CH 31.1

Wang Dafu and Wang Chenxiang come together with Wang Benchang’s wife, Wang You. As soon as she arrived, Wang You began to cry, “Patriarch, how can you still care about Wang Shijing’s family? His cousin and sister-in-law went to their door, but they were kicked out. They don’t think of themselves as a member of the Wang clan at all!” Is that what was meant by saying, villain complains first? Wang Wenhe was so angry that he pointed at Wang You as he said while trembling with anger, “You still have the nerve to complain to me?! Ask what your son and daughter-in-law have done! The face of our Wang clan has been completely disgraced by them! Open the ancestral temple!”

Wang You froze and immediately panicked. But Wang Chenxiang went to her mother-in-law’s side and said without fear, “Patriarch, you are being unjust. Dafu and I also said we could buy it for money, but Shao Yunan acted too deceitfully and asked for 10,000 taels, which is clearly saying that he doesn’t want to sell it. He also would rather sell the money-making recipe to Zhao Lizheng’s family than to the clan. Was what I and Dafu said wrong? Dafu and I also wanted to buy a money-making recipe for our clan. Where is the shame? Almost all the members of Aunt (old lady) Wang’s family went to jail, but you didn’t say that they disgraced our clan. But now you want to open the ancestral hall for the sake of the clan.”

“You, you…” Wang Wenhe was so angry that his body was trembling and his face was white, but he could not refute Wang Chenxiang’s words. Wang Benchang also added, “Patriarch, what my family Dafu did was all for the sake of the clan. Wang Dali’s family caused such a big trouble. Wang Tianyan and his wife were even arrested, while Wang Zhisong was disgraced in front of the county magistrate, but why didn’t you open the ancestral hall then? My family just wanted the tea making method for the sake of the whole clan, but you now want to open the ancestral hall? Are you not afraid of chilling the hearts of the clan members? You gave three taels of silver to Wang Dali’s family to hire people to work on their land, so why don’t you also give us three taels of silver to hire people to work for us? Just because the other family has a child student and mine don’t? You are so biased. We will not go to the ancestral hall.” After saying that, Wang Benchang said to his family, “Go home! No good deed goes unpunished, go!”

Wang Benchang ignored Wang Wenhe and left with his family. Even the clan elders who wanted to punish them could no longer speak. In dealing with old lady Wang’s family, they were indeed biased in every way. The clan members of the Wang clan who stayed behind looked at each other. Wang Benchang’s words were infuriating, but they could not refute them. The fact was that the patriarch was indeed very partial to old lady Wang’s family, because their family had a child student.

Old Father Wang let out a long sigh and looked at the faltering Wang Wenhe, and said, “Patriarch, don’t let the clan stray from their hearts.” After saying this in a serious way, Old Father Wang took his own family members away as well. The three clan elders gestured and let everyone disperse before one of them said, “Wang Shuping, help your father in.” The very stifled Wang Shuping helped his father, who looked like he could collapse at any moment, into the house. The three clan elders followed them in and after a short while, Wang Qian’s howls came from inside the house. Wang Qian’s anger was so great, that she wanted to bump her head into the wall till she died.

The three clan elders asked Wang Shuping to go to Wang Shijing’s house. Shao Yunan ‘made friends’ with the county magistrate and the Wang family had lost face in front of the county magistrate. If Shao Yunan mentioned a few words to the county magistrate, due to the seriousness of the matter, their Wang clan would not be able to stand in the future. Wang Zhisong’s future would also be affected.

As soon as old lady Wang and her family heard that Shao Yunan had gone to the patriarch’s house, they felt so guilty that they all hid in the house and did not go out. But their neighbors were kind enough to come to their door and tell them what had happened. Originally, old lady Wang was quite happy to hear that Wang Dafu went to their door to ask about the tea making method, but when she heard the end result that Wang Chenxiang had said that the patriarch should punish their family first, otherwise they wouldn’t accept it, old lady Wang become very angry.

Gossip was often biased. Although the meaning of the words was similar, if you changed the original words even a little, the listeners would have a different understanding. Old lady Wang thought to herself, ‘What’s the point of bringing my family into your family’s business? And they even dare to mention Wang Zhisong.’ She coveted the jam recipe, but she didn’t ask Wang Dafu to ask for it! Old lady Wang immediately dragged Wang Chunxiu to Wang Dafu’s house. In the past, when old lady Wang went out to make trouble, she was followed by Wang Guo. But now that she was in jail, old lady Wang had to drag Wang Chunxiu along, since she did not want to be too disadvantaged by going alone.

Not to mention that old lady Wang and Wang Dafu’s family quarreled, the Zhao and Sun clan members also saw a joke of the Wang clan. But the most  important thing was that Shao Yunan, who was really capable, had not yet been included in the Wang family tree, so he simply did not recognize himself as a member of the Wang family. There were also people who said that the Wang family deserved it. Wang Qing was already six years old and has not yet been included in the clan genealogy, but Wang Wenhe, the clan patriarch, has only Wang Zhisong on his mind. Wang Zhisong has not yet brought any benefit to him, but he has already separated people from the clan. Although Wang Chenxiang and Wang Benchang are suspected of reversing right and wrong, it wasn’t that much different, since they expressed the dissatisfaction in the hearts of many clan members.

When Wang Shuping came over, Shao Yunan and Wang Shijing were as enthusiastic as ever, making Wang Shuping both embarrassed and depressed. Shao Yunan took out a cup of chrysanthemum tea and served it to Wang Shuping. Wang Shuping looked at the yellow chrysanthemums in the white porcelain cup and looked up in amazement. Wang Shijing said, “This is the chrysanthemum tea made by Yunan. It has just been made.” Shao Yunan said, “It tastes a little bitter, but try it brother Shuping.”