For a moment, the courtyard was in utter chaos.

At this point, Yang Xiaocui’s three sisters-in-law no longer cared how many people were in the yard. They spilled every last bit of their household grievances, just hoping the Village Chief would hurry up and take their side, help them shake off that old witch.

Stuff like how they hadn’t had a good day since marrying in, never enough to eat or wear, even their dowries had been taken by their mother-in-law, and she often beat and cursed them. She’d say their days weren’t as good as the younger sister-in-law’s, but the younger sister-in-law was her own flesh and blood, and they were just outsiders.

Hearing that, Auntie Lan Hua exploded. "Bull-fucking-shit. When did I ever touch your dowries? You keep slandering and defying me like this, I’ll divorce the lot of you."

Auntie Lan Hua flat-out refused to admit it. Did this whole family eat for free without Silver?

Sure, everyone had an acre of land, but the yield was too low, and more than half had to be handed over. It wasn’t nearly enough to feed a family for a year. If you ran into floods or droughts and the harvest failed, how could you get by without dipping into their dowries?

But this she absolutely couldn’t admit, or people would talk. A daughter-in-law’s dowry was something you weren’t supposed to touch.

"Uncle Village Chief, you have to stand up for us. Look at her, our mother-in-law’s got divorcing us hanging off the tip of her tongue."

"Yeah, Uncle Village Chief, this is how we’ve been dragged down all these years. Before, we just swallowed it, thinking we were all one family. But now, after what Mother-in-law and Xiaocui did, we can’t keep living together. And now they want us to pay with the family land—how are we supposed to survive?"

The two sides were at each other’s throats, leaving even the Village Chief at a loss.

Just now, the only reason he’d agreed to let Yang Dong take some of Yang Xiaocui’s family land was because they still had a bit left. Losing a portion wouldn’t kill them. But now, the Li Family wanted to take all of it. Then the Lis would be left with nothing—what would they eat?

So he turned to look at Li Chuntao’s oldest brother and said, "They don’t even have ten mu of land in total. If you take it all, they won’t be able to survive. See if you can maybe settle for a bit less?"

"Whether they can survive or not is none of our business. That land has to be paid over today."

Seeing how adamant the Li Family was, Yang Xiaocui’s family was stunned. One by one, their eyes reddened with anxious tears.

Suddenly, at some point, there was a child clinging to Li Chuntao’s oldest brother’s leg, crying and wailing, "Uncle, I beg you, please, don’t take our land."

Feeling his thigh being hugged, Li Chuntao’s oldest brother was very displeased, but he couldn’t bring himself to shove or hit a child. He could only say, "Let go, let go."

Seeing that the Li Family didn’t push or hit the child, Yang Xiaocui’s older brothers quickly threw meaningful looks at their own kids.

In no time, all of Auntie Lan Hua’s grandsons and granddaughters rushed over and wrapped themselves around Li Chuntao’s three brothers, refusing to let go, all crying and yelling.

"Uncles, we’re begging you, please don’t take our land, we’re begging you."

The scene was such that anyone who didn’t know better would think Li Chuntao’s three brothers were some kind of local bullies who’d come to oppress people, making the kids cry bloody murder.

But Li Chuntao’s three brothers weren’t bullies at all; they could never bring themselves to pick on children. So they just stood there, stuck in an awkward stalemate.

A moment later, Li Chuntao’s oldest brother finally spoke. "Fine. We can leave the land."

Hearing that, Yang Xiaocui’s family lit up. They hadn’t expected a few children to save the day.

But just as they were rejoicing, they heard Li Chuntao’s oldest brother add, "Then we’ll take one of Yang Xiaocui’s arms."