With a bit of morning irritation, Jian Yue moved her joints, which creaked and cracked, her whole body aching. This only made her mood worse.
Bang!
Suddenly, the sound of a door opening made the chattering voices stop abruptly.
Everyone turned to look in the direction of the noise.
“Jian… Jian Yue!”
The loud voice, combined with Jian Yue’s somewhat cold expression, genuinely startled them.
Jian Yue looked over—three men and two women.
The village head of Apricot Village and his wife, two young men, and one woman who could be considered a neighbor of this thatched cottage.
After all, the home of these five children was still some distance from where the villagers of Apricot Village lived.
The ones who had been making the most noise were the two women.
“I wonder what business the village head has, bringing everyone to my humble home at this early hour.”
Jian Yue’s voice carried a hint of coldness, breaking the silence.
“You, you’re really Jian Yue?!” The village head looked at her, unable to process it.
Jian Yue didn’t respond. Her gaze shifted to the people who were trying to divide up her wild boar.
The boar was still mostly intact. She hadn’t processed much of it yesterday due to her sore body—she’d only cut off one of the boar’s hind legs to eat first.
“Ahem, what’s the story with this wild boar, and you… how are you feeling now?”
The village head followed Jian Yue’s gaze, looking somewhat embarrassed.
Several people were tugging at the boar meat, trying to claim it for themselves—one of them being his own wife, right in front of the rightful owner.
“Shouldn’t the village head give me an explanation?” Jian Yue said this while still standing at the door of the thatched cottage, as if merely gazing calmly at him.
Neither pleased nor angry.
Yet the village head felt a sense of suffocation.
This feeling—even the county magistrate in town couldn’t give him this.
The village head fell silent for a moment, but the others snapped out of it.
“Jian Yue, you actually didn’t die! You survived…” The village head’s wife blurted out upon seeing her alive.
But before she could finish, she was suddenly fixed by Jian Yue’s gaze, as if stared down by some sharp beast of prey.
Her voice cut off abruptly.
But the silence lasted only a moment.
When they saw several children appear behind the door, it reminded them—this was a widow stepmother with five children. Nothing to fear.
“Jian Yue, what kind of joke is that? What explanation do you want from the village head?”
“The village head came to see if you were dead, to have us collect your corpse! You should be thanking us, not spouting nonsense, you unreasonable woman.”
One young man said this while tugging at a hind leg of the boar.
The other woman chimed in without missing a beat, “Well, well, Jian Yue, you’ve been hiding a wild boar in secret! It must have been stolen from somewhere. This boar should be shared among everyone—finders keepers.”
“That’s right! How could a woman like you get such a big boar? Last night I smelled the aroma of meat and thought I was mistaken. Turns out it was this wicked stepmother hogging it all to herself. What a poisonous woman!”
“You’re bad! This is what Mother hunted on the mountain! Mother didn’t hog it—she gave us meat too.” Ye Xiqi, hiding behind the door, got angry and couldn’t help shouting.
Even though her stepmother was mean, her father had taught her to speak the truth.
“Where did this little girl come from? Sure enough, a burden with no father or mother. With a stepmother like yours, she could hunt a boar that big? At such a young age, spouting lies left and right—aren’t you ashamed? Who would ever want you when you grow up? Pah.”
The neighbor woman spoke without hesitation, clearly used to saying such things.
“You… I’m not! Qi’er isn’t lying.” Ye Xiqi’s eyes were already red from being spoken to like that. She wanted to argue but couldn’t.
“You’re not? Anyone can see you’re a jinx—you karmically killed your father and lost…”
The neighbor woman was about to say more when suddenly her face stung, as if something had hit her. The pain made her clutch her face, and her words died in her throat.
“Xiao Er, take your younger siblings inside.” Jian Yue had already walked out from the doorway, coldly eyeing the gossiping woman.
“Mother…” Ye Xihua seemed a bit unaccustomed to the address, her gaze falling on Jian Yue before she finally led her younger siblings back into the house.
“Xiao Yi, close the door.” Jian Yue said this as she stepped outside.
Ye Xixing didn’t know what his new stepmother was planning, but remembering how fierce she’d been yesterday, he had no choice but to close the door.
Shutting out the scene beyond.
Jian Yue walked over slowly, making people’s hearts tremble.
“You want me to prove that I hunted this boar, is that it?”
Jian Yue rolled her wrists, looking very much ready to throw down.
No one had ever seen Jian Yue with such a cold, intimidating presence.
It was the same face they knew, yet it felt utterly foreign.
“You, what are you going to do!”
The neighbor woman watched her approach step by step, instinctively backing away two paces. She was scared, subconsciously hiding behind the young man beside her.
“Jian Yue, what do you think you’re doing!” The young man had no choice but to step in front of the neighbor woman.
Watching Jian Yue, who had been observing until now, he felt a strange sense of fear.
But he was a man after all.
His courage returned.
“Heh.” A light laugh carried a hint of disdain.
The young man swallowed nervously without knowing why.
He had heard yesterday that Jian Yue was dead, and suddenly felt a chill in the air. Today, they had come to collect her body…
“Proof.” Jian Yue said as she made her move.
The young man tried to block her, but his raised wrist was grabbed directly.
Crack.
“Ah!” Instantly, the young man was overwhelmed.
The neighbor woman was now exposed in front of Jian Yue. Before she could even feel fear, she felt a kick to her knee, and losing her balance, she fell hard to the ground.
“Jian Yue, you little wench, what do you think you’re doing… ah, it hurts, you’re hitting me…” The neighbor woman couldn’t even react before she was beaten, writhing on the ground wanting to roll around.
Jian Yue skillfully struck the pressure points on their bodies, leaving few marks but causing unbearable pain.
“You damn hag, how dare you hit me!” The young man clutched his hand, seeming to recover at that moment, but with a hint of fury.
A man being beaten by a woman was inexcusable.
The young man came at her with vicious intent, but no matter what, his fists couldn’t land on Jian Yue, not even touching a thread of her sleeve. Instead, while Jian Yue was beating the woman, she also struck back at him.
“Ah, it hurts, it hurts.”
“I’m wrong, I’m wrong, stop hitting.”
In no time, Jian Yue was methodically beating both of them.
The young man and the woman’s cries of pain echoed, so similar to the scene of the beating yesterday.
A few little kids were in the room peeking through the window, vaguely able to see what was happening outside.
The fourth child, Ye Xiqi, watching this scene, whispered to her brothers: “Yesterday, mother beat those two bad people just like this.”
“…” The eldest and second.
“Mhm.” The third nodded, watching the figure beating them, a hint of brightness shining in his dark eyes.
The events unfolded too quickly, leaving everyone completely unable to react.
“Th-this, this…”
“Jian Yue, what are you doing!! You people, why are you just watching? Go stop her!”
“Stop hitting, no more hitting!”
“Ah!”
“Pull her away!”
“Can’t pull her… ah.”
For a moment, the scene was getting out of control.