Transmigrated Family C02

Chapter 2: Eldest Uncle Has Been Reborn!

“I know, I know! Big Treasure, hurry and think of a way for Dad! The debt collector said he’d be back in three days—what am I supposed to give him?! Would running away work at this point? I don’t even dare bring this up to your mom. Life’s already tough enough, and with this extra twenty taels of gambling debt, I’m afraid she won’t be able to take it…”

Even if you beat me to death, I… wuwuwu!

Just last night, they had finally made up their minds to accept reality, let go of the past, and start over, working hard to achieve a stable life.

Who would have thought that by today, he’d already screwed up—shouldering a heavy debt of twenty taels.

“Dad, you should just be honest. Let’s figure something out together. In this current situation, we can’t go anywhere without a travel permit. And even if we could, how would we run? On foot? We don’t even have a means of transport. It takes two hours just to walk to the nearest town. Also, what about Eldest Uncle? No one to take care of him wouldn’t work. Big Sister needs watching too, or she might do something rash. And what about that scoundrel eyeing her? If we leave, who’s going to protect her from getting bullied?”

She might look like nothing more than a tiny, short-legged little girl right now, but over the past few days, through persistent effort, she had managed to make a few friends and piece together some crucial information.

The scoundrel targeting Eldest Uncle’s daughter was the youngest son of the village head.

Normally, he loitered around town, but at some point, he had met Big Sister and taken a liking to her, insisting on marrying her.

The village head had even sent someone to propose the match, but Eldest Uncle, being a scholar, had politely declined.

That should have been the end of it. However, the village head’s youngest son turned out to be a complete scoundrel. Since the proper way didn’t work, he resorted to underhanded tricks.

He spread rumors everywhere, claiming that he and Big Sister were in love and had secretly promised themselves to each other—trying to use gossip to force her into marriage.

Eldest Uncle went over to reason with them, but he ended up being both angered and beaten. The village head’s family was so brazen that they even dared to lay hands on a scholar with official merits. She feared they might escalate to even more extreme actions.

“So what do we do?” Father Yan anxiously grabbed at his short jacket, fanning himself back and forth.

“We originally planned to sell the wheat once it was harvested to make some seed money, start a small business, and earn a living. But a hole of twenty taels? Even if we sold all our wheat, it wouldn’t be enough to fill it!”

The Yan family were outsiders. Grandpa and Grandma had left them with some property, making them small landlords back in the day. But when they fell ill, medical expenses and funeral costs forced them to sell off several acres of land.

With three scholars in the family spanning two generations, their studies required a significant annual expense. The yield from the fields alone was never enough to cover it, so they gradually sold off even more land.

Now, they were left with just ten acres. They had always paid for hired labor to manage the fields, but this year’s situation was dire—scorching heat, a long drought, and even their own crops were struggling to survive, let alone those of hired workers.

Some families with more sons had spare manpower, but even they were barely scraping by. Normally, farm work paid twenty wen a day, but now, workers demanded thirty. They couldn’t even scrounge up a single copper.

With no other choice, they had to do the work themselves.

“We’ll discuss it tonight.” Yan Erya sighed bitterly. Their family of three were nothing more than ordinary commoners.

Mom was an elementary school teacher, Dad ran a stationery shop near the school, and she had just graduated from college, preparing for civil service exams. They lived in a small town with minimal expenses—two apartments, one car, and a five-figure savings account that could barely go higher.

Suddenly being thrown into this world, they had no useful skills. She had thought about selling recipes, but unfortunately, Dad’s cooking only extended to simple home-cooked meals.

For the past few days, Big Sister had been the one cooking. They lived off coarse grain pancakes, with wilted vegetables from the backyard making an endless rotation on the dinner table. The only saving grace was the few hens they kept, providing just enough eggs for some occasional protein.

This family was truly, genuinely poor.

If nothing else worked, they would have to resort to the Yan family’s old fallback—selling land.

But all the land was under Eldest Uncle’s name. Selling it would require his approval.

Considering how Second Uncle had behaved, how could they convince Eldest Uncle that he had truly reformed this time? That he was willing to sell the land to clear his debts and that their family would work hard to buy it back in the future…

If it were her, she wouldn’t believe it.

Eldest Uncle was still bedridden. If he found out his younger brother had gambled away twenty taels, he might never get back up again.

Poor Eldest Uncle!

“Sigh! I’m going to turn your uncle over.” Father Yan sighed deeply but didn’t forget his responsibilities. His wife worked long hours, and he had personally cared for both his in-laws in their final days.

When it came to nursing the sick, he was an expert.

He scooped up half a ladle of water from the vat, wrung out a sun-dried cloth still warm from the heat, and entered the room.

“Big Brother, I’m coming in.” He called from the doorway but didn’t wait for a response before stepping inside.

He touched his brother’s forehead—not feverish.

Dampening the cloth, he wiped him down methodically—head, neck, front and back, arms, and legs—all with practiced efficiency, a sign of long-term experience.

As he worked, he chattered nonstop.

“Big Brother, life is so hard. The sun’s like fire outside. The village elders are saying this year’s not looking good—disaster might be coming. The village chief has ordered a watch on the old well, and each family is only allowed four buckets of water a day. That’s not even enough for the fields!

Your sister-in-law is worried sick. We can’t afford to wait for the wheat to mature, so we decided to harvest it early to secure what we can. We were the first in the village to start cutting today! The others laughed at us, but what else can we do? If we don’t start early, we might not finish in time.

Short-term labor costs keep rising—just the other day, it was thirty wen, and now they won’t even work for that. Good thing we weren’t planning to hire anyone anyway. Even if we collapse from exhaustion, we’ll harvest every last grain ourselves. Having food in hand is the only way to feel secure if disaster really hits…”

“Big Brother, you need to get better soon. You’re the pillar of this family. We can’t do without you.”

His daughter was right—they had replaced the original family, and their actions and speech would definitely be different. They needed an explanation. With the family’s backbone collapsing, it made sense for them to be scared and desperate enough to change.

“God… bless…”

Eldest Uncle suddenly spoke, startling Father Yan.

Why hadn’t his daughter mentioned that Eldest Uncle had woken up and could talk?!

Cough cough cough!

A violent fit of coughing followed.

“Help me… up…” Yan Huaiwen suppressed the burning itch in his throat, speaking slowly.

“Yes, yes, I’ll help you.” Father Yan quickly set aside the cloth, fastened his brother’s inner robe, and propped him up. One hand supported his back for leverage, while the other reached for the chamber pot, asking quietly,

“Big Brother, do you need to go?”

He had timed it just right—Eldest Uncle should need to relieve himself around now.

Yan Huaiwen had lived through three dynasties, rising to the highest ranks of government, experiencing countless hardships.

A strict and ruthless official, he was known for his unwavering composure in any situation.

Even something as absurd as reincarnating into his younger self didn’t shake him.

Aside from enduring the fever and illness, he had spent these past days reminiscing about painful memories, watching each of his lost loved ones appear before him.

He felt both sorrow and relief.

His daughter was still alive—she had not been bullied to the point of hanging herself.

His son was still studying in town—he had not yet been dragged into his father’s downfall and assassinated.

As for his younger brother’s family…

They had not yet been disowned for gambling debts.