Chapter 281

Chapter 281

Qin Zeyu also felt that his future brother-in-law lost his eyes, and felt that his eyes must not be really good.

Qin Jiu naturally took Gu Zezhi's handkerchief and continued to cry.

"Old Madam Qin, Marquis," Gu Zezhi stood with an upright posture, his temperament as calm as high mountains and flowing water, "I am here by order of the emperor, the emperor has heard about the Qin family wanting to split the family."

"It's a good thing I'm here, otherwise I wouldn't even know that Xiao Jiu is being bullied."

After a pause, he continued, "Could it be that the Marquis wants to keep it all to himself and refuses to share it with the eldest house?"

Gu Zezhi slowly looked around at the crowd, seeing Gu Zezhi gazes at them, the head and elders' heartbeats thumped wildly, as they thought to themselves: we cannot let the emperor misunderstand that we all support Qin Zhun and want to monopolize everything!

"Master Gu misunderstood!" The head hurriedly explained, "That is not the case, we are about to officially split!"

Gu Zezhi courteously said with a smile, "Then let's split it."

This sentence was final, after all, his current status was not only the future son-in-law of the Qin family but also represents the emperor.

The head and the clan elders exchanged glances, and one of the clan elders immediately urged Qin Zhun: "Marquis, it's better to choose the auspicious day than to hit the sun, so let's divide it quickly."

Qin Zhun's expression immediately became extremely subtle, as his fists tightly clenched.

This Gu Zezhi was really not tactful, his own family was in the middle of a mess but he still had the audacity to act ignorant and meddle in other family matters.

However, no matter how annoyed he was, Qin Zhun could only helplessly order the chief steward, "Go and bring the account book."

The chief steward took the order and retreated.

Qin Zeyu gave his seat to Gu Zezhi with a wink, and the latter sat down gracefully on Qin Jiu's right side and drank the tea that the maidservant had just served.

Qin Zeyu stood behind her brother, sister, and brother-in-law as if he was their small attendant while thinking that this situation they intentionally develop could get in a worse direction, he said to himself: Anyway, I have no place to talk here.

Everyone waited patiently and soon, four servants came in with two heavy boxes. Opening the boxes, inside was full of books, some books were too old that the cover and paper inside were already yellow.

The chief steward took the top book out of it and presented it to Qin Zhun. Qin Zhun said to the clan head and elders, "This one is the general ledger, and all the properties of the loyal lord's residence are here."

"According to the Qin family rules, 70% of the property can be shared by the house that inherited the family property, and the remaining 30% will be shared equally by the other houses."

"The Qin family has the eldest house and second house, and the concubine born, the third house. According to the rules, the eldest house and the third house can share 30% of the family property equally. But the third house will not divide their property for the time being, so this time we will only divide the property of the eldest house."

The head and elders nodded, expressing that this was right.

Qin Zhun glanced at Gu Zezhi and saw that he didn't raise any objection. He then said, "However, there are only three of you in the eldest house, Ning'er the oldest is not yet married, and Yu'er is still young. And although Jiu'er was granted a marriage by the emperor, the dowry still needs to be paid, therefore, this marquis thought that in addition to the property that the eldest house will be getting, this marquis would give an extra 10% of his share to the eldest house."

"What do the clan elders think?"

Qin Zhun looked generous.

A clan elder nodded his head and said, "That's good."

The remaining elders also responded in succession, and their expressions became more relaxed. They all felt that although Qin Zhun had pushed his unmarried nieces and nephews out of the house too far, he was not that ruthless.

The head looked at Qin Zening, fearing that he would be dissatisfied, and emphasized, "Zening, it is the ancestral system of the Qin family to share 70% of the property with the house who inherits the family title."

Qin Zening also knew this and nodded.

As far as Qin Zening was concerned, as long as he could separate from the second family and move out with his younger brother and sister, the rest was not important.

They also still have their mother's dowry, so they must be able to live on. Moreover, he believed that he could earn a family fortune for his younger brothers and sisters with his own effort.

Qin Jiu knew nothing about ancient family separation, so when she saw Qin Zening nod, she intended to listen first and did not intervene.

What Qin Zhun was most afraid of right now was Qin Jiu, but seeing this girl keeping her mouth shut he was slightly relieved.

He asked the chief steward to hand that general ledger to the head and said generously, "This marquis invites the head and few clan elders to see exactly how it should be divided."

The head and several elders took over the account books one after another.

Qin Zhun also had someone bring the abacus, brush, ink, inkstone, and paper from the study. A group of people around a large mahogany calculates for about half an hour before they sorted out the property.

The head then announced, "Zening, the eldest house will have the mansion in the capital, two manor houses in the suburbs of the capital, two stores in the capital, one hundred acres of paddy fields in Jiangnan, one hundred acres fields in Huaihe River and...in Jiangnan."

He talked in random order, from the house, villa, the shop to gold and silver, antiques, jewelry, medicine, furniture, and so on, it took about a cup of tea to name all the properties that the eldest house would get.

Satisfied, the head picked up the teacup and drank two cups to moisten his throat before he said to Qin Zhun, "Marquis, as you can see it will be difficult for the three siblings to set up their own business, why not share an additional 5,000 taels of silver?"

"It was still uncle who is thoughtful." Qin Zhun answered readily.

Since it has come to this point of family separation, he still wants to do a better job, more or less to save his reputation.

Seeing that the dividing of the properties was nearing its end, Qin Zhun couldn't help but raised the corner of his mouth as he deliberately turned to ask Gu Zezhi: "What do you think, Master Gu?"

Qin Zhun casually asked, feeling that he had been generous thinking that the amount given to the eldest house was not too small.

However, in the future, the days of the eldest house may not be as luxurious and extravagant as when they were in the marquis's house, but this was what they asked for!

A mocking light flashed across Qin Zhun's eyes.

Yet——

"I don't think so."

Gu Zezhi's soft and gentle voice sounded.

He seemed to just say this so casually but Qin Zhun could hear his heart thumping.

And as what he had feared Gu Zezhi's next words were, "The eldest house should have the 70% share to be fair."

***