Chapter 37 - A Place to Stay
“Uncle?” Song Jingchen suddenly called out from the carriage. His tone was indifferent, making it impossible to tell how he felt.
However, everyone present subconsciously held their breaths when they heard this voice.
The voice continued, “His Majesty’s decree states that the descendants of the Song family are not allowed to enter the court as officials for the rest of their lives. Are you sure you want to be our elder?”
Lin Mu and the others continued to be silent. It turns out that Emperor Chong’an’s imperial edict could be used like this. This couple had really broadened their horizons.
Song Dajiang was shocked. He had not expected this. A trace of panic flashed across his face.
How could he do that? His third son had just become a scholar and had to take the imperial examination this year.
He gritted his teeth and didn’t answer.
He made up his mind and said to Clan Leader Song, “Clan Leader, since we can’t chase these people away, they can stay. But our family can’t be burdened by these people. We have to excommunicate them. They will have nothing to do with us in the future.”
Clan Leader Song’s eyes lit up. This was a good idea.
But he still pretended to hesitate. “Well…”
“Dajiang is right. We have to eliminate them from the clan. Otherwise, we don’t know how we will be implicated in the future. Our juniors are capable, we can’t let them be implicated like this.” A short old man beside Clan Leader Song added.
The others nodded in agreement.
“Alright, then we’ll excommunicate them.” Clan Leader Song made the final decision and announced it to everyone. “We’ll go to the ancestral hall and invite the scribe to eliminate Song Daniu’s lineage from our family tree.”
As he spoke, he was about to take them away. Song Tiegen looked troubled and quickly stopped them. “Then they…”
Chief Song said angrily, “Didn’t you hear that they have an imperial edict? We can’t chase them away. You can arrange it however you want.”
The group of people left, leaving behind some curious children to watch.
Without that group of people causing trouble, Song Tiegen ignored Madam Cui’s gaze and brought Shen Yijia and the others to his old house.
These ten taels of silver were actually worth a lot.
A family of farmers could only earn five to six taels of silver a year.
No one would live in the old house even if it was left there. To Song Tiegen, this was pretty much free money.
The old house was at the end of the village. Few people lived in this area, but there was a house adjacent to the old house. The door was closed, it was hard to tell if anyone lived inside.
There was a crooked tree in front of the house. It was different from the brick house that Song Tiegen was living in. This building didn’t even have a courtyard wall. It was surrounded by bamboo as tall as an adult’s waist.
The courtyard door was a bamboo fence gate. Shen Yijia suddenly thought of the saying that a gentleman should not have to guard against villains.
Well, there was no way to guard against them with a fence like this.
“I just came to repair the roof of this house a while ago. Even if it rains, the roof won’t leak. It’s just that there’s not much furniture in the house, so you have to buy it yourself.”
Song Tiegen unbolted the fence gate and pushed it open.
It was obvious that no one had lived in this house for a long time. The courtyard was overgrown with weeds. There was a well in the middle.
Song Tiegen scratched his head awkwardly and said, “No one has lived here for a while. If you want to live here, just clean up a little. There’s also a well here. You don’t have to go to the village entrance to get water!”
If you ignored the weeds on the ground and the potholes on the walls.
The layout of this house was quite good. It was lined up on the north-south axis.
To the north was the main building, with a wing to the east and west.
A room on the south side had a stove built into it. That was probably the kitchen.
There was also a central room in the middle, used for dining and entertaining guests.
At the back was an outhouse made of thatch.
Shen Yijia looked around and walked in to remove the iron chains tied to the doors of every house. Sure enough, it was empty inside. There wasn’t even a bed.
However, thinking about the attitude of the other villagers, they didn’t have a choice. She immediately took out ten taels of silver and exchanged it for the deed of the house.
Next, they would go to the county office and change the ownership of the house.