Su Qiu held her forehead. No wonder the girl in the dream had kept pitifully crying about being hungry and cold.
Ah, such a pitiful child.
Big Sister had brought plenty of food and warm clothes this time. She definitely would not go hungry or freeze anymore.
“And you still have the mood to look in the mirror? Didn’t I tell you to go cook?”
Su Jiazhong walked out from the room across from her, his face dark with displeasure.
Su Qiu looked at the middle-aged man before her. This was the Original Owner’s father from her memories. Normally he never bothered with household matters. To outsiders, he looked like a good old man, but in truth he was all surface appearance, like a shiny donkey dung ball.
The reason he was unhappy now was because Su Qiu had cursed out her stepmother yesterday.
Calling it “cursing out” was not quite accurate. Su Qiu had merely questioned why they had signed her up to go to the countryside without informing her.
In the end, the stepmother had cried bitterly in front of the father, and somehow the real culprit became the wronged party instead.
Not only had Su Qiu been forced to apologize to her stepmother, but the stepmother had acted even more aggrieved afterward, packing a small bag and returning to her parents’ home to stay.
Just thinking about it gave Su Qiu a headache. She looked at Su Jiazhong with speechless disdain.
“Those are your children. You go cook for them. I’m not their parent.”
“You—you, what did you say?”
Su Jiazhong could hardly believe his ears. His usually obedient and sensible second daughter actually dared to speak to him like this.
While sizing up the furnishings in the house, Su Qiu repeated herself again.
“You, as a father, are unreasonable. Your whole family gets all the benefits and still lectures me. Sure enough, where there’s a stepmother, there’s a stepfather too. Just wait, I’ll go outside later and spread your glorious reputation around so all the neighbors can enjoy the show.”
Hearing such rebellious words, Su Jiazhong exploded with anger.
“You dare! See if I don’t break your legs!”
“Perfect. Then I won’t be able to go to the countryside. Let your precious younger daughter go instead.”
Su Qiu was not afraid of him at all. From what the older neighbors had said in her memories, Su Jiazhong had once been dirt poor. If he had not relied on Su Qiu’s biological mother to rise in status, he would never have gotten an official job or lived in such a large house.
Treating his own biological daughter this way—wasn’t he afraid his former wife would come looking for him in the middle of the night?
Su Jiazhong pointed fiercely at Su Qiu twice and lowered his voice as he scolded her.
“Su Qiu, what exactly do you want? Your name has already been registered. It can’t be changed! As for your job, your younger sister is weak and sickly. Sending her to the countryside would kill her. As her older sister, can’t you show some concern for her?”
“Concern for her?”
Su Qiu sneered.
“Give me a break. Su Ting weighs over 110 jin. Look at me—do I even weigh 80?
I get up early and work late serving your whole family every single day, and you, as a father, actually have the nerve to say something like that?
As for what I want, since the matter is already settled and I don’t care to stay living here anymore, then naturally I want money and ration tickets.”
Su Jiazhong had originally wanted to refute her, but looking at his daughter, who was skinny like a monkey, he suddenly felt it was pointless talking to her.
Forget it. He did not want to argue with this unfilial daughter. He only wanted to send her off to the countryside as quickly as possible so his wife would stop crying and making a fuss every day.
“If you had said this earlier, wouldn’t that have solved everything? You just had to make the whole family unhappy. Your mother and I already discussed it. When you leave for the countryside, we’ll give you ten yuan. After that, we’ll mail you tickets every month. At the very least, you won’t starve.”
Su Qiu burst out laughing when she heard that.
“You make it sound so nice. I can’t even eat my fill while living at home, and you think ten yuan is enough to dismiss me? I’m being sent all the way to Beidahuang. By the time you send anything, I’ll already be starved to death.”
“You—!” Su Jiazhong was nearly angered to death by this rebellious daughter.
“Then how much do you want?”
“I want five hundred yuan, plus two hundred jin of grain and all kinds of ration tickets,” Su Qiu said calmly while blowing on her nails.
Su Jiazhong cursed with a dark face.
“You’re dreaming! Do you think money blows in on the wind? There are so many mouths in this family waiting to eat. At most I’ll give you thirty yuan and twenty jin worth of grain tickets.
But on one condition. From now on, the family won’t send you anything else. You’re going to the countryside to contribute to the nation. As long as you work properly there, you won’t lack food.”
Hearing this, Su Qiu mentally calculated the wages and prices of this era.
The Original Owner had worked for a year and a half, earning twenty-one yuan per month. After keeping one yuan for pocket money, the remaining twenty yuan had all been handed over for household expenses.
So this family had not only exploited Su Qiu’s labor, but also her wages.
The Original Owner had already handed over three hundred and eighty yuan in wages alone. Asking for five hundred was not excessive at all.
But based on the character of these people in her memories, the father only cared about eating and avoided responsibility, while the stepmother was calculating and stingy.
Her biological older sister, Su Li, had a soft temperament. Su Ting was delicate and loved pretending. Su Baoming, as the only son, had been spoiled beyond reason.
To sum it up, Su Jiazhong had relied on his wife to rise in status, sucked dry Su Qiu’s mother, and then continued exploiting his former wife’s two daughters.
Not a single one of the four was any good.
Su Qiu did not care what he said. He definitely had the five hundred yuan and could afford to give it. He simply did not want to.
“My job alone could easily be sold for at least three hundred yuan, not to mention all the wages I handed over over the years.
And let’s not forget, my mother left plenty of things behind for me. Asking you for five hundred isn’t much.
If you won’t pay, believe it or not, I’ll make a scene at your workplace and let your leaders judge who’s right.”
Su Jiazhong’s face darkened again.
“Your mother’s been dead for years! What belongings could there possibly be? You ungrateful thing, go complain wherever you want.
Your registration is finalized. Even if we have to tie you up, we’ll still send you to the countryside. Let’s see who’ll tolerate your nonsense.”
After saying that, Su Jiazhong turned and walked out.
Hmph. As if she really had the guts.
He was going to call his eldest daughter and have her come back to properly discipline this unfilial brat.
Just because of going to the countryside, she had grown bold enough to accuse her own father and even shamelessly demand money. She was completely lawless!
Su Qiu was not anxious at all after watching him leave. She leisurely began wandering around the house.
Su Jiazhong’s work unit had dormitory apartments, but the stepmother’s younger brother and his wife were living there.
The house where their family of six currently lived covered over seventy square meters, far more spacious than the tiny dormitory apartments that were only around ten square meters.
Only after checking the Original Owner’s memories did she learn that this house had originally been a small courtyard left behind by Su Qiu’s grandfather as part of his daughter’s dowry.
The two large suites had later been remodeled into three rooms and a living room, more than enough for six people.
Originally, the husband and wife had one room, Su Qiu and her sister Su Li shared another, and Su Ting and Su Baoming shared the third.
After Su Li got married, the stepmother claimed the son had grown older and needed a room of his own to study.
Originally, they planned to have Su Qiu and Su Ting share a room. But Su Ting cried and threw tantrums insisting on having a room to herself, even threatening to starve herself.
In the end, the stepmother could do nothing about her. Su Jiazhong said that as the older sister, Su Qiu should give in to her younger sister, so they partitioned off a tiny room for Su Qiu on the balcony.
They hung up a curtain and squeezed in a narrow bed. That tiny space became Su Qiu’s living quarters for the past two years.
Meanwhile, Su Ting’s room was huge. It had a double bed, a desk, a wardrobe, and still had more than enough space to fit another bed.
The house belonged to the former wife, yet everyone acted blind and forced Su Qiu to curl up in that tiny balcony space.
Not to mention, after getting off work every day, Su Qiu still had to wash clothes and cook meals, and at night she hand-washed the laundry for all six family members. During the day she still had to go to work.
No wonder she was so thin that she was nothing but skin and bones.
The more Su Qiu recalled, the angrier she became. Even after doing all this, the Original Owner had still been criticized and picked apart.
Could these people even be considered human?
Although these experiences were not her own, the Original Owner had the same face and the same name as her. Wasn’t that basically the same as bullying her?
Su Qiu decided she would properly deal with this entire family.
First, she thoroughly searched through the house and roughly figured out their situation.
She planned to make a big move, so she first tossed all of Su Qiu’s useful belongings and documents into her dimension space.
Then she rummaged through her stepmother’s wardrobe, dug out the Su Family’s household registration documents along with the proof related to Su Ting, and headed straight for the Educated Youth Office.