Qiu Hanlu grabbed Qiu Guangli’s arm with one hand: “Second Uncle, if you ever dare lay a hand on my father again, I’ll break it off. No one would believe I could beat you anyway, so if I hit you, no one would believe you even if you went out and told them.”
Qiu Guangli cried out in pain. He had never suffered such humiliation at home before and wanted to resist: “Qiu Hanlu, you’ve gone too far! I haven’t even settled the score with you yet—you tricked Lixia, and now you dare hit me? Do you have a death wish?”
Qiu Hanlu twisted Qiu Guangli’s arm further upward: “Second Uncle, how exactly do you want to settle this score?”
Qiu Guangli was sweating from the pain: “Let go, let go.”
Qiu Hanlu said with a smile: “Why should I let go just because you say so? Back when you bullied our family, I begged you, but you never gave me any face. Now your face isn’t worth anything either. Apologize to my parents, or I’ll rip your arm off. At worst, we’ll both go down fighting.” As she spoke, she increased the pressure.
Qiu Guangli was truly in agony, so much so that he could only plead with Qiu Guangwan: “Big Brother, I was wrong. Make Hanlu stop.”
Qiu Guangwan looked at Qiu Hanlu: “Hanlu, that’s enough.” He was also afraid that Qiu Guangli might lose his temper and hurt Qiu Hanlu.
Qiu Hanlu let go and dusted off her hands: “Second Uncle, be more respectful to my parents from now on, or I might just strike whenever I feel like it.”
How could Qiu Guangli have expected Qiu Hanlu to be this formidable? He had even trained in martial arts for a few months—how could she have taken him down?
He felt that he had been careless today and would need to find an opportunity for revenge later. For now, his arm hurt so much he couldn’t move it, so what else could he do? He could only look at Mrs. Wang in silence.
The room was very quiet at that moment, because Qiu Guangwan and Madam Zheng were both too shocked to speak.
Mrs. Wang and the others were also cowed by Qiu Hanlu, not knowing what to do either.
Qiu Hanlu looked at these people, curled her lips, and said to Mrs. Wang: “Grandmother, we’re going back to our room to wait for dinner. Call us when it’s time to eat. Don’t fob us off with leftover scraps, or I’ll take matters into my own hands—those chickens in the yard might not all survive.”
With that, she pulled Qiu Guangwan and Madam Zheng and walked straight out.
The rest of them were left in the room staring at each other, stunned by too many things they hadn’t expected, too many surprises.
Meanwhile, Qiu Guangwan and Madam Zheng followed Qiu Hanlu back to the west wing. After closing the door, the two of them also looked at Qiu Hanlu in disbelief.
Qiu Hanlu smiled at her parents: “Father, Mother, I once happened to learn some skills from a master. The master told me not to tell anyone, and you know masters all have their quirks, so I never mentioned it to you. I didn’t learn much martial arts—just some self-defense—but that’s enough to deal with them. Father, Mother, do you know why I didn’t force them to split the family today?”
The master she had made up didn’t exist, so after saying this, Qiu Hanlu steered the conversation toward the family division.
Qiu Guangwan and Madam Zheng hadn’t even processed what Qiu Hanlu had just said, so at her question, they quickly shook their heads.
Qiu Ruifeng, listening to his second sister speak, had no idea what she meant either and looked at his parents and sister with a puzzled face.
Qiu Hanlu looked at her family’s expressions and continued: “First of all, today is our family’s happy occasion, so the chances of splitting the family are slim. But more importantly, I want to force Grandmother to bring up the division herself. Think about it—if we propose it, they definitely won’t give us much. But if Grandmother wants to split the family, then we can make demands.”
Madam Zheng looked utterly confused: “But how could your grandmother possibly take the initiative to split us off?”
Qiu Hanlu smiled: “She won’t let us split off because she wants to use us as free labor. But what if we all become lazy and good-for-nothing, do no work at all, and only pick the best food to eat? If they can endure ten days of that, I’ll admit defeat. Within a few days, Grandmother will have to bring up splitting the family herself.”
Qiu Guangwan laughed upon hearing this: “I’ve been bullied for so many years, and I could never find a way out. I thought about fighting back, but I can’t beat your second uncle, so it was all in vain. My daughter is truly formidable. We really should thank that master—otherwise, we’d never know how to turn things around.”
Qiu Hanlu said: “Exactly. We’re not afraid of them physically, and I have many ways to make money. Once we split the family, we’ll live a good life. Unfortunately, that master was a wandering one—I don’t know where she went. She only said we’d meet again if fate allowed.”
There was no choice but to lie—a white lie. She had to minimize how often the topic of the master came up, to avoid having trouble covering it up later.
Qiu Ruifeng finally understood what was going on and looked at Qiu Hanlu: “Sis, so you’re saying our family is about to turn things around?”
Qiu Hanlu nodded: “Wait until they call us to eat—we’ll go, pick the best food, and after eating, we won’t do any work. We’ll force them to split the family.”
Qiu Ruifeng happily agreed: “Got it, Sis.” Then he added: “Sis, I’m a little afraid they might gang up on us.”
Qiu Hanlu said, “They wouldn’t dare. I told you, the barefooted aren’t afraid of the shod. If I were to fight them to the death, they haven’t lived enough yet—they wouldn’t dare clash with me head-on.”
Qiu Ruifeng looked at Qiu Hanlu with admiration in his eyes. “Sis, you’re amazing.”
Qiu Guangwan let out a deep breath. “From now on, I’m not afraid either. If they make a move, I’ll fight with everything I’ve got. Like Hanlu said, the barefooted aren’t afraid of the shod. If I risk my life, they wouldn’t dare. Before, I was always timid, but today they tried to kill my daughter. If I keep cowering, my wife and children will really be done in by them. From now on, I’ll stand firm too.”
Qiu Hanlu looked at Qiu Guangwan and smiled. “That’s right, Dad. Dad, from now on, we’ll meet them head-on.”
Then she turned to Madam Zheng and said, “Mother, if they bully you, smash whatever’s in reach. If they lay a hand on you, burn the house down. We have to act like ruffians so they have no way to deal with us, understand?”
Madam Zheng nodded repeatedly. “I understand. Mother understands. This time, I have no more reservations. I’ll do whatever you say.”
Suddenly, the family had found its direction, and the atmosphere shifted.
In the evening, Qiu Xiaoxue called them from outside the window to come eat, but she didn’t step inside, because she was now somewhat afraid that Qiu Hanlu might resort to violence.
Qiu Hanlu and her younger brother followed their parents to the main house. At the meal, men and women sat separately, because with so many people, one table couldn’t hold everyone.
At the men’s table, besides those she had seen earlier, there was also Fourth Brother Qiu Ruiji from Third Uncle’s family.
Qiu Ruiji was a foodie. At ten years old, he was chubby and dark-skinned, quite simple-minded. There weren’t many grandsons in the family, and Qiu Ruikang had a disability, so the family doted on him greatly.
But the boy had no scheming in him—he never asked about or cared about family matters. At his age, he was either climbing walls or trees. Just to play with Qiu Ruifeng, he’d secretly bring him snacks. He was quite innocent.
Today, Fifth Uncle Qiu Guanggen wasn’t home. He often caroused in the county town with his shady friends. Since the one being married off was Qiu Hanlu, he naturally didn’t take it seriously and didn’t bother coming back.
At the women’s table, aside from the nine-year-old cousin Qiu Lichun, who had little presence, she had basically seen everyone during the day. Qiu Hanlu now had a rough read on all of them.
Because the family had hosted a banquet, there was plenty of leftover food, so dinner was quite lavish.
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