Wang Aihua was scared from being beaten and could only endure it. She obeyed whatever was said. Finally, after preparing the ingredients, she started cooking and added some water to the pan. Li Jiyue struck her again with the stick, her tone fierce: “Did you put oil in the pan?”
In her past life, Wang Aihua didn’t know grains from vegetables, but the original host could cook and knew that oil should go in first. Her hands were swollen and clumsy; she couldn’t hold the spatula properly, her tongue tied, weakly saying, “O-o-oil… oil is expensive…”
Li Jiyue snapped, “Expensive? Am I not allowed? Your whole family eats like pigs—brains and intestines fat, heads stuffed with grass—if you pressed them for oil, you could squeeze out dozens of pounds. And I’m not allowed a bit of peanut oil? Put plenty in, got it?” She couldn’t eat food without oil; plain water-cooked vegetables wouldn’t do.
“Yes! I’ll put it in!” Wang Aihua gritted her teeth. Once her husband and son returned, she vowed to have them deal with this little bitch thoroughly. When this little bitch fell into her hands, she would repay her a thousandfold; she wouldn’t be Wang Aihua otherwise.
A total of three dishes and a soup were made: scrambled eggs with tomatoes, steamed ribs, stir-fried lean meat with vegetables, and seaweed egg drop soup, along with two bowls of rice. The portions were small; enough for one, slightly extravagant, but insufficient for more than one person. Yet this was to feed the Lin family of five tonight and tomorrow morning.
Li Jiyue sat down and started eating. Wang Aihua watched her devour the meat and vegetables, daring not to intervene. This was food meant for the entire family, and Li Jiyue ate it all. What were they supposed to eat?
“Looking at me? If you don’t want your eyes, dig them out and donate them,” Li Jiyue said. Wang Aihua knelt like a dog, picking up bones dropped by her and wiping the floor with a rag. She wanted to sneakily grab a chair to knock Li Jiyue out, but before she could act, a heavy foot stomped on her back. Her lips hit a bone on the floor, and her front teeth were knocked crooked.
“Ugh!!” The leftover bones on the floor were disgusting—she refused to eat them. Li Jiyue’s tone was harsh: “Behave. If you dare to scheme again, I’ll dismantle your bones and make soup.”
Wang Aihua scrambled on the floor, limbs flailing, desperately begging in a muffled voice, “Uh… uh… I won’t dare again…”
When Lin Fugui and Lin Tianbao came home from work, they almost dropped their jaws at the scene. Previously, Li Jiyue had been the one kneeling to wipe the floor and pick up bones. Today, it was Wang Aihua! What was going on?
Seeing the Lin father and son at the door as potential backing, Wang Aihua staggered toward them, crying with snot and tears. “Master, Tianbao, you’re finally back! If you hadn’t come, this little bitch would’ve killed me!”
Lin Tianbao’s fists clenched seeing Li Jiyue eating without waiting for them and sitting at the table. Marching toward her, brimming with arrogance: “You little bitch! Worthless! You want to rebel? How dare you hit my mother and sit at the table to eat! You don’t deserve it! Get down if you don’t want to die; you only deserve what we leave behind.”
Li Jiyue replied calmly, “I hit who I want, when I want. Why don’t I deserve it? Your jobs, big house, furniture—all paid for by my family money.”
Having finished most of the meal, she grabbed the edge of the table and flipped it over. The square wooden table toppled. Enamel bowls bounced three feet high with a crisp clatter, the floor in chaos. Lin Tianbao was drenched in sauce, two pieces of tomato stuck to his head, turning his proud, cocky demeanor into a soggy, defeated one.
He shook his head, sending the tomatoes flying onto Lin Fugui and Wang Aihua’s faces. Li Jiyue swiftly intercepted his punch, twisting it with skill: “Crack!” She followed with a punch to his cheekbone: “Pff!” Lin Tianbao spat out blood mixed with two teeth.
Wang Aihua, seeing her son beaten, was heartbroken and wanted to take the blow for him. “Oh, Tianbao, my son! You little bitch, how dare you hit my son! I’ll fight you…”
Lin Fugui and Wang Aihua charged forward but were splattered in blood, their eyes nearly shut. Each got a tooth lodged in their mouths. Wang Aihua spat out the tooth and shouted, “Master, kill this little bitch!”
Before Lin Fugui could act, Li Jiyue stepped forward, delivering a side-kick and horizontal kick to his head, sending him to the corner with a “Bang!” She took off her slipper, grabbed their collars, and slapped them across the faces repeatedly—ten hits each, evenly distributed. With little bitches, she was always fair.
The three of them huddled in the corner, clutching their wounds, screaming, “Aghh! The little bitch is rebelling! The capitalist’s daughter dares to hit us! She’s rebelling! I’ll report you! I’ll report you to the Tail-Cutting Association, to the police! They’ll send you to the Northwest to raise pigs like your damn capitalist parents, never leaving the pigpen!”
Li Jiyue’s beautiful fox-like eyes tilted, a cold glint pouring from the corners, her aura terrifying. She sneered: “Go ahead, report it. Perfect chance for them to investigate how your whole family got your jobs, big house, and new furniture.”
Barefoot against shoes—if you die, we die together. Wang Aihua opened her mouth but dared not speak. How did this little bitch know?
Li Jiyue paused, having tired herself out, but there was still one person who hadn’t returned. She would deal with them later. Suddenly, a young woman in a white nurse’s uniform appeared at the door.
This person was the female lead, Lin Yuzhu. Seeing the mess inside the house, she asked, “Mom, what happened here?”
Wang Aihua pointed at Li Jiyue and wailed, “This little bitch! I told her to cook and she refused. She suddenly went crazy and started beating people. She’s a jinx! Hurry and kick her out. Our family can’t tolerate this Buddha. If she stays, she’ll beat our whole family to death! Wuwuwu…”
Li Jiyue swung the stick and struck her hand, breaking her finger. Wang Aihua clutched her broken finger and screamed, “Ah!”
Lin Yuzhu stepped forward and stood in front of Li Jiyue, taking on the posture of an older sister lecturing her. “Xiaoyue, no matter what, you can’t hit people like this. Dad and Mom kindly took you in. Otherwise, a young girl like you would have been sent to the Northwest to feed pigs. The conditions there are harsh—you probably wouldn’t even come back alive. They haven’t wronged you. I know, it’s all my fault. I know you like Brother Chunsheng. I promise you, I’ll break up with him and give him to you, okay?”
Listen to how skillfully that was said—stealing someone else’s fiancé and making it sound so righteous, giving him to you, as if she were the one being bullied and suffering a huge grievance.
As she spoke, Li Jiyue stepped closer to her, letting out a mocking laugh. Looking down at her with contempt in her eyes, every word cutting deep, she said, “Kindly took me in? Your entire family’s jobs, this big house, and the new furniture were all bought with my money. You eat my food, spend my money, use my things, live in my house. You secretly sold my job, made me serve your whole family, forced me to marry Bald Liao so your precious son could get promoted. You stole my fiancé, and then you cry and say you’re giving him to me. Is that ‘giving’? That’s returning what you stole!”
As she spoke, she slapped Lin Yuzhu hard, sending her flying into the corner to lie there with the other three Lin family members who had been beaten senseless.
Li Jiyue sat down on a chair, tapping the stick against the floor. “Tap, tap! Today’s the tenth—payday, right? Hand over your wages.”
Lin Fugui was a level-three worker at the steel factory, with seniority—forty yuan a month. Lin Tianbao earned twenty-five. Lin Yuzhu was a nurse at a public hospital, earning thirty. In the past, the Lin family rarely bought meat; they only did so once a month after getting paid.
They were all beaten into fear and took out their money, placing it in front of her. As for Wang Aihua, the ten yuan she usually kept for groceries had long since been handed over. This little bit wasn’t even enough to fill a tooth gap. Once she broke them mentally and made them live worse than death, she would empty out their entire family savings.
“Xiaoyue, if you’re short on money, you can tell your sister. I’ll give you some. Why resort to this kind of method? If Brother Chunsheng finds out, he won’t be happy,” Lin Yuzhu said as she put the money down. Her sleeve slipped up, revealing a thick gold bracelet on her wrist.
This bitch liked Brother Chunsheng. In the previous life, after she blackened, she might beat people like a madwoman, but the moment Brother Chunsheng was mentioned, she became more obedient than a dog, not daring to hit anyone, letting Lin Yuzhu manipulate her easily. She never imagined that this Li Jiyue was no longer the love-brained fool of the past—this one had a different soul.
“Brother Chunsheng! Brother Chunsheng!” Li Jiyue mimicked her sweet, coquettish tone, squeezing her brows and eyes as she called out twice. Then her voice suddenly turned icy cold. “Fu Chunsheng is my fiancé, yet every ten sentences out of your mouth, nine mention him. You knowingly act as the third party, corrupt morals, shameless and despicable. Just like your dead mother—she swapped other people’s children, and you learned to steal other people’s men. You don’t learn anything good, only bad things. You’ve dragged all women’s faces through the mud. With trash like you coming out of the Lin family, even your ancestors’ coffin lids probably can’t stay down.”
“Slap—!”
As soon as the words fell, a slap was thrown, sending her flying into the corner.