The man had clearly never expected that a delicate-looking woman like Sang Qing would be this formidable.
He was in so much pain now that, let alone agreeing to one condition, he would have agreed to a hundred without batting an eye.
“I… I agree!” the man gasped, sweat pouring down his face as he struggled to force the words out.
Seeing this, Sang Qing took another pill from her pocket and tossed it in front of him.
“Take this, then wait here.”
With that, she returned to the room.
When she came back out, she was carrying a set of clothes.
By then, the scrawny man had already taken the pill. He looked completely drained, slumped on the ground as though every drop of water had been squeezed from his body.
Sang Qing glanced at him indifferently before saying,
“Put these clothes on, and wear this straw hat.”
The scrawny man stared blankly at the outfit she had thrown over.
“T-These… are women’s clothes.”
Sang Qing snorted.
“What? Don’t want to wear them?”
These clothes were probably Sang Yanyan’s. She had collected them earlier from the dormitory at the garment factory and had been a little surprised to find women’s clothing among Sang Qingshan’s belongings.
After looking them over, though, she realized they were the style young girls wore, so they were most likely Sang Yanyan’s.
The scrawny man looked from Sang Qing to the clothes. Mistakenly thinking they belonged to her, his entire face flushed bright red.
“I’ll wear them! I’ll put them on right now!”
Oblivious to his misunderstanding, Sang Qing continued,
“Since your people are trying to lure me over there, you’ll dress up as me and go in my place. You can handle something that simple, right?”
The man froze for a moment before quickly nodding.
He awkwardly pulled the clothes over himself, not even bothering to take off his own pants first.
Looking at his appearance, Sang Qing couldn’t help frowning.
“When you get to the foot of North Mountain, take your pants off from under the skirt. It looks ridiculous.”
“O-Okay.”
The man had never worn a dress before. Wearing it over his pants already felt incredibly awkward.
The thought of taking the pants off later only made him more embarrassed.
Seeing him hesitate, Sang Qing shot him a cold glare.
“I’ll be watching you the whole time. You’d better do exactly what I say. Otherwise…”
The scrawny man immediately nodded repeatedly.
“Don’t worry, Sister-in-law! I’ll do exactly as you say!”
Only then did Sang Qing nod in satisfaction and gesture for him to leave.
The man put on the straw hat and sneaked away once more.
Sang Qing watched until he had gotten far enough ahead before quietly following after him.
Having witnessed everything from beginning to end, Lu Qiance’s eyes had turned frighteningly dark.
His pitch-black gaze was devoid of emotion, terrifyingly empty.
If he hadn’t noticed that the clothes the man was wearing weren’t his wife’s, he would have already ground the man into dust.
What Lu Qiance couldn’t understand was this:
His wife had obviously realized the man was trying to trick her into going there.
So why was she still heading toward the woods on North Mountain?
He pondered it for only two seconds before following after her again.
No matter what she intended to do, her safety came first.
The late summer sun carried an unmistakable heat in the breeze.
On the hillside of the North Mountain woods, several hooligans dressed in loud floral shirts and bell-bottom pants squatted beneath a crooked tree.
“Damn it! Why’s she taking so long?” one buck-toothed man muttered impatiently.
They were already well past the agreed time.
The scar-faced leader shot him a glare.
“What are you whining about? Don’t tell me you don’t want to make money?”
The buck-toothed man immediately forced a grin.
“Of course I do, Brother Dao. I was just saying…”
Halfway through his sentence, he spotted a thin figure slowly making its way up from the foot of the mountain.
His eyes lit up.
“Brother Dao! Look! Isn’t that the woman from the Sang family?”
Everyone looked in the direction he was pointing.
A small figure wearing a wide-brimmed straw hat and a floral dress was slowly climbing the winding mountain path.
Its movements were rather stiff and unnatural.
But none of the excited men paid attention to something so trivial.
“Quick! Hide!”
Brother Dao hurriedly ordered his men.
“When that little woman from the Sang family gets here, stick to the plan.”
“Monkey, take two men over that slope and call everyone over. The rest stay here with me and block her.”
He licked his dry lips, revealing a lewd grin.
“Once we’ve lured everyone here, let’s show the whole town what kind of slut the Sang family’s daughter really is!”
Their entire focus was on the figure climbing the mountain.
None of them noticed Sang Qing quietly following from a distance.
Hidden behind the trunk of a thick tree, she had long since spotted the men wandering around on the hillside.
She knew that if the Sang family had hired people to scheme against her, they wouldn’t simply stop at having someone rough her up.
There had to be another trick waiting.
So she remained hidden behind the tree for a while longer.
Soon, a noisy crowd approached from afar.
At a glance, Sang Qing recognized them.
It was the biggest group of gossips in Hongqi Town.
Judging by the gleam in their eyes, someone had clearly informed them in advance.
The rest had probably heard there was excitement to watch and joined in along the way.
Without making a sound, Sang Qing blended into the crowd and followed everyone up the hillside.
As soon as they arrived, they heard an intentionally loud, obscene voice in the distance.
“Yo, the Sang family’s daughter really is something… Tsk tsk. Such delicate skin and tender flesh. Feels great to touch!”
The group of middle-aged women immediately craned their necks to look.
Sang Qing looked over as well.
Several hooligans were surrounding a figure dressed in a floral dress and straw hat.
They shoved and jostled the person around, behaving in an outrageously indecent manner.
The hem of the dress had even been torn enough to reveal the pant legs underneath.
The crowd immediately erupted into commotion.
“Oh my! In broad daylight, what are they doing?!”
A shrill voice suddenly rang out.
“Isn’t that Old Sang’s daughter? Shameless! Hanging around with those hoodlums!”
The surrounding women exchanged uncertain glances as they watched the scene unfold.
“Could it be those thugs are bullying that poor girl?”
Some of the older women voiced their concern.
But the shrill voice immediately interrupted again.
“If she was really being bullied, why isn’t she screaming for help? I’d say she’s just a shameless little tramp!”
Sang Qing’s lips curled slightly.
She finally understood what kind of narrative they were trying to create.
Pulling up the scarf around her neck to cover half her face, she deliberately lowered her voice and whispered to the woman beside her,
“…Doesn’t that dress… look an awful lot like the one Sang Yanyan wears?”