Chapter 198 Arriving at the Bi Family
After berating the Lin family, she turned her attention to her silent son, Bi Yuntao, her tone tinged with resentment:
"Taozi! Say something! Look at the life we're living! We eat cornbread and pickled vegetables every day! And look at the Lin family! They have meat in their food every day! Why?! You were one of the top workers in the village! Back then, all those peasants bowed and scraped before your mother!"
She became increasingly agitated as she spoke, as if she had found the key to "breaking the deadlock":
"Go find that slut Lin Baozhu! Get back all the money we gave her before, with interest! Why does her Lin family get to live a life of luxury while using our money?!"
"Mother! Aren't you ashamed enough already?!"
Bi Yuntao abruptly interrupted his mother's cursing, his voice filled with suppressed resentment and humiliation, "Whose fault is it that our family has fallen to this state?! If you hadn't rushed to the Lin family to break off the engagement and smashed pots and pans and cursed in the street, would things have gotten out of control?! I told you long ago—I would gradually distance myself from her and find a way to make her take the initiative to break off the engagement. At that time, our family wouldn't have to pay a penny. You ruined my whole plan!"
"Bang! Crash!"
Like a cat whose tail has been stepped on, You Yongsheng instantly bristled! She grabbed a piece of firewood and slammed it to the ground! The dry wood snapped in two, sparks flying everywhere, just like her fury and frustration that had been completely ignited and was now burning her up!
"You...you blame me?! Now that everything's happened, it's all my fault?!" Her voice suddenly rose, sharp and piercing, filled with unbelievable anger and a sense of grievance at being betrayed by her closest relatives. "When I went to annul the engagement, didn't you agree?! Without your tacit approval, could I have made such a scene on my own?!"
Finally, the anger she had been holding back was suddenly overwhelmed by immense resentment and despair. Her legs gave way, and she collapsed to the ground, pounding the dusty floor with her fists, wailing, "Gods!!! What terrible things have I done... Why is my life so miserable!!!"
The crying was hoarse and shrill, so loud it hurt people's ears.
In the past, Bi Yuntao would have definitely tried to coax him gently, but now...
Bi Yuntao stood frozen in front of the courtyard, which was almost reduced to ruins, a heavy sense of powerlessness washing over him like a cold tide.
If only... if only he hadn't been so blinded by greed and broken off his engagement with Lin Baozhu, hadn't been seduced by Zhao Xiaoyu, and hadn't so heartlessly conspired with bandits to murder her... given Lin Baozhu's feelings for him, he, Bi Yuntao, would surely have been the first author on the research findings for the high-precision machine tool. He would have been surrounded by admirers then, and wouldn't have had to suffer this humiliation.
He had heard about it when he was still at the machine factory—that Academician Wang Zhengyuan of the city valued Lin Baozhu’s research highly and had invited her to work in the city many times, but she had declined each time.
But why? When she was with him, she was unknown, like a pearl covered in dust; but once the engagement was broken off, she shone brightly and was dazzling! At this moment, the bone-deep resentment, the piercing regret, the burning annoyance, and the twisted jealousy, like poisonous vines, madly wrapped around and tightened around his heart.
So much so that the sound of Zhao Xiaoyu yelling at him to pour out the bathwater in a shrill voice inside the room was blurred into background noise.
"Brother Tao! Are you deaf?!" Zhao Xiaoyu looked through the grease-stained window and saw Bi Yuntao standing like a wooden stake in the dilapidated kitchen doorway. Her voice suddenly rose, sharp and piercing, "What are you spacing out for! Quickly pour in some water! This smell is making me rotten!"
Bi Yuntao jolted awake, his gaze falling on the greasy face, smeared with some unknown grime, reflected in the windowpane. A wave of nausea washed over him. He forced back the disgust welling up in his eyes and forced out in a dry voice, "...Coming right now. You...wash yourself a few more times, don't skimp on the soap."
"I knew Brother Tao was the best to me! He cares about me so much!" Zhao Xiaoyu's affected voice came through.
Bi Yuntao: ...
He really knows how to make a scene. He's just afraid you'll suffocate him!
*Lin Family*
Lin Baozhu pulled Lin Sanlang to a corner, lowered her voice, and her gaze was as cold as ice:
"Third Brother, go to town and find out where that Revolutionary Committee Director is hiding!"
"Little sister, you want to put a sack on him? Count me in!" Lin Sanlang rubbed his hands together, his eyes shining with excitement.
Lin Baozhu's lips curled into a cold smile: "Let's find out where he is first. Tonight, we'll go 'pay him a visit'!" He injured her mother and third brother, smashed up her house, and thought he could just pay some money and be done with it? He's dreaming! She wouldn't be Lin Baozhu if she didn't ransack his house!
"Alright! Third Brother will go right away!" Lin Sanlang turned around and was about to rush out.
"Where are you going?" Qin Haifeng rode his bicycle and nimbly spun to a stop at the gate. Looking at Lin Sanlang's eager and gleaming eyes, he raised an eyebrow and smiled knowingly. "Looking for the Revolutionary Committee Director? He's already inside and being interrogated right now."
He turned to Lin Baozhu, winked mischievously, and added, "Oh, by the way, his house was also raided and sealed off; not even a fly can get in!"
Lin Baozhu: ...
Damn, that was fast!
"The person who reported you has also confessed..."
“It’s Zhao Xiaoyu!” Lin Baozhu scoffed lightly, her tone decisive and without the slightest surprise.
"You guessed it?" Qin Haifeng's eyes flickered slightly.
"Who else has a blood feud with my family besides that bunch of bastards from the Bi family? Bi Yuntao is just a toothless tiger now, all talk and no action. As for Zhao Xiaoyu... she's very jealous, and she's relying on her somewhat ambiguous 'relationship' with the higher-ups. I bet she's using that connection to reach some kind of agreement with the Revolutionary Committee director."
"What a pity... This terrible move has completely ruined everything!" Lin Baozhu's tone was chillingly insightful.
Lin's mother, who was dragging the trash can out, suddenly stopped, straightened up abruptly, and a surge of rage rushed to the top of her head:
"What?! It was that heartless, rotten bitch Zhao Xiaoyu who did this?! No wonder those bastards in their dog skins pounced on us like hyenas smelling blood! Turns out she stabbed us in the back!"
Before Lin's mother could finish speaking, she grabbed the still-stained broom and charged straight at the Bi family's house like an enraged lioness, her roar shaking the leaves of the trees.
"Zhao Xiaoyu! You wretched slut, ridden by a thousand men and paid for by ten thousand! Get out here right now! You filthy thing who only knows how to use underhanded tricks and trip people up behind their backs, why didn't those bandits wipe out your whole family back then??"
Lin's mother's roar was like a bucket of cold water being poured into boiling oil, and the villagers watching instantly erupted in chaos!
Upon hearing this, a nearby neighbor exclaimed in shock, "Good heavens! So that's what happened! I was wondering how the honest Lin family got into trouble with the Revolutionary Committee! It's Zhao Xiaoyu, that troublemaker! What's she trying to achieve by doing this?"
"What's the point? They're just jealous! They can't stand seeing the Lin family's life getting better and better, and they can't stand seeing Baozhu being a hundred times better than them! One is the bright moon in the sky, and the other is a maggot in a cesspool! They might even be afraid that Bi Yuntao will regret marrying her, so they wanted to strike first and crush the Lin family! And what happened? They kicked a hornet's nest! This kind of scourge is a cancer in the village, and it might harm our whole village one day!"
"This must be reported to the brigade leader! Kick this family out of the village! With a mad dog like this that bites at any time around, we're afraid of being reported even if we eat meat. We're living in constant fear. Who has the motivation to work?"
Ignoring the surrounding chatter, Lin's mother rushed to the front of the Bi family's courtyard, wielding a broom and smashing everything in sight! "Clang!" The ceramic jar on the windowsill shattered! The broom head, smeared with excrement and urine, churned violently into the large water vat, instantly turning the clear water murky!
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