"You..." Liu Xiuqin trembled with anger, "Are you really going to be this cruel?"
"Absolutely amazing? I'll show you what true perfection is."
After he finished speaking, he turned away with a flick of his sleeve.
The room was deathly silent, with only the rustling of the curtains in the wind.
In the evening, in the mountain valley of Xiling Village, Du Jianshan carried two snakeskin bags and walked with firm steps.
Niu Zhenshan, carrying a bundle of hunting rifles and gunpowder on his back, asked breathlessly, "Did your family really let you bring all this out? Didn't your mother stop you?"
"She stopped me?" Du Jianshan scoffed. "What I took from her was what I was destined to receive. She owes me."
“Hey, I mean…” Niu Zhenshan scratched his head, “So you’re really going to the countryside? This isn’t a trip to play; it’s about working and enduring hardship.”
"I know."
"Then why go?"
As Du Jianshan walked, he looked towards the depths of Xiling Mountain and whispered:
"Because only there can I start over, and no one can use 'family ties' as a rope to bind me anymore."
"You're heartless."
"Ruthless?" He stopped and stared at Niu Zhenshan. "Compared to them making me take the blame and pushing me out to take the fall, what is my little bit of ruthlessness?"
Niu Zhenshan was taken aback by his gaze, then gave an awkward smile: "That's true. So what are you really planning to do next? Although there are many resources in the mountains, they are also very dangerous. What are you planning to do?"
"Jianshan, Mom knows you suffered before, but we're family, what knot can't be untied?"
Du Jianshan stepped back, avoiding her hand as if it were a plague, his expression mocking: "Family? When I was a child, I was sick with a fever, burning up all over. You took Li Fuqiang to see a play, leaving me alone on the kang, convulsing from the heat. How come you didn't remember that we were family back then?"
"That was...that was Mom's mistake! Mom admits it!" Liu Xiuqin's tears flowed uncontrollably. "But we can't keep bringing up the past. Li Fuqiang is your brother after all; blood is thicker than water!"
"Blood is thicker than water?" Du Jianshan's sneer deepened. "Mom, stop lying to me with these words. Li Fuqiang isn't my brother; he's the apple of your eye, the person you're so determined to protect."
"Seeing the mountain—"
“If you had any conscience, you wouldn’t have forced me to take the blame for him stealing grain from the commune’s warehouse!” Du Jianshan’s eyes were like knives. “Do you know how I spent that year in the labor camp? Mining coal during the day, taking roll call at night, and getting whipped if I was even a little late! Three years, I went from being in my early twenties to looking like an old man, and you never even asked me about it?”
Liu Xiuqin's lips trembled, and after a long while, she managed to utter, "Back then, I wanted to wait for you to come back... so that our family could be reunited..."
"Reunion?" Du Jianshan gritted his teeth. "I just got back and you sent me to get money for Li Fuqiang to go hunting, saying you were borrowing my skills. Say it again, who's family?"
"That's not...it's not that I wanted you to earn some work points too..."
"Stop pretending," Du Jianshan interrupted decisively. "You're just worried that Li Fuqiang might be in danger in the mountains, so you insist that I go ahead and hunt for him. In the end, I'm just the 'leftover meat' you're talking about, something to be chopped up and used to fill the pot, right?"
Aunt Zhang, a neighbor who was watching from the sidelines, couldn't stand it anymore and sighed softly, "Tsk tsk, this mother and daughter are making a scene more real than a TV drama."
On the other side, Li Fuqiang quietly took a step back, a smug look flashing across his face, but he still pretended to be guilty: "Brother, let's stop arguing. Mom was forced into it. We're both men, let's just let bygones be bygones?"
"Don't give me that!" Du Jianshan suddenly raised his hand, pointed at his nose and roared, "Li Fuqiang, do you think I'm blind? You gave Erwa cigarette coupons and lured him to steal grain from the warehouse, wasn't that all at your behest? Now you're saying you're moving on, are you afraid I'll settle old scores with you?"
"Where did I say that? Don't accuse me falsely!" Li Fuqiang's expression changed, and he turned to look at Liu Xiuqin. "Mom, say something!"
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