As if to show disdain for the insufficient excitement, Yue Ning ripped open his chest garment, unveiling the terrible deep-purple fire wounds that covered almost his entire chest.
"After that incident, I lay for a full three months, my body extensively burned, these injuries all hidden under my clothes, invisible on normal days, but Fourth Brother suffered even worse than I did."
"When we rushed out of the inferno, he was barely recognizable as human."
"The burns he suffered were more extensive than mine, not an inch less. Only because he was the elder brother and I was the younger, only because during the fire, he protected me all along."
"Third Brother, a man of loose morals, always lazing around as if boneless, often got beaten for it. He was continuously injured, hardly healing before acquiring new wounds; recently, after returning from town, you lashed him with a rattan till he was on his last breath, leaving a trail of bloody footprints as he departed."
"Second Brother has always been sickly, weak, and prone to illness since childhood; we brothers would rather take beatings and scoldings ourselves than see him harmed."
"But last winter, Second Brother was carried by you into the mountains, and Big Brother led us in search for help. Amid the icy mountains and snowfields, we brothers searched for a day and night, finally discovering Second Brother in a snow pit, frozen stiff, barely breathing, already unconscious."
"After that, thanks to Doctor Xiao's kindness, who watched over Second Brother for more than ten days, we barely managed to pull him back from Death's door…"
"In Dayuan, where women are exalted and men looked down upon, Big Brother was once a bookkeeper at a local tavern."
"As a man, it was not easy for him to find such respectable work, but his skill in writing strong, forceful characters earned him the Tavern's shopkeeper's appreciation. However, the night you lost control and caused Yixuan to break his leg, simply because Big Brother intervened, you crippled his right hand, and his job as a bookkeeper was stolen away by others."
"Dong Dabao, what more do you have to say? How can you still have the audacity to show a face of grievance, as if we were the ones who bullied you?"
"The tragedies that befell us six brothers were all crafted by your hand."
"Who is the aggressor, who is the victim? How dare you feel wronged?"
Dong Huiying was completely dumbfounded.
Yue Ning's expression darkened; he glared at Dong Huiying with a sternness in his voice.
"Dong Dabao, for over a year, I, Liang Yuening, have been hot-tempered and irritable. I always clashed with you, took your beatings and scoldings, but what wrong did my brothers commit at home?"
"I've always wondered, how callous must one be to become as heartless as you, Dong Dabao?"
"They say the human heart is made of flesh, but you, Dong Dabao, have a heart of stone. We keep conceding, yet you escalate your abuse—beating and kicking, insulting and belittling us, making a daily spectacle in this household."
"I hate! I believe my other brothers hate you too. For an entire year, we've lived through hell, never having a moment's peace, each day walking on eggshells, in constant fear of what new trouble you might cause."
"It's all these things that make Second Brother feel so guilty, since if he hadn't been critically ill at the time, desperately in need of ten taels of silver to save his life, the Dong family wouldn't have been able to take advantage of us and foist such a cruel and unfeeling disaster upon the Liang family!"
Yue Ning became increasingly uncontrollable.
These past events were scars on his heart, his fists clenched tight, like a wild beast that might charge and bite the woman in front of him the next instant.
And just at that moment, beside him, Yixuan suddenly tugged at him.
"Fifth Brother, enough."