Sold immediately after wearing it? I took my family and fled the famine.

Yang Cuihua lay on the ground, her hair disheveled, her face covered in handprints, and blood flowing from her nose, staining half her face. She didn't get up for a long time.

A crowd had already gathered around, including Aunt Wang, Granny Zhao, Liu the carpenter's wife, Zhang Gensheng's wife, and several other strangers.

The Qian family's carriage was parked not far away, with a corner of the curtain lifted. The Chen family's carriage had also stopped, with its curtain hanging down. A maidservant beside the carriage was standing on tiptoe, looking in this direction.

He Daliang stood outside the crowd, arms crossed, his face expressionless.

Granny Li stood beside him, her mouth agape, as if she wanted to say something but didn't.

Neither of them stepped forward; they weren't there to help, but to watch the spectacle.

Jiang Xing glanced at He Daliang, then at Yang Cuihua who was lying on the ground.

Yang Cuihua raised her head, her face a mixture of blood and tears, but the hatred in her eyes was clear.

"You brat...you saw your mother being beaten and you didn't even try to stop it..." Yang Cuihua's voice was shrill and trembling: "I'm your mother! Aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning!"

Jiang Xing squatted down to be at eye level with her.

"What are you doing here?" Jiang Xing asked.

Yang Cuihua opened her mouth slightly.

"Are you here to claim kinship? Or to beg for food?" Jiang Xing looked at her mockingly, as if he could see right through her thoughts.

Seeing that Yang Cuihua was still hesitant and didn't speak, Jiang Xing stood up and patted the snow off his knees.

"You won't talk? Fine! Since you're here, I'm too lazy to look for you. Little Niu and I are cutting ties with you."

She said two words, not a question.

"If you agree, I'll give you five hundred coins." Jiang Xing looked into her eyes: "From now on, you go your way, I'll go mine, and we'll be strangers."

Yang Cuihua's eyes widened. Five hundred coins! She quickly calculated in her mind that five hundred coins could buy fifty catties of coarse rice.

But if the relationship is severed, there will be no more. This brat has money; she still has dozens of taels of silver. Even a fool wouldn't choose five hundred coins.

"Never stop." Yang Cuihua gritted her teeth. "You're my child, so you have to take care of me? There's no such logic in the world."

He Daliang walked in from outside the crowd.

He squatted down next to Yang Cuihua and helped her up from the ground, as if he were helping up something worthless but he didn't want to break it.

He looked at Jiang Xing, his face neither smiling nor fierce: "Jiang Daya, whether your mother cuts ties with you or not is not up to you. Where in the world is there a biological daughter who doesn't care about her own mother? In our Great Liang Dynasty, filial piety comes first."

Granny Li chimed in, her voice shrill and sharp: "That's right! You little brat, how dare you defy the heavens! Your mother gave birth to you and raised you, and now that you've grown wings, you don't even acknowledge her? You deserve to be struck by lightning!"

The three stood together; Yang Cuihua's face was covered in blood, He Daliang was expressionless, and Granny Li was baring her teeth and brandishing her claws.

Jiang Xing looked at the three of them, his mockery becoming even more pronounced, as if he were looking at clowns.

"If you don't listen to a toast, you'll have to drink a penalty shot," she said.

Hearing her words, Yang Cuihua's heart skipped a beat.

Jiang Xing took two steps forward, his eyes fixed on Yang Cuihua, his voice deep and resonant.

"He Daliang, when did you and Yang Cuihua get together?"

Yang Cuihua's face turned pale instantly, and He Daliang's lips twitched.

Jiang Xing gave no one time to react.

"Before Yang Cuihua remarried, you two were in the woods behind the village, in the dilapidated temple. Your clothes were disheveled, and you were inside for an hour. Yang Cuihua, my father treated you well, yet you cheated on him with another man. I don't have a mother like you who doesn't uphold traditional virtues. You don't deserve to be my mother."

"My father died, and you didn't even finish observing the mourning period before running off with the money to stay with He Daliang. You have no shame whatsoever."

"You're talking nonsense! You!!!" Yang Cuihua's voice was shrill and cracked.

"I can testify that Yang Cuihua, that harlot, has been having an affair with He Daliang for a long time. She even frequently delivers grain to He Daliang, and I've caught her doing it several times." Zhou's voice suddenly rang out, her tone filled with hatred, as if she wanted to skin Yang Cuihua alive.

She hated Jiang Xing, hated Xiao Niu, hated Zhang Shi, hated everyone who was better off than her. But she hated Yang Cuihua even more. That vile woman was sending the main house's grain out to other men.

She had spoken to Jiang Laosan and Zhang Shi, but no one believed her. Now that Jiang Laosan is dead, finally someone will listen to her grievances.

"You're talking nonsense!" Granny Li shrieked. "You're slandering me! You're making baseless accusations! My son isn't that kind of person!"

"Don't you know whether your son is that kind of person or not?" Zhou sneered. "Don't you know what kind of son-in-law you arranged for your cousin?"

Granny Li's face turned pale.

Zhang stood to the side, listening to these words, her hands trembling.

She didn't know, no one had ever told her, she didn't know when her son was alive, and she knew even less after he died.

Now that she knew, her fingers clenched tightly, her nails digging into her palms, leaving white marks.

She looked at Yang Cuihua with a chilling gaze, like winter well water pouring down from head to toe.

"Yang Cuihua." Zhang's voice suddenly became very calm, unusually calm for an old woman who had just finished a fight: "Are you even human? What has my son done to you? Why are you treating him like this?"

Yang Cuihua dared not look Zhang in the eye; she lowered her head and could not speak.

He Daliang spoke up, neither denying nor admitting it. He did something no one expected: he turned to Ma Dadan.

"Sir." He cupped his hands in greeting, his face showing a wronged and bullied expression: "You saw it all. This family disowns their own mother, beats people, and even slanders my relationship with her mother in public. I am an innocent person, and they have humiliated me like this. If you don't do anything about it, I will go to the prefectural city to file a complaint."

Ma Dadan looked at him as if he were watching a monkey performing tricks.

"Complain?" Ma Dadan laughed. "Sure. Go ahead and complain. But before you do, let me ask you this: Did Yang Cuihua get her husband's family's consent before she remarried? Did she get the clan's consent?"

"According to the laws of the Great Liang Dynasty, if a woman remarries after her husband's death, she must obtain the consent of her husband's family, be witnessed by the clan head, and have a written agreement. Do you have that?" Ma Dadan's voice wasn't loud, but every word was like a hammer striking a nail: "Do you know what the crime of remarrying without permission is?"

Shen Dehou stepped out of the crowd and stood next to Ma Dadan.

He looked at Yang Cuihua, then at He Daliang, his mouth like a poisoned knife: "Remarrying without permission, disobeying the rules of womanhood, according to the laws of Daliang, she should be imprisoned; in serious cases, she should be drowned in a pig cage."

Yang Cuihua's legs went weak, and she leaned on He Daliang. He Daliang moved aside, and she almost fell.

He Daliang gritted his teeth, staring at Jiang Xing, then at Ma Dadan, and then at Shen Dehou.

He can't win against three people alone.

"Sever ties with relatives," He Daliang said.

Yang Cuihua suddenly looked up at him.

"Sever ties." He Daliang repeated, his tone impatient: "Five hundred large coins, take them and leave."

Yang Cuihua clearly wasn't going to let them off so easily. He Daliang glared at her and said, "What more do you want from me? Are you waiting to be drowned in a pig cage?"

She didn't want to sever ties with her family; if she did, she would have nothing left.

If she continued to be related to him, she could still legitimately go to Jiang Xing to ask for food and money; if she continued to be related to him, she could still use filial piety to pressure him. But when He Daliang said he would sever ties with her, she dared not disobey.

"I...I'll break it." Yang Cuihua's voice was so soft it was like a mosquito's buzz.

"Five hundred coins aren't enough." He Daliang looked at Jiang Xing: "Add more."

Jiang Xing looked at He Daliang with an expressionless face. She didn't say anything, just stared at him.

He Daliang felt uncomfortable under his gaze: "...Five hundred it is."

Scholar Chen stepped out from the crowd. He held paper and a pen in his hand, laid the paper on the cart, dipped it in ink, and looked at Jiang Xing.

"I'll write the letter of severance of ties for you."

"Jiang Xing of Jiangjia Village, and his brother Jiang Xikan, were originally the children of Yang Cuihua. From this day forward, they sever all ties with each other. From now on, their lives are unrelated, and they shall live their own lives in peace." Chen Xiucai's gentle and refined voice resounded: "Yang Cuihua is not allowed to come to our door for any reason. The two families are no longer related."

After finishing writing, Chen Xiucai looked at Yang Cuihua and asked, "Can you read?"

Yang Cuihua shook her head.

"Then put your fingerprint on it."

Ma Dadan pulled out a box of inkpads from his pocket; yamen runners always carried this with them.

Yang Cuihua pressed her finger on the inkpad and then on the paper, leaving a red fingerprint.

Jiang Xing took five hundred coins from Zhang Shi, counted them, and counted them in front of everyone.

One hundred in a string, five in a string, neatly stacked on the cart.

"Take the money and get out of here."

Yang Cuihua reached out to take it, but He Daliang was faster. He grabbed the money and stuffed it into his pocket, leaving Yang Cuihua's hand hanging in mid-air, grasping nothing.

"Let's go." He Daliang turned and left, with Granny Li following behind.

Yang Cuihua stood there, looking at Jiang Xing, then at Xiao Niu. Xiao Niu stood behind Zhang Shi, only half of his face showing, his eyes looking at the ground, not at her.

Yang Cuihua's lips moved, but she didn't say anything. She turned and left quickly, as if afraid she would regret it.