I couldn't take it anymore; when I went home for Chinese New Year, the family genealogy book ha

"Big brother, you have to help me!"

Jiang Jianmin's voice on the phone was thin and trembling, like the buzzing of a mosquito.

Jiang Jianguo sat in the five-hundred-thousand-yuan chair in the living room of the villa, a cigarette between his fingers, without saying a word.

How can he help?

I was the one who was kicked out.

"Jianmin, don't bother me anymore. I don't have the final say."

"Big brother! You're still related to Chenzi as uncle and nephew! Go and put in a good word for him, ask him to make an exception—"

"What does your wife smashing up their sales office have to do with Chenzi?"

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone.

Then Jiang Jianmin spoke again.

"Brother, I wasn't talking about the sales office. I was talking about... the matter of us going back to the village."

Jiang Jianguo stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray and sighed.

"You signed the agreement yourself, promising never to return to your clan. Do you think Chenzi will change his mind?"

"Brother, we really can't stay out here any longer..."

Jiang Jianmin's voice was choked with sobs.

"To tell you the truth, Yu Mei was scammed out of eight million yuan, and now she's been locked up for fifteen days and has to pay back 120,000 yuan. Jiang Wei, that spendthrift, is doing who-knows-what with his credit card in the provincial capital; his monthly bill alone is seventy or eighty thousand yuan. And Yu Xuan, not to mention, she found some boyfriend who keeps asking her family for money every day—"

"Alright, alright," Jiang Jianguo interrupted him. "Don't tell me this, it's useless. I can't even take care of myself."

"Big brother!"

Jiang Jianguo hung up the phone.

But Jiang Jianmin did not give up.

The next morning, he asked an old man named Chen, whom he had met while collecting recyclables in the village, for help. Then he asked the cousin-in-law of the old man's nephew's classmate—in short, after many twists and turns, he finally got in touch with a distant relative of Wang Dagou's wife's family.

Through this complex, tangled web of relationships, he learned that Jiang Chen was not in the village these past two days; he had gone to town to discuss railway operations.

But Jiang Jianguo was there.

Although Jiang Jianguo was expelled from the clan, he was still Jiang Chen's uncle. The blood ties were there, and they couldn't be severed.

So that evening, as darkness fell, Jiang Jianmin, carrying two cartons of Zhonghua cigarettes and a case of Wuliangye liquor, sneaked around to the back door of the Dijingwan villa.

Yes, he didn't enter from the village entrance.

He knew that Wang Dagou was guarding the village entrance.

He went to Imperial Bay—the 80 million yuan villa where Jiang Jianguo lived.

"Knock knock knock".

There was a knock on the back door.

When Jiang Jianguo opened the door, he saw Jiang Jianmin standing there.

Jiang Jianmin looked even worse than he had appeared on the phone last time.

She had lost a lot of weight, and her cheekbones were very prominent. Her hair was messy, her clothes were wrinkled, and there were a few stubbles next to the mole on her chin that she hadn't had time to shave.

The Zhonghua and Wuliangye liquors he was carrying were brand new.

"Big brother." Jiang Jianmin looked into the room. "Where's Sister-in-law Cuifen?"

"Going to sleep."

"Shall we have a talk?"

Jiang Jianguo hesitated for a moment, then opened the door.

The two people were sitting in the living room.

Jiang Jianguo poured Jiang Jianmin a glass of plain water.

Jiang Jianmin took the cup but didn't drink it. He held the cup with both hands, head down, like a wronged schoolboy.

"Brother, if I had known this would happen, I would never have signed that agreement, no matter what."

Jiang Jianguo felt a mix of emotions as he looked at his disheveled appearance.

Jiang Jianmin wasn't like this two months ago when the family divided their assets.

At that time, Sun Yumei held his hand, her eyes shining as she stared at the three hundred million yuan, signing and pressing her fingerprint faster than anyone else.

What did Jiang Chen say back then?

"You chose this path yourselves."

"Brother, please put in a good word for me with Chenzi," Jiang Jianmin pleaded, his eyes red-rimmed. "Let us go back to the village. We'll farm, we'll sweep the streets, we'll do anything."

"I……"

Just as Jiang Jianguo was about to speak, the living room door was suddenly pushed open.

A cold wind blew in, carrying the dry chill unique to December nights.

Jiang Chen stood at the door, wearing a dark gray windbreaker and slippers, holding an A4 sheet of paper in his hand.

"Uncle."

Jiang Jianguo was taken aback. "Chenzi? Didn't you go to town?"

"Just got back." Jiang Chen walked into the living room, glancing at Jiang Jianmin sitting on the sofa. "I saw the light was on while I was passing by, so I came in to check."

He saw two packs of Zhonghua cigarettes and a case of Wuliangye liquor on the coffee table.

He glanced again at Jiang Jianmin's body as he tried to shrink into the sofa.

I understand everything now.

"Second Uncle." Jiang Chen pulled up a chair and sat down opposite him at the coffee table. "Bringing such expensive cigarettes and alcohol to visit my eldest uncle so late at night, is it not for a reunion?"

Jiang Jianmin's Adam's apple bobbed.

"Chenzi, I'd like to have a chat with your uncle."

Jiang Chen didn't reply. He placed the A4 sheet of paper on the coffee table and gently pushed it forward with his fingers.

Jiang Jianmin glanced down.

That was a copy of the extermination agreement.

It has his signature and his handprint on it, as well as Sun Yumei's signature and handprint.

The date, amount, and terms are all clearly stated.

The bottom line in bold reads: "I voluntarily withdraw from the Jiang clan and will never return to it. This agreement is effective permanently upon signing."

"Second Uncle, look at these handprints, whose are they?"

Jiang Jianmin's face turned pale instantly.

"Chenzi...we were just confused for a moment..."

"Confused?" Jiang Chen leaned back in his chair, his hands folded in front of his chest. "When you had three hundred million in your hands, you weren't confused at all."

"When the agreement was signed, my second aunt was more shrewd than anyone else—three hundred million, not a penny less, and the money would be in her account that same day. How could she not be confused back then?"

Jiang Jianmin opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything.

"You got scammed out of your money, can't make ends meet, and now you want to come back to me for help?"

Jiang Chen's voice wasn't loud, but in the quiet living room, every word was piercingly clear.

"Second Uncle, Jiangjia Village isn't a garbage dump. You can't just pick up what you throw away and expect it to come back."

"Uncle—" Jiang Jianmin turned to look at Jiang Jianguo, his eyes full of pleading.

Jiang Jianguo lowered his head, staring at the seam of a tile on the floor, without saying a word.

He didn't dare to speak up.

He knew that his situation was no better than Jiang Jianmin's. He already knew that Liu Cuifen had been chased away at the village entrance yesterday.

"Tatsuko!"

Jiang Jianmin suddenly stood up, his face flushed red.

"You're being too heartless! No matter what, I'm your second uncle! When your grandfather was alive—"

"When my grandfather was alive, you secretly took the family's grain to sell and used it to buy a gold bracelet for my second aunt. My grandfather chased you and beat you for half a street."

Jiang Chen interrupted him.

"Should I bring up this part and talk about it too?"

Jiang Jianmin immediately shut his mouth.

The living room was quiet for a few seconds.

Jiang Chen stood up, picked up the photocopy from the coffee table, folded it twice, and stuffed it into his pocket.

"Second Uncle, let me make this clear. The agreement is final, and I won't change it. If you feel you can't stay out here, I have a suggestion for you—take good care of your money, take good care of your wife, and take good care of your son and daughter. You still have over two hundred million in your hands; spend it sparingly, and you won't starve for the rest of your life."

"But you want to go back to Jiangjia Village?"

Jiang Chen walked to the door and opened it.

"impossible."

Outside the door, Wang Dagou was already standing at the bottom of the steps, unnoticed.

He glanced at Jiang Chen's expression and took two steps into the living room.

"Second Uncle, it's getting late. Let me see you off."

Wang Dagou reached out and grabbed Jiang Jianmin by the collar of his shirt at the lower back.

Jiang Jianmin, who is 1.7 meters tall, looks like a chick next to Wang Dagou, who is over 1.8 meters tall.

"You—you let me go!"

Wang Dagou didn't let go, half-dragging and half-carrying Jiang Jianmin to the door, and casually placed the two cartons of Zhonghua and Wuliangye liquor on the steps as well.

"Second Uncle, take your things with you. Brother Chen won't accept them from you."

The door closed in front of Jiang Jianmin.

With a "bang," it was done cleanly and decisively.

Jiang Jianmin stood outside the back door of the Dijinwan villa, holding two packs of Zhonghua cigarettes and a case of Wuliangye liquor, staring blankly at the tightly closed door for a long time.

A cold wind was blowing through his hair.

The two plastic packaging bags of Zhonghua cigarettes rustled in the wind.

He suddenly remembered that two months ago, on the night he left Jiangjia Village, he had asked Sun Yumei a question in the car.

"Are we really leaving?"

Sun Yumei said, "Let's go! With 300 million in hand, who cares about that run-down village anymore!"

Jiang Jianmin squatted on the steps, burying his face in his knees.

The Wuliangye carton tilted at his feet, and a bottle rolled out, spinning twice on the cement floor.

In the living room, separated by several walls.

Jiang Jianguo looked at Jiang Chen.

"Chenzi...aren't you being a bit too cruel?"

Jiang Chen walked out wearing slippers, but stopped at the door.

"Uncle, I'm not being harsh on him. I'm just being responsible to the rules. If I let him come back today, Jiang Jianwen will come back tomorrow, and Jiang Haoran will come back the day after. The 300 million yuan severance agreement will become a joke. Who in the village will believe me after this?"

Jiang Jianguo remained silent.

Jiang Chen opened the door, and the cold winter wind rushed in.

He took two steps, then turned back to look at his uncle, who was sitting in that five-hundred-thousand-dollar chair, huddled up in a ball.

"Uncle, you should also think of a way to make ends meet. Aunt Cuifen spends money faster than a leaky bucket."

After saying that, he walked away, his slippers making a clattering sound on the cement road.

The living room lights were still on.

Jiang Jianguo sat there alone, lighting a Double Happiness cigarette.

As the smoke rose, his gaze drifted past the French windows to the dark night in the distance.

In the direction of Jiangjia Village, there was a brightly lit area.

Those are the lights from the processing plant.

Working 24 hours a day.

Meanwhile, back in the provincial capital, what he didn't know was that Jiang Jianwen had just been discharged from the hospital that afternoon.

After losing all ten million yuan in the stock market, Manager Zhou handed the final account statement to his bedside.

Account balance: 68,327.40 yuan.

When Jiang Jianwen signed, his hand trembled so much that he could barely hold the pen.

Wu Xiulian cried outside the ward for an entire afternoon.

Their son, Jiang Haoran, was sitting behind the iron bars of the provincial detention center, waiting for his family to come and pay the fine.