Chapter 133: Severing Family Ties

The Tang family living room.

On the solid wood coffee table, stacks of crisp banknotes were neatly arranged. The edges of the red bills glimmered under the fluorescent light, dazzling the eyes.

Tang’s father stubbed out his cigarette, rapping his knuckles on the table. “I’m the head of this household, so naturally this money should be under my care. You young people are careless. If you get your hands on this, you’ll squander it in no time. I need to save it.”

Tang’s mother slammed the table, making the money rustle loudly. “You take care of it? Last time Yunle sent money home, you lost it all gambling within three days!”

“Giving you this money is like throwing a meat bun to a dog—it’s gone. It’s safer with me. The fridge needs replacing, and Yunke and Mingnuo’s tuition is due. All of that costs money, doesn’t it?”

“Mom, that’s hilarious.”

Tang Yunke leaned against the sofa, arms crossed, her dyed fiery red hair draped over her shoulders. “Last week I saw you buying a thousand-yuan belt for that man surnamed Zhou at the supermarket. Don’t think I don’t know he’s your first love from ten years ago. Improving the family? More like lining the pockets of an old flame under the guise of family improvement.”

Tang’s mother’s face instantly turned a livid purple. She raised her hand to strike, but Tang’s father blocked her. “Enough! You want to air our dirty laundry for the whole world to see?”

In the corner, Tang Mingnuo shrank his neck, opening his mouth to say something, but intimidated by the others, he dared not speak.

With a deafening crash, the solid wood door was kicked open from outside. Splinters flew as a man with ice-blue eyes stood in the doorway.

“Who are you?!” Tang’s mother was the first to react, pointing at him and shrieking. “Breaking into a home is illegal! I’m calling the police!”

The man didn’t answer. He simply stepped aside.

From behind him emerged an ordinary young man in a worn, faded school uniform. He was thin, his features still carrying a hint of youthful immaturity. But the coldness in his eyes sent a chill down the spines of the Tang family.

Tang’s father recognized him first. The cigarette pack slipped from his trembling hands. “Y-Yunle? How… how are you back?”

Tang Yunle didn’t look at him. His gaze swept over the money on the table, then over the chaotic aftermath of the argument. He let out a soft sigh.

He took the baseball bat handed to him by the ice-eyed man, his knuckles turning white as he gripped it.

“Dad,” he said, his voice calm and unruffled. Then, without warning, he swung the bat, striking his father’s hand just as it was pulling back.

A crisp crack. The father screamed, clutching his wrist as cold sweat soaked his back.

“You’re not a qualified father.”

“Gambling every day, losing everything, even embezzling mine and my siblings’ tuition. Do you deserve to be called a father?”

Crack!

Another strike hit the mother’s legs as she tried to flee.

“You’re not a qualified mother either.”

“Using family money to support your first love. Having you in this family is a tragedy.”

“If you don’t have the awareness to be a mother, don’t become one. Take that to heart. I’m telling you, and I’m telling myself.”

“If I ever had a child, I would never make the same mistakes.”

With that, he turned to look at Tang Yunke.

She stumbled back, her red hair trembling like a patch of wild grass. “Brother, you… what are you doing? Xiaohongshu says men hitting women is illegal—you’ll go to jail!”

“What’s that got to do with me?” Tang Yunle sneered. The bat brushed past her cheek, the gust of wind stinging her skin.

“Right now, I’m not a man.”

“I’ve spoiled you too much, making you think my money grew on trees. Dyeing your hair red, acting like a princess, gossiping and stirring up trouble—no one could stop you?”

He brought the bat down on her shoulder. It wasn’t hard, but it sent her staggering onto the sofa, and she dared not make another sound.

Finally, his gaze fell on Tang Mingnuo, still cowering in the corner.

The boy lowered his head, his shoulders shaking like leaves in autumn wind. The hesitation that had been on his face earlier was now replaced by sheer terror.

Tang Yunle loosened his grip on the bat. In the end, he didn’t swing.

“You’re just an accomplice,” he said flatly. “You’ve picked up bad habits from them, but at least you still have some conscience.”

“I came here today for one thing.”

His eyes swept over the mess on the floor, his voice icy. “From now on, I, Tang Yunle, am no longer a member of the Tang family.”

“Whatever debts I owed for being born and raised, I’ve paid back with the money I sent over the years. From this moment, our ties are severed. We go our separate ways.”

“Sister.”

“Big Sister is here!”

A girl in white knee-high socks jumped out from behind Qin Liang. She ran over to Tang Yunle’s side and naturally linked her arm with his. Looking up at the twisted faces of the Tang family, she stuck out her tongue and made a face.

“Take the money.”

“Then call the police. They’re suspected of human trafficking—by law, that’s five years. I don’t care about the details. I want them locked up for five years.”

“And this little fairy, one year.”

“Come out four years early. Let’s see if anyone still indulges your bad habits.”

He turned to Tang Mingnuo, still cowering in the corner. “After your three-month sentence, someone will send you a gaming computer setup, plus…”

One hundred thousand yuan.

“You have a pretty classmate as your girlfriend, right?”

“I hope I don’t run into you begging on the overpass in the future.”

Without another word, he turned and left. But at the door, he saw Qin Liang.

Tang Yunle lightly patted her cheek. The hard masculine lines that had been there melted away with the layer of foundation, softening her jaw and adding a touch of delicacy to her features.

In an instant, the cold, fierce youth was gone. In her place stood a beautiful girl in black stockings, her slender figure graceful, her long hair falling over her shoulders, her eyes bright with relief.

She leaned naturally into the man beside her, tightening her arm around his, then stood on tiptoe to plant a fierce kiss on his cheek, leaving a faint red mark.

Then she turned to face the Tang family, whose faces were frozen in shock and disbelief. A mocking smile curled at the corner of her mouth.

“See?” she said, her voice clear, carrying a long-suppressed joy. “Without you, I can still be happy. I don’t need your love. I don’t need you as family.”

“I only need my A Liang, my boyfriend, my husband. We are the real family.”

“From now on, I’m not a Tang!”

Sunlight streamed in through the doorway, falling on her legs covered by black stockings. The man beside her wrapped his arm around her waist. They smiled at each other, and without another glance at the pale-faced family, they left the Tang family’s rental house.

Tang Yunke snapped her fingers, and the money on the table vanished. Then she left too.

Only the panicked family remained, along with the increasingly urgent sound of police sirens outside the window.