“I am—”
Before Yu Zhile could finish her sentence, Zhou Yuesheng suddenly slumped forward, and her shoulder grew heavy with his weight.
“A robot short-circuit incident?” She struggled to move Zhou Yuesheng onto the bed, staring at his deep, defined features for a few seconds.
In the midst of the pulling and dragging, the hem of Zhou Yuesheng’s shirt flared upward, revealing half of his torso. His semi-exposed abdominal muscles were as sharply defined as if they had been carved, appearing to harbor immense strength.
The shouting in the courtyard grew increasingly fierce. Finally, Yu Zhile’s hand came to rest on Zhou Yuesheng’s face.
“Little steward, I’ll turn you back on once I’ve dealt with them.”
She patted his cheek and turned to head out the door.
When Tang Guihua saw Yu Zhile, her arrogance flared even higher. She shrieked, “Yu Zhile, you’ve sucked away all our luck! Pay us back!”
“What do you mean, ‘sucking luck’? You’re talking nonsense!” Chen Zhao retorted, neck stiff with indignation.
Mother Li stepped forward, hands on her hips, spittle flying everywhere. “Zhiqing Chen, this is the Yu family home. What does this have to do with you? I’m telling you, don’t be a busybody poking your nose into other people’s business.”
The woman’s booming voice made Chen Zhao’s ears ring, forcing him to take several steps back.
Suddenly, a loud clatter echoed as a chipped porcelain bowl shattered, sending shards flying in every direction.
The sound acted like a stop button, freezing all noise in the courtyard. Everyone’s gaze snapped toward Yu Zhile.
Yu Zhile stood with her arms crossed, watching them quietly. Her cold expression reminded the group of the scene when the Yu family split and when the Zhang family had come to her door. They were terrified that at any second, she might pull a kitchen knife out of thin air and hurl it at them.
At that thought, the group couldn’t stop trembling, and a collective urge to retreat set in.
“No… we can’t… we can’t just let her intimidate us like this.” Mother Huang swallowed hard; the hundred yuan her family was owed had not yet been secured.
“Right, right, this isn’t our fault,” the others chimed in with trembling voices, huddling together like a group trying to stay warm in the winter.
The next second, they all reached out simultaneously and pushed Zhang Caihong to the front.
Caught off guard, Zhang Caihong stumbled and nearly fell.
“Cai-ni, you talk sense into her,” Tang Guihua urged, gathering her courage but shrinking back the moment her eyes met Yu Zhile’s gaze.
Zhang Caihong pinched her palms and took another step forward.
“Le-ni, I am representing everyone. If you just pay the compensation, we can let this matter go. Otherwise, we’ll go to the town and report you for practicing feudal superstition.”
“If the town won’t handle it, we’ll go to the county. If the county won’t, we’ll go to the provincial capital.”
“In short, if you don’t pay up, we will never give up!”
As she spoke, her confidence grew, and by the end, she wore a triumphant expression.
Yu Zhile let out a cold laugh and shot back, “I’m practicing feudal superstition? Do you have proof?”
“I saw it with my own eyes! I heard it with my own ears!” Zhang Caihong blurted out.
By now, a crowd of onlookers had slowly gathered outside the small Yu courtyard, and the low hum of their discussions drifted inside.
Zhang Caihong snapped back to her senses. Seeing that Yu Zhile didn’t look panicked as expected, she felt a sinking sensation in her chest.
“Then why don’t you tell everyone? What did I do? What did I say?” Yu Zhile threw the door wide open, giving the people outside a clearer view.
Feeling the gazes coming from all directions, Zhang Caihong began to sweat. She stammered, “You… you talk to yourself. You stare blankly at the sky.”
As soon as she finished, the entire area fell into a dead silence.
“Talking to oneself is feudal superstition? Staring into space is feudal superstition?” Yu Zhile walked toward her step by step. “Are you really that sensitive? Aren’t you afraid of ghosts knocking on your door at midnight?”
The cold-faced Yu Zhile began to overlap with the vengeful ghosts from Zhang Caihong’s nightmares. Terrified and pale, Zhang Caihong stumbled backward.
Seeing Zhang Caihong’s reaction, the onlookers quickly made up their minds about the situation.
Sensing things were taking a wrong turn, Tang Guihua yanked Zhang Caihong behind her and frantically signaled to Mother Huang and the others.
“Pity my Yaozong! He fell seriously ill because of you. He’s become so thin he’s losing his shape!” Mother Huang began to wail.
She was an old hand at extorting people. She was careful not to specify how Yu Zhile had harmed him—after all, lovesickness was still a kind of sickness.
Mother Li, having been nudged by Old Barehead, followed suit, though she wasn’t as clever.
“Le-ni, you sucked the luck out of our house and ruined my Gousheng. He still hasn’t found a wife because of you! You have to pay!”
“You sucked our luck and made our whole family go hungry!”
“Yu Zhile, because of you, my family hasn’t seen a scrap of meat in a month!”
For a moment, the courtyard was filled with the sound of fake wailing, leaving the onlookers outside clicking their tongues in disbelief.
Standing to the side, Chen Zhao was so angry his face puffed up like a pufferfish.
“Oh? Mother Huang, is that ‘fat-headed and big-eared’ person over there your son who has ‘thinned out of shape’?” Yu Zhile replied airily.
A chubby boy who was trying his best to peer over the top of the wall suddenly turned bright red.
The people around him began to tease, “Haha, Zhang Yaozong, you really are fatter than the pigs in the pen.”
The crowd immediately thought of the village’s actual pigs, who were so thin they looked like long strips, and began pointing and whispering at the fat boy.
The boy dropped to the ground with a heavy thud, kicking up a cloud of dust, and fled with his hands over his face.
Back in the courtyard, Yu Zhile shut them down one by one without even stopping for breath.
“Your son can’t find a wife because he’s ugly, slovenly, and lazy. Why try to frame some poor girl by marrying her to him? A ‘mommy’s boy’ like him staying with you for the rest of his life is actually a blessing for future generations. Oh wait, your family might not even have future generations, but if you gain some merit now, maybe you won’t have to be an animal in your next life.”
“Is your family hungry because of bad luck? You wouldn’t even pick up a spilled oil bottle if it fell right in front of you. The fact that you can still stand here trying to scam people means your ancestral graves must be puffing green smoke with luck.”
“Haven’t seen meat in a month? Why don’t you go find some seawater and look at your own hideous reflection? Maybe reflect on whether the seafood was scared away by your face.”
The group was so angry their heads felt like they were about to catch fire, but they could do nothing but glare at Yu Zhile with trembling hands.
Yu Zhile gave them a brilliant smile, ending the battle.
It was only then that the Old Party Secretary arrived in a hurry with the village officials.
This morning had been the village officials’ spring plowing summary meeting and discussion for future work arrangements. They had been debating heatedly at the brigade headquarters, and if Zhang Wenxin hadn’t suddenly interrupted them, they wouldn’t have known about this farce.
“People in their forties and fifties, bringing your whole families to bully a junior! Truly shameless!” the Old Party Secretary scolded, his face dark.
The onlookers who had witnessed the whole thing wore strange expressions.
She can swing a knife with force and kill people with her words—who exactly is capable of bullying Yu Zhile?
Mother Huang, Mother Li, and the others who had been insulted into silence began to cry out about their grievances, all talking at once to defend themselves.
However, the more they spoke, the darker the faces of the Secretary and the officials became.
When they mentioned Yu Zhile sucking the luck of the villagers, the Secretary lost his patience and slapped Old Barehead across the face.
The Secretary used to be on the fishing team, and his strength remained; the slap landed with a crisp crack.
Caught completely off guard, Old Barehead didn’t even realize what had happened until his face began to swell. Even then, he didn’t dare resist—this was the older brother who had once saved his life at sea.
“Yu Zhile has been helping me rehearse a Model Opera. She is not involved in any feudal superstitious activities. This ‘luck-sucking’ talk is absolute nonsense,” Zhang Wenxin said, walking into the center of the crowd to explain.
The others hadn’t believed the rumors to begin with, and with her explanation, their gazes toward Mother Huang and the rest became even more disdainful.
Seeing the situation unfold this way, Zhang Caihong began to shuffle along the wall, hoping to slip away quietly.
Yu Zhile had no intention of letting her go. She called out loudly, “Zhang Caihong, our accounts aren’t settled yet. Where do you think you’re going?”
Everyone instinctively looked toward Zhang Caihong, their eyes gleaming with the light of gossip.
Zhang Caihong’s expression froze.