Flip the table and divide the family property! Take his wife and daughter into the mountains and eat

Winter Solstice, 1980.

Guandong, Kaoshantun.

The cold wind howled like a knife as it whistled through the window.

The room was as cold as an icebox, and your breath instantly froze into white frost.

Zhao Shanhe was awakened by the cold.

He suddenly opened his eyes and saw a blackened roof beam covered with grayish cobwebs.

The chill that seeped into his bones made him shiver.

"Is the master... awake?"

A woman's timid voice came from beside me.

Zhao Shanhe turned his head stiffly.

In the dim light, his wife Lin Xiu curled up into a small ball, protecting her daughter Niu Niu in her arms like a mother hen protecting her chicks.

The mother and daughter huddled together on the cold edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), the quilt covering them revealing its tattered state, barely covering even their feet.

Niu Niu's face was blue from the cold, and she was curled up in her mother's arms, her little hands tightly clutching the hem of her clothes. She was still smacking her lips in her sleep, clearly extremely hungry.

boom!

Memories burst forth like a flood.

Zhao Shanhe was all too familiar with this scene!

In my previous life, on the same day, my second brother, Zhao Shanhai, went to the county for a blind date.

To support her second brother, the old woman used the only few pounds of flour she had to make steamed buns for him to take away, while her own wife and daughters couldn't even get a hot bowl of porridge.

On that very day, Lin Xiu went to dig frozen potatoes in the field because she was too hungry, fell into an ice hole and fell ill; while Lin Xiu herself was forced by her family to earn a dowry for her second brother, and went into the mountains in the snow, almost died at the hands of a bear.

"He's not dead..."

Looking at his calloused yet still powerful hands, Zhao Shanhe's eyes instantly reddened, becoming bloodshot.

God have eyes!

He was brought back to the point where his wife and daughter were still alive and everything was still possible, carrying with him the deep-seated hatred of his two lifetimes!

He turned over to get off the kang (a heated brick bed).

He stretched out his foot and stepped into empty air.

The area around the kang (a heated brick bed) was empty; the new cotton shoes that Lin Xiu had painstakingly made over half a month, with bloodshot eyes, with a thousand layers of soles, were gone.

"Where are the shoes?" Zhao Shanhe asked in a hoarse voice.

Lin Xiu shuddered in fright, quickly pulling her foot back and handing over the pair of tattered straw sandals with her toes sticking out, her voice trembling with tears:

"Honey, you...you wear mine first. Mom came by earlier and took it..."

"She said my second brother is going on a blind date today, and for the sake of the Zhao family's reputation, you should take your new shoes and wear them for a day..."

That same phrase again.

For the sake of the Zhao family's reputation.

You're the older brother, you have to give way to him.

In his past life, Zhao Shanhe endured it. He wore straw sandals and lost two toenails from frostbite, only to have his second brother successfully find a wife, leaving his entire family in the mud.

But this lifetime?

Screw your dignity!

Zhao Shanhe wasn't wearing those straw sandals.

He was barefoot, stepping directly onto the frozen ground that was steaming.

The stinging pain from the soles of his feet intensified the murderous intent in his eyes.

……

Main room, east room.

Unlike the ice cellar in the west wing, this place has a heated wall, making it warm and cozy.

The air was filled with the aroma of scallion pancakes and rice porridge.

The family is having breakfast around the table.

On the table were white rice porridge, two plates of fried dough sticks, and a dish of salted duck eggs.

"Second son, eat these eggs while they're hot. You're a genius, you need to nourish your brain."

With a loving expression, Li Cuihua, the old woman, stuffed the only two peeled eggs into her second brother Zhao Shanhai's bowl.

Zhao Shanhai was dressed in a smart Zhongshan suit, and his hair was slicked back and shiny.

The most eye-catching thing was the new shoes on his feet—the very shoes that Lin Xiu had made for Zhao Shanhe!

He chewed on the egg, frowning as he tapped the shoe surface with his chopsticks, looking rather dissentful.

"Mom, my sister-in-law's craftsmanship isn't good. The soles are sewn too tightly, making them stiff. When I get to the county, I'll have to buy a pair of leather shoes, otherwise, if the woman sees these cloth shoes, she'll think our family is very poor."

"Just bear with it. Once you've won over that city girl, you won't wear this tattered stuff anymore."

Beside him, the third brother, Zhao Shanlin, slumped in a chair like a lump of mud.

He was fiddling with a bright red hair tie in his hand.

Yesterday, Zhao Shanhe sold two fine rabbit skins at the market and gave all four yuan he got to Li Cuihua, only daring to secretly keep two cents for himself. It was the only New Year's gift he bought for Niu Niu!

"laugh--"

Zhao Shanlin struck a match and lit one end of the red ribbon.

Watching the red threads curl and turn black in the flames, emitting a foul, burnt smell, Zhao Shanlin let out a strange laugh:

"Heh heh, it burns pretty fast. This piece of junk looks so tacky."

"My hair tie..."

At this moment, Niu Niu, who was following behind Zhao Shanhe, saw this scene and burst into tears: "That was given to me by Daddy... Waaah..."

"Stop crying! You worthless brat!"

Li Cuihua slammed her chopsticks on the table, her triangular eyes blazing: "What's with the wailing so early in the morning? Shut up! If you cry again, I'll throw you out to feed the wolves!"

Zhao Shanhe stood at the door.

Looking at the new shoes that had been taken over.

Looking at the burned hair tie.

Looking at the white porridge and eggs on the table, and then at her daughter's little face, which was blue from the cold.

He didn't speak.

There wasn't even a trace of expression on his face.

He stepped across the threshold, enveloped in a chilling aura.

"Hey? The boss's here?"

Only then did Li Cuihua notice Zhao Shanhe standing at the door like a door god.

Her face hardened, and she casually pushed a bowl of clear, watery vegetable soup onto the corner of the table.

"What are you poking at? Are you some kind of gatekeeper monkey? Hurry up and drink your soup and fetch water! The water tank's empty. If you delay the second son from washing his face and getting ready to leave, I'll skin you alive!"

Zhao Shanhe ignored her.

He walked straight up to the third brother, Zhao Shanlin.

"Hey bro, what are you looking at...?"

Zhao Shanlin still wanted to act recklessly.

Bang!

Without saying a word, Zhao Shanhe grabbed Zhao Shanlin's hand that was holding the matches with his large, fan-like hand.

Squeeze it hard!

"Awooo—!!!"

Zhao Shanlin let out a scream.

The still-burning match was pressed directly onto the back of his hand by Zhao Shanhe!

The flames sizzled, scalding Zhao Shanlin until he screamed like a pig being slaughtered.

"Third brother!" Li Cuihua jumped up in shock. "Eldest brother, have you gone mad?!"

Zhao Shanhe didn't stop.

He looked at his third son, who was trying to shrink back in pain, and his eyes turned cold:

"Burning my daughter's hair tie? You dare to challenge me?"

Before he could finish speaking...

Zhao Shanhe suddenly raised his knee and delivered a powerful kick to Zhao Shanlin's chest!

Bang! !

A muffled thud!

Zhao Shanlin, who weighs 140 to 150 pounds, was actually kicked away by this kick!

He flew through the air like a tattered sack, crashing heavily onto the pile of firewood in the corner with a loud thud. Clutching his chest, he couldn't even breathe and could only roll his eyes and convulse on the ground.

That kick stunned everyone in the room.

Zhao Shanhe withdrew his foot, patted the dust off his trousers, and slowly turned his head to look at his second son, Zhao Shanhai, who was holding a bowl and spoon and was trembling.

"B-Big brother, what are you doing? I'm a government official..."

"cadre?"

Zhao Shanhe looked at the new shoes on his feet, a cruel smile curling at the corner of his mouth:

"You wore my shoes, drove my wife and children to their deaths, and you still want to be a cadre?"

"If you think the shoes are too tight, then don't wear them!"

Before he could finish speaking...

Zhao Shanhe suddenly stretched out his hands, his large, iron-like hands, honed in the mountains, gripped the edge of the thick solid wood table!

"What...what are you going to do?! This table is made of rosewood..." Zhao Shanhai stared wide-eyed in horror.

"What are you doing?"

Zhao Shanhe's eyes were bloodshot; the rage of two lifetimes had completely erupted at this moment.

"None of you will get to eat this meal!!"

"Turn it for me!!"

Boom! ...

The square table, weighing several hundred kilograms, was flung into the air like a piece of paper by Zhao Shanhe's terrifying strength!

That large bowl of freshly cooked, piping hot, thick white rice porridge, along with the pickled vegetable plate and chopstick holder, traced an arc in the air, and then—

It came crashing down with pinpoint accuracy, right on top of me!

"ah!!!!"

The second brother, Zhao Shanhai, who was the first to be hit, let out a scream like a pig being slaughtered!

The scalding hot rice porridge poured down his hair and into his "decent" Zhongshan suit, scalding him so much that he jumped three feet high on the spot. His pair of refined glasses were smashed off and shattered on the ground!

The ground was in mess.

Broken porcelain shards, white rice porridge, and still steaming pickled vegetables.

And the ashes of that flattened red headband.

Li Cuihua was terrified when porridge was splashed all over her face.

She pointed at Zhao Shanhe, her voice trembling, as if she were seeing her eldest son for the first time:

"This is outrageous! This is outrageous! I'm your mother! How dare you overturn the table? I'm going to the village committee to report you for disobedience! For being unfilial!"

"Go sue!"

Zhao Shanhe, barefoot and stepping on the broken porcelain shards scattered on the ground, approached the mother and her two children, who were huddled together, like a demon from hell.

He grabbed a fire poker from behind the door and slammed it against his knee.

"Snap!"

He snapped the thick oak stick in half!

He hammered the broken stick with spikes into the door frame next to Zhao Shanhai's face, driving it deep into the wood!

Wood chips flew everywhere, scratching Zhao Shanhai's delicate face.

"Let me tell you, that Zhao, the boss you all bullied, is dead!"

"Give me back that fifty dollars, and my shoes!"

"If we don't split up today, no one in this house will leave alive!!"