In the evening, she and her mother had talked about the divorce in the living room, and money had come up.
Chi Qiang must have been standing outside eavesdropping. The moment she left, he had slipped into her room and stolen her money.
Where was Chi Qiang?
Chi Yin hurried to get up, but she found her limbs completely devoid of strength, and she slipped back down to the floor.
The kerosene lamp flared as Zhou Lanhua walked in holding it high. Seeing Chi Yin sitting on the floor with a pale face, she gasped in a panic, "Yin'er, why did you come back? Where are Xixi and Wanwan? Why didn't they come back with you?"
Sixty-year-old Chi Zhenggang followed her in, clutching the waistband of his trousers with sleep-heavy eyes. Seeing the dismantled wardrobe drawers scattered on the floor, he furrowed his brow, "Did something go missing?"
"Dad." Even with the memories of two lifetimes, seeing her father at this moment made Chi Yin's voice choke with tears.
She had brought the children out, and she had successfully found the rental apartment she wanted. All that was left was to pay the deposit, sign the agreement, and move in tomorrow.
And now the money had been stolen! This was like a knife twisting straight into her heart!
Zhou Lanhua hurriedly handed the kerosene lamp to her husband, crouched down to stroke her daughter's hair, and asked softly in the tone she used to soothe her when she was a child, "Don't be scared, Dad and Mom are both here. Did Xiaoliang hit you?"
Hearing this, Chi Zhenggang's face turned livid with anger.
Chi Yin shook her head repeatedly. Her father had a bad heart; in her previous life, he had died of a sudden heart attack after a mob of Chi Qiang's creditors came to the house and smashed everything up.
Knowing that Chi Qiang hadn't even shown his face with all this commotion going on, he must have taken that fifty yuan and gone out to squander it.
Chi Yin felt her heart plunge to the absolute bottom.
Zhou Lanhua fretted with a heartbroken ache, "Oh, you child, have you not eaten all day long? Look at you, you don't have a shred of color in your face. You've had low blood sugar since you were a kid, you really have to take care of yourself."
Chi Yin hurriedly grabbed her mother's hand, "Mom, where did Chi Qiang go?"
"Not long after you left this evening, he went out too, saying he and Yan'er won't be coming back for the next few days."
He was gone. Chi Qiang was never home, so where would he go?
Carousing with his hoodlum friends, gathering for illegal gambling, or disco dancing at the cabaret. Yes, those two places were always where he could be found.
Chi Yin scrambled to her feet in a panic, but lacking any real strength, she slumped back onto the floor.
Her palm scraped against the edge of the drawer, opening a bloody gash.
Yet the pain helped clear her head a little.
Zhou Lanhua followed anxiously, "Yin'er, where are you going?"
"Dad, Mom, I'm fine. Don't worry about me, go on to sleep." In Chi Yin's mind flashed the image of Chi Qiang handing out one-yuan bills one by one, and she was terrified that if she delayed by even a few minutes, every last cent of that money would be spent.
Fumbling in the dark and enduring her weakness, Chi Yin stumbled out of the Chi Family home.
Earlier this year, the authorities had officially approved the operation of commercial dance halls, and cabarets had sprung up across the country like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. In Yanhe County alone, there were three.
Chi Yin ran from one cabaret to the next. The admission tickets alone cost her two yuan, leaving her out of breath, her lips cracked and her throat burning.
If not for the driving determination to find Chi Qiang and get her money back, she would have collapsed from exhaustion long ago.
***
At Xingchen Cabaret, Chi Qiang was smoking Dahongpao tea and drinking beer, surrounded by a group of local punks flattering him. He looked immensely pleased with himself.
A young punk girl pressed up against Chi Qiang's chest, "Brother Qiang, I want to see you play the wine glass on the piano."
Without batting an eye, Chi Qiang pulled out a one-yuan note and shoved it straight into the girl's hand.
At the entrance of the cabaret, Chi Yin paid the one-yuan admission fee to the doorman. She had only two yuan left in her pocket; if she couldn't find him here, she would have to check his usual gambling dens.
The cabaret was thick with cigarette smoke, and the music of wine glasses striking a piano pounded so hard it felt like it would shatter her eardrums.
Chi Yin squeezed past men and women lost in a frenzy of dancing. She scanned the room, and seeing no sign of Chi Qiang, she was just about to turn and leave when she heard a girl on the DJ stage speak into a microphone in a sweet, coquettish voice, "Thank you, Brother Qiang, for dedicating this song to me! Brother Qiang, I love you!"
Brother Qiang?
Chi Yin kept her wits about her and squeezed further into a corner.
Finally, in the VIP area in the very corner of the dance floor, she spotted Chi Qiang, surrounded by a bunch of street thugs who were sucking up to him.
The brand-new leather jacket he was wearing was particularly glaring...
The money she had worn herself out to save through frugality and hard work was being squandered by this bastard just like that!
Chi Yin hated him. She wished Chi Qiang were dead!
This money was supposed to let the three of them live properly for three or four months, but because of Chi Qiang, it had all come to nothing, like trying to scoop water with a bamboo basket.
With hatred taking root in her heart, her gaze naturally turned venomous. Chi Yin clenched her fists and shoved her way toward the VIP area.
Someone collided with her, knocking Chi Yin back a couple of steps and snapping her sharply out of her anger.
There was a whole gang of people with Chi Qiang.
And looking at herself—empty-handed and unarmed.
Chi Qiang had never once treated her like a real sister; if it came to blows, she might not be a match for him.
Chi Yin gradually reined in her hatred and resolutely turned around.
With a new plan forming in her mind, Chi Yin walked straight over to the young man working the door. "Handsome, do you have any glucose?"
"What for?" The guy had a cigarette dangling from his lips and glanced at her sideways.
A soft, faint smile curved the corners of Chi Yin's light red lips. "Chocolate is fine too. I'm too starved, I don't have any strength."
The guy handed over a piece of chocolate. "One yuan."
Chi Yin handed him her last one yuan and fifty cents. "Give me a bottle of liquor too."
Chi Yin used her teeth to pry off the bottle cap, which shot away into the air. She tilted her head back, pressed the bottle to her mouth, and poured the contents straight down her throat in one long gulp.
The door guy watched in astonishment. "Beauty, are you okay?"
Chi Yin wiped the drops of beer from the corner of her mouth, her flushed lips pressing into a sweet smile. "I'm fine."
Only the moment she turned around, the smile vanished from her face, and her eyes were filled with chilling frost.
Did they really still think Chi Yin was as easy to bully as she was in her past life?
Fine.
Then today it is.
Old grievances and new grudges, she was going to settle them all with him properly!
Chi Yin used her teeth to tear open the chocolate packaging piece by piece, her gaze fixed on Chi Qiang's direction as if it had been dipped in poison.
She chewed the chocolate in her mouth while clutching the glass beer bottle in her hand.
As she passed a table—
*Bang!*
She smashed the bottle fiercely against the edge of the tabletop.
The jagged edges of the broken bottle were sharper than a butcher's knife.
As a passionate samba number came to an end, another punk girl sidled up to Chi Qiang. "Brother Qiang, can you request 'Cheri Cheri Lady' for me?"
Chi Qiang curled his lip to correct her. "What Cheri Cheri Lady? It's Cheri Cheri Lady."
The girl hurriedly nodded in fawning agreement. "Whatever Brother Qiang says it is."
Chi Qiang loved hearing that kind of flattery, and he tilted his chin proudly up into the air.
Yet the moment his chin went up, half a broken bottle was pressed straight against his throat.
A scream erupted from the VIP area as everyone scrambled back to hide.
Chi Qiang was frozen in terror for a split second. When he finally registered what was happening, he turned his head with trembling dread to meet Chi Yin's blood-red eyes.
Chi Yan swallowed hard. "Chi Yin, what, what are you doing?"
Chi Yan pushed open the restroom door and, before she had even stepped onto the dance floor, she heard the loud "crack" echo from the VIP area.
When she looked closely and saw Chi Yin, her expression shifted dramatically.
After what had happened outside the Chi Family courtyard that evening, Chi Yan could already tell that Chi Yin had changed into a completely different person. There was a ruthless edge radiating from her entire being.
To think she was actually pinning Chi Qiang down and slapping him across the face—could this somehow be connected to her going home with Chi Qiang earlier and coming back looking like she had deep pockets?
Was that fifty yuan of Chi Qiang's actually Chi Yin's?
A whole fifty yuan, and in the blink of an eye Chi Qiang had spent it all.
Chi Yan clicked her tongue, shaking her head, but her eyes locked onto Chi Yin with intense fascination.
This was going to be a good show!
She had suffered a loss at Chi Yin's hands earlier this evening, and that bitter pill was still stuck in her throat.
Yet the thought that Chi Yin had turned into something resembling a venomous snake still made Chi Yan somewhat wary.
Glancing around and spotting a sofa nearby, she hurriedly ducked down and hid behind it.
Chaos erupted inside the cabaret. The music was cut off, and the bouncers hired by the venue rushed over.
Yet seeing that Chi Yin was just a young girl dressed modestly, without permed hair or lipstick, they guessed it might just be some romantic debt Chi Qiang had stirred up with an innocent girl outside.
The corner of Chi Qiang's mouth was split open from the beating, and the taste of blood filled his mouth. He stared in bewildered shock, his mouth hanging open in utter disbelief. "Chi Yin, you're hitting me?"