Xu Runli's fingers, gripping the edge of the stove, suddenly tightened, her fingertips brushing against the rough wood, causing a slight pain.
She suddenly looked up at Yun Tangyin, her eyes bloodshot like crumpled paper: "Do you think you're still the eldest daughter of the Yun family?"
The steam in the kitchen hadn't dissipated yet, making her voice deep and hoarse: "Yun Zhixiong is no longer the Yun Zhixiong of yesteryear. My mother is now spinning thread in the countryside to earn work points, her fingers worn rougher than old tree bark. What right do you have to stand here and talk about being dutiful? Doesn't it hurt your back to talk like that?"
Yun Tangyin paused in wiping the stove, her silver bracelet gleaming coldly in the steam: "That's certainly more honest than some people who rely on men to make up lies to save face."
She hung the rag on the line, water droplets dripping down the fabric. "As for what the Yun family was like before, it has nothing to do with how things are now. Just like how you always fixate on the title of Yun Zhixiong's daughter, it's no wonder you've ended up like this."
Seeing that the atmosphere was getting tense, Jiang Jianhua anxiously wrung his hands, saying, "Runli, say less!"
They were afraid that Yun Tangyin would unleash her full power again and tie the two of them together and bombard them.
"Otherwise, what does she mean?!" Xu Runli suddenly raised her voice, her chest heaving violently. "She looked down on me from the very first day I entered the Yun family! It was the same at the Fu family. When I dug for wild vegetables, she said it was too much oil. When I mentioned Longjing tea, she said it was too expensive. She just can't stand that I'm doing better than her!"
“If I couldn’t stand to see you doing well,” Yun Tangyin walked up to her, with only a stove between them, “I should just take out the IOU and throw it in your face right now.”
Xu Runli's face turned pale instantly. She took half a step back and bumped into the door frame: "You dare!"
"Why wouldn't I dare?" Yun Tangyin's voice was soft, but it felt like an ice pick piercing someone's face. "When you were stuffing complaint letters into the suggestion box in the middle of the night, didn't you ever think about whether you dared to do it?"
Jiang Jianhua exclaimed in surprise, only then realizing that Yun Tangyin had actually seen Xu Runli slipping the whistleblower letter last night.
Xu Runli's lips trembled, and she couldn't speak for a long time.
"I didn't write your name, and it's already been torn up," she finally managed to squeeze out, her voice barely audible.
"Whether it's written or not is unimportant." Yun Tangyin turned and walked towards the water vat. "What's important is that you think destroying others will make you feel better. Just like how you're always fixated on the title of Yun Zhixiong's daughter, as if pulling me down will turn you into another Yun Tangyin?"
She scooped up a ladle of water and poured it into the pot. "But life isn't a stage where you can change your costume and become someone else's. To me, you're just a clown."
The pot lid clicked loudly from the steam. Xu Runli stared at the flames in the stove, then suddenly squatted down and covered her face.
Jiang Jianhua stood to the side, wanting to hand over a handkerchief but not daring to.
Jiang Jianhua paced around anxiously for a moment, then grabbed a coarse cloth from the stove and shoved it into Xu Runli's hand: "Wipe your face. You've cried so much, Zhicheng will think we bullied you when he gets here."
Xu Runli didn't take it; the handkerchief fell to the ground, getting covered in coal ash from the stove.
Her shoulders were shaking violently, and her sobs were muffled in her palms, like the meows of a cat being strangled.
Yun Tangyin added a handful of rice to the pot, stirring the water with a wooden spoon, making a splashing sound: "Crying won't solve anything. If you feel wronged that I called you a clown, you should think about why you have to live like other people."
She put the pot lid on, turned around and leaned against the stove: "Fu Yucheng sprained his ankle during military training, but he never complained, 'If only I hadn't been a soldier.' Life is your own; if you follow someone else's shadow, no matter how fast you walk, you'll still be crooked."
Xu Runli suddenly raised her head, her eyes filled with tears and hatred: "Of course you can talk without knowing the pain! You've been pampered since you were little, and even if you're down on your luck now, you can still marry into the Fu family and become a young mistress! What about me? I've lived in your mother's shadow since I was born..."
Yun Tangyin sneered: "I don't have that much power to control your life. Don't try to pin this on me."
Jiang Jianhua quickly tried to smooth things over, saying, "Yinyin, listen to me, Runli is just blunt, she doesn't... she doesn't have any bad intentions!"
Yun Tangyin glanced at the two of them: "No bad intentions? Planning to drag the entire Fu family down with you is what you call having no bad intentions?"
Xu Runli's mood was both dirty and chaotic at this moment.
She suddenly remembered what Jiang Jianhua said when he tore up the whistleblower letter last night: "You're pushing the Fu family into a fire pit." It turned out that Yun Tangyin was awake at that time, but she didn't come out to catch them in the act.
"What exactly do you want?" Xu Runli's voice was hoarse, like sandpaper being scraped. "Do you want me to kowtow and apologize to you?"
Yun Tangyin glanced at her, the silver bracelet gleaming brightly in the stove light: "Since you brought it up yourself, fine. Just kowtow three times to the Kitchen God and explain clearly how you slipped the whistleblower letter in the middle of the night and instigated Jiang Jianhua to steal the account book. If you kowtow loudly, I'll pretend I never saw the IOU."
Xu Runli suddenly looked up, her tears freezing in her eyes: "You really want me to kowtow?"
"What? You're scared now?" Yun Tangyin moved closer to the stove. "You were the one who was shouting that you would kowtow and admit your mistake just now, and now you're the one who's chickened out? Xu Runli, you're not even as good as an ant on the stove."
Jiang Jianhua tried to stop her, but Yun Tangyin froze him in place with a single look.
Xu Runli stared at the incense burner by the stove, her knuckles clenched so tightly they turned white.
She hated being trampled on more than anything in her life, but the IOU was in Yun Tangyin's hands, and Jiang Zhicheng's future was still hanging in the balance. She took a deep breath, and just as she was about to bend her knees, Yun Tangyin suddenly stopped her:
"Wait a minute. Think carefully before you kowtow. Are you kowtowing to me or to the Fu family?"
These words struck Xu Runli's heart like a whip. She straightened up abruptly, tears mixed with hatred falling to the ground: "Yun Tangyin, don't push your luck!"
"So what if I bullied you?" Yun Tangyin took a step forward, almost touching her face. "When you were stuffing letters into the suggestion box in the middle of the night, did you ever think about how you were going too far? When you were encouraging others to gamble with the Fu family's reputation, did you ever think about whether you yourself were going too far?"
She raised her hand and tapped Xu Runli's chest: "You think kowtowing is for my benefit? It's to remind you that the Yun family provides for you, not to make you an ungrateful wretch."
Xu Runli suddenly screamed, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on: "You, Yun Tangyin, are talking without understanding the situation. You have Fu Yucheng protecting you and the account books in your hands, so of course you can say that your life is your own! You...you are so ignorant!"
"At least I didn't make a living by harming people!" Yun Tangyin retorted loudly. "You know in your heart what you did in the Yun family. You and your mother are the same kind of people!"
After saying that, Yun Tangyin grabbed the spatula from the stove and slammed it onto the edge of the pot with a bang: "Now I'm giving you two choices: either kowtow and get out of here, or I'll take the IOU to Jiang Zhicheng right now and show him how his wife schemes against the Fu family!"
Xu Runli was startled and suddenly laughed, tears streaming down her face: "Yun Tangyin, do you really think you can control me? Let me tell you, I can kowtow! But remember, the humiliation you caused me today, you will pay back tenfold sooner or later!"
After saying that, she knelt down in front of the stove with a thud, her forehead about to touch the ground, but Yun Tangyin's words stopped her in her tracks:
"Don't touch the Kitchen God with your dirty forehead. Just kneel there and explain the filthy things you've done. If you don't speak loudly, I won't count it."
Xu Runli's knees ached from the hard surfaces of the bricks, and the humiliation burned like fire in a stove, making her internal organs tremble.
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