Wang Guifen’s wailing echoed like an alarm, instantly spreading across the entire Meng family courtyard.
“What’s going on? Mom! Why are you lying on the ground?”
The curtain of the west room was flung open, and a burly man rushed out.
He wore an oil-stained work vest, his body thick with muscle, his face rough and menacing. This was the Meng family’s second son, Meng Jingui.
Right behind him, a woman with high cheekbones walked out, cracking melon seeds. It was Second Aunt Zhang Cuihua.
The two of them took one look at Wang Guifen rolling around in the chicken droppings and immediately exploded.
“Oh my heavens! What kind of sin is this! Are you trying to rebel?”
Zhang Cuihua spat out a melon seed shell and began fanning the flames in a shrill voice, “Mom raised you with her own hands, and this is how you repay her? Beating an elder—you’ll be struck by lightning for this!”
Hearing this, Meng Jingui’s dark face instantly fell.
He strode into the east room and saw Lin Wanrou squatting on the ground, putting shoes on Meng Yaya.
“Lin Wanrou! You useless hen, how dare you hit our mom?”
Without a second thought, Meng Jingui swung his hand to slap her.
In the Meng household, hitting Lin Wanrou was as common as eating. With the eldest brother away, this branch of the family was the punching bag—anyone in a bad mood could take it out on them.
Lin Wanrou trembled in fear, instinctively covering her head and curling into a ball.
But the expected pain never came.
“Second Uncle, do you not want your hand anymore?”
A childish voice, carrying an inexplicable chill.
Meng Jingui felt as though his wrist had been clamped in an iron vise, a sharp pain shooting through him.
He looked down, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head.
Meng Yaya, who only came up to his knees and was as thin as a kitten, was gripping his wrist with one hand.
That small hand was pale and delicate, looking as if it would snap with a single twist, yet at that moment, it felt welded to his bones.
“You… let go! You little bastard, let go!”
Meng Jingui broke out in a cold sweat from the pain, trying with all his might to pull his hand back, but it didn’t budge an inch.
He felt as though his wrist bone was about to shatter!
“Who are you calling a little bastard?” Meng Yaya asked.
“You!” Meng Jingui blurted out.
“Oh, so you admit you’re the bastard.”
Meng Yaya applied a slight twist to his wrist.
Crack!
A crisp sound.
“Ah—!”
Meng Jingui let out a pig-like scream, collapsing to his knees on the ground.
His wrist was bent at an unnatural angle—clearly dislocated.
At the doorway, Zhang Cuihua, who had been watching the commotion, dropped her melon seeds all over the floor, her mouth hanging open wide enough to fit an egg.
How… how was this possible?
A three-year-old child had brought a two-hundred-pound man to his knees?
Meng Yaya let go of his hand, wiping it on Meng Jingui’s clothes as if it were dirty.
Without even glancing at her second uncle writhing in pain on the ground, she turned and took Lin Wanrou’s hand.
“Mom, let’s go out and get some sun.”
The room was too foul, reeking of mildew and the stench of Wang Guifen’s foul breath.
Lin Wanrou was in a daze, mechanically following her daughter’s lead as they walked out into the courtyard.
In the courtyard, Wang Guifen was still wailing. Seeing her son crippled, she cried even louder, as if the sky were falling.
“Heavens above! I can’t go on living! The eldest branch has been possessed by an evil spirit! They dare to harm their own uncle! Jianjun! Jianjun, where are you? Come out and beat this little beast to death!”
At her shouts, a young man of about eighteen or nineteen slowly emerged from the backyard.
Meng Jianjun, Wang Guifen's youngest son, also the apple of her eye. He idled about all day, stealing chickens and dogs, and was the village's notorious loafer.
He had a dogtail grass stem in his mouth, was tossing a stone the size of half a palm in his hand, and wore an impatient expression.
"What are you howling about? Can't you let a man sleep?"
Seeing his second brother kneeling on the ground wailing and his mother rolling around in the chicken coop, Meng Jianjun was stunned for a moment before his eyes turned vicious, locking onto Lin Wanrou and her daughter.
"Sister-in-law, this is your fault. The family provides you with food and shelter, yet you let this little money-loser run wild?"
He tossed the stone in his hand up, caught it, and swaggered over.
"If you don't give an explanation today, I'll break this little brat's legs and throw her into the mountain ditch!"
As he spoke, he swung his arm and hurled the stone straight at Meng Yaya's head.
If it hit squarely, the three-year-old child's skull would surely be cracked open.
"No!"
Lin Wanrou, with a burst of strength from who knows where, lunged forward, trying to block the stone with her body.
"Mom, step aside."
Meng Yaya's small hand gave a gentle push at Lin Wanrou's waist.
It seemed effortless, yet Lin Wanrou involuntarily stumbled back several steps, just out of the stone's trajectory.
The stone whizzed past Meng Yaya's ear.
Meng Yaya stood in the center of the yard, her tiny body ramrod straight.
She swept her gaze over the collection of scoundrels filling the yard.
A crazy old hag pretending to be mad, a violent second uncle, a sharp-tongued second aunt, and a hooligan of a little uncle.
Was this the environment the original host lived in?
No wonder she was tormented to death.
If she didn't show them what she was made of, there would be no way to live peacefully.
Meng Yaya didn't speak. She strode on her short little legs straight toward the corner of the yard.
There sat a large stone millstone.
It had once been communal property in the village, but after it broke, the Meng family hauled it back to use as a dining table. It weighed a good two to three hundred pounds; moving it usually required two strong men with a pole to lever it.
The eyes of the entire family were fixed on her, wondering what this crazy girl was about to do.
Meng Jianjun sneered, "What? Scared out of your wits? Trying to hide under the millstone?"
Meng Yaya walked up to the millstone and patted its rough stone surface with her hand.
She bent down, her two small hands gripping the edge of the millstone.
She focused her energy, sinking it into her dantian.
Lift!
Before everyone's eyes, the incredibly heavy large bluestone millstone slowly rose from the ground!
Wang Guifen's wails cut off abruptly, as if someone had grabbed her by the throat.
Everyone's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
They saw the little toddler, who wasn't even as tall as the millstone, holding the massive stone aloft with both hands, walking step by step, steadily forward.
With each step, the ground trembled slightly.
Her small figure was engulfed by the enormous shadow, yet it appeared terrifying all the same.
Meng Yaya stopped two meters in front of Meng Jianjun.
"Just now, whose legs did you say you were going to break?"
She tilted her head and asked in a childish voice.
If you ignored the thing she was holding over her head, the scene might even have been a little cute.
But right now, in Meng Jianjun's eyes, she was a living demon king!
"You… don't come any closer! Are you human or a ghost?"
Meng Jianjun was so scared his legs turned to jelly. He stumbled backward and fell onto his butt.
If that millstone came down, he'd be turned into mincemeat!
"Clang!"
Meng Yaya let go.
The millstone slammed down heavily between Meng Jianjun's legs, mere centimeters from his vital parts.
The ground was smashed into a deep pit.
Meng Jianjun felt a chill run through his lower body, followed by a surge of warmth.
He had wet himself in fear.
"From now on, anyone who dares lay a finger on my mother…"
Meng Yaya dusted off her hands and pointed at the millstone embedded in the ground.
"This will be their fate."
Dead silence fell over the yard.
Even Wang Guifen, who was usually the most domineering, now cowered by the chicken coop, not daring to breathe too loudly.
Was this really a three-year-old child? This was clearly a little monster born with supernatural strength!
After doing all this, Meng Yaya felt a wave of weakness wash over her.
This body's foundation was too weak; that outburst just now had already pushed it to its limit. Her stomach growled in protest, cramping painfully from hunger.
She paid no more attention to the group of cowards who had been scared out of their wits and pulled Lin Wanrou, who stood there dumbstruck.
"Mom, I'm hungry. Let's go back inside to eat."
It wasn't until the mother and daughter entered the house and closed the rickety wooden door that the people in the yard seemed to come back to life.
Back in the room, Meng Yaya plopped down on the edge of the kang, panting heavily.
Only then did Lin Wanrou snap out of her daze, frantically checking Meng Yaya's arms and legs.
"Yaya, are… are you hurt anywhere? How could you lift something so heavy? Could it have stunted your growth?"
Her concern wasn't at all about why her daughter had suddenly become so strong, but whether she had been injured.
Meng Yaya felt a warmth in her heart.
This was a real mother.
"Mom, I'm fine. I'm just hungry."
"Hungry… Mom still has half a cornbread bun hidden away. Wait, I'll get it for you."
As Lin Wanrou spoke, she moved to rummage through the wooden chest that held only a few tattered clothes.
Knowing the family's dire situation, Meng Yaya stopped her.
"Mom, don't bother looking. First, close the window tightly."
Meng Yaya glanced around to make sure no one was peeking.
She closed her eyes, letting her consciousness sink deep into her mind.
That familiar grayish Spatial dimension was still there!
It was the Space Ability she had awakened in the Post-apocalyptic world—a small warehouse of two hundred square meters.
The supplies she had collected in the Post-apocalyptic world had actually followed her through the transmigration!
Compressed biscuits, canned luncheon meat, purified water, anti-inflammatory medicine, and even a few military daggers…
With a thought from Meng Yaya.
A pack of compressed biscuits and a bottle of mineral water materialized in her hand.
"Mom, eat this."
Lin Wanrou, who was busy plugging the gaps in the window, turned around and widened her eyes in shock.
What were those silver-wrapped blocks? And why was the water in that transparent bottle so clear?
"Yaya, where… where did this come from?"
Lin Wanrou paled, lowering her voice in fear. "Did you steal from your grandmother's private stash? Hurry and put it back! If you're caught, you'll be beaten to death!"
"It's not stolen."
Meng Yaya tore open the packaging, and a rich aroma of wheat instantly filled the room.
She broke off a small piece and stuffed it into Lin Wanrou's mouth.
"The Immortal Grandfather gave it to me. He said I have great strength and was afraid I'd starve, so he specially sent it for me."
When dealing with rural women of this era, the superstitious approach worked best.
Sure enough, Lin Wanrou froze.
The biscuit melted in her mouth, a sweetness she had never tasted in her entire life.
"Immortal Grandfather?"
"Mhm. The Immortal Grandfather said that from now on, I must protect Mom and also go find Dad."
Meng Yaya handed the water over. "Mom, eat quickly. You need to eat your fill to have strength."
Lin Wanrou looked at her daughter's sparkling eyes, and tears instantly streamed down her face.
She didn’t know what was real or fake about immortals.
She only knew that her daughter was doing this to keep her alive.
"Alright, Mom will eat."
Mother and daughter hid in the dimly lit room, sharing what was considered a lavish meal in those times.
After eating her fill, Lin Wanrou’s complexion grew slightly rosier.
Meng Yaya lay in Lin Wanrou’s arms, thinking about the path ahead.
This Meng family was no place to stay.
Even though she had intimidated them earlier, these people were like stubborn leeches—they would surely think of underhanded tricks.
Besides, this body was too weak and needed proper nourishment. Although there were plenty of things in the Spatial dimension, she still needed a plausible source for them.
Just as she was thinking this, deliberately hushed voices suddenly came from outside the door.
"Mom, are we really going to sell that girl? She’s so strong now—what if she causes trouble…"
It was Second Uncle Meng Jingui’s voice.
"Nonsense! It’s precisely because she’s strong that we need to sell her off quickly! Otherwise, she’ll end up trampling all over our whole family!"
Wang Guifen’s voice was sinister, dripping with malice.
"I’ve already made arrangements with Old Li from the neighboring village. His foolish son needs a child bride. That idiot may beat people, but that girl is strong—she can take a beating! All we need to do is slip her some knockout drops, stuff her into a sack, and deliver her to Li Village. Once it’s done, it’s done…"
"What about the bride price?"
"Fifty yuan after it’s done! Plus twenty pounds of pork! With that money, we’ll have enough for Jianjun’s bride price!"