“Lin Yinyin is going to beat us to death!”
Lin Xiulan shouted until her voice turned hoarse, but the neighboring house next door was completely quiet not even a head poked out to look.
The Lin family was always in chaos. Lin Xiulan’s scolding was practically an everyday occurrence. Who knew whether something had really happened this time, or if she was just throwing another tantrum?
Everyone was used to it by now and couldn’t be bothered to get involved.
After beating them for a full half hour, Lin Yinyin finally stopped.
She dropped onto the ground and gasped for breath.
She was exhausted!
Then she pointed at Lin Xiulan, who was groaning on the ground. “You clean up the mess you caused yourself.
When the Wang family comes to fetch the bride later, return the fifty-yuan bride price.”
“N-no, we can’t return it!” Lin Xiulan instinctively tried to refuse.
But when she met Lin Yinyin’s fierce, hardened eyes, the words stuck in her throat.
“Can’t return it? Hah!” Lin Yinyin stepped forward and stomped on her wrist.
“Then I won’t just beat Lin Baogui to death I’ll cripple you too and throw you into the cowshed!
Don’t you all say the people in the cowshed are so hungry they even eat rats? If I throw you there, do you think they’d eat your flesh?”
“Y-you wouldn’t dare! The people in the cowshed all have filthy diseases. You’d catch something too if you went! And you can’t kill Lin Baogui murder is against the law!”
“Against the law?”
Lin Yinyin laughed as if she’d heard a joke. “When you abused your stepdaughter and stuck needles into me, why didn’t you talk about breaking the law?
When you tried to sell me to that idiot Wang for bride price money, isn’t human trafficking against the law?”
“T-that doesn’t count! I was doing it for your own good!”
“Oh? So beating me all these years was for my own good too?”
“O-of course. What family doesn’t discipline their child with some beatings? And you have no proof!
But you beating us that’s solid evidence!” Lin Xiulan pointed at her own arm and brought up her backer. “Let me tell you, my brother is the brigade leader! If you touch me, he won’t let you off!”
“The brigade leader?”
Lin Yinyin snorted. “He’s just some distant cousin-in-law who’s barely related. Do you really think you’re that important?”
She leaned down, her voice full of menace. “What do you think would happen if I told his wife about you and the brigade leader?”
“H-how do you know about that?!”
Lin Xiulan’s pupils shrank. She barked fiercely to hide her fear. “Y-you wouldn’t dare!”
“Hmph!” Lin Yinyin was so angry she laughed. Talking nonsense with this idiot was a waste of time.
She already had her own plan.
She raised her hand and struck the back of Lin Xiulan’s neck.
Lin Xiulan’s eyes rolled back, and she fainted.
After dealing with the two of them, Lin Yinyin turned to the most pressing issue: the four needles embedded in her wrists and forearm.
She pulled a dagger out from her storage space and began feeling along her wrist with her fingertips.
After accurately locating the needle, she gripped the dagger in her right hand and quickly sliced a small cut. Gritting her teeth, she squeezed the surrounding flesh.
With a “ting,” the first needle fell to the ground.
Then the right wrist, the left arm, the right arm…
Her movements were decisive and swift. She didn’t dare hesitate. The pain of needles hidden in flesh was something she wanted to get over with in one go.
After all four needles were removed, her face was as pale as paper.
The original body had already been pitifully thin at 1.6 meters tall, she weighed only 80 jin (about 40 kilograms). Now, after losing so much blood, she had no strength left at all.
She collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily.
She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but she thought she had just seen a shadow flash past the window before disappearing instantly.
Lin Yinyin quickly opened the door, but there was no one there. Her instincts told her she needed to act fast.
She headed straight for the room of her stepfather, Lin Dayong, and stepmother, Lin Xiulan.
In 1970s China, the economic foundation was weak. Having just gone through natural disasters, every household was desperately poor. The two solid wooden chests in Lin Dayong’s house were already considered “luxurious.”
At that moment, Lin Yinyin’s eyes sparkled as she stared at them.
In the apocalypse, extreme weather had ravaged the world. Food was more precious than gold. She had long forgotten what it felt like to eat her fill. The chests naturally contained important supplies!
Grabbing a stick, she smashed the first lock open with two loud bangs.
Inside was a sack of rice, at least twenty jin in weight.
Beside it were ten jin of white flour, ten jin of cornmeal, two bottles of liquor, and a bag of candy!
Lin Yinyin immediately unwrapped a candy and popped it into her mouth.
“Mmm! Sweet! So sweet!” she muttered softly, dimples appearing at the corners of her mouth.
She eagerly opened the second chest.
This one didn’t contain food but a bright red padded jacket, a brand-new wedding quilt set, and a small cloth bundle folded from a handkerchief. When she opened it, inside were neatly stacked ration coupons and loose change.
Fen, jiao, yuan there was a full seventy yuan!
Lin Yinyin gripped the money tightly. Fifty yuan of it was the price paid for selling her.
As for the remaining twenty no need to think about it. That must have been the “life compensation” from when her mother died.
Her biological mother had been accidentally hit by a stray bullet from a hunting team and died of a high fever not because she had “cursed her to death”!
The twenty yuan was compensation from the responsible party.
Without hesitation, Lin Yinyin stored the money in her space.
As for the letters underneath, she didn’t have time to read them. Her next target was the kitchen.
Chopsticks, spoons, cutting board, cleaver, spatula, coarse porcelain bowls even the iron wok she pried them out and stored them in her space.
Firewood, corn cobs, even the chipped washbasin nothing was spared!
She put her apocalypse scavenging skills to full use. Only the basin used for washing bottoms was left behind.
No choice she thought it was too dirty.
Just as she was packing up, she heard heavy snorting outside. Lin Yinyin slapped her forehead in annoyance. How could she forget such a big lump of meat?
Grabbing a stick, she ran into the yard. Looking at the plump pink pig she had raised so well, she swung at the back of its head.
With a dull thud, the pig collapsed.
The next instant, it was stored in her space.
Lin Yinyin’s eyes glowed red with excitement. Meat! Meat!
She hadn’t eaten meat in years!
Suppressing her desire, she began thinking about how to take revenge on Lin Baogui.
In this era, killing someone was illegal. She didn’t want to ruin her new life over an idiot.
Just as she was thinking, she suddenly noticed a paper packet hidden by the wall.
It was the medicine used last time for breeding the sow. Her stepfather, Lin Dayong, had secretly hidden it!
“Heh!” Lin Yinyin sneered. She tore open the packet, mixed half the powder with liquor, and forced it down Lin Baogui’s throat. She sprinkled some over his chest as well.
After finishing, she climbed over the wall and looked into Widow Liu’s yard next door.
It was quiet apparently no one was home.
Perfect for doing something bad!
She jumped over the wall and carefully pried open the door with her dagger.
The sight inside surprised her: clean curtains and a tidy room.
Too bad. No matter how respectable the widow tried to appear, the revenge she deserved wouldn’t be avoided.
Who told her to insult the original owner?
With a thought, Lin Yinyin released Lin Baogui from her space.
“Lin Baogui, oh Lin Baogui. What’s so interesting about peeping at a widow bathing? If you’re going to show yourself off, at least do it openly!”
With that, she began stripping off Lin Baogui’s clothes.
But halfway through, that feeling of being watched returned.
She suddenly turned around.
There was no one there!