Chapter 9: Supporting a Useless Brother? Not Happening!
Li Amei’s eyes moved around rapidly, her expression like someone who had just stumbled upon a fortune. She licked her lips as she looked at her two granddaughters, as if scheming something.
Xie Guibao, seeing that she said nothing, immediately dropped his phone and started shouting. “You scared me so much I dropped my meat skewer! She has to compensate me for the loss—one hundred yuan!”
“Should compensate, should compensate,” Li Amei muttered, then turned to the two sisters, speaking with a serious tone as if dealing with a state affair.
“You two don’t come straight home after work, don’t even go help out at the hospital, and when you get back you shout at me so loudly that you scared your brother and he dropped his phone. What kind of behavior is this?”
Every time Li Amei wanted money, she’d lay the groundwork first—pressing on filial piety, then accusing the sisters of some fault, turning the money grab into a lesson for her granddaughters.
Lin Zhifeng knew this routine well and watched Li Amei as if watching a joke.
“I’m not going to beat around the bush. No money for you, but I have only one life. If you’ve got the guts, kill me in the night.”
Lin Zhifeng was too lazy to waste words with her. His cold glance swept over Xie Guibao. His tone was calm, but it carried an unmistakable killing intent.
“Your frog-like throat can’t even handle meat. If you keep yapping, I’ll b*at you to death.”
After saying this, he ignored their shocked expressions, grabbed Xie Laidi’s hand, and headed to the bedroom. He slammed the door shut, then locked the bolt with a click.
Lin Zhifeng sat back on the bed, turned his face to Xie Laidi, who was visibly shaken, and gave a crooked smile.
“No more holding back from now on. Better than getting sick from bottling it all up.”
“Sister, they’re definitely going to make a fuss. Should I just give them the money?”
Seeing Xie Laidi’s scared expression, Lin Zhifeng sighed.
The long-standing fear piled up over the years couldn’t be wiped away all at once. They wanted to spend money to buy peace of mind, but the more they did, the more the others pushed their luck.
“They’ll make a fuss all night? For us, money is life—it’s the courage to leave. Understand?”
Xie Laidi was momentarily dazed.
Leaving home wasn’t something she hadn’t thought about—but it was easier said than done. Even if she got into university and went to work out of town, her family would never let them go.
“We didn’t spend the family’s money on our compulsory education. Our living expenses come from part-time jobs, and whatever extra we earn goes back to help the household. We’re starving, getting beaten, humiliated. And you—you clearly could speak, but you’ve been dragged down to this point. Do you really want them to drag you along forever?”
Xie Laidi pressed her lips tightly, shaken by these words, a wave of bitterness rising inside.
How could she not resent it? But since childhood, she had been taught to be filial and obedient, never to defy elders. Everyone around looked down on unfilial grandchildren. Even if she resented it, she had no choice but to bury it deep in her heart.
But she didn’t want to live like this forever.
“If you don’t fight back, they’ll just suck us dry until we’re worthless. The road is made by walking; if one path is blocked, take another. It’s better than staying with them waiting for death.”
“Sister, I understand. I won’t let them b*lly me anymore.”
Seeing her so nervous, Lin Zhifeng smiled reassuringly: “I’m taller than you—if the sky falls, I’ll hold it up for you.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!—
“Get out here right now! I’ll count to three. If you don’t open the door by then, see how I deal with you!”
Li Amei snapped out of her shock and, egged on by Xie Guibao, rushed to the door, banging and shouting.
The sound of pounding and yelling was loud and full of energy—proof they hadn’t missed dinner or the grilled skewers.
“Xie Zhaodi! Xie Laidi! You’re dead! Either buy me a tablet or don’t even think about sleeping tonight! Grandma, move aside, I’m gonna kick the door down!”
Lin Zhifeng calmly motioned to Xie Laidi with a tilt of her chin. “Plug your ears, put on those earmuffs you bought two years ago, and go to sleep.”
Xie Laidi nodded rapidly like a pecking chick, took the earmuffs out of her suitcase, stuffed some tissues in her ears, then put them on. The noise immediately quieted down a lot.
Lin Zhifeng’s mental toughness was a hundred times stronger than most people’s. Not to mention pounding and shouting at a door—even if she were dropped into a war zone, she’d still sleep like a baby.
And so, in less than five minutes, the two sisters were sound asleep, while the furious Li Amei and Xie Guibao were left outside the door, yelling and banging until they were out of breath.
As night fell, the entire neighborhood settled into silence—except for their place. Before long, angry neighbors came knocking to complain.
Li Amei and Xie Guibao stood at the doorway, arguing back and forth with a few neighbors for several minutes, but in the end, they were overwhelmed and forced to shut up.
“Waaah… Grandma, everyone’s b*llying me!” Xie Guibao threw himself onto the couch in the living room and started whining.
“There, there, my precious Guibao,” Li Amei cooed. “Tomorrow morning, Grandma will b*at them to death for you, avenge you good and proper!”
Li Amei had lived over half her life, but she had never felt as humiliated as she did today.
Snapped at by her granddaughter, the door slammed in her face, and several neighbors cursing her out right to her nose—seriously, with her son not home, all kinds of demons and monsters were crawling out of the woodwork.
Xie Guibao pouted, clearly not satisfied, muttered a few complaints, then suddenly sat up as if he’d just remembered something major.
“Grandma, when is Dad going to sell off Xie Zhaodi?”
“Keep your voice down, little ancestor! What do you mean ‘sell her off’? It’s arranging a marriage, got it? Don’t go shouting nonsense outside,” Li Amei’s eyebrows twitched furiously as she spoke. Then she turned to ask, “How did you find out?”
“I heard Dad and Mom talking about it. Grandma, how much is she worth? Can they get enough to buy me a tablet and a new phone? Lots of my classmates have both.”
Xie Guibao was overfed and round like a ball. His eyes, already not small, were squished into narrow slits. Though he was young, he looked unusually sleazy.
But Li Amei saw him as the most well-behaved child in the world. She stroked his head gently and comforted him in a low voice.
“Alright, alright. Once school starts, your dad will buy them for you. But you mustn’t tell anyone. If word gets out, the deal won’t go through. Understand?”
“I won’t say a word!” Thinking about the tablet and phone he was about to get, Xie Guibao’s anger quickly vanished. After devouring all the grilled meat skewers on the coffee table, he contentedly grabbed his phone and waddled off to his room.
—
The rolling shutter of Hekang Pharmacy came down with a clatter. Aunt Bao locked the door, exchanged a few words with her coworker, then they went their separate ways toward home.
Passing by a barbecue stand, she spotted Sister He, a regular at the pharmacy, and quickly waved with enthusiasm.
“Sister He, grabbing a late-night snack this late?”
“Just got off work, huh? I was already in bed, but that old hag from the Xie family woke me up with all her yelling. Got into a shouting match and now I’m hungry.”
Aunt Bao’s eyes lit up—there was gossip! Her feet seemed to move on their own toward Sister He.
“You mean Wang Tingmei’s mother-in-law? What was she making a fuss about? You know, her son Xie Yaozu was hospitalized after getting b*aten up.”
“No wonder! Usually there’s some noise coming from their place, but it’s hard to hear clearly. Today, she and her grandson were shouting at the granddaughters—so nasty. Sigh, those two girls are really unlucky, born into that family. What a miserable life.”
The two neighborhood gossip buddies chatted while waiting for their skewers, catching each other up on the latest news. It was nearly eleven before they finally parted ways, reluctant to say goodbye.
