Chen Weidong stared in shock as the foolish girl continued swinging the wooden stick in her hands, striking Liu Hongxia again and again.
The wooden stick was actually the bolt from the door. It was heavy and solid, yet no one knew how this petite girl managed to swing it with such force. Her movements were surprisingly agile.
Huo Jianguo, who had been sitting on the floor crying out in pain, immediately fell silent. He hurriedly hid to the side, no longer daring to provoke her.
But the stick swung toward his back the very next second.
“Ah! Mom!”
Huo Jianguo curled up and tried to dodge, but the room was only so big. The stick behind him seemed to have locked onto him, striking the most painful spots every single time.
“Foolish girl, what are you doing?!”
After watching for a while, Chen Weidong finally came back to his senses. But he didn’t dare grab the swinging stick recklessly, so he could only try to persuade her.
In between blows, Qian Xing flashed him a smile.
“I’m thanking them.”
Chen Weidong was speechless.
“W-What do you mean?”
An image of the original owner being beaten flashed through Qian Xing’s mind, and she sneered inwardly. She rolled up her long sleeve, revealing an arm covered in dark blue and purple bruises.
“My mother-in-law said that beating me was her way of thanking me. She gave me food, so I wanted to thank her too.”
Qian Xing smiled at Liu Hongxia, who was lying on the floor.
But to Liu Hongxia, that adorable smile looked like the grin of a vengeful ghost coming to claim her life. She trembled and turned her face away.
“Get away from me!”
“You still have the nerve to curse her!”
Chen Guiying couldn’t stand it anymore.
“You hit her way too hard.”
“You mother and son are something else. One of you abuses her, while the other tries to take advantage of her. How disgusting!”
“Captain, don’t you have the eldest son of the Huo family’s phone number? Hurry up and tell him everything that happened. Let him see exactly what kind of people his family members are!”
“I-I didn’t!”
Huo Jianguo was in terrible pain, but he still couldn’t help defending himself.
“I really didn’t!”
There was no way he could admit to this. Otherwise, his elder brother would definitely come back and beat him.
“You didn’t? Then how did your pants come off?”
Chen Guiying gave him a disdainful look.
“Oh, could it be that this foolish girl, with her poor mental faculties and tiny body, somehow overpowered a six-foot-tall man like you and forcibly took off your pants?”
“I…”
Huo Jianguo was rendered speechless.
Chen Guiying couldn’t be bothered to listen to his excuses.
“Foolish girl, you tell us. Did Huo Jianguo take his own pants off? Don’t be afraid!”
Suddenly, a man’s voice came from outside the crowd.
“That’s right. Don’t be afraid, foolish girl. Did my son do something inappropriate to you? Tell us the truth. I’ll definitely get you justice.”
Qian Xing looked toward the man who had spoken.
She had seen him in the original owner’s memories.
He was Huo Jianguo’s father, Huo Qiang.
This man had been hiding outside the crowd and watching the show from the very beginning. And only now had he finally decided to step forward?
Seeing that Huo Qiang had finally appeared, the others nodded as well.
“Of this family, only Huo Qiang and his eldest son seem like decent people.”
Huo Qiang walked apologetically over to Qian Xing. Then, lowering his voice, he threatened her,
“I know you’re not a fool. You’ve already beaten them, so stop now and pretend none of this happened. Otherwise, you won’t come out of this unscathed either.”
Qian Xing raised an eyebrow in surprise.
So the Huo family actually had one clever person.
Unfortunately, he didn’t seem like a good person either.
She slowly smiled and replied in the same low voice,
“What if I don’t stop? What are you going to do?”
“Your reputation…”
Qian Xing hated nothing more than people forcing women or threatening them with their chastity when she traveled the world.
And this family had managed to do both.
Her smile became increasingly cold.
“Try me.”
There was nothing left to negotiate.
Huo Qiang took two steps back, his face filled with sorrow.
“Foolish girl, I never thought Jianguo would do something like that to you. Just tell everyone loudly who took off his pants.”
“Old Huo!”
Liu Hongxia cried out anxiously, her ribs hurting even more.
Huo Qiang shot her a warning look.
“Don’t worry about her. Just tell us the truth. Whether you were the one who initiated it or Jianguo was, you’re still a girl and you’ll be the one who suffers. I’ll make Jianguo take responsibility.”
“Fortunately, although you married his elder brother, you two never had a real marital relationship. I’ll make the decision today and have Jianguo marry you instead.”
Qian Xing raised an eyebrow, immediately understanding what he was trying to do.
If she admitted that she had taken off Huo Jianguo’s pants, she would be branded as a shameless woman who had tried to seduce him.
If she said Huo Jianguo had tried to assault her, her reputation wouldn’t be much better either.
Either way, she would ultimately have only one option: marry Huo Jianguo.
For an ordinary girl, marrying Huo Jianguo would mean handing her life over to the Huo family. From then on, they could manipulate and bully her however they pleased.
But if she refused to marry him, her reputation would only become worse than it already was.
Truly vicious.
Unfortunately for them, she wasn’t someone who could be easily manipulated.
Qian Xing smiled faintly and nodded.
“Huo Jianguo took his own pants off.”
Before Huo Qiang could even celebrate, Qian Xing continued,
“He said he couldn’t perform, so he asked me to ask his elder brother when I went to see him if he knew of any medicine for that. He also told me not to tell anyone.”
At this point, Song Qianxing suddenly covered her mouth in surprise.
“Oh! I forgot I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone. But what does ‘can’t perform’ mean? Why can’t I tell other people?”
The expressions of everyone present immediately became strange.
Huo Jianguo couldn’t perform!
This piece of gossip was even more exciting to everyone than hearing that the foolish girl had taken off a man’s pants.
After all, the foolish girl was a fool. Nobody found her behavior particularly strange.
Besides, she had only been picked up a few days ago, and everyone wasn’t familiar with her.
Huo Jianguo, however, was different.
They had watched him grow up.
Gossip about someone they knew was always much more exciting than gossip about a stranger.
The guests were thrilled.
But Liu Hongxia and Huo Jianguo nearly fainted on the spot.
“You fool! What nonsense are you talking about?!”
Liu Hongxia turned toward Huo Qiang.
“Old Huo, are you just going to stand there and watch? She dares to insult your son, and you’re not going to teach her a lesson?!”
Huo Qiang’s expression darkened.
This woman really wasn’t easy to deal with.
“Oh, right. I forgot.”
Qian Xing suddenly spoke again.
“Huo Jianguo said his father can’t perform either. Is it contagious?”
As soon as these words came out, Huo Qiang, who had been approaching to deal with his daughter-in-law, froze.
Everyone else also looked strangely at his lower body.
Huo Qiang became furious with embarrassment.
“What are you looking at? You’re actually going to believe what a fool says?!”
“But Huo Jianguo just wanted to take off his pants and show me. He even swore that what he said was true.”
Qian Xing’s voice was clear and innocent.
“I didn’t want to look, so I pushed him down. Girls aren’t supposed to look at a man’s body.”
Her words immediately made everyone understand why Huo Jianguo had taken off his pants earlier.
“No wonder Huo Jianguo tried to accuse the foolish girl of seducing him. This really isn’t something he could admit openly.”
“I knew it. What would a fool know about seducing someone?”
“Didn’t they say Huo Qiang can’t perform either? Then what about those two sons of his…?”
Everyone’s astonished eyes shifted between the Huo father and son.
“Could it be that Liu Hongxia had an affair and they aren’t actually his sons?!”
Chen Guiying’s loud exclamation made sure everyone heard her.
Seeing the vicious glare Liu Hongxia shot at her, Chen Guiying covered her mouth and giggled.
“Oh my, I was just guessing. There’s no evidence for that. Surely we can’t make them take off their pants to verify it, right?”
“Why not? Just find a few men to take a look and we’ll know. Huo Jianguo is a twenty-year-old young man. It should be easy enough to tell.”
Someone suggested it.
Hearing this, Huo Jianguo immediately covered his crotch.
For some reason, he felt a strange numbness there.
“No way… Could he really be unable to perform?”
Seeing how desperately he was trying to hide himself, the crowd’s initial fifty percent belief immediately rose to eighty percent.
“Come to think of it, Huo Jianguo and Huo Qiang do look quite alike.”
Chen Guiying looked at Huo Jianguo and Huo Qiang.
“But that eldest son doesn’t resemble either of them at all. He’s so handsome that you’d think they stole him from somewhere.”
Chen Guiying’s intention was clearly to imply that Liu Hongxia had been unfaithful.
But Qian Xing, who had been watching closely, noticed that both Liu Hongxia and Huo Qiang became visibly tense for a moment.
Could it be… that she really had stolen him?
“You—Chen Guiying, you’re making baseless accusations!”
After shouting this, Liu Hongxia suddenly fainted.
Whether it was from anger or from the pain, no one could tell.
As the village captain, Chen Weidong was worried that someone might actually die, so he quickly waved his hand and dismissed everyone.
“Come on, a few of you carry the two of them over to Doctor Xu and have them checked out!”
“Huo Qiang, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and go with them! Don’t let anything happen!”
Having lived in the same village for so many years, Chen Weidong knew Huo Qiang’s temper to some extent. With an apparently casual tone, he issued a warning.
“Even if the foolish girl really is a fool, she’s still your family’s Huo Yuan’s wife. He’s serving in the Southwest Military District. Don’t push things too far.”
The Southwest Military District?
Qian Xing had been about to leave, but her footsteps paused when she heard those words.
Her master had said that her destined person was in the southwest.
Could it really be such a coincidence?
Or… was this fate?
The people in the room were quickly driven away by Chen Weidong, leaving only him and Qian Xing.
After thinking for a moment, he walked over and reminded her,
“If they bully you again, run toward the village. Understand?”
This time, the foolish girl had exposed the Huo family’s ugly secrets.
He had no idea how she was supposed to continue living with the Huo family after this.
Perhaps he should call Huo Yuan and ask him to think of a solution.
As Chen Weidong pondered this, the foolish girl suddenly smiled at him.
“Okay.”
After saying that, he left, leaving Qian Xing alone as she rubbed her aching arm.
She had just beaten up that mother-and-son pair, and her whole body was sore.
If only her Gourd Treasure Realm had come with her. Then she could take a bath and relieve some of the fatigue.
The very next second, the living person inside the room suddenly disappeared.