Wei Aiguo brought up divorce for the second time because he suspected that Song Yan and He Jianian were still having an affair. But he couldn't bring himself to say it. "You're so good to Wei Ping and Wei An, and you're good to my mother too."

"I think children are cute, so I'm good to them. They're pitiful too, and I feel pity for them. As for your mother, she's sitting on the kang (heated brick bed) waiting for me to serve her, so she doesn't find fault with me. Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are natural enemies, but this is just an illusion. Do you expect me to be this good to her for the rest of my life? The two things you value might not even be there in the future. What will you do then?"

“If it were someone else, they probably couldn’t even do these two things.” Wei Aiguo looked at Song Yan very seriously. “My family is old and young, and it’s not easy for them to find wives for the first time. If I divorce you, I might not be able to find a wife at all. Based on that alone, my mother definitely won’t agree to our divorce.”

Song Yan felt incredibly frustrated and had nowhere to vent. She grabbed a pillow from the kang (a heated brick bed) and threw it at Wei Aiguo. "What does it matter to me whether you find a wife or not?"

He grabbed the pillow, touched his nose with one hand, and finding the bleeding had stopped, he stood up and slowly placed the pillow on the kang (a heated brick bed). Because of the struggle and tearing, Song Yan's hair was disheveled, a wisp falling across his forehead. Wei Aiguo reached out to brush the wisp aside. Song Yan slapped Wei Aiguo's hand away. "Get out! Get far away from me!"

"This is my home. Where else can I go?" Wei Aiguo looked at Song Yan as if he were looking at an unreasonable child.

His gaze made Song Yan even angrier. "Yes, this is your home. I'm leaving. I don't believe there's no place in this vast world where I can't survive." Song Yan got off the ground and was about to leave.

In the pitch black, Song Yan had nowhere to go. Wei Aiguo grabbed Song Yan's arm, preventing her from leaving. Song Yan kicked and thrashed, but her strength was negligible. After hitting Wei Aiguo a few times, her own hands ached. There was a feather duster by the kang (a heated brick bed), which Song Yan grabbed and began to beat Wei Aiguo mercilessly. Wei Aiguo covered her face with her hands, letting Song Yan beat her. Song Yan only stopped when she was too exhausted to continue and collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down her face.

"The ground is cold." Wei Aiguo pulled Song Yan up from the ground and forced her to sit on the kang (a heated brick bed).

Helplessness, loneliness, despair, and confusion—all sorts of negative emotions welled up inside Song Yan. She went from silently shedding tears to sobbing uncontrollably. Wei Aiguo sat beside her. Having returned from the county town during the day, and then experiencing this ordeal that evening, Song Yan was utterly exhausted after her outburst. Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier.