Chapter 64: Listen to me...

Li Qi did not come down the mountain until dusk, arriving home at nearly six o'clock.

As soon as he stepped through the door, he saw Li Peng sitting on the edge of the brick-bed.

"Well, well, Director Li has graced us with his presence. What a rare guest.

Are you here today to supervise some aspect of our family's operations?"

Li Qi shot a sharp retort at his eldest brother, stripped off his military-style overcoat covered in snow and mud, sat down at the dining table, picked up his rice bowl, and began devouring his meal.

There was no longer any light in Li Peng's eyes.

Ever since he failed to secure the money that day and returned on the school vehicle, he had been subjected to a barrage of artillery fire from Du Li and her parents the moment he entered his home.

The three of them had ridiculed him to such an extent that he began to doubt the very meaning of his existence.

In Du Li's eyes, he had been reduced to a piece of garbage, the most worthless man in the world, a brute, lower than an animal, a living manure-producing machine not even fit to draw breath.

He did not know how to refute her. From the day he met Du Li, she had gradually molded him into his present shape.

Years of relentless psychological conditioning had caused him to forget how to resist.

A day later, he was assigned to the police station to inquire in detail about Du Ming's case. The police officers explicitly told him that Du Ming's criminal facts were clear and unambiguous, and he had confessed without reservation, leaving no grounds whatsoever for bail. He should just wait for the verdict.

When he excitedly brought this news home, naively thinking the matter could finally be put to rest, he was met with an even fiercer torrent of abuse.

Pointing a finger directly at his face, Du Li had berated him, her voice filled with bitter disappointment:

"Did your brains rot from all that reading?

You're not even as heavy as a good hunting dog on a scale, and you don't amount to half a capable woman.

If you just go and ask them directly like that, of course they're going to speak to you in official jargon.

Would they actually teach you to bring money, pull strings, bribe the officials, and then lead the man out?

My younger brother at best acted under someone else's instigation; he doesn't even qualify as an accomplice.

On what grounds should he be sentenced?"

Pushed around for days, Li Peng finally flared up.

"If you've got the ability, go ask them yourself, then!

Anyway, I went, and that's exactly what they told me."

Seeing that her husband of several years actually dared to talk back to her, Du Li went completely unhinged.

"Li Peng, let me tell you this right now: whether my younger brother gets out or not depends entirely on whether you can bring that money from your family home!

I'm not even going to dwell on the other things, but those 1,740 yuan belonging to the two of us—you must get it back for me!

What right does your younger brother have to it?

How thick is the Li family's skin to snatch away the hard-earned savings the two of us put aside?

You bring that money back, and I'll figure out a way to rescue my brother; then this matter can be let go.

If you come back empty-handed again, you can just get out of this house, and we're getting a divorce!"

And so Li Peng had been driven out of his home once more, trudging dejectedly to his father's house.

Right now, he was utterly exhausted, with no desire left to live.

Let it all be destroyed...

Acting as though he completely failed to comprehend Li Qi's sarcasm, he said in a low voice, "Third Brother, I'm begging you, please return that 1,700 yuan to me.

I'm telling you, the police station has really made a mistake. How could someone as good-hearted as Du Ming be arrested as a criminal?

As long as you return the money to me, and let your sister-in-law pull some strings, Du Ming will be able to get out.

Otherwise, your sister-in-law won't let me back into the house."

A real man does not shed tears lightly, only when he has reached the depth of humiliation.

The rims of Li Peng's eyes were red, and tears threatened to fall at any moment.

Li Qi wore a look of utter contempt.

"You're a grown man, what are you trying to pull?

Are you planning to squeeze out a couple of tears like a kitten?

Sniffling and whining like a stray dog.

I know more about Du Ming's case than you do. Don't say you spend 1,700 yuan—even if you spent ten thousand, he's not coming out.

That little bastard deserves to die in prison.

The petty, shitty things he's done are barely any better than those of his traitor grandfather and his collaborating father.

Besides, what do you mean by returning the money to you? Is that your money?

That's Mom's money! Your own money was already taken by Du Li to build a house; if you want money, go look for Du Li!

And another thing—what kind of nonsense is it when you say your sister-in-law won't let you come home? Can you speak some language native to planet Earth for once?

That apartment was assigned to you by the school; it's your home.

What right does she have to keep you out?

Your head is as stuffed with shit as it gets.

You go right back home now, wind up and smack her across the face until it's covered in blood, and see if she ever dares to cross you again."

With a sorrowful expression, Li Peng protested, "How could I ever bear to hit her? She's the one I spent six whole years chasing after.

If she divorces me, how am I supposed to live?

Dad, please say something on my behalf."

Old Man Li slurped a mouthful of side dish, took a sip of liquor, and let out a burp.

He stole a glance at Li Qi. Meeting Li Qi's glaring eyes, he immediately caught the hint and curled his lip at Li Peng.

"Get lost!

The family raised you, put you through university, got you a job, and paid for your wedding.

Who would have thought it would produce a piece of work like you? You're a director of studies at a school, yet you let your own wife beat you down into such a miserable wretch.

Don't you ever call me Dad again; raising a wild duck would be better than having you.

You're even asking me to lecture your Third Brother—which word of his was wrong?"

Grief welled up inside Li Peng. "So you're just going to sit by and watch me get a divorce?

My plan to go south to acquire a diploma has already fallen through, and now I'm facing a divorce. What on earth am I left with in this lifetime?"

Filled with bitter disappointment, Old Man Li snapped, "Was your head run over by a truck, or were you pressed with a flat iron?

There isn't a single wrinkle left on it.

With Du Li's attitude, would she ever dare divorce you?

If she managed to marry a school's director of studies, it wouldn't mean smoke was rising from her family's ancestral tombs—it would mean they were bombed by a hydrogen bomb.

Hurry up and get back home. You're a grown man, yet you've been driven out of your house by a woman. How on earth did our Li family ever produce a coward like you?"

Li Man堂's liver ached with anger; he lost all appetite for his wine and slammed his chopsticks down onto the table with a sharp crack.

Li Peng turned his pleading gaze toward his eldest sister, but Li Li waved her hands repeatedly.

"I am not getting mixed up in you men's business."

Then she lowered her head and whispered softly, "I think Third Brother and Dad make sense."

Li Zhe finally could not hold back any longer.

"Dad, Third Brother, how can you guys be like this?

Eldest Brother and Eldest Sister-in-law are our family, and Sister-in-law's younger brother is practically a relative too.

When relatives run into trouble, what's wrong with helping each other out?

Do you really have to clutch that 1,700 yuan so tightly and put Eldest Brother in such an impossible position?

Eldest Brother is practically crying—do you people have no human empathy left at all?"

At that moment, Li Zhe resonated deeply with Li Peng.

They were both intellectuals; they both believed that education could alter one's destiny.

They both viewed their immediate family as ignorant and filthy, fit only to provide them with a springboard and offer support during times of hardship.

After that, the family should simply vanish quietly and stop showing up to annoy them.

Li Zhe felt that if he did not speak up for his eldest brother now and correct his father's and third brother's erroneous mindset, when a similar situation befell him in the future, he too would be harassed by his family.

Smack!

Li Qi delivered a swift, resounding slap straight across his face.

"If you can eat this meal, eat it; if you can't, get back to your own room.

Stop sitting here spraying shit out of your mouth.

Your mouth is like an asshole—it opens and closes, and out comes 1,700 yuan, as if it's the easiest thing in the world to come by.

Come on, come on, pull out 1,700 yuan yourself and give it to Eldest Brother to help him get through his crisis!"

Clutching his burning, red cheek, Li Zhe glared with eyes full of venom.

"I'm still a student, where would I get money?"

"If you don't have money, what are you talking for?

What does this matter have to do with you? You don't understand a single thing, yet you sit around babbling nonsense."

A sharp pain stabbed at Li Zhe's heart from the scolding. He twisted around, climbed down from the brick-bed, and retreated into his room.

Li Qi looked at Li Man'堂.

"Dad, how on earth did you and Mom educate us kids?

One, two, three—every single one of them turned out like this, completely devoid of human decency."

Old Man Li wanted to glare back, but upon second thought, he realized Li Qi was completely right.

Before going to university, the eldest had sworn grand oaths, kneeling on the ground to declare that once he made something of himself, he would definitely bring the rest of the family a good life.

Yet after he went to school, the entire family drained the marrow from their bones to support him, even borrowing a mountain of debts to pay for his wedding.

And what good did they get in return?

He assumed it was all something the family owed him. Now, because the family refused to lend him money to buy a diploma down south, he was ready to disown his own father.

When the second son was getting married, the family truly could not scrape together any money, which forced Tang Chunyan to throw a massive fit, swearing on oath that she was marrying Li Hai, not the Li family.

If the family ever dared ask Li Hai for money to support Li Peng again, she would camp outside the Li family's front door and curse them out.

Looking at the matter objectively, was Tang Chunyan in the wrong?

Not at all. It was just that the old couple had been far too partial.

After the third son failed to pass the exams, his wife Lu Yanmei poured all her heart and soul into Li Zhe, refusing to even let him lift a fallen oil bottle, making him study exclusively.

It was as if merely picking up a book made him the greatest contributor to the household.

Right up until she exhausted herself to death.

Fortunately, Third Brother had turned things around now and was no longer that spineless wretch of the past.

At this thought, Old Man Li spoke very formally to Li Peng.