Chapter 2003 - 2003: Disheartened and Discouraged 1
Listening to Aunt Xu say there were no gold or jewels, Xu Lei's face suddenly turned dark, and he glared at the two elders with a gaze as sharp as a viper's tongue.
"No? I don't believe it! What kind of food did you trade for, that needed so much gold and jewelry? Didn't you ask me for money? Didn't I send it to you? If you had money to buy, why would you need gold and jewels?"
Aunt Xu said painfully, "The money you sent, how much food could it buy at that time? Do you know how many people starved to death? At the worst times, coarse grains rose to several yuan a pound, and fine grains and eggs were six or seven yuan a pound frequently, you couldn't always buy it even if you had money. If we hadn't risked going into the black market to exchange gold and jewels for food, do you think we could have survived? Do you think you got those coarse and fine grains out of nowhere? How many people held gold and jewels but couldn't exchange them for life-saving food, and died as a result. Now the times have improved, and you've become capable, since we've been vindicated, you come looking for gold and jewels, where is your humanity?"
Cold-hearted, greedy by nature, the handsome and gentle face of youth now looked like dried orange peel, shrouded in gloom. Is this really the eldest son so highly regarded by the Xu Family?
Aunt Xu felt truly disillusioned.
Back then, the first thought upon acquiring food was to send it to them, and him? If it weren't for thoughts of the family's gold and jewels, would he never have returned to visit them in his lifetime?
Xu Lei, seething with anger, shouted, "Without money, what use is humanity to me? With humanity, can a person survive? In the end, you just don't want to give it, right?"
"How did you become like this?" Uncle Xu staggered on his feet, holding onto an undisturbed Yulan tree.
If he had known these days would come, it would have been better not to have had this son at all.
The Xu Family prided itself on being Scholar Gentry, with strict teachings and didn't hesitate to expel unworthy descendants before, but he never imagined he would face a situation with his son changing drastically.
Xu Lei sneered, "You're the ones who have changed, not me. Everything of the Xu Family should have been inherited by me, the eldest son, but now you keep making excuses because you want to give it to Xu Sen and Xu Xin!"
"Say what you will, anyway, the gold and jewels have long been exchanged for food, all that remains is this newly acquired old house." Uncle Xu waved his hand in a gesture of weariness.
"If you refuse to give it to me, I'll find it myself!"
After Xu Lei spoke, he headed straight for where the gold was hidden within the old house. Fengying saw this and fiercely glared at the two elders, spat a curse about them not dying, then followed her father.
Uncle Xu and Aunt Xu, both in their seventies, exchanged wry smiles.
After all the children had left, the troubles increased, and they transferred most of the gold and jewels out. Indeed, there was still a little left in the old house that they hadn't managed to deal with these years and had no chance to visit it, but they dug it up and stored it elsewhere yesterday.
The two elders were very shrewd, having smoothed over all traces after retrieving the items.
Xu Lei searched several locations but couldn't find what he wanted, instead digging the ground full of holes, even excavating three feet deep in places where he remembered gold and jewels might be hidden.
"Gone? How could it be gone? Did you hide it?" Xu Lei threw away the shovel he grabbed from Uncle Xu, and grabbed his collar.
Uncle Xu reached out, knocked his hand away, "Let go!"
The old man had farmed in the Wanglou Brigade for years, eating and dressing well, even in his old age had more strength than the thin Xu Lei.