Chapter 90: Duan Family’s Predicament
In the middle of the ancestral hall, a woman in her thirties was kneeling in front of an altar filled with ancestral tablets, crying sadly. Next to her knelt a young woman, also with her head lowered and crying. The rest of the Duan family members, sitting on the left and right sides, watched silently as the mother and daughter cried.
Sitting on the main seat under the ancestral altar, Duan Dazhu, the head of the Duan family, looked at his daughter-in-law Yang Dahua, and his granddaughter Duan Qiaoling. Seeing that the two of them were still crying, Duan Dazhu was impatient and slapped the table with his palm.
Bang!
A loud slamming sound frightened Yang Dahua and Duan Qiaoling so much that they forgot to cry. Seeing that the two of them finally stopped crying, Duan Dazhu looked at one of his third younger brother’s grandsons, who had just returned from Chun Shan Town.
Seeing his grandnephew’s anxious expression, Duan Dazhu asked calmly, "How is it? Can you meet your eldest uncle?"
The young man shook his head and said, "Eldest Granduncle, I have given the money to the prison guards as you ordered, but they still won’t let me see my eldest uncle."
As soon as these words came out, the ancestral hall fell into an eerie silence. Everyone present looked at Duan Dazhu, waiting for his reaction. After a long silence, Duan Dazhu looked at his third younger brother and asked, "Third Younger Brother, what do you think of this matter?"
Duan Sanzhu looked at his eldest brother and said, "Eldest Brother, I don’t think we should blindly bribe the prison guards. If someone reports this to the Yamen, we will be in big trouble."
Duan Dazhu pondered on Duan Sanzhu’s words and said, "Mhm, you are right."