The patriarch turned around and looked at me mockingly:

"You worthless bastard, how many times have I told you, people's hearts are all dark! Look, her kindness towards you is all fake! She wants to harm you too!"

After he finished speaking, he handed three incense sticks to Cuicui.

Cuicui took the three incense sticks, lowered her head, and never dared to look at me.

She walked away hesitantly.

And in my ears, all I could hear were the laughter of those people in the clan—

"Hahaha, no one takes her seriously, they don't care about her at all!"

"Did she really think there could be any friendship between girls? Girls in this world are the most despicable. When their parents scold them, they forget about their sisters and friends!"

"Hahaha, I see that Cuicui's butt is small, she won't be able to have sons in the future! In a couple of years, she'll have to come to Xiuer to beg for incense!"

Sharp and even explicit words were all thrown at me.

My mind went blank, and there was a buzzing in my ears.

At this moment, all I had in my heart was hatred!

I hated myself for being stupid!

"You bastard! I've been scolding you for so long, but you haven't shed a tear! Cuicui suffers a bit, and you soften up! It turns out that in your eyes, strangers are more important than your own mother!"

My mother walked through the crowd, grabbed my hair, and beat me mercilessly.

Everyone in the clan was watching and laughing.

Some people even mocked my mother, saying I didn't look like I was born to her.

My mother couldn't take it anymore and had my younger brothers make the fire even hotter.

Waiting for the copper cauldron to turn red, she pressed my head against it, burning half of my face on the hottest part.

A smell of burning flesh wafted over, and my left cheek was scorched and charred.

My face was ruined.

"Look at this ugly freak! Do you dare not listen to me anymore, always thinking about outsiders!"

My mother didn't feel any pity for my disfigurement. Instead, she scolded me even harsher.

I looked at my mother with red eyes.

I was thinking, back then, my mother should have drowned me in a barrel.

If I had died, I wouldn't have seen how she treated me.

I wouldn't have been called a worthless bastard by her.

I wouldn't have felt that Cuicui, an outsider, cared about me more than my mother.

My heart was already full of wounds, and being beaten and scolded by my mother made it even more painful.

In the end, I don't know why, but my tears and blood flowed into the cauldron together.

The scalded pig fat mixed with my blood.

Carrying a strange fragrance.

The people who smelled it had flushed faces.

They were reveling in the ancestral hall.

As if they had become immortals.

I watched them quietly, smiling strangely:

"May all your wishes come true."

...