“Just wait until Zhengting comes back tomorrow! I’ll make him divorce a shrew like you!”
Miao Cuihua’s shrill scream rang out across the otherwise quiet square in front of the production brigade headquarters.
Divorce.
In the conservative year of 1976, those two words were like a thunderclap.
The more than twenty villagers gathered to watch the spectacle fell completely silent.
Everyone stared wide-eyed at one another.
In those days, if a woman’s husband’s family broke off her engagement or divorced her, her reputation would be utterly ruined.
Gossip could drown her alive, and even the dogs might look down on her if she returned to her parental home.
Even though Yu Qinghuan was the orphaned daughter of a martyr, once she acquired the stigma of being divorced, her entire life could be considered ruined.
Miao Cuihua held her chin high, a viciously triumphant grin spreading across her old face.
She stared straight at Yu Qinghuan, secretly congratulating herself.
Scared now, aren’t you?
You little slut! Now you finally know what fear feels like!
In this remote mountain village, a woman no man wants is doomed to be despised by the entire village!
“You old woman, what nonsense are you spouting?!”
Old Man Li anxiously tugged at Miao Cuihua’s sleeve.
Li Zhengting was a young military officer. Marriage involving military personnel was protected by the state.
If they made a fuss about divorce without a legitimate reason, what would happen to Li Zhengting’s military career?
But Miao Cuihua had already been blinded by hatred. She shook Old Man Li off and shouted loudly.
“I’m not spouting nonsense! Who marries a jinx like her, a vicious tigress like her, is shortening their own life!”
The brigade secretary sighed as well, frowning at Yu Qinghuan.
“Qinghuan, child, a military marriage isn’t something to take lightly. You…”
Before the secretary could finish speaking, everyone assumed Yu Qinghuan would turn deathly pale with fright.
They expected her to fall to her knees, cling to Miao Cuihua’s legs, and burst into tears, begging her husband’s family not to abandon her.
After all, no woman could bear the consequences of divorce.
However—
Yu Qinghuan didn’t cry.
Instead, she let out a low chuckle.
The laughter was so cold that it sent goosebumps crawling over everyone’s skin in the chilly morning wind.
“Heh… Hahahahaha!”
Yu Qinghuan laughed so hard that her shoulders trembled, as though she had just heard the funniest joke in the world.
“Yu Qinghuan, what are you laughing at?! You crazy woman!”
Miao Cuihua felt a chill creeping through her heart at the sound of that laughter. She shouted loudly, trying to sound intimidating despite her growing fear.
In the next second, Yu Qinghuan’s laughter stopped abruptly.
She whipped her head around and scanned the square.
Beside the entrance to the brigade headquarters lay a pile of split firewood used for starting fires.
Embedded in the pile was a heavy, sharp, broad-backed cleaver used for chopping wood.
The brigade’s clerk used it to split logs. Its blade gleamed with a chilling metallic sheen.
Yu Qinghuan strode toward it.
Before anyone could react, she wrapped her hand around its thick wooden handle and yanked it free.
WHOOSH!
The enormous cleaver came out in one swift motion, cutting through the air with a cold whistle.
“Holy crap! What is she doing?!”
“She’s going to kill someone! Get out of the way!”
The watching villagers shrieked in terror and scrambled backward as though they had seen a ghost.
Yu Qinghuan stood holding the cleaver, her gaze eerily lifeless. Her long black hair whipped wildly in the wind.
She took two steps toward the entrance of the brigade headquarters.
There stood a sturdy red pine post, about as wide as a palm, supporting the door beam.
Yu Qinghuan gripped the handle with both hands and raised the cleaver high above her head.
Then—
Before the horrified eyes of everyone present, she summoned every ounce of strength in her body and brought the blade crashing down onto the red pine post!
CLANG!
An immensely heavy, ear-splitting impact exploded across the square.
The blade sank three inches into the wood!
The heavy cleaver remained firmly embedded in the red pine post, its metal body vibrating violently with a buzzing hum.
Wood chips flew in every direction.
The thick pine post at the entrance of the brigade headquarters had been split open with a deep gash.
If that blow had landed on someone’s neck, their head would have been severed on the spot.
Miao Cuihua let out a short, terrified scream.
She instinctively hunched her neck and stumbled backward several steps in an utterly ridiculous fashion before plopping down onto the ground.
Li Chunhua was even more frightened. Her legs trembled uncontrollably, and a large wet patch instantly spread across the crotch of her trousers.
The square in front of the brigade headquarters fell into a deathly silence.
Only the cold wind continued to howl.
With both hands resting on the trembling cleaver’s handle, Yu Qinghuan slowly turned her head.
A smile that looked almost benevolent hung on her face, but the murderous ferocity in her eyes was unmistakable.
“You want a divorce? Fine!”
Yu Qinghuan’s voice wasn’t particularly loud, yet each word struck everyone’s chest like a heavy hammer.
“But your Li family wants to cast me aside? You want to ruin my reputation?”
“Keep dreaming!”
She yanked the cleaver free. With an ear-piercing scraping sound, the heavy blade came loose from the wood.
Yu Qinghuan pointed its sharp tip directly at Miao Cuihua’s deathly pale face.
“Today, I, Yu Qinghuan, am the one rejecting your Li family!”
“I, Yu Qinghuan, am the one divorcing your entire nest of bloodsucking cowards!”
“From this day forward, if anyone dares to spread a single malicious word about me outside…”
“If anyone dares to put on airs as an elder in front of me or try to use my job to control me…”
Yu Qinghuan flicked her wrist.
The heavy cleaver traced a gleaming arc through the air, its blade flashing bright white.
“Then don’t blame this blade for having no eyes!”
“Besides, I’m an orphan. Someone with nothing to lose has nothing to fear!”
“At worst, I’ll take one of you down with every swing. We can all die together! I’ll take you all with me, and I’ll still come out ahead!”
Her hair hung wildly around her face, and her eyes burned with ferocity. She looked like a living King of Hell who had crawled straight out of the underworld.
She was going berserk.
Completely and utterly berserk.
At that moment, Yu Qinghuan shattered the invisible shackles of marriage that had been fastened around women’s necks in that era.
You want to threaten me with my reputation?
Then I’ll put my life on the line and play this game with you!
The brigade secretary stared at the wooden post that had nearly been cleaved in two and swallowed hard. For a long time, he didn’t dare utter a single word.
Miao Cuihua sat on the ground, trembling like a leaf in a storm.
Looking at the gleaming woodcutter’s cleaver in Yu Qinghuan’s hands, she finally understood one thing.
That wretched girl really might kill someone!
The villagers who had been preparing to make snide remarks all shrank back half a step in unison, frightened by the fierce, all-or-nothing aura radiating from Yu Qinghuan.
Cold sweat trickled down the backs of their heads.
The entire square was so silent that even a falling leaf could have been heard.
And then, amid this suffocating, deathly still standoff—
Suddenly—
RUMBLE, RUMBLE!
From the dirt road outside the brigade headquarters came the deep, heavy roar of a vehicle’s engine.