"What are you doing? I didn't do anything. Why are you stopping me so early in the morning? As the older brother, can't you be a little more mindful of your image? If the villagers see this, they'll start pointing fingers and cursing you behind your back!"
"Now you're starting to care about your reputation? Didn't you think about that when you were doing something so unscrupulous?" Wang Tianxiao sneered.
The most valuable qualities of a good person compared to a bad person are conscience and reputation, yet these very qualities can also be stumbling blocks for good people. It is precisely because they value them so much that they are repeatedly exploited by bad people.
Wang Tianxiao spent his whole life concerned with saving face, but in the end he didn't get any credit. So after his rebirth, he decided that he would neither lose face nor suffer any loss.
“Come on, let’s sort this out in front of Mother and brothers today, and also let Tianren and your two children see what kind of people his wife and mother really are.”
"What nonsense are you talking about? I don't know what you're talking about, or what I did."
"You won't admit it, huh? Then tell me, what are you doing here at our chimney so early in the morning?"
“I…I was originally here to check our chimney,” Yu Xiaofeng said in a moment of quick thinking. “Our kang (heated brick bed) isn’t heating up, so I came up to see what’s wrong with the chimney. It was too dark, so I couldn’t see it clearly.”
"Still making excuses."
Wang Tianxiao was so angry he laughed. He grabbed Yu Xiaofeng's arm and dragged her back to the pit courtyard while cursing. Yu Xiaofeng tried to struggle, but Wang Tianxiao was over 1.8 meters tall and had a strong body from exercising up and down the hills. She couldn't possibly break free.
Back in the pit-house, Wang Tianxiao shouted loudly in the courtyard, "Get up, everyone, come to your mother, there's something I need to say at home."
"What? Second brother, so early in the morning."
"Can't a person get any sleep?"
"What's all the commotion about? Can't we wait until dawn to talk about it?"
Wang Tianxiao grabbed Yu Xiaofeng's arm and pulled him to Wang Tianren's door. He knocked on the door and called out from outside, "Third brother, get up and come to your mother's house. We have something to talk about."
After saying that, without waiting for the answer from inside, he dragged Yu Xiaofeng to her mother's cave dwelling.
Wang Tianxiao's father, Wang Fugui, died very early, when his youngest daughter, Wang Xiaozhu, was only two years old.
Wang Xiaozhu is now twelve years old and still lives with her mother.
Because Wang Tianxiao had been making a fuss in the yard for a while, all the adults in the family came out.
Apart from the fifth and sixth sons who went to their relatives' houses to help with chores, there were also the fourth son and his wife, and the third son, Wang Tianren, at home.
Wang Tianxiao grabbed Yu Xiaofeng's arm and led her to her mother Zhang Meifeng's cave dwelling. He then threw her aside and stood guard at the door, letting the others in one by one.
Soon, the small cave dwelling was filled with people.
Zhang Meifeng was getting old and couldn't sleep well. In fact, she had already gotten up and was sitting on the bed making insoles. When she saw her second son aggressively pulling her third daughter-in-law, she didn't say anything at first, but just glanced at him indifferently.
Once everyone had come in, he put down his work and looked at Wang Tianxiao, asking, "Son, what's wrong with you making such a racket with Xiaofeng so early in the morning?"
Zhang Meifeng still held a high position in her sons' hearts, after all, their father had passed away early, and many of them had been raised by their mothers with great difficulty.
However, it wasn't until six years later, when the old lady was paralyzed on one side and unable to work, that she realized what use raising a son was.
He was covered in feces and urine, and nobody cared.
Wang Tianxiao and Li Yali thought they would take her into their home to care for her, so that even if there was no food, they would not let their mother go hungry. But others were after the old lady's three acres of land.
She was worried that once she arrived at Wang Tianxiao's house, he would take over her land for his own use.
So it was agreed that each family would take care of the old lady for three months, until she passed away.
However, even though it's the same three months, some children are carefully cared for, while others are treated as a burden.
For example, when she went to the home of the third son, Wang Tianren, Yu Xiaofeng disliked that the old lady had to clean up after going to the toilet, so she only gave her one steamed bun and half a bowl of water each day, which caused the old lady to become constipated and her belly to swell up like a round ball.
Later, the old lady gave all three mu of land to her sixth son, and her other brothers basically stopped caring about it.
“Ask her.” Wang Tianxiao leaned tightly against the cave door. “Anyway, let’s clear things up in front of everyone today. If you have a problem with me, Wang Tianxiao, tell your wife and Lao San to your face. But doing these petty, shady things behind my back, don’t you have any shame?!”
"Second brother, explain yourself clearly. We haven't even finished talking, and you're already trying to sow discord in my eyes." Wang Tianren leaned against the railing and said sarcastically, "You've been away for more than half a year, and you only come back once in a while. Instead of taking good care of Mother, all you do is cause trouble for the family."
"Yes, second brother, is there some misunderstanding? It can't be your sister-in-law..."
"What business is it of your sister-in-law? Why are you spouting nonsense?" The fourth brother, Wang Tianyi, was the kind of traditional hypocrite who never attacked others but was always sarcastic and indirect, like a troublemaker who was happy to stir up trouble.
"Hey, who are you taking your anger out on? I didn't do anything to you." Wang Tianyi looked aggrieved, and his wife, Sun Xiaolan, tugged at his arm, saying, "Stop talking."
Wang Tianyi shook off his wife's hand and stopped talking, but there was a hint of amusement in his eyes.
"Yu Xiaofeng, are you going to say it yourself, or should I say it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You're really stubborn even when you're already cooked," Wang Tianxiao said, trying to calm his anger. Having lived two lives, he should have been more tolerant and shrewd.
But looking at this group of monsters and demons in front of him, and thinking about the immense damage they would cause to his family, he couldn't suppress the anger in his heart, and it surged up uncontrollably.
"Mom, do you know what? Yu Xiaofeng actually filled in our chimney."
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