Chapter 34: A Family Division? Can You Really Tell Them Apart?

"Three hundred, and you still think it's too little? Shouldn't I be asking what you want? You stay home all day, don't even have a job, and yet you complain that three hundred isn't enough? If you don't want it, I won't even give you the three hundred!"
"You don't know anything! You clutch that ledger and start making wild calculations. I've told you, the money I lent hasn't matured yet, how could I retrieve it all at once? As if I don't want it back—who told you to suddenly stir up this business of splitting the family?"
Ma Yulian retorted angrily to Wang Xiuhua, who argued back with righteous indignation, "Even if the money isn’t back yet, you have to find a way to get it! Otherwise, how are we supposed to divide the household today?"
"If you ask me, since the family’s savings haven’t been retrieved, there’s no need to split the family at all. How can you divide things fairly like this?"
Wang Xiuhua slammed the ledger on the table, then crossed her arms, her face full of displeasure.
She was relying on her mother-in-law, Ma Yulian, to retrieve the savings amassed over the years so she and Li Guojun could get a handsome share.
But now it was only three hundred—such a paltry sum, what could they possibly get from it?
Li Junsheng, meanwhile, glanced at Ma Yulian, knowing that Chen Dazhu could hardly cough up any more money.
He wondered where exactly Ma Yulian had scraped together this three hundred.
Three hundred wasn’t a lot, but Li Junsheng understood that, for Ma Yulian right now, it was hard-won!
There was no need to push her for more, or she might take back even this three hundred.
With that in mind, Li Junsheng decided to speak up in her defense.
"Enough, stop making things hard for her. We'll divide these three hundred today, and if the rest of the savings come back, we can split it again later."
With Ma Yulian’s fabricated story as cover, Li Guojun and Wang Xiuhua would keep coveting her money.
Eventually, these two would rack their brains to squeeze money from Ma Yulian, leaving himself out of their calculations.
Anything was better than forcing Ma Yulian to hand over more now!
Recently, Li Junsheng had earned considerable authority in front of Li Guojun—perhaps out of fear of getting beaten—so when he spoke up for Ma Yulian, Li Guojun didn’t dare say more.
He merely tugged at Wang Xiuhua, urging her to calm down, at least until they got today’s money in hand.
The rest could wait for another day.
Besides, if he could use his father’s name to demand money from his younger brother, he could certainly repeat the trick, using Ma Yulian’s name to ask his uncle, Ma Weidong, for money.
Why worry about not getting it back?
Money from an uncle could be kept from the other siblings!
Li Guojun quietly plotted his own little scheme.

Whatever Li Junsheng’s motives, he had helped Ma Yulian out of her predicament, but Ma Yulian was not grateful in the least!
Instead, she scolded him, "It’s all your fault for insisting on splitting the family. Now you pretend to be the good guy, acting all false and self-righteous. Who are you trying to fool?"
Li Junsheng let her words flow in one ear and out the other.
Quick as lightning, he snatched the three hundred from in front of Ma Yulian.
She tried to grab it back, but her hand was slower than his.
Ma Yulian was flustered—once the money was in Li Junsheng’s hands, it was gone for good!
Yet, letting him take it at least got her through this ordeal, sparing herself the ongoing commotion from the eldest couple.
After all, she intended to give some of the money to her two daughters. Ma Yulian thought to herself, if she couldn’t control Li Junsheng, she could at least control her daughters.
Once Li Junsheng distributed the money to them, she could reclaim it herself—maybe even more than three hundred.
A daughter already married, and a girl soon to be wed, should not receive a share; reclaiming the money was only right and proper!
With this thought, Ma Yulian perked up, her face no longer tense.
Li Junsheng caught the subtle shift in her expression, and inwardly sneered—Ma Yulian was full of cunning!
She could scheme up a wicked plan in just a moment.
"Father, let’s just do it this way for now. Hurry and divide the money."
"Father, how do you plan to split it?"
Li Guojun and Wang Xiuhua, eager for their share, pressed Li Junsheng, while Sun Gui eyed the money hungrily.
Li Junsheng counted the cash and decided to split it evenly among the four children.
"For fairness, this eleven hundred yuan will be divided evenly among you four. Each family gets two hundred and seventy-five."
He didn’t ask their opinions—except for the eldest couple, the other three siblings would surely have no objection!
Li Guojun and Wang Xiuhua’s opinion didn’t matter to Li Junsheng.
Of course, Li Guojun and Wang Xiuhua were greedy—no sooner did Li Junsheng mention equal shares than Wang Xiuhua objected, refusing to agree.
"Father, I don’t agree with your method. If a daughter isn’t married, give her a bit, fine—but why are you dividing it equally? That’s not fair. My family has two kids, while the second only has one, so the money should be split according to headcount."

With one sentence, Wang Xiuhua offended the families of Li Chun’ya and Li Guohua.
Her words clearly targeted Li Chun’ya, who was already married; by her logic, Li Chun’ya wasn’t part of the family anymore and shouldn’t receive any money.
And since Li Guohua’s family was smaller, they should get less.
Speaking right in front of Ji Xiaocui, she struck straight at her heart!
"Besides, the younger brother’s wife lost her parents, so the second brother doesn’t need to support anyone extra, and they spend less. There’s no reason to give them more!"
"Sister-in-law, you are really too much."
Ji Xiaocui trembled with anger—she had never seen someone like Wang Xiuhua.
Her own parents were gone, and yet Wang Xiuhua singled her out for it!
Li Guohua’s face darkened as he confronted his older brother.
With his wife being treated so harshly, his brother did nothing!
In fact, Li Guojun was so focused on dividing the money that he cared little for anything else; even ordinarily, he and Wang Xiuhua bullied Li Guohua’s family regularly.
How could he possibly restrain Wang Xiuhua now?
Seeing the siblings about to break into a quarrel, Ma Yulian glanced at Li Junsheng with gleeful schadenfreude.
She picked up her chopsticks, scooped a piece of rib into her bowl, and mocked Li Junsheng, "Ah, you insisted on splitting the family, wouldn’t listen to anyone."
"So split it then. I’d like to see if you can make sense of it all. None of these debt collectors will accept less than their share—let’s see how you manage!"
Having finished her sarcasm, Ma Yulian focused on eating meat—everything Li Junsheng bought, she was determined to eat more, not let him enjoy it all alone.
Sun Gui, however, ignored the feast and interjected, pointedly rebuking Ma Yulian.
"Sister-in-law, who exactly are you targeting? By your logic, Li Chun’ya shouldn’t get any money since she married out? She’s still Father’s daughter—how can you be so selfish?"
"Just now you fussed about washing her hair and using shampoo on her; so all that was fake kindness? When it comes to money, you throw your reputation aside."
"If anyone’s an outsider, it’s you—a woman from another family who married in! Li Chun’ya at least bears the Li surname!"