Chapter 72: Chapter 72: Striking the Weak Spot
"Go easy, my ear’s about to fall off! Why would I ever hit you?" Gu Lihuang whined, clutching his ear. "When have you ever seen me hit anyone? Ever since I was a kid, seeing the miserable state my mom was in after getting beaten, the thing I hate most is men who hit women."
Gu Lihuang didn’t dare tell the truth. The reality was, when he was eight years old, his father beat his mother so badly that she secretly put rat poison in his food. His father must have had incredible luck, because after eating it, he just had diarrhea for two days and was completely fine. Afterward, his father nearly beat his mother to death. He even threw her out into the woodshed to live there for the entire winter... After that, his family developed a new rule: whenever a meal was served, his mother had to take a few bites before anyone else could eat.
’Women can be truly ruthless when pushed.’ Gu Lihuang figured he wasn’t as lucky as his father, nor did he have the authority to make his own wife test his food for poison before he ate. So, it wasn’t so much that he wouldn’t hit a woman; it was more that his mother had scared him out of ever even thinking about it.
"I barely used any force, why are you shouting so loud? Be quiet, you’ll wake our son," Ye Rong said, quickly letting him go. She glanced carefully at their son, afraid he would wake up, hear his grandmother’s screams, and run outside.
"Don’t worry. I’ve taught him to stay far away whenever he sees his grandpa beating someone. He knows not to get close, or he might get caught in the crossfire. The kid’s smart, just like me."
"That’s how you teach our child...?" Ye Rong frowned, feeling that something wasn’t right.
"You don’t know my dad. When he’s in a rage, whoever gets close suffers. It’s not like the three of us siblings never tried to intervene. When he starts hitting someone, he doesn’t care how old or young you are. His fists and feet don’t have eyes."
Of course, none of the three siblings were foolish enough to get close when their father was in one of his vicious rages. Once, though, their mother threatened their older sister into trying. She threw herself in front of their mom, but their dad paid her no mind, not hesitating just because it was his own daughter. After that, the mere sight of her father hitting someone was enough to scare the life out of her, and she’d run faster than a rabbit. No matter how their mother threatened her, she refused to take another step forward.
Fortunately, their mother doted on her sons. She would threaten her daughter, but never her boys. Still, just to be safe, he and his brother always made sure to hide.
Gu Lihuang thought about how his mother doted on her sons and usually seemed to treat her grandson well enough. ’But a grandson isn’t her own flesh and blood,’ he reasoned. ’When it comes down to it, who knows if she’d try to push her own grandson in front of her to block a punch?’ So...
He stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "If I don’t teach him this, what am I supposed to teach him? To play the hero?"
"You know, you’re wonderful in every way, but can’t you change this habit of yours of trying to be a hero?"
Opportunities to walk alone with Zhang Wei Qiang through the streets of town were rare, so Lin Qin was overjoyed. But along with her joy, she couldn’t help but complain a little.
"I know what I’m doing," Zhang Wei Qiang said with a smile.
"’I know what I’m doing,’ sure. If you really knew what you were doing, you wouldn’t have nearly ruined your leg back then..." Lin Qin’s nose tingled, and tears threatened to fall.
"Alright, alright, don’t bring that up again. I’ll be more careful next time, I promise," Zhang Wei Qiang said, a look of resignation on his face as he saw Lin Qin about to rehash the past.
Only then did Lin Qin smile through her tears.
Seeing that she had stopped crying, Zhang Wei Qiang finally relaxed and said in a low, slightly helpless voice, "I’m a man. I can’t just stand by and watch someone bully my own sister right in front of me."
"..." Lin Qin bit her lip and said nothing.
"Don’t you worry so much in the future. I know you’re just looking out for me, but you can’t expect me to stop doing everything just because there’s a small risk, right? This incident... it’s completely different from all those other times I got hurt."
Zhang Wei Qiang sighed. It was true that back in the day, he had been a bit too fierce when conflicts arose. He would often fight recklessly, and the most serious incident left him with a leg injury that took months to heal.
After that, Lin Qin would always bring it up, begging him not to get into any more fights. To keep his family from worrying, he had indeed gradually tempered his anger and reined himself in quite a bit.
But this time was different.
Still, he knew Lin Qin only said these things because she was so worried about him, so he tried to explain patiently. However, it seemed like she wasn’t really listening, and her expression remained unconvinced. Not wanting to argue with her, he changed the subject to something he knew would interest her. "Let’s walk around a bit more today. We can check out the area near the supply and marketing co-op first. A lot of people from the surrounding villages come there to sell their local produce."
"It’s so late, they’ve all packed up and gone home by now," Lin Qin said, her interest piqued as she couldn’t help but smile.
"That’s fine. We have plenty of time. Even if there aren’t many people with stalls out anymore, there are still a lot of shops open. We can take a look at what other people are selling and give my little sister some ideas." Zhang Wei Qiang smiled inscrutably. Of course, he wasn’t going there just to browse. But he had no intention of revealing his real plans. Some things were best kept to himself.
At the Gu family home, Gu Wu stopped what he was doing and stared coldly at Chen Suxiang, who was curled up on the floor, sobbing. She seemed to have lost even the strength to wail loudly. His eyes were filled with disgust. "Where is all the money you’ve skimmed and stashed away all these years? Give it all to me. From now on, I’ll leave you the grocery money in the drawer each day."
"Money? What money? There’s not a single cent left!" Hearing his words, Chen Suxiang snapped her head up and glared at Gu Wu with a look of venomous madness. She felt she could endure his beatings, but hearing him demand her money was like he was trying to rip out her heart. It was something she could never, ever accept.
"Heh. You think I can’t find it just because you won’t tell me?" Gu Wu let out a cold laugh. He walked around the room and easily uncovered all the money Chen Suxiang had hidden in several different spots.
With every stash he found, Chen Suxiang’s eyes grew wider in terror. The sight was almost comical. When he pulled out the last hidden bundle in the room, Gu Wu counted it all. It was a grand total of over fifty-five hundred yuan. "You really are something else..."
Before he could finish, Chen Suxiang lunged for the money, her eyes bloodshot as she roared, "Gu Wu, you heartless bastard! I’ve been with you all these years, bore you children! Even if I have no merits, I have my toil! I’ve barely had a single good day, but I’ve had no shortage of suffering. Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to save this little bit of money over the years? Do you have to be so utterly ruthless...?"
Gu Wu had been expecting this, so there was no way he’d let her snatch the money back. He sidestepped her lunge and casually tapped the stack of cash against his other palm. "Speaking of where this money came from, don’t you feel the least bit guilty? Forget your daughter; even your two sons have been wronged by you. Hmph. What do you think they’ll do to you when they find out where all this money you have came from?"
"Th-they won’t find out. You can’t tell them," Chen Suxiang said, panicking. Of course, she knew perfectly well that if her two sons found out the family debt from building the house was completely fabricated, then...
She stared at Gu Wu in terror, not daring to imagine what would happen next.
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