Miao Cuihua sat on the bright red earthen kang, still struggling to finish counting the banknotes in her hands.
When she suddenly raised her head, she saw a huge black figure looming against the paper-covered window.
The figure was holding a long, stick-like object. Under the cold moonlight, it looked sinister and terrifying.
“Who’s there? Why aren’t you sleeping in the middle of the night? Who’s out there playing ghost?”
Miao Cuihua’s heart skipped a beat as she shouted angrily.
She hurriedly stuffed the one hundred yuan in bride-price money into her waistband, slipped on her cloth shoes, and rushed outside.
The moment she pushed open the wooden door of the main house, a cold wind carrying the earthy smell of the ground hit her in the face.
Under the moonlight, the dilapidated woodshed door had been completely smashed to pieces. Wooden splinters littered the ground.
Yu Qinghuan stood amid the pile of broken wood, staring at her expressionlessly.
In her hand, she held the thick elm-wood shoulder pole, gripping it by one end so that it pointed downward.
The other end dragged along the ground as she walked, producing a heavy scraping sound.
Scrape… scrape…
On this silent winter night, the sound was practically a death knell from the King of Hell himself.
Miao Cuihua swallowed nervously. But the moment she recognized Yu Qinghuan, her initial panic instantly turned to anger.
How dare an orphan girl from the countryside throw a tantrum in front of her?
“Yu Qinghuan! You worthless little slut! What kind of madness has gotten into you in the middle of the night?”
Miao Cuihua planted her hands on her hips and stretched her neck as she hurled insults, spittle flying everywhere.
“Who gave you the nerve to kick down my woodshed door?”
“You haven’t even married into this family yet, and you’re already smashing things and raising hell! Have you gone completely rebellious?”
“Don’t think you can throw your weight around in the old Li family just because my second son protects you!”
“Just wait until after the wedding tomorrow! I’ll skin you alive!”
She cursed furiously, trying to use her authority as the future mother-in-law to intimidate Yu Qinghuan into submission.
In her previous life, Yu Qinghuan would already have been kneeling on the ground, begging for forgiveness and crying as she promised to obey from then on.
But the Yu Qinghuan standing before her now merely stared at her in silence.
Her gaze was ice-cold, as though she were looking at a corpse.
Hearing the commotion in the courtyard, the light in the side room also came on.
Li Chunhua hurried outside, wearing a floral padded jacket.
The moment she saw the woodshed door reduced to splinters and Yu Qinghuan holding the shoulder pole, her eyes widened.
“Yu Qinghuan! What do you think you’re doing?”
Li Chunhua pointed at Yu Qinghuan’s nose and shrieked.
“Are you planning to hit someone with that shoulder pole?”
“What an uncultured country bumpkin! You don’t have a shred of feminine virtue!”
“Let me tell you, our old Li family is a respected household in this village!”
“If you keep causing trouble and ruining our family’s reputation, then forget about getting married tomorrow!”
“I’ll make sure the whole village sees what kind of shameless woman you are—disobeying your mother-in-law before you’ve even married into the family!”
The more Li Chunhua spoke, the more self-important she became. Her face was full of arrogant superiority.
She was certain that Yu Qinghuan cared about her reputation more than anything else.
In this conservative era, a person’s reputation could be destroyed by nothing more than gossip.
As long as they branded Yu Qinghuan an immoral woman who lacked proper feminine virtue, her life would be ruined forever.
However, Yu Qinghuan didn’t even bother responding to her.
Dragging the shoulder pole behind her, she walked toward Li Chunhua one step at a time.
Moonlight fell across Yu Qinghuan’s delicate yet emotionless face, making it look as though it were covered in frost.
Li Chunhua shrank back slightly under the pressure, but she stubbornly continued to put on a brave front.
“Y-You! What are you staring at? Am I wrong?”
“An orphan girl like you should be grateful that our family is willing to take you in! You should be thanking your lucky stars!”
“Put that shoulder pole down and kneel before Mom to apologize!”
Before she could finish speaking, Yu Qinghuan had already reached her.
She released her right hand, and the shoulder pole crashed onto the ground with a loud clang.
Immediately afterward—
Before Li Chunhua could react, Yu Qinghuan raised her right hand high. Her palm cut through the air with a powerful gust before slamming viciously across Li Chunhua’s face!
SMACK!
The exceptionally crisp, deafening sound of a slap exploded through the courtyard.
Yu Qinghuan had put every ounce of her strength into that single blow.
Li Chunhua spun halfway around on the spot from the impact.
Her previously fair face reddened and swelled at a visible speed, with five distinct fingerprints appearing across her cheek.
“AAAH!”
Li Chunhua let out a scream like a slaughtered pig and collapsed onto the ground, clutching her face.
Her mouth was full of blood, her head was ringing, and she was completely stunned by the blow.
“Chunhua!”
Miao Cuihua was equally dumbfounded.
She had never imagined that Yu Qinghuan, who had always been as docile as a lamb, would actually dare to hit someone.
And the person she’d hit was her most precious daughter!
“You… You crazy woman! How dare you hit my daughter!”
Miao Cuihua screamed hysterically and charged at Yu Qinghuan with her claws outstretched.
“I’ll fight you to the death! If I don’t tear that mouth of yours apart today, then I’m not a member of the Miao family!”
Yu Qinghuan sneered and shifted slightly to the side, effortlessly dodging Miao Cuihua’s attempt to scratch her.
Then—
She stepped on the elm-wood shoulder pole lying on the ground and flicked the tip of her foot upward.
The heavy pole, weighing more than ten pounds, flew up, and she caught it steadily in her hand once again.
She didn’t strike Miao Cuihua.
Instead, she turned her gaze toward the table in the middle of the courtyard, which was covered with red paper.
It was the bride-price table the Li family had deliberately set up in the courtyard to show off their wedding preparations for the following day.
On it were red sugar candies for the wedding, two packs of Daqianmen cigarettes, half a bag of sunflower seeds, and a stack of colorful industrial coupons and meat ration tickets.
All of these had been purchased with the military allowances Li Zhengting had earned at the risk of his life.
In her previous life, every last one of these things had eventually ended up in Li Chunhua’s stomach or pockets.
“Yu Qinghuan! What are you going to do?”
Following her gaze, Miao Cuihua’s face instantly turned deathly pale. She shrieked and tried to rush over to protect the table.
“What am I going to do?”
Yu Qinghuan’s eyes were icy cold as her red lips parted slightly.
“I’m treating you all to a banquet.”
Before the words had even left her mouth, Yu Qinghuan gripped the shoulder pole tightly with both hands and twisted her body halfway around.
All the strength in her body erupted in that instant.
She drove the force from her waist, swinging the elm-wood pole through a fierce arc. With a sharp whooshing sound, she brought it crashing down onto the bride-price table!
BOOM!
A deafening crash rang out.
The already flimsy wooden table split cleanly in half under the blow!
The cracking and splintering of wood continued without pause.
The red paper covering the table was instantly torn to shreds, fluttering through the air like crimson snow.
The bag of red sugar burst open, scattering red granules across the dirt.
Sunflower seeds flew in every direction like hidden weapons, pelting Miao Cuihua and Li Chunhua in the face with a series of sharp pitter-patters.
The precious meat ration tickets and industrial coupons fluttered helplessly in the cold wind before landing beside a filthy chicken manure pit.
In the span of a single moment, the entire bride-price table had been reduced to rubble.
The whole courtyard fell into deathly silence.
Only the cold wind continued to howl, blowing the shredded pieces of red paper across the ground.
Li Chunhua sat on the ground with one hand covering her face. She was so terrified that she had even forgotten to cry.
Miao Cuihua stared at the wreckage scattered across the courtyard, then at Yu Qinghuan, who stood there holding the shoulder pole with a cold, indifferent expression. Her entire body trembled uncontrollably.
That technique! That strength!
This wasn’t a wedding at all.
It was practically a demolition of the entire household!
Yu Qinghuan held the shoulder pole in one hand and breathed slightly harder.
Looking at the ruins scattered across the ground, she felt that some of the suffocating resentment she had carried in her chest across two lifetimes had finally dissipated.
So this was what it felt like to stop tormenting herself and start making other people miserable instead.
It felt absolutely amazing!
Just then—
That same cold, ethereal system notification rang out in her mind once again, right on schedule.
[Ding! The host has completed an outward-directed rampage! The retaliation was decisive, clean, and without hesitation!]
[Rampage Points +100!]
[Current Rampage Points Balance: 100.]