SACRIFICE

"Young Master, you must head home with us. The Hannigan family needs you to preside over the general situation."

"Your father is critically ill and your brother is in jail. You’re the only one who can support the Hannigan family."

"Your grandma said that we have to bring you back with us."

In Cloud City’s Olive Street, Samuel Hannigan—who held a gift box and was dressed in clothes bought from a roadside stall—had an indifferent expression.

"I've never been one to wheedle with flowery speech ever since I was a child. I can never win her over. My big brother was adored greatly, and my grandmother kicked me out of the Hannigan family because she was afraid that I’d take my brother's position as heir.

"I’ve been living with the Sue family for three years and suffered so much humiliation. When has the Hannigan family ever shown me care? She was the one who forced me to leave the family, and now she says she wants me to go back? What does she take me for? A dog?

"All I want is to be left alone so I can be a spineless coward in peace. Y’all motherf*ckers should stop bothering me."

Samuel took big strides and left, leaving the group of people exchanging glances at each other.

The Sue family was a second-rate influential family in Cloud City. When Samuel was in down and out like a dog three years ago, it was Grandfather Sue who personally set up the engagement. At that time, the wedding shocked the entire Cloud City. However, the hubbub was because Yvonne Sue married an unknown piece of trash, thereby inviting ridicule from the entire Cloud City.

Samuel’s true identity was known only by Grandfather Sue, but he passed away due to illness two months after the wedding. From then onward, no one else knew of Samuel’s identity and he went on to adopt the identity of a ‘useless son-in-law’.

During the past three years, Samuel had been ridiculed and treated coldly, but if it was compared to being kicked out of the Hannigan family, the latter scenario was far more ruthless.

He accepted it and had become used to all the back-biting.

It was Grandmother Sue’s birthday that day, and Samuel had selected a gift with much care. The value of the gift was not much and it would surely be laughed at, but there were no two ways about it. That was all he could afford.

As for the incident that happened earlier, Samuel felt calm, almost to the point where he wanted to laugh.

His brother had a way with words, and despite being able to please his grandmother, he was arrogant, domineering, and had a debauched private life. Accidents were bound to happen sooner or later.

Perhaps God was trying to destroy the Hannigan family.

‘What does it have to do with me? I’m nothing more than the Sue family’s spurned son-in-law who lives with his wife’s family.’

Back at the Sue villa, a beautiful figure stood restlessly at the door.

Yvonne was a very beautiful woman and was Samuel's nominal wife. It was precisely because of her eminence that her wedding became the subject of ridicule three years ago.

Samuel trotted over quickly to Yvonne and said, "Yvonne, who are you waiting for?"

Yvonne glanced at Samuel with full of enmity and said, "Have you prepared Grandma’s present?"

Samuel raised the gift box in his hand and said, "I have. I put in a lot of thought before getting it."

Yvonne did not even look at it. Three years ago, she had no idea how or why her grandfather lost his mind. The old man insisted that she marry Samuel and allowed Samuel to come in to live with their family.

What puzzled Yvonne even more was that her grandfather held her hand before he died and warned her not to look down on Samuel.

For three years, Yvonne could not understand why that piece of trash was worthy of her grandfather's special consideration. She would have wanted to divorce Samuel if it were not for the Sue family’s reputation.

"Don't just shoot your mouth off later. All our relatives will be here today and you’ll inevitably be laughed at. Bear with it. I don't want to suffer any embarrassment because of you," Yvonne reminded him.

Samuel smiled and nodded. He seemed rather nonchalant.

Yvonne wished she could just kill him after seeing his expression. He had no background, though he could do with some real ability. In the three years that he lived in the house, he did nothing except sweep the floor, did laundry, and cook.

Samuel was not at all unhappy with Yvonne’s attitude because the two of them got married without an emotional connection. It was very unfair for Yvonne to get married to a piece of trash, so he perfectly understood how Yvonne felt.

The two of them walked into the living room and almost all of the Sue family's relatives were there. It was a very lively scene.

"Yvonne, you’re here."

"It’s grandma's birthday today. Why are you so late?"

"You didn’t go and prepare any surprises for Grandma, did you?"

Those relatives greeted Yvonne warmly and completely ignored Samuel’s existence.

Samuel was accustomed to being in the background so he did not mind at all. It was better to be ignored so that no one would take him for a joke.

However, there were always people who were dissatisfied with him. Yvonne's elder cousin brother, Harvey, would make things difficult for Samuel every time they met and reduced Samuel to worthlessness. Harvey single-handedly spread word throughout Cloud City about Samuel's status as a useless son-in-law and often said unpleasant things about Samuel.

"Samuel, what are you holding in your hands? It’s not a gift for Grandma, is it?" Harvey smirked at Samuel. The item seemed rather big and was wrapped in gift paper. One could tell that it was something cheap with just a glance.

"Yes," Samuel admitted openly.

Harvey sneered and said, "What is this? You didn’t buy it from a roadside stall, did you?"

Samuel shook his head and answered, "I bought it from a gift shop."

Although his words were sincere, it drew a roar of laughter. Yvonne's face froze and she did not expect Samuel to embarrass her after barely arriving at the house.

Yvonne usually kept quiet in such situations. She treated herself and Samuel as two separate families. She did not care how embarrassing Samuel was as long as the topics were not shifted to her.

"Did you come here just to be funny? Grandma is celebrating her eightieth birthday today. Didn’t you prepare your gifts more carefully?" Harvey walked to the coffee table in the living room, which was heaped with all kinds of expensive gifts. At a glance, everything looked very valuable. Samuel's gift box was practically on opposite ends of the spectrum compared to the other presents.

"Look at what I gave Grandma. It’s aged Pu'er. Do you know how much this cake of tea is? Eight hundred and eighty thousand bucks," Harvey remarked proudly.

"Haha, that’s great." Samuel glanced at Yvonne. Yvonne had earlier warned him not to talk, so he made sure to keep his words sparse.

Harvey clearly wanted to use his gift to show superiority in front of Samuel, and continued, "The dregs from this cake of tea are more expensive than your gift. Don’t you think so, you useless good-for-nothing?"

Samuel smiled without speaking. The entire living room was filled with sneers.

Although Yvonne made up her mind not to participate in Samuel’s affairs, the bottom-line was that Samuel remained her husband and they were legally married. Even if she had never let Samuel touch her in the past three years and they were not really husband and wife, she had a reputation to maintain even though Samuel embarrassed her in front of so many relatives.

"That’s enough, Harvey. It's your business if you have money. Regardless of how expensive the gift is, it’s none of our concern. You don't need to show off," Yvonne said with an unhappy expression.

Samuel looked at Yvonne in surprise. It was the first time in three years that Yvonne spoke on his behalf.

"Showing off? Yvonne, you’re mistaken. Is there a need for me to show off in front of a piece of trash? I’m merely of the opinion that he doesn't value Grandma's birthday. On the other hand, can’t you at least help him when you know he’s ignorant and doesn’t have any money? This garbage is living off a woman anyway. Or perhaps you’re the one who didn’t pay more attention to Grandma's birthday?" Harvey sneered.

"You... " Yvonne's face turned red. Her position in the Sue family was the lowest and she had the worst living conditions. Getting a gift that was worth hundreds of thousands was not something she could do on a whim.

At that time, Samuel stood up suddenly, walked to Harvey, then sniffed the Pu'er.

"What are you doing? This is Grandma’s gift. Do you think a piece of garbage like you is allowed to smell it?" Harvey asked angrily.

Samuel frowned and said, "The older the Pu'er is, the more fragrant it will be. It’s also for this reason that aged Pu'er carries a more expensive price on the market. Because of that, many vendors use this aspect of age to deliberately increase the price.

"Pu'er is also divided into raw tea and ripened tea. The tea in your hand is mainly green and dark green, so it can be categorized as raw tea. The taste of raw tea can never be compared to ripened tea, but freshly-made raw tea has tea caffeine, which is harmful to the human stomach and can cause tremendous irritation. A long period of aging is required, and the longer the aging period, the lower the content of the caffeine.

"But with the cake of tea in your hand, the aging period is far from enough because it is aged unnaturally. It’ll only cause harm to the body if you drink it."

"I may be a good-for-nothing, but with your counterfeit goods, you could possibly endanger Grandma's health. Doesn’t that make you even worse than me?"

Samuel spoke loudly and pointed at Harvey. The entire Sue family villa became silent!