She won't clear her name; she'll throw away all the scum.

The two men were crying in Old Chen's ear at the same time. Chen Xiangbei, in particular, cried loudly and horribly, howling without shedding a tear. Old Chen even noticed that some onlookers covered their ears.

He felt ashamed and shouted, "Stop crying!"

Yang Su stopped crying and looked at him silently. Old Chen felt a little guilty. He wanted to say that he was talking about Chen Xiangbei, not Yang Su, but that would be strange. He couldn't just let her keep crying.

Chen Xiangbei was so engrossed in howling that he didn't hear Old Chen's words at all and kept talking to himself.

For example, being abused to death by a stepmother, having money stolen by a stepmother so that one can't afford food, having a stepmother means having a stepfather, and having one's own father neglecting one, etc.

Hearing the people next to him cover their ears and then put their hands down repeatedly, Old Chen's face also changed color repeatedly.

Finally, he couldn't hold back any longer and slapped him hard across the face.

To be fair, since Old Mrs. Xia and Old Mr. Chen divorced, he has rarely been beaten, and his whole family has rarely been beaten. But this time, Old Mr. Chen's slap was quick and heavy, stopping Chen Xiangbei's crying immediately. He covered his face and was stunned.

Chen Xiangnan rushed over to look at his face. His voice was deep and muffled, and he was afraid that Chen Xiangbei had been beaten deaf. "Are you alright? Let me see."

Chen Xiangbei ignored him, suddenly got up and ran away.

"Third brother, where are you going?" Chen Xiangnan shouted from behind.

However, Chen Xiangbei didn't turn his head.

Chen Xiangnan felt that the biggest problem in this matter lay with his father. Before the facts were clear, both sides were crying, so why was only Chen Xiangbei being hit? He hadn't even said a few words today.

"Dad, what deep-seated hatred do you have for us that you would beat him like this?" Chen Xiangnan had lost interest in arguing with them about the money. He felt that his carefree younger brother, Chen Xiangbei, seemed to be acting strangely, and he wanted to finish things here as soon as possible to check on him.

Old Chen didn't expect Chen Xiangbei to react this way. In the past, if he was beaten, he would either yell louder or cry and curse him. He would never cover his face and run away. He was not the kind of person who would silently suffer a loss.

Faced with Chen Xiangnan's questioning and the scrutinizing gazes of others, Old Chen, though lacking confidence, still tried to save face, saying, "Do I need to explain to you that I'm beating my son?"

Chen Xiangnan: "Father? Whose father are you? You're the father of those Wang family kids, but you're not our dad anymore."

Old Chen found these words grating and offensive. How could he not be their father? Was it Xia Yue'e, that heartless woman, who instigated them to disown him? Now they felt like they weren't their father anymore, and that he had raised them for nothing. He raised his hand as if to hit Chen Xiangnan, but then lowered it again when he thought of Chen Xiangbei.

Chen Xiangnan knew exactly what he was thinking. "What, you hit the third brother and now you want to hit me? After hitting me, you want to hit the eldest brother too? You think that money belongs to their family? You think we're lying? I really overestimated you. They took Xiang Hong's dowry and the third brother's food money, and you're not worried at all? Are those Wang family kids your illegitimate children?"

"Let me tell you, this money is ours, and it has absolutely nothing to do with them. Even if they cry themselves to sleep, it's still our money. From the moment we started until now, what plausible reason have they given? Not a single one. Now they realize they're guilty, so they're crying to you and causing trouble between my son and me. Think about what they're really up to."

Chen Xiangnan followed Chen Xiangbei and ran away. Old Chen and the onlookers who were left behind noticed how determined Chen Xiangnan was, and after thinking about Yang Su's actions, they realized that what he said was indeed true.

Yang Su is becoming increasingly unreasonable. Now she's even taking money from her stepson and stepdaughter, including dowry money. Doesn't she fear being struck by lightning?

Before Yang Su could even read what the others were saying, she saw Chen Xiangnan run off with the money, his back view resolute, as if to say, "That's my money, mine!"

She was anxious and shook Old Chen several times. "Brother Chen, that's my second son's money. It really is my second son's money. I'm not lying to you. I'd be an animal if I did. It's his money. Don't listen to Xiang Nan's nonsense. It really is ours."

When Old Chen saw that both children had run away, he felt a pang of grievance in Chen Xiangnan's tone, even though Chen had spoken harshly. These children were so big and had always been smart, and this was the first time he had ever used such a tone. Old Chen felt uneasy.

Furthermore, Yang Su's anxious tone, stemming from her worry about the money, made Old Chen uncomfortable. He felt he had already wronged his two children for her sake, and had even hit one of them in a fit of anger. Yet, this woman was still pressuring him to ask for the money, without clarifying whose it was. According to his second son, it really did seem to belong to Xiang Bei and Xiang Hong.

Maybe Yang Su embezzled the things while moving them, otherwise why would the two children be so aggrieved and making such a fuss here? Old Chen was a little unhappy.

"Stop fooling around," he replied.

Yang Su wasn't one to swallow her anger. Even now, with Old Chen having no jobs to offer his second son, she still had to save some money. "What nonsense! That's my money, the money our whole family has saved by scrimping and saving. I'm saving it to buy my second son a job. Do you expect me to just watch him go to the countryside?"

Is the countryside a place for humans? If he goes there, he'll have no hope for the rest of his life. Old Chen, my children aren't your biological children, so you don't care about them at all, do you?

Old Chen: "I've already told you I'll treat them like my own children, and I've been keeping an eye on their jobs. What do you mean by saying this now? I've already allowed you to redistribute the rooms in the house, I almost kicked Xiang Hong out, and I even let my third son live in the storage room that Xiang Hong used to live in. And you still doubt that I don't treat them like my own children? Don't you treat my family members like your own children either?"

Yang Su: "Brother Chen, you know my heart and my feelings for you. How could I not treat them as my own children? I love you so much, and they look so much like you, so of course I would love them too. But they really are lying; that money really is mine."

My in-laws have only saved this much money for their retirement and funeral over the years. They heard that some people sent to the countryside never come back, and they gave it to them because they love their grandson. They've scrimped and saved their whole lives for their second son; losing it would be no different from forcing them to die.

Old Chen was torn between his son's words and Yang Su's, both of which sounded so sincere that he couldn't tell the difference.

"Should we report it to the police?" Old Chen suggested.

Meanwhile, Grandpa and Grandma Wang, who were standing to the side, had become numb since they heard Yang Su say that she was forcing them to die. They didn't want to die at all. Not only did they not want to die, they also didn't want to deal with the police. They wanted to live their lives with a clear conscience.