Chapter 6 — A Pigsty Cleaner Than the Ancestral Home

The heavy iron padlock sprang open with a sharp click. The exact moment the lid of the old wooden chest was lifted, a shaft of bright afternoon sunlight cleared the low brick wall of the pigsty, spilling directly into the hollow interior. Neat rows of oiled paper parcels lay packed inside, undisturbed and quiet. Lawyer Zhou calmly put on a pair of white cotton gloves and reached down to unwrap the very first packet. A thick, heavy ingot of pure gold gleamed brilliantly in the center of his palm, catching the sunlight and reflecting a dazzling, golden luminescence. The assembled crowd of villagers instantly erupted into a chaotic wave of gasps and murmurs.

It really is gold!

Oh heavens above, there really is a fortune hidden away inside a pigsty!

Old Mrs. Tan certainly knew how to hide her wealth!

Man Man’s complexion shifted violently from deep crimson to stark white, then flickered back to red again. Her eyes remained locked onto the open chest of gold like a starving stray dog staring at a fresh piece of meat. Lawyer Zhou proceeded to unwrap all ten of the oil paper parcels one by one. Ten heavy gold ingots lay revealed, not a single one missing. The local police officers stepped forward immediately to weigh the items, take detailed photographs, and officially document the scene as physical evidence. Suddenly, the eldest uncle clutched his chest dramatically and collapsed backward onto the dirt. The eldest aunt shrieked in simulated terror, lunging forward to catch him before he hit the ground.

Husband! Husband, hold on!

Yet despite his theatrical fainting spell, his eyes remained stubbornly glued to the shimmering gold ingots. The performance was so utterly clumsy and unconvincing that even the elderly villagers standing near the perimeter openly curled their lips in disdain.

If you are going to fake a faint, at least have the decency to close your eyes properly.

The eldest uncle stiffened awkwardly upon hearing the mockery, then abandoned the performance altogether and simply sat down hard on the ground, wailing aloud.

Mother!

You were always so blindingly biased!

I am the one who waited on you hand and foot until your final days, and yet you leave this entire fortune to an outsider!

That absurd declaration finally pierced through my numbness, and a bitter, mocking laugh escaped my lips.

Waited on her until her final days?

I flipped open a thick, worn ledger, my fingers trembling slightly as I began to read the recorded entries aloud, word for painstaking word.

In the very first year grandmother suffered her debilitating stroke, the eight thousand yuan required for the initial hospital deposit was paid entirely out of my own pocket.

During the bitter winter of the second year, hiring a private caretaker for two months cost twelve thousand yuan, funds that Shen Yan had to borrow from acquaintances just to settle.

By the third year, grandmother’s adult diapers, specialized medications, and nutritional supplements totaled thirty-seven thousand yuan, every single receipt meticulously logged and paid for by me.

I raised my gaze from the pages to lock eyes with him.

Eldest uncle, is what you call caring for her nothing more than showing up at her hospital room once a month solely to snatch her medical insurance card?

The expressions of the surrounding villagers shifted instantly, hardening as they looked toward the eldest uncle, whose face flushed a deep, humiliating shade of purple and red.

Stop talking nonsense and making things up!

At that precise moment, Lawyer Zhou unfolded an official legal document from his briefcase.

Last September, Mrs. Tan underwent a thorough mental capacity evaluation. The official medical results confirmed that she was entirely lucid, clear-minded, and fully in control of her faculties.

On that exact same day, under the legal witness of myself and the village party secretary, she recorded a video statement detailing the exact nature and distribution of her personal assets.

Lawyer Zhou produced a small digital disc and a printed transcript. Because the village committee office lacked the equipment to play the disc, the written transcript was read aloud to the gathering first.

These ten gold ingots were exchanged from the private dowry gold I received in my youth.

Their origin is entirely legitimate and clear. They are neither part of any marital property nor subject to division among my children.

I hid them within the pigsty because when little Li was a small child, she was terribly terrified of pigs, yet she still forced herself to come here and help me feed them every single day for three solid years.

She never once complained that I was old, nor did she ever show disgust at the filth.

These ten gold ingots are hereby bequeathed exclusively as the personal property of Tan Li.

As he reached this point in the document, Lawyer Zhou paused. Not a single soul in the courtyard made a sound. Hot tears spilled over my makeshift gauze bandage, burning my skin. Grandmother had mentioned that I was afraid of pigs. That was a memory from when I was only seven years old. My mother had just passed away, and the other children in the village mocked me mercilessly as a fatherless and motherless stray, ultimately shoving me inside the dark, reeking pigsty and locking the door. Grandmother had rushed over leaning heavily on her walking stick, brandishing a bamboo pole as she chased those cruel children across the entire village. Although her legs remained weak and pained her terribly for the rest of her life, from that day on, every single afternoon after school, I came faithfully to help her feed the pigs. The stench was truly overwhelming, and the terror was genuine. Yet every time grandmother sat by the doorway and called out to me, praising how capable I was, I felt deep inside that I still held a secure place in this otherwise fractured family. Lawyer Zhou cleared his throat and resumed reading.

If any of my children refuse to accept this arrangement, they must first repay all outstanding loans, misappropriated business profits, and elderly care expenses they took without authorization, all of which are meticulously documented in this ledger.

Only after every single cent of these debts has been fully settled will anyone retain the legal right to contest or file further claims under the law.

The third uncle’s face drained entirely of color, leaving him looking like a corpse. The eldest aunt slapped her own thigh in frantic desperation.

Mother is already dead and buried! How can she still sit here calculating accounts against her own flesh and blood sons?

Lawyer Zhou slowly turned his gaze toward the third aunt’s bare wrists.

Furthermore, the heavy gold bracelet that Ms. Tan Man Man stripped from the deceased body does not fall under the jurisdiction of the estate distribution outlined in the will.

Man Man instinctively crossed her arms, tucking her hands tightly into her sleeves where the stolen gold bangle was clumsily hidden. Every pair of eyes in the courtyard immediately locked onto her wrists. Her face turned ghastly pale, and she turned abruptly on her heel, attempting to push through the crowd and flee. Shen Yan stepped forward seamlessly, blocking the exit at the courtyard gate.

Leave the bracelet behind.

Man Man shrieked in sheer panic, her voice cracking.

This was given to me by grandmother before she passed away!

I stared coldly at her.

Before grandmother drew her final breath, that bracelet was still firmly on her wrist.

The intravenous needle was still taped to the back of her hand, yet you had already stripped the jewelry from her flesh while her body was barely cold.

Man Man’s eyes reddened instantly, and she threw her head back to cry.

I only wanted to keep it as a sentimental memento!

You have already secured a massive share of gold, so why are you still coveting a piece of dead jewelry?

The villagers listening to the exchange shook their heads in deep disgust. Aunt Lu elbowed her way forward from the dense crowd, her expression stern.

I am willing to testify right here and now.

After the old lady stopped breathing, that gold bracelet was still securely on her wrist.