Su Nianqiu leaned against the head of the kang, her gaze instantly turning ice-cold.
Su Jianguo and Li Xiulan slept in the main room, separated from her east-wing bedroom by the central hall. If she shouted out loud right now, Zhao Dazhuang might be pushed into a desperate corner, and if he happened to be carrying a knife, he could easily hurt her parents. She had to deal with this threat herself first.
Outside the door, the intruder lowered his voice, letting out a round of sickening, lewd chuckles. “Su Nianqiu… Big Brother has come to see you. You put on such a high-and-mighty act during the day, but at night, aren’t you still craving a man? Open the door, or don’t blame your grandpa for kicking it in…”
Su Nianqiu took a deep breath, her consciousness instantly sinking into the space.
She rummaged swiftly through the first-floor hidden compartment, her eyes locking onto the jar of potent medicinal liquor soaking the ginseng rootlets. She had smelled this wine before—it was exceptionally high-proof, with a choking, fiery bite. With her bare hands, she pulled out the ginseng rootlets, laid them on the stone table, and picked up the clay jar directly. Next, she found a thick, sturdy bamboo pole in the corner of the space—the kind usually used to prop open the bamboo windows—weighed it in her hand, and exited the space.
The entire sequence had taken barely two seconds.
Outside the door came the sound of metal scraping against wood. Zhao Dazhuang was picking the wooden latch.
Su Nianqiu stepped down from the kang, her bare feet treading silently against the floor without making a single sound. She pressed herself flat against the blind corner of the wall beside the door, holding the semi-open clay jar in her hands, with the bamboo pole leaning against her leg.
Click.
The rusted strip of iron pushed the old wooden latch aside, and it dropped to the floor.
The wooden door was shoved open just a crack, and an acrid wave of alcohol instantly flooded into the room. Zhao Dazhuang’s shaved, stubbly head poked in, peering around greedily in the darkness.
“Nianqiu? Asleep? Big Brother is here to love you up…”
He squeezed through the gap, casually pulling the door half-shut behind him.
Standing entirely within his blind spot, Su Nianqiu asked in a cold, hard voice: “Who let you out?”
The sudden voice in the dark startled Zhao Dazhuang, but he immediately turned toward the sound, catching sight of Su Nianqiu standing in the corner by the wall through the moonlight filtering in. She was dressed in a thin nightgown, her hair loose, and her face dazzlingly pale in the moonlight—so breathtakingly beautiful it made his head spin.
Zhao Dazhuang rubbed his hands together, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. “Heh, you’re awake. Who else could it have been? My mom went down to the police station, put on a good howl, and the public security officers got sick of the noise and let me go. I’ll tell you what, Su Nianqiu, you put on quite an act during the day, claiming you were carrying some hero’s seed. Tonight, your grandpa wants to taste what a woman carrying a hero’s seed really feels like!”
He took a step forward.
Su Nianqiu didn’t back down an inch. Instead, she asked, “Breaking into the brigade leader’s house in the middle of the night—aren’t you afraid my dad will beat you to death?”
“Beat me to death? Would your daughter-fucker of a dad dare?” Drunk on his own hubris and emboldened by alcohol, Zhao Dazhuang lost all filter. “Your reputation is already stinking through the streets! Who in the whole village doesn’t know you’re a loose shoe? If I spend the middle of the night sleeping in your room, come tomorrow morning, once the whole village sees it, who else can you marry besides me? By then, your old man will be my father-in-law. Not only won’t he dare hit me, he’ll have to obediently hand the brigade leader position right over to me!”
Su Nianqiu’s eyes darkened completely. He had plotted every single detail out—he intended to force a fait accompli and swallow up a family with no male heirs to inherit.
“Who taught you to say that?” Su Nianqiu sharply caught the logical flaw in his words. With a good-for-nothing hoodlum like Zhao Dazhuang, whose brain capacity was no larger than a walnut, he could never have dreamed up such a tightly woven, vicious scheme.
Zhao Dazhuang blinked in surprise, then bared a mouth full of yellow teeth. “Does it matter who taught me? Someone pointed out a bright path for me this afternoon, told me your dad wouldn’t dare make a peep about it. As long as I sleep with you today, I’ll be set for food and drink for the rest of my life. Now be a good girl and let Big Brother have a proper taste, and I promise I’ll beat you a lot less in the future…”
He flung his arms wide and lunged violently toward Su Nianqiu.
A flash of ruthless ferocity crossed Su Nianqiu’s eyes. She took a step forward to meet Zhao Dazhuang head-on, aiming the clay jar straight at his face and hurling its contents with all her might!
Splash!
A full half-jar of high-proof medicinal liquor splattered down, every last drop catching Zhao Dazhuang square in the face and eyes.
“Ah—!”
A blood-curdling shriek instantly shattered the silent night of the Red Flag Production Brigade. High-concentration alcohol burning directly into the eyeballs produced a agony no different from being splashed with sulfuric acid. Zhao Dazhuang clutched his face with both hands, his body doubling over in agonizing cramps.
Discarding the empty jar, Su Nianqiu snatched up the thick, sturdy bamboo pole from beside the wall, gripped it tightly with both hands, aimed straight for Zhao Dazhuang’s groin, and thrust upward with every ounce of strength in her body!
Thud!
The bamboo pole struck its target with brutal precision.
The screech cut off mid-air. Zhao Dazhuang’s eyes bulged wide, his mouth agape, unable to force out a single sound. His face flushed to a bruised purplish-red as his hands shifted from his eyes down to his groin. He collapsed onto the ground like a boiled shrimp, convulsing violently from pain, utterly devoid of even the strength to roll around.
Stepping back two paces, Su Nianqiu dropped the bamboo pole, threw her head back, and screamed at the top of her lungs: “Thief! There’s a hooligan! Dad! Mom! Thieves!”
Her voice was clear, ringing, and carried with astonishing force, instantly echoing across the entire Su family courtyard.
In the main room, the light pull-cord was yanked violently, flooding the space with a warm, dim glow.
Crash!
Before he even had time to slip his shoes on, Su Jianguo burst through the main room door with a broad-backed firewood chopping cleaver in hand, kicking the door open in a single stride. Li Xiulan followed right at his heels, weaponizing a heavy-duty nanmu carrying pole.
“Qiuer! Where is he?!” Su Jianguo roared.
“Right here!” Su Nianqiu pushed open the door to the east wing, retreating to a safe distance.
At a single glance, Su Jianguo spotted Zhao Dazhuang writhing and convulsing on the ground, clutching his crotch with both hands. The pungent stench of alcohol and medicinal wine hung thick and suffocating in the air.
“You animal!” Veins bulging in his temples with rage, Su Jianguo raised the cleaver, ready to bring it down. As a former militia member who had fought in bandit-suppression campaigns, he had genuine martial training. If that cleaver came down, Zhao Dazhuang would be left either dead or permanently crippled.
“Dad! Don’t kill him!” Su Nianqiu immediately called out to stop him. “Keep him alive so the whole village can take a good look!”
Forcefully arresting his momentum, Su Jianguo reined in the blade and delivered a brutal, heavy kick straight to Zhao Dazhuang’s chest. Zhao Dazhuang let out a muffled groan as he slid half a meter away, his eyes rolling back in his head, in too much agony to even beg for mercy.
Li Xiulan rushed forward, pulling Su Nianqiu into her arms and checking her frantically all over, her voice shaking. “Qiuer, he didn’t touch you, did he? Are you hurt?”
“Mom, I’m fine. I heard him coming ahead of time and hit him with the bamboo pole,” Su Nianqiu patted her mother’s back, soothing her.
The massive commotion had already woken up the neighbors on both sides.
“There’s a thief at Brigade Leader Su’s place!”
“Quick! Grab your tools!”
Rural security awareness was razor-sharp; the moment a single household raised the cry of thieves, the entire village could mobilize. In less than three minutes, over a dozen people had gathered outside the courtyard gate. Sweeping beams of torches and flashlights cut through the dark, illuminating the Su family courtyard as bright as day.
The militia captain led several strapping young lads crashing through the courtyard gate.
“Big Leader, what’s going on here?”
Pointing a finger at Zhao Dazhuang on the ground, his face dark as thunder, Su Jianguo commanded, “Tie this bastard up for me!”