Chapter 40: Record of Moving to the City in the 90s 40

In the blink of an eye, it was time for the children to start primary school.

The second son, Yu Wanli, was indeed different from normal children. He was far too quiet and far too clever. He possessed both a photographic memory and an impeccable auditory memory. These two traits alone were enough for the Old Master to focus all his attention on the boy.

Compared to the second son, Yu Wanli, the eldest son, Yu Pengcheng, was a normal child. He was slightly more lively than other children and was considered smart by normal standards. However, when compared to his younger brother, good heavens, it made him look like he had a developmental disability.

During this year, the Su family remained steady as usual, with little change in their daily lives. However, quite a lot happened within the Yu family.

Barely a month after the two sons started school, Ms. Zhou passed away.

Auntie Mei had prepared breakfast in the morning and went to wake Ms. Zhou. Over the last two years, Ms. Zhou’s mobility had declined. She needed a helping hand with washing and dressing, and her mind had become somewhat muddled. Most of the day, she would spend her time sitting silently, staring out the window.

Sometimes when people spoke to her, she would hear one sentence but miss the next, her thoughts drifting off to goodness knows where.

This was the natural result of aging. She wasn’t completely senile, but it was painful for the family to witness.

Yu Zexiu and his parents rarely traveled out of town anymore. Even if they did, it was the kind of trip where they could return within two or three days, all for the sake of spending more time with Ms. Zhou.

But Ms. Zhou passed away regardless.

Ever since Ms. Zhou moved to Beijing, those three sons of hers initially refused to visit. Later on, she was the one who forbade them from coming to her door.

Whenever they came, they would cry about being poor and beg for handouts. Even as their biological mother, Ms. Zhou found it exhausting to listen to.

Yet, at Ms. Zhou’s funeral, those three sons actually cried more bitterly than Zhou Jing, the son who had lived with and cared for his mother all along.

Furthermore, the words spoken by the eldest aunt and the two other aunts-in-law were even worse. They publicly claimed that Zhou Jing had prevented them from returning home, and therefore they had no idea how their mother had died.

Yu Zexiu’s eldest uncle and two younger uncles went as far as clamoring for an autopsy.

They even brought reporters along.

Su Huandan had seen this type of villain long ago in the eighteen levels of the Underworld¹.

They were the kind of creatures whose tongues would be ripped out before they were tossed into a frying vat of oil.

One shouldn’t think that using a parent’s corpse to cause trouble wasn’t a sin. Even if the mortal world couldn’t sentence them, the Underworld had its own ways.

Yin energy is the fundamental resource for the survival and cultivation of ghosts and Underworld beings. Aside from being naturally generated by the world, it could also be refined artificially.

For instance, when ghosts entered the Underworld, the authorities would judge their lives based on their merit and virtue². Good deeds rewarded with good, and evil deeds met with retribution was the sole foundation of law enforcement in the Underworld.

Sins committed in the mortal world would inevitably be judged in the Underworld.

After judgment, those sent to the eighteen levels of hell to endure punishment produced emotions such as pain and despair, which were also forms of energy. Once these negative energies were refined through formations, high-quality Yin energy could be extracted.

So, why was the Underworld so indiscriminate, liking to pull both Great Thousand Worlds³ and Small Thousand Worlds into its territory?

As long as a plane had a large number of living beings, it meant the Underworld had a continuous, self-producing source of energy!

But at this moment, no one could bring the Underworld’s judgment upon these people.

Zhou Jing was no pushover either. Over the years, Ms. Zhou had kept a ledger of every gift and cent her sons had given her.

You want to use this occasion to tear a piece of flesh off my family, do you?

Then I’ll make sure you break every tooth in your heads.

In front of the media, Ms. Zhou’s ledger was exposed.

Zhou Jing had covered all of Ms. Zhou’s living expenses. The total contribution from the other three sons combined amounted to less than a hundred kilograms of fruit.

And that was the sum of their filial piety over several decades—pitifully meager.

Not only that, but the pocket money given to Ms. Zhou by Zhou Jing, Ms. Meng, Yu Zexiu, and Su Huandan had all been taken by these three sons.

That added up to over a million yuan.

It was only 2008. One million yuan was more than the annual profit of many companies.

The people attending the funeral immediately began to gossip.

“How truly shameless. They never supported her in her old age, yet they scoured over a million yuan from their old mother. What is this behavior today? They want to use this to pressure their brother for another sum of money? They won’t even let their mother’s body rest in peace after she’s dead. They really are animals. I heard that back when Ms. Zhou got divorced, these three sons all chose to live with the father, Old Master Yu. Tsk tsk…”

Their mother was dead, and as sons, they wanted an on-site autopsy and a public performance to force the truly filial son to give them money. They were absolute beasts!

Zhou Jing looked coldly at his three brothers. “An autopsy is impossible. If you want to be animals, that’s your business, but I won’t play along. With this ledger in hand, I can fully sue you for defrauding an elderly person of her savings. If you don’t believe me, just wait and see.”

What did those words mean?

Either get lost immediately, and the money the old lady gave you while she was alive will be considered a handout to beggars from our family.

Or stay here and keep making a scene, and I’ll make sure you spit out every cent you swallowed, with interest and penalties on top.

When dealing with such scoundrels, you cannot worry about saving face, or you will be the one they manipulate.

As soon as Zhou Jing said this, the three families fled in a hurry.

One might have thought Ms. Zhou’s funeral was a farce, but it didn’t end there.

Less than a hundred days after sending Ms. Zhou off, Old Master Yu was on his deathbed.

After hearing that Ms. Zhou had passed away, Old Master Yu had been unable to recover emotionally. The speed at which his health deteriorated left his doctors in despair.

Old Master Yu drew his last breath exactly on the hundredth day after Ms. Zhou’s passing.

Old Master Yu was different from Ms. Zhou. Zhou Jing had handled Ms. Zhou’s funeral alone.

But for Old Master Yu’s funeral, he was a General, and the state had its own burial protocols.

Yet those three brothers who had suffered a loss previously teamed up with their stepmother, insisting that Zhou Jing provide the money to organize the funeral.

They were planning to use any excuse to swindle money.

Would Zhou Jing indulge these people?

He went directly to the relevant department and asked how the funeral should be handled.

Once the officials stepped in, those four people were completely silenced.

No one dared to make a scene at Old Master Yu’s funeral. It was conducted with dignity and respect. Whatever happened afterward had nothing to do with Zhou Jing’s family.

Su Huandan thought the same, believing that her family could finally enjoy some peace and quiet from then on.

But the reality was quite different.

With Old Master Yu dead, whether the Step-grandmother could continue living in the Retired Cadres’ Residential Compound became a problem.

Relevant personnel specifically came to the door to ask Zhou Jing how this matter should be handled.

Zhou Jing was so angry he laughed. “Did that old lady send you here to ask? What? Did she think that because I’m facing government officials, I would just suffer in silence and support a woman who destroyed my mother’s marriage and family? She can go wherever she wants. When my parents divorced back then, I left with my mother. I’m not on the same household registration as my father, so that old lady has nothing to do with me.”

The inquiring staff member looked stunned. Was he really not planning to take responsibility?

Why should he have to?

The staff member was rebuffed by Zhou Jing and went back to gossip with colleagues. “Rich people really are shameless. He’s so wealthy, yet he’s unwilling to support one old woman.”

The other colleagues listened without saying a word, and then made sure to distance themselves from that particular staff member.

Translator’s Notes