"Meijuan is a decent girl! She's my true love, and she never lets me touch her. How could she possibly be pregnant?"
"Smack!"
A slap sent Su Mingde sprawling to the ground.
Su Jianguo stubbed out his cigarette on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), the sparks drawing a scarlet arc in the darkness.
"I'm not going to waste my breath on you right now. I'll ask you one last time."
He bent down and grabbed his son's collar, the bulging muscles on his arms clearly visible.
"Do you want your money, or your life?"
Su Mingde suddenly began to tremble violently, and dark water stains gradually appeared in his crotch.
He recalled the gruesome sight of his elder brother being whipped with a belt until his skin was torn and bleeding, and the image of his younger sister kneeling and eating cornbread. A muffled sob escaped his throat.
"I...I choose fate..."
Su Jianguo let go of his son's hand, pulled out a ten-yuan note from the tin box, and threw it at his son's face.
"Tomorrow morning, pack your bags and get out. This house has no place for you. Go find your true love."
"father!"
Su Mingde kowtowed frantically, his forehead striking the brick floor and drawing blood.
"You can't do this... The neighborhood committee's dormitories are already full. How am I supposed to survive if I leave home..."
"What's it to me? I'm a grown man in my twenties, I have hands and feet, I won't starve."
"Dad! You can't kick me out! What will happen to my reputation if I'm kicked out? What will happen to my job?"
"Smack!"
Su Jianguo slapped his son across the face, the crisp sound particularly jarring in the quiet night.
"Work? You even know what a job is?"
Su Jianguo sneered, grabbed a tin biscuit box from the kang (a heated brick bed), and shook it.
"When you stole my money to support that slut, didn't you ever think about working?"
Su Mingde covered his face, tears streaming down his face.
"Meijuan is a very good person, Dad. You just have a misunderstanding about her. She is a good girl."
"Bullshit!"
Just then, Wang Xiulan's groggy voice came from behind, clearly indicating that she had been woken up.
"What happened, sir?"
Wang Xiulan had already gotten up, and upon seeing this scene, she immediately sobered up.
"Oh dear! Mingde, what's wrong with you...?"
"Mother! Save me!"
Su Mingde, as if grasping at a straw, scrambled to his mother's feet.
"Dad wants to kick me out! I... I have nowhere to live!"
Wang Xiulan bent down to help her son with heartache, but Su Jianguo stopped her with a shout.
"Don't move! I'm disciplining my son, don't interfere!"
Wang Xiulan's hand froze in mid-air, her lips trembling.
"Master, Mingde, he..."
"Shut up!"
Su Jianguo grabbed his wife and pointed at Su Mingde, cursing him.
"That little bastard stole money in the middle of the night, got caught red-handed, and still won't admit it! If we don't teach him a lesson today, he'll dare to commit murder and arson tomorrow!"
Seeing that even his mother was stunned, Su Mingde was utterly desperate.
He crawled on his knees a few steps, his forehead hitting the ground heavily.
"Father! I was wrong! I really know I was wrong! Please forgive me this once..."
"Spare you?"
Su Jianguo sneered, took out his pipe bowl from the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), and slowly filled it with tobacco.
"Fine, let's settle the score. I won't even mention the money you've spent since you were a child, but even the money you've spent working these past five years, you owe me that. And that includes the food and drinks you've eaten and drunk, and the job I got you through connections. Now you think you're all that?"
Su Mingde raised his head.
"Dad, isn't it enough that I... I'll give you half of my salary every month?"
"fart!"
Su Jianguo smashed a matchbox with a "crack".
"That was the agreement before! Now that you've been caught stealing money, the terms have changed. Starting tomorrow, pack your bags and get out! You'll still have to hand over your wages, but you won't get a single grain of rice from the house!"
Su Mingde trembled all over and suddenly shouted hysterically.
"Why? You support my older sister's divorce, but you try everything to stop me from getting married! You're so biased!"
"Smack!"
Su Jianguo slapped Su Mingde hard on the head.
"Your older sister was beaten by a man! You're just eager to be a cuckold!"
Su Jianguo was so angry that his beard was trembling.
"Don't you know whose child Liu Meijuan is carrying?"
Su Mingde suddenly sprang to his feet and roared hysterically.
"I don't care! I just love Meijuan! I can't live without her! If you want to kick me out today, I'll... I'll..."
"So what are you going to do?"
Su Jianguo slowly lit a cigarette, squinting as he looked at his son.
"Go jump into the river? Go hang yourself?"
Su Mingde's momentum vanished instantly, and his shoulders slumped.
"Father...please..."
"Get out."
Su Jianguo exhaled a smoke ring.
Starting tomorrow, there will be no food or bed for you at home. But your salary...
He held up two fingers.
"You must hand over 21.25 yuan every month, not a penny less."
Seeing that her old man really wanted to kill her.
Su Mingde suddenly looked up, a ruthless glint in his eyes.
What if I don't give it to them?
"You won't give it to me?"
Su Jianguo suddenly laughed, revealing his gleaming white teeth.
"Then I'll go to your neighborhood office and ask everyone here: Why won't you even give me my retirement money, after raising my son for over twenty years?"
Su Mingde's face turned deathly pale instantly.
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