Chapter 96: Chapter 96: Are You Sure You Want to Expose This in Public?

Zhao Youcai seized Su Yufen’s arm, his grip so tight it felt like it would shatter her bones.

Ignoring her struggles and wails, he dragged her outside as crudely as if she were a dead dog.

“I won’t go! Youcai! Let go of me! I’m begging you!”

Su Yufen cried out in despair, her feet dragging on the ground, a wretched sight.

But her struggles were pitifully weak against the enraged Zhao Youcai.

Dragging the wailing, struggling Su Yufen, Zhao Youcai was like a moving storm, drawing countless shocked and curious gazes along the way.

The island villagers all stopped what they were doing, craning their necks and whispering among themselves.

The commotion soon alerted Su Tang’s parents.

Su Yufen’s own older brother, Su Wenbin, and his wife, Min Ling.

Thanks to Su Tang’s care recently, Mr. Su—Su Wenbin—was looking radiant and could even walk around on his own.

The lifeless look he used to have was gone, replaced by his former gentle and refined demeanor.

The moment the couple stepped out of their courtyard gate, they saw Zhao Youcai dragging a sobbing Su Yufen to their doorstep as if she were a convict.

“I, Zhao Youcai, may have my faults, but at the end of the day, I still call you Brother and Sister-in-law.”

Zhao Youcai shoved Su Yufen forward. She stumbled and collapsed at Su Wenbin’s feet, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe.

Zhao Youcai’s chest heaved violently. He pointed at Su Yufen on the ground and roared at Su Wenbin and his wife, his voice echoing through half the village.

“Your precious sister! She wants to divorce me! You ask her! Ask her what guilty secrets she’s hiding! What has she been keeping from me?! What kind of filthy, shameful thing is she hiding in her heart?!”

Su Wenbin and Min Ling were stunned by the sudden spectacle.

Looking at his own sister sobbing her heart out on the ground, then at his raging brother-in-law, Su Wenbin frowned.

Min Ling rushed to help Su Yufen up but was driven back by Zhao Youcai’s fierce glare.

“Youcai, let’s talk this out calmly. What’s going on?”

Su Wenbin tried to placate the furious Zhao Youcai.

“Talk it out calmly?! How can we talk it out calmly?!”

Zhao Youcai wouldn’t listen. It was as if he’d found an outlet, and all the humiliation and suspicion that had been building for days came pouring out.

“She’s been walking around like she’s lost her soul all day, avoiding me, afraid of me! At night, she’s talking in her sleep about Shanghai, boat tickets, and begging someone not to tell… That girl, Su Tang, she knows too, but they’ve all been hiding it from me! And now, now she has the nerve to ask for a divorce?!”

“Brother, Sister-in-law! The Su Family has to give me an explanation! If Su Yufen doesn’t make things clear today, I, Zhao Youcai, am not finished with her!”

Zhao Youcai’s words were like needles stabbing into the ears of Su Wenbin and his wife, and their expressions changed.

They vaguely knew about their sister’s time in Shanghai before her marriage, but they didn’t know the specifics of what she had done.

From Zhao Youcai’s behavior, it was clear he had gotten his hands on some damning secret.

The scene was chaotic. Su Yufen just cried, refusing to say a word as if her life depended on it.

Zhao Youcai was relentless, demanding an explanation from the Su Family.

More and more villagers gathered to watch, their buzzing discussions punctuated by pointing fingers.

Just as Su Wenbin was at his wit’s end and Zhao Youcai looked about to start smashing things, a clear, calm voice cut through the clamor.

“Uncle, my parents can’t give you the explanation you want.”

The crowd automatically parted to form a path.

Su Tang walked over step by step, carrying a small basket of freshly picked seaweed.

Her face was expressionless. Her gaze swept over Su Yufen, who was collapsed on the ground in tears, flickered past the furious Zhao Youcai, and finally rested on her own anxious parents with a hint of reassurance.

“Su Tang!”

Seeing her, Zhao Youcai’s anger flared even hotter.

“You’re just in time! You and your aunt have been hiding things from me together! In front of everyone here today, you’re going to make it clear! What exactly did she…”

“Uncle.”

Su Tang cut him off, her voice silencing all the noise.

She walked to a spot a few steps in front of Zhao Youcai and stopped, her gaze open and direct as she met his eyes, which were practically spitting fire.

“What do you want to hear? Do you want me to talk about my aunt’s past in Shanghai before she was married? Or should I talk about why she’s afraid of you?”

Her tone was frighteningly calm, yet it made both Zhao Youcai’s and Su Yufen’s hearts leap into their throats.

Su Tang’s gaze slowly swept over the surrounding villagers, who all had their ears pricked. The corner of her mouth even curled into a faint, almost mocking smile.

“Uncle, you dragged my aunt here to make a scene in front of the whole village. Are you trying to get to the truth? Or do you just want everyone to watch a joke? To see the Su Family’s reputation get torn off and trampled in the mud?”

Her questions made Zhao Youcai choke, and his face turned the color of beet root.

“It would be easy for me to say certain things.”

Su Tang’s gaze returned to Zhao Youcai’s face, carrying a calmness that seemed to see through everything.

“But what happens after I say them? Uncle, are you really prepared? Prepared to bear everything the truth will bring? Prepared to let the entire island know what… ’interesting’ stories have happened in your home?”

Every single word precisely jabbed at Zhao Youcai’s most sensitive point: his pride.

Su Tang leaned forward slightly, her voice dropping lower but carrying immense weight, so that only Zhao Youcai could hear clearly.

“Uncle, you’re a smart man. Some abscesses, if you don’t lance them, they just fester inside and only hurt one person. But if you do lance them, the pus and blood will flow, the stench will be unbearable, and it will sicken everyone—especially a man like you who cares so much about his reputation.”

“My aunt asking for a divorce is her offering you a way out. If you take it, everyone can part ways with their dignity intact. If you don’t…”

She paused, a sharp glint in her eyes. “Or do you insist on a fight to the bitter end, flipping the table over to let everyone see what’s crawling underneath? Are you prepared to find out if it’s maggots… or a dragon? Can you bear those consequences?”

“Who do you think is more afraid? My aunt? Or you, who can’t afford the humiliation?”

It was as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over Zhao Youcai’s head, instantly freezing his towering rage.

He looked into Su Tang’s clear yet bottomless eyes. There was no threat in them, only a statement of fact that was calm to the point of cruelty.

She hadn’t revealed the secret, but this was more brutal than simply saying it out loud!

She had accurately pinpointed his fatal weakness: his precious reputation and status.

Once that secret was revealed in public, the prestige he had painstakingly built for years would vanish without a trace. He would become a laughingstock in front of everyone, a fate worse than death for him.

Su Yufen had also stopped crying. She looked at Su Tang in terror, then glanced at Zhao Youcai.

Su Tang straightened up, her voice returning to its normal volume, carrying the calm of a matter that had been settled.

“Don’t air your dirty laundry in public. Aunt, Uncle, whatever you have to say, say it clearly to each other behind closed doors. Whether you split up or stay together, whether you argue or fight, that’s your own business. What can you possibly gain by making a scene here, other than letting outsiders laugh at you?”

After speaking, she didn’t spare another glance for Zhao Youcai, who was frozen on the spot, or the limp Su Yufen. She turned to her parents and said softly, “Dad, Mom, the sea breeze is strong. Let’s go back inside.”

She naturally took her mother’s arm and supported her father, who was still in a bit of a daze, and walked calmly through the silent crowd back into their own courtyard.

Leaving Zhao Youcai standing alone in the eye of the storm.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep