"You good-for-nothing, why can't you be as sensible as your brother!"
Liu Shufang suddenly grabbed the dressing box from the bedside and threw it at Chen Yang.
Chen Yang had never expected that his mother, who had been so protective of him just a moment ago, would suddenly become furious with him the next.
He could not dodge in time and was hit directly on the head by the hard wooden box.
With a bang, Chen Yang felt a buzzing in his head, and stars immediately appeared in his eyes.
The next moment, a stream of heat flowed down from his head. It turned red when he touched it with his hand.
Holy crap! When Mom gets going, she's even more ruthless than Dad!
Chen Yang felt dizzy and crouched down, covering his head without making a sound.
"Snort!"
Chen Yuanchao snorted coldly, as if he wanted to say something. Suddenly, it dawned on him that there was a young woman lying on the bed. It wasn't appropriate for a grown man like him to stay there, so he walked out of the room with a dark expression.
Despite his headache, Chen Yang stood up and followed his father out of the room.
Just before leaving the house, he turned around and saw his mother bending down, gently comforting Lin Anyu. He was overwhelmed with mixed feelings.
In his previous life, Lin Anyu's mother had comforted her in the same way. But the difference was...
At that time, he had already slipped away and fled to a neighboring village, where he had hidden for half a month. By the time he returned, Lin Anyu's seven-day mourning period had already passed.
Why was his past self such a scoundrel!
Chen Yang secretly vowed that he would be extra careful from now on and would not repeat the same mistake.
After leaving the room, his father stood under the ginkgo tree in the yard, took out a pipe, and puffed on it. He hung his head, his aged face showing utter dejection. Obviously, what had happened today was a huge blow to him.
The Chen family had been poor farmers for three generations. Even in Niujiawan, a remote mountain village in southwestern China, the Chen family lived in extreme poverty.
But Chen Yuanchao was very proud. Because he had served in the army, although he lived in poverty, he always maintained a very straight posture.
The only stain on his record might be that he had a good-for-nothing son named Chen Yang.
Fortunately, Chen Yang was not the only son in the Chen family. He had an older brother who was down-to-earth, steady, and had a strong sense of responsibility. In his early years, he had been a top performer in the production brigade, earning the Chen family many "Advanced Individual" awards. Compared to Chen Yang, the two were practically opposites.
In that era, people valued honor highly. The higher the people's opinion of Chen Yang's brother was, the worse their opinion of Chen Yang himself was.
It's a pity that as the pride of the Chen family, Chen Yang's older brother had not lived long. The year before last, the upstream organization had built a dam. Chen Yang's brother had eagerly signed up, but an accident had happened the following month: he had been swept away by the flood and never found.
Just a quick note: Lin Anyu's older sister had originally had the opportunity to become Chen Yang's sister-in-law. But because of Chen Yang's brother's accident, Lin Anrou was still single.
Lin Anrou and Lin Anyu were both fair-skinned and beautiful, with curvaceous figures — definitely a pair of stunning sisters. Many young men in Niujiawan wanted to find a matchmaker to marry one of them. But Chen Yang had been sabotaging this whole thing. Because in his previous life, Chen Yang had also lusted after the twin sisters. However, with his father keeping him in check, Chen Yang had never dared to act recklessly.
What had happened tonight could be said to be alcohol emboldening a coward. Chen Yang had gone all out, taking advantage of his drunkenness to force himself on Lin Anyu, intending to conquer her and make it a fait accompli. He had thought that if a woman was sexually assaulted, she would definitely be ashamed and would not dare to make a fuss. But he had not expected that Lin Anyu, with such a fiery temper, would desperately cry for help afterward, attracting his parents.
Now, it was Chen Yang's turn to panic. In his previous life, Chen Yang had thought that, just like before, if he made a mistake, he could simply hide for a while and everything would be fine. But when he returned, everything had changed.
Afterward, Chen Yang had reflected on it for a long time. Finally, he had come to his senses: if he had been brave enough to take responsibility back then, perhaps he would not have had so many regrets.
Right! It's not too late!
Chen Yang decisively walked up to Chen Yuanchao and knelt down again with a thud.
"Chen Yang, do you think you can just kneel down and pretend to be humble and let this matter pass?"
"I'm telling you, no way!"
When Chen Yuanchao saw Chen Yang, a fire ignited within him. He even picked up his pipe.
"Dad, I didn't mean to just put on an act!"
Seeing that his father still wanted to hit him, Chen Yang had no choice but to grit his teeth and continue:
"Dad, I'll take responsibility for what happened today!"
"Responsible?"
Chen Yuanchao raised an eyebrow. "She's an innocent young woman, and now she's ruined by you. How are you going to take responsibility?"
"I will marry her and treat her well for the rest of my life!"
Chen Yang shared his thoughts.
Chen Yuanchao was stunned, never expecting his irresponsible son to say such a thing. But soon, he just sneered and said: "You want to marry her? Bah, dream on! What are you going to use to support her? Will she starve with you?"
The Chen family was poor. Chen Yuanchao had hoped that his two sons would be successful. As a result, the eldest son had died young. The youngest son was lazy and ignorant of farming, spending his days idly and unable to even support himself. Now he's actually saying something as ridiculous as wanting to support a wife. How could Chen Yuanchao possibly believe that?
"Also, An Yu is a city girl, after all. I've heard that marrying her will cost at least 200 yuan. Who's going to pay that?"
In that era, 200 yuan was equivalent to half a year's salary for an average worker. Most people could manage to scrape together the money if they gritted their teeth. But the Chen family was different.
Chen Yuanchao and his wife worked from dawn till dusk, barely managing to support their family of five. Yes — besides supporting their good-for-nothing son Chen Yang, the two elderly people also had to support the Lin sisters. And so, they were already spending more than they earned each month. The Chen family could absolutely not afford to pay a single penny for Chen Yang to marry Lin Anyu.
In addition, Chen Yuanchao was a man of strong principles and would never allow Chen Yang to marry Lin Anyu without spending a penny just because he supported the Lin sisters.
So, the first problem facing Chen Yang was finding 200 yuan. However, for Chen Yang now, 200 yuan was not too difficult to obtain.
His home, Niujiawan, was nestled against the deep mountains and forests of southwest China. The saying goes: "Those who live near the mountains live off the mountains." The southwestern mountainous region was rich in various rare and precious wild animals and plants, each of which was a treasure.
Therefore, in Chen Yang's plan, to change the Chen family's impoverished situation, they could go up the mountain to hunt wild game. Whether they were self-sufficient or sold it, it would bring in a considerable income. And there were also many valuable medicinal herbs in the mountains and forests. If you're lucky, you might dig up one or two valuable medicinal herbs while hunting, take them to the county town to sell, and easily become rich.
In those days, people's thinking was still very conservative. Few people would venture deep into the mountains and forests to seek unexpected wealth. In addition, the southwestern mountainous area was full of poisonous insects and miasma, so most people didn't dare to set foot in this area.
But Chen Yang was different. He had grown up in Niujiawan and was familiar with the surrounding environment. And after his business success in his previous life, Chen Yang had had ample time and money to participate in shooting and survival sports. His marksmanship and knowledge of hunting in the wild were already superb.
In this era when hunting rifles were available, give Chen Yang a hunting rifle, and he'll guarantee he can carve out his own hunting ground.