Chapter 202: A Profitable Deal

The restaurant was silent as death.

The newly built three-story villa had plenty of space, yet the silence felt deafening.

The secretary went out trembling to handle matters; Mayor Wu and County Head Li set down their chopsticks, their faces solemn.

"Are you crazy? You want to sue us?" Li Li Meihua looked at her in disbelief. She had never imagined in her life that a junior could sue an elder. She couldn't understand it either; wasn't just hitting a child a crime?

In her understanding, if a child was hit, they were hit; if scolded, they were scolded. They hadn't been beaten to death or disabled, and the child was raised well, so the child should be grateful.

"Bang—" Grandfather Yang Yang Yongyi threw the wine glass in his hand to the ground, shattering it into pieces. "Rebellion! Unfilial! Look at you, what do you look like now?! You want to send your eldest uncle and his wife to prison; aren't you afraid people will point fingers at your back!"

Yang Yi raised her eyes and brows lightly, looking at the Yang family for the first time. "It's not about sending eldest uncle and his wife to prison..." Just as the Yang family was about to sigh in relief, she smiled. "It's about sending your whole family to prison!"

The hall fell silent again. Suddenly, a loud bout of coughing erupted. Yang Yang Yongyi, overcome with anger, fell backward, crashing heavily to the ground. The stunned Yang family didn't even have time to rush to his aid.

Yang Yi looked at the old man on the ground. His rough face had turned pale; he couldn't breathe.

How helpless he looked! How pitiful!

An old man on his last legs, with advanced lung cancer, with only a few months of life left. Who could bear to send him to prison?

A faint, eerie smile curled Yang Yi's lips.

Grandfather liked children who studied well. To make him look at her even once, she studied with her life on the line, always ranking among the top. When Yang Hui and Yang Ze tore her books out of jealousy, she felt confident enough to complain to Grandfather and seek justice, but Grandfather merely waved her aside, saying impatiently, "If it's torn, it's torn. What's the use of a girl studying well? In the future, she'll just belong to someone else's family..."

She learned to fill his pipe just to get close to Grandfather and show her attentiveness, hoping he would look at her with new eyes. Because Grandfather was the only one in the whole family who had never laid a hand on her.

But that night, when Yang Ze snuck into her room... she rushed out, holding onto the last shred of hope, and begged her most revered and respected Grandfather for help. Grandfather merely told her seriously, "Family shame must not be aired in public! Don't talk nonsense outside, or you won't be allowed to continue your studies!"

On the day they decided to marry her off to a fool, Grandfather, as head of the household, made the final decision: "We've raised you this big; we've done our duty by you. Although the son-in-law isn't quite right in the head, a woman marries a man for clothes and food. That family in town has good conditions; you won't suffer once you go there..."

My revered Grandfather, what a pity. I truly wish you could live a little longer...

"You are indeed a calamity. You cursed my son to death, and now you want to curse our whole family. I'll fight you to the death..." Li Li Meihua stood up trembling, about to throw herself at Yang Yi.

Even knowing Yang Yi wouldn't get hurt, Mayor Wu and County Head Li still held back the furious old woman, their faces already scratched with several bloody marks by her.

Yang Yi stood up quietly, watching the farce before her with indifference, as if she were a spectator outside the event.

The old man before her was covered in wrinkles, his eyelids drooping. That venomous expression, that rage that seemed to want to devour her alive, all stirred a strange sense of satisfaction in her heart.

Ah, how she once wanted to win her grandmother's favor. In winter, her grandmother sent her to wash clothes by the frozen reservoir. She broke through the solid ice, and even though her hands froze red, swollen, and oozing pus, she still tried her best to wash all the clothes until they were clean.

Her grandmother asked her to chop vegetables when she was only six years old; she almost chopped off her own fingers, leaving the cutting board covered in fresh blood. If only her grandmother had praised her even once, or even just expressed a little pity. But her grandmother merely spat in contempt, scolding her for dirtying the cutting board, calling her—"a naturally cheap skin!"

She feared her grandmother's hand, with its protruding knuckles and wrinkled, aged skin. That hand would lift slightly, and her body would instinctively recoil in fear.

Now, that hand reached out desperately toward her, wanting to land on her as in the past, but it was blocked in front of her, fingers curling and uncurling, looking so helpless.

"You should be grateful I'm only using the law now," Yang Yi said softly, her eye twitching involuntarily.

Yang Ze's face turned pale. What happened at the Capital Bureau of Spiritual Affairs was forever etched in his mind; his legs trembled uncontrollably.

Yang Hui pointed a shaking finger at her, stammering, "Do you know what you're doing? Our grandfather has advanced lung cancer; he doesn't have many days left. Do you really want to send him to prison? Do you have no conscience? Are you going to scare our grandmother to death? Even if the Yang family treated you badly, they still raised you. Aren't you afraid of retribution?"

Conscience? Retribution?

How strange. It was incredibly strange to hear those two words come from her mouth.

Even until now, they still believed they had done her a favor, that Yang Yi owed them, and not that they had done wrong.

They were self-righteous; their anger was so real; their grievance was visible to the naked eye.

She found it too ridiculous; she almost wanted to laugh out loud right there.

At the same time, a wisp of anger like a firefly met a grassland and, with a "Boom—", ignited, burning from the bottom of her heart up through her entire body.

It burned her until she was feverish, her blood boiling. It burned her so she couldn't stand there for another second, because the next second, this rage would break through her reason, turn this place into a sea of fire, and burn everything to ash.

She walked out, leaving all the curses behind her.

She needed to leave quickly; otherwise, she didn't know what she might do.

She walked briskly out of the small town, wandering aimlessly like a headless fly.

Various chaotic emotions raged inside her like a tornado, crushing her flesh and blood, nearly making her explode.

Didn't you know long ago that they were so stupid, vicious, and shameless? Why get angry? Why be so furious? Didn't you already not care about them?

If you didn't care, why be angry... You wouldn't get angry at a random passerby, you wouldn't get angry at someone who just didn't like you, you wouldn't even get angry at those who spread rumors about you, because you didn't care about them!

You are angry, which means you still have feelings for them—No!

A wave of physiological disgust surged up in her, making her feel so nauseous she nearly vomited.

Feelings? What feelings do they understand? What do they know about caring? Saying that is already giving them too much credit. They are selfish, vicious, useless to the world, and harmful to people. They are nothing more than termites, lice, and cockroaches. Their existence has no meaning to this world!

Then why are you angry? You wouldn't care about a stray dog on the roadside, nor would you feel such anger and depression in your heart just because a beast bit you! You can admit you don't care about them, but at least you once expected...

Expected, yes, expected...

Expected, expected—I hate my expectations. I hate that I actually expected things like lice, termites, and cockroaches to respond to my expectations. So humbly, without any dignity, begging them to love me, like a pitiful wretch, like a maggot low in the mud!

And they, and they not only didn't respond to that little girl who tried so hard to please them, but they mocked her, struck her, and trampled her self-esteem—the only thing she had left...

She couldn't forgive herself for crawling so basely before them, begging a group of vicious, cold, selfish beasts to bestow a tiny bit of pitiful love upon her. How base! How shameless! So cheap!!! Damn it, so cheap!!!

You really are a cheap wretch! A rare cheap wretch in the world!!!

You actually expected these fools to love you!

Yang Yi's expression twitched violently; her fists clenched tightly. The sand and gravel on the ground around her, driven by her intense emotions, gradually broke free from the constraints of gravity and began to jump on the ground.

Yes, you only hate yourself. You hate your own past cowardice and baseness. You hate that past time filled with humiliation.

Kill them! These things that are useless to the world, living only to waste food!

Only by killing them can the past humiliations be erased!

Sending them to prison isn't enough? There is food and drink in prison, and it's only a mere two years. After two years, they will still come out! These beasts will still live in this human world!

Only when they completely disappear from this world will you feel at ease. Only then will you not be affected by these beasts, and you will be able to remain calm.

And now, who can still restrict you? It's just killing a few pieces of trash. You are saving all of humanity. Doesn't that outweigh the lives of a few bugs?

You have the qualification, the right, and the reason to kill them. Then the world will gain a calm and composed superhuman, a sage. For the world, isn't this a profitable deal?