Mo Qiuyu had long, jet-black hair that she loved to wear in two braided pigtails hanging over her chest, each tied at the end with a pretty red ribbon bow.
Qi Xue had cut her hair into the shoulder-length style that was all the rage, complete with wispy bangs. She wore matching plastic hair clips on both sides of her head, insisted on working in her floral cotton blouse, and paired it with heeled plastic sandals with hollow patterns.
The two of them had barely arrived at Qiling Village Production Team before earning the title of the village’s “Two Golden Flowers.”
But today, the two beauties had met with disaster.
Mo Qiuyu’s braids had come undone into a tangled mess, and the red ribbon bows at the ends were gone.
Her clothes were smeared with mud, as though she had rolled around in the fields.
Qi Xue looked even worse.
Her hair clips had disappeared.
Mud covered her cheeks, the tip of her nose, and her hair.
The right sleeve of her pretty floral blouse had been torn nearly completely off and dangled from her arm.
The heel of one sandal had snapped off entirely, leaving her toes sticking out the front. She limped with every step.
Ye Qingyun frowned.
“Did you two fall into a rice paddy?”
Her gaze swept over the baskets on their backs.
They were completely empty.
Not a single blade of pig grass.
That’s far too lazy…
Little did she know that as soon as she asked, Qi Xue’s eyes instantly reddened.
Her stubborn lips trembled uncontrollably before tears the size of beans came pouring down.
Even standing three meters away, Ye Qingyun could practically feel her grievance.
“What happened?”
Realizing something was wrong, Ye Qingyun stepped forward.
“W-We…”
Qi Xue burst into sobs before she could finish a sentence.
Red-eyed, Mo Qiuyu answered instead.
“The women from Qinghewan Production Team bullied us!”
“Bullied you?”
Ye Qingyun pressed.
Taking a deep breath to suppress her tears, Mo Qiuyu explained,
“This afternoon we went to the hillside where you told us to cut pig grass. We ran into those three women from the neighboring production team—the same ones we met by the river before…”
No one knew how those women had found their hillside.
When she and Qi Xue arrived, the three women from Qinghewan had already cut a huge pile of pig grass.
Qi Xue had immediately stepped forward and explained that Qiling Village had discovered the place first.
Instead, the other side relied on their greater numbers and local status to mock the two girls in the local dialect. They insisted the pig grass belonged to them and ordered Qi Xue and Mo Qiuyu to leave.
Unable to swallow the insult, Qi Xue fired back a few words in her own hometown dialect.
That only made the women furious.
They charged over and attacked the two girls.
Two against three.
On one side were two girls who had only just graduated from high school.
On the other were three tough local women in their thirties.
The outcome had never been in doubt.
Sniffling hard, Qi Xue complained,
“My sister specially bought those hair clips for me at the Overseas Chinese Store before I came to the countryside! They stole them! And they took Mo Qiuyu’s red ribbons too! They’re complete barbarians!”
The moment Mo Qiuyu thought about her red ribbons, she couldn’t hold back any longer.
The tears she’d been desperately trying to contain streamed down her cheeks.
Seeing her cry, Qi Xue, who had only just stopped herself, let out another loud sob and threw her arms around her.
The two girls cried as though a floodgate had burst open.
Ye Qingyun pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Enough crying!”
The shout made both girls jump.
They instinctively held their breath and looked at her through watery eyes.
Everyone in the Hehuan Sect shared the same flaw.
They were fiercely protective.
Anything or anyone they considered their own—even a stray cat or dog—they could discipline themselves.
But if an outsider dared touch them…
That outsider was as good as dead.
In Ye Qingyun’s eyes, although the two young educated youths were rather incompetent at most things…
They weren’t completely useless.
More importantly, the neighboring production team had occupied her hillside.
If she failed to take it back, and her senior brothers and sisters found out…
Wouldn’t that tarnish the reputation of the Hehuan Sect’s second-best sword cultivator?
Her voice turned icy.
“If you want revenge, take me there.”
“If we’re quick enough, they probably haven’t left yet.”
Qi Xue blinked blankly.
“Huh?”
Revenge?
Just the three of them?
Mo Qiuyu wiped away her tears and asked cautiously,
“Should we go back to the educated youth dormitory and bring more people?”
There were seven educated youths altogether—four men and three women.
Aside from Qi Xue and Mo Qiuyu, the remaining five were older arrivals.
The only female among them had already married a villager and no longer lived in the dormitory.
If they wanted reinforcements, the only people left to call were the four male educated youths.
But what did men have to do with a fight between women?
Ye Qingyun waved impatiently.
“Enough talking. Move!”
If they waited any longer, the culprits would get away.
Qi Xue and Mo Qiuyu exchanged doubtful looks.
Could this really work?
By the time they looked up again, Ye Qingyun had already sprinted far into the distance.
The two hurried after her without another thought.
Qi Xue forgot that her sandal was barely hanging onto her foot and nearly fell flat on her face.
Luckily, Mo Qiuyu caught her.
After quickly fixing the sandal, they continued chasing Ye Qingyun.
But somehow, it was as though Ye Qingyun had wheels of fire beneath her feet.
She never looked very far ahead, yet no matter how hard they ran, they always remained dozens of meters behind.
The hillside covered with white clover wasn’t especially close.
Normally it took around forty minutes to walk there.
But today, in their desperate effort to catch Ye Qingyun…
They arrived in just twenty minutes.
Panting heavily, Qi Xue and Mo Qiuyu pointed ahead.
“T-They’re… they’re still here!”
The commotion from their arrival caught the attention of the three women from Qinghewan halfway up the slope.
The two groups locked eyes.
Zhou Guifen and the other two women burst into laughter.
“Oh?”
“So you’ve brought reinforcements?”
Zhou Guifen asked with a grin.
Hands on her hips, chin raised proudly, she looked down from the higher ground as though she owned the entire hillside.
The two women behind her immediately rolled up their sleeves.
Their eyes swept disdainfully over Ye Qingyun and the others as they clicked their tongues mockingly.
Qi Xue clenched her teeth, her face flushed with anger.
Mo Qiuyu frowned, equally furious.
Just three slightly fierce mortals.
Ye Qingyun couldn’t be bothered wasting words.
She held out her hand.
“Return the little girls’ belongings.”
Zhou Guifen feigned ignorance.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Ye Qingyun continued walking toward them.
The three women laughed…
Until they felt the overwhelming hostility radiating from her.
Their smiles froze.
The atmosphere instantly became tense.
Zhou Guifen’s face darkened.
She signaled the two women behind her with a glance.
Without another word, both charged straight at Ye Qingyun.
Ye Qingyun sneered.
With a simple sidestep, she dodged effortlessly.
Like lightning, both hands shot out.
She grabbed each woman’s wrist…
Then gave a light tug.
Bang!
The two women watched in horror as each other’s faces rapidly filled their vision—
Thud!
Their foreheads slammed together with a loud crack.
Both tumbled onto the grass, clutching their heads and howling in pain.
“Y-You!”
Zhou Guifen stared at Ye Qingyun in disbelief.
Ye Qingyun calmly dusted off her hands.
Then—
She suddenly raised one hand.
A slap crashed toward Zhou Guifen’s head like a bolt of thunder.
It came so fast that Zhou Guifen couldn’t react at all.
She only felt a gust of wind sweep past.
Her view tilted from sky…
To hillside…
To grass…
Until all she could see was Ye Qingyun leaning over her, looking down with cold, contemptuous eyes.
A moment later, dizziness finally hit.
Only then did Zhou Guifen realize…
She had been slapped so hard that she’d been knocked flat onto the ground.
Covering her aching head, she blinked blankly.
“You… hit me?”
She simply couldn’t believe that a fair-skinned woman who looked so delicate had knocked her down with a single slap, leaving her completely unable to fight back.
Ye Qingyun spread her hands.
Wasn’t that obvious?
Ignoring the stunned stares of Qi Xue and Mo Qiuyu, Ye Qingyun casually lifted Zhou Guifen one-handed with her left arm.
Her right hand expertly searched over Zhou Guifen’s clothing.
Soon she found a tiny hidden pocket sewn inside her undershirt.
Inside…
Qi Xue’s plastic hair clips.
And Mo Qiuyu’s red ribbons.
Ye Qingyun’s emotionless gaze slowly shifted toward the other two women lying on the grass clutching their heads.
Their bodies instantly stiffened.
Their scalps went numb.
Help!!!