Chapter 3

"Have you said enough?" Weng Yingxiong, tossed back and forth among the Weng family like a ping-pong ball, finally snapped. "I'm not dead yet! Weng Shao, I know you resent me and this family. You think I'm a useless father who couldn't give you a better life. Now that you're grown, your wings have hardened, and you want to climb the social ladder—"

"Stop talking!" A piercing voice cut off Weng Yingxiong's bitter, sarcastic complaints. Yu Huixin, who had been huddled in the corner, could no longer endure it and rushed forward. "You have no right to say that. None of you have the right to say that. Do you know how Weng Shao has lived all these years? You don't! What right do you have to stand here and say my son is no good?"

After sharing a bed with him for decades, Yu Huixin knew better than anyone what kind of man her husband, Weng Yingxiong, was. She knew that the way Weng Shao and his two brothers had just rushed to shirk responsibility had utterly crushed the man's already excessive pride. Even though he was crippled and unable to move from the kang bed, this selfish piece of trash, full of nothing but male chauvinism, still could not bear being looked down on. He did not dare vent his anger at Weng Zhen or Weng Sui, so he could only take it out on Weng Shao.

Weng Yingxiong stared in shock at Yu Huixin's sudden outburst. He did not know what madness had possessed the woman, but he could not tolerate even his own wife challenging his authority as head of the household in front of outsiders. "I have no right? Why don't I have the right? I'm his father! I raised him for eighteen years—"

"When did you ever raise him? You're a cripple who can't even get off the kang bed. You can't even support yourself, so how could you support me and our son?" Yu Huixin gripped Weng Shao's wrist so tightly that her knuckles turned white. It seemed she wanted to protect him, yet also wanted to use that gesture to give herself courage.

The woman, who had always been silent and long-suffering, shouted herself hoarse before the whole village. "Ever since Weng Shao was three, when other children were still drinking milk in their cradles, my son had to follow me into the fields. Such a tiny child, carrying a little bamboo basket every day and trailing behind me to pick up wheat stalks. When he got a little older, he followed me up the mountains to dig wild vegetables and earthworms... Every grain of rice he ate and every mouthful of water he drank was earned by the two of us ourselves. What did you, his father, ever do? If my son and I had relied on you, a useless piece of trash who only knows how to lie on the kang bed and play dead, we would have starved to death long ago."

Yu Huixin's voice was shrill and her words were knives, mercilessly tearing apart the false dignity Weng Yingxiong had tried so hard to preserve. "...You said you wanted to save face, that you couldn't accept help from your brothers. You wouldn't let me ask your younger brother for money, and you wouldn't let me ask your parents either. You wouldn't allow your wife and child to spend your brothers' or parents' money, yet you could watch my son and me work day and night, unable even to eat our fill, while still having to support a useless burden like you—"

"Shut up! Shut up!" Old Master Weng could not listen any longer. His furious roar interrupted Yu Huixin. "How can you speak to Yingxiong like that? He's your man!"

"Quit yelling at me! Do you think you're some kind of good person?" Yu Huixin had thrown all caution to the wind. Pointing at Old Master Weng's nose, she cursed, "If you, as his grandfather, had secretly helped us even a little—if only you had let my son eat his fill and wear a clean, decent set of clothes without patches—I would at least have considered you human!"

After Weng Yingxiong's legs became disabled, his once cheerful and broad-minded nature had changed drastically. He refused to accept financial charity from his younger brother, believing that a grown man could not accept handouts from others, or at the very least could not let his wife and child spend another man's money. Weng Yingxiong's wife, Yu Huixin, was a traditional and timid woman. Since Weng Yingxiong would not let her ask the family for help, she gritted her teeth and endured. She worked day and night with Weng Shao, never uttering a word of complaint.

But while women might be weak, mothers were strong. Yu Huixin could endure poverty and endless toil, but she could not watch her son be dragged down by this family too, unable even to attend the university he wanted. So Yu Huixin revealed Weng Shao's true parentage. She wanted him to acknowledge his biological parents, so that he could at least afford university and find a good job in the future.

Yu Huixin believed that given Weng Shao's character, even if he acknowledged his biological parents, he would not abandon them. But she could not understand why everyone in the family opposed something that would benefit both sides. They kept pouring bucket after bucket of filth over Weng Shao, as though they could not wait to trample him to death.

"You heartless pack of dogs! He's your biological son and grandson, yet you could watch him suffer and live in poverty, and you still have the nerve to call my son an ungrateful wretch? If he really is an ungrateful wretch, then he got it from the Weng family bloodline!" Yu Huixin held Weng Shao's thin body close. Blinded by rage, she cursed without restraint. "I was the one who revealed Weng Shao's true parentage, and it was my idea for him to acknowledge his biological father. Agree or not, you still have to pay for Weng Shao's university. His grades are excellent. Even his teachers said he could get into Jinghai University—"

"I don't agree!" Weng Yingxiong roared, craning his neck. "If he dares take the second son's money, then he can forget about recognizing me as his father! I don't have such a spineless son—"

"You're so principled, so why don't you starve yourself to death on that kang bed? How do you still have the nerve to eat eggs laid by chickens I raised? Medicine bought with money my son and I earned feeding pigs and selling vegetables? I think you just don't want Weng Shao to have a good life. You just want to torment and abuse him."

Yu Huixin pointed at Weng Yingxiong's nose and unleashed a torrent of abuse. "I know exactly what's going on in that twisted mind of yours. Do you think that by tormenting Weng Shao, you can take revenge on your younger brother? You regretted saving him long ago, didn't you? If you hadn't saved him, why would you be crippled on that kang bed, unable to run or move for the rest of your life, reduced to a useless waste? What's even more hateful is that you became crippled while he became a wealthy boss, living in villas every day, driving luxury cars, stuffing his face with rich food, long since forgetting you, the elder brother who saved his life. So you resent him, and you use these filthy, despicable methods of revenge on a child—"

"Shut up! Shut up!" His hidden thoughts exposed, Weng Yingxiong screamed hysterically. He reached out and wildly grabbed cups, plates, and chopsticks from the table, throwing them at Yu Huixin. His eyes were bloodshot as he glared at Weng Shao. "You ungrateful, heartless bastard! I raised you for eighteen years. Even if I didn't give you a life of wealth and luxury, I at least gave you food to eat and books to study. If I'd known you would be so ungrateful, I would have been better off raising a dog!"

"I really did live worse than a dog raised by the Weng family," Weng Shao finally said, stepping in front of Yu Huixin. "But wasn't that all thanks to you?"

Weng Yingxiong was left speechless by Weng Shao's retort. His frail chest heaved violently, and a sound like a bellows came from his throat, as though phlegm were lodged there, impossible to swallow or cough up.

"You... you..." Hearing Weng Shao's outrageous words, Old Master Weng felt his temples throbbing. His face twisted in pain as he clutched his chest, while his other hand trembled as it pointed at Weng Shao. After a long moment, he failed to draw another breath, rolled his eyes back, and fainted.

"Dad!"

"Grandpa!"

The already packed main room of the old house instantly descended into chaos. Weng Yingjie hurriedly helped Old Master Weng up, then turned and glared furiously at Weng Shao. "Look what you've done! Grandpa fainted from anger because of you. Are you satisfied now?"

"Don't be so quick to pin this on me." Weng Shao straightened his back and coldly regarded Weng Yingjie, who was glaring at him. "Do you think shouting louder lets you twist the facts? You hypocrite. Weng Yingxiong saved your life, so you should support him for the rest of his life. If Weng Yingxiong refused to ask you for money, then you should have forced it into his hands. But what did you do? Did you think giving him a son in adoption settled everything? That you could hide away in Jinghai City with your wife and children and pretend to be dead? You stuffed your own face with rich food while letting your crippled older brother, sister-in-law, and even your biological son live on nothing. You never raised me for a single day, yet I paid your debt for eighteen years. Fine, you didn't thank me, but how dare you shamelessly pin the blame for making Old Master Weng faint on me?"

"Was I the one who slapped him in front of all the villagers? Or was I the one who abandoned the crippled older brother who saved my life and my own biological son?"

"You think it's humiliating because everything you did was shameful. You can't say I disgraced the Weng family just because I exposed the rotten things you did."

As Weng Shao spoke, he snatched away the phone Weng Sui was holding, which he had been secretly using to record video. "You have time to stand here recording, but no time to call emergency services. You really are your grandfather's biological grandson."

With one sentence, he exposed the hypocritical faces of the Weng family, all so eager to shift the blame. Weng Shao immediately dialed 120. "...Looks like everyone in this family is either an animal or worse than an animal. What a fitting family of beasts!"

"No wonder I'm biologically related to you all!"

Twenty years ago, eighteen-year-old Weng Shao had faced the moral accusations fired at him from the high ground by his blood relatives. He had panicked, unable to defend himself, and could only let accusation after accusation crash down on his head. Yu Huixin had been branded a greedy, vicious troublemaker too—someone who publicly encouraged her adopted son to acknowledge his biological parents, but secretly coveted the vast fortune built by her brother-in-law and wanted Weng Shao to fight his two cousins for the inheritance.

But twenty years later, faced with the same accusations, Weng Shao could calmly refute them one by one.

As time passed, Weng Shao looked at his defeated blood relatives, gave a mocking smile, turned around, and strode out of the main room.

Author's Note:

Chapter 3

One day later

Weng Shao lay on the cold earthen kang bed with a bewildered expression. Staring at the filthy roof beams above him, he fell into thought.

He had spent an entire day and night muddleheaded in this dream, yet he still had not awakened. The weakness from having had no food or water and the burning hunger in his stomach made him slowly realize that perhaps he was not dreaming—if this were a dream, the pain would not feel so real.

So, had he truly been reborn?

Weng Shao abruptly opened his eyes, got off the kang bed, and staggered out of the low, dim room. Against the background of Weng Yingxiong's furious cursing and Yu Huixin's silent, worried gaze, he raised his knife and brought it down, personally slaughtering a rooster.