During the time Ren Chaomei was sleeping soundly with her head buried under the quilt that night, Ren Dahe had already blamed Wang Xiaoqin, accusing her of burning the house down because she had been boiling medicine.
Even when Wang Xiaoqin tried to defend herself, saying that there had been no firewood left in the stove after she finished boiling the medicine, only a few embers, and that she had no idea how the kitchen had caught fire, the blaze had been nothing but an accident.
After blaming Wang Xiaoqin, Ren Dahe turned around and blamed his son, Ren Guodong, accusing him of staying out playing cards for too long. If they had come home earlier, perhaps this disaster would never have happened.
When it came to Ren Gan Ying, he blamed her for failing to save the valuable belongings in the house, causing the family to lose a great deal of money.
As he went on, Ren Dahe brought up the fact that Ren Gan Ying had searched through their room a few days earlier and began wondering whether the money he still couldn’t find had been stolen by her.
“Dad, all you know how to do is blame us. Why don’t you blame yourself? You weren’t home when it mattered. You kept all the money in your own hands and even hid it from Mom. That’s why the money got burned!”
Everything Wang Xiaoqin and Ren Guodong didn’t dare say, Ren Gan Ying said it all.
At a time like this, everyone was anxious about the future. No one could afford to be generous or tolerant, and a simple disagreement could easily turn into an argument.
Ren Dahe couldn’t stand hearing such cutting words. Seeing his daughter defy him like that, he immediately swung the stick in his hand at Ren Gan Ying, hitting her several times.
Arguments and violence had always been the norm in this family.
It was just that when they had no money, such scenes happened even more frequently.
Most of the resentment in Ren Chaomei’s heart had already been burned away by the fire. Of what remained, eighty percent was directed at Ren Dahe, while the other three members of the Ren family shared the remaining twenty percent.
Seeing Ren Dahe—the person she hated most—controlling the entire family and bullying the other three, Ren Chaomei wasn’t happy at all.
She was simply furious at how useless they were!
“Oh my gosh~ Big Sis! Your uncle is hitting you, and you’re just standing there taking it? Fight back! Run!”
Ren Gan Ying hesitated for two seconds but didn’t move.
The moment she spoke against her father, she had known she was going to get beaten.
Knowing that was one thing, but she really couldn’t hold it in anymore!
She had endured it for half the night. After holding everything inside until now, the moment Ren Dahe complained about her, all the words in her heart came pouring out.
She regretted it as soon as she finished speaking. She figured she might as well let Ren Dahe hit her a few times until he calmed down.
Even if she ran this time, where could she go? She would still have to come back eventually. And once she returned, the beating she had avoided would only be made up for later. She might as well not run.
Ren Gan Ying’s completely submissive attitude toward being beaten made Ren Chaomei’s vision go dark.
She cursed inwardly, This enemy is such a loyal lapdog!
It really hadn’t been wrong of her to sabotage Ren Gan Ying’s matchmaking attempts before. If Ren Gan Ying actually married into the city and made a better life for herself, wouldn’t Ren Dahe end up living like a pampered old patriarch?
Ren Chaomei tried to egg Ren Gan Ying into fighting back, and immediately drew all of Ren Dahe’s anger toward herself.
“Ren Chaomei, you little jinx! It wasn’t enough that you brought misfortune to your own parents. Now you’ve brought unrest to our whole family! You won’t listen yourself, and now you’re trying to make your sister disobey too!”
“A man with no sense of responsibility is always good at shifting the blame. You cowardly old bully! You useless fool, you muddleheaded idiot, you hypocritical piece of trash, you spineless bastard…”
The two of them began trading insults.
After cursing each other for two minutes, they were both ready to start fighting.
Ren Chaomei had already rolled up her sleeves when the brigade leader arrived.
There was serious business to deal with, so Ren Chaomei and Ren Dahe exchanged a glance and automatically backed down.
After finishing the day’s work assignments for the production team members, the brigade leader hurried over to deal with the Ren family’s situation.
There was no need to involve the children in major matters, so the brigade leader pulled Ren Dahe aside to discuss things privately.
“Dahe, are you planning to rebuild the house, or what are you thinking?”
“If you can get the new house built quickly, your whole family can temporarily stay in the granary behind the brigade office while the construction is underway.”
The brigade office was where the production brigade cadres worked. Since it was a renovated old ancestral hall, it wasn’t very large. There were only three tiled rooms: one office and two granaries.
Normally, after the brigade collected grain and handed over the required quota, the remaining grain would be divided among the production team members, with some kept aside as seed grain, feed, and emergency reserves.
At the moment, one of the two granaries was empty, so it could temporarily be used as living quarters.
But it couldn’t be used for long. After some time, grain would have to be stored there.
Once grain was piled inside, the room could no longer be used as a residence. Putting an entire family in a room full of grain would be no different from putting a roomful of rats in there.
Ren Dahe sighed, looking troubled. “We couldn’t save the money in the house. I don’t have enough money to rebuild it now.”
“That makes things difficult.” The brigade leader scratched his head. “You can’t stay in the granary forever. How about fixing up that old house behind your place? Repair the roof and whatever else needs fixing, and live there temporarily. Once things get better, you can think about building a new house. How does that sound?”
“I guess that’s the only option.”
“Alright. This afternoon I’ll get a few men to come over and help you clean up the old house. With enough people, it should only take two or three days to make it livable.”
Ren Chaomei, who had been openly eavesdropping from behind them, couldn’t help asking, “Other than the old house and the granary, isn’t there anywhere else we can stay? Can’t people still live at the educated youth compound? I want to stay there.”
The brigade leader immediately shot back, “If you stay at the educated youth compound, where will the newly arrived educated youths stay?”
“The new educated youths haven’t arrived yet, have they?”
“Even if they haven’t arrived, that doesn’t mean it’s your place to live.” The brigade leader looked exasperated. “Stop making trouble!”
That was the treatment a troublemaker received. The brigade leader didn’t bother softening his words with her.
As a “child,” Ren Chaomei had no say in matters like this.
Nor could she take out money and ask the village to allocate her a homestead so she could build a house herself. Leaving aside whether the village would even give her one, she didn’t dare spend such a large sum of money publicly.
Without a legitimate source of income, producing a huge amount of money for a new house would be like loudly announcing that something was wrong with her.
According to what Wang Xiaoqin had just told her, there was still room to squeeze into the educated youth compound. Even the cowshed was an option.
Compared with living in the cowshed, she might as well stay in the old house temporarily.
The old house was older than Ren Dahe himself. It had earthen walls, part of which had already collapsed. The beams were exposed, and the roof was practically nonexistent.
Whenever the wind blew, the spiderwebs inside swayed, and a bleak, shabby atmosphere immediately hit them in the face.
Standing in front of such a house, even Ren Chaomei couldn’t accept it, let alone Ren Dahe and Wang Xiaoqin, the couple who had once lived in this very old house.
“Uncle, you two actually lived in a broken house like this back then?”
It was worlds apart from a brick house. No wonder they had moved into her family’s house and refused to leave.
Ren Chaomei’s words could easily be interpreted negatively.
In an instant, Ren Dahe understood the hidden mockery in them.
“If you’ve got somewhere to live, why are you complaining? Stay if you want. If you don’t, get lost.”
“Why should I leave? You said it’s the old house. That means I have a share in it too. Why can’t I live here?”
Not wanting to live somewhere yourself and being forbidden from living there were two completely different things.
Their argument that morning had been interrupted halfway by the brigade leader, so neither of them had completely cooled down.
Now that they clashed again, another argument immediately broke out. After a few exchanges, they started poking each other with their brooms.
“Dad, Chaomei, can you two sweep the floor and clear out the spiderwebs before you start fighting?” Ren Gan Ying pleaded helplessly.
Ren Chaomei completely ignored her and focused on fighting.
“Forget it. I’ll clean it myself.”
Ren Gan Ying felt completely exhausted, as though every bit of energy had been drained from her body. She simply didn’t have the strength to argue or break up another fight.
She just wanted to clean up the old house as quickly as possible so they would have somewhere to stay.
Ren Chaomei gave Ren Dahe two hard swats with her broom, making him grimace and curse furiously.
She was just about to press her advantage when a child came running toward her, shouting loudly.
“Big Sister Chaomei~ There’s a really handsome big brother looking for you~”