An Xia walked for over an hour, returning home with her face flushed red from the heat. During the entire journey, she didn’t even dare to wash her face by the creek!
She was terrified that if her bad luck kicked in, she might fall into the water and meet her end!
The first thing she did upon getting home was to scoop a large ladle of water into a wooden basin and submerge her face to cool down.
Once she felt slightly better, she went back to her room to lie down. There was less than half an hour left; once that time passed, she would be completely safe.
Who knew if her bad luck might strike again before that?
She hadn’t been lying down for long when An Qiu and An Chun returned.
An Qiu skipped through the door, conjuring the two taels of silver earned from the herbs like a magic trick and shaking them, “Second Sister, look! We sold that basket of herbs for two taels of silver!”
An Xia smiled with relief, “Which medical hall was it? They gave a fair price!”
“Xuanhu Hall. The shopkeeper there told us to bring more if we have good herbs next time!” An Qiu relayed what the clerk had said.
Seeing An Xia lying still, she asked with concern, “Second Sister, are you really okay?”
“I’m fine, I just need to lie down a while longer,” she reassured her.
An Chun was still feeling low. If the scar on An Xia’s face couldn’t be removed, what would happen to her in the future?
Feeling listless, she said, “You two rest at home; I’m going to the creek to wash the clothes!”
With that, she absent-mindedly grabbed some soap pods, cradled a basin full of dirty laundry, and headed toward the creek.
An Xia looked at An Qiu and asked, “Did you buy any meat today?”
An Qiu shook her head, “No, we can’t afford to eat meat every meal.”
Besides, Big Sister was thinking about taking Second Sister to the county town to see a better doctor later, so they needed to save as much money as possible!
An Xia felt a headache coming on, “What about vegetables, then? We can’t just keep picking wild greens, right?”
“Big Sister said we should just make do with some wild greens and save the money!” An Qiu said truthfully.
An Xia let out a long sigh toward the sky, then looked at An Qiu and said with firm conviction, “Qiu’er, you have to believe in Second Sister; I can earn a lot of money.”
After speaking, she lifted the straw mat and took out ten copper coins, “Go to Auntie Sun’s place next door and buy some vegetables. Keep the rest for your pocket money.”
An Qiu took the coins and nodded obediently, “Auntie Sun’s vegetable hearts look so beautiful; I’ll go buy some!”
She bought a large bunch of vegetable hearts and some chili peppers from Auntie Sun. Without needing to be told, she drew water, washed them thoroughly, and left them in the kitchen.
Estimating that the bad luck had mostly passed, An Xia got off the bed and stepped out of the room!
“Qiu’er, Big Sister hasn’t returned yet. Let’s go to the creek to take a look!”
An Qiu emerged from the kitchen, wiping the water from her hands, “Alright, she probably has too many clothes to wash; let’s go help her!”
Along the way, An Xia felt as if her legs were filled with lead.
She swore that unless she absolutely couldn’t help it, she would never go around cursing people at random again!
Halfway there, they encountered several young men from the village.
Among them was Zheng Dahui, the village’s notorious good-for-nothing, who was Wu Huahua’s son!
Seeing the girls approaching, he whistled before even getting a clear look, his behavior extremely lewd!
An Xia cast a look of disgust at Zheng Dahui in the distance, silently calling it bad luck.
An Qiu’s face flushed with anger, “Second Sister, this Zheng Dahui is so annoying. He does this every time he sees me!”
An Xia’s eyes grew cold, and she comforted her, “Don’t be afraid, Second Sister won’t let anyone bully you!”
After Zheng Dahui walked closer with a mocking expression, he immediately let his face fall upon seeing it was An Xia.
He shouted loudly, “What bad luck, why is it this ugly monster!”
An Xia gave him a sharp glare!
Zheng Dahui felt a chill run down his spine, but then he reasoned with himself that she was just a little girl, so how much trouble could she really cause?
“What are you glaring at? If you’re ugly, just stay home and wait to die instead of coming out to scare people!”
“Scaring me is one thing, but if you scare the soul out of a child, let’s see how you, an ugly monster, will pay for it!”
The young men accompanying him let out coarse, heartless laughs!
An Xia said coldly, “Say that again?”
Zheng Dahui mockingly poked Yang Jingyu beside him, “Look, this ugly monster is actually quite fierce. She’s only gentle toward you, but I don’t know if you even like this ugly monster!”
Yang Jingyu looked at her with complete disdain, “I am, at the very least, a scholar. A wife should be virtuous; such a person who doesn’t respect her elders—what part of her from head to toe is worth liking? Besides, my eyes aren’t blind; I don’t like ugly women!”
An Xia tried her best to restrain the urge to let out a stream of profanities, as that was a method of “killing a thousand enemies while suffering eight hundred losses.” It was safer to just beat him up directly.
“Finished?” She narrowed her eyes slightly, already set in a fighting stance!
Zheng Dahui seemed to have a death wish as he taunted, “Yo, still baring your fangs and claws wanting to fight?”
With that, he leered at her and said lewdly, “The little thing behind you is actually quite pretty.”
An Qiu was only ten years old; this Zheng Dahui was truly worse than a beast!
Unable to hold back any longer, she launched a flying kick, landing squarely on his fat torso.
Caught off guard and losing his balance, he fell heavily to the ground.
Everyone else assumed An Xia would just leave it at that.
To their shock, she grabbed Zheng Dahui by the hair and pressed his face into a fresh cow urine pit.
“I’ll let you keep spewing filth! Have a good wash in this urine pit, and don’t come out until you’re clean!”
“Cough, cough, cough!!!” Zheng Dahui’s face turned bright red as he choked on the cow urine.
The men accompanying him rolled up their sleeves, wanting to help.
An Xia gave them a cold glance and said, her face expressionless, “What? Do you want to wash your mouths out too?”
She even waved at them, “If you want to, come over here; I’ll accommodate you!”
The men retreated one after another. This ugly monster was way too tough, and her skills were unusually sharp.
Yang Jingyu stepped back a few paces, the disdain in his eyes deepening, “Truly a disgrace to refinement!”
An Xia let out a mocking laugh, “You’re not exactly refined yourself; your books went straight into a dog’s stomach!”
“Oh, and by the way, I have absolutely no interest in you, so don’t be full of yourself!”
Yang Jingyu looked incredulous, “An Xia, this tactic of playing hard to get won’t work on me!”
“As a scholar, I have at least that much judgment!”
An Xia, “???”
“Are you okay? I’m playing hard to get with you? Why don’t you take a look at what kind of person you are?”
“Why are you so full of yourself?”
Seeing Zheng Dahui’s face changing from red to purple—any longer and he might actually drown in the cow urine—she let go. She held An Qiu’s hand with one hand and pointed a finger at Zheng Dahui and Yang Jingyu with the other, “From now on, keep your mouths clean when you see us sisters. Otherwise, I’ll beat you every single time I see you!”
With that, she walked away with her head held high!
After Zheng Dahui sucked in several gulps of fresh air, he coughed violently for a while.
Gritting his teeth, he pointed at An Xia’s retreating back and spat, “Ugly monster, you wait for me! See if I don’t peel your skin off!”
The men with him laughed at him, “Dahui, give it a rest. When the ugly monster was standing right there, you didn’t even dare to let out a peep!”
Zheng Dahui spat and said dismissively, “As if you guys dared to make a sound? Didn’t you all hide far away just now?”
“A bunch of cowards! If we had all jumped her at once, no matter how good that ugly monster is, she couldn’t have won!”