Things Had Fallen Apart

"Enough, enough. Stop making a scene.

I admit you're important to the Marquis Estate. We'll make sure to pay more attention to you from now on."

After a long moment of thought, Zhang Wanning confidently deployed her "ultimate weapon."

She thought that as long as she softened her tone and said a few nice things to placate him,

she could win Zhang Yu over and make him obediently listen to her again, just like before, solving the Marquis Estate's troubles for them.

"Ha. How ridiculous."

At Zhang Yu's words, he didn't grow angry. Instead, he laughed, his laughter filled with scorn and sorrow.

At a time like this, Zhang Wanning still clung to such a childish notion.

She really thought a few weightless words like "admit" and "pay attention" could erase all the hurt of the past and make him grateful to her?

"What are you laughing at?" Qin Xuehua saw that Zhang Yu wasn't grateful at all and immediately flew into a rage. "Wanning admitted that you're important to the Marquis Estate and gave you a way out. And you're still throwing a tantrum?"

Pointing at Zhang Yu in the cell, she ordered him with an air of authority:

"I command you to call Chen Dongpeng back at once and have him repair the formation at Dingsheng Workshop.

If you delay the Marquis Estate's business and cause us losses, don't expect us to visit you again."

Her habit of ordering Zhang Yu around was deeply ingrained. She couldn't let go of her airs as the matriarch. It took only a few words for her to start throwing her weight around, as if Zhang Yu were still that "useless eldest son" she could beat, scold, and order about as she pleased.

"Are you deaf? Or do you not understand plain speech?"

The smile vanished from Zhang Yu's face in an instant. "I told you, I won't help you. I'll only watch you walk into the abyss. Do I have to say it a third time?"

"How can you still be so ungrateful?"

Zhang Wanning's heart trembled under Zhang Yu's icy gaze, but her long-held sense of superiority and contempt for him made her stiffen her resolve and put on a show of strength.

She complained:

"My mother and I both spoke kindly to you. We admitted how important you are. What more do you want?

Do you really want us to kneel and beg you?"

"Kneel and beg me?"

Zhang Yu let out a mocking laugh, his voice filled with boundless sorrow and hatred.

"You think two sentences can undo a feud that has nearly cost lives?

Zhang Wanning, you're thinking far too simply.

This grudge won't be so easily resolved."

He said those words for the original owner, and for himself, too.

The original owner had been killed by Zhang Heng, and every member of the Zhang Family had been an accomplice.

After transmigrating here, he had suffered even more torment at the hands of the Zhang Family.

If he hadn't had his system cheat, this biased family would have killed him god knows how many times over.

"In the dead of winter, you forced me to dive into the lake for Zhang Heng's jade pendant. I nearly froze to death in the water. Did any of you ever ask if I was cold?"

"Zhang Heng pretended to be sick and made me test a medicinal ingredient laced with deadly poison. My stomach twisted in agony, and I writhed in bed for three days and nights. Did any of you ever call a doctor for me?"

"When Zhang Heng got into a fight, you shoved me out to take the blame without hesitation, leaving me to rot in the Heavenly Prison. Did any of you ever feel even a shred of remorse?"

Zhang Yu laid out, one by one, every grievance in the original owner's memories and every injustice he had suffered over the past three years.

Each word was like a knife, carving open the Zhang Family's true face: hypocritical, selfish, and cold-hearted.

"Every one of these things could have cost me my life.

What gives you the right to expect me to forgive you?

What makes you think a few empty words of kindness can make me keep working like an ox and a horse for you?"

Zhang Yu's voice wasn't loud, but every word dripped with blood, echoing through the silent prison with boundless fury and accusation.

Qin Xuehua and Zhang Wanning were struck speechless, their faces turning pale, then green.

Of course they remembered those things.

But in their hearts, they were merely "necessary sacrifices" made for "the greater good," or things Zhang Yu "ought to do as the eldest son."

They had never truly given them a second thought, let alone felt guilty.

"Zhang Yu, you're being petty."

Qin Xuehua had been struck where it hurt. Instead of showing the slightest remorse, she looked at him with disapproval and scolded him. "Those things are all in the past. You're a grown man. Why are you still holding grudges and being so petty?"

"In the past?"

Zhang Yu laughed in fury, icy light flickering in his eyes.

"I was lucky to survive. Otherwise, who knows how many times I'd have died.

To you, they were trivial little things.

To me, they were matters of life and death.

And you dare call me petty?

You dare accuse me of holding grudges?"

"You didn't die, did you?"

Zhang Wanning shrieked from the side, her tone so self-righteous it was infuriating.

"If you didn't die, then nothing happened. And now you're bringing up these old grievances to play the victim? What's the point?"

"Well, aren't you something? 'You didn't die, did you?'"

Zhang Yu looked at Zhang Wanning's self-righteous, heartless face.

The last trace of hope he had ever held for "family" vanished completely, replaced by utter coldness and resolve.

"If that's how it is, then we have nothing more to say."

Zhang Yu slowly closed his eyes and stopped looking at them.

"Zhang Yu, don't push your luck."

Seeing that Zhang Yu wouldn't be swayed, Qin Xuehua dropped all pretense and snapped,

"The Marquis Estate will carry on just fine without you.

You think you're something special just because you have a little talent?

I'm telling you, there are plenty of capable people in this world.

Let's see how long you can keep up that tough act in the Heavenly Prison."

"Exactly."

Zhang Wanning chimed in, her face full of spite and contempt.