Chapter 175: In Your Dreams

Chapter 175: Chapter 175: In Your Dreams

"Things at the Shen family’s place are a complete mess!"

Right after Liu Yumin was arrested, the police followed the money transfers and showed up at their door, making things crystal clear to the Shen family.

If the money wasn’t returned, Liu Yumin would face a harsher sentence.

She really hadn’t spent much of the money.

But if they were to spit it all back out, the Shen family would have to pawn everything down to their pots and pans.

Liu Yumin felt sorry for herself and for her son, but when it came to her daughter, Shen Yujie, her feelings had long since been discounted.

In her eyes, a daughter was like spilt water—gone for good once married—and not nearly as reliable as a son.

Back when Song Yao was still around, she could still dote on her younger daughter a bit.

Now that Song Yao was gone, Shen Yujie’s importance in her heart had plummeted.

Before her court hearing, Liu Yumin insisted on having someone bring Shen Yujie to the detention center.

"Yujie! I raised you one mouthful of milk and one mouthful of rice at a time! When you were little, I’d be chewing on a cornbread bun and would break off half my pancake to stuff in your mouth! You can’t be so hard-hearted and just watch me do hard time!"

"I’m your own mother! The one who gave birth to you! How can you disown me?"

"Search your conscience and think about how I’ve treated you!"

"That girl Shen Songyao’s bride price—I didn’t keep a single cent of it! I didn’t give her a dowry, either! But you? On your wedding day, the entire bride price went straight into your pocket. I got you a full set of bedding, chests, everything, and sent you off in style!"

"You’ll give me two hundred yuan to bail me out!"

Shen Yujie’s legs went weak.

"Two... two hundred?"

"Where would I get that much cash?"

Liu Yumin grabbed her wrist, her nails digging into her flesh.

"Still playing dumb?"

"How much have you freeloaded off Song Yao these past two years? All her new fabrics and fancy clothes ended up in your closet! How many cloth ration coupons did that save you? How much in tailoring fees?"

"Her bicycle—how many times did you ride it? How much effort did that save your legs? How much time?"

"And what about all the chickens and eggs I slipped you?"

"Wasn’t every single one of those things as good as hard cash?"

"And now, you have the nerve to cry poor to me?"

"Shen Yujie, put your hand on your heart and tell me, have you no shame saying that?"

Shen Yujie kept her head down, her lips pressed into a thin line.

"It’s not that I’m unwilling to give it... It’s just too much money. It’s no use even if I agree. There’s no way I’d get it past Haoming’s father!"

Liu Yumin instantly exploded.

"You can’t even make a decision about this little bit of money? What’s your standing in that family, anyway?"

"Look at how much of a scoundrel that girl Shen Songyao used to be! I’m not asking you to empty your family’s coffers, just to take out a tiny little bit. You can’t even manage that? Then you might as well just drop dead!"

Shen Yujie’s nose tingled, and her eyes immediately turned red.

"How can you compare them?"

"Li Hanchen is a regimental commander with a hundred-some men under him! And what about Yang Tian and me? We just scrape by on what we can get from two barren acres of land!"

"As for your bride price, I didn’t keep a single cent!"

Liu Yumin gritted her back teeth, her voice turning vicious.

"I should have kept a cut, but I didn’t touch it! It’s written down clearly in the account book. The day you got married, I counted the money out for you myself, laying it bill by bill on the edge of the kang bed. You watched me count it with your own eyes."

Then, her tone shifted. She suddenly slapped her thigh and began to wail.

"Oh, heavens, what was it all for? Wasn’t it all for you children? I worked from dawn till dusk to raise you, put you through school, and arrange your marriage! Now that the family’s in trouble, I’m not asking you to cover for everything, just to share a bowl of water, and you won’t even do that... Do you even have a heart?!"

"Oh, heavens, send down a bolt of lightning! Strike this heartless daughter dead!"

Shen Yujie didn’t dare let Yang Tian know about that two hundred yuan.

She got up every day before dawn to sweep the yard, boil water, and feed the chickens.

Only after Yang Tian left for the fields with his hoe on his shoulder did she dare to tiptoe to the rice vat.

She lifted the lid and reached toward the bottom.

Her fingers dug into a small crack at the bottom of the vat, her fingertips touching a few neatly folded banknotes.

She quickly pulled them out, clenched them in her fist, and stuffed them into her waistband.

She gave the money to her side of the family. The first two days were calm, and the third was fine, too.

But as the New Year approached, her secret was completely exposed.

「Just after the Little New Year on the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month.」

Aunt Li from the east end of the village dropped by for a visit and casually asked, "Yujie, are you slaughtering a pig for the New Year? My family’s already reserved three pounds of fatty pork."

Shen Yujie just mumbled a noncommittal reply.

Aunt Li added, "Your son Haoming is about to get engaged, isn’t he? You’ll have to get some decent things ready."

Shen Yujie didn’t answer, just lowered her head and fidgeted with the edge of her apron.

’It’s the New Year. We can skip new clothes.’

’But we at least have to buy a few pounds of meat and a couple of fish to keep up appearances, right?’

Shen Yujie had let go of the two hundred yuan, giving it all to her birth family, and now she didn’t dare spend an extra dime at home.

After all, her son Yang Haoming would be getting a wife soon, and they needed to save money at every turn.

The last time the matchmaker came to discuss the engagement, she mentioned the bride’s side wanted a sewing machine.

Shen Yujie had agreed on the spot, then turned around and started rummaging through chests and cabinets for old ration coupons.

Yang Haoming tried on his new shoes; the sides were a bit tight.

She squatted on the ground to massage his ankle for him, not saying a word.

"I can tolerate eating salted vegetables on a normal day, but we don’t even see a drop of oil for the New Year? Are you trying to starve us to death with your stinginess?"

He slammed his chopsticks on the table.

A few limp, yellowing cabbage leaves floated in the clear broth in his bowl.

"Did you secretly give our money to someone else?"

He eyed her suspiciously.

Shen Yujie’s heart skipped a beat.

"What nonsense are you spouting! Always talking rubbish!"

She grabbed the spatula and stirred the vegetables in the pot furiously, the metal scraping harshly against the bottom.

"You shouldn’t be lazing around, either. Go find some work to do."

Yang Haoming crossed his legs.

"What work?"

"Weren’t you supposed to get me a stable government job at the county office?"

Shen Yujie was so angry she was panting.

"That little vixen took off long ago! Where am I supposed to find you connections?! She didn’t even leave an address when she left. I’ve had people ask around three times and haven’t found a single trace of her."

"So what am I supposed to do now?" he pressed.

"How about... you have your dad ask someone to talk to Old Zhang from the next village? He’s been a carpenter for decades. What if he took you on as an apprentice?"

She paused, then added, "Room and board are covered, and you’d get a two-yuan stipend every month."

"An apprentice?"

Yang Haoming almost laughed out loud.

"I’m not doing it! Whoever wants to can go do it!"

He scoffed and threw the half-peeled orange skin in his hand onto the ground.

"Me, be someone’s helper? Heh, you wish."

"Then what do you want to do? Go to the brickyard and haul bricks?" she asked, lowering her voice.

"Get lost!" he snapped.

Shen Yujie’s chest tightened, so furious she could barely speak properly.

But not two days later, Yang Haoming started murmuring to his grandparents.

"My mom gave all our money to my grandma’s family."

When the old man and woman heard this, they immediately went to find their son, Yang Tian, to get to the bottom of it.

Yang Tian had always been an arrogant bully who loitered around the east end of the village.

He never backed down for anyone and always spoke at the top of his lungs.

Upon hearing this, his eyebrows shot up, his eyes bulged, and he stormed back into the house.

He ripped open a drawer and dumped all the paper bills inside onto the floor.

Next, he lunged at the wardrobe and yanked open the doors.

He pulled out all the folded clothes and threw them onto the bed, then turned an old shoebox at the bottom of the wardrobe completely upside down.

He tore through everything so violently that the wooden wardrobe shook from the impacts.

And the result?

The family was already hard-up for cash.

Now things were even worse. The two hundred yuan hidden in the drawer’s secret compartment was really gone!

Not a single bill was left, not even a fifty-cent coin for change.

Without another word, he clenched his fists and went straight for Shen Yujie.

He dragged her and pulled her, forcibly hauling her all the way back to the Shen family’s front gate.