Chapter 178: Do I Need You to Take Care of Me?

Chapter 178: Chapter 178: Do I Need You to Take Care of Me?

Zheng Cuiyun couldn’t hold it in anymore.

"That money... weren’t you the one who insisted on taking it back?! You were in the house smashing cups, pointing at my nose, and yelling that I wasn’t worthy of touching your things! You even ripped up the bankbook my mom handed you on the spot!"

Song Yao chuckled.

"My husband earned that money. What law did I break by taking it back to my own home?"

Zheng Cuiyun glanced around and saw they were all folks from Wujiacun Village. She opened her mouth, then swallowed her words back down.

Her throat bobbed. Finally, she let her eyes redden and her voice soften.

"Fine, so you don’t care about family ties. But Mom painstakingly raised you, didn’t she? You said you wanted her sent to jail, and we accepted that. But then you turn around and demand two thousand yuan? What’s that supposed to mean?"

"We had to borrow from every relative we could, scraping and saving just to get that much together. Aren’t you trying to push our family to its breaking point?"

"Raised me?"

Song Yao let out a soft laugh, but it had a cold edge to it.

"My biological father is a base commander. Tell me... do you think I needed *you* to raise me?"

"A comm—"

Aside from Li Hanchen, who already knew the truth, everyone else gasped, their necks instantly going rigid.

Wu Xixi’s mouth hung open, and she couldn’t seem to close it.

’She had never imagined that the biological father of her usually meek sister-in-law was such a powerful figure!’

Wei Guilan was also dumbfounded, standing frozen to the spot and blinking rapidly.

Song Pengfei and Zheng Cuiyun kept darting glances at each other, neither daring to be the first to speak.

’It’s over. We’ve picked a fight with someone we can’t afford to offend.’

’So... Shen Songyao really was a bona fide lady from a prominent family.’

Shen Yujie glared at Song Yao’s radiant face, her mind buzzing.

When Song Yao announced that her biological father was a commander, the neighboring onlookers were first stunned.

Then, they broke into a flurry of hushed whispers.

In less than two minutes, the tide of conversation had completely turned, with all blame now directed at Song Pengfei and the other two.

"How many years did Song Yao suffer in your family? The fact that she didn’t come and smash your door down is a sign of her mercy!"

"Exactly! And they still have the nerve to come here and cause a scene? Have they no shame?"

Shen Yujie was already seething with frustration.

Hearing these comments, her anger boiled over, and she shrieked at the top of her lungs.

"Why?! Why should we be blamed?!"

She lurched forward, but her foot slipped, and she nearly fell to her knees before someone behind her caught her and helped her stand steady.

"Her dad was probably just some grunt back in the day! Figured he couldn’t afford a kid and just tossed her aside! Now that she’s been taken back, she thinks she can come here and walk all over us?"

"I’m going to report you right now!"

She glared at Song Yao’s stunning face.

Song Yao didn’t even raise an eyebrow, merely giving her a sidelong glance.

"Go on, then. Hurry up. You should probably tell your mother to deny everything to the bitter end and refuse to return a single cent of the stolen money. When she gets an even heavier sentence, don’t say I didn’t warn you."

She shook her head gently. "To be honest, the state your family has fallen to..."

She paused, her voice turning cold.

"...is nothing compared to the hardships I endured all those years."

"You just wait! You’ll get what you deserve!"

Shen Yujie suddenly shrieked hysterically.

"Can’t have children?"

She sneered, as if she had found Song Yao’s deepest scar and was deliberately pressing on it.

"That’s right! This is your retribution!"

Before her words could fade, Song Yao suddenly lifted the hem of her coat.

"Can’t?"

She retorted, raising an eyebrow, her gaze serene.

"I’m young and healthy. My husband is only in his early twenties, strong and full of vigor. There’s nothing wrong with us, so why wouldn’t I be able to have children?"

Her throat moved slightly as she spoke.

Shen Yujie stared at Song Yao’s slightly rounded belly, her eyes looking as if they would pop from their sockets.

She stumbled back half a step, bumping into an onlooker behind her. ℯℯ𝘭.

The person frowned and moved away, but she didn’t even notice.

Song Yao straightened her clothes, her tone shifting as she tossed out a cold remark.

"If it weren’t for you and your mother constantly watching my every move, preventing me from even being alone with my own husband... I would have been pregnant long ago. Would it be your place to stand here screaming about retribution?"

"Huh?"

"What? They didn’t let the young couple sleep together?"

Not only were the onlookers stunned, but even Wei Guilan froze solid.

Wei Guilan grabbed Song Yao’s wrist, her own hand trembling violently.

"Song Yao, did you just say..."

Song Yao immediately lowered her gaze, her eyelashes fluttering as her voice grew soft.

"Mom... it’s all my fault. I was so foolish. I didn’t know Liu Yumin wasn’t my real mother, so I worshipped her like a saint. I did whatever she said and didn’t dare to even breathe too loudly in her presence."

Her fingers curled unconsciously.

"The two of them were always around me, constantly taunting me, calling me stupid, useless, a burden... After a while, I actually started to believe it."

She paused and swallowed.

"I kept thinking that if I just did everything she said, I could earn a little bit of her affection..."

She looked down, wringing her hands, her voice growing quieter and quieter.

"She said... that if I wanted to be intimate with my husband, I had to give her money first, as a sign of respect... and I believed her. I actually... gave her money..."

Her lips trembled, but she didn’t continue.

She didn’t have to finish. Who couldn’t understand the implication?

What kind of twisted logic was that?

A husband having to pay his mother-in-law just to be with his own wife? After they were already married?

Were they treating their son-in-law like a personal bank, or their own daughter like a cash cow?

Wei Guilan exploded on the spot. She let out a guttural roar.

"Oh, good heavens!"

She stomped her right foot, lunged forward with her arms outstretched, and sprinted straight for Shen Yujie.

"You shameless hussy! I’m going to skin you alive today!"

She moved so fast that Shen Yujie had no time to react.

The back of Shen Yujie’s head hit the bluestone paving with a dull thud, and then a rapid series of slaps, CRACK-CRACK, landed on both of her cheeks.

Song Pengfei had just thought to step forward and break up the fight.

But before he could take a step, all the Li Family’s neighbors swarmed in, jabbing their fingers right at his forehead.

"Aren’t you afraid of getting struck by lightning for doing something so despicable?"

"Tsk, tsk. How can you be so black-hearted? Scheming against your own sister like that!"

"And you still dare to bring up Li Hanchen..."

"Do you really think you’re some messenger from King Yan? Daring to come to their door and run wild?"

Song Pengfei and Zheng Cuiyun were surrounded and verbally assaulted by the crowd, the spittle flying so thick it nearly pooled at their ankles.

Shen Yujie wasn’t faring any better, having been thoroughly slapped around by Wei Guilan herself.

Finally, the Li Family’s third aunt and a few other women managed to pull Wei Guilan away.

Shen Yujie collapsed to the ground, her hands covering her face.

Wei Guilan felt better after letting loose, but she knew she couldn’t actually maim the woman.

These days, there were laws. This wasn’t the old society anymore.

"You venomous shrew, you deserve what’s coming to you!"

She was truly furious.

Her words had barely faded when her eyes darted over and landed on Song Pengfei, who was standing dazed at the edge of the courtyard, still clutching half a corncob.

Wei Guilan snatched a bamboo pole from the corner of the wall, rushed over, and started viciously whipping his back and thighs.

The pole whistled through the air, each strike harder than the one before.

Song Pengfei yelped and jumped in pain.

Zheng Cuiyun glanced at the sea of gawking faces in the courtyard, and the tips of her ears burned red with shame.

Only Shen Yujie remained, stubbornly refusing to leave.

Wei Guilan caught her breath, her eyes narrowing as she fixed her gaze on Shen Yujie again.

Shen Yujie was hissing in pain, sucking in sharp breaths and gritting her teeth, but her words were still defiant.

"You hit me again, old woman! Just try it! I’ll go report you this instant!"

After spitting out the threat, she turned and stormed off.

The moment she stepped out of the courtyard, someone behind her spat on the ground.

"Pah! Worse than a bedbug!"

Only Wu Xixi kept staring at Song Yao. She leaned in close and asked in a low voice, "Sister-in-law, your father... is he really a base commander?"

Song Yao glanced up at her. "Is there something you need, Sister-in-law?"

Wu Xixi ignored her question, pressing on anxiously.