Chapter 74: Hitting One’s Own Mother

Chapter 74: Chapter 74: Hitting One’s Own Mother

"Let go! Just let me die!"

Yao Yuzhen kicked and struggled, her nails digging into his wrist.

Song Yao didn’t say another word. She strode right over and delivered a resounding slap!

Everyone stared, eyes wide, as if they’d seen a ghost.

’Song Yao... hit her own mom?’

"Holy shit..."

Sharp intakes of breath could be heard one after another.

Shen Zhenwu froze as well. He stared blankly at his daughter, unable to understand how she had suddenly dared to strike her.

Yao Yuzhen clutched her face, her gaze vacant as she stared at Song Yao.

The only sound in the room was Song Yao’s clear voice, each word a piercing blow: "I’m not the one wailing and threatening to kill myself, yet here you are, putting on a show of hanging yourself? By what right?"

"I grew up in the Song Family until I was almost nineteen, and I never lived a single good day. As far back as I can remember, I was yelled at, beaten, and treated like a jinx. For the slightest mistake, Liu Yumin would whip my palms with a bamboo switch. But I survived."

"If I had really been Song Shunqiang and Liu Yumin’s daughter, I would have accepted it. But then I found out that my real mother and father weren’t them at all. My real mother is you, Yao Yuzhen!"

"How many times have I watched you dote on Shen Shuangshuang? Do you have any idea what I was thinking? ’You’re supposed to be *my* mother!’ You fought to get her a house, a residency permit, a dowry... You fought for all of it, but what you were really fighting over was the genuine care my father wanted to give me—the love he wanted to use to protect me!"

Tears streamed down her chin and dripped onto the floor, but she didn’t even try to wipe them away.

Yao Yuzhen stood there, completely still, as if rooted to the spot.

"When Liu Yumin publicly said I wasn’t as good as Shen Shuangshuang, what did you do? Instead of standing up for me, you plastered on a smile and apologized to them? Comrade Yao Yuzhen, has your brain turned to mush? I’m your biological daughter! When they insult me, they’re insulting you!"

Yao Yuzhen’s shoulders trembled. Her left foot shifted back half an inch before she forced it to stay put.

"Yao Yuzhen!"

Shen Zhenwu felt a gasp catch in his throat, so choked with anger he nearly passed out. "You need to take a good, hard look at yourself today!"

He wanted nothing more than to storm out right now, pin Liu Yumin to the ground and give her thirty hard slaps, and then put a bullet in Song Shunqiang’s head!

But the person frustrating him most of all was, of all people, his own wife.

’This was all just too ridiculous!’

Just as Shen Zhenwu turned to leave, Song Yao quickly reached out to stop him.

"Dad, don’t be in such a rush to leave. There are a few more things that need to be said."

She turned her head and shot a meaningful glance at Xiao Li, who was standing next to Sheng Hui.

Xiao Li understood instantly.

He deftly pulled a piece of paper from his jacket pocket, strode forward, and handed it to Song Yao.

Song Yao took it and, without a word, pressed it into Shen Zhenwu’s palm.

"Dad, take a look at this."

She didn’t look at Yao Yuzhen or Xiao Li, waiting only for Shen Zhenwu to look down at the paper.

Shen Zhenwu looked down and scanned a few lines. The color instantly drained from his face.

He jerked his head up, his eyes boring into Yao Yuzhen’s face like nails. His lips trembled.

He opened his mouth twice before he could squeeze out a sound. "You... You..."

The rest of the words died in his throat, left unspoken.

Yao Yuzhen was completely baffled. She had no idea what was written on the paper.

She instinctively took half a step forward, trying to get a clear look at the contents.

But Shen Zhenwu’s grip was too tight. The page was crumpled, and not a single word was visible.

In the blink of an eye, Xiao Li had retreated to the doorway and closed the door behind him.

Once it was completely quiet outside, Shen Zhenwu could no longer contain his fury, his voice exploding. "You have the nerve to ask me? To ask why I didn’t say something to you before transferring the house to our daughter?"

He slammed the paper down on the coffee table.

Yao Yuzhen’s heart skipped a beat. Her eyes were glued to the paper, and a chill ran down her spine.

Her throat tightened. She tried to speak, but only a short, breathy sound escaped.

The corner of Song Yao’s mouth quirked up in a cold sneer. "Weren’t you shouting quite loudly just now? Saying you deserved a share of that property? Well then, tell me, what about those two villas in Hai City? By that logic, shouldn’t my dad own half of them?"

Yao Yuzhen froze completely, her pupils instantly dilating!

’She... How does she know about this?’

Her mind went completely blank with a deafening buzz.

Song Yao calmly watched her stunned expression, the one of a person who had just seen a ghost, and felt not a single ripple of emotion.

Because she had already been through this exact scene in her past life.

Back then, she had stood in the middle of the living room just like this, listening to Yao Yuzhen’s tearful complaints about how wronged she was.

The same piece of paper, the same question, the same wide-eyed shock.

Every detail was exactly the same, without the slightest deviation.

In fact, the moment her father had mentioned hosting a banquet to formally welcome her into the family, those two villas had popped into her mind.

At dinner that night, Shen Zhenwu had casually remarked while putting some food on her plate, "Song Yao isn’t a child anymore. It’s time we set her up with some assets."

Song Yao put down her chopsticks and heard her own heartbeat.

She knew it wasn’t a suggestion; it was an announcement.

As the conversation had progressed that day, her father had hinted, in more ways than one, that he intended to transfer property into her name.

But Song Yao knew perfectly well that Yao Yuzhen would never agree.

She had seen Yao Yuzhen tear up that agreement, and she had seen her call in a lawyer the very next day to redraft the gifting clauses.

That was why she’d had Xiao Li secretly pull up the records ahead of time.

Now, her gaze was icy as it pierced Yao Yuzhen. "You secretly gave both villas in Hai City to Shen Shuangshuang, and now you have the gall to cross-examine my father?"

"You have property in Hai City?"

Shen Zhenwu stood frozen to the spot, looking as if he had been struck by lightning.

He had been with Yao Yuzhen for twenty years, yet he’d never imagined she was hiding property in her name!

He had no idea that the property deeds were all solely in her name, without so much as a single mention of his own, Shen Zhenwu.

Meanwhile, she knew his own salary and subsidies down to the last cent, managing his finances more strictly than any bookkeeper.

He stared at the woman he’d shared a bed with for half his life and suddenly felt she was a complete stranger, like he was looking at her through a thick pane of glass.

"Yao Yuzhen, what in the world am I to you?"

At this question, Yao Yuzhen’s face went deathly pale, and her lips turned blue.

She didn’t answer the question. Instead, she lifted her chin defiantly. "I earned that property myself. It has nothing to do with anyone surnamed Shen. It’s not your place to tell me who I can and can’t give it to."

Shen Zhenwu burst out laughing, a sound more chilling than a sob. "Ha... ha... You earned it? And what, exactly, did you earn it with?"

"The ancestral manor passed down by my forefathers—you claim you’re entitled to a share of that. But when it comes to the things *you* acquired, you immediately draw a line in the sand and cut me out? Is that how this works? Are these your rules?"

Song Yao, standing to the side, let out a quiet sigh. "Dad, I told you before. You can’t just give your heart away blindly. You have to choose who is worthy of your love."

Shen Zhenwu had truly given his entire heart and soul to Yao Yuzhen.

For years, whenever she threw a tantrum and smashed a bowl, he would silently sweep up the pieces. When she complained the food was too salty, he would take it from her plate and eat every last bite himself. Even over the last few days, as she gave him the cold shoulder, flung insults, and played sick, anyone else would have flipped the table and walked out. But he just swallowed his pride and kept trying to coax her.

Of course, he had been stubbornly fixated on one idea: he’d thought she was just struggling to accept that Song Yao was her biological daughter and was using the threat of divorce as a club to beat him with.

He had even thought that as long as she softened her stance, he would be willing to reconcile, no matter how wronged he felt.

"Comrade Yao Yuzhen, don’t be too greedy."

Song Yao’s voice wasn’t loud, but every word carried weight.

"Eighty percent of the benefits you’re trying to stuff into Shen Shuangshuang’s pockets are only in your possession because of my father. I had things investigated in Beijing. Back when the Yao family ran into trouble, you were the sole survivor."

"The only reason you’ve lived a safe and peaceful life to this day, with a nice apartment and new clothes, is because my father risked everything to vouch for you back then. He’s the one who forcibly had your name struck from that list. And those properties of yours... I imagine they were only saved because you were under his protection, weren’t they?"