My domineering ex-husband is living off his wife in ancient times.

Chapter 83 What's the difference between this and disturbing the ancestral hall?

Si Shaoheng and his wife are definitely not simple!

He decided to lend them a hand again, looking at Second Grandfather Si with an impartial and incorruptible expression: "Clan Chief Si, that is indeed the way it should be. When our government handles matters, we must rely on evidence."

“That happened decades ago. All those who knew about it back then are long gone. Where am I supposed to find a third witness? Why don’t you have Lord Fang come and ask the elders at their graves if the Si family violated any clan rules back then?”

Old Deng started to rely on his age and insisted that all the deceased clan elders were witnesses to the crimes committed by Grandpa Si Shaoheng.

Cheng Ruoan also knows these "traditional virtues," and she started to throw a tantrum: "My husband's grandfather said that the deceased clan elders can all prove that he separated from the family and left Sijia Village. Otherwise, Second Grandfather Si would also go to their graves to ask if that's the case."

"How dare you!" Grandpa Si was so angry that he pointed his cane at her.

Cheng Ruoan pressed his cane down directly, "In short, since no one has any witnesses, let's look at the evidence. We have a real, official red deed in hand. Every brick and tile in that courtyard, along with that piece of land, belongs to my family!"

Registrar Xu nodded repeatedly, "Indeed, the red contract should be recognized."

Grandpa Si Er clutched his chest and plopped down, panting heavily. "Dan Ge'er, go and call the other clan elders over."

The boy who always stayed by Grandpa Si's side, keeping a low profile, was named Si Dan, the great-grandson of the clan chief.

Upon hearing his great-grandfather's words, Sidan turned and ran away.

Xu, the registrar, sensed that the situation was not good. He pulled the young couple aside and whispered, "Shaoheng, Madam Cheng, as you know, in some matters, the clan has more power than the government. If your entire clan comes here, even if Lord Fang is here, it will be difficult for them to intervene."

Cheng Ruoan couldn't understand it at all. "The red contract is in our hands. The courtyard was left to my eldest uncle by my grandfather. My eldest uncle was adopted by the second grandfather's family. Even if they wanted to occupy the courtyard, it was the second grandfather and his family who occupied it. How come the courtyard was confiscated by the clan?"

If it weren't for the involvement of other clansmen, even if Second Grandfather Si had sent someone to call other clan elders, they wouldn't have made this trip.

This Sijia Village is huge! There are over a hundred families in the village with the surname Si alone, not to mention other surnames.

The entire village occupies almost half the area of ​​a town.

The ancestral hall is located in the southeast of the village, and many people have to walk a long way to get there.

Si Shaoheng then remembered and looked at Cheng Ruoan: "You haven't seen that courtyard yet? The courtyard has now been converted into the clan school, and many children in the clan study there."

Cheng Ruoan: ...

"Then what's the point of fighting over it! Even if we win the argument, you'll be waiting for them to clear the yard before I'm halfway to my grave!"

Si Shaoheng held her down and whispered a reminder: "We weren't really expecting to move back to that courtyard, were we?"

Cheng Ruoan calmed down, looked at Si Shaoheng and then at Registrar Xu, and said, "Then let's settle for cash? We'll just have to trouble Registrar Xu to put in a good word for us with Lord Fang and ask him to reassign us to a different place of residence."

Registrar Xu naturally said there was no problem.

Avoid conflict if possible.

The power of clans should not be underestimated.

After the other elders of the Si family arrived, Cheng Ruoan was still the one who spoke first.

It's not that Si Shaoheng is incompetent.

Rather, he is a scholar who has already fallen out with his clan. If he were to be accused of "disrespecting his elders" and taken to court, he could forget about ever passing the imperial examination.

But Cheng Ruoan is different.

She is currently the housekeeper of Si Shaoheng's household, and she is also a woman. Even if she throws a tantrum at the elders, people will at most say that she is "not virtuous enough".

Since she doesn't need to consider remarrying anyway, she can afford to lose this reputation.

"After all that talk, you have no evidence that my grandfather's yard was confiscated, and you refuse to bring my uncle's family back to testify for you. If you don't recognize the red contract in my hand, what can you recognize?"

Since we're all surnamed Si, let's compromise. You can buy my grandfather's courtyard at the normal price, and then the deed will be transferred to you through the government office.

We need to provide further proof that we have no property or land in our clan's territory, making it impossible to re-register our household registration. We request the government to determine our household registration destination.

Upon hearing this, the clan elder exclaimed, "This is outrageous!"

"It's already our clan's property, why should we pay to buy it?!"

The clan elder glared at Si Shaoheng, "Si Sanlang, is this your wife's idea alone, or your family's idea?"

Si Shaoheng smiled: "My wife's meaning is our family's meaning."

Another clan elder said, "Nonsense! How can you, a descendant of the prestigious Si family, be so spineless and henpecked!"

"That's right, where did this shrew come from? Get out of our Sijia Village right now!"

"Where did she come from? She was married to your Si family's third son, through proper marriage and all the formalities!"

If you think my husband has broken his own spine, then why don't you take all sixteen members of the Si family back to the clan and straighten their spines?

My mother-in-law is at risk of stroke at any time and needs to take medicine every day and ginseng soup every few days. My eldest nephew, Si Daniu, was seriously injured when he was hit by a donkey in Sijia Village and needs to be kept alive with precious medicine.

My second nephew, Si Dahu, was chosen by the head of the escort agency to become an apprentice. He had to pay twenty taels of silver every year to become an apprentice. The younger children were not good, but there were six mouths to feed every day.

Their second uncle, Si Erlang, owes me five hundred taels of silver and hasn't paid it back yet. Si Silang also asked me for medicine worth one hundred taels of silver to save his wife and daughter.

Since your Si family descendants are so upright, then bring the person back to your clan. Either give them a new house or return the old courtyard.

Go back and pay back all the money you owe the Cheng family, make Sanlang divorce me, and then I'll get out of your Sijia Village.

"There's no such thing as having both prestige and free money in this world. Do you really think everyone in your Si family is a high-ranking official in the imperial court?"

After speaking, Cheng Ruoan sat down on a chair in the main room, pushed a teacup aside, and gestured for someone to pour tea.

Si Shaoheng obediently poured tea: "My wife is absolutely right."

The clan elders all looked down on Si Shaoheng for living off a woman.

But more than anything, I was angry at Cheng Ruoan, that little woman, for the things she said!

Every word he said was a slap in the face to the powerful Si family!

The Si family had produced a high-ranking official of the third rank in the past, but each generation was worse than the last. It wasn't until Si Shaoheng's grandfather's generation that a scholar who passed the imperial examination was produced. Then, Si Shaoheng's father's generation finally produced a fifth-rank official in the capital!

Regardless of how Si Fangqi obtained his position as a junior official in the Ministry of Personnel, without him, Si Lianzhan, a fellow Jinshi (successful candidate in the highest imperial examination), would not have been able to be appointed as the magistrate of the neighboring county, and the entire Si family village would finally be able to hold their heads high in the surrounding area in recent years.

But these are things that the elders of the Si family would never tell outsiders.

Few members of the Si family in Sijia Village knew about it, let alone the Si Shaoheng family who had fled back from Bachuan Prefecture.

How could Cheng Ruoan, who clearly knew nothing, accidentally utter that last sentence, implying that someone in their clan was making money in the government?

"In short, that courtyard can't be returned; it's the clan school! What's the difference between disturbing the clan school and disturbing the ancestral hall?!"