Chapter 3: Grandfather Calls You Home

Aunt Wan sneered, "What else can I do? Just hide at home, lest that shrew Li Meimei beats me to death."

Now that the benefits are gone and the feelings have faded, she’s started with the cold sarcasm.

How realistic.

Wan Yu cast a cold glance her way. Aunt Wan pursed her lips but said nothing more.

"Mom, Dad, don’t worry about Wang Zheng. Li Meimei wouldn’t dare lay a finger on me," Wan Yu said with confidence, her tone smug and self-assured.

She hadn’t planned to fall out with Li Meimei so soon; she’d intended to have Wang Zheng kick the Li family out directly when the time came.

But after the humiliation Li Meimei put her through today, she wouldn’t hold back any longer.

That precious brat of the Wang family was being touted as a prodigy and protected by the Li family as if he were their own eyeball—well, she’d just dig out their eyeballs.

That vicious thought twisted Wan Yu’s features.

The two sisters-in-law, Aunt Wan and Aunt Wan II, exchanged sneers behind her back: for a mistress, she was awfully arrogant.

The Li family’s butcher’s knife recognized no relatives.

Father Wan and Mother Wan, however, didn’t think Wan Yu was shameless at all. Seeing her so confident calmed their agitated hearts.

Father Wan said coldly, "Bring Wan Shun, that wretched girl, back here. Does she really think she’s grown wings and we can’t do anything about her?"

If it hadn’t been for Wan Shun today, things wouldn’t have blown up like this.

Everyone in the Wan family, without exception, hated Wan Shun with a burning fury.

When your own dog bites you, who could stand it?

...

Wan Shun was strolling along, about to head up the mountain.

Along the way, she ran into some roadblocks—the five little brats from the Wan family.

Four unwanted girls from the eldest branch, and the only precious child from the second branch.

"Bastard, Grandpa wants you home."

The adults were too ashamed to go out, so they sent the kids to fetch her.

The eldest, eight-year-old Wan Chunhua, had the same sharp, mean face as Mother Wan.

She barked orders with an air of arrogance that made Wan Shun’s hands itch.

This rotten patch of bamboo in the Wan family, unfortunately, had produced no good shoots.

Human nature is inherently good? The children of the Wan family proved, if anything, that human nature could be evil.

After all these years in the Wan household, Wan Shun knew this well.

Don’t think their youth meant they couldn’t bully her.

She used to be foolish, never fighting back or talking back.

From the eldest at eight to the youngest just learning to walk, every single one looked down on her and hated her from the bottom of their hearts, influenced by the adults.

They regarded her as a leech, an animal that shamelessly clung to the Wan family.

They’d pick on her whenever they got the chance.

Whoever bullied her most and hardest earned the most respect—a source of amusement for them.

Children mirror adults, and it was clear: not one person in the Wan family, from top to bottom, regarded her as family, or even as a person.

Not even the husband and wife who had taken her in.

She never could understand—if none of them saw her as human, why take her in at all?

Wan Shun had even tried to investigate whether she possessed something the Wans wanted.

Sadly, in her past life, she’d had too little freedom and found nothing.

"Hurry up, or my dad will beat you to death."

"Beat you up, you little beast."

For all their muddled speech, they were remarkably good at cursing.

Wan Shun arched her brow. What evil could these children harbor? They were just in need of a good beating.

She rolled up her sleeves—reinforcements had arrived.

"Shun-jie, Shun-jie, don’t be afraid, we’re here!"

Five-year-old snot-nosed Yang Zhonghua.

Eighteen-year-old big oaf, Wang Bing.

They were Wan Shun’s closest friends.

Never mind the age gap—their bond was solid, not a trace of generational difference between them.

Seeing Wan Shun being bullied from afar, they rushed over, full of bluster, standing protectively in front of her like two angry little lions.

"Want to fight? Bring it on!"

The five-year-old, dressed only in little underpants, wasn’t showing off, but still managed a bit of authority.

And with Wang Bing, the towering oaf, right behind him, their combined presence was formidable.

The Wan children, just like the adults, were bullies at home but cowards in the face of real opposition.

Faced with a strong enemy, they immediately wilted, didn’t even dare to utter a threat, and turned tail to run.

The four sisters supported each other and escaped smoothly.

The precious child, with no one to help, staggered at the rear, falling and crying, whether from pain or fear, it was hard to tell.

Her little friends, triumphant as cocks after a fight, raised their middle fingers at the fleeing figures.

Once the coast was clear, they gathered around Wan Shun.

"Shun-jie, you were amazing today.

Have you finally come to your senses and decided to stop playing along with the Wan family?

You’re too kind, really. If it were me, I’d have stopped caring about them ages ago. Their hearts are so black, yet only you think you owe them.

So what if they took you in? Without them, maybe some rich family would’ve adopted you and your life would be so much better."

The five-year-old, for all his youth, understood more than most.

Many adults in the village didn’t even know about orphanages or adoption, but he knew all about it.

The big oaf nodded vigorously. "That’s right, that’s right. If it weren’t for them, you’d be eating meat every day, always full.

They’re so bad—not only did they rob you of a good life, they abuse you as well."

Wan Shun smiled quietly, listening.

Her lively friends—she hadn’t seen them in so long.

They were right—she had been foolish.

The Wan family took her in, yet wished her dead.

Everyone saw it clearly, except for her, brainwashed into believing she owed them her life.

So, the ending of her previous life was really her own fault.

"I don’t dream of riches anymore, but from now on, I won’t be playing along with the Wan family."

Her friends cheered, calling her all grown up and sensible.

Wan Shun looked as if she were suffering from constipation.

"You guys play by yourselves. I need to go to the Wan house."

Her friends panicked.

"Shun-jie, you’ll get beaten if you go back. You can’t fight all of them by yourself.

Why not take us along? We can help you beat up those Wan girls."

Their enthusiasm made Wan Shun want to laugh.

The Wan family wanted to hit her, but they weren’t quite capable.

Their little brats were no real threat either.

"No need, you guys go on and play."

With that, she ran off in a flash.

Back at the Wan house—well, what a scene: a full family trial.

All were present except the five little brats, each one glaring at her with hostility.

"Waiting for me?"

"You’ve got the nerve to come back," Father Wan snarled, flinging his stinking shoe at her.

Who knew what horrors that shoe had endured; the moment it left his foot, the stench filled the entire hall.

"Ugh..."

Everyone except Wan Bao Cai himself retched and gagged.

Father Wan...

Wan Shun recoiled in terror to the doorway, taking greedy gulps of fresh air from outside.

The others, for the sake of Wan Bao Cai’s dignity, endured it in silence.

Wan Shun was genuinely impressed.

"Uncle, you’re not fighting Japanese devils—why are you using chemical weapons?"

Father Wan didn’t understand, but he knew he was being insulted.

His weathered face shook with rage. "You little wretch, stop playing dumb.

How have we ever wronged you, that you’d harm us like this?

What good does it do you to blow this whole thing up?"

Mother Wan snorted coldly. "I’ve always said she’s an ingrate, a little beast that can’t be raised right.

We never should’ve taken her in—should’ve let her die outside.

We can barely feed ourselves, yet we saved her, and she treats us like this.

If it weren’t for us, her bones would have rotted by now—heartless thing."

Wan Jin and Wan Yin, the two brothers, rolled up their sleeves and stepped forward. "Mom, Dad, enough talk. This wretched girl needs a good thrashing—beat her until she’s scared, then she’ll behave."

The Wan women hurried to the corners, not wanting to get splattered with blood.

Wan Shun raised her brows—so this was the play they’d prepared for her?

As the intended audience, should she cooperate with their performance?

"Come on then, let’s have it out—once and for all."

The Wan family...