Chapter 85: A Satisfying Fight

Chapter 85: Chapter 85: A Satisfying Fight

"Now that I’ve returned to being the cheerful and brave girl I was at ten, you say I’ve changed just because you can no longer control me?"

Deng Yuyuan tilted her head, her eyes clear, as if she were genuinely curious about this. After a day of running around, her previously tied-up hair hung loosely over her shoulders. She exuded a breathtaking, fragile beauty, though it was a pity that no one present could appreciate it.

"Who is it that has truly changed?" She narrowed her eyes, sweeping her gaze across the Deng family.

"Are—are you actually blaming your own parents?" Mr. Deng pointed a trembling finger at her, his face flushed with anger.

Deng Yuyuan’s gaze landed on his hand. "Don’t point at me. It’s very rude. If you don’t put it down, I’ll break your finger."

Mr. Deng seemed unwilling to lose face, his finger stubbornly staying put until Deng Yuyuan raised an eyebrow. Only then did he let out a cold snort and lower his hand. Excellent. He was short on backbone, but long on cowardice.

"With that single question of yours, I suddenly don’t know which part to refute first. Is it that I shouldn’t blame you, or that I don’t even consider you my parents?" Deng Yuyuan spoke the most rebellious words in the calmest of tones.

She barely paused for breath, giving the Deng family no chance to interject or hurl insults. She preemptively pressed her accusations, "Tang Dynasty people said of the Qin people: they plundered every last ounce of wealth, only to squander it like dirt. They exploited so thoroughly, yet cherished nothing. What about you? Back at the orphanage, the director worried you didn’t want me because you favored boys over girls. She said the orphanage didn’t lack the money to raise a little girl.

"It was you who assured her, promising that you would treasure me. Only then was she at ease. But after I came home, I was ostracized by my relatives, slandered by my siblings, and constantly subjected to injustice. Who is it that changed too fast? The rooms on the first floor were spacious enough for you to clear out another bedroom and a study, so why did you make me live in the storage room?"

Mr. and Mrs. Deng’s expressions froze. Back then, they had been caught in a dilemma as well. Deng Yuyuan had just returned, right when Deng Hualing was feeling insecure. If they treated Deng Yuyuan well, Lingling would feel like the family didn’t want her anymore.

Left with no other choice, they could only make Deng Yuyuan make do with the storage room. They figured they would give her a better bedroom once Deng Hualing understood that her parents’ love for her wouldn’t diminish with a younger sister’s arrival. Besides, Deng Yuyuan was used to a hard life; she could handle staying in a storage room.

Who knew that this temporary arrangement would drag on until now?

"Can you really blame us entirely?" Mr. Deng pondered for a moment before finding his voice again. "Why couldn’t you look for the reasons within yourself? Back then, you couldn’t read, you didn’t understand etiquette, and you were gloomy and unlikable. Humans aren’t emotionless objects; there will always be a little bit of bias. If you were in our shoes, faced with such a useless child, who do you think would want her?"

"I would. I would want myself, and the orphanage mother would want me too," Deng Yuyuan said. "You can also stand in my shoes and think about it. Who would want a pair of beastly parents in human skin?"

"Let’s go. They will never realize their mistakes," the AI system said in her mind.

"It’s not about making them realize their mistakes." Deng Yuyuan paused for a few seconds, curling her lips into a smile. She continued speaking to the AI customer service, "They can’t beat me in a fight, they can’t out-curse me, and they care too much about their pride to blow things out of proportion. With such a great opportunity, why wouldn’t I stay and scold them to my heart’s content before leaving?"

Watching from the sidelines, Tuantuan felt incredibly satisfied. Her eyes sparkled with stars as she worshipped her mother more and more!

"Enough." Deng Hualing stepped forward and knelt before Deng Yuyuan. "I was blinded by jealousy back then, worried that Mom and Dad would love you more. That’s what led them to do irrational things. If you want to blame someone, blame me. Don’t take your anger out on Mom and Dad. They are old; they won’t be able to handle it."

"My sister is innocent. I was just so furious that you were bullying her that I found people to teach you a lesson." Deng Huayu stepped forward bravely.

"Player, right now you look like a vicious villain threatening a loving, united family," the AI noted.

Deng Yuyuan closed her eyes. The last person who tried to guilt-trip her like this... this time, her counterattack would be even better than before.

"You know, I didn’t originally intend to do this," Deng Yuyuan said. Under everyone’s bewildered gazes, she pulled out a blank memorial tablet and placed it in front of Deng Hualing.

But since she had already knelt down, wasn’t this just tempting her to make the girl kowtow?

Deng Hualing looked on blankly as Deng Yuyuan took a knee beside her and gently stroked the top of her head.

"You want me to blame you, but you can’t just have me blame you~

"You have to say...

"And you also have to say..." (Censored so it can’t be typed out, sorry orz).

Deng Yuyuan began to recount every single malicious deed Deng Hualing had ever done to her. With every sentence Deng Yuyuan spoke, she grabbed Deng Hualing’s hair and forced her head into the ground for a kowtow.

She didn’t stop until Deng Hualing’s forehead was a mass of purple bruises, faintly oozing blood.

"AH! I’ll kill you!" Deng Hualing lunged at Deng Yuyuan, but she was effortlessly blocked and shoved aside. She fell into Mrs. Deng’s arms and burst into agonized sobs.

"Right, and then there’s you." Deng Yuyuan stood up and walked toward Deng Huayu. As she pressed closer step by step, he collapsed onto the ground in terror.

"D-don’t come any closer!"

Deng Yuyuan sighed. "I’m not like you all. I am the kindest and most forgiving. Originally, I didn’t even want to hold onto these old grudges.

"Back then, when you relied on your physical advantage and brought your friends to beat up your own sister, did you ever wonder if she was as terrified as you are today?"

Deng Yuyuan shook her head to herself. "I’m overthinking it. How could an animal empathize with a human?"

Deng Huayu’s posture wasn’t quite right for kowtowing, so Deng Yuyuan let him off the hook slightly—by grabbing his head and slamming it against the wall.

In truth, Deng Yuyuan didn’t use much force. It probably wouldn’t even cause a mild concussion. However, it was enough to scare the Deng family silly, and a foul stench soon wafted from Deng Huayu’s pants.

Her gaze shifted to Mr. and Mrs. Deng. The two of them had already slid to the floor in despair, muttering under their breath, "Rebellious daughter, I’m going to kick you out of the house."

"I haven’t gone quite crazy enough to beat up my own parents," Deng Yuyuan added very sincerely. "Really."