Lu Yiyi’s small face suddenly turned pale, and she looked nervously at her mother.
Hearing the voice of a strange man, Yun Zhu’s brow creased slightly. She stood up and instructed her daughter, “Yiyi, be a good girl and bolt the door. Don’t open it for anyone except Mother. Do you understand?”
Outside the door, Lady Zhao led two middle-aged men—one fat and one thin—into the courtyard.
These two were precisely the thugs sent by Yingchun Brothel to pick up the child.
Lady Zhao flattered them, saying, “The little girl is right inside the house!”
“Hmph! Accepting the silver and then trying to renege! You really prefer taking a punishment over being treated nicely!” The fat thug pushed Lady Zhao aside and strode insolently toward the house door.
Just as he finished speaking, he saw a beautiful woman open the door and step out of the room.
A flash of amazement crossed the two thugs’ eyes, though it vanished in an instant.
This woman’s looks were decent enough, but unfortunately, it was obvious she had borne a child. She was also a bit older and her skin lacked lustre.
Yingchun Brothel had no use for goods like this.
“Are you from Yingchun Brothel?”
Judging by their demeanor and Lady Zhao’s attitude toward them, Yun Zhu guessed their identities and began calculating in her heart.
Her goal was to protect her daughter, but the door to this room was not sturdy. Even though she had self-defense tools like stun batons in her space, she couldn’t be one hundred percent sure her daughter wouldn’t get hurt if a fight broke out.
“At least you have eyes!” The fat thug snorted coldly. “Since you know who we are, hurry up and hand the person over!”
“I’m not selling my daughter!” Yun Zhu stood at the doorway facing them, pointing at Lady Zhao. “The one who swindled you is Lady Zhao. If you want to settle accounts, go find her!”
She glanced at the sky, calculating that it should be time for the first branch’s family to return from the fields.
As long as she delayed them for a bit until the first branch returned, she and her daughter could pull back unscathed!
Lady Zhao had clearly thought of this as well, and anxiety surged within her. “Lady Yun, it is your blessing that Madam Xu took a fancy to Yiyi! Don’t refuse a favor when it’s offered! Hurry up and call Yiyi out! If you delay the two brothers’ business, can you afford the consequences?”
Lady Zhao turned to incite the two thugs: “Brothers, don’t waste words with her. Take the child directly.”
The first branch and the second branch shared one heart—especially the first branch’s three sons, not one of whom was easy to mess with. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have made an appointment with Yingchun Brothel’s people for this specific hour, let alone at the entrance of the village.
Yun Zhu looked at the two thugs. “You want the child? Let me ask you: Who took the silver? Do you have the deed of sale in your hands?”
The two thugs looked at Lady Zhao together. The thin thug frowned and asked, “Where is the deed of sale?”
Guilty, Lady Zhao pointed at Yun Zhu and shouted, “The deed of sale was snatched away by her!”
Yun Zhu sneered. “Lady Zhao, it seems you didn’t take my warning seriously!”
Recalling Yun Zhu’s previous words forbidding her from targeting little Lu Yiyi, Lady Zhao’s face changed slightly.
However, things had reached this point, and there was no turning back for her.
Lady Zhao leaned closer to the thin thug and whispered, “Brother, long delays bring extra troubles. You two should take the child away quickly.”
The thug pondered, “Then the deed of sale…”
“Don’t worry! I’m that girl’s grandmother. Is it possible I can’t even make this decision?” Lady Zhao promised solemnly.
The thin thug thought about it and found it made sense.
Their Yingchun Brothel wasn’t afraid of trouble, but they didn’t want to waste time on trivial matters either.
Thinking of this, the thin thug said to the fat thug, “Stop talking nonsense with her. Kick the door in!”
Yun Zhu’s heart sank.
It seemed today’s matter could not be settled peacefully!
Relying on others was worse than relying on oneself!
With a thought, a mini stun baton appeared in her hand behind her back.
The two thugs stepped forward, intending to directly pull away Yun Zhu, who was blocking the doorway. But the moment the fat thug touched her, he instantly fell to the ground, twitching wildly.
Seeing this, the thin thug instinctively stepped back, narrowly missing the mini stun baton in Yun Zhu’s hand.
What happened?
Both the thin thug and Lady Zhao, who was standing at a distance watching the show, were shocked by this scene.
“Lady Yun, what did you do to him?” Lady Zhao screamed, panic-stricken. “He belongs to Yingchun Brothel! Are you trying to get our whole family killed?”
Lady Zhao was truly scared out of her mind.
If this man suffered an accident at her house, the people of Yingchun Brothel would skin her entire family alive!
Ferocity also surged in the thin thug’s eyes as he properly looked at the seemingly frail woman in front of him. “Couldn’t tell, but you actually have some tricks up your sleeve!”
Yun Zhu’s mind raced, and she smiled lightly. “Don’t falsely accuse me. To me, it looks like he suffered a sudden illness?”
Lady Zhao froze.
The thin thug said angrily, “Nonsense! He is in great health, what illness could he have?”
Yun Zhu smiled and spun her tale: “To tell you the truth, I know a little about medicine. This condition of his is called epilepsy. When it flares up, the patient falls to the ground in convulsions. If I’m not mistaken, he will wake up very soon.”
The current of the mini stun baton was extremely low, designed only to cause brief intense pain and muscle spasms to deter an opponent, not to take a life.
Just as Yun Zhu finished speaking, the fat thug stopped twitching and scrambled to his feet.
“I… what happened to me?” The fat thug looked bewildered.
“You have epilepsy?” the thin thug asked, frowning.
“You’re the one with epilepsy!” the fat thug snapped in annoyance. “I’m in perfect health!”
Yun Zhu continued to bluff: “Brother, epilepsy is no small matter. This is likely your first attack. If you take my advice, while the condition is still mild, you should get it treated quickly!”
Yun Zhu’s expression was so earnest and firm that even the thin thug became uncertain. He asked the fat thug, “How about… we find a doctor to check you over?”
Yun Zhu curled her lips and pulled two Vitamin C tablets from her space. “What a coincidence—I happen to have two tablets here that work wonders on early-stage epilepsy symptoms. I can give them to you, Brother.”
“Don’t believe her!” Lady Zhao shouted loudly. “You’ve been married into the Lu family for so many years, yet I never knew you understood medicine?!”
Yun Zhu sneered. “That was only because I feared you couldn’t bear to see the second branch prosper. So I hid my light under a bushel the moment I entered the family. Otherwise, I would have been killed by you long ago!”
In any case, the original host’s family had moved away from Daliang County long ago; these people had no way to verify her words!
“Brothers, what she’s holding is definitely poison! You can’t fall for it!” Lady Zhao turned to tell the two thugs.
“I lay in bed for half a year, and Doctor Li from the village declared three days ago that I wouldn’t survive more than five days. Lady Zhao, why don’t you think about why I can stand here perfectly fine right now?” Yun Zhu questioned.
Yingchun Brothel had already heard from Lady Zhao that Yun Zhu had only half a breath left.
Half-believing and half-doubting, the fat thug asked the thin thug beside him, “Do I really have epilepsy?”
The thin thug nodded. “Looking at how you twitched just now, it really did look like it.”
However, whether the medicine in this woman’s hand was truly miraculous for epilepsy remained up for debate.
Seeing their hesitation, Yun Zhu added, “This medicine has miraculous effects on epilepsy, but it is harmless to normal people!”
Saying that, she tossed one Vitamin C tablet into her own mouth.
“Wait!” The fat thug wanted to stop her, but seeing that Yun Zhu had already swallowed the medicine, he felt an instant wave of frustration.
That might have been the special medicine to cure his illness, and now there was one less tablet!
The thin thug now believed her seven out of ten. He gave Yun Zhu a guarantee: “If this medicine really cures my brother’s illness, I’ll help you settle this matter afterward!”
Hearing this, Yun Zhu secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
She had neither power nor influence; if possible, she didn’t want to clash directly with Yingchun Brothel either.
It was just that this would be letting Lady Zhao off too easily.
“No need!” Yun Zhu walked up to the two thugs, whispered a few words, and then said, “I guarantee I will fully cure this brother’s epilepsy in due course!”
After listening, the two thugs nodded with satisfaction. “We’ll do as you say!”
The two thugs gave Lady Zhao a meaningful look, took the medicine given by Yun Zhu, and departed.