The deep rumble of an engine grew louder as it approached.
A green military jeep was slowly making its way along the muddy dirt road toward the square in front of the brigade headquarters.
However, before the vehicle had even come to a complete stop, several of the village’s most notorious gossipy old women had already started scheming.
The moment they spotted an official government vehicle, their minds began racing.
If they could make a good impression on the government officials, they might earn themselves a reputation for having a “high level of political consciousness.”
Behind a large tree, an old woman named Auntie Ma, whose face was covered in wrinkles and whose eyes were narrow and triangular, stepped forward with what she considered a righteous air.
She planted her hands on her hips, opened her harsh, grating voice, and pointed at Yu Qinghuan as she launched into a furious tirade.
“Yu Qinghuan! You shameless little lunatic!”
“It’s broad daylight, and you’re pointing a knife at your own mother-in-law! Do you have any respect for your elders at all?!”
“What kind of daughter-in-law would ever try to hack her mother-in-law to death?!”
“You’re nothing but a wild, uncultivated brat who was never taught any manners by her parents! Keep acting like this, and Heaven will punish you! You’ll be struck by lightning!”
The moment Auntie Ma opened her mouth, several other gossipy old women who usually stuck together like peas in a pod immediately joined in.
“Exactly! The Li family must have committed eight lifetimes’ worth of bad deeds to end up marrying a woman like you!”
“You don’t understand a single thing about a woman’s proper conduct! Who would ever dare live next door to you in the future?”
“Shameless! You’re practically begging Heaven to punish you!”
One after another, enormous moral accusations came crashing down on Yu Qinghuan’s head.
Sitting on the ground, Miao Cuihua perked up the moment she heard someone taking her side.
“That’s right! Secretary, listen to them! Everyone here has seen it with their own eyes!”
“That dead girl is trying to kill me!”
Yu Qinghuan stood beside the wooden post, the cleaver in her hand reflecting a cold, white gleam under the sunlight.
She no longer burst into tears at the words ill-mannered or poorly raised, as she had in her previous life.
Now, she found the whole thing laughable.
These people could barely keep their own households from descending into chaos, yet they loved nothing more than standing on the moral high ground and lecturing everyone else on how to live.
Yu Qinghuan dragged the cleaver along the ground. Her soles crunched against the gravel, each heavy step echoing through the square.
Step by step, she walked straight toward Auntie Ma.
The moment Auntie Ma caught sight of the murderous look in her eyes, she instinctively shrank her neck in fear.
But then she remembered that the brigade secretary and all the surrounding villagers were watching. Mustering her courage, she puffed out her chest.
“W-What are you trying to do?! It’s broad daylight! You wouldn’t actually dare chop me up, would you?!”
Yu Qinghuan stopped right in front of her.
Then she suddenly thrust the cleaver forward.
The icy blade tip came to a perfectly precise stop right at the tip of Auntie Ma’s nose.
It was less than a centimeter from her skin.
“AHHHHH!”
Auntie Ma let out a terrified scream and jerked backward so violently that she nearly fell flat on her backside.
“Punished by Heaven?”
Yu Qinghuan let out a cold laugh. Her clear, icy voice rang across the square, reaching every single person’s ears.
“Auntie Ma, since you’re so knowledgeable about Heaven’s laws, let me ask you something.”
“When Miao Cuihua locked me inside that drafty woodshed and starved me for three days and three nights, where was your precious Heaven’s punishment then?”
“When Li Chunhua teamed up with a worthless loafer from outside the village to steal the substitute-teacher position I worked so hard to earn, planning to sell me off in exchange for money, where were your precious laws of Heaven then?”
“Why didn’t you step forward back then and point your finger at Miao Cuihua’s nose, calling her an ill-mannered woman?!”
“Where were your so-called feminine virtues and conscience? Did the dogs eat them?!”
Her questions came one after another, firing like a machine gun.
Auntie Ma stood there with her mouth hanging open, her face turning first green, then white. She couldn’t squeeze out a single word.
Yu Qinghuan took another step forward, forcing Auntie Ma to retreat repeatedly as the blade followed her.
“Let me tell you something!”
“Starting today, I, Yu Qinghuan, have no morals!”
“As long as I have no morals, you shameless beasts who love preaching from the sidelines can’t use morality to control me!”
“I’m not afraid of being struck by lightning!”
“If Heaven really wants to strike someone down, then it should start with blind fools like you!”
“You hypocrites who watched a martyr’s orphan get mistreated and abused, yet stood on the sidelines cheering them on!”
Yu Qinghuan’s gaze was vicious.
Her voice carried an almost crazed sense of exhilaration.
“You people love telling others to ‘be magnanimous.’ You love telling people that ‘taking a step back will open up a whole new world.’”
“What? If the needle isn’t stabbing your own flesh, you don’t know what pain feels like?”
“If someone slapped your left cheek, you’d probably offer them your right one, too, and thank them while you were at it!”
“But I, Yu Qinghuan, refuse to be a doormat!”
“If anyone dares lay a hand on me, I’ll chop that hand off!”
“If anyone dares steal my belongings, I’ll take their life!”
“I’m a shrew! I’m a lunatic!”
“I’d rather live to a hundred as a lunatic whom everyone hates than die young from swallowing my anger as some saintly, self-sacrificing fool!”
Her words came pouring out like a violent storm.
Every sentence was logical, every word struck a nerve, and every accusation hit home.
Auntie Ma and the other gossipy old women turned deathly pale.
Their lips trembled as they tried to come up with a rebuttal, only to realize that they couldn’t find a single word to argue with.
Because everything Yu Qinghuan had said was the ugly, bloody truth.
Among the villagers gathered to watch the commotion, quite a few young married women listened to Yu Qinghuan’s so-called “lunatic’s manifesto.”
They weren’t offended in the slightest.
Instead, a wave of exhilarating warmth surged through their chests.
Exactly!
Why were they always expected to swallow their grievances whenever they were wronged?
Why did the elders get to commit evil in the name of seniority, while the moment a younger person fought back, they were accused of being unfilial?
Yu Qinghuan’s cleaver hadn’t just struck the wooden post.
It had also smashed a crack into the chains of filial piety that had long been wrapped around every woman’s neck!
Under the villagers’ strange and disapproving stares, Auntie Ma felt as though her face were burning.
She couldn’t bear to stay another moment. Covering her face, she squeezed through the crowd and fled in disgrace.
The other gossipy old women quickly lowered their heads and pretended nothing had happened before quietly slipping away, one after another.
In the square outside the brigade headquarters, Yu Qinghuan stood with the cleaver hanging from one hand, coldly watching those bullies who only dared pick on people weaker than themselves.
She felt wonderfully refreshed.
There was something incredibly healing about refusing to torment herself with unnecessary worries and instead going out of her way to make other people miserable.
Just then—
“SKREEECH!”
A piercing sound of brakes rang out from the edge of the square.
The green military jeep finally came to a steady stop outside the crowd.
The door opened.
A pair of long legs stepped down from the vehicle, clad in polished black military boots without a speck of mud on them.
The man moved with a steady, commanding stride.
His tall, imposing figure was dressed in a crisp military uniform, and his entire presence radiated the cold, formidable authority of someone accustomed to holding a position of power.
“What is all this commotion about?”
A deep, resonant voice rang out, rich and magnetic yet as cold as a blade.
It cut straight through the crowd and echoed across the very center of the brigade headquarters square.