The Ace Bigshot Becomes A Farmgirl

Capítulo 1865: Chapter 1865: Xia Yan Brings News of the Chen Family

Xia Yan brought back news about the Chen Family.

The Chen Family currently resides at the father-in-law’s home, whose surname is Pan.

Shu Yu had previously heard a couple of remarks from Old Mrs. Guan. It’s said that the Pan Family wasn’t very wealthy initially, with only a small shop, but they had quite a few children.

That was why Chen Bing, a man in his second marriage, could become a son-in-law of the Pan Family.

However, in the second year after Chen Bing and Ms. Pan got married, the Pan Family gradually became better off, mainly due to the advantage of having many children. Ms. Pan had a sister who married into a wealthy business family from another place as a concubine and was quite favored. After the businessman’s wife passed away, this sister was promoted to the position of legitimate wife.

With this wealthy son-in-law, the Pan Family took the opportunity to expand their business significantly.

The originally single shop grew into three over the years of management.

Not only did the Pan Family have three shops, but they also upgraded their residence to a courtyard with three small entrances and hired several servants.

The Pan Family changed a lot, but as a son-in-law of the Pan Family, Chen Bing managed a shabby grocery store for thirty years, often losing money and having to go to his in-laws to freeload. Consequently, his in-laws looked down on him immensely, reaching the point of nearly turning him away when he visited.

Initially, Chen Bing wanted to leverage his father-in-law to expand into other businesses, but he lost money in every venture he tried and got scolded as a useless man. Making it worse, he couldn’t get any money from his stingy father-in-law. After several failed attempts, he gave up and grew resentful towards his father-in-law, seldom visiting the prefecture to avoid verbal abuse.

This time, he came because the old Pan was ill.

Given the Pan Family’s wealth, how could Chen Bing not covet it? This was his last chance to get a share of the Pan Family’s estate.

If Father Pan died and the Pan Family was taken over by Ms. Pan’s brother, Chen Bing wouldn’t get a single cent from it.

So, using the excuse that Ms. Pan and their children were worried about Father Pan’s health, the entire family came together.

Neighbors of the Pan Family said that after they arrived, they truly devoted themselves to serving Father Pan tirelessly. After some time, they all looked a bit haggard.

The nearby residents, unfamiliar with Chen Bing’s family due to their rare visits, only saw that their good reputation seemed to spread for now.

However, Chen Bing thought that the old and sick Father Pan wouldn’t last long, but a month later, he started to recover gradually.

Chen Bing’s hopes of dividing the estate were dashed. Logically, since Father Pan recovered and the family shop needed attending, the Chen Family should have returned home.

Unfortunately, Chen Bing was unwilling to give up. Just then, mountain bandits raided Chenggu County, causing havoc and leading to the closing of the county town gates, barring outsiders from entering freely. The Chen Family couldn’t leave and naturally stayed on.

Shortly after, unrest broke out in the prefecture as well.

Fortunately, the prefecture was better prepared; although it was chaotic for a while, the damage wasn’t as severe as in Chenggu County. It was merely a scare, and things eventually settled down peacefully.

Once both the county town and prefecture were no longer in turmoil, Chen Bing essentially had no excuse to stay.

Especially with the year-end approaching, they should definitely return home to celebrate the New Year.

But Chen Bing refused to leave, using the pretext of finding a husband for his daughter in the prefecture to linger for yet another long while.

Originally, one of Chen Bing’s objectives in coming to the prefecture was, indeed, to find a marriage match for his daughter, Chen Qiu.

But with Father Pan sick at the start, it wasn’t an appropriate time to mention it.