“Xiang Qiao, who are these people?” Feng Yiyi asked angrily.
Xiang Qiao was Feng Yiyi’s first friend in this world. During Yiyi’s hardest days, when she didn’t even have two wen for a carriage ride to town, Xiang Qiao had helped her in secret.
Xiang Qiao’s family was also poor. When she was four, her father died from a severe illness. Her mother, being a flirtatious woman, could not endure loneliness and abandoned Xiang Qiao and her one-year-old brother to remarry a widower in the neighboring village. Xiang Qiao and her brother grew up under the care of their grandparents.
The widower was lazy and lecherous, skilled only in sweet talk. Initially, he pretended to be good to Xiang Qiao’s mother, but after a few months, his true nature emerged. He favored the neighbor, Widow Li, over Xiang Qiao’s mother, secretly having an affair with her.
Widow Li was cunning and hot-tempered; she wanted the small amount of money in the widower’s possession. Each time, the widower would give money to Li first, then indulge himself with Xiang Qiao’s mother.
Xiang Qiao’s mother had tried to scold Li, but every time she did, the widower would beat her violently. People say once a woman is beaten, it will happen again. Soon, he would strike her whenever he was displeased, using whatever he could find. After a few brutal beatings, Xiang Qiao’s mother learned to fear him.
A few days ago, the rice in the sack was almost gone, meaning they would have to eat wild vegetables again. That morning, the widower grumbled, “You useless woman! You can’t even provide! Now the rice is gone, and I’ll starve again!”
“You’re a man! Don’t you know how to earn a living? Why must you rely on your wife?” Xiang Qiao’s mother retorted.
“What did you say? Know your place, woman! I am the head of this household! How dare you speak back?”
He slapped her to the ground, then kicked her twice in the stomach.
“You have a daughter, don’t you? She must be fourteen by now. Bring her out—I’ll sell her to the brothel. Twenty-some taels, that’s a year’s food and clothing sorted!”
“No! If she enters a brothel, she won’t survive! She’ll have to serve customers every day! That’s like jumping into a fire pit! No, she’s my daughter!”
“Then I’ll starve if you don’t sell her!” he shouted, picking up a spade and striking Xiang Qiao’s mother.
“Ah! Don’t hit me! Please!” she cried.
He paused, breathing heavily, resting on the spade. “So? Will you sell Xiang Qiao or not?”
“I’ll sell!” she whispered.
“I’ll sell!”
The widower swung the spade again.
“Speak up! I can’t hear you!”
“I’ll sell! I’ll sell Xiang Qiao to the brothel!” she cried.
Her regret was overwhelming—she had never should have left her children and married this man. He had hidden his true nature for months but soon returned to being cruel.
Feng Yiyi looked at the two adults before her. “Xiang Qiao’s mother, don’t try to play tough with me. That won’t work—I specialize in the stubborn!”
“So, what exactly are you planning?” Yiyi asked sharply.
“I’ve raised her for nothing. I have to sell her now,” Xiang Qiao’s mother admitted.
“And the man?” Yiyi asked.
“He is Xiang Qiao’s stepfather,” came the reply.
In Yiyi’s experience, stepfathers were rarely good people. She glared at him. “Who gave you the right to grab Xiang Qiao?”
“I’m just helping her mother,” he stammered.
“Flower Shadow, Moon Shadow, Xiang Qiao is my good friend—you know what to do,” Feng Yiyi commanded.
“Yes, Master!”
The two shadow girls immediately sprang into action.
They unleashed a furious barrage of punches and kicks on the widower. His pig-like teeth were knocked out—two of the large canines gone—and three of his ribs were broken.
He fell to his knees, begging for mercy: “Please, I won’t try to sell Xiang Qiao again!”
Even before he spoke, Flower Shadow and Moon Shadow knew the truth—it wasn’t Xiang Qiao’s mother’s idea but the stepfather’s ill intent.
Indeed, as the saying goes: where there’s a stepfather, there’s a stepmother.
The widower endured yet another savage beating, his face unrecognizable—someone might have mistaken his head for a wild animal’s new species.
Seeing the stepfather battered, Xiang Qiao’s mother rushed to protect him.
“Stop! Please, don’t beat him anymore! You’ll kill him!”
“Let him die! One less troublemaker!”
Flower Shadow glanced at Feng Yiyi, who gave no indication otherwise. The girls immediately understood—the master meant to give both of these villains a thorough beating.
The chapter closes with the stepfather and mother facing Feng Yiyi’s full wrath, leaving no room for mercy.
Feng Yiyi’s decisiveness here reinforces her role as both protector and enforcer: loyal friends are defended ruthlessly, and villains are punished without hesitation.