In this era people give great importance to clan because of 2 reasons. The first reason is ancestral graves. It is believed that only if you rest in your ancestral grave one would have peace after death and enter heaven. The other reason is mutual support. If one person in the family rises, then he would try to pull his clan up. So people usually have great attachment towards their clan and would not anger the clan leaders.

It is today I truly understood how crooked and cunning Father Ye is. If the family is eliminated from the clan because of my behaviour then it would greatly affect my reputation and the people of the village might isolate me or atleast the Ye clan members will. “Father, your son is injured and near death, yet you still want to kick him out of the clan leaving no place for him to rest even in death. Father, how could you.. Eh eh..” I started crying and sat on the floor. People gathered have started feeling pity for me. Seeing me cry, my daughter started crying too. Oh poor child, she doesn't know that her mother is trying for an oscar here.

Village head appealed “Clan head isn't that too much”. But father Ye stood stern “No, I don’t want this poisonous woman to enter my family. If my son and granddaughter want to join back, then Ye Qui has to divorce her”. Oh this bastard, he wants to shift the entire blame towards me. Fine if that's what he wants, then I won’t stop until each tile in his family is divided into six. I slowly wiped my tears and looked towards the people gathered searching for the original owner’s parents, as I expected there was no one. Even if the entire village gathers here they won’t come. “I agree with your conditions, life is more important than anything so lets start dividing”. Some people in the group of gathered villagers felt sorry for me, as I was protecting my husband even if that damaged my reputation, but another group of villagers felt I deserved this for not having any respect for elders. And some are here just for the fun of watching it.

Madam Ye shouted “No, I don’t agree, if you want to divide then you have to divide it in 8 parts. For me it is not 5 children, but 7. I have an unmarried daughter for whom I should prepare a dowry and the married daughter is a widow. In future if she wanted to remarry or to support her financially there is no one else other than me. So if you have to divide, then make 8 parts.” Some people in the group felt Madam Ye is deliberately bullying me, no one among the villagers gathered had given such big dowry, and for a married daughter isn’t that ‘spilt water’. I thought for a while still agreed it even after knowing Madadm Ye is making things difficult for me. And there is no way she is going to give such big support to her daughters.

“Ok so how are you planning to divide the fields”, asked the village head towards me. I answered back, “there are 16 fields in the family, of 8 medium grade, 4 high and 4 low grade. High grade cost 10 silvers, medium grade cost 8 silvers and for low grade it is 6 silvers. So I need 1 high grade and 1 low grade field, if you doubt my calculation any one can check”. Village head asked his son (also studying in town) if the calculation was right, he took nearly 5 minutes before confirming it was correct. Village head moved to the next item “What about livestocks in the family.”

“There is an ox in the family worth 15 silvers so dividing it into 8, I want 2 silvers or something worth 2 silvers” said by me. Madam Ye replied back “you want a share from my ox, dream on bitch”,I think I hit her sore spot there. If looks could kill, I would have been dead by now. Father Ye thought for a while and said “Instead of silver I will give you the goat”, Madam Ye had been complaining always that the goat in the family is not giving much milk and might be sick. Yeah like I don’t know his thoughts “Father that is a sick female goat, how much could I sell it for, if you are giving me the goat, I want you to add 2 piglets along with it.” Actually the goat is not sick. I just steal it’s milk everyday.

Father Ye doubts that I am taking advantage and the calculation is wrong, he asked “ What does Ye Bao (village head’s son) think?” Ye Bao is actually good in class and has a good name in the village, but they are asking maths (his weak subject) questions so fast and he is getting confused. He said, “A sick goat doesn’t cost much and 2 piglets cost only 1 silver together so it’s fair”. Then I continued my list, “from the rest of the poultry of a pig of 3 silvers, 4 piglets worth a total of 2 silvers, and 10 hens and 10 ducks of total 3 silvers, I want 2 piglet and 4 hen. The calculation is correct or not”, I looked toward Ye Bao, he was totally dumbstruck, he wanted more time to do the calculation. He fetched his paper and ink to try to do it, but all the people’s stare is making him nervous. Ye Bao announced “No the calculation is wrong, it should be 2 piglets and 2 hen as the hen cost more than duck.” Everyone praised the boy’s wisdom.

The boy is picking up his senses, but he messed with the wrong lady today. “But if father Ye gave me 2 silver instead of goat and piglets, then their price would also be added, so is my calculation correct”. The boy became totally confused after hearing this, yet he won’t admit to mine, so he said “then make 3 piglets and 2 hen and that is final.” I agreed happily. So from the poultry section I got 5 piglets, a healthy goat and 2 hen.

Village head cleared his voice, “hm, hm.. Ok so next is grain”. Father Ye immediately spoke “grain could not be divided in 8, there are more members in my family.” Yes, like I am going to let that bastard off that easily. “No, our agreement was 1 part of total 8, I won’t change the arrangement. Unless you take us back into the clan.” Father Ye is totally black faced when he heard this and shouted back in anger “I will never let you poisonous woman enter back in my clan, even if my family is starved to death, come let’s enter granary and divide it as she says.” Everyone moved towards granary and divided the grains. I got 2000 pounds of rice and 250 pounds of corn grains.

Atlast village head said “then how much money are you going to give the 2nd branch”, Madam Ye has almost fainted of anger when all those grains moved out of the house. So when she heard this question, like being fed with chicken blood, she raised up and shouted “there is no money, no money to feed the white eyed wolves, you get out of my family”. Some people felt pity for Madam Ye. “How can you say that the mother, your son is injured, without money he would die, eh eh..” I started crying. But madam Ye is adamant, no matter what I said and cried she didn’t change her attitude. I changed my style “but you still have to give us money to build the house or I have to divide the Ye family’s house.” Now even the other elders in the family got angry, “Hui Juan, you are being too much, how could one divide the ancestral home.” This Ye clan’s ancestral house in which we currently live is a house with 8 courtyards and made up of brick. This is the biggest house in the village. Only a few other houses in the village are made up of bricks. This house may cost nearly 30 silvers.

“I have no intention of wanting the house, but mother should otherwise give us 5 silvers or else we should divide the house according to the agreement”. This argument went for nearly an half an hour and Madam Ye finally let me have 4 silvers and some farm tools. Village head asked me,“Which house are you going to buy?” I thought for a while and said, “ ‘An’ family's house.” When I uttered that all the people present were shocked. ‘An’ family house is the famous ghost house in the village. No one had entered that house for years.

Many years back a couple settled here coming from a faraway place and bought a good home and few acres of field. Even though they didn’t have any family members here, since they were kind and friendly they got along with the villagers. They had 3 daughters and they married them off with a dowry of a field each. All the villagers scolded them saying if they gave their daughters everything then how are they going to leave. But Father and Mother An gave no mind to villagers and sold their last piece of land for a cow and Farher An drove the cart to and fro in the village to shanto town for livelihood. From the money they earned they made a large brick wall around the house. It was to prevent thieves and robbers from entering their home. But one day Father An died outside and mother An was lonely and sad. She started always staying in the house unless it is necessary to go out. After a few months Mother An accidentally fell inside the house and died. An family’s house has a large yard and villagers noticed her dead body only after 5 days when it was already rotted and filled with worms. All the people who saw her dead body after checking the origin of the smell ran back and vomited. Some even got fever. Atlast it was her son-in-laws who tolerated the smell and lifted her barely out of the house and buried her in the backyard of the house. A year after her death, her son-in-laws have started trying to sell the house, but no one wants it. It is believed that Mother An’s ghost still exists in that house and there is a rumour that some people have seen it.

One of the An family’s son in law who had been in the crowd suddenly jumped out, “do you want to buy the An family’s courtyard, then the price is 10 silvers”. An family’s house is really good even though it is not made up of brick and 10 silvers is a good price for the house. But since there is a ghost in the house as a bonus, this price is too much. “If I had 10 silvers would I buy that ghost house, no I only have 4 silvers, if the price is three silvers, then I will buy.”

Another son-in-law of An family also jumped out, “No way, with your character who else is going to sell the house to you, if it is for 8 silvers we can agree”. This argument went for 10 minutes before finally reaching the conclusion that I would pay 3 silvers now and would pay the rest 3 silvers after 1 month. In return they would help me transport all my stuff into the An family courtyard. Village head wrote all the agreement including the changing of house deed and cutting us from the family registry. I took a copy of all the agreements and moved towards the An family’s courtyard with my daughter. All the people in the crowd really appreciated my courage, because no one of them, even the small thieves in the village, had ever entered the An family’s courtyard for years. But what they don’t know is, even though I am afraid of ghosts, I am sure the ghost in the An family would be far better than the devils in the Ye family.

There lies our new life of freedom along with a ghost.