Shen Yong tossed and turned all night, unable to sleep. Early the next morning, he walked around with dark circles under his eyes. After pacing outside for a long while, cigarette ash falling all over the ground, he finally gritted his teeth and told Shen Jianjun to knock on Shen Zhouzhou’s door.
The door opened, revealing Shen Zhouzhou’s frost-cold face.
“Hmph, bitch, Dad wants you,” Shen Jianjun said, rolling his eyes the moment he saw her.
Without the slightest courtesy, Shen Zhouzhou grabbed his ear and twisted it hard.
“You and your sister are the little bastards, and your mother is the old one.”
“Dad! Sis! Save me! She’s going to beat me to death! It hurts! It hurts! Bitch, let go of me!”
Hearing him curse at her again, Shen Zhouzhou twisted even harder.
“What did you call me? Keep being rude and I’ll really hit you.”
Shen Jianjun howled like a slaughtered pig. Shen Yong and Shen Fangfang looked heartbroken, but Shen Yong knew Shen Zhouzhou would at most give him a few hits and wouldn’t truly hurt him, so he only watched anxiously without stepping forward.
Shen Fangfang was different.
“Bitch, let go of my brother right now!”
She charged over with her face still swollen like an overproofed steamed bun.
The instant she rushed over, Shen Zhouzhou released Shen Jianjun’s ear and kicked him squarely in the backside. He flew straight into Shen Fangfang, and the two of them crashed heavily onto the floor together, landing face first in an undignified heap.
Immediately, a duet of wailing filled the room. This time they were genuinely crying.
“Cry again, I dare you!”
Shen Zhouzhou stepped forward and shouted at them fiercely.
Seeing the ruthless look on her face, the two cowards swallowed back all thoughts of arguing or teaching her a lesson. They were hurting too much and didn’t dare cry anymore.
Shen Yong’s fingers turned white around the cloth bundle in his hands. The edges were frayed from being rubbed so often, and the money and coupons inside had become warm from his repeated handling. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he pulled out a stack of crumpled bills, then fetched a tin box from beneath the bed and poured out several silver dollars.
Those had been Song Yuan’s dowry, secretly hidden away by him for ten years.
“The silver dollars count as fifty yuan, twenty jin of grain coupons count as thirty, one zhang of cloth coupons counts as fifteen…”
Squatting on the floor, he worked the abacus furiously. When he finished calculating, he slammed the abacus onto the table.
“It’s only eight hundred in total! Do you really have to drive me to my death?”
Leaning against the doorframe, Shen Zhouzhou sneered.
“The one driving you to death is yourself. Either you come up with the full fifteen hundred now, or tomorrow I’ll stand at the entrance of the Textile Factory and cry for justice. I’ll make sure the whole factory knows how Director Shen drove his first wife to death and allowed his second wife to abuse his own daughter.”
Her gaze flicked to the bicycle coupons hidden behind the door.
“Those two bicycle coupons could fetch one hundred twenty on the black market.”
Shen Yong’s face turned deathly pale. He stumbled into the inner room, dragged out a wooden chest from under the bed, and pulled out an old fur coat.
“This fox fur coat belonged to my father. It can sell for two hundred.”
Then he pried open a crack in the wall and took out an oil-paper bundle containing half a gold bar.
“I… I’ve saved this for half my life…”
His hands trembled as he shoved the gold bar into Shen Zhouzhou’s hand.
“Count it as three hundred. I really can’t give any more.”
“You’re still fifty short.”
Shen Zhouzhou weighed the gold bar in her hand, examining its quality under the kerosene lamp.
Suddenly, Shen Yong lunged to the kang cabinet, tore down the portrait of Chairman Mao hanging on the wall, and revealed a small cloth bag hidden behind it. Inside were fifty yuan in crisp new notes, money he had been saving to buy clothes for Shen Jianjun.
He slapped the money onto the table, his knuckles white with force.
“Take it! From this day on, the bond between father and daughter is severed. We owe each other nothing!”
Shen Zhouzhou stuffed the money, coupons, and gold bar into her cloth bag, then with a thought transferred everything into her space for safekeeping.
As she turned away, she noticed the fresh streaks of white at Shen Yong’s temples. She paused briefly but said nothing, merely placing three copies of the severance agreement onto the table.
“Sign them.”
Shen Yong grabbed the fountain pen. A drop of ink spread across the word “father,” blooming like a congealed tear of blood.
Shen Fangfang threw herself at the table. Seeing the gold bar and the stacks of cash, her eyes widened like bronze bells.
“That’s the money my mother left for us! You bitch! Give it back!”
She lunged for the cloth bag, but Shen Zhouzhou shoved her away with one hand. Shen Fangfang staggered backward, knocked over a stool, and half her hair came loose, exposing her swollen cheek.
“Dad! Look at her! She’s taking all the family’s money and coupons! That’s for Jianjun’s future wife, and for my dowry!”
She sat on the floor kicking and screaming, tears and snot smeared all over her face.
“If you let her leave today, I’ll die right here!”
Shen Jianjun hid behind Shen Yong, clutching his father’s clothes tightly. His round eyes were full of fear and reluctance. Watching Shen Zhouzhou put bundle after bundle of money into her bag, he suddenly burst into tears.
“My wife! My new clothes! That bad sister took them all!”
He broke free from Shen Yong and ran over, grabbing Shen Zhouzhou’s leg and pounding at her.
“Give me back my money! It’s mine!”
Disgusted, Shen Zhouzhou shook him off. He immediately rolled on the floor in a tantrum, kicking off his shoes as his cries echoed through the house.
The commotion gave Shen Yong a splitting headache. Clutching his chest and gasping for breath, he looked from Shen Zhouzhou’s cold back to his two children rolling on the floor. Suddenly, he raised his hand and slapped Shen Fangfang.
“Shut up! Make one more scene and I’ll throw you out too!”
Shen Fangfang froze for a moment before crying even harder.
Then he pointed at Shen Jianjun.
“Go back to your room! Cry again and you won’t get any food!”
Frightened, Shen Jianjun shrank back and scrambled to his feet, sniffling as he kept looking back at the money on the table, tears falling like broken strings of pearls.
Shen Zhouzhou tucked the severance agreement into her bag and turned to return to her room.
Suddenly, Shen Fangfang sprang up from the floor, grabbed the abacus from the table, and hurled it at her.
“You bitch! May you die horribly!”
The abacus whizzed past Shen Zhouzhou’s ear and shattered against the doorframe.
Shen Zhouzhou looked at Shen Fangfang quietly, as though she were looking at a dead person.
Just when everyone thought she had nothing more to say and were about to continue cursing her, she moved.
Striding forward, she grabbed Shen Fangfang by the collar.
“Bitch…”
Shen Fangfang didn’t even finish the word before a vicious slap landed across her face.
“Smack!”
“Smack!!”
“Do you think I’m some soft persimmon you can squeeze however you like?”
“Didn’t I tell you not to provoke me? Looks like you still haven’t learned.”
Smack after smack rang out.
Shen Zhouzhou struck with both hands, utterly unstoppable.
She beat Shen Fangfang to her heart’s content until Shen Fangfang’s hair was a mess and she cried for her father and mother in misery.
Only when Shen Zhouzhou’s hands grew tired did she toss Shen Fangfang onto the floor like a piece of trash.
Watching the murderous look on Shen Zhouzhou’s face, Shen Yong instinctively retreated again and again, trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible.
This Shen Zhouzhou had truly gone mad.
She was a complete lunatic.
Ignoring all of them, Shen Zhouzhou couldn’t be bothered to deal with them as long as they stayed out of her way. She turned to return to her room for a rest. Shen Fangfang’s face was ridiculously thick-skinned; hitting her had actually made Shen Zhouzhou’s hands hurt.
She would have to disinfect them later. Who knew whether Shen Fangfang had poisoned them somehow?