“What was that sound?”
The few people exchanged startled looks at the dog’s bloodcurdling bark. Wang Zhichuan even froze mid-motion.
Before anyone could recover, they heard a series of rough, wheezing snorts. A huge, mud-covered pig weighing a full three hundred jin charged in through the gate as if possessed, barreling straight for Wang Zhichuan’s crotch.
“Ah, shit!”
Wang Zhichuan couldn’t dodge in time. The impact lifted both his feet off the ground, and he landed flat on his back like an overturned turtle.
But the enormous pig wasn’t finished. Its fat jiggling, it went berserk and trampled hard over his right leg.
Crack—
The sharp snap of a breaking bone rang through the courtyard.
The sound made even Su Yuqing’s scalp prickle. Wang Zhichuan, who had borne the brunt of it, was in far worse shape.
“Ahhh! My leg… my leg’s broken! You damned beast!” Wang Zhichuan clutched his lower leg, bent at a bizarre angle, and writhed on the ground in agony.
“Shoo! Shoo!” Only then did Su Dawei snap out of it. He hurriedly grabbed a stick from nearby and rushed over to chase the pig away. “Where’d this filthy beast come from? Get out!”
Once the pig was gone, Su Dawei hurried to help Wang Zhichuan up.
“Are you… all right?”
“Do I look all right to you?” Wang Zhichuan’s face had gone deathly pale with pain, and cold sweat poured down him. He unleashed all his pent-up fury on Su Dawei. “Damn it, what a stupid thing to say.”
“Now, hold on…” Su Dawei’s face stiffened at the scolding, and anger flared in him too.
But when he thought of the sky-high bride price of 188 yuan, he forced down his temper and put on a conciliatory smile. “The pig belongs to the neighbors. How can you blame me for this? And what about the wedding…”
“Wedding, my ass!” Wang Zhichuan sucked in sharp breaths. His leg hurt so badly that he couldn’t even bear to have it touched.
He grabbed a stick lying nearby to support himself and glared viciously at Su Yuqing.
He’d been delighted with her figure—such a perfect waist and backside. But on the very day of their wedding, before he’d even laid a hand on her, a pig had broken his leg?
This was so bizarre even the mother of all bad luck would have to open the door and let it in!
“Forget it, forget it… I’m not marrying into this family!” Wang Zhichuan snarled through clenched teeth. “Give me my money back, and take her home!”
At the demand for a refund, Su Dawei’s ingratiating expression instantly collapsed. He hopped about anxiously. “Come on, Zhichuan, look… she doesn’t eat much, yet she’s still grown up so pretty. And with a figure like hers, she’ll be good at having children. You—”
“What good is that?” Wang Zhichuan’s leg was hurting more and more, twisting his features in pain. He pointed at Su Yuqing and cursed, “She’s a jinx, a widow-maker if ever I saw one! I don’t want her. Take her home right now, and give me back every last cent of my hard-earned money!”
The young woman was certainly beautiful, but they weren’t even married yet, and his leg had already been broken…
She was absolutely cursed to bring her husbands misfortune!
Wang Zhichuan wanted nothing to do with her.
“How can you do that?” Seeing how firm he was, Su Dawei’s face changed completely. “We had a deal!”
He’d brought her over in one piece. Wang Zhichuan was the one who’d been hit by a pig and decided he didn’t want her.
Now that the money was in Su Dawei’s pocket, no pair of pliers could pry it out!
“This has nothing to do with us. The pig isn’t ours, so why should I give the money back?” Su Dawei shot back stiffly.
“You dare refuse?” Leaning on his stick with one leg, Wang Zhichuan fixed Su Dawei with a venomous stare. “Fine! So you want to play dirty? I’ll go report you to the village committee right now. I’ll make sure the whole village knows Su Dawei raised a jinx who brings her husbands to ruin. Let’s see who’ll marry your daughter after that!”
After delivering his threat, Wang Zhichuan hobbled toward the village clinic, grimacing with every painful step.
Su Yuqing stood quietly to one side, watching the two scumbags turn on each other. She couldn’t have been more pleased.
It was a shame she didn’t have a handful of sunflower seeds or a bottle of Arctic Ocean soda. Otherwise, she could have sat there comfortably and watched all day.
Su Dawei frowned and turned to stare at Su Yuqing, who seemed to be “scared senseless.” After studying her for a long while, he waved irritably. “Bad-luck girl… Come on, we’re going home!”
The whole thing had been too strange.
That enormous pig had been minding its own business, not bothering anyone, then charged over just as Wang Zhichuan was about to touch her. It was almost as if some evil spirit had deliberately set out to ruin the marriage…
Su Dawei walked ahead in silence. Behind him, Su Yuqing raised an eyebrow to herself.
That was all it took to rattle you?
The real show was only just beginning. You lot still had plenty of suffering ahead.
The original Su Yuqing had been weak and easy to bully. But she wasn’t. Su Yuqing lived by one rule: repay every grudge in full!
…
The moment they stepped through the courtyard gate—
Zhu Chunjuan, who’d been happily wondering if she could get a few extra wedding candies, froze when she saw the father and daughter return exactly as they’d left.
“Dad, why did you bring this money-losing girl back?!”
“Right!” Zhu Chunjuan finally came to her senses. She glanced at Su Yuqing, who was unharmed, and hurriedly asked, “Husband, what happened?”
Su Dawei gave Su Yuqing a meaningful look, then briefly explained the bizarre incident, his face full of frustration.
If the engagement really fell through, he’d have to hand over all 188 yuan, not a penny less…
He didn’t want to refund a single cent.
Ever since his eldest son, Su Yibei, found out they’d been intercepting his allowance, he’d stopped sending money home.
That 188 yuan was a fortune. Su Dawei meant to save it for his precious son Hong Qing to marry with one day!
Hearing this, Zhu Chunjuan was suddenly flooded again by the terror she’d felt the previous night, when the water ghost had come to claim her life.
Could it be…
“Husband, I told you that girl was wrong somehow. I think… could something unclean have latched on to her?” She drew close to Su Dawei, her face turning ashen as she lowered her voice and trembled.
Things like this had happened in the village before.
There’d been a girl who was just about to go through the wedding rites, but somehow the marriage never went ahead. Later, her family consulted an expert, who said she’d been haunted by the ghost of a man who’d died an unnatural death!
“Bullshit,” Su Dawei snapped, glaring at her. “It’s broad daylight. Stop spouting nonsense. Where are all these wandering ghosts supposed to come from?”
All he could think about was how to keep that bastard Wang Zhichuan from backing out. After all, Wang Zhichuan was the only man in the whole village desperate enough for a son to offer such a high price.
Nearby, Su Hongqing snorted, spat out a sunflower seed shell, and sneered sarcastically.
“Su Yuqing, you’d come up with a trick this creepy just to avoid getting married? You’re something else. Come on, teach me how you talked that pig into charging him. What, are you sleeping with the pig?”
That was the money he’d use to marry a wife one day. Now that it was in their family’s hands, there was no way they were giving it back!
Su Yuqing shot Su Hongqing a cold glance, then quickly lowered her head and began to sniffle softly, pretending to be terrified. “It had nothing to do with me… Dad saw it too. I was scared stiff when the pig charged over…”
Inside, she was laughing coldly.
That little bastard was rotten to the core, too.
When he was little, he’d relied on the doting of his deadbeat father and stepmother to bully the original Su Yuqing in every way he could, making her life hell. Now she could finally settle the old score along with the new.
“Tch!” Su Dawei was already in a foul mood, and Su Yuqing’s sobbing only made him angrier. “Cry, cry, cry—that’s all you ever do! Get back to that dump of a room. You managed to make a mess of a perfectly good marriage. No wonder Wang Zhichuan called you a jinx who brings her husbands to ruin!”
Su Yuqing covered her face and ran back to her room, putting on a show of utter heartbreak.
The moment she shut the door, the conspiratorial voices outside seeped in through the cracks in the wooden boards.
“Dad, what’s so hard about it?” Su Dawei was still muttering that he absolutely wouldn’t refund the money when Su Hongqing’s eyes darted about and he offered a viciously vile plan. “Let’s just tie her up tight with a thick rope tonight, force a strong sedative down her throat, then shove her into Wang Zhichuan’s bed under cover of darkness. By tomorrow morning, it’ll be a done deal. What choice will he have but to accept it?”
Hm?
Su Dawei’s eyes lit up as soon as he heard that.
“Now that’s a good idea!” He looked at his son with approval, then turned and glared at Zhu Chunjuan. “Did you hear that? You stupid old woman aren’t worth even one of my son’s fingers.”
Zhu Chunjuan: “…”
She was still frightened by how strange everything seemed, but since the father and son had settled on it, she could only grit her teeth and agree for the sake of that fortune.
Behind the door, Su Yuqing listened to the shameless plot being hatched by the family of three, and the corners of her mouth slowly curled into a smile.
Drug her?
Force himself on her?
Sure.
If you’re all that eager to die, I’ll send your precious son Su Hongqing on his way first.
With that thought, Su Yuqing focused her mind and slipped straight into the jade bangle space.
At her leisure, she took out a sheet of pure white talisman paper. Humming an unknown tune, she moved her fingers nimbly and quickly folded it into a little paper figure.
Then she picked up a brush, loaded it with thick black ink, and swiftly drew several soul-binding runes on the figure. She tapped it lightly with her fingertip and murmured a string of obscure, low incantations.
As soon as the incantation ended, something incredible happened.
The paper figure, lifeless only a moment before, suddenly sprang upright with a “whoosh.” It turned around, swaying from side to side, and bowed deeply to Su Yuqing with stiff yet utterly respectful movements.
“Go on. Make sure you show him a good time.” Su Yuqing’s eyes curved like a little fox’s as she waved the paper figure away.
As if it had a mind of its own, the little figure slipped silently through a gap in the space. Like a fallen leaf, it skimmed along the ground and slid into Su Hongqing’s room.
Then, like an upside-down bat, it clung fast beneath the wooden bedframe.
When all was done, Su Yuqing lay comfortably on the soft grass in the space, her hands behind her head and excited, eerie light flickering in her eyes.
She couldn’t wait for tomorrow.