Chapter 90: Discovering the Hidden Money, Beaten Brutally

Xu Yan looked at the heavy atmosphere around the dinner table, then took a big bite and forced a smile.
“Say what you will, but this bread JiaoJiao bought is really delicious.”

“She’s grown up, knows how to buy gifts for her family now. Really good.”

“Really nice.”

“It’s truly tasty.”

The Xu family all chimed in one after another, praising her endlessly, making the girl blush so much she looked like two rosy sunsets glowing on her cheeks—beautiful, but shy.

The heavy mood gradually gave way to laughter and warmth. The Xu family was endlessly warm-hearted. But things were different in the Yang household.

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Mother Yang did her daily routine of cleaning the house. Normally, she didn’t like doing it herself and would leave it to her daughter, but she also knew that only by handling things with her own hands would she remember exactly where everything was.

Yang Mei didn’t even have her own room. Her mother had only set up a small bed for her beside her brother’s, separated with a curtain, pretending it was enough. Never once did she consider that her daughter had grown up and should have a private space.

Mother Yang compared her daughter’s neatly kept bed with her son’s messy one, and without a single complaint, she moved all of her son’s belongings onto the girl’s bed.

Unexpectedly, as she shifted the small bed, it wobbled, and underneath she found a small box—tattered, thrown away back in the days of “Fight the Landlords” games. But this little girl had apparently picked it up.

A glint flashed in Mother Yang’s eyes. She opened it—and couldn’t believe what she saw. Inside was over four yuan. For the Yang family, this was a huge sum; their entire family barely earned ten yuan a month.

“You little wretch, I’ll kill you!” she cursed angrily.

She no longer cared about tidying the room. She threw the box carelessly onto the dirt floor, shoved the money into her pocket, and stormed out.

When Yang Mei returned, her mother was at the well washing clothes, expressionless. The girl’s heart clenched.

“Are you blind or deaf? You see me and don’t even greet me?”

“…Mom.” Her weak voice came out.

The woman only snorted in response.

Yang Mei hurried into her room. What she saw was a mess—her brother’s things scattered all over her bed. She wasn’t surprised at all, as if she had expected it. With a bitter smile, she quietly started cleaning up.

Her room faced the wrong direction, hidden away in the darkest corner. She didn’t dare light a lamp, relying only on the faintest light. As she tidied, her foot accidentally kicked something—her little box. It clattered against the bed frame with a sharp sound.

Her expression changed instantly. Heart pounding, she bent down and picked it up. Her breath nearly stopped.

The box was open. The money was gone.

Her thoughts immediately turned to her mother. In an instant, she knew who had taken it.

Clutching the box, she stormed over, demanding angrily:
“Mom, where’s my money?”

Mother Yang kept her head down, scrubbing clothes, pretending she hadn’t heard. She ignored her completely. Yang Mei, her eyes already red, wouldn’t let it go. Though desperate, she still held out a last shred of hope that she might get the money back.

Her tone softened, almost pleading:
“Mom, where’s the money? That’s not even mine—it’s JiaoJiao’s. I borrowed it from her. I have to return it.”

In the sweltering afternoon heat, Mother Yang still said nothing, quietly scrubbing the old worn clothes in her hands, her mind already planning to use the money to make a nice outfit for her son so he’d look more presentable.

Yang Mei’s voice broke with sobs as she nudged her mother:
“Mom, the money!”

Annoyed and enraged, the woman suddenly slapped her hard across the face.
“Get lost! Push me again, will you? You filthy brat! You had money and didn’t tell me? Wretched girl!”

The slap was so heavy her cheek flushed red instantly, blood even spilling from the corner of her mouth. Tears streamed down, but in the eyes of someone who never loved her, those tears only caused more irritation, never sympathy.

“Mom, that’s my money! Give it back!”

Her sobs grew uncontrollable. She frantically reached to search her mother’s body, but the woman kicked her to the ground. Then, climbing on top of her daughter, she struck her over and over again.

The courtyard filled with cries and screams. Yang Mei, though far stronger physically than her mother, didn’t dare fight back.

In the midst of this chaos, the men of the Yang family returned from the fields. Seeing the uproar, their brows furrowed.

“What the hell are you fighting about? So noisy, annoying as hell!”

“Why are you beating her? If you ruin her face, what about the bride price? How will she get married?” Yang Father said flatly, his cold eyes on the daughter pinned beneath her mother.

The girl was bloodied and pitiful, but to him she was only an annoyance—a potential loss of bride price.

“That’s right, Mom! If you ruin her, how will I ever get a wife?” her disgusting, sloppy brother chimed in.

Only then did Mother Yang finally release her. Panting heavily, Yang Mei lay there, nose bleeding, her face covered in blood, barely alive—her chest rising and falling like a worn-out bellows.

Still, her mother threatened:
“Wretch, hide money again and I’ll kill you.”

“Enough already. How much could she even hide? A few measly coins? Go cook, I’m starving.”

Mother Yang sneered, eyes glinting as she spat out:
“Measly? She had nearly five yuan hidden away!”

Yang Father’s face darkened. His oppressive presence filled the air, making even Mother Yang shiver, goosebumps prickling across her skin.

With a heavy crack, his tobacco pipe smashed against Yang Mei’s head. The sharp edge split her forehead open, blood gushing out.
“Useless wretch, just like your mother—never beaten enough.”

Yang Tianci screeched:
“What? Where’d you get so much money? Are you crazy?”

He immediately joined in the abuse, swinging a hard cloth strap down on her again and again.
“Bitch, you had money and didn’t give it to me? You trying to stop me from getting a wife? I’ll beat you to death!”

From beginning to end, Yang Mei said nothing. Her body trembled violently, like a small animal driven to a dead end. She wept soundlessly, only choked sobs escaping her nose.

Violence ran in this family’s blood. Father Yang beat his wife, and instead of resisting, she turned her cruelty on her daughter. Yang Tianci inherited his father’s brutality, along with every violent behavior he’d grown up watching.

Since childhood, he had always beaten his younger sister. In adolescence, he even spied on her while she bathed. Sharing a room, he often committed acts worse than beasts.

The family indulged him endlessly, and outside too they shielded him. He constantly harassed village girls and young wives, regardless of whether they had husbands.

Many times angry families came to their door to confront them, but the Yangs brushed it off. Over time, the family received fewer and fewer resources—their farmland was rocky and poor.

But instead of reflecting, they only sank deeper into stealing and bullying. They constantly insulted neighbors, until eventually the whole village lived in fear—those with chickens or ducks hardly dared sleep with both eyes closed.