Zhang Weiguo was like a walking corpse, neither eating nor drinking, neither speaking nor moving.
He paid no attention to anything happening in the yard.
Let this home just rot away, let it be destroyed.
Just like my own life.
Sinking into a quagmire, unable to extricate oneself.
"Bang!"
The gate to the courtyard was kicked open.
Immediately afterwards, a sharp, angry, and near-collapsed female voice pierced the suffocating silence.
"Zhang Weimin! Explain yourself! Are we even going to live like this anymore?!"
Shi Fangfang slammed the basin of freshly changed, foul-smelling bedsheets into the center of the yard, her chest heaving violently, her eyes red with anger and resentment.
"I've had enough! I can't take another day!"
She pointed to the east wing across the street, her voice trembling, "We've already separated! Why should I have to take care of your father's and sister's excrement and piss?!"
"Look at this mess! All our savings have been poured into this bottomless pit! Buying medicine for Dad, hiring a doctor for Qingqing, everything costs money! Our own children are almost starving! Who am I doing this for?!"
Zhang Weimin walked out of the main room looking exhausted, and the stench emanating from him was enough to make anyone want to vomit.
He looked at his wife, who was on the verge of collapse, his face full of guilt and helplessness: "Fangfang, just bear with it a little longer... After all, he's my father, he's my sister..."
"They're your dad and your sister, not mine!"
Shi Fangfang completely lost it. She rushed to Zhang Weimin, grabbed his collar, and burst into tears.
"Zhang Weimin, open your eyes and look! Your brother! Your good brother Zhang Weiguo, he's awake! He's been awake for several days!"
"Why is he, a grown man, lying in the house pretending to be dead? His father is paralyzed, his sister is insane—isn't that all the fault of your good mother? Why should we clean up this mess?!"
"He thinks he can just cower now? No way! Today, you either make him get out here and take responsibility for what he's supposed to do, or we're getting a divorce!"
"I'm taking the kids and leaving! You can keep this mess yourself!"
Shi Fangfang was pointing angrily at Zhang Weiguo's room.
Just then, the wooden door to Zhang Qingqing's room creaked open from the inside.
A disheveled, ragged figure emerged like a ghost.
It was Zhang Qingqing who had gone completely insane.
Her face was streaked with black and gray, her hair was a mess like a bird's nest, and she clutched a bare twig she had picked up tightly in her hand, humming an off-key lullaby: "Going to school, writing articles, I am the God of Literature in the sky..."
She swayed to the center of the courtyard, her cloudy eyes staring intently at Shi Fangfang. Suddenly, she grinned, revealing a strange smile.
"Who are you? Are you our servant?"
Zhang Qingqing tilted her head, pointed at Shi Fangfang with the tree branch, and said in a sharp tone, "Let me tell you, you are not allowed to touch my books! Those are our university students' books! You, a country bumpkin, are not worthy to touch them!"
As she spoke, she suddenly took a few steps closer, sniffed the air, and frowned in disgust.
"You stink! Are you jealous of me? Jealous that I can go to university in Haicheng while you're stuck here washing these stinky diapers?!"
"Let me tell you, once I graduate, I'll be a government official! Then, with just one word, I can send you back to the countryside to farm! You'll never be able to set foot in the city again!"
These insane words, every single one, were like poisoned steel needles, precisely piercing Shi Fangfang's already riddled heart!
These past few days, she endured nausea and exhaustion, emptying her savings, only to be met with the most vicious humiliation from this madman!
"ah--!!!"
Shi Fangfang could no longer control herself. Like a lioness that had been completely enraged, she let out a sharp roar, rushed forward, and shoved Zhang Qingqing hard to the ground!
"Get out of here! Go back to your room! You madman!!"
Zhang Qingqing was pushed and fell flat on her face, but she didn't cry. She just got up from the ground, turned around and giggled foolishly at Shi Fangfang, and then ran back to her room and closed the door.
Like the last straw that broke the camel's back, the moment Zhang Qingqing went back inside and closed the door, all of Shi Fangfang's strength was drained away.
She could no longer hold on; her legs gave way, and she collapsed in the middle of the yard, hugging her knees and bursting into tears.
The crying was no longer an angry accusation, but filled with endless grievances, despair, and sorrow.
"I don't want to live anymore... I really don't want to live anymore..."
She cried and pounded the ground with her fists, saying, "What kind of life am I living... What sins did I commit in my past life...?"
Looking at his wife, who was lying on the ground in the yard, crying her heart out, and listening to her desperate wails, Zhang Weimin felt as if his heart was being squeezed tightly by a large hand, and the pain made it almost impossible for him to breathe.
He knew that his wife was right.
These days, he's caught in the middle, suffering from both sides, and is almost driven crazy.
He is an honest, filial, and family-oriented man.
But he was also a man, Shi Fangfang's husband, and the father of his own child.
He couldn't just stand by and watch his own little family be dragged down by this larger family that was already rotten to the core.
"good!"
Zhang Weimin gritted his teeth, his eyes blazing with fury.
"You wait! Even if I beat him to death today, I'll drag him out of the house!"
After saying that, he shoved Shi Fangfang aside, turned around and rushed through the dirty and messy courtyard toward Zhang Weiguo's room!
"Bang--!!!"
Zhang Weimin kicked the door open!
The blinding sunlight rushed in instantly, illuminating the deathly silent room that resembled a tomb, and shining on Zhang Weiguo's pale, ghostly face.
He squinted at the sudden light and loud noise, but remained motionless, as if everything around him was irrelevant.
"Zhang Weiguo! You fucking get up!"
Zhang Weimin rushed to the bedside, ripped off the sour-smelling quilt, grabbed Zhang Weiguo by the collar, and lifted him off the bed.
"How long are you going to keep playing dead?! Huh?!"
His eyes were bloodshot, like a caged beast enraged, as he roared, "Your father is paralyzed in the main room, and he even poops in his pants, can't you smell it?!"
"My sister's gone mad, she eats her own hair in the west wing every day, can't you hear her?!"
"This house is fucking collapsing! And you still have the nerve to lie here?! Are you even a man?!"
Zhang Weimin's voice became hoarse with extreme anger.
He stared intently into Zhang Weiguo's empty, lifeless eyes, the disappointment and anger in his heart almost burning him to ashes.
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