Chapter 100: Chapter 100: No Success Without Hardship
Sun Lixia hid in her room, listening to Jiang Changhai’s boasting outside, seething with such hatred that she clenched her teeth. Beside her, Jiang Changtao’s face turned incredibly grim.
He understood all too well that the more his niece San Ya achieved, the higher the status of the first branch would be in his father’s heart.
He couldn’t let his big brother be so smug!
So, right after dinner, he called his two sons back to the room to do their homework.
But both boys were restless, constantly fidgeting, hitting each other one moment and pinching the next.
Already in a bad mood, Jiang Changtao’s anger flared instantly. He picked up the broom from the floor and started beating his sons.
“What are you doing, husband? Can’t we talk this out nicely?” Sun Lixia hastily grabbed Jiang Changtao, who was intent on hitting someone, and tried to reason with him.
“Dad, please don’t hit us anymore. We’ll do our homework right now, we won’t play again,” the brothers pleaded through tears.
Jiang Changtao shook off Sun Lixia, who was grabbing hold of him, and pointed at his sons, scolding them, “How many times have you said this? When have you ever followed through? What did I tell you before?”
“Wasn’t it to study hard and go to high school later on? If you don’t study hard now, do you want to end up like me, returning home to farm the land, and being a mud-legged peasant your entire life, huh?!”
Sun Lixia had initially wanted to stop him from beating their sons.
But hearing these words, she hesitated.
She knew all too well how tough farming was and did not want her sons to come back as mud-legged peasants.
Taking advantage of her momentary distraction, Jiang Changtao went up to the boys and hit them even harder than before.
Sun Lixia, seeing her sons being beaten, felt her heart wrenching painfully. But if she didn’t discipline them now, what would become of them later?
Seeing that their biological mother could not save them, the two boys wailed and called out for their grandmother, “Wah, Grandma, Grandma, Dad is going to beat us to death!”
Unfortunately, their grandma was held back by their grandpa, “Don’t you go.”
“Can’t you hear our grandsons crying? I need to go talk to Changtao, he shouldn’t be beating the children ,” Zhang Guihua said, her face full of distress.
“Didn’t you hear what Changtao said? These two have been idle for so long after dinner, and their homework isn’t done yet. They’ve never even passed an exam! Changtao is right to beat them; sparing the rod spoils the child. Don’t you interfere,” Jiang Dashan said with a frown.
To tell the truth, he hoped more for his grandsons to succeed than his granddaughter.
“But…” Zhang Guihua’s heart ached as she listened to her grandsons’ cries.
“But what? If Zhiwen and Zhiwu don’t study hard, do you want them to end up farming the land in the future?”
Jiang Dashan’s face was stern, and his tone was serious as he continued, “In any case, you are not to go, and from now on, you are not to interfere with their education.”
He rarely spoke to his wife with such severity; Zhang Guihua realized immediately that she truly couldn’t manage this affair.
All she could do was sit anxiously on the kang bed, her heart aching, as she thought of steaming an egg the next day to comfort her two unfortunate grandsons.
The commotion from the Third Branch had grown so loud that even the Second Branch had heard it.
Zhaodi remarked softly upon hearing the noises from the Third Branch, “This is the first time I’ve heard Uncle Changtao beat Zhiwen and Zhiwu so mercilessly.”
“Yes, Zhiwen and Zhiwu are the cherished children of our family. They have been naughty and mischievous since they were young, and besides Uncle Changtao, only Uncle has ever hit them a few times,” Da Ya nodded in agreement.
Er Ya listened to her older sister and Zhaodi’s conversation without commenting.
But she clenched her fists tightly, thinking to herself that she too did not want to be a mud-legged peasant, toiling in the fields and still going hungry.