Chapter 2: Getting Beaten_1
Yang Dani had been fond of a boy from the village named Guan Qingshu since she was young, all because her father, who was still alive at that time, had joked in private with Guan Qingshu's father about becoming in-laws one day, a conversation she eavesdropped on. As the eldest daughter in her family, she presumed that this handsome boy would be her future husband. Therefore, she stubbornly tried to be kind to him. Sadly, after her father passed away, there was no proof of that conversation, and the Guan Family certainly did not acknowledge it. In fact, Guan Qingshu's mother-in-law once scolded Yang Dani to her face for being shameless. And Guan Qingshu himself was nothing but annoyed whenever he saw Yang Dani.
However, Yang Dani was obstinate. Once she set her mind on something, she wouldn't turn back even if she hit a wall, let alone turn back when she was cursed or beaten. This time, trying to carry wheat straw for someone, she accidentally fell into a ditch and met her end with a cry.
"Who would have thought I'd turn out to be such a lovesick fool!" Yang Ruxin muttered to herself with a self-deprecating twist of her lips, and then she couldn't help but sigh. Yang Dani, oh, Yang Dani, your persistence ended up costing you your life, she thought. She even wondered for a moment if Guan Qingshu, upon hearing of Yang Dani's death, would feel even a twinge of guilt.
"Really playing the part of the young mistress, huh? Walk a bit and faint from a little fall?" Just then, a torrent of verbal abuse drifted in intermittently from outside, "Now even daring to steal food… lazy and good-for-nothing… what's the use of keeping you? Might as well have killed you all…"
"Mother, Dani didn't even have breakfast, she has been working all morning, and only fainted because she hit her head," a woman's feeble voice came through, "It's very hot today, please let me make some porridge for her, just this once, I beg you."
"You're saying I'm not letting her eat? Huh? She only knows how to eat, is she the reincarnation of a hungry ghost?" An even harsher voice returned, "Does nothing but eat all day, you lot have eaten us out of house and home… Raising you is worse than raising a dog…" The voice grew increasingly agitated, "At least a dog can guard the house, what can you do? Now you even dare to talk back to your elders? You're truly a disaster star, deserve to be beaten to death…" This was followed by the sound of slapping, and then the suppressed crying of a woman.
"Grandma, please don't beat mother," a young voice spoke up, "I promise to work harder from now on, sister really needs something to eat right now."
"Grandma, I'll work harder too…" another even younger voice followed.
"Get away…" The old woman's voice suddenly rose sharply, "A bunch of misfortunes, financial burdens… just looking at you all makes me frantic with annoyance…"
Then came the crying of a group of children.
"Cry again, and I'll beat you to death, let you cry all you want at once…" That roaring voice came again, "Cry loudly…" Followed by the repeated smacking sounds, from something being struck against a body.
"Mother, don't beat the children," Yang Xu's wife cried out while kowtowing, "I beg you… it's all my fault… beat me instead… I was the one who took half a bowl of rice…"
"Oh my, big sister, why all the crying? You're making it seem like mother's abusing you," another slightly shrill voice chimed in, "Don't forget this September, Rusong is supposed to go into the fields. With all this crying and wailing, isn't that bad luck? The tiny bit of fortune we have in our house, you're crying it all away."