บท 5: 005. Ba Zihu

[Ba Zihu] After a quarter of an hour, Su Liang walked out with a dark face, searching through several rooms but didn't find a single piece of silver! But looking at how plump and well-fed Su Daqiang's family was, how could they be penniless? Ning Jing wiped the stone under the tree in the courtyard and sat on it, watching the scene in silence. Su Liang picked up an axe and threw it at Su Daqiang! The axe spun twice in the air, grazed Su Daqiang's nose and stuck into the ground! His face turned pale with fear, and he wet himself. "Last chance, where's the money?" Su Liang asked coldly. Su Daqiang reluctantly said he was in charge of the family's money, but he couldn't control Su Daming's gambling habit. Whenever he got money, he lost it all gambling. Lately, they even had to give up their land to pay off gambling debts. "If you lose so much, where does your food and drink come from?" Su Liang scoffed. "You do good embroidery work and make a decent amount of money every month," Xun Family tremblingly spoke. "I secretly saved a bit, but Daming stole it a few days ago..." "All my jewelry was taken by my eldest brother and sold!" Su Xiaodie also spoke up. Su Xiaoming, seeing that the adults had confessed, assumed that he too must say something and shouted, "Our family really has no money! Big brother still owes a lot of high-interest loans! But my grandfather said that in a couple of days, all of Ning's son's money will be ours!" Su Daqiang's face stiffened! Su Dafu yelled angrily, "What do you know? Shut up!" The chilly glint in Su Liang's eyes intensified. A gambling addict could ruin even the most prosperous of families. Although Su Daqiang's house was large, it was now an empty shell. All the ready money had been gambled away by Su Daming and they had even amassed high-interest loans. Yet, their eldest son and grandson were treated like royalty and couldn't be controlled. After all, there was still the money-tree that was Su Liang's grandfather. Unfortunately, Su Liang's family had an accident last year, and the big money-tree was gone. Su Liang, the little money-tree, "willingly entered the trap" and was being exploited to maintain this family's luxurious, lazy lifestyle. Once she was old enough, they planned to sell her off for a large profit. The Original Master happened to get a chance to ask Ning Jing for help, and Ning Jing needed a marriage to achieve certain goals. As a result, Ning Jing became the sacrificial lamb in the eyes of Su Daqiang's family. They conspired to uproot Su Liang, the money-tree that could no longer satisfy their desires, and use her as a bait to catch a big fish. Once they succeeded, they could have anything they wanted. Even if Ning Jing didn't appear, the Original Master would eventually be completely drained by Su Daqiang's family in some other way. In her two lives as a human, Su Liang never underestimated what a person could do for wealth – and to what extent they could disregard morals. But at this moment, when she guessed the rough truth, her heart was still chilled to its core. It was just that the Original Master's life had been so bitter. Yesterday, before getting married, she might have naively thought that she could finally escape the sea of suffering. In the end, her soul vanished like a wisp of incense in the wind... It seemed that one gambler, Su Daming, ruined a family, but in reality, they were all the same. Their hearts, livers, spleens, lungs, and kidneys were all rotten. Comparing them to pigs and dogs would only insult pigs and dogs. Su Liang even felt that she traveled to this world because the original owner's resentment was so deep that she wanted to avenge her grievances through Su Liang. Simply killing them would be too merciful. They must be tortured and exploited like the Original Master – forced to work tirelessly without food until they died in despair. That was Su Liang's current idea. But how to do it, she hadn't figured out yet. "Where are my clothes?" Su Liang asked coldly. She had just left here last night, and the ten taels of betrothal gift that Ning Jing gave her had already been gambled away by Su Daming, but they couldn't have taken her clothes away, could they? "They're... in your room..." Mrs. Xun said with a bitter face, "Liang girl, I was wrong. I will..." Su Liang turned around and walked towards the backyard without paying any attention to Mrs. Xun's "regret." It was nauseatingly insincere. She had already checked the rooms in the front earlier and didn't find the Original Master's room, so it had to be in the backyard. Even though she was mentally prepared, Su Liang was still furious when she saw the drafty shed in the backyard. The firewood room in the front yard was much more solid and spacious than this place! This lazy family didn't work, so they didn't keep any livestock, otherwise who knows where they would have made the Original Master live! She opened the door and walked in. The room was very clean but cramped, with only a worn-out small bed, thin bedding, and a broken-legged table with a sewing basket on top, which contained unfinished threads of various colors. Standing in the room, Su Liang could imagine the Original Master sitting by the table late at night, wrapped in a quilt, embroidering. No wonder her body was so weak; Su Liang had felt her eyes dry and sore when she woke up this morning. Not having enough food, not enough warmth, staying up late to embroider, and still having to serve that family of fat pigs - cooking, washing, cleaning. Being insulted and beaten. For a growing girl, given more time, she could be worn to death. There was a bundle on the bed. Su Liang opened it, and on top was an exquisitely embroidered Plum Blossom Screen, along with a few differently-patterned embroidered handkerchiefs. These must have been the last pieces of embroidery done by the Original Master before her death, which Mrs. Xun had taken away, ready to sell soon. Though the screen was small, it was a highly difficult double-sided embroidery. Judging by its level of intricacy, it must have taken countless days and nights of work to complete. Besides these, there were several sets of clean clothes and socks made from decent quality materials. These must have been brought by the Original Master when she arrived last year. If it hadn't been for Su Xiaodie being too fat to wear them, they would have been taken long ago. With the screen and handkerchiefs in the same bundle, Mrs. Xun must have intended to sell them all together for money. To make money, they killed a person and even planned to sell their clothes and socks; it was truly merciless! Su Liang took off the poor-quality wedding dress and put on a plain skirt. It should have fit her perfectly, but it was now loose. She put the sewing basket in the bundle as well and tied it up again. Under the pillow, she found a yellowed medical book. When she picked it up, a red silk knotted heart ornament fell out, with a character embroidered on it in light blue thread. "Yun" ...Su Liang, without the Original Master's memory, could only guess that the Original Master had an admirer, surnamed Yun, or with the character Yun in their name, and had planned to flee Su Village and seek refuge with that person after the fake marriage with Ning Jing. With a sigh, Su Liang stuffed the medical book and heart knot into the bundle, picked it up, and walked out of the shabby room. Dark clouds gathered, and a storm was brewing. As Su Liang wondered where Ning Jing was, she looked up and saw him standing stably on a large pear tree in the courtyard. He was using her tablecloth to make a pouch tied to the tree branches, picking pears and putting them inside... Indeed, the old pear tree in Su Daqiang's courtyard, with its golden pears weighing down the branches, was quite a delightful sight. Su Liang took her gaze back and looked at Su Daqiang's family, who were huffing and whining under the stone slabs, her face icy. How could she make them live a life worse than death? Before she could think of a way, the door was suddenly smashed open, and a group of people rushed in! The man leading the group was a middle-aged, tall and thin, with triangular eyes, a Ba Zihu mustache, and a blue face. "Where is Su Daming? Get out here and pay the debt!" A henchman shouted loudly. Ba Zihu's gaze swept across the ground, frowning, and finally settled on Su Liang, sneering, "Su Daming's sister is quite a beauty, definitely worth a good price! Grab her!"