The moment Shen Yulou heard the voice, every inch of her skin tightened.
She knew that voice all too well!
So well that she dreamed of shoving its owner into a manure pit and letting her soak!
The wounds on her back left by the wooden rake began to ache faintly again.
In truth, the wounds had mostly healed by now—without pressing or touching them, they shouldn’t hurt at all.
Yet Shen Yulou could feel the pain in her wounds, so intense that her face turned pale and her entire body trembled uncontrollably.
Zhao Baozhu, on the other hand, was outright bristling. She rolled up the sleeves she had just let down, cracking her knuckles with fierce determination. “You black-hearted, rotten-gutted mongrel! Can’t stay home guarding the yard like a good dog, and now you dare run out here to bite people?!”
Only after cursing did she remember that Shen Yulou was right there beside her.
She had called Mrs. Zhou a mongrel—so what did that make the daughter Mrs. Zhou had given birth to?
Zhao Baozhu felt awkward and glanced nervously at Shen Yulou. Seeing her grim expression, she hastily tried to patch things up. “Um… don’t overthink it, alright? I’m just cursing at Mrs. Zhou, not at you.”
Shen Yulou naturally knew Zhao Baozhu wasn’t cursing at her.
After all these days of interaction, she couldn’t claim to know Zhao Baozhu deeply, but one thing she was certain of: Zhao Baozhu wasn’t a bad person—she was actually very kind.
The hostility she had shown before all stemmed from a younger sister’s helpless fear of losing her brother.
She pulled Zhao Baozhu’s rolled-up sleeves back down and said in a low voice, “Baozhu, don’t get involved in this matter.”
Zhao Baozhu’s face immediately soured. “Why can’t I get involved?” She raised her brows and asked, “Don’t tell me you still have some soft spot for that old bitch… er, for Mrs. Zhou?”
“Mm, I do have a soft spot—I want to throw her into a manure pit and let her soak.”
“…”
Zhao Baozhu froze for a moment, then burst into loud laughter.
A thought flashed through her mind.
—Throw her into a manure pit to soak, what a great idea!
—That old bitch’s mouth stinks so bad, she deserves to soak in a manure pit!
Little did Zhao Baozhu know, Shen Yulou had no idea she was secretly plotting to toss Mrs. Zhou into a manure pit.
Shen Yulou took Zhao Baozhu’s hand and said seriously, “For us young women, reputation is everything—especially before marriage. You’re getting married in the second half of the year; there’s no need to dirty your reputation over a piece of trash.”
Zhao Baozhu had a childhood betrothed—a scholar—who placed great importance on reputation.
Zhao Baozhu knew this too, but she didn’t care. “What’s there to fear? I’m ridding the world of a pest. He’ll understand!”
Shen Yulou thought to herself that wasn’t necessarily true. The original owner had spent nearly three years in the Xiucai’s household, and through her memories, Shen Yulou had some understanding of how these pedantic scholars of this era thought.
The scholars of this age valued reputation even more than their own lives.
She insisted that Zhao Baozhu not get involved.
Zhao Baozhu had no choice but to agree not to interfere—yet she kept her face set in a scowl, following closely at Shen Yulou’s side.
Her two fists were clenched tight.
She looked ready to pounce and pin Mrs. Zhou to the ground for a beating the moment she so much as lifted a finger against Shen Yulou.
In the crowd, Mrs. Zhou wore a brand-new satin jacket, a new skirt below, and even her shoes were spanking new.
Only her face remained the same—as sharp and mean as ever.
“I’m telling you all, if you don’t give me those three catties of beef today, I’ll sit right here at your doorstep and not budge!”
Mrs. Zhou said she’d sit at the doorstep, but she didn’t bother finding a stool. Instead, she grabbed a wooden board, covered the wooden basin holding the beef with it, and plopped herself down on top.
Having recently sold her daughter and with money in hand, Mrs. Zhou had been eating well these past days, and her bowels were quite active.
No sooner had she sat down than she let out a loud fart.
The surrounding villagers heard it loud and clear and immediately wrinkled their noses in disgust.
“Stinks!”
“Ugh, that’s ruined a whole basket of good meat—gonna need several extra washes now!”
Farting in public, and so loudly at that—Mrs. Zhou’s face flushed hot at first, but the next moment she shamelessly recovered.
She rolled her eyes and said to Grandpa Zhuzi, “Grandpa Zhuzi, look here—this basin of beef of yours has picked up the smell of my fart. You can’t sell it now, so why not just give it to me? That’ll cover the trouble of those three catties. I don’t mind!”
“You—! You—!”
“What about me? I’m only thinking of your benefit, old man. Otherwise, you’d be throwing away a whole basin of beef and still have to give out three more catties on top of it!”
“…”
In all his years, Grandpa Zhuzi had never met anyone as shameless as Mrs. Zhou.
The old man’s chest heaved violently with rage, and he couldn’t even form words.
Granny Zhuzi was equally furious, pointing at Mrs. Zhou and saying, “Heaven watches what people do! Mrs. Zhou, one day lightning will strike you!”
Mrs. Zhou sneered coldly. “Your Zhuzi’s taller than me. When the lightning comes, I’ll just stand next to him—it’ll strike him first before it gets to me!”
Zhuzi’s parents had both passed away, and he had been raised by his grandparents.
To Grandpa and Granny Zhuzi, the only drop of blood left by their son and daughter-in-law was more precious than gold itself—how could they tolerate Mrs. Zhou cursing him like this?
Grandpa Zhuzi was so furious he nearly passed out. Granny Zhuzi grabbed a stick from the ground and swung it at Mrs. Zhou.
But someone moved faster than her.
Shen Yulou strode forward with a basin of cow blood and dumped it straight over Mrs. Zhou’s head.
Splash—
Most of the cow blood in the basin poured over Mrs. Zhou, drenching her from head to toe.
Mrs. Zhou was stunned senseless.
Once she came to her senses, she let out a blood-curdling scream like a pig being slaughtered.
“Who? Who splashed me! Fine, it’s you, you little slut! Aaaah, my new clothes, my new shoes… Shen Yulou, I’ll kill you!”
Mrs. Zhou shrieked and lunged at Shen Yulou with claws bared.
Zhao Baozhu bared her teeth and was about to charge forward to beat Mrs. Zhou to the ground.
Shen Yulou grabbed the bristling pearl, shoved her aside, then swung her iron shovel at Mrs. Zhou’s back, her buttocks, and her shoulders.
She deliberately avoided the head, worried that if she couldn’t control her strength, one blow might kill the woman.
Though Mrs. Zhou’s life wasn’t worth much, if she actually beat her to death, she wouldn’t get off scot-free either.
Sacrificing her own life for a pile of dog shit wasn’t worth it.
So Shen Yulou was very measured with her strikes. She didn’t target Mrs. Zhou’s vital points, but aimed specifically at areas that wouldn’t kill but would hurt like hell.
Mrs. Zhou howled. At first she tried to fight back, but Shen Yulou’s iron shovel came down like a torrential rain, leaving no opening for counterattack.
After her futile attempts to fight back, Mrs. Zhou could only cover her head and scurry away like a rat.
And even scurrying, she had little room to dodge.
Because the villagers had spontaneously formed a circle, trapping her in the middle.
This saved Shen Yulou a lot of chasing effort—she just kept swinging the shovel at Mrs. Zhou.
Anyway, she didn’t care about her reputation, nor did she fear others calling her fierce.
In the end, Mrs. Zhou was beaten into submission and begged for mercy.
By now, Mrs. Zhou’s hair was disheveled, plastered to her face in sticky clumps mixed with cow blood. Her new clothes were torn in several large gashes, and her new shoes had vanished without a trace.
The more arrogant she’d been earlier, the more pathetic she looked now.
Shen Yulou said coldly, “Listen well. Next time you dare throw a tantrum and I catch you at it, I’ll beat you again! I’ll beat you every time I see you, until you’re good and convinced!”
Mrs. Zhou was not convinced.
At least not yet.
That defiance swelled when she saw Shen Yulou toss the iron shovel aside.
Mrs. Zhou scrambled to her feet, pointed at Shen Yulou, and started cursing with rampant arrogance.
“A son striking his mother brings down heaven’s thunder!”
“You little whore, you think you’re so tough just because the Zhao family has your back? Let me tell you, you’re just a maidservant the Zhao family bought—at best, you’re a dog of the Zhao family!”
“Just you wait, sooner or later the Zhao family will kill you and eat your flesh… Ah! What are you doing? Are you crazy! Put that knife away… Murder! Murder! Shen Yulou is killing me—”
Mrs. Zhou never imagined that one day a butcher knife would be pressed against her neck.
Thinking back to the ferocity Shen Yulou had shown when slaughtering the cow, Mrs. Zhou’s legs trembled violently, and she opened her mouth to wail.
Then the wailing came to an abrupt halt.
Because the butcher knife had plunged into her neck.