Pei Nian sat comfortably in a high-backed chair, even leisurely crossing one leg over the other as she calmly studied the three frightened people before her.
Zhao Jianguo clutched his waist, too afraid to move. Wang Cuihua lay sprawled on the floor, hardly daring to breathe. Zhao Xiaojun trembled from the pain all over his body, yet clenched his teeth tightly, not daring to cry out again.
After enjoying their miserable state long enough, Pei Nian decided the show had gone on long enough. She turned around, pulled out a pen and paper from the cabinet, slapped them onto the table, and beckoned to her scumbag father on the floor.
“Come on. Write a severance agreement.”
Those three words hit like a thunderclap, leaving all three frozen in shock.
Zhao Jianguo jerked his head up, all color draining from his face.
“S-Sever ties? Niannian, how can we do that? We’re family!”
“Family?” Pei Nian laughed as though she’d heard the world’s funniest joke, the corners of her lips curling into a mocking smile. “Does family secretly push me into the countryside, into a living hell, just to free up a position for your precious son? Zhao Jianguo, your idea of ‘family’ is so calculating that I could hear it all the way at school.”
Zhao Jianguo continued hesitating, dragging his feet.
Pei Nian had no patience to waste on him. She raised a foot and kicked the solid wooden chair beside her.
With a loud crash, the sturdy chair shattered into pieces, splinters flying everywhere.
Wang Cuihua and Zhao Jianguo both shuddered violently, their faces turning pale.
Zhao Xiaojun had already shrunk toward the doorway, his face as white as paper. His sister had always been a violent maniac since childhood, dropping by every so often to “educate” him. She had been the greatest nightmare of his childhood.
Zhao Jianguo looked from the pile of broken wood on the floor to Pei Nian’s knife-sharp gaze. His throat went dry.
“I… I’ll write it.”
“You can’t!” Wang Cuihua shrieked, ignoring her own pain. “Jianguo, you absolutely can’t! What will Xiaojun do if you sign it?”
What she was really worried about was that once the relationship was severed, Pei Nian would never give up her work assignment for Zhao Xiaojun.
Pei Nian let out a mocking laugh.
“Don’t want to write it? Fine. Then I’ll head to the neighborhood office and the factory committee right now. I’ll have a nice chat with the leaders about how the two of you conspired to force a martyr’s daughter to take your precious son’s place in the countryside. While I’m at it…” She smiled coldly. “I’ll also bring up why Zhao Xiaojun looks so much like you, Zhao Jianguo.”
She stood up as if preparing to leave.
“I’ll write it! I’ll write it right now!”
Zhao Jianguo panicked, his voice cracking as he hurried to stop her.
He understood the situation far better than Wang Cuihua did. If this matter became public, forget about stealing Pei Nian’s job—they might even lose their own.
Wang Cuihua still wanted to protest, but one glance from Pei Nian instantly silenced her.
With trembling hands, Zhao Jianguo picked up the fountain pen. His fingers shook like leaves, the pen scratching noisily across the paper in the deathly silent living room.
When he finished writing the last character, it was as though all the strength had been drained from him. He collapsed onto the stool, looking completely deflated.
Pei Nian walked over, picked up the thin sheet of paper, and read it carefully.
The handwriting was terribly shaky, but the meaning was correct.
With this document, she had finally severed the disgusting bond tying her to them.
She carefully folded the agreement and tucked it into her pocket.
“Alright.” Pei Nian sat back down, speaking as casually as if discussing dinner. “Now that we’ve severed our relationship, let’s talk about compensation.”
Zhao Jianguo and Wang Cuihua stared at her in disbelief.
They had already cut ties, and she still wanted compensation?
“What are you staring at?” Pei Nian raised an eyebrow. “Just because we’ve severed ties doesn’t erase the fact that you smashed my head and left this huge lump, or all the schemes you’ve used against me. You think that debt just disappears?”
She pointed to the obvious swelling on the back of her head.
“Fifty yuan for medical expenses and nutritional recovery. One hundred yuan for emotional damages. Zhao Xiaojun assaulted me and deliberately injured me—that’s another fifty. Total: two hundred yuan. And I want some cloth coupons, grain coupons, meat coupons, and industrial coupons too. I can’t be expected to walk around with a head injury while starving and without clothes to wear.”
Two hundred yuan!
And all those ration coupons!
Wang Cuihua’s vision went black, and she nearly fainted.
Zhao Jianguo also panicked.
“Niannian—no, Pei Nian—that’s far too much! Where are we supposed to get that kind of money?”
He was genuinely afraid of this daughter.
She had been raised by her grandfather since childhood. Her temper and methods were almost identical to the old man’s—ruthless and formidable. Combined with her incredible natural strength, every time he came looking for her, he ended up suffering.
Three months ago, after his father-in-law passed away, Pei Nian had returned to this home. He had thought he could finally control her.
Who would have imagined that this girl was even more ruthless than her grandfather?
“Too much?” Pei Nian smiled, but there wasn’t a trace of warmth in her eyes. “Zhao Jianguo, I haven’t even charged you tuition yet. You married into the Pei family, learned your trade from my grandfather’s personal instruction, and that’s how you earned your livelihood. My grandfather has only been gone for three months, and you’re already teaming up with your second wife to bully me. This little bit of money doesn’t even cover the interest.”
Her voice remained calm, but every word struck precisely at Zhao Jianguo’s greatest source of guilt.
“Zhao Jianguo, you’ve got a lot of nerve living off the Pei family.”
The color vanished completely from Zhao Jianguo’s face.
Shame, fear, and the humiliation of having his ugliest schemes exposed all mixed together, leaving his legs so weak he could barely stand.
Wang Cuihua pounded the floor and wailed.
“We don’t have any money! We really don’t! You’re trying to drive our whole family to death!”
“Oh? This is driving you to death?” Pei Nian replied lightly. “Then maybe I should still go have that little talk at the factory. Anyway, now that the severance agreement is signed, I have even fewer reservations. Besides, you barely raised me at all.”
That single, casually spoken sentence completely cut off Zhao Jianguo’s last avenue of escape.
Pei Nian couldn’t be bothered watching Wang Cuihua’s pathetic performance. Her eyes remained fixed on Zhao Jianguo.
“So? Are you paying, or not?”
Looking into Pei Nian’s eyes, Zhao Jianguo knew there was no escaping today without bleeding heavily.
Grinding his teeth in bitter resignation, he slowly walked back into the inner room and began rummaging through cabinets and boxes.
He returned carrying an old handkerchief bundle.
Inside was a thick stack of money in both large and small denominations, along with a handful of crumpled small-value notes. He placed it on the table before Pei Nian together with most of their ration coupons, his hands shaking so badly he could barely hold them.
Pei Nian took them and counted everything slowly, one bill at a time.
Exactly two hundred yuan.
The variety and quantity of coupons were also satisfactory.
“Continue,” she said coldly. “You still haven’t given me my assignment papers for going to the countryside or my educated youth relocation allowance.”
Zhao Jianguo had become completely numb.
He counted out another ten ten-yuan notes and handed them over.
Without even nodding, Pei Nian packed away the money and coupons. Without sparing a glance at the three people who looked as though their souls had been ripped out, she turned and walked straight back to her room.
Bang.
The bedroom door shut firmly behind her.
Back in her own small space, Pei Nian finally let out a quiet breath and gently felt the injury on the back of her head.
Ouch… It still throbbed faintly, but it probably hadn’t injured anything serious. It wasn’t a major problem.
She walked to the wardrobe and retrieved a locked old wooden box hidden in the deepest corner. Taking a tiny key concealed on her person, she inserted it into the lock.
Click.
Inside were all her belongings—215 yuan and 70 cents in cash, a savings passbook with a balance of 5,000 yuan, and a small stack of various ration coupons, all left to her by her grandfather.
Besides those, the box also contained a handwritten notebook and a white jade bracelet left behind by her mother.