Beside the heavy black ironwood grand armchair, stone dust was still drifting through the air.
The pitch-black, solid iron rod gleamed with a chilling metallic sheen under the sunlight.
Li Maolin had collapsed onto the ground.
His murky old eyes were now filled with sheer, soul-crushing terror.
At the entrance to the large courtyard, dozens of villagers craned their necks, staring intently at the yellowed piece of paper Yu Qinghuan had slapped onto the armrest.
“What does that paper say?”
“Looks like some kind of written agreement. There are red fingerprints on it, too!”
“What on earth is the Li family up to this time?”
The villagers whispered and murmured among themselves.
Miao Cuihua was huddled on the ground. The moment she caught sight of that yellowed paper, her mind exploded.
Her face, wrapped in white bandages, turned as pale as a corpse’s skin.
That agreement…
That death contract she had forced her second son to sign all those years ago—how could it be in this little slut’s hands?!
She had clearly burned her own copy until not even a speck of ash remained!
Yu Qinghuan sneered.
With her fair fingers, she delicately picked up the yellowed agreement and shook it in the air.
“Clan Patriarch, Old Man Li, Mom.”
Yu Qinghuan’s voice wasn’t loud, but every person present heard her words clearly.
“Didn’t you just want to lecture me about clan rules?”
“Didn’t you want to preach that ‘the body, hair, and skin are gifts from one’s parents’ and use that as an excuse to take eighty percent of Zhengting’s military allowance?”
“Then today, in front of every man, woman, and child in this village, let’s read this document properly…”
Yu Qinghuan paused, the smile on her lips growing colder.
“The severance-of-family-ties death contract personally signed by the Li family in 1970!”
The words death contract rang out across the courtyard like an explosion.
Old Man Li’s legs went weak, and he nearly fell to his knees on the spot.
Yu Qinghuan cleared her throat.
Then, loudly and with impeccable clarity, she began to read:
“Parties signing this agreement: Li Jianguo and Miao Cuihua.
“Because their eldest son, Li Guoliang, is physically frail and unwilling to endure the hardships of being sent to the countryside, they forced their second son, Li Zhengting, who was fifteen years old at the time, to take his elder brother’s place and join a rural production team with the Northern Corps.”
The moment Yu Qinghuan read those words, the villagers at the gate collectively sucked in a breath of cold air.
“My heavens! They forced their own fifteen-year-old son to go to the countryside in place of his big brother?!”
“Li Guoliang is physically frail? He’s as fat as a pig! What the hell is frail about him?!”
“The Li family is far too biased!”
Yu Qinghuan ignored the surrounding commotion and continued reading loudly.
“From the moment Li Zhengting departs, he shall bear full responsibility for his own life and death. The Li family shall bear no responsibility whatsoever.
“At the same time, the following death contract is hereby established:
“From this day forward, Li Zhengting shall have no obligation to provide for or support Li Jianguo and Miao Cuihua.
“All military allowances and work points he earns while serving in the army shall belong to him personally and shall have nothing to do with the Li family.
“The Li family’s property, houses, and farmland shall likewise have absolutely nothing to do with Li Zhengting.
“From this day onward, each family shall live or die by its own fate. All family ties are hereby severed. This document is drawn up as evidence!”
Finally, Yu Qinghuan pointed at the red fingerprints at the bottom of the page and shouted:
“Parties to the contract: Li Jianguo and Miao Cuihua!
“Witness: The director of the Educated Youth Office of Hongxing Commune at the time!
“The official seal of the commune’s Educated Youth Office is stamped right here, and the red fingerprints are perfectly clear!”
This reading was no different from stripping away the Li family’s last shred of dignity in front of the entire village.
“My heavens! Those aren’t parents! They practically sold their own son!”
“They made a fifteen-year-old sign a death contract, saying he was responsible for his own life and death, and then declared they wouldn’t accept any support from him!”
“But over the past few years, they’ve squandered all the money Li Zhengting sent home!”
“And now they actually have the nerve to drag out the clan patriarch and demand eighty percent of his military allowance?!”
“Shamelessness knows no bounds! The Li family is downright wicked!”
The villagers were thoroughly enraged.
In a simple rural community, even favoritism had its limits.
But the Li family’s behavior—selling off their own son and then trying to drain every last drop of blood from him—had crossed every moral boundary.
“Lies! You vile woman! That document is fake!”
Miao Cuihua completely panicked. Ignoring the pain from her injuries, she charged forward like a madwoman, trying to snatch the agreement away.
“Fake?!”
Yu Qinghuan flicked her wrist and effortlessly dodged Miao Cuihua’s attempt to tear it away.
She sneered.
“The original is locked away in the county archives and the Educated Youth Office, with backup copies on file!”
“What I have here is only a photocopy.”
“Mom, if you think it’s fake, let’s go to the county right now and compare the fingerprints!”
“Then we’ll see who the shameless one is—the person whose fingerprints are on this document!”
Miao Cuihua’s legs gave way. She slumped onto the ground like a pile of rotten mud.
Her mouth hung open, but she couldn’t produce a single word in her defense.
The villagers’ accusations and curses rained down on her and Old Man Li like hailstones.
Old Man Li’s face turned so red it looked ready to bleed.
He covered his face with his hands, not daring to raise his head.
The Li clan patriarch, Li Maolin, stared at the yellowed death contract, then at the furious villagers surrounding him.
He opened his mouth, but he didn’t even have the face to pick up his cane, which lay in the dirt.
Clan rules?
In the face of a legally documented, government-sealed agreement severing family ties, his precious clan rules weren’t even worth a scrap of toilet paper.
“The Li family… has brought shame upon our entire Li clan!”
Li Maolin sighed. In an instant, he seemed to have aged ten years.
Li Zhengting stood silently behind Yu Qinghuan.
His deep, pitch-black eyes held neither sorrow nor anger.
There was only a cold, resolute determination, almost as lifeless as death itself.
He had been young when he was forced to sign that contract all those years ago.
But now, hearing its contents read aloud once more in front of the entire village, Li Zhengting felt the last faint trace of blood ties he had still held onto for the Li family…
Vanish.
Completely.
He clenched his fists and looked at Yu Qinghuan’s slender figure standing firmly before him, defending him without hesitation.
His gaze grew utterly resolute.
Just as the curses in the courtyard reached their peak and the Li family was thoroughly nailed to the pillar of moral disgrace, a sudden roar rang out.
“Everyone, shut the hell up!”
“What kind of damned commotion is the Li family making in their courtyard so early in the morning?!”
Outside the gate, the brigade secretary came rushing over with several members of the local security committee, sweat pouring down their faces.