“Back then you said my younger brother didn’t have enough silver to take a wife. You snatched Niannian away and sold her, and you even threatened to kill yourself to stop me from going to look for her.
Niannian is the flesh that fell from my own body. Not a single day these past years have I stopped thinking about my daughter.
You’re a mother too. In your heart, is a daughter really so unimportant?”
Shen Yunzhi cried loudly, as if she meant to pour out every grievance she had buried in her heart over the years.
“Mother, all these years, every time you used the excuse of saving money to redeem Niannian, you forced me to take money and goods from the Su family. If we calculate carefully, the money and valuables I’ve given you over the years — even if it’s not a hundred taels, it’s at least eighty.
You rebuilt your house. My nephew attends the best academy. Second Brother studied and now works as an accountant in the county. Your family’s life keeps getting better and better. In the dead of night, have you never once thought about your granddaughter still suffering somewhere?”
Mother Shen stiffened her neck. “What family doesn’t expect their daughter to support her natal home and help her brothers?”
“Have I not helped enough? Did I even have to sacrifice my daughter to help?” Shen Yunzhi’s voice trembled with soul-deep anguish. “My daughter carries the Su family’s blood. When you did this, did you ever consider my position in the Su household?”
Most of the onlookers were women. Many of them had also been pressured by their natal families to take from their husbands’ households to support their own. Unlike the Su family, their in-laws were not so easygoing — they were caught in the middle, scolded from both sides.
And daughters… many had been sent away, never to return.
At this moment, as they thought of the daughters who had been taken from them, tears began to fall.
Mother Shen curled her lip. Since when had Shen Yunzhi become so sharp-tongued? With just a few sentences, she had turned the situation so that Mother Shen seemed entirely in the wrong.
“If you insist on threatening your life to stop me from redeeming my daughter, fine — then let’s hang ourselves together at the gate right now.”
Shen Yunzhi strode into the house, tore two strips of cloth from a bolt of fabric, and threw one to Mother Shen.
“Let’s go together, Mother. I’ll continue serving you in the underworld.”
The crowd was stunned. Who could have imagined such a move?
Mother Shen froze as well. She hadn’t lived enough yet. Her children were all becoming successful — she was still waiting to enjoy the prestige of being an honored matriarch.
Shen Yunzhi tied her strip of cloth to the jujube tree at the gate and cast Mother Shen a sideways glance.
“Mother. Let’s go.”
She slipped her neck into the noose.
Su Jingci rushed forward to stop her, but Liu Lihua grabbed him. “Don’t interfere. Your mother can handle this.”
“What if Mother really—” He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence.
“I’ll go.” Liu Lihua had someone drag Su Jingci back inside, then strode straight over.
“You’re being foolish! Everyone here has seen clearly how you’ve treated the Shen family all these years. From the moment they severed ties with you, whatever debt you owed them was repaid. But what you owe the Su family is not yet repaid. Even if you want to die, you should first repay what you owe the Sus — and bring your daughter back!”
Shen Yunzhi threw herself into Liu Lihua’s arms and cried for a while longer.
Mother Shen felt her scalp go numb. If Shen Yunzhi truly went to cause trouble at that household, they would never spare the Shen family. That family held power and influence — a few quiet moves from them could ruin her grandson’s future entirely.
She had to stop Shen Yunzhi.
But all the tricks that had worked before no longer worked. Now she had nothing left.
Liu Lihua rounded on Mother Shen.
“Back when the marriage was being arranged, you demanded twenty taels of betrothal silver, saying my sister-in-law was educated and different from us mud-legged peasants.
Even a scholar’s daughter only commands ten taels. When my in-laws refused, you said, ‘A married daughter is water poured out. You raise her for someone else’s family. She’ll serve them in their old age. This little bit of money isn’t a loss.’”
When daughters are married off, natal families often pocket the bride price and give no dowry, using that exact excuse. Everyone knows it — but once spoken aloud, it becomes shameful.
“You Shen family pride yourselves on being a scholarly household of high standing. I’ve heard that families of high standing provide dowries when their daughters marry. You had none — and still you mistreated your own daughter. You’ve truly opened my eyes.”
“When I go to town next time and see those scholars, I’ll have to ask them properly — are all ‘high-standing’ families like this?”
Liu Lihua struck precisely at Mother Shen’s sore spot.