Chapter 18: The Childless Violent Maniac?

"You!" Su Yanhua was choked into a stunned pause.

Su Ruan didn't give her a moment to react, continuing leisurely: "Parents favoring me? That's an even bigger joke."

"Brother can sleep until the sun is high, sister you can buy new clothes and apply Snowflake Ointment, and me? I have to get up before dawn to work, eat your leftovers, wear the old clothes you don't want... this is favoritism?"

She turned her gaze to Wang Juhua, her tone naive and questioning: "Stepmother, you just said I have disgraced the family? I don't quite understand."

"I found a partner, they came with a proper Betrothal Gifts proposal, how is that disgraceful?"

"Is it only respectable to find someone like sister, who gets scolded to the point of bleeding, carries shabby things and gets driven out, to have face?"

"You shut up!" Wang Juhua trembled with anger, rushed forward as if to hit her.

Su Ruan lightly stepped back, dodging, her eyes suddenly cold: "What, because I mentioned the core issue, you got angry in shame?"

She looked at the iron‑blue‑faced Da Zhuang, her tone even laced with a hint of smile: "Dad, you think I'm disgraceful too? Then tomorrow I'll go tell the Jiang Family that this marriage is off."

"I'll return the Betrothal Gifts to them, and then I'll follow sister's example, find a 'promising' elementary school teacher, how about that? That way I won't be bringing shame to the family."

"How dare you!" Da Zhuang and Wang Juhua screamed in unison!

"What kind of joke is this! How can the gold and silver mountains we have in hand just fly away!"

Da Zhuang, frantic, almost leapt up: "Damned girl! What nonsense are you spouting! The marriage cannot be called off!"

Wang Juhua also panicked, her tone softened, with a threat: "RuanRuan! Don't talk nonsense, the marriage is a big matter, it can't just be cancelled! We... we don't mean it like that!"

"Then what do you mean?" Su Ruan tilted her head, looking puzzled, "First you say I'm disgraceful, then you won't let the marriage be called off."

"Do you want to reap the Jiang Family's benefits while refusing to give me a good attitude, and expect me to be grateful? Good things in the world can't all be taken by you, can they?"

Their faces instantly flushed to a pig‑liver hue, mouths agape, yet not a single word could be uttered in rebuttal!

Because what Su Ruan said was exactly what they were doing, and intended to keep doing!

Su Yanhua was also stunned; she looked at the sister who seemed like a different person, with that sharp tongue, that calm yet mocking expression—where was any trace of the usual timid, easy‑to‑bully self?

"You... you..." Wang Juhua pointed at Su Ruan, fingers trembling, so angry she almost fainted.

Su Ruan seemed not to notice their reactions, her tone turning icy.

"When I was little, I didn't understand, always thought it was my own fault, so dad didn't love me, stepmother didn't love me, brother and sister could bully me."

"But now I understand." She lifted her eyes, her gaze like ice spears, stabbing straight at Da Zhuang and Wang Juhua, "It's not that I'm not good enough, it's your hearts that have been biased and dark from the start."

"You swallowed the survival money my mother left me, took the Betrothal Gifts from the Jiang Family, yet you won't even give me a decent Dowry, still expecting me to be as pliable as before, squeezed flat, drained of the last drop of blood?"

She let out a light laugh, the laugh full of endless mockery and chill: "Dream on."

"From now on, stay out of my affairs. As for this house…"

She swept her gaze over the dilapidated dim room, tone indifferent: "When I get married, I'll have nothing to do with you. You just go on living well, guarding your precious son and precious daughter."

After speaking, she no longer looked at the three trembling, pale‑as‑ghosts, hugged the Small Wooden Box, turned and walked straight to her narrow, damp little compartment.

Leaving the Main Hall in a death‑like silence.

Da Zhuang was like struck by lightning, frozen on the spot, unable to recover for a long time.

For the first time, they felt bone‑deep cold and an out‑of‑control terror on this forever‑scapegoated victim.

This Su Ruan… was truly different.

Su Ruan returned to her tiny compartment that could only fit a narrow bed; the death‑like silence in the Main Hall outside lingered for a while, then Da Zhuang and Wang Juhua's angry curses and Su Yanhua's suppressed sobs reached her.

She was too lazy to bother, carefully stored the Small Wooden Box, and lay on the hard wooden plank bed with her clothes.

Too many things happened today; her body was a bit weary, but her mind was unusually clear.

She needed to sort things out, to prepare for every step ahead.

The Jiang Family was a good springboard, but far from the end.

She couldn't tell how long it had been, but outside seemed completely quiet now.

Just as Su Ruan thought the farce had temporarily ended, she vaguely heard Su Yanhua's door open softly, followed by barely audible footsteps and her lowered voice.

"Dad, Mom, come in a moment, I have something urgent to tell you…"

Then came Da Zhuang and Wang Juhua's puzzled muttering, and the soft click of the door closing.

Su Ruan slightly furrowed her brows.

At this hour, what ghost is Su Yanhua up to now?

She held her breath, tilted her ear to listen, but through a wall the voice was muffled, only catching fragments of excited words.

The fragmented sounds were too intermittent to make out, and Su Ruan was too lazy to care; after a day of fatigue she drifted off to a drowsy sleep.

Early the next morning, just as dawn was breaking.

Su Ruan, habitually up early, pushed open the compartment door and was slightly taken aback by the sight.

She saw Su Yanhua already dressed flamboyantly, wearing a clearly bottom‑drawer, rarely‑worn magenta Dress, her face thickly coated with Snowflake Ointment and cheap lipstick, standing before the house's blurry mirror, adjusting herself left and right.

Da Zhuang and Wang Juhua had also risen early; instead of commanding Su Ruan as usual, they circled Su Yanhua, faces full of flattery and eager smiles, constantly chattering.

"Ah, our Yanhua really has an eye for quality! So lucky!"

"Indeed, you're going to be a future university professor! Then we'll be Professor's wife, how prestigious that will look!"

"Ten‑plus thousand a month, my heavens, how much is that…"

"A thousand to ten thousand times stronger than that childless violent man!"

Seeing Su Ruan appear, the three stopped mid‑sentence, their gazes flashing toward her.

Su Yanhua lifted her chin, clattered forward to Su Ruan, and with a condescending, extremely disdainful stare examined her from head to toe.

"Yo, finally up?" Su Yanhua's voice was sharp and smug, "What's the point of being pretty if you're only fit to pick up my unwanted junk!"