"Stop your damn crying!"
In the sewage-ridden streets shrouded in fog, a harsh voice bellowed from a window emitting a faint glow.
"Not a single three shillings begged for the whole day, yet you expect to eat a dozen shillings' worth of food!"
In a dilapidated cottage, a burly man was cursing a young boy who was crying in his kneeling mother's embrace.
He raised his hand, and the wife instinctively shielded the child with her body. This infuriated the burly man even more, and he kicked his wife, yelling, "Tonight, neither you nor this bastard gets to eat!"
He didn't take his anger out on his wife any further; compared to that useless bastard of a child, his wife, who earned a modest income by sewing clothes for neighbors, was somewhat useful. If she were hurt, she wouldn't be able to earn money anymore.
The enraged head of the family stepped out of the bedroom and sat down at the dining table, pouring himself a full glass of cloudy liquor from the bottle.
Knock—knock knock—
