Jiang Yan knew clearly that she was no match for her stepfather.
She had no choice but to take a risk and use the self-defense techniques for women that Huo Ying had taught her in her past life.
At the time, she had been shy and reluctant to learn, but Huo Ying had forced her to learn a move or two.
Fortunately, a move or two was enough to defeat the villain.
Jiang Yan lifted her leg and ran towards the adjacent room. Her biological mother woke up and lunged at her, staggering, “You dead girl, I’ll choke you to death!”
Section Chief Zhu also woke up on the other side, lunging at her with bared teeth and claws, “I’ll deal with you today no matter what!”
She couldn’t even save Huo Ying, let alone escape herself.
Then she wouldn’t escape!
Jiang Yan imitated her biological mother’s voice and screamed, “Fire!”
Her biological mother’s eyes widened, and her hand grabbing Jiang Yan turned to cover her mouth, “You dead girl, don’t you dare scream!”
The old man approached, about to tear her clothes off. Suddenly, her pants slid down to her ankles, revealing bright red shorts. He lowered his head and only then noticed that he was bare-chested, and his pants had slipped down because the waistband had been undone.
Something was wrong. His clothes had been perfectly fine before the dead girl knocked him out.
The dead girl definitely wouldn’t have taken his clothes off, so…
Section Chief Zhu narrowed his eyes and fiercely questioned his stepfather, who was wiping his bloody nose and coming to help, “How did you two end up in the room? What exactly do you want to do to me?”
Before the stepfather could offer his glib explanation, the sound of banging on a tin basin could be heard from not far away, and a woman’s voice was shouting at the top of her lungs, “Everyone hurry, someone is engaging in illicit relations in broad daylight!”
In the seventies, engaging in illicit relations was a crime of hooliganism. Not only was it condemned by everyone, but it was also huge gossip, more attention-grabbing than any entertainment news headline in later generations!
Therefore, even though the house chosen by her biological mother and stepfather today was remote, and the loud noise of the door being kicked open earlier had not attracted any attention, people were now swarming from all directions, “Daring to commit such shameful acts in broad daylight? Arrest them and parade them through the streets! Send them to re-education through labor! Beat these scoundrels to death!”
Section Chief Zhu abandoned all pretense and, shaking his large belly, went to find clothes to wear.
Her biological mother’s small eyes stared at her stepfather’s large eyes, only managing to ask, “What do we do now, what do we do…”
“Shut up!” Her stepfather slapped her hard across the face. His nose was still bleeding, and the stupid woman was still arguing, giving him a splitting headache. How could he think about what to do now?
Before he could even think, a young woman with two pigtails “bang”ed open the door and, with a furious expression and knitted brows, roared with powerful, rhythmic enunciation, “Everyone hurry, the scoundrel who is engaging in illicit relations is right here…”
Suddenly, she couldn’t continue.
Jiang Yan knew the reason very well.
In her past life, at a critical moment, her biological mother and stepfather had rushed into the room and threatened Section Chief Zhu to agree to their high demands. Section Chief Zhu felt it wasn’t worth it and was about to leave.
Unexpectedly, her biological mother and stepfather had a backup plan: they had arranged for her stepsister, Shi Hongmei, to lie in wait nearby with a broken tin basin. She was to ignore all sounds and only come to call for help when she heard her biological mother yell “Fire!”
When Section Chief Zhu heard people coming, he was so scared that he agreed to all conditions. Then, her biological mother and stepfather calmly closed the door and left, saying it was all a misunderstanding, and the crowd dispersed.
In this life, everything had deviated from the stepfather’s control. Shi Hongmei saw a scene opposite to her past life:
Section Chief Zhu, though disheveled, was buttoning up his shirt. Her biological father’s face was bloody, like a pig that had been stabbed and was still jumping around, his hand just leaving her biological mother’s face, which bore a five-fingered imprint.
And Jiang Yan, that little vixen, was standing by, fully clothed, like an observer.
Shi Hongmei’s forehead was covered in black lines, unsure of what to do next. Quite a few people had already crowded into the room, sternly demanding, “Who is engaging in illicit relations? Arrest them and hand them over to the police station!”
Section Chief Zhu flailed his hands and shouted, “I’m fully dressed, I’m not engaging in illicit relations!”
Her biological mother cowered, only the stepfather remained calm. He had made all the preparations for today. He immediately took out the marriage certificate and showed it to everyone, pointing at her biological mother, “She and I are husband and wife, so we couldn’t possibly be engaging in illicit relations.”
Then he pointed at Jiang Yan, “She is our daughter, Jiang Yan. She grew up with adoptive parents and we don’t know how they educated her. She only came to our house at the beginning of this month and today she dares to fool around with a wild man!”
“After we discovered it, she let the wild man beat us. Everyone, look at my face, her mother’s and Section Chief Zhu’s heads, what have they been beaten into?”
Section Chief Zhu’s mouth hung open, and the onlookers were also confused, “What wild man? Aren’t there only four of you in this room?”
The stepfather ran towards the adjacent room, “The wild man is in here!”
Jiang Yan ran ahead of him and pulled open the door to that room.
Huo Ying lay on the ground with her eyes tightly shut. On one side of her head, there was a large, purplish-blue swelling like a horn, indicating how hard she had been hit.
Her heart clenched violently. Jiang Yan immediately threw herself to her knees in front of the man and reached out to check his breathing.
“Did you all see that?” the stepfather exclaimed, pointing and shouting, “Jiang Yan is very close to this wild man, it’s them two who are engaging in illicit relations!”
“He’s not a wild man!” Jiang Yan suddenly stood up and stared directly at her stepfather, shouting loudly, “You said he beat you all like this, then how did he end up lying here unconscious in this room?”
The stepfather was stunned.
Huh? Wasn’t this dead girl usually so quiet that she couldn’t even get a word out, and only cried when something happened?
How could she dare to talk back to him now?
His eyes rolled, and the man immediately spoke righteously, “My wife, you, and Section Chief Zhu were acting in joint self-defense. He couldn’t fight against four fists, so he was beaten down by us.”
“Is that so?” Jiang Yan stared at him, “I’ll wake him up now. If the three of you can beat him down again, then I’ll believe whatever you say!”
The stepfather was speechless.
He had witnessed the ferocity of the man on the ground. If he hadn’t been in a hurry to save the dead girl at the time, he would have killed him with one more punch.
Let alone the three of them, even three more people wouldn’t be able to take this man down.
Seeing his hesitation, the crowd couldn’t help but whisper, “The man on the ground is injured on the head. The three of them should have an easier time beating him now than before. Why don’t they dare to respond? I’m afraid they’re guilty.”
But the stepfather, who had been serving tea in the entertainment district since he was eight, wasn’t easily stumped. He quickly threw the ball back:
“Then tell us, what exactly is your relationship with this man? You must have known each other for a long time, otherwise how would you know he’s so powerful? If he’s as powerful as you say, why is he lying here unconscious?”
“I have no relationship with him, I’ve never met him, so how would I know him?”
Jiang Yan’s voice was naturally soft but no longer whiny as before, “You wanted to marry me off to Section Chief Zhu for benefits. When I refused, you tricked me here, wanting Section Chief Zhu to have his way with me.
“I knocked out Section Chief Zhu with a flashlight. When I tried to leave, you stopped me. I shouted for help, and this comrade heard me and bravely came to my rescue. You blocked the doorway, refusing to let him save me, which is why he hit you.
“But he didn’t hit too hard. When you begged for mercy, he let you go. Unexpectedly, as he turned to take me away, Dad, you sneak-attacked him from behind with a stool! He only hit you hard before he fainted.”