“Since you don’t dare to bet,” Meng Xizhou’s smile deepened, her composure unwavering, “let’s talk about the conditions for the Antidote.”
“After all, this is a life-saving grace, so of course, you must show some sincerity,” she added as if it were only natural.
She was saving the villagers from dire straits, but as for why they were in dire straits, it was best not to ask.
“It’s very simple…” Her voice suddenly turned cold. “You just need to break your Village Chief’s four limbs and sever the tendons in his hands and feet. I’m not as petty as he is, demanding a life. He must live to enjoy all of this.”
The deathly silent crowd instantly erupted! The buzzing of discussion was like a swarm of flies around a cesspool.
The Village Chief was the anchor of the village! During the great flood that year, he had gone from house to house, rescuing the men from the rafters, saving the village from being wiped out. Moreover, the Village Chief was vengeful and ruthless. Whoever dared to touch him would have their ancestral graves dug up!
But… if they didn’t touch him, they would die tonight! This was about their own lives!
Just then, the Village Chief, who had been vomiting blood until he was completely drained, struggled to raise his head. Hearing Meng Xizhou’s words, he trembled with rage. “A bunch of gutless cowards! I’d like to see which of you dares! Whoever dares to lay a finger on me, I’ll slaughter his entire family!”
Meng Xizhou yawned. “Ah, I’m sleepy. I want to go back to bed. But I’m not a very still sleeper. What if I roll over and crush someone’s Antidote… Tsk tsk, then he can only blame his own bad luck.”
In the crowd, a few men who had long harbored resentment toward the Village Chief but never dared to speak out had a vicious glint flash in their eyes. Their feet involuntarily shuffled forward.
One person moved, and the rest followed.
The will to survive overwhelmed their reverence for the Village Chief. The tables had turned in an instant!
The Village Chief watched in horror as the villagers, who had just been so obedient to him, now approached step by step with wolf-like glints in their eyes. He scrambled backward on his hands and feet, still shouting with a mix of bravado and fear, “Rebellion! You’re all rebelling! You pack of animals! Ungrateful wretches…”
How could a pack of wolves let their prey, on which their own lives depended, slip away?
Er Niu, the strongest man in the village, lunged forward, grabbed the Village Chief’s ankle, and dragged him back viciously as if he were a dead dog!
“Village Chief,” a man said in a hoarse voice, filled with feigned respect, “sacrificing you alone will save our entire village. As the head of the village, a man of virtue and prestige, I imagine… you will surely agree with pleasure, won’t you?”
Before his words had even faded, he kicked the Village Chief’s leg viciously! A crisp “crack” echoed, accompanied by the Village Chief’s miserable howl, raising the curtain on this fine show!
Driven by either the fear of death or long-suppressed resentment, their fists and feet rained down!
The crisp sound of breaking bones and the dull thud of blows landing on flesh intermingled, but the Village Chief’s shrill screams never ceased.
Meng Xizhou watched this farce with cold eyes. Only when the Village Chief was slumped on the ground like a pile of mud did she nod in satisfaction. “Alright, fellow villagers, line up to receive your Antidote. The poison I used is potent. The Antidote must be taken for a month, one pill a day. If you miss even one…” She paused. “Then there’s no turning back from the road to the Yellow Springs.”
Her words, like a splash of icy water, instantly extinguished the thoughts of some who planned to retaliate after receiving the Antidote. The crowd could only sullenly take their medicine and disperse in disarray.
In the courtyard, only Meng Xizhou and the Village Chief, who was more dead than alive, remained.
Meng Xizhou squatted down, a pure and harmless smile on her face, but her voice was bone-chillingly cold. “Village Chief, before you made your move, why didn’t you inquire about how the village chief of Tu Po Village… died?”
The Village Chief’s cloudy pupils abruptly shrank to pinpricks! The news of the Tu Po Village chief and his wife dying a violent death at the village entrance had spread like wildfire. He had only assumed that family had bad feng shui, with the son dying cleanly along with his parents. He never imagined…
“It… it was you? No! Impossible!” In his agitation, he choked on more blood foam and instantly curled up again.
“It was me,” Meng Xizhou said, lightly patting his face as if soothing a dying dog. “But that old fellow from Tu Po Village was luckier than you. His son had already gone down to wait for him. Your son is still so little, all alone and helpless. How will he survive in this world? It truly breaks one’s heart.”
The Village Chief erupted with the strength of a dying beast, struggling violently. “Vicious woman! You vicious woman who will die a horrible death! You think you can escape? The silver from the nobles in the capital has already been scattered! To buy your life! You’re destined to be a lonely ghost! Never to be reincarnated!”
“Well cursed! That truly speaks to my heart.” Meng Xizhou’s smile deepened as she leaned close to his ear and whispered, “Since you’re so good at cursing, I’ll tell you another secret… Actually, the Antidote I just gave them is the real life-snatching charm. Your dear son will have to live on, all alone, in a village piled high with the dead… As his father, you surely won’t be able to rest in peace, will you?”
“Ahhh—!!!” The Village Chief let out a shriek of ultimate despair, using his last ounce of strength to try and get the villagers’ attention.
Meng Xizhou’s eyes turned cold, and she backhanded him across the face! With a crisp “smack,” the screaming stopped abruptly. She pried open his bleeding mouth and poured the entire bottle of dumb drug down his throat.
She stood up and looked at the cold moon that had just broken free from the clouds. “Village Chief, the moonlight is so beautiful. Enjoy it well. After all… this is the last time in your life you will see the moon.”
Meng Xizhou turned away from him and walked into the house.
The auspicious time had come. It was time to send the Zhang Family’s Old Woman on her way.
Inside the room, a foul, urinous stench assaulted her. The Zhang Family’s Old Woman was paralyzed on the bed, without even the strength to turn over. The tattered quilt on her was stained yellow and black.
The sound of Meng Xizhou pushing the door open made her struggle to open her dead-fish-like eyes.
“Oh? Still hanging on?” Meng Xizhou feigned surprise, her tone dripping with undisguised mockery.
“I… of course I’ll live!” The Zhang Family’s Old Woman squeezed a hoarse voice from her throat. “I’ll live to be a hundred! Cheng’er will become a rich man and treat me to fine food and drink! Zhuo’er will become a Zhuangyuan, ride a great horse back to the village, and take me away!”
“Zhang Zhuo?” Meng Xizhou sneered, each word like a knife. “He was smashed into pulp long ago. Didn’t you know, old woman? He was traveling with his master when the carriage overturned. I heard his head was crushed flat… Today, the grass on his grave mound is probably lush and green, don’t you think?”
“What kind of horseshit are you spouting! Don’t you dare try to trick me! You bitch! You’ll die a horrible death!”
“Why would I trick you?” Meng Xizhou took two steps closer. “My sorrow is no less than yours. Not being able to personally slice him up inch by inch is truly one of life’s great regrets!”
“You! You with a heart so vicious even a dog would find it foul! Sooner or later, you’ll face retribution and be struck by lightning!” the Zhang Family’s Old Woman shrieked.
“Retribution?” As if hearing the world’s greatest joke, Meng Xizhou laughed so hard that tears welled in her eyes! Yet within that laughter was a bone-deep, glacial coldness