After Gu Rou spoke, she dragged Gu Li and Gu Yaozu, who had been hiding inside the house, out into the open and began beating them mercilessly.
“Smack, smack, smack.” She started with a few slaps as an appetizer.
“You wretch! I already said it wasn’t us, and you still do this? I see now who the real snake-hearted one is!”
“Snake-hearted? Fine, that’s what you said.” Gu Rou laughed when Gu Li had the audacity to call her that.
She walked over to the nearby firewood pile and picked up a sturdy, well-shaped stick.
“Just a few slaps and I’m supposed to be snake-hearted? You really don’t know the world. Today I’ll show you what snake-hearted really means!”
Gu Rou said coldly and swung the stick at Gu Li.
“Bang.” It hit her neck.
“Bang.” It hit her chest.
“Bang.” Then her abdomen.
“Bang.” Then her lower body.
“Bang.” The last hit landed squarely on Gu Li’s pinky finger.
“Ahhh…” Gu Li screamed in agony, her wails piercing the sky. Gu Rou had slammed down with all her strength; Gu Li’s pinky visibly swelled and turned bright red, though the skin didn’t break. If Gu Rou’s judgment was correct, the bone in that little finger had shattered. They say the fingers are connected to the heart; she wanted Gu Li to feel excruciating pain.
Gu Li felt a deep, piercing pain throughout her body, especially in her pinky, almost fainting from the intensity. Seeing Gu Li break out in cold sweat, Gu Rou turned to Gu Yaozu beside her.
“Brother, your turn.”
With that, Gu Rou walked toward Gu Yaozu and kicked him with her right foot, but Gu Yaozu blocked it.
“Bang.” Gu Rou didn’t hesitate and swung her stick. Gu Yaozu curled up in pain. The next second, Gu Rou kicked him in the stomach, and when he fell, she kicked him in the crotch.
“Ahhh…” Another agonized scream rang out across the courtyard.
“Ah… no… Yaozu…” Zhang Cuihua, who was being held down by Li Xiufang, saw her eldest son being attacked. Forgetting her own pain, she crawled over, almost wanting to take the hits for him.
Seeing Zhang Cuihua like this made Gu Rou even more excited. She kicked at Gu Yaozu’s lower body again.
“Gu Rou… how dare you!!”
Gu Jianguo, afraid his son’s manhood would be destroyed, rushed forward to block her.
“Bang.” Gu Rou didn’t hesitate.
“Yes… I dare!” she said. Gu Yaozu, suffering blow after blow, was in so much pain that his vision blurred. He kept mumbling, “Dad… Mom…” Hearing these words, Zhang Cuihua and Gu Jianguo felt their hearts shatter.
“What do you want?!” Gu Jianguo glared at Gu Rou with bloodshot, murderous eyes, wishing he could tear her apart.
Gu Rou shook her head helplessly. “Nothing. I’m angry; this is just me venting.”
People watching from a distance thought she was going too far. These people had malicious intentions; a proper lesson was enough. But if this continued, they’d be beaten to death. The kicks Gu Rou had just given Gu Yaozu likely destroyed his manhood—this was basically trying to make him infertile. Too ruthless.
“Do you know why? They sent Lin Dafa here not only to defile my body, but they wanted others to come and defile me too! Isn’t that trying to take my life?”
“Lin Dafa, tell the truth!” Gu Rou asked, glaring at Lin Dafa who had shrunk back in the corner.
Lin Dafa was still stunned, unable to recover from seeing Gu Yaozu’s manhood destroyed. Now meeting Gu Rou’s gaze, he immediately clutched his lower body and frantically nodded—she said what she wanted, and he was too young to get crippled.
Satisfied, Gu Rou nodded and turned to Zhang Cuihua and Gu Jianguo. Zhang Cuihua instinctively stepped back. For the first time, she felt fear toward Gu Rou, though her hatred churned within her. She realized Gu Rou had changed—she was no longer someone to be bullied.
Looking at Gu Li and Gu Yaozu, beaten into lifelessness, Zhang Cuihua’s anger surged. She understood that Gu Rou might hit her child, but she would never let herself be hit. If Gu Rou touched her in front of so many villagers, the village gossip would drown her. As an elder to Gu Rou, she had some status.
Seeing Zhang Cuihua charging forward, Gu Rou slapped her sharply—“smack”—a crisp, clean sound echoed through the courtyard. Gu Rou didn’t care about morality or propriety; in her world, anyone who disrupted her rules would be repaid in kind. Reputation? What use was it? First, satisfaction, then worry about the rest.
Seeing that Zhang Cuihua still wouldn’t submit, Gu Rou turned back to Gu Yaozu and Gu Li. She tempered her attacks on the elders, being careful not to cause permanent harm; the focus was on the children, because pain on them cut deeply at their parents’ hearts.
Gu Yaozu and Gu Li were tortured into unrecognizable shapes, eventually breaking down mentally and kneeling to beg.
“Gu Rou, I was wrong… please don’t hit me… wuu…”
“Our family truly knows its mistake this time, please… don’t hit us…”
“We’re beasts, snake-hearted, worse than pigs and dogs, please stop!”
Hearing the desperate pleas, Gu Rou hesitated briefly about how to proceed when a commotion was heard ahead: the village captain and the secretary were arriving together.
“My son really got beaten by Gu Rou? Was he intercepted in the mountains while trying to harass someone?” The village secretary was shocked, immediately putting on his clothes and heading toward the captain’s house.
“Yes, Dafa’s face is a mess. When someone asked what happened, he told everything at once.”
“Dafa’s suffering is bad enough, but Gu Jianguo’s family is worse. I bet Gu Yaozu’s manhood is ruined,” the secretary said harshly. “Gu Jianguo’s whole family are heartless scum—they deserved to be beaten. But if my son gets beaten, why don’t you try to stop it?”
The man beside him said helplessly, “He was beaten in the mountains. Even if we wanted to stop it, we couldn’t.”
As the group headed toward Gu Jianguo’s yard, they heard the screams from afar and quickened their pace. Soon, they arrived at the gate—and the scene before them far exceeded their expectations.
Gu Jianguo’s entire family was either kneeling or lying on the ground, their faces bruised and blood nearly dried. The ground was covered with marks from their struggles, and their voices begging for mercy were so soft they were barely audible.