Chapter 418: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 418: Wang Zhanggen's Eight Sins Against the Family

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

"Slap!"

Wang Zhanggen suddenly swung a slap over.

It landed on Xiao Hua's face.

Xiao Hua hadn't even had time to react before taking the slap.

His face was full of shock.

"How can you hit someone?"

"I'm hitting you, you white-eyed wolf!"

Wang Zhanggen gritted his teeth in rage:

"If I don't teach you a lesson, you won't know what respecting your parents means!"

"I only respect my mom. As for you, what have you done for this family?" Xiao Hua asked again, enduring the burning on his face.

Wang Zhanggen was even angrier.

"What have I done? Who are you to point fingers?"

After saying that, he swung another slap.

But this time Xiao Hua was prepared.

He was quick-eyed and quick-handed, grabbing Wang Zhanggen's descending hand, then roared:

"Don't change the subject. Tell me clearly what you've done for this family. If you can explain it clearly, I'll let you kill me if I don't respect you from now on! Tell me, what have you done for this family? From the moment you married my mom, tell me everything you've done for this family, one by one! Say it!"

Xiao Hua was a little steel bean—not afraid of beating or pressure—and he had also inherited some of Wang Zhanggen's stubbornness.

If Wang Zhanggen wanted to hit or scold him, he couldn't take it unless given a reason that convinced him completely!

Faced with Xiao Hua's loud questioning, Wang Zhanggen was suddenly speechless.

His eyes instinctively darted away; he was clearly feeling guilty.

"You can't say it, huh? Then I'll say it for you. But once I say it, you'd better not shamelessly refuse to admit it!"

Xiao Hua spoke with anger:

"After you married my mom, you did eight big things for this family. The first was making my mom give birth to three sons, right?"

"I admit that, and it's also the most right thing I, Wang Zhanggen, have done in this life. My mom bore me three sons, and I have face!" Wang Zhanggen replied.

"Heh, that's glory for you, but for my mom it's hardship, and a hardship she can never shake off in her lifetime! Do you know how hard it was for my mom to raise three children alone in the rural area? You don't understand at all!"

After Xiao Hua said this, Wang Zhanggen fell silent.

Xiao Hua continued:

"The second thing you did for this family was, when my mom was troubled by rumors and gossip, you didn't trust my mom but believed those rumors instead. Don't think that because I wasn't born yet I don't know about this. Old people in the village still talk about it often. Do you know how much harm my mom suffered because of this?"

Li Xiulan beside her had a complex expression.

Recalling that rumor storm back then, her heart still trembled.

That matter was a shadow of her lifetime, and she still couldn't fully let it go.

What chilled her heart most wasn't that the villagers all accused her of being promiscuous, but that her husband Wang Zhanggen didn't trust her.

"Didn't I suffer harm? Because of this I wore a green hat for a lifetime!"

Wang Zhanggen's eyes were red, with bloodshot veins bursting forth.

This matter was not only a shadow of Li Xiulan's lifetime, but also a shadow of his, Wang Zhanggen's, lifetime.

All the family disharmony and quarrels afterward actually had their root cause in this one matter.

Before this matter, he and Li Xiulan had loved each other so much and been so harmonious.

But after this matter, everything changed.

Between husband and wife, an invisible wall seemed to have risen, and they could never enter each other's inner hearts again.

"If you don't trust my mom, you can divorce her. Why torture her for a lifetime!"

Xiao Hua directly confronted him.

Wang Zhanggen couldn't answer.

"The third thing," Xiao Hua continued, "the third thing you did for this family was go to the city to work. Others who go to the city to work can at least send some money home to subsidize the household. But you? You went to work and basically didn't send money back. As a result, when we three brothers were in primary school, my mom still had to borrow money to pay our tuition! Are you a man? You won't even pay for your own son's tuition!"

Wang Zhanggen's eyes darted a bit as he explained:

"Back then I lost a bundle in business. I had my difficulties."

Xiao Hua said:

"Fine, you had your difficulties, so we won't count that. But you went outside to work and found another woman outside. What do you say to that? For that woman, you didn't come home for the Mid-Autumn Festival and even lied about working overtime. As it happened, my mom took me to the market day on the street and ran into you with that woman! You probably didn't expect that, did you? I was only a few years old then, very small, but I still remembered this in my heart! You finding a woman outside—that's the fourth thing you did for this family!"

Wang Zhanggen lowered his head and stayed silent.

Mistakes made in youth ultimately must be paid for.

Some prices pass with a moment of unbearable pain; some prices must be repaid for a lifetime.

Xiao Hua continued:

"The fifth thing you did for this family: building the house needed money, but you damn well disappeared, leaving the house a ghost building, and our whole family lived in that ghost building for over ten years! And you damn well blamed the unfinished house on my mom. If you had any responsibility, you should have come back yourself to oversee the building back then. Do you know how much effort my mom put into that house!"

Xiao Hua got more and more excited as he spoke. He rarely swore, but he even started cursing.

Wang Zhanggen quibbled:

"This really can't be blamed on me. It was your mom who privately gave money to your Waimu for her illness, which caused the house to become a ghost building."

Wang Xiaohua sneered:

"Hehe, so you're saying that if you get seriously ill in the future, and I happen to need money, you'd rather I keep the money for myself instead of using it to treat your illness?"

Wang Zhanggen was rendered speechless, completely unable to refute it.

"Sixth matter!" Wang Xiaohua continued: "You went to work in Dongguan, disappeared and found another woman — fine, my mom could tolerate that, she's used to it. But when you got into trouble, could you not come begging my mom for help? To rescue you in Zhangmutou, my mom borrowed money everywhere — do you know how much humiliation she suffered because of that?"

Wang Zhanggen hung his head; this matter he also couldn't refute.

Wang Xiaohua went on:

"The seventh thing you've done for this family..."

At this moment, Li Xiulan stepped forward to stop him:

"Xiao Hua, stop talking!"

Li Xiulan was already shedding silent tears.

These past events, one by one, were like knives plunged into her heart.

Originally her heart had already grown accustomed to these knives, and had become one with them.

Now Wang Xiaohua was dredging up old grievances, equivalent to forcibly yanking those knives out of her heart — how could she bear it?

"Mom, let me finish. Today I'm going to make this old man recognize his own ugly face; otherwise he still thinks this family can't survive without him! In reality, without him this family would be a thousand times, ten thousand times better than it is now!"

"Seventh matter!" Wang Xiaohua continued.

"Stop it Xiao Hua, really, don't say any more." Li Xiulan grabbed Wang Xiaohua, hurriedly trying to stop him.

But Wang Xiaohua insisted on continuing; even when Li Xiulan tried to cover his mouth, he pried her hands away and kept talking:

"Seventh matter: my mom and Uncle Chunsheng opened a convenience store — that was originally her one chance to change her fate, but you, narrow-minded as you are, went and smashed the store, causing my mom and Uncle Chunsheng's partnership to end right there! Now Uncle Chunsheng lives a wealthy life in the city, while my mom and us three brothers can only follow you and suffer in Shangou Village — all of this is because of you!"

Wang Zhanggen's face turned extremely ugly, iron-black, both hands trembling.

The words Wang Xiaohua spoke — to him, weren't they also knives, one after another?

"Eighth matter!" Wang Xiaohua went on.

"Don't say it Xiao Hua, Mom begs you!" Li Xiulan's tears poured down in a rush; she hurriedly pleaded. She had already sealed all of this away in the years, never imagining today Wang Xiaohua would bring it up piece by piece.

"Mom, let me finish — just this last matter!" Wang Xiaohua was determined to say everything; if he didn't finish, his heart wouldn't be at ease!

Anyway, it wouldn't be long before he went to university; after that he'd almost never come back to see this old man again — he had no more reservations.

"Don't say it, really don't say it anymore..." Li Xiulan was still pleading.

And Wang Zhanggen's face grew worse and worse.

Yet Wang Xiaohua still did as he pleased:

"The eighth thing you've done for this family is..."

But right then, Wang Zhanggen's body swayed a few times, then crashed to the ground, losing consciousness.