Chapter 48
There was no problem asking Fang Hong about the Jang family's affairs.
She was just as angry about Old Madam Jang's favoritism.
She simply had no way to stop it.
Now that the topic of Jang Un-mo's money had come up, all the resentment Fang Hong had suppressed for years seemed to burst out at once.
"With the way Jang Un-mo spends money, how could she possibly have enough dowry left to pay for her son's studies?"
"Of course your grandmother is secretly giving her the money."
Jang Un-chu asked,
"Did Father agree to it too?"
Fang Hong replied,
"Your father doesn't even get a say in anything."
"You know that."
"Every bit of silver in this household is held by your grandmother."
"There's no such thing as yours or mine here."
"Your grandmother openly said that the money was saved by her and your grandfather together."
"So she called it her own money and asked us what was wrong with spending her own silver on her granddaughter."
"Then she accused us of coveting her money and wishing she'd hurry up and die."
Sometimes, Fang Hong genuinely did wish Old Madam Jang would die sooner.
People always said that daughters-in-law suffered while they were young, but eventually became mothers-in-law themselves and finally gained some authority.
Yet Fang Hong already had grandchildren, and she still hadn't escaped the fate of being cursed at by Old Madam Jang every single day.
"When she says things like that, what else can we say?"
Jang Un-chu said,
"Grandmother probably did have some silver of her own once."
"Grandfather must have saved some money back when he worked as a carpenter."
"But she spent more than a hundred taels just paying Yang Ze to keep quiet back then."
"She should have used it all up by now."
Jang Un-chu's grandfather had died long ago, when she was still a child.
"I know."
Fang Hong sighed.
"Your grandmother is very good at talking."
"Sometimes she coaxes people, and sometimes she loses her temper."
"At first, she said all the silver belonged to her."
"Then she started saying your brothers' generation hasn't been blessed with sons and that the family is poor, so there was no other choice."
"After that, she said paying for Jang Un-mo's son to study was all for the sake of our Jang family."
"She says Zhao Yang is clever, and Jang Un-mo still has a good relationship with this family, so if he becomes successful someday, he'll never forget us."
"On top of that, Jang Un-mo swore that Zhao Yongchang will definitely pass the examinations within two years."
"She said that if he fails, then the family doesn't have to help anymore after that."
"Apparently, giving them money now is just like presenting gifts to a future xiucai in advance."
Old Master Jang's eldest and second sons had both had several children.
The eldest son had three sons and one daughter.
That daughter was Jang Un-mo.
The second son had two sons and one daughter.
That daughter was Jang Un-chu.
Strangely, however, the next generation was completely different.
Among the children born to the eldest son's three sons, there was only one boy.
And between the second son's two sons, Jang Un-chu's two older brothers, there was also only one boy.
That boy was barely one year old.
For an ordinary family, educating a child was truly difficult.
It cost too much money.
That was why, even though the Jang family had sons, Old Madam Jang had never seriously considered sending them to study.
The farther one went in one's education, the more expensive it became.
The only schooling she had ever arranged for her descendants had been when Old Master Jang's eldest and second sons were children.
At that time, a xiucai had opened a private school inside the village, so they had attended for a while and learned some characters.
The cost of a village school and a town school was completely different.
Village teachers didn't usually charge much, so most families could afford to let their children attend for a few years.
They would let them learn casually while they were young.
Then, once the children became old enough to work, they were brought home.
But now there was no private school in the village.
Jang Un-chu frowned.
She began thinking about how she could stop this.
If Old Madam Jang wanted to give away her own private money, Jang Un-chu didn't care.
But money earned by her parents and brothers absolutely couldn't be handed over to Jang Un-mo.
While Jang Un-chu was thinking, Gang Gye suddenly spoke.
"Grandmother, if Great-Grandmother is helping Zhao Yang study, could you help me instead?"
"Help you with what?"
Someone asked from the doorway as he walked inside.
It was Old Master Jang's second son.
Gang Gye's maternal grandfather.
Gang Gye showed no panic at all.
He greeted his grandfather, then calmly continued.
"Great-Grandmother wants to help Aunt Un-mo's son study."
"She says Zhao Yang is clever and might help the Jang family someday."
"But Grandfather, I'm also a grandson of the Jang family through Mother."
"If you're going to help someone anyway, couldn't you help me?"
"Headmaster Liu of White Crane Academy personally came to invite me to study."
"I'm definitely smarter than Zhao Yang."
"Wouldn't helping me be more reliable?"
"Or could Grandfather ask Great-Grandmother about it?"
"Maybe she just hasn't thought of me yet."
Of course, Gang Gye wasn't trying to take all the silver belonging to his maternal grandfather's branch for himself.
He simply wanted to use this excuse to reduce the losses that branch would suffer.
His maternal grandmother, Fang Hong, clearly had her own ideas.
She simply couldn't openly oppose Old Madam Jang because of filial expectations.
So if Gang Gye managed to get the money first, he could simply hand it straight back to Fang Hong and let her keep it.
Gang Gye already knew Old Madam Jang would never willingly support him.
In the end, there would probably have to be a big commotion before the second son's family's money could be returned to them.
Gang Gye wouldn't later allow people to say that the Jang family had treated him so generously.
He could simply reveal the truth at the end.
Quite a few people in the village already disliked Old Madam Jang's excessive favoritism.
When Fang Hong and the others were young, outsiders had found it difficult to say much.
After all, younger people were expected to obey and respect their elders.
But Fang Hong was already a grandmother herself and no longer young.
Yet she was still being suppressed like this every day.
Many villagers sympathized with her.
So even if the truth came out later, there probably wouldn't be much of a problem.
On the way to the Jang household, Gang Gye had carefully thought about what kind of person his maternal grandfather was.
