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

The cold wind swirled snowflakes, which landed on Zhao Shanhai's face.

He lay in the icy, dirty water, listening to the distant curses of Liu Meilan and Matchmaker Wang, feeling like a mangy dog ​​whose spine had been removed.

It’s over.

It's all over.

The red brick house was gone, the village secretary's daughter was gone, and not only that, Liu Meilan's last words, "Let my dad investigate you," were like a guillotine hanging over his head, freezing the blood in his veins.

If he loses his job, what will he have left?

He's a useless piece of trash who can't lift a finger!

"Son...son..."

Li Cuihua, holding the troublesome chamber pot, stood trembling at the door, watching her second son crawl out of the muddy water, her throat tightening with fear:

"Are you... are you alright? That girl's gone, so be it, we'll look for her again..."

"Find? Find your mother my ass!!"

Zhao Shanhai suddenly sprang up from the ground, letting out a piercing scream.

He rushed over like a madman and kicked over the chamber pot in Li Cuihua's hand!

Clang!

Yellow soup splashed everywhere, soaking Li Cuihua's trouser leg.

"Ouch! What are you doing!" Li Cuihua was so frightened that she sat down on the ground with a thud, looking at her usually gentle and refined second son in disbelief.

At this moment, Zhao Shanhai had lost all semblance of the dignity of a cadre.

His face was covered in mud, his glasses were askew on his ears, his eyes were bloodshot, and his face was contorted like a demon.

"It's all your fault! It's all your fault, you stupid old woman!!"

Zhao Shanhai pointed at Li Cuihua's nose, roaring hysterically, spitting all over his mother's face:

"Who told you to speak so loudly? Who told you to leave the window open? Who told you to say those things?!"

"I'd already lured them to the door! Just one step away! Just that one step! And you ruined it all with your foul mouth!!"

"How...how would I know she was outside...?"

Li Cuihua slapped her thigh in grievance, "I was just changing the dressing for Lao San..."

"The third brother? Yes! And that good-for-nothing too!"

Zhao Shanhai suddenly turned his head, his sinister gaze fixed on Zhao Shanlin, who was lying on the kang (a heated brick bed) inside the room.

He rushed into the house, bringing with him a gust of cold wind.

Zhao Shanlin had just finished defecating and was weakly groaning when he saw his second brother barge in with this murderous look on his face, and he trembled in fright:

"Second...Second Brother..."

"Pull! Serves you right! Why did you have to do it now of all times?! Are you trying to kill me?!"

Zhao Shanhai grabbed a feather duster from the head of the kang (a heated brick bed) and started whipping it indiscriminately at Zhao Shanlin's bandaged severed hand and swollen buttocks!

Snapped!Snapped!Snapped!

"Awooo—!!!"

Zhao Shanlin screamed in agony like a pig being slaughtered, rolling around on the kang (a heated brick bed): "Second Brother, stop hitting me! It hurts so much! Mom! Help! Second Brother has gone mad!"

"I'm insane! My future is ruined! I don't care if you're in pain or not!"

Zhao Shanhai smoked and cursed, spittle flying everywhere:

"You good-for-nothing! We didn't send you to the county hospital to save a few bucks, hoping you'd stay home and scam a fortune! And what happened?!"

"You didn't even get the money! And at the crucial moment, you made a mess of things and drove Liu Meilan away with the smell!!"

"That was my future! That was my big house! You ruined it all with that shit! Why don't you just die?!"

"Stop hitting him! That's your own brother!"

Ignoring her own filth, Li Cuihua rushed in, wailing, and hugged Zhao Shanhai's waist.

"Mountains and Seas! You've committed a terrible sin! How can you blame us? It's all fate..."

"Fuck you!"

Zhao Shanhai shoved his mother aside with such force that Li Cuihua stumbled and hit her head on the cabinet, instantly raising a large bump.

But he didn't care at all.

He slammed the feather duster to the ground, panting heavily as he leaned on the table, his eyes filled with a terrifyingly sinister glint.

The room was a complete mess.

The old woman was crying, the third son was howling, and the smell of excrement and urine mixed with the atmosphere of despair permeated every corner.

Sudden.

A burst of firecrackers came from outside the window.

"Crackling and popping—"

Immediately following was the rough laughter and shouts of the men on the construction site:

"The roof beam is being raised! May it bring you great fortune!"

"Boss Zhao, this red brick house is really impressive! It's the best one in our village!"

The sound pierced through the wind and snow, clearly penetrating the lifeless earthen house.

Every firecracker sound was like salt being rubbed into Zhao Shanhai's wounds.

Every laugh mocked his incompetence and embarrassment.

Zhao Shanhai suddenly raised his head.

Through the broken window, he stared intently at the large red brick house in the distance, which gleamed in the sunlight.

There, the atmosphere was bustling with activity, the aroma of meat filled the air, and hope was everywhere.

For him, there was only excrement, tears, and the impending investigation.

Why should I?!

Why is it that peasant gets to live so well?

Why should a cultured person like him end up in this state?

"Zhao, Shan, He..."

Zhao Shanhai gritted his teeth, the three words seeming to be squeezed out from between his teeth, filled with a hatred that seemed to be chewing bones to pieces.

He didn't hate himself for lying, didn't hate his mother for being quick-tongued, and didn't hate his younger brother for having diarrhea.

In his twisted logic, there is only one culprit behind all of this!

If it weren't for Zhao Shanhe splitting up the family!

If it weren't for Zhao Shanhe building a house to show off!

If Zhao Shanhe hadn't lured Liu Meilan over here!

How did he end up like this?!

"It's you...it's all your fault..."

Zhao Shanhai pushed up his crooked glasses, and the madness in his bloodshot eyes gradually faded, replaced by a chilling calm.

That was the look in the eyes of a gambler who had gone all in, ready to drag the winner down with him after losing everything.

"Stop howling!"

Zhao Shanhai suddenly let out a low roar.

The crying inside the room stopped abruptly. Li Cuihua and Zhao Shanlin were both frightened by his sinister tone and stared at him in terror.

Zhao Shanhai walked to the water vat, scooped up a ladle of ice-cold water, and poured it over his head.

The biting cold made him shiver and completely cooled down his feverish brain.

He wiped the water from his face, turned around, looked at his mother and third son, and a cruel smile curled at the corner of his mouth:

"What's the use of crying? Will crying bring back the house? Will crying save your job?"

"Then...what should we do?" Li Cuihua was completely at a loss. "What if Liu Meilan really lets her father investigate you..."

"Investigate me?"

Zhao Shanhai sneered, pulled out a fountain pen from his pocket, and although the cap was cracked, he still gripped it tightly in his hand:

"Before that, I'll make sure Zhao Shanhe dies a horrible death!"

He walked to the table, found a crumpled piece of paper, and slammed it down on the table:

"Mom, haven't you always wanted to know where the eldest son got the money to build the red brick house?"

"Several thousand yuan worth of red bricks, timber, cement, and fatty meat at every meal... Is this something a farmer could afford?"

Li Cuihua was taken aback: "No... wasn't it obtained by hunting?"

"Hunting? Humph!"

Zhao Shanhai unscrewed the pen, the nib tearing through the paper and leaving a gruesome black mark:

"How much money can a few roe deer fetch? This is a huge project worth several hundred yuan!"

"His enormous wealth has unexplained origins! He's engaging in speculation and profiteering! He might even... have dug up the nation's graves in the mountains! Stealed from the collective's mines!"

Zhao Shanhai's eyes grew brighter and brighter, a blazing light of madness:

"Since I'm not happy, he shouldn't be living either!"

"I'm going to write a letter of complaint! I'm going to the county! I'm going directly to the county revolutionary committee!"

"I refuse to believe it. Such a huge sum of money can't be explained away. Even if he doesn't go to jail, he'll rot in jail!"

"At that time..."

Zhao Shanhai looked out the window at the red brick house and licked his chapped lips:

"The person's been arrested, and the house has been confiscated. As relatives, does that mean we can...?"

Upon hearing this, Li Cuihua's previously dull eyes instantly lit up.

She scrambled to her feet, not even caring about the smell of feces and urine on her body:

"Yes! Yes! Sue him! That ingrate must have done something bad! Otherwise, where would he get the money!"

"If we just arrest him, then we can move into that big brick house..."

"Write! Second Brother! Write as much as you can!"

Zhao Shanlin, lying on the kang (a heated brick bed), excitedly waved his severed hand, as if he could already see Zhao Shanhe bound hand and foot:

"Kill him! Take all his flesh!"

In the dimly lit, dilapidated mud house, the family of three gathered together once again.

This time, there will be no more blaming each other.

But a more vicious storm is brewing, one that could destroy families and wipe out entire households.

Outside the window, the wind and snow intensified.

It seemed to foreshadow that the real life-or-death struggle had only just begun.