Cai Shufen stared at him, and the anger in her chest suddenly flared.
She strode over, grabbed Huzi by the back of his collar, and hauled him off the ground before forcing him back down.
Huzi’s knees struck the concrete floor with a dull thud.
“Your dad doesn’t want you anymore! Do you hear me? Your dad doesn’t want you!”
Cai Shufen had completely lost control. Her face was almost pressed against Huzi’s, her eyes bloodshot, spittle spraying across his face.
“He wants to live with that damned girl and abandon the two of us! Why are you still calling me Mom? What good does it do to call me that?”
Huzi was terrified. He had never seen his mother like this before. His knees hurt, and his neck ached where she had grabbed him. He was too frightened to cry, though tears brimmed in his eyes. His lips trembled violently, and his little face was flushed deep red.
“Cai Shufen!” Zhao Tiezhu abruptly sat up in bed. “Let him go!”
Old Cai finally reacted and hurried over to pull Cai Shufen away. “Are you crazy? Why are you taking your anger out on the child?”
Huzi sprawled on the floor and burst into tears.
He reached out toward Cai Shufen. “Mom… Mommy…”
But Cai Shufen had completely lost her reason. She stepped forward and slapped Huzi across the face.
“What are you crying for? Your mother isn’t dead yet.”
Then she turned to Zhao Tiezhu. “I hit Huzi, so now are you satisfied? Fine, let’s get divorced. I’ll take Huzi with me, and I’ll beat him every day. You only care about that damned girl. Let’s see whether you’ll care about your own son!”
Zhao Tiezhu looked at Officer Qiao and the Women’s Director. “Comrades, you’ve all seen it yourselves. She’s insane. She can be this cruel to her own son—I can’t imagine what she might do to my daughter. I have to divorce her. Brigade Leader, issue me the divorce certificate. If she refuses, I’ll have no choice but to seek justice from the commune. And if the commune refuses to handle it, then should anything happen to my daughter, the commune will be held responsible.”
Officer Qiao coughed. “Enough. All of you, stop arguing. Cai Shufen, go home with your father and calm down for a few days. Tiezhu, focus on recovering from your illness. We’ll discuss everything else after you’re discharged.”
The Women’s Director pulled Cai Shufen aside. “Comrade Cai Shufen, don’t act so impulsively. If you keep this up, there’s nothing we can do to help you.”
Cai Shufen was about to say something else when Old Cai kicked her again.
“Shut up.”
The kick made Cai Shufen stumble. She turned around and glared at her father, blood staining the corner of her mouth and her eyes frighteningly red.
“Why did you kick me?” She pointed at Zhao Tiezhu, her voice shrill and grating. “Do you know he’s been sleeping around?”
“Slap!”
Another slap landed across Cai Shufen’s face. Old Cai’s expression was vicious, and Cai Shufen dared not say another word.
Old Cai then turned to Zhao Tiezhu.
“Tiezhu, this old man owes you an apology. I failed to raise Shufen properly. But you two have been husband and wife for years, and the children are still young. Please, just—”
“Uncle Cai.” Zhao Tiezhu cut him off before he could finish. “You’ve said that too many times over the years. I’m sick of hearing it. Let me make this clear: even if the Heavenly Emperor himself came here today, I would still get a divorce.”
Old Cai’s words caught in his throat. The boy had actually stopped calling him Dad and was addressing him as Uncle Cai instead. Clearly, his mind was made up.
How could that be allowed? There were still unmarried daughters and sons without wives in the family. They absolutely could not let this ruin the Cai family’s reputation.
He could see that nothing he said today would do any good. Everyone was too angry. He might as well take his daughter home first and let everyone cool off for a few days.
“Brigade Leader, they say it’s better to tear down ten temples than to break up one marriage. The two children are both angry right now. I just want to take Shufen home. I swear I’ll keep her under control this time. You should persuade Tiezhu, too. Huzi is already six years old. We can’t let the child grow up without a mother, can we?”
Old Cai hated this daughter of his so much that his teeth itched. How much could one child possibly eat? Once she was pacified, the child could even earn money for her. They could coax her into working for a few years, then find her a husband and collect a bride price. Even after she married, she would still support her family. How could this foolish girl be so incapable of seeing the bigger picture?
“Brother Cai, you’re right. That would normally make sense. But this isn’t about whether the child has a mother anymore. Xiran is in danger of losing her life.”
The Brigade Leader didn’t spare Old Cai even the slightest bit of face. A family that could raise a daughter like this was rotten at the roots.
Old Cai’s face flushed red, but he forcibly suppressed the rage boiling inside him.
“Listen to you—how could a child starve to death after missing just two meals?”
Xiao Mandong really couldn’t hold back any longer.
“Then go home, dig up a bowl of earthworms, and have a taste. If you don’t feel pain when the knife cuts someone else, you’ll never know how much it hurts.”
“You filthy—Xiao Mandong, you—” Cai Shufen raised her hand, intending to strike Xiao Mandong.
Before she could finish, Old Cai shoved her, sending her stumbling.
“Are you trying to embarrass us even more? Get out!”
With a fawning smile plastered across his face, Old Cai prepared to leave. Little Tiger ran over and hugged Cai Shufen around the thigh.
“Mommy, don’t go. Mommy… Little Tiger will be good.”
Looking at her son’s flushed cheeks, Cai Shufen’s heart softened. She gathered the child into her arms and left with Huzi.
The Brigade Leader sighed repeatedly. In truth, he hoped the couple would divorce, but the brigade’s reputation… Forget it. It wasn’t as though they had much of a reputation left anyway.
Xiao Mandong said goodbye to the Brigade Leader and returned to the family compound. She wouldn’t go back today; she would spend the night in her own little home.
Meanwhile, Wang Yuanyuan, bundled up from head to toe, sneaked to the laboratory window at the hospital. The moment she received the test report, she let out a long sigh of relief.
She wasn’t pregnant. Thank goodness.
Heaven knew how she had made it through the past few days. At that moment, even her nausea seemed to have eased considerably. Wang Yuanyuan removed her scarf and walked out of the hospital openly, but then she suddenly remembered that lecherous man. She hurriedly wrapped the scarf around herself again and made straight for the ox cart.
When Xiao Mandong returned to the family compound, the first thing she did was let Diandian out to relieve itself. Then she went to cook herself something to eat.
She had only just set the dishes on the table when an argument erupted next door.
“Zhang Chenghui, what do you mean by this? Sleeping around outside wasn’t enough—you actually brought that woman here to live with me? What, do you really think I’m that easy to bully?”
Qi Yuqing’s voice was kept extremely low. She didn’t care about her own reputation, but she had to care about her father’s.
“Yuqing, what’s gotten into you? You were never like this before. Whenever Dani and her child came into the city, you’d invite them to stay at our place for a couple of days. Why are you reacting so strongly today?”
“Can’t you be a little more understanding? The child isn’t feeling well, so they’re coming here for an examination. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have come to the city so casually. Dani said so herself—they’ll only stay a few days, and once the checkup is done, they’ll go back.”
Before he could finish the word “Afraid—,” a slap landed across Zhang Chenghui’s face.
“Pah! Stop feeding me that useless nonsense. If you have money, go stay at a guesthouse. If you don’t, sleep on the streets. But don’t even dream of staying in my home.”
Zhang Chenghui stared at Qi Yuqing in disbelief. “Have you lost your mind? You actually dared to hit me?”
“I have lost my mind. If I hadn’t, would I have let you keep a mistress outside for more than ten years? Every year, you even brought her and her daughter to my home for the New Year. What right does she have to speak to me? She’s nothing but a shameless woman who can’t be brought into polite society. Where do you get the nerve to bring her back here? That child of yours—do you dare admit it?”
Just then, there was a knock at Qi Yuqing’s door.
“Yuqing, are you home? It’s Dani.”
