Chapter 112: A Fight Broke Out
"How can you say that? At the very least, Eldest Brother and my husband are brothers..."
"Bah!"
Grandma Shen cut her off. "Don’t give me that nonsense! What brothers? You call that being brothers? Your whole family is nothing but shameless bloodsuckers! Let me tell you, whatever you’re planning today, don’t even think about taking advantage of us. Get out!"
Their intentions were all too clear.
Yun Jiao saw that with her mother and Aunt Shen helping her grandmother, the opposing side wasn’t gaining any ground. So, she calmly sat to the side and continued to eat.
However, she soon felt two malicious stares fixed on her.
She turned her head and saw they belonged to two girls from that family, both around ten years old.
Their eyes were a mix of envy, jealousy, and resentment.
The two girls had different personalities. When Yun Jiao glanced over, one of them quickly schooled her features and offered what she must have thought was a friendly smile.
Yun Jiao thought, ’Does she take me for a fool?’
The other girl, however, suddenly rushed forward. In broad daylight, she was actually about to attack her.
Judging by the way she charged, hands raised to shove, she was clearly using all her strength.
But was Yun Jiao going to let her?
First, she ducked to dodge the shove. Then, as the girl stumbled forward, off-balance, Yun Jiao sprang up and rewarded her with a slap.
The girl spun around like a top before collapsing to the ground.
She howled in pain, a tooth knocked loose and blood covering her face.
"Aah! My tooth!"
Meanwhile, the little boy who had been screaming for meat took advantage of the chaos, scurrying over and making a beeline for the food on their stone slab grill.
The new slices of meat Grandma Shen had just given them were still sizzling on top.
"Fuck! They really think they can walk all over us!"
They hadn’t reacted in time when the girl had tried to push Jiaojiao, but they weren’t going to miss this.
It didn’t matter if he was a kid; they were just going to hold him down and give him a good beating.
Yun Xiaowu, mimicking his father’s signature move, whipped off his shoe and yelled.
"Hold him down! Today, I’m going to teach him how to behave!"
Shen Xiuyuan and Yun Xiao Liu immediately pinned the boy.
Sturdy as the little fatty was, he was no match for two older boys.
Yun Xiaowu brought the sole of his shoe down on the boy’s bottom—WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! He didn’t hold back at all, and the boy’s plump flesh trembled with each strike.
The little fatty had been spoiled rotten his whole life and had never been spanked. Today, you could say his childhood was finally being made complete.
He just shrieked at the top of his lungs, making everyone’s ears ache.
When the old woman on the other side saw her precious grandson being held down and beaten, she was not about to stand for it. She came charging over, wailing to the high heavens, ready to attack Yun Xiaowu and the others.
She even called for her daughters-in-law to join her.
But were Grandma Shen and Shen Yunlian about to let that happen?
Of course not. They rolled up their sleeves and charged in as well, landing blows and curses in equal measure.
Grandma Shen brought her spatula down on the old woman with a series of CLANGS.
"You think you can hit my grandsons? It’s been a few years since I last taught you a lesson, you must have forgotten what it feels like! Well, today I’m going to give you a nice, long reminder."
It was clear Grandma Shen had been quite the formidable woman in her youth.
While the men of the family didn’t join the fight, they weren’t about to stand by and watch their family members get beaten.
So, whenever they saw someone from the other side gaining the upper hand, they would step in to interfere and run interference.
Yun Jiao also mixed into the fray, pretending to break up the fight while secretly helping her own side.
"Everyone, stop fighting!"
She had truly mastered the art of breaking up a fight. While shouting "Stop fighting!", she would secretly kick an enemy or grab one of their hands, holding them still so her own relatives could wind up and land a solid elbow strike.
The commotion was so huge it attracted a crowd of villagers who came to watch.
The old woman from the other side immediately started wailing at the top of her lungs.
"This is outrageous! They’re beating their own family! We came with the best of intentions to help, and not only do we not get a word of thanks, they beat my grandchildren, and even a poor old woman like me..."
She put on quite the performance, making herself out to be the ultimate victim.
"Bah!"
Grandma Shen’s voice was no quieter.
"Who do you take for a fool? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how things were when the family split! When we were sent away, we didn’t get a single penny or a scrap of land! All we had were the clothes on our backs! My second son starved to death! We begged your family to lend us just a little grain, and you refused!"
As she spoke of the son she had lost to starvation, Grandma Shen began to cry.
Most of the villagers knew this story.
Because of it, they all felt that Grandpa Shen’s stepmother had been an exceptionally cruel woman.
It was one thing to kick the eldest son’s family out during a famine, but to give them nothing at all was another.
If the village chief hadn’t pressured her into giving them a little bit of grain, who knows how many more of them would have died.
"My family is not ungrateful! We remember everyone in this village who helped us back then, and we are thankful. But you people? No matter what you say, you have no right to bring up blood ties. Animals like you don’t deserve to!"
The old woman stammered, "That was so many years ago. Besides, that was all my mother-in-law’s doing, and she’s dead now. They say death wipes the slate clean, so why are you still holding onto it?"
"Bullshit!"
Grandma Shen looked like she could eat them alive. "Let me tell you something—it will never be wiped clean! Not in this lifetime! You all enjoyed the benefits of that old hag’s wickedness, and you bullied our family plenty yourselves! Now you want to deny it all? Not a chance! I’m making it clear right here, right now: our family and your family will have nothing to do with each other, ever again. We’ll be strangers until we die!"
Shen Yunlian and Aunt Shen chimed in, "You talk a good game about coming to help, but you were just after the pork we got today, weren’t you? Who brings their entire family along to ’help’? Do you take us all for idiots?"
Aunt Shen spat. "Besides, we wouldn’t dare let people like you ’help.’ Your clothes are caked in so much black grease, and who knows how many fleas are hiding in your hair. Who would dare to eat anything you touched?"
Shen Yunlian shot a hateful glare at the little girl who had tried to push Yun Jiao.
"Shen Xiaocao, why did you try to push my Jiaojiao!"
Shen Xiaocao clutched her face and bawled, "She’s the one who hit me."
"That’s only because you charged over to push my Jiaojiao first! Do you think we’re all blind? A whole nest of vipers, the lot of you! The apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree!"
Shen Xiaocao didn’t answer, only continuing to cry.
"Get out! Don’t make me say it twice!"
Grandma Shen grabbed the broom used for sweeping chicken droppings. Seeing this, the group muttered a few more curses before slinking out of the yard.
Seeing the large crowd gathered at the gate, the old woman tried one last time to gain sympathy and sling some mud.
"Sigh... We’re all part of the same Shen family, after all. Why is Eldest Brother’s family still holding a grudge against a dead person? No matter what, she was his mother. I can take them hitting an old woman like me, but they even hit the children..."
Grandma Shen hurled a shoe at her. "You still have the nerve to talk? You shameless creature! Your grandson is just like the rest of your family—greedy, lazy, and utterly shameless!"
This time, the family was well and truly driven away.
That old woman must really think everyone was a fool. Someone in the crowd pursed their lips. "Give me a break. What kind of ’mother’ was she? Anyone would be unlucky to have a stepmother that vicious."
"And what kind of relatives bring their whole family along just to sponge off you?"