23 Scum

When Qiao Yuyan’s parents were still alive, Yu Qingmei’s husband, Jiang Yizu, was a thoroughly ordinary man. He lacked great talent, but he was honest and reliable, with his only vice being a fondness for alcohol.

Qiao Yuyan’s father was well-educated and capable; he had arranged the jobs for both Yu and her husband, and Jiang Yizu had always harbored a sense of awe toward him. Seeing Jiang Yizu return home drunk, which interfered with his responsibilities and ruined his health, Qiao’s father disciplined him several times. After that, Jiang dared not get drunk, limiting himself to only a few small drinks each day.

However, after Qiao’s parents died in a plane crash, Yu Qingmei lost the protection of the Qiao family, and Jiang Yizu was completely unshackled. He began to drink day and night, living in a drunken stupor. His demands grew, and he refused to drink anything but high-end liquor. When the Jiang family’s savings were bled dry and Yu could no longer afford his alcohol, he turned his fists against his wife.

At first, Yu could not believe her husband had become such a stranger, but she was a woman deeply rooted in traditional and submissive values. The ingrained belief in serving her husband and raising her children, combined with the fear that resistance would only invite more brutal beatings, led her to choose silent endurance.

She endured this torment for six years until eleven years ago, on an ordinary weekend during winter break.

Yu Qingmei had returned from a tutoring center with Qiao Yuyan and Jiang Yunxi. As they passed the villa complex where the Qiao family home was located, Qiao Yuyan, who hadn't been back in a long time, suddenly wanted to stop by. When they reached the door, they found it standing wide open. Inside, the house was in shambles, with furniture overturned. Seeing the shadows moving within, Yu Qingmei hid the two girls in a flower bed outside the villa. "Don't come out," she whispered.

The complex was a high-end estate where each villa was spaced apart to ensure privacy. Yet, in that moment, the silence felt hair-raising. Yu entered the villa alone. Fourteen-year-old Jiang Yun