Why wouldn’t she dare tell anyone about losing something?
Because silver dollars were one of the “Four Olds,” and that was precisely why Old Mrs. Yuan had racked her brains and gone to such great lengths to hide them inside a shuttlecock.
Old Mrs. Yuan was vicious and cunning. Hoarding the “Four Olds” would have meant public criticism and struggle sessions, yet when she sold her granddaughter under the pretext of collecting a bride price, no one intervened.
Realizing this, Yuan Ni didn’t dare delay. She grabbed an axe and said, “Pandie, go hide at the team leader’s grandmother’s house.”
Little Pandie puffed out her chest. “Sis, I’m coming too.”
“You’re too small. You’d just be in the way.”
Pandie couldn’t bear to leave and kept looking back with every step. Only after Yuan Ni urged her on did she finally scamper away on her short little legs.
Not knowing when her uncles might show up, Yuan Ni had to intercept Zhaodie.
An arm can’t twist a thigh—Yuan Ni wasn’t foolish. As she headed toward the Yuan house carrying the axe, she started shouting, “Uncles, aunties, grandpas, grandmas! The Yuans are selling off their granddaughter! Everybody, please help stop them!”
The young seedlings had just been planted, so there was little farm work to do. Everyone was idle, and hearing someone raise a ruckus, they immediately rushed out to watch the excitement.
“Yuan Ni, what are you yelling about? Who’s selling their granddaughter?”
“Aunt Fatty, it’s my grandmother selling Pandie. She’s still little—only twelve this year. If she gets sold into the mountains, she won’t survive.”
“Really? Is that true?”
“Could be. Two outsiders went into the old Yuan house today.”
“Why are we still asking? Let’s go see for ourselves!”
Yuan Ni carried the axe, with a crowd of villagers trailing behind her for the spectacle.
In these times, there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment, and people loved a good show—the bigger the better. They’d have happily brought stools and grabbed a handful of melon seeds if they could.
The Yuan family’s front gate was bolted from the inside. Yuan Ni didn’t stand on ceremony—one swing of the axe split it open.
“Ouch, Yuan Ni doesn’t mess around.”
“How could she be gentle? When Yuan the Eldest brought his sister-in-law to smash the storage room, he should’ve known this day would come.”
“The Yuan family is really twisted. Why does Yuan the Eldest side with his sister-in-law instead of his own wife and kids? What’s that about?”
“You just have to look at what kind of woman that sister-in-law is. She’s probably cast a spell on both brothers.”
It wasn’t their own business, so no one felt any real pain. The villagers chattered on with great relish.
The masses have sharp eyes. Listening to them, Yuan Ni felt they were very close to the truth.
If not for that, how else could one explain Yuan the Eldest’s bizarre behavior?
In the blink of an eye, the Yuans proved they weren’t pushovers either. The moment the gate was split open, they came swarming out in a rush.
Leading the charge was Old Mrs. Yuan. Despite being a shriveled old woman, she could really move. The moment she laid eyes on Yuan Ni, her eyes turned red.
“You damned girl! Defying your elders and committing treason—how dare you show your face before me? Today I’ll discipline you, you unfilial wretch, on behalf of our ancestors!”
As she spoke, she grabbed a hoe from the corner of the wall and swung it at Yuan Ni.
The hoe was razor-sharp. If it connected, half her skull could be cleaved off.
Yuan the Eldest saw his mother acting so rashly and moved to stop her, but was held back by Zhang Chunyu, his younger sister-in-law, who stood beside him.
Zhang Chunyu—Yuan the Second’s wife—was a highly controversial figure.
She was beautiful and spoke in a soft, gentle voice. Had she not been sent down to the countryside, Xiangyang Dadui would never have seen such a tender, lovely woman, as delicate as spring water.
So the moment Zhang Chunyu arrived at the brigade, the young men had their eyes on her.
Many men pursued her, and Zhang Chunyu had also built up her confidence, intending to pick the best among them.
Unexpectedly, after the men chasing her got into jealous fights with each other, several scandals about Zhang Chunyu suddenly surfaced.
Some said, “Don’t be fooled by Zhang Chunyu’s pretty face—she’s actually a loose woman. Even before she came to the countryside, she was improper and had shady dealings with men.”
Young men liked pretty girls, but they didn’t want to end up wearing a green hat, so one by one, Zhang Chunyu’s suitors dwindled.
In the end, she had to lower her standards and marry Yuan the Second, whose circumstances were decent enough.
Even after having two children, Zhang Chunyu remained quite attractive. She cast a seductive glance at Yuan the Eldest and said in a soft, gentle voice,
“Big Brother, Mother is still angry at Yuan Ni. Don’t stop her. What ill intent could an old woman have? She just wants to teach her granddaughter a lesson.”
What kind of talk was that?
Who teaches their granddaughter a lesson with a hoe? And one sharp enough to kill?
Zhang Chunyu was fanning the flames, spouting pure nonsense—yet Yuan the Eldest actually believed it.
When Zhang Chunyu reached out to block him, Yuan the Eldest stopped in his tracks. “You’re right. Let Mother vent her anger.”
With neither adult intervening, they simply watched as the gleaming hoe swung toward Yuan Ni’s head.
The villagers watching from a distance were too far away, and by the time they realized something was wrong, it was too late to stop it.
Yuan Ni’s axe wasn’t as long as the hoe, and it looked like there was no way to block it. But at that critical moment, someone suddenly threw half a brick, which struck the hoe dead-on and knocked its aim askew.
As the hoe sliced down past Yuan Ni, everyone gasped in relief. Thank goodness for that brick—if Yuan Ni had been hit, she would have been crippled at best, or dead at worst.
Old Mrs. Yuan was getting old after all. When the hoe missed its mark, she couldn’t regain her balance and tumbled straight to the ground.
“Yuan Ni doesn’t know any better and needs to be disciplined. This is our family matter, so outsiders shouldn’t interfere.” Zhang Chunyu frowned and said in that soft, gentle voice of hers.
Everyone turned to look at the person who had thrown the brick. His face was unfamiliar—he wasn’t from Xiangyang Dadui.
Yuan Ni recognized him at once. This was the Gongshe public security cadre who had upheld justice and helped them split the family. His surname should be Gu.
Gu Qianbu stood tall with a straight back, his brows sharp as blades, and righteous determination blazing in his eyes. “Killing someone in broad daylight violates national law. This is not a family matter.”
A grandmother disciplining her granddaughter might be a family matter, but a grandmother trying to hoe her granddaughter to death was not.
Seeing that this man was handsome, Zhang Chunyu softened her voice even further. “Comrade, may I ask which unit you’re from? You don’t understand our family’s situation, so don’t meddle where you shouldn’t.
You see, Yuan Ni looks honest, but she’s actually the most troublesome one.
She deliberately pushed my mother-in-law and left the old lady bedridden for days. Tell me, doesn’t a child like that deserve a good lesson?”
Yuan the Eldest chimed in, “That’s right. This damned girl also instigated her mother to split the family from us, and she got my second brother sent to the study session. My family is in shambles now, all because of her. Don’t stop me—let me beat her to death.”
Gu Qianbu pulled Yuan Ni behind him, shielding her with his body. “No one is allowed to lay a hand on anyone.”
His figure stood tall and immovable as a mountain, steadily protecting Yuan Ni.
Old Mrs. Yuan lay on the ground and shouted, “So that’s how Yuan Ni got so capable? Turns out she’s hooked up with some wild man. If you two want to fool around, fine, but hand over the bride price first. Otherwise, I won’t acknowledge this match—you’re nothing but an adulterous pair.”
Those words were too vile, enough to make one want to slap Old Mrs. Yuan across the face with the sole of a shoe.