Old Man Liu choked with rage, his face darkening as he cursed, “Presumptuous! To dare perpetrate violence in broad daylight under everyone’s watchful eyes, and then to bite back with a mouth full of nonsense—you are simply utterly lawless!”
“She is not Shen Danyun! She has been possessed by an evil spirit and has come here to commit murder! Everyone, quick, capture this witch and burn her to death! Otherwise, she will eventually doom the whole village!” Mrs. Liu-Chen shouted to the crowd while tightly wrapping Liu Changfu’s bleeding foot.
This old hag actually stumbled pretty close to the truth, Shen Danyun thought, her eyes darting quickly. Immediately putting on an expression of utter despair, she cried out to the crowd, “Grandpas, grandmas, uncles, and aunts! Ever since my father passed away, the Liu family forcibly occupied our house and kicked us out to live in the woodshed!
They claimed we were jinxes who brought about our own father’s death. They even stole our grain and silver, forcing us to serve them like beasts of burden. The slightest mistake would result in a brutal beating! Everyone, please look!”
As Shen Danyun spoke, she rolled up her sleeves to reveal arms covered in wounds. Then, she pulled young Wentao over and lifted his shirt to expose his back.
The little boy’s back was a patchwork of blue and purple bruises. Cruel whip welts crisscrossed his skin, and some spots were red, swollen, and festering. It was a shocking and heartbreaking sight.
“They beat and abuse us every single day, and we aren’t even allowed to resist. If we do, we only get beaten worse, wuu wuu wuu…” Shen Danyun buried her face in her hands and wept bitterly. Even the men in the crowd couldn’t help but secretly wipe away tears.
The women, unable to hold back, cried out, “Poor children! If your father were still alive, how could he ever let you suffer such harm? Old Man Liu, are you people even human? How could you lay a hand on such a young child? You are worse than beasts!”
“What kind of godforsaken adoptive relatives are you? You’re just man-eating wolves! Get the hell out of the Shen family home!” someone shouted.
Shen Danyun wanted to cheer for whoever said that—they had spoken her exact thoughts. She had to seize this opportunity to throw this family out today; just looking at them disgusted her, and she was afraid she might lose her temper and kill them.
“Don’t be afraid, Yun’er. They are the ones who deserve to die! Fellow villagers, you’ve all seen the children’s bodies covered in wounds. Now they even want to slander and murder the children! What a black-hearted, rotten family! I say they are the ones who should be burned to death!” Wang Xiaoyan said furiously.
“Calling others evil spirits? I think you look more like demons! It’s fine when you beat people, but it’s wrong when they fight back? Where in the world is the logic in that?” Auntie He chimed in.
“Don’t be blinded by that witch! Look at her words and actions today—does she have even a fraction of her past self? If she isn’t possessed by an evil spirit, what is she?” Mrs. Liu-Chen pointed at Shen Danyun and shouted loudly.
“That seems true… Shen Danyun has been dull and foolish ever since she cracked her head open a year ago. How did she suddenly get completely better after being struck by a club today?” Hearing this, the crowd snapped out of it, their attention shifting back to Shen Danyun.
“Do you think… maybe her father, Shen Chengzhi, has manifested from heaven to protect his children?” a few people whispered among themselves.
“It must be! Otherwise, how do you explain Liu Dafu trying to hack her but missing, and hacking himself instead?” A collective chill ran through the crowd, and the looks they directed at Shen Danyun carried a trace of fear.
With her extraordinary hearing, Shen Danyun thought the excuse the villagers had concocted for her was simply brilliant—it saved her the breath of explaining.
Acting on it immediately, Shen Danyun said, “That’s right. Just now, when I was knocked unconscious, I saw my father. My father told me: whoever dares to bully you, strike back. Father will back you up.”
Shen Danyun looked completely innocent, yet her words made everyone’s skin crawl. This was especially true when she stared sinisterly at Mrs. Liu-Chen, terrifying the older woman even more.
“You’re not that fool Shen Danyun! You’re a demon! You’re a demon!” Mrs. Liu-Chen screamed, pointing at Shen Danyun in terror.
Shen Danyun smiled and said, “Of course I’m not a fool. If your wretched granddaughter hadn’t beaten me, how could I have become foolish? Since she refused to admit it, I had no choice but to return the favor.”
“An eye for an eye! If you don’t beat others, why would they beat you? In the end, wasn’t it just because Shen Chengzhi is gone that you’re bullying these helpless orphans?” someone immediately agreed.
“Exactly! Seeing his children being bullied like this, Shen Chengzhi would definitely come back to demand justice. If the Liu family can’t satisfy Shen Chengzhi, I’m afraid this won’t end well for them in the future,” another person chimed in.
“Insolent brat! How dare you! Do you still have any respect for me as your grandfather?!” Seeing public opinion completely turn against them, Old Man Liu was fuming with rage but entirely helpless. Seeing the drastic change in Shen Danyun, his thoughts had also drifted in that supernatural direction, leaving him both furious and terrified.
“No,” Shen Danyun replied without a shred of hesitation.
Old Man Liu had been waiting for her to admit her mistake and back down; her blunt response left him completely stunned. This dead brat doesn’t play by the rules at all. How am I supposed to respond to that? Just because you have a ghost backing you up, you have to be this arrogant?
“You, you, you… disrespecting your elders, committing treason!” Old Man Liu pointed at Shen Danyun, his entire body trembling—though whether from anger or fear was unclear.
“Hardly. You’re not an elder of my family, so don’t talk about disrespecting elders or committing treason. Have you gone senile, old man?” Shen Danyun said disdainfully.
They couldn’t win in a fight, and they couldn’t win in an argument. After a long internal struggle, Old Man Liu put on a completely different face and said, “Yun’er, we are one family. If there’s an issue, we can close the door and solve it among ourselves. Let’s not let outsiders make a mockery of us.”
“Stop right there. Who is ‘one family’ with you? You can eat whatever you want, but you can’t just say whatever you want.” Shen Danyun’s face darkened, and the temperature around her seemed to plummet. This old bastard sure changes faces quickly.
The smile on Old Man Liu’s face began to stiffen. “Danyun, don’t talk like that. If your father has spirit in heaven, he would scold you too. We were originally one family.”
Shen Danyun countered, “Are you stupid? My father told me that from the moment your son sold us and mortgaged our house to the gamblers, we stopped having any connection. You are no longer my adoptive grandfather. You’d better pack up quickly and move out of my house.”
“Could one of the uncles please fetch the Village Chief to preside over justice for us?” Shen Danyun said, bowing with clasped hands to the crowd.
Old Man Liu hadn’t expected this wretched girl to be so difficult to deal with. Hearing that she wanted to call the Village Chief, he panicked. “Girl Yun, don’t be impulsive! Let’s talk things over slowly. Grandfather knows you have suffered. When we get back, I will scold your grandmother and the others—they really didn’t know their boundaries when disciplining children.”
Shen Danyun thought to herself, He wants to shift all the blame onto the women and use the excuse of ‘disciplining children’ to silence the crowd. This old guy is truly cunning.
Seeing that Shen Danyun remained silent, Old Man Liu pressed on, “Think about it, how are you three going to survive on your own? You are all still children—what do you have to support yourselves? Don’t be so stubborn with Grandfather. In a moment, I’ll have your grandmother and the others apologize to you.”
Old Man Liu felt his words were completely reasonable. He simply didn’t believe that three children could make a living without an adult. No matter how tough Shen Danyun acted now, she would have to obediently listen to him in a moment.
Besides, living in this large, blue-brick tiled house was incredibly comfortable. How could they possibly move back to that narrow, drafty little thatched hut?
“If we relied on you to raise us, we would have either starved to death or been beaten to death by now. You really have the nerve to say that. Do you truly take me for a fool?” Shen Danyun sneered.