Three Women in the Cage

Ever since she came back last time, Yang Yu always had tinnitus and could always hear some faint sounds in her ears. If she listened carefully, she could still hear the voices of Zhang's father and mother who disliked her for not being able to give birth to a son, the voices of her brothers-in-law who disliked her for not being able to speak and not pleasing them, the voice of Liu Chunxiang who mocked her husband for not loving her and her parents-in-law for not liking her, the voices of her neighbors who mocked her for being weak and vulnerable, and the voice of Zhang Erfa who disliked her for having a sour face every day. All kinds of sounds came from her ears at the same time, chattering non-stop and making a headache for her.

She held her head and wanted to curse back one by one, but she was trying her best to control her anger because she knew it was daytime and there was no one in front of her. Those voices were not real and she couldn't curse back, otherwise she was afraid that others would find out and call her a lunatic. She tried hard to control herself from listening to those voices. She muttered to herself, "It's not real, no one is scolding me, it's all fake, I won't be controlled", then staggered back to the bedroom, lay on the bed, closed her eyes, she needed to rest, and she would be fine at night.

At night, Yang Yu tossed and turned, having nightmares, and suddenly she woke up screaming.

Zhang Erfa was woken up by the noise and yelled at her angrily, "Why are you yelling at me in the middle of the night? Can't you let me sleep?" After that, he turned around and fell asleep again.

When Yang Yu woke up, she heard all kinds of insults in her ears. The sharp and harsh insults kept attacking her reason and nerves. She knew that it was dark, and there was no one in front of her except Zhang Erfa and Yaya who were sleeping soundly. And those voices were fake. She couldn't curse back, she had to endure it.

Her hands dug into her flesh, her forehead covered in sweat. She curled up into a ball and buried herself in the quilt to block out the sounds. She tried to hypnotize herself to go to sleep quickly so she wouldn't hear the sounds, but the more she wanted to sleep, the more she couldn't. The sounds seemed to penetrate the quilt and attack her eardrums. A stinging pain went straight through her eardrums and into her brain, giving her a splitting headache. She held her head and shivered. The sounds became more and more intense, and the pain in her head became more and more severe. She finally couldn't bear it anymore and shouted, "Ah... Get out of here, all of you!"

The sudden uncontrolled shouting completely woke up Zhang Erfa. In the dark night, he watched Yang Yu waving his hands randomly in the dark, saying "get out". He tried to call Yang Yu with some confusion.

Yang Yu acted as if she didn't hear anything and was immersed in her own world. It was not until Zhang Erfa turned on the bedside lamp that Yang Yu came to her senses. She looked at Zhang Erfa blankly, not knowing what had happened.

"What were you doing just now, shouting?" Zhang Erfa looked at the sweaty Yang Yu in confusion.

Yang Yu didn't want to tell Zhang Erfa about the voice she heard. She knew he wouldn't believe her. He would just laugh at her and then tell others about it as a joke. Others would definitely say she was crazy. She couldn't let others say that about her. She was afraid because she was not crazy.

So she yelled guiltily, "What am I doing? I had a nightmare, what's wrong?"

Although Zhang Erfa was a little skeptical, he was too lazy to delve into it, so he said impatiently, "Don't think about it all day long and scare yourself. You will have nightmares when you sleep and wake up Yaya. Let's see if you can still sleep well."

After a while, Zhang Erfa fell asleep again.

But Yang Yu couldn't fall asleep at all. She suffered from insomnia and stayed awake all night.

When she woke up the next day, her eyes were black, her eye circles were dark, and her face was haggard. Zhang Erfa was frightened by her appearance.

"What are you doing? You stole cows at night. You looked like a ghost and scared people to death." He looked at Yang Yu with disgust and walked out.

Yang Yu's auditory hallucinations only occur intermittently, especially when she is depressed or extremely sad, she can't help but vent them. Usually she can try her best to control it, but of course she doesn't have auditory hallucinations all the time.

So no one else noticed her abnormality. She continued to do her normal work every day, washing clothes, cooking, taking care of children, and doing farm work outside.

That day, Yang Yu decided to go to Zhang's mother in person to ask for the dowry money back, because the rice at home was almost gone, and the vegetable oil, laundry detergent, and various daily necessities were also almost gone. In addition, because she gave birth to Yaya and Zhang Erfa was idle all day, the crops had not been planted at all.

Yaya is now more than two months old, and her body has almost recovered, so she still wants to take care of these things. Even if Zhang Erfa doesn't care, she can't ignore it, because she still has two children to take care of.

Thinking that they had just held a full moon banquet and a housewarming party, and received a lot of gifts, it was said before that Zhang Sanmao used his own dowry money to get married, so now he should pay it back.

Moreover, I was not in a hurry to get it before, on the one hand, I took it into consideration, but they never took me seriously, so why should I maintain that already weak relationship?

After figuring it out, Yang Yu came to Zhang's mother's house without any hesitation. At this house, Zhang Erfa and Zhang Sanmao had already married and moved out, leaving only four brothers.

It just so happened that they were all here today, so Yang Yu didn't hesitate and directly told them the purpose of his visit.

Zhang's mother said hesitantly, "Yu, to tell you the truth, your father and I were going to save this money for the fourth and fifth sons to get married. You see, they are almost at the age to get married. And I've also talked to Erfa, and they, as the older brothers, have promised to support their younger brothers. Sanmao has also agreed to save the gift money this time. Look at your dowry money, too..." Zhang's mother was embarrassed to say it directly, and looked up at Yang Yu.

Yang Yu didn't want to care about their loving mothers and filial children or the friendship between brothers. She didn't want to care about these things, and they had nothing to do with her.

They are the source of my pain. Why should I understand them? I deserve to suffer these grievances and sadness, and then they just laugh it off.

So she chuckled and said, "Why do they have to use my dowry money for their wedding? That's for me. If you want to give it to your son or your brother, then use your own money. Don't make me a sucker!" Yang Yu said it without any mercy. Yes, she no longer had any feelings for this family because they were not worthy.

The fifth child, Zhang Sheng, has a nature similar to Zhang Sanmao. He is violent and cannot stand being looked down upon by others, let alone being looked down upon in front of his parents.

So the moment Yang Yu finished speaking, Zhang Sheng clenched his fists and yelled, "How do you talk to mom like that? You'd better be polite to me. Don't think I don't dare to hit you. Do you think your second brother can't control you? Now that your third brother has moved out, I don't dare to hit you like your third brother did?" Zhang Sheng's true nature was revealed.

Yang Yu thought to himself, "Are all the members of this family addicted to beating me? That's right. I always watched myself being beaten before. It seemed like anyone who was unhappy could beat me to vent their anger. And those who haven't taken action yet may not have found an excuse to do so. Now the fifth brother has found an excuse to do so first. Maybe people are just like this. If you can't resist, and one person bullies you, another will follow suit."