When Yin Mingzheng got home, he was met with the pungent smell of alcohol.
The 40-square-meter room was converted into two bedrooms and one living room. The living room was very small, and the dining table was placed right next to the front door. The table was full of all kinds of sundries and leftovers. If the door was open, anyone passing by would be able to see their entire living room.
All the furniture in the room was from the second hand market. The floor was made from the lowest-quality wood. After ten or so years, the floor had become damaged by moisture and was bumpy and uneven in many places.
No one repaired it.
A man was lying on the wooden floor at the base of the sofa, snoring loudly. There were beer bottles and trash scattered all across the floor.
Yin Mingzheng glanced at the man expressionlessly and walked into his small bedroom with his schoolbag.
He lived in a small sectioned-off bedroom. It was so small that it could only fit a single bed, a tin cabinet, and nothing else. Books and other miscellaneous items were piled up on the floor.
Since his repurposed bedroom had originally been a balcony, the windows were very large. His bedroom was the only one suitable for drying clothes. That’s why he needed to leave a little space in his room for family members to come and go and dry laundry.
His balcony-turned-bedroom tended to be colder in winter and hotter in summer.
Yin Mingzheng hadn’t cared very much about it when he was younger, but, as he got older, he wanted a little more privacy. He could endure the cold winter and sweltering heat, but it was getting more and more unbearable to have Zhou Juan going in and out of his room all the time.
However, his room was the only balcony in the house. His room was the only place in the house where they could dry clothes.
A long clothesline hung in front of the window, full of shirts, pants, socks, and underwear.
Yin Mingzheng threw his schoolbag on the bedside table and lay down on the bed. As soon as he looked up, he saw women’s underwear hanging above his head. After thinking for a while, he got up and picked up the clothes pole placed by the window and moved Zhou Juan’s underwear to the other side. Then, he put down the clothes pole and lay back on his bed.
He put both hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling of his room. He thought: I want a room without laundry in it.
It’s okay if it’s small, and it’s okay if there isn’t a lot of furniture. He just wanted a room that belonged to him, the kind of room where he can lock the door without getting yelled at.
He hadn’t cared that much when he was a child, but he was older now. He hated other people coming into his room. He hated that the room was full of clothes, underwear, and panties. He hated how, whenever Zhou Juan was drying the sheets, she had to step on his bed to reach the clothesline…
The sound of a man yelling came from outside his bedroom.
The familiar voice made Yin Mingzheng get up out of bed. He opened his bedroom door, picked up the beer bottles on the ground, and piled them up behind the refrigerator. On the weekends, they could take the junk to a recycling center in exchange for money.
In addition to glass bottles, there were also paper boxes and plastic bottles that Zhou Juan had picked up. The arrangement of trash was chaotic and jam-packed. It was pretty much a full-blown trash collection station at this point.
Yin Mingzheng loved cleanliness. He was responsible for cleaning around the house. He hated that pile of garbage a lot. But they needed the money, so he could only turn a blind eye.
Sometimes, Yin Mingzheng would get annoyed by his mild mysophobia. Even though he was born into such a poor family, he had such a low tolerance for poor conditions and uncleanliness.
It was good enough if Yin Qiang didn’t go out and make trouble, much less go out and make money. The entire family relied on Zhou Juan working odd jobs to support the family’s expenses. They also had to pay 2000 yuan every month on the mortgage. Picking up garbage was a way to make some extra money.
It was very hard on Zhou Juan.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Children from poor families became sensible early. Yin Mingzheng understood a lot of things very early on. However, he was also much more self-abasing and sensitive than other children.
He didn’t have the money to go to preschool. The other children in the community all looked neat and pretty, but he could only wear clothes that other people didn’t want. He had even been made fun of because of this.
He had wondered many times why his family had to live in Longtan Community.
The housing prices here were expensive. It was entirely possible for them to sell this house and move to a less expensive community. It would make life a lot easier, but Yin Qiang refused.
Zhou Juan had mentioned it a few times, but Yin Qiang had beaten her until she was bruised and battered. He had cursed at her, “You just want to take my property, don’t you? Fucking bitch, you married me back then because of the house. You still haven’t changed, don’t think I don’t know! If we sell the house and buy another one, half of the house’ll belong to you! You really planned this out well!”
Whenever Zhou Juan was beaten, little Yin Mingzheng would rush out to stand in front of her. Then, he would be beaten up by Yin Qiang.
After cleaning up all the alcohol bottles, Yin Mingzheng ignored Yin Qiang, who had been yelling and cursing, and went into the small kitchen to cook dinner.
Yin Mingzheng fastened an apron around his waist. He pulled out the rice container, scooped out some rice, washed it, and put it in the rice cooker. Then, he went to the refrigerator in the living room to get some ingredients.
There were only a few tomatoes, a few eggs, and a handful of wilted side dishes in the refrigerator.
Yin Mingzheng grabbed the tomatoes and eggs with a blank face. He went to the kitchen to make tomato and egg soup.
Yin Mingzheng worked really hard to learn how to cook because they seriously lacked food. If the food he made tasted bad, he would be cursed at by Yin Qiang, so, compared to other kids his age, his cooking skills were really incredible.
His egg beating technique was well-practiced. He heated the pot, drizzled in a little bit of oil, and poured in the eggs. Then, he rotated the wok, turned off the heat, poured in some water, and added the sliced tomatoes.
Finally, he poured it all into a large soup bowl.
Afterwards, he went to go get the side dishes and reheat them.
Bending down, he took out some small bowls from the lower cabinet. He saved a bowl of soup and a bowl of vegetables for Zhou Juan. He only brought the food to the table after he made sure Zhou Juan had a portion.
Yin Qiang had been drinking, so, like clockwork, he would inevitably demand something to eat. The food couldn’t be late. If it was late, he would fly into a rage.
Zhou Juan worked odd jobs outside. Typically, she would get home after eight o’clock, sometimes eleven or twelve o’clock, so they didn’t usually eat dinner together.
The two, father and son, ate in silence, without saying a word.
After eating, Yin Qiang laid down on the sofa and started watching TV. He held the remote control in his hand and kept pressing buttons. He would laugh every now and then, who knows what he was laughing at.
Yin Mingzheng glanced at him in disgust. He tidied up the dining table and swept the floor. Then, he went to the master bedroom and threw the dirty clothes into the washing machine before letting out a sigh of relief.
The older he was and the more he got to know Yin Qiang, the more he hated everything about this place.
He had once asked Zhou Juan why she hadn’t gotten a divorce.
Zhou Juan said, “If we get divorced, you’d become a child without a father.”
Then, she added, “If we divorced, we wouldn’t have a house to live in.”
Finally, she said, “I’m not going to get a divorce because I have you.”
Yin Mingzheng thought: Don’t fucking stick around for me! If it’s for my sake, then you should leave! Otherwise, I might not be able to take it anymore and hack that bastard to death!
It was already past eight o’clock when he finished all the housework.
Yin Mingzheng went back to his room and closed the door. He placed a mini foldable table on the bed and started to do his homework.
Before, he used to do his homework in the living room, but Yin Qiang would either be drinking and kicking up a fuss or turning the TV volume all the way up. He simply could not focus, so he saved up some money to buy a foldable table. It was only 17 yuan on Taobao, pretty cheap.
He stuffed two wads of toilet paper in his ears, and the world instantly became quieter.
Around nine o’clock, Zhou Juan returned home and spoke a few words to Yin Qiang. Yin Mingzheng didn’t even know what it was they had said, but he suddenly heard screaming from outside.
Yin Mingzheng hurriedly plucked the toilet paper out of his ears, jumped out of bed, and rushed out like a rabbit.
In the living room, Yin Qiang had already grabbed Zhou Juan’s hair and started hitting her, going at her from both left and right. The sound of his hand against Zhou Juan’s face resonated through the living room.
When he saw this, Yin Mingzheng’s eyes turned red. He pushed Yin Qiang away, pulled Zhou Juan up, and roared, “Don’t hit my mom!”
“Damn it! You fucking @%￥#%￥…” Yin Qiang staggered back and his leg hit the corner of the coffee table. His face twisted in pain, and he rushed towards Yin Mingzheng in a rage, beating both mother and son.
Yin Mingzheng protected Zhou Juan. The two of them tried to duck for cover in that small living room.
He wanted to fight back, but he was only a 14-year-old boy. Plus, he had been malnourished for a long time and was thinner than average. He simply wasn’t a match for Yin Qiang, who was 1.8 meters tall. Very quickly, Yin Qiang had Yin Mingzheng pressed into the sofa and started thrashing him. Zhou Juan screamed from the sidelines, “Stop fighting! Stop fighting!”
But she didn’t dare to step forward.
This process had become a daily routine: Zhou Juan somehow provokes Yin Qiang—Yin Qiang beats Zhou Juan—Yin Mingzheng comes out to help—Yin Qiang lets go of Zhou Juan to beat Yin Mingzheng—Yin Mingzheng gets hurt.
Young people recover quickly. Plus, when all’s said and done, Yin Qiang still considered Yin Mingzheng to be his own child, so he didn’t go all out. That’s why, even after all these years, Yin Mingzheng hadn’t actually been to the hospital that many times. Even if he was beaten, he would still be able to go to school the next day.
It’s just that his bruised and swollen face always made people misunderstand that he was getting into fights. Gradually, his reputation became worse and worse. The rumors became particularly outrageous.
In addition to his dyed yellow hair, it further solidified his reputation as a gangster.
For some reason, Yin Mingzheng resisted rather fiercely this time.
He felt that he was already in his first year of junior high, and he wasn’t a snot-nosed primary school brat anymore. He felt that he would definitely be able to beat Yin Qiang this time.
The father and son scuffled on the sofa. During the struggle, Yin Mingzheng actually managed to flip Yin Qiang onto the sofa instead and punched him twice in the face.
“Stop it!”
Zhou Juan was really frightened. She rushed forward in a flurry and pulled Yin Mingzheng back.
Yin Mingzheng took a deep breath and stood up. With a vigor he had never had before, he spat out some harsh words, “Yin Qiang, if you hit my mom again, I’ll hit you back!”
Yin Qiang was beaten by his own son. He stood up incredulously. Then, he suddenly kicked Yin Mingzheng’s stomach. The kick was pretty ruthless. Yin Qiang didn’t hold back his strength at all.
Yin Mingzheng was kicked backward and fell to the ground.
Yin Qiang was furious. He grabbed a beer bottle on the coffee table and threw it at Yin Mingzheng.
Yin Mingzheng dodged, and the wine bottle flew out the only window in the living room. It landed downstairs with a crash, followed by the sound of people yelping in shock.
“Shoot!” Zhou Juan blurted out. She ran to the small window and looked down.
Yin Qiang had also been startled. When he saw Zhou Juan stick her head out the window, he anxiously dragged her back and slapped her across the face. He roared, “Do you want the whole fucking world to know you threw it? What the hell are you sticking your head out for?!”
Yin Mingzheng’s face paled from the pain, but, when he saw Zhou Juan being hit again, he gritted his teeth and got up anyway. “Don’t hit my mom!”
The two started struggling with each other again.
Zhou Juan didn’t have the guts to go up and pull them apart, so she just screamed, “Stop hitting! Stop hitting!”
Right at this time, the doorbell rang.
The three people in the room fell silent at the same time. Not a single person moved.
The doorbell continued to ring tirelessly. It seemed as though it would not stop if it wasn’t answered.
Soon after, someone banged hard on the door, making it clear that the visitor was not happy.
Yin Qiang let go of Yin Mingzheng and signaled with his eyes for Zhou Juan to open the door.
Zhou Juan apprehensively opened the door and saw Shu Ning and Shu Ning’s dad standing at the door.
Papa Shu wore a big gold chain, had a bald head, and a fierce-looking face. His biceps alone could scare a man half to death.
As soon as Zhou Juan saw him, her legs started to shake, “Wh-what is it?”
Papa Shu said gloomily, “Was it you who threw the beer bottle just now?”
Of course she won’t divorce. The house is her priority, that shitty adoptive dad of yours already said it. And she is staying because she knows her child is in good hands. DANG IT ] KNOW SHE TOOK CARE OF YOU IF YOU CAN EVEN CALL IT THAT, BUT SHE CAN BE HACKED EQUALLY WITH THAT SCUM OF A MAN!
GO SHU NING ANG PAPA SHU!!! BEAT THAT ABUSIVE JERK TO DEAAAAAATH! JIAYOUUUUUU
Gosh finally. I was so drawn into this tense story i forgot to comment on previous chapters. SHU NING BROUGHT PAPA SHU!!! OMG SUCH A SMART BOY!! Don’t worry Yin Mingzheng, Shu Ning will get you out of there!
Ty for the chapter!💜💜💜
Such trash parents. Don’t provoke your damn husband if you know that in the end your son will get beaten up. If that woman actually cared just a bit, she would have left already with her fake son. Good boy Shu Ning is smart an brought his dad. Hope the future chapters get better. 😖
FUCK THIS FAMILY DAMNNN shu ning please go on and rescue mingzheng i feel so sad reading his abuse
Oh my goodness, that goddamn woman brought him into this mess, but he still wants to help her — disregarding the fact that he has no idea at the moment.
Papa Shu looks fierce, nice! Yin Mingzheng has it so hard, I can’t believe his adopted mother works against him like that, pulling at him, telling him to stop fighting back—in the story, she even came out of nowhere to beg on behalf of her “real” son, she’s always asking Yin Mingzheng to endure more, who cares if she feels guilty about it? She still does it, every time. Super gross, I hope Shu Ning moves Ying Mingzheng out. The bottle is such a great excuse
Thank you so much for translating! <3
I’m so glad you picked this story up! The old translator didn’t get very far in it, but I really did love it. My disgust with this adopted family remains as strong as ever. I don’t understand how the mother knows enough to not want a child to suffer so she sends her baby off to greener pastures but she’s perfectly fine allowing this one to be abused. Yes, the “father” is the biggest piece of garbage, but she is by no means a good person either. I’m looking forward to finally seeing this little villain get the life he deserves!
Thanks for your hard work translating!
Honestly Zhou Juan is as repulsive, she only dragged her son away when he hit the abusiv father?? And she didn’t dare to come when father was hitting the son! Pei pei pei, get lost, you two!
Shu Nian gooo!!
I feel I’ll like MC’s parents
Thanks for the chapter ~
thanks for the chapter <3
I hope this situation is resolved quickly. Hard to read about. Thanks for the chapter.
Idc what anyone says his “mom” is absolute trash, she switched her own kid with anothers because she knew her husband was abusive and didnt want her kid to grow up in such a household so she dragged someone elses kid into it so they could take the beating in his place, she makes me so mad ://
Also her “taking care of him” is the bare minimum she should do after dragging an innocent child into her hell in place of her own child
I want to kill them all for hitting my poor boy! 😡😡
Thanks for the chapter ❤️❤️
Most of the reasons why abused women don’t leave is bec of financial dependence. It doesn’t seem to be the case here. She can just leave and take the villain and find a place to rent. Not victim blaming but it’s frustrating that adults bring children into this world and not take into account how they’ll grow up.
That’s so sad. I fucking hate irresponsible and useless parents. Thank you for the chapter.
Rereading, and just noticed she somehow had the courage go pull her “son” away once he started getting the upper hand. But when her husband is winning, she’s too scared??? I think she’s just too biased🙂
My god.. after rattling and complaining last chapter, I want just halfway through being calm but FFSSSS IDK IF SHE TOOK CARE OF YOU!!! She is obligated!!?! It’s her fault to put you in this situation. AHH if it was her real child then she would’ve been protecting him well instead of him protecting her all the time that it became “fkng normal” ughhh and BEAT THAT BASTTARDDDDDD!!!! PUNCH HIM!!!! GO GO GO!!!!!
she’s def doing it on purpose just cos he isn’t her own child. 🙄 please meet your end the same way as ur husband would. ◡̈
I find it so disgusting that this woman dragged ml into this hellhole & is really posing as his mother that deserves his protection. She does have motherly instincts (used a drastic method to protect her birth son). After 15yrs, a house is still more important than safety of ml. She has an ugly & selfish heart, & I hope retribution finds both these toxic parents.