I just want to be a princess, no, you want to be a queen

Yang Jiabao's body lay on the kang, already cold and stiff. Old Lady Yang sat on the edge of the kang, weeping for a long time before getting to the point: "Big Brother, your eldest nephew is already sixteen years old this year. The imperial court is urgently recruiting soldiers, and your brother's family can't come up with that much money right now. Didn't the second girl just give the betrothal gift? We're all family, so you can lend it to your brother first to help him out."

"Mother, I don't have ten taels of silver now."

Yang Tiezhu was furious. But when he heard his mother lying on him, crying and begging, saying things like, "As an uncle, you don't even help your own nephew, making outsiders laugh at you," he blurted out, "I only have three taels of silver."

Out of ten taels of silver, Yang's mother spent three taels and bought a lot of things, so there were probably only five taels left. He could say that he had three taels of silver, which was really a lot.

But if we give it to them, what will we eat?

Yang's mother was holding her breath when she heard the second son's wife mutter in a low voice, "Three taels of silver is not enough." She was so angry that she retorted directly, "That's perfect. I don't even have one tael of silver left."

"Don't talk." Yang Tiezhu scolded his wife angrily.

Yang's mother was also furious, and she beat her husband in grievance: "We don't even have money to buy a coffin for our son."

Old Lady Yang said disdainfully, "I'm talking to my son, what does it have to do with you?"

Seeing that the situation was not good, Yang Tiechui, who had been silent the whole time, said, "Brother, please save your nephew. You have watched him grow up."

As he said this, he called on his eldest son to kneel down and kowtow.

The scene was once very chaotic.

Amidst the pleas of Yang Tiechui's family, Yang Tiezhu roared, "I don't have that much money, where can I get it for you?"

"Okay, okay, stop crying."

Old Mrs. Yang asked everyone to leave and left her eldest son to talk to her.

Watching Yang Tiechui's family walk out, Yang's mother pushed her two daughters out together, but she did not leave. She stood at the door and listened to the mother and son talking.

Old Lady Yang held her eldest son's hand, asking about his well-being for a long time before she said, "Tiezhu, the market is good now. An acre of land can be sold for eight or nine taels..."

"Mom!" Yang Tiezhu angrily interrupted his mother before she could finish her words. "My second brother has 17 acres of land, and I only have 3 acres. You don't let him sell it, but you want me to? Your granddaughter doesn't have to eat, and I don't have to eat?!"

"Son, two acres of land is enough for you to live on," Old Lady Yang advised earnestly. "As the old saying goes, 'A nephew standing by your door doesn't mean your family is ruined.' If you don't help them now, how will they take care of you in your old age? I've made up my mind. One day I'll talk to your brother and ask him to adopt the third child to you."

Mother Yang, who was leaning against the door, looked up with a stubborn look in her eyes: "I can still give birth."

"You're already forty, and you can still have children. Okay, you can," Old Lady Yang accused with a look of disgust on her face, "give birth to two more money-losing things, and try to tire my son to death."

At this point, Old Lady Yang said, "If you can't bear to let her go, find a husband for the third girl. It doesn't matter whether she marries early or late."

Although the sound in the house was not loud, the people in the main room could basically hear it. The second son's wife looked at her three sons with a proud face.

The three young men rummaged through the room to eat, making the main hall a mess. Instead of stopping them, she urged them on, saying, "Eat now. Everything here is yours from now on."

Yang Nian'er was so angry that she was ready to fight. Yang Xier grabbed her sister and dragged her back to the west room.

"Second sister!"

"Lock the door!" Yang Xier didn't have time to explain. She climbed onto the kang and took out something wrapped in a blue linen handkerchief from under a movable brick.

Yang Nian'er was surprised: "Second sister, what's in there?"

Yang Xier asked: "Nian'er, why do you say our family is so poor? Is it because we are all daughters?"

From childhood to adulthood, Yang Nian'er had heard the most about her parents complaining about her being a daughter, intentionally or unintentionally. Hearing her second sister say this, her heart broke. "Second sister, why do you think so too?"

Yang Xier shook her head firmly, "Nian'er, our family is so poor not because we are all daughters, but because our family has always been subsidizing our second uncle's family."

The thing that stuck with her most was the old yellow ox her family had. Every year during the spring and autumn harvests, they would lend it to people in the surrounding villages, earning a small income. But one year, her second uncle borrowed the ox and never returned it, claiming it was lost. Three months later, she learned he had sold it.

But my father didn't pursue the matter, because at the time he had no son and was counting on his nephew to support him in his old age and see him to the end, so he didn't want to make things too awkward. Those days of financial support and loss only improved when my younger brother was born, but now he was gone.

She was afraid, afraid of returning to the days when subsidies were at a disadvantage; even more afraid, the subsidy money was earned in exchange for her sister's marriage.

"Nian'er, they are our biological parents after all, let's take a gamble."

Yang Xier looked at the blue linen handkerchief and pulled her sister out.

My second uncle's youngest son was squatting on a stool and chewing corn.

Yang Xier grabbed the corn and said loudly, "Nian'er, the room is too small. Move the square table to the yard."

"Yes!" Yang Nian'er swept away the three naughty boys sitting around the square table with a broom, picked up the square table and strode out of the house.

"Second girl, what are you talking about?" Yang Tiechui was drinking tea. There was a layer of ash in the tea bowl, so he poured it out in disgust.

Something inside the handkerchief was revealed. It was a yellowed deed. Yang Xier gave her second uncle a cold look, walked out of the main room, and slammed the deed on the table.

"Uncle, please return the three acres of land that grandpa left us!"

The clear voice shook the sky, and the people in the room came out one by one, including the three people who were talking in the east room.

"Xier, what are you doing?" Yang Tiezhu was confused.

Yang Xier explained: "Dad, it's clearly written in black and white here. Grandpa gave three acres of his five acres to our family."

"Why is this thing in her hand?"

Second Aunt Yang panicked and looked at Old Lady Yang angrily. Old Lady Yang waved her hands repeatedly in grievance. She knew where it was, but how could she give it to the eldest daughter-in-law in order to use it to control her to support her in her old age?

Yesterday, Yang Xier went to her second uncle's house to deliver Grandma's monthly food allowance. Unexpectedly, she overheard a conversation between her second aunt and her second uncle. Her second aunt kept urging her second uncle to ask Grandma where Grandpa's belongings were.

Yang Xier didn't know what it was that Second Aunt valued so much, but since Grandma had hidden it, she certainly wouldn't have hidden it at Second Uncle's house. She instinctively thought it was at Grandpa's grave, and unexpectedly, she actually found the deed in the soil a foot below the tombstone.