“If you don’t dare, then you’re not allowed to stay in this house—get back to the Xiejia right now!” Zhao Qin always spoke to me word by word, through gritted teeth, full of venomous hatred.
I said calmly, “Don’t worry, I’ve long since had enough of this house. But I will not go to the Xiejia. Whatever you owe them, you can go repay it yourselves. I am not your slave, and I’m not a brainless beast to be bullied and deceived at your whim. Go ahead and dote on your own daughter—fine, I don’t care. But if you think you can scheme against me, no way!”
My father’s body trembled, and he turned to look at me.
I met my father’s gaze. I wanted him to know that I knew everything.
He immediately lowered his head, avoiding my eyes.
Zhao Qin, gnashing her teeth, raised the iron tongs to strike me a second time.
My eldest brother pulled her back just in time. “Mom! What are you doing! If you keep hitting her like this, are you trying to beat someone to death!” He snatched the tongs away and threw them aside.
“Look at how this wretched girl treats me!” Zhao Qin glared at me darkly. “She did such a shameful, disgraceful thing, and still argues with me self-righteously. Don’t I have the right to beat her?”
“No matter how angry you are, you can’t go for the kill!”
“If she calls me ‘Mom,’ then I have the right to hit her!”
I gave a scornful laugh and went back to my room, shutting the door behind me. No matter how furiously she wailed her complaints outside, I paid no attention.
Where there is no hope, there is no disappointment. By now, my heart toward Zhao Qin—this mother from my past life—was cold as iron, devoid of all feeling.
I began packing my things. My eldest brother worked away from home; he had come back this time for my wedding. I wanted to leave with him. No matter how hard his work was, at least it would give me a place to eat.
I didn’t have many clothes: one coat my eldest brother had given me, altered down from his own clothes, two pairs of pants and three shirts, all from him too. My older sister had plenty of clothes, but she would never part with any for me—whatever she had worn out, Zhao Qin took back to her own family’s home.
Outside, Zhao Qin’s cursing went on and on. I turned a deaf ear, found a cloth bundle and packed my things into it, then went to wash my face and comb my hair, not the least bit hurried. I was someone who had already died once—what could I possibly not ure?
At last, a pleasant voice came from the courtyard. It was Liu Yaolan, sounding anxious: “Mom, what happened? Qiankun, help me pull Mom up. Why are you crying?”
“Yes, Mom, what’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell? We’ll take you to see a doctor!” That was my brother-in-law Song Qiankun’s voice.
I looked out through the glass. The two of them were dressed like city folk. My sister’s long braid had been changed into the ponytail popular in the cities, and she wore a white dacron dress; Song Qiankun wore a white shirt and black pants. A handsome couple, perfectly matched.
Zhao Qin had poured her heart and soul into Liu Yaolan. The son-in-law she had found for her was chosen after a thousand screenings—a family of cultivation and refinement, who didn’t look down on my sister for being from the village, and who treated her very well.
In my past life, Song Qiankun and her child got into Tsinghua University, and they both became famous figures in our county. My heart filled with an indescribable bitterness. I refused to admit it was jealousy. I had worked hard to support my Jiaojiao too, but with our family’s circumstances, I couldn’t s her to tutoring classes costing hundreds of yuan an hour like Liu Yaolan’s child.
But my daughter still got into a decent second-tier university. Ah, a child loved by her parents is truly blessed.
My thoughts drifted back to my past life, and I had no mood to deal with Zhao Qin outside.
She was crying so hard she could barely catch her breath, utterly aggrieved: “She came back the very night of the wedding, saying she couldn’t live with him anymore, that she wanted a divorce. Since she’s so unfilial and determined to shame me, I don’t want to live either. I’ll just find two ropes—Liu Yaozhen, come out here, I’ll take you to your death right now.”
I got off the kang, walked out, pushed open the door, and said calmly, “Fine, let’s die together. I’m not marrying that piece of trash anyway. As for you, just don’t be too reluctant to part with your precious darling.”
My older sister froze, staring at me in shock, and Song Qiankun was too stunned to speak. The whole courtyard fell silent.
I had never talked back before—I’d always been a meek pushover who swallowed every insult. But I had changed now.
Zhao Qin clutched her chest, the fat on her face trembling: “You were the one who insisted on marrying him in the first place. Did I force you? You can’t just decide not to marry now. Where does that leave your sister’s and your brother’s dignity?”
“You didn’t force me—you deceived me. That man is a cheating piece of trash. You knew it all along and still made me marry him. What you did wasn’t something a human being does!”
Zhao Qin’s mouth twisted, and she lunged at me to hit me, but she staggered a few steps and nearly fell to the ground. Liu Yaolan hurried to support her: “Mom, are you okay?”
Zhao Qin pushed away my eldest brother, grabbed Liu Yaolan’s hand, and sobbed, “Look at this unfilial daughter! I raised her with such hardship, and this is how she treats me? Qiankun, you’re a city man—have you ever seen a child like this?”
Song Qiankun was extremely embarrassed.
I snorted through my nose. Trying to crush me with filial piety? If you won’t be kind, I won’t be righteous—don’t blame me for being rude.
I started crying too, telling them all about how shameless Xie Yanlai was, and how this mother-daughter pair had used me to pay off their debts: “I’m also a child of this family. Why should I suffer such a grievance? Dad, are you just going to stand by while these two mother and daughter trick me into a pit of fire?”
My father sighed and scratched his head: “Forget it. Since things have come to this, let’s just call off the wedding.”
“Shut up!” Zhao Qin barked at him, then fixed her eyes on me. “You’ve disgraced this family. I will never forgive you.”
“Same to you—I’ll never forgive you either.”
Liu Yaolan cried, “Sister, how can you treat Mom like this? She cares about you so much. I know you’re upset because you married someone worse than I did, and you’re throwing a tantrum—I don’t blame you for that, but Mom did nothing wrong. How can you just make things up?”
What a bitch! She still has to step on me at a time like this?
I cursed her silently, then flung myself in front of Liu Yaolan, grabbing her hand, tears and snot streaming down my face: “Sister, you’re an educated woman. Now that you’re happy with my brother-in-law, you don’t care whether I live or die? How much of his money did you sp? Can’t you just pay it back? Xie Yanlai told me—he only married me to get revenge on you. He beats me all the time, and he says you’re a lying whore who only knows how to swindle his money, that you look decent on the outside but are utterly shameless inside! He swore he’d destroy me to get back at you. I’m so scared—I’ll be beaten to death!” I cursed Liu Yaolan out in a roundabout way.
Liu Yaolan’s face went pale: “I… I don’t know anything about this! I’ve never spent a cent of his money!”
“Is all this coming from Xie Yanlai?” my brother asked, frowning.
I nodded. Liu Yaolan swayed unsteadily, her voice trembling: “No… I never did any such thing!”
“He says you spent over seven hundred yuan of his money. And since you wouldn’t pay it back, you pawned me off to him—said he could deal with me however he liked, as long as I stayed out of her way.”
Song Qiankun frowned at Liu Yaolan. Flustered and furious, she burst into tears: “I didn’t! Qiankun, you have to believe me—how could I ever do something like that?”
Zhao Qin jabbed her finger so close it nearly poked my eye out: “Shut your filthy mouth, you little brat!”
I turned my head away and shouted, “All of this came from Xie Yanlai’s mouth. Instead of going after him, you’re yelling at me? Brother-in-law, look at her—is that the behavior of a mother? Or is she just guilty at heart and doesn’t dare face him?”
Zhao Qin was dying to say something, but Liu Yaolan held her back, stopping her from speaking.
She bit her lip. “Xie Yanlai is lying. I’m being framed.”
“Then go confront him,” I said. “If I didn’t owe his family all that money, why would he hate me so much? You’d better hurry up and pay Xie Yanlai back.”
Song Qiankun kept frowning, saying nothing. Liu Yaolan clenched her fists, her knuckles turning white.
I knew she hated me to the core by now, but I didn’t care anymore. Let’s fight—let it all blow up into an open brawl. The messier, the better.
My brother said, “Xie Yanlai is truly a beast in human clothing! Not content with ruining Zhenzhen, he wants to drag Big Sister down into disgrace with her? Absolutely not—I firmly refuse to let Second Sister marry him!”
Liu Yaolan said anxiously, “Can a divorced woman still hold her head up in this village? Brother, you’re a man, you don’t understand…”
My brother cut her off: “If she can’t, then I’ll take her away. The world out there is vast and wide—we can always scrape together a living somehow. I won’t stand by and watch my sister jump into a fire pit knowing full well it’s a fire pit.”