Lin Wan swung her right arm with all her strength and landed a solid slap across Madam Zhang’s fat face, which was covered in cheap face powder.
She put every ounce of force she had into that slap.
Madam Zhang’s head snapped to the side. Her ears rang violently, and the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth.
Before she could even cry out—
Smack!
Another slap followed.
Lin Wan backhanded her across the opposite cheek with perfect precision.
Two crisp slaps.
Fast.
Clean.
Without the slightest hesitation.
The ruthless efficiency of a top assassin.
Madam Zhang’s bulky body spun half a circle like a top before collapsing to her knees in the dirt with a loud thud.
“Waaah—”
She opened her mouth and spat out a large mouthful of blood mixed with saliva.
Two yellowed molars fell out with it.
Clutching her rapidly swelling face, now puffed up like a pig’s head, she was so stunned that she forgot to scream.
The entire Lin family fell silent.
Several villagers passing by outside heard the commotion and peeked over the bamboo fence.
They immediately covered their mouths in shock, not daring to make a sound.
Everyone stared at the frail-looking girl standing in the middle of the courtyard.
She wore patched coarse linen clothes.
Most of her back was soaked red with blood.
Her face was pale as paper, yet her back remained perfectly straight, like an unbreakable spear.
Lin Wan casually twirled the wooden hairpin in her hand before looking coldly at Madam Zhang lying on the ground.
“Do you really think I’m still the same Lin Wan you could bully however you pleased?”
Her voice wasn’t loud.
Yet it carried an overwhelming pressure that sent chills deep into everyone’s bones.
Lin Daqiang swallowed hard, his legs trembling uncontrollably.
He had always been the type to bully the weak while fearing the strong.
Seeing his own mother beaten so badly, he didn’t even dare step forward.
Instead, he hid behind Old Madam Lin and stammered,
“G-Grandma… she’s possessed! She has to be possessed!”
Old Madam Lin had seen plenty of storms in her lifetime.
But under Lin Wan’s lifeless black gaze, even she felt a chill run through her heart.
Forcing herself to maintain the dignity of an elder, she slammed her cane heavily against the ground.
“You unfilial girl! How dare you strike your mother! Heaven will punish you with lightning!”
“Heavens above! What sin has our Lin family committed to raise such a beast who disrespects her elders and destroys her own family!”
Old Madam Lin slapped her thigh and began her usual dramatic tantrum.
Lin Wan let out a mocking laugh.
The sarcasm on her face was impossible to hide.
“Mother?”
“Is she even worthy of that title?”
She lifted her foot and walked toward the main house.
Her bloodstained cloth shoes rustled over the fallen leaves.
The sound was like footsteps crushing everyone’s already frayed nerves.
Old Lin watched his daughter approach.
Terrified, he stumbled backward until he collapsed onto the doorstep.
“W-Wan… don’t do anything reckless. Murder means paying with your own life…”
“Oh?”
“So you do know that murder is punishable by death?”
Lin Wan stopped before him, looking down at the man who was supposed to be her father.
“When all of you worked together to kill me just now…”
“Why didn’t you remember that then?”
Old Lin was rendered speechless.
His weathered face turned crimson as he lowered his head in shame.
Outside the courtyard, the villagers quietly whispered among themselves.
“I think the girl was right to hit them. The Lin family has gone too far.”
“Exactly. Selling a sixteen-year-old girl to a fifty-year-old man… they’re practically forcing her to die.”
“Shh… keep your voice down. Do you really want to provoke Old Madam Lin?”
Back in the courtyard, Madam Zhang finally recovered enough to start wailing.
She sat on the ground, slapping her thighs as she cried loudly.
“No justice! My stepdaughter is beating her own mother to death!”
“Daqiang! Hurry and report her to the authorities! Have this little bitch arrested!”
Master Qian, who was still lying beside the chicken coop, immediately chimed in.
“That’s right! Report her!”
“Throw her into prison!”
Facing their shouting, Lin Wan didn’t even bother lifting her eyelids.
She casually shook the blood from her knuckles with obvious disgust.
This body’s condition was simply too weak.
After only a few movements, her chest was already beginning to ache.
She had to end this quickly.
Then she needed to find somewhere safe to treat her injuries.
She turned around.
The sharp tip of the wooden hairpin pointed directly at Madam Zhang and Master Qian on the ground.
Her gaze was as sharp as a blade.
“Report me?”
“Go ahead.”
“Then let the county magistrate decide.”
“You forced your own daughter to death.”
“You trafficked a human being.”
“According to the laws of the Great Xia Dynasty…”
“…how many years should each of you be sentenced to?”
Madam Zhang’s crying stopped instantly.
It was as though someone had grabbed her by the throat.
Master Qian also shut his mouth.
This had been an illegal private transaction.
If the matter really reached the government office, neither side would escape punishment.
Deathly silence filled the courtyard.
A breeze swept through the treetops.
A yellow leaf drifted down, landing beside Lin Wan’s feet.
She slowly swept her icy gaze across the trembling members of the Lin family.
There was no family affection here.
Only a den of monsters that devoured people.
Now that she had inherited this body…
She would never tolerate this humiliation again.
She took a deep breath of the earthy air.
Her chest rose and fell slightly.
Her voice was colder than frost as she spoke each word with unmistakable determination.
“Today…”
“I’m severing all family ties.”
Tu Tu