Yang Mengqiu was furious when she saw Yang Mengqing's appearance! Her soul even showed signs of instability.
The group stopped what they were doing. The reason was simple: Qi Zhiheng and Yang Yitian's clothes didn't look like those of ordinary people, so they naturally didn't want to offend them.
"Who are you! This is our family matter, outsiders should not interfere," said one of the men who had just beaten Yang Mengqing.
Qi Zhiheng said, "What mistake has he made? If he has made a mistake, you should send him to the authorities. Taking such drastic measures in private will be punished."
Those who had just made the move were somewhat flustered. The woman stepped forward and said, "Don't try to fool us! This is just a family matter! It's nothing like going to the authorities!"
Qi Zhiheng looked at Yang Mengqiu, but said to the woman, "Who are you? What did he do? We were just passing by, we can't just watch you kill someone for nothing."
Yang Mengqiu said angrily, "This woman is my wife's mother!"
He used to refer to his wife's mother as "mother-in-law." Now, he's probably furious, because he's even changed how he addresses her.
“This man is the village idiot, he’s out of his mind. He’s always tearing down our bricks and tiles. We’re in the right! Even if you report it to the authorities, it won’t do you any good.”
"He's talking nonsense! Their house is in the next village! My older brother doesn't even know the way, how could he possibly go to their house to tear down the wall!" Yang Mengqiu said indignantly from the side!
At this moment, a passerby sarcastically remarked, "Zhang Cuihua, aren't you ashamed! Is that your house? That's your son-in-law's house! So what if Yang Laoda demolishes it? It's his brother's house, why can't it be demolished!" A woman angrily retorted, "You people from Zhangjia Village are too arrogant! You actually come to our Yangjia Village to bully us! Don't you even know if the people of Yangjia Village agree to this?"
"Pah! What do you mean by 'my son-in-law'? My son-in-law is long dead. All his things belong to my grandson and daughter! Yang Laoda is just his older brother. All those things belong to my daughter. What right does he have to demolish my daughter's house! I think the people of Yangjia Village just want to bully these orphans and widows! I don't want to live anymore! You people of Yangjia Village are bullying us so much!" Seeing that more and more people were gathering, Zhang Cuihua simply sat down on the ground and started wailing.
"Who bullied whom? Your Yang family seized the son-in-law's house and land, and even kicked out the son-in-law's elder brother. How dare you say that we from Yangjia Village are bullying people? Do you have any shame?" The woman who had spoken earlier cursed again.
Yang Yitian was furious. Yang Mengqiu was, after all, his divided soul. How could they bully their elder brother like this? It was bullying his own brother! He couldn't tolerate it. He retorted sarcastically, "What thick skin! You seized someone else's property and kicked them out, and now you've brought people to kill them and silence them! You should report this to the authorities! What are you waiting for? Go to hell later. Go report this to the authorities now and say that you bunch of scum tried to murder for money. Let the officials break your legs and pull out your tongues!"
As he spoke, he reached out and grabbed Qi Zhiheng's arm: "Let's go, let's report this to the authorities right now. I have some connections with the city lord! Let's make him arrest these unruly people for doing such a heinous thing."
As soon as Yang Yitian said this, everyone's eyes turned to him.
Someone exclaimed, "It's Scholar Yang! Scholar Yang is back!"
Upon hearing this, everyone took two steps back.
Yang Yitian was a little confused! He had just spoken up for justice, so why were these people avoiding him like the plague? Had he said something wrong?
What Yang Yitian didn't know was that these people weren't avoiding him because of him. It was just that he looked too much like Yang Mengqiu, who was already dead, so these people naturally regarded him as a ghost. Even Zhang Cuihua, who had been the loudest at the beginning, didn't dare to speak anymore.
After all, it's true that they seized the other party's house, and the Yang family also took over their land.
Zhang Cuihua was still sitting there. After realizing what had happened, she quickly spoke up to defend herself, "It wasn't me! We didn't kick him out! It was Yang Dalang who wanted to leave on his own. It has nothing to do with us! It was him! He said he wanted to build some kind of house, and he tore down all the walls and did all this mess. Does that house look like a place for a human to live? He's just causing trouble! We only came to argue with him because we didn't want him to ruin the house! We didn't really want to hit him! Scholar Yang! Son-in-law, rest in peace now that you're dead. Don't come looking for us!"
Yang Yitian was speechless. There was clearly a significant gap between him and Yang Mengqiu, so why did these people think they were Yang Mengqiu?
"Second brother! You're back." Yang Mengqing seemed to understand their conversation. When she saw Yang Yitian, she rushed over and grabbed his sleeve with her dirty hands.
"Big brother!" Yang Mengqiu called out from the side, even though she knew her older brother couldn't see her.
Yang Mengqing grinned foolishly, his beard covering most of his face, and the parts of his skin that were visible were also dark. He took Yang Yitian's hand and said, "Second brother, come with me, let's go see our house! I've built a house for you, a really big house."
As he spoke, he pulled Yang Yitian along and walked in one direction. Before leaving, he didn't forget to pick up the things on the ground.
There were a few mud bricks and a piece of wood. Yang Mengqing hugged the mud bricks to her chest and then picked up the piece of wood.
"Big brother, let me help you carry it!" Yang Yitian saw that he was having some difficulty carrying it, so he stepped forward to help.
"No need! You study, you don't need to work. You'll become the top scholar, and I'll take care of it." Yang Mengqing hugged the things in her hands tightly.
Yang Yitian coaxed the man, "It's alright, brother. I'll just help you carry some wood. The wood isn't heavy, don't worry. When have I ever lied to you?"
After thinking for a moment, Yang Mengqing decided to let Yang Yitian take the wood from his hands.
Yang Yitian said to Yang Mengqing, "Let's go, brother, let's go home first."
Yang Mengqing also gave in, muttering, "You're not lying to me!"
Qi Zhiheng followed the two back together.
Yang Mengqing's residence is not far from here; it only takes a short walk to get there.
However, when they saw his residence, Yang Yitian and Qi Zhiheng were both taken aback, because the house was really too strange...
Half of the house was made of mud bricks, and the structure seemed relatively normal, suggesting it was the old house where Yang Mengqiu and Yang Mengqing had lived. The other half was constructed of stones and mud bricks. Although the mud bricks were relatively flat, the combination of mud bricks, stones, and wooden planks immediately reminded Yang Yitian of a dilapidated building!
The house had both roof tiles and thatch, making it look quite incongruous.
Yang Mengqing, on the other hand, was very happy, shouting, "We have a big house! Second brother is home!" He threw the bricks on the ground, pulled Yang Yitian excitedly into the "dangerous house," and Yang Mengqiu's soul followed Yang Mengqing into the house together.
Qi Zhiheng had no choice but to follow.
Yang Mengqing enthusiastically introduced his house: "Second brother, this is your room!" The room he was describing was essentially the master bedroom, the largest in the entire dilapidated house. Then he pulled out more than a dozen books from a corner and presented them to Yang Yitian as treasures.
Yang Yitian took the book somewhat awkwardly, and then was pulled to other rooms, where he was introduced to each one: "My parents' room."
"My younger sister's room."
"My little sister's room."
...
After introducing each room, he returned to his own room, cheerfully saying, "We're all family! We're all family!"
After he finished laughing, he asked Yang Yitian, "Second brother, father and mother, when will my eldest sister and youngest sister come back?"
Yang Yitian was completely baffled by his question, since he wasn't the real Yang Mengqiu, so he turned his gaze to Yang Mengqiu.
Yang Mengqiu followed behind, and at first he didn't quite understand why his older brother wanted to build such a strange house.
Only after hearing Yang Mengqing's later words did he truly understand what he meant. Because he couldn't shed tears, he shed two lines of bloody tears instead.
"Brother! It was me, I lied to you!" His tears of blood flowed down, but before they could fall to the ground, they vanished into thin air.
Qi Zhiheng said, "Calm down, you're damaging your soul!"
Yang Mengqiu shook his head violently: "I can't stop, I can't stop!" He knew that this was damaging to his soul. Every time he shed a drop of blood or tears, it was depleting his soul, but he really couldn't stop his tears.
I remember the year my mother died, leaving only my brother and me to depend on each other. We moved into this dilapidated house.
It was raining heavily that night, and the two of them were lying in bed with the roof leaking.
Perhaps because she had never experienced a leaky roof before, Yang Mengqing felt extremely uncomfortable.
Although Yang Mengqing is the older brother and much older than Yang Mengqiu, he is not very clear-headed. Yang Mengqiu is more like the older brother.
That night, Yang Mengqing asked when her parents would return, because in the past, when the house leaked, her father would go to repair the roof the next day.
Yang Mengqiu then said, "The house is too small, and it's not enough for Father and Mother to live in. Once we have a house, Father, Mother, Eldest Sister, and Little Sister will come back."
These are obviously words used to deceive children.
Yang Mengqing said confidently, "When I grow up a bit, I'll build you a house. Then, our parents will have one room, you will have one room, my older sister will have one room, my younger sister will have one room, and we'll leave one room for me. Our whole family will still be together."
At the time, ten-year-old Yang Mengqing silently shed tears in the leaky house. After all, he was just a child, and all he had experienced left him feeling lost and overwhelmed.
When Yang Mengqing saw her younger brother crying, she could only comfort him and tell him not to cry, that he would go to work tomorrow and wouldn't go hungry.
Yang Mengqiu nodded while wiping away her tears. She just didn't dare to hope that her big brother could actually do the work.
However, Yang Mengqing really did not do any work. The next day, he went to find people who needed help and did physical labor. He was strong and did some heavy work in exchange for some coarse grains.
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