She flung Lin Chunhua aside like a dead dog into the corner, then took a running start and kicked Lin Laoda flat to the ground. Turning back, she yanked the still-trembling cleaver from the doorframe.
With a whoosh, it landed against her cousin Lin Zisheng’s neck.
Cool! Fierce!
Everyone who witnessed this string of moves wanted to cheer for her.
Except for the terrified victim, who had nearly wet himself.
Lin Zisheng’s face was ashen, while the rest of the Lin family collapsed limp on the ground.
The neighbors who had chased after them felt their hearts leap into their throats, fearing blood would spill on the spot at any moment.
“Old hag, you’re still pretty spry, aren’t you?” Lin Jinghong stared at Old Mrs. Lin, who had just run into the yard, with a half-smile.
“What? Afraid your precious grandson might die at my hands?”
As she spoke, she pressed the blade another inch deeper, and bright red blood trickled down the cleaver.
Drip, drip, drip.
The scene went dead silent, as if someone had grabbed a chicken by the neck—you could hear a pin drop.
“Lin Daya, you, you, you…” Liu Guihua, emerging from the kitchen, was trembling so hard her teeth chattered.
“Eldest Aunt, want to trade places with your son? I think he’s about to die on me.” Lin Jinghong bared her teeth in a grin.
It sent chills down everyone’s spine.
The educated youths all felt a lingering dread—this woman’s madness was no joke.
Su Zhaoying furrowed her brows slightly, her deep gaze landing on Lin Jinghong.
Sharper than a blade.
Lin Jinghong naturally noticed, but she didn’t care.
“Lin Daya, let go of your eldest brother!” Old Mr. Lin said with a dark face, his deeply wrinkled features twisted with disgust.
“Second son, make her stop!”
Father Lin instinctively shrank his neck. All his life, he had done whatever his parents said.
Even splitting from the family had only happened when he was backed into a corner, finally unable to hold back his defiance.
The moment the old man spoke, he reflexively moved to scold his daughter.
But the next second, he clamped his hand tightly over his mouth.
Manual mute.
Mother Lin froze for a moment, and before Old Mr. Lin could say anything else, she too covered her mouth.
Lin Xiaodi moved quickly, covering his own mouth with one hand and Lin Xiaomei’s with the other.
The four of them moved in perfect unison.
Lin Jinghong almost burst out laughing.
“You all…” Old Mr. Lin’s face turned iron-gray. “Second son, you’ve grown wings, refusing to acknowledge your own parents now!”
The words hit hard, and Father Lin’s back hunched a little.
“Old man.” Lin Jinghong snorted coldly, kicking Lin Zisheng in the back of the knee.
Thud—Lin Zisheng dropped to his knees. “Ah!”
“Lin Daya!” Liu Guihua ached for her son, but she was still too afraid of the cleaver in Lin Jinghong’s hand.
“What do you want?” Lin Jinghong said impatiently. “Old man, my grandmother came to my house demanding the five yuan from yesterday to buy meat, saying you all can’t make ends meet and are about to starve to death. Is that true?”
Old Mr. Lin and Old Mrs. Lin had three sons and two daughters in total.
The eldest son, Lin Dajun, married Liu Guihua and had two sons and a daughter. The second son was Lin Jinghong’s father, Lin Erjun, who married Li Dongxiang and had two daughters and a son. The third son, Lin Xiaojun, married a city woman, and the whole family lived in the county town, rarely coming back.
Old Mrs. Lin nearly lost her life giving birth to Lin Erjun, and being the middle child, he was neither favored by his father nor liked by his mother. He stumbled through life, married a wife on his own, and his whole family was squeezed dry.
Last year, the old couple tried to marry Lin Jinghong off to an old bachelor in the neighboring brigade in exchange for a bride price to fund Lin Zisheng’s wedding, nearly driving Lin Jinghong to her death.
Only then did Lin Erjun grit his teeth and split the family with his wife and children.
They left with almost nothing.
But even after the split, there was no peace—the old woman stirred up trouble every few days.
“What was agreed when we split the family? You gave us one bag of potatoes and one bag of corn, took all the work points, and said you wouldn’t need my father for support for ten years. Was that all just hot air?” Lin Jinghong sneered.
“My family’s still drowning in debt, and you have the nerve to come begging at our door. You’re trying to drive us all to death. If that’s how it is, then let’s all die together—end it once and for all. No one gets to keep suffering alive.”
The madness in Lin Jinghong’s eyes told everyone she wasn’t joking.
Even Old Mr. Lin was frightened.
“Daya…” Mother Lin, Li Dongxiang, couldn’t help calling out.
“Daya, don’t do anything stupid.” Lin Erjun also spoke up quickly.
“Lin Daya, you wouldn’t dare!” Lin Zisheng finally roared, but his teeth were chattering.
No one knew better than him whether Lin Daya dared or not.
“What exactly do you want?!” Old Mr. Lin nearly ground his teeth to dust.
“Lin Daya, if you so much as touch Zisheng, I’ll skin you alive, you worthless good-for-nothing, you little slut, you bitch-born…” Old Mrs. Lin snapped back to her senses and launched into a torrent of abuse.
She simply didn’t believe Lin Jinghong would dare to kill.
“Haha.” Lin Jinghong wasn’t angered by the cursing—she laughed instead.
She bared her teeth. “Your grandmother’s the one sending you off. Don’t blame me.”
That was said to Lin Zisheng.
Then she raised the cleaver, her eyes turning vicious, and swung it straight down.
“Ah!”
“No!”
“Daya!”
“Whoosh!” Just as everyone stood frozen in horror, a figure flashed forward and caught Lin Jinghong’s arm.
Lin Zisheng’s eyes went wide, staring at the cleaver hovering only a few centimeters from him, radiating cold steel.
His eyes rolled back, and he collapsed limp to the ground.
The brigade leader and the party secretary nearly choked on their breath at the sight of that perilous scene.
“Stop!” They found their voices belatedly.
Seeing that no one had died, the others wiped the sweat from their foreheads.
The Lin family members were too frightened to find their voices.
“What are you doing?” Lin Jinghong frowned, her brows furrowed.
Su Zhaoying, who had a firm grip on her arm, swiftly snatched the knife from her hand.
“It’s not worth throwing yourself away for them.” Su Zhaoying’s voice was as clear and cold as ever, but there was a note of reassurance in it.
He even softened his tone a little more, “If you want to teach them a lesson, there are plenty of ways.”
The brigade leader and the party secretary, “…”
The others, “…”
“Lin Daya, you’ve lost your mind!” Old Mr. Lin was scared half to death.
He cared most about his youngest son and eldest grandson, and it had been close, so close.
“Isn’t this because you all pushed me to it?” Lin Jinghong looked at him calmly.
She then glanced at Old Mrs. Lin, who was about to start cursing, “Anyway, I’m just a madwoman. If you provoke me again, I’ll come set a fire in the middle of the night. One madwoman’s life in exchange for all of yours—that’s a fair trade.”
“If I can’t find a chance in one day, I’ll wait two. If two days won’t do, then three. I don’t believe none of you will ever let your guard down.”
Her words sent chills down everyone’s spines.
The brigade leader and the party secretary’s faces darkened. What a disaster—why did they have to provoke her?
Can a madwoman even be reasoned with?
Su Zhaoying also silently twitched the corner of his mouth, his gaze at Lin Jinghong filled with curiosity.
Lin Jinghong’s madness was completely different from ‘Lin Jinghong’s’ madness.
The brigade leader’s face was grim, “Who provoked her, huh? Didn’t I say don’t provoke her? Can’t you people understand that?!”
“She’s a younger generation who hides meat to eat by herself and doesn’t honor her elders—does she even have a leg to stand on?” Old Mrs. Lin refused to back down.
“She even raises her hand against her elders, screaming about killing people. Why doesn’t she just fly up to the sky? Good-for-nothing! A cheap wretch, just like her mother.”
“I’ll beat your father, you stupid piece of trash. Today you’re dead, I swear it.” Lin Jinghong sneered.