Xie Yun gave you? Then after he passed away, why didn't we see you use it to marry his daughter? Instead, you told everyone you were taking pity on Xie Yang and brought her home to be a Child Bride for your Mingcheng."

"You took two Gold bars from Xie Yun and still treated his daughter like a Child Bride, abusing her. If no one had reported it, you would have had a city-dwelling daughter-in-law from Peking University to carry on the Old Zhuang Family line, and a Child Bride at home to work like a beast of burden serving you two old folks. It really is something your family could do! If I were Xie Yun, I'd be so angry I'd jump out of my coffin!"

"……"

Well, the last shred of the Old Zhuang Family's dignity had been stripped away.

Xie Yang had completely broken away from the Old Zhuang Family and had no further connection with that family.

After leaving the Zhuang family, she went to take a look at the two Thatched Cottages left by the Xie Family ancestors; that was the family's residence when Xie Yun's grandfather was still alive.

Later, Xie Yun's grandfather went to the city to make a living, apprenticed under a famous tailor, and worked his way up until he opened his own tailor shop and settled in the city with his wife and children. After that, he rarely returned to Shili Village except to pay respects to his ancestors.

It wasn't until more than twenty years ago that Xie Yun's grandfather and parents passed away one after another due to illness and accidents. Xie Yun saw that the rich in the city were all fleeing to the countryside with their bundles to take refuge, and the tailor shop had no business and was filled with constant anxiety, so he simply packed up some valuables and returned to the village with his pregnant wife.

The only things left in the village belonging to the Xie Family were these two old houses. The few plots of private land beside the house had been sold by Xie Yun's grandfather to a landlord as capital when he was opening his tailor shop.

After Xie Yun moved back, he rented a piece of land from the landlord to farm. But with his death, this land returned to the landlord's hands, and in the past few years, it was distributed to the villagers following land reform.

With Xie Yun's death from illness and Xie Yang becoming a Child Bride for the Zhuang family, there was no one left under the Xie Family household, so naturally, no land was allocated.

The only two ancestral houses were also too dilapidated to live in.

The thatched roof had long since collapsed, the rafters supporting the beams were almost eaten hollow by termites, and the wooden doors and windows were warped; a hard push would make them fall apart.

The foundation was quite large, looking to be about one mu in size, with courtyards in the front and back, but because no one had lived there for ten years, the weeds in the courtyard were as tall as a person.

Fortunately, Shili Village had a small population, with only about 130 households in the entire village, but the river winding through the village was quite long, so each household was allocated a relatively large plot of land.

Families with many laborers, even when splitting the family, would build one or two rooms on the homestead, and no one had ever set their sights on the old Xie Family house.

Mainly, the old Xie Family house was located at the end of the village, making it inconvenient to enter and exit. Furthermore, for such a broken house, one would have to spend money and time to fix it up. Even clearing the weeds in the front and back yards would take quite a few days. With that money and effort, it would be better to build two new Thatched Cottages of one's own.

Thanks to this, the two old houses, dilapidated as they were, had not been occupied by anyone else.

However... Xie Yang looked at the Xie Family old house and couldn't help but wonder: did the original owner's father really not leave any money for the original owner to rely on?

Or was it that he had left it but didn't have time to tell the original owner?

If he really had left it, where would it be hidden?

When the original owner was taken to the Zhuang family back then, Qiu Caohua had turned the Xie house inside out, and the memories left by the original owner indeed contained no record of finding anything valuable.

Xie Yang was puzzled, but she wasn't too obsessed with it.

The original owner was already gone, so what if she found it?

She herself was not lacking in Gold or Silver valuables.

After looking, Xie Yang decided to accept the township's proposal: tear down the old house, rebuild it, and live independently as a separate household.

On one hand, her household registration was in Shili Village. The situation in the coming years would be quite severe; without an introduction letter, it would be impossible to move around.

And as for finding a Temporary Worker job in the city... working miserably from seven to five just to earn a pittance, Xie Yang felt it was better to live in the village; at least she would be free.

The social atmosphere in Shili Village was generally quite good; at most, there were a few evil mothers-in-law like Qiu Caohua who mistreated their daughters-in-law, but such people only dared to close their doors to make things difficult for their daughters-in-law, while appearing kind and benevolent to outsiders.

Rather than going to a strange place to rebuild interpersonal relationships, it was better to stay in this Shili Village where she knew the roots and the bottom of everything.

After making the decision, her family prepared to build a new house.

However, Xie Yang's leg was still "injured," so she didn't refuse Cao Zhuren's kindness and went with her to the township guesthouse to stay for a few days.