The pink floral bedsheet had been torn into strips and used to bind Li Yuqin and Meng Ying tightly together, back to back.
Both women sat awkwardly on the floor, bruised and swollen, groaning in pain.
Meng Yao rubbed her hands, stood up, and calmly looked at Meng Liangcai.
Then she grinned.
“Would you like to join them?”
Meng Liangcai stared at her in a daze. Meng Yao’s sinister smile seemed to overlap repeatedly before his eyes like an illusion.
He unconsciously muttered,
“Y-You… What are you doing?”
Meng Yao flashed him a provocative smile.
“I was afraid Meng Ying might regret the marriage, so I helped you tie her up.”
She glanced at Li Yuqin, who was barely able to breathe properly.
“I was also afraid Mom might soften, so I tied her up too.”
She reached out and patted Meng Liangcai on the shoulder.
“Dad, don’t worry. I’ll make sure Meng Ying gets married smoothly.”
For the sake of the Meng family’s interests, this was naturally something she, as the eldest daughter, ought to do.
What?!
Meng Liangcai stood stunned for a long time, wondering whether he had heard incorrectly.
The adopted daughter who had once obeyed his every command had actually attacked his wife and biological daughter?
Where had she found the courage?
Did she think the head of the family was merely a decoration?
After finally regaining his senses, Meng Liangcai grabbed the broom beside the door and swung it at Meng Yao without another word.
In the past, he would never have been able to bring himself to strike her.
However, after Meng Ying told him that she had suffered terribly while living with Meng Guochun, he began treating Meng Yao like a worn-out shoe.
He hated himself for being as foolish as a pig, cherishing another family’s daughter like a priceless treasure while his own biological daughter wandered outside and suffered abuse.
Today, he finally had the opportunity to teach Meng Yao a severe lesson and vent Meng Ying’s anger.
“I’ll beat you to death, you unfilial daughter! You ruined the marriage arrangement, disrespected your elders, and behaved as though no laws or rules applied to you!”
“And now you even dared to attack your own mother?”
“If I don’t beat you to death today, then my surname isn’t Meng!”
His words were fierce.
Unfortunately for him, Meng Yao had already consumed the combat-enhancing potion.
Even ten Meng Liangcais would have been forced to submit obediently.
Meng Yao calmly grabbed the other end of the broom.
It suddenly froze in midair, creating an awkward and strange silence.
“You want to change your surname? That’s perfect. Sharing a surname with all of you is truly unlucky.”
She sneered.
“Remember to transfer your household registration too. After all, one household booklet shouldn’t contain two different surnames.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Meng Yao clenched her fist and launched a brutal attack on Meng Liangcai.
Caught completely off guard, he spun several times as though trapped in a nightmare before crashing heavily to the floor.
The sudden, intense pain made him gasp repeatedly. He did not even have time to scream.
Li Yuqin and Meng Ying had already shrunk against the wall in terror, their heads lowered.
They did not dare look directly at Meng Yao, afraid of provoking another beating.
“Ouch… Ouch…”
“This is outrageous! You little beast! Are you trying to murder your father and mother?”
After being beaten, Meng Liangcai cursed continuously, his expression twisted.
“Yingzi was right about you. You inherited your rotten nature from those dead parents of yours. You were born evil!”
At that moment, the violent energy inside Meng Yao was still raging.
Who had given him the courage to mention Meng Guochun?
Meng Yao began kicking Meng Liangcai viciously in the lower abdomen.
“And what good things did you produce yourselves? Your entire family is worse than animals, yet you still dare shout at me!”
Had she not been afraid of seriously injuring him, Meng Yao might truly have killed him.
Suddenly, she picked up a shoehorn from the floor and forcefully stuffed it into Meng Liangcai’s loudly shouting mouth.
Then she made a silencing gesture at him.
At that moment, in the small courtyard downstairs, a round-headed boy kept peering inside the house.
“Is anyone home?”
“Uncle Meng… Auntie Li…”
Li Xiaohu from the neighboring courtyard held a bowl of steaming braised pork with alternating layers of fat and lean meat.
After straightening her clothes, Meng Yao walked downstairs in small, light steps while humming a tune.
She smelled the rich fragrance of meat from a distance and immediately moved closer, tempted by the aroma.
Looking down at the bowl, she praised,
“When it comes to braised pork, no one in this entire alley cooks it better than Auntie Zhang.”
Li Xiaohu grinned.
“She knows you love it. It just came out of the pot, so Mom told me to bring some over.”
Li Xiaohu was three years younger than Meng Yao.
His father, Li Jianguo, had died while courageously helping someone when Li Xiaohu was three years old. Since then, he and his mother, Zhang Guilan, had depended on each other.
Because he had been mischievous from childhood, he was notoriously troublesome throughout the alley.
Families with children usually kept their distance from him.
Only Meng Yao got along well with him.
Meng Yao naturally took the bowl of braised pork from Li Xiaohu’s hands, grabbed a piece, and stuffed it into her mouth.
Chewing happily, she turned and walked outside.
“This bowl is too large for me to finish alone. Come on, let’s go eat at your house.”
“Is Uncle Meng’s family not home?”
“They went to visit relatives.”
Upstairs, the three battered members of the Meng family fell silent.
Only after confirming that there was no longer any movement downstairs did Meng Liangcai shift his aching body and struggle toward the mother and daughter by the wall.
After using tremendous effort to untie the strips of cloth around them, he collapsed onto the bed like a corpse.
His entire body hurt so badly that he could not speak.
“Does Meng Yao know martial arts?”
Meng Ying’s sudden question left Meng Liangcai and Li Yuqin stunned.
Meng Yao’s strange behavior that day had left all three of them deeply confused.
“Did you send her somewhere to learn?”
“When did you send her—”
Meng Liangcai and Li Yuqin exchanged terrified looks and silently stared at each other.
Could she have secretly learned martial arts and hidden it all this time?
Even if she had learned in secret, there should have been some sign.
Besides, Meng Yao had been raised personally by the couple. Every movement she made had taken place under their watchful eyes.
Something as significant as learning martial arts could not possibly have escaped their notice.
Had they not personally suffered such a brutal beating that day, none of them would have believed that Meng Yao could become so unfamiliar and frightening.
The three stared at one another and discussed the matter for a long time.
Eventually, they reached a conclusion.
Meng Yao had been possessed.
She was definitely possessed!
Meng Ying shouted resentfully,
“No. I can’t swallow this humiliation!”
“She thinks she can make me marry that useless man from the Qi family? She can keep dreaming!”
Li Yuqin frowned.
“But the marriage has already been settled. Is there another solution?”
Meng Ying tilted her head. Her eyes rolled rapidly as a vicious plan formed in her mind.
“I have one.”
“I know how to complete the wedding with the Qi family while still escaping unharmed.”
The three brought their heads together and whispered among themselves.
“Will this really work?”
“If she notices something is wrong, we may suffer just like we did today…”
“You must trust your daughter this once. This concerns the future fortune of the Meng family. Just tell me whether you agree.”
Meng Liangcai looked worried.
Selling a daughter was already disgraceful.
It would be acceptable if the plan succeeded, but if it failed, the Meng family might become an even greater joke.
Because of their factory, the Meng family had maintained a fairly good reputation in recent years.
Had the factory not encountered problems and fallen into financial crisis, they would never have resorted to selling a daughter and destroying the good reputation they had worked so hard to build.
Seeing him hesitate, Li Yuqin angrily flicked his forehead.
“What are you still hesitating about? She was never a child of our Meng family to begin with. We raised her for so many years. It is time for her to repay us.”
“And can you truly bear to watch our own biological daughter marry into that kind of family?”
Meng Ying also glared angrily at him.
Afraid the mother and daughter would misunderstand him, Meng Liangcai quickly shook his head.
A smug smile curved Meng Ying’s lips.
“Then tomorrow, we’ll do this…”