Once the scene was brought under control, everyone except Jian Yue was gasping for breath.
The worst off, however, was that sharp-tongued woman.
She lay sprawled on the ground, her whole body aching, looking as if she had more breath going out than coming in, and one of the young men among them wasn’t much better off either.
As for the village chief and the other two who had tried to break up the fight, they hadn’t taken any hits from Jian Yue.
But they had been accidentally struck by others during the scuffle, leaving them looking a bit more disheveled as well.
“Is this proof enough?” Jian Yue withdrew her hands. She had always been one to act rather than speak, and now she fixed her gaze on the crowd.
Everyone, recalling how Jian Yue didn’t hold back when she hit people, instinctively nodded, not daring to utter a word of dissent.
If the five of them together couldn’t handle a single Jian Yue, what more could they say?
“In that case, I’ll trouble this Sister Niu to apologize.” Jian Yue crossed her arms, looking as if she were waiting.
“Niu? Sister Niu?” The village chief was taken aback by the address, not registering it at first.
“Isn’t this sister-in-law quite formidable (niu)? If not Sister Niu, then what should I call her?”
“…”
In truth, the woman’s husband’s surname was Liu, so she should have been called Sister-in-law Liu, but did they dare say that?
Jian Yue’s words left them speechless, unable to find their voices for a moment. The sharp-tongued woman dared not say anything more either; the beating she had just received had cast a shadow over her heart.
Jian Yue didn’t need their response. Instead, she called out toward the thatched hut: “Xiao Yi, bring Xiao Si out.”
The little ones inside had already been paying attention to the commotion outside. Hearing Jian Yue’s words, they blinked their round eyes, looking at each other.
Finally, Ye Xisu led his twin sister out, with Ye Xixing quickly following behind.
Lao Er also picked up Xiao Wu, who was still staring around with a dazed look, and followed along.
The village chief and the others had no idea what Jian Yue meant, so they could only wait a moment, catching their breath and recovering their strength.
The person who had just been fighting didn’t seem like a woman at all.
Once Ye Xisu pulled his sister over and the other little ones gathered, there were now exactly five of them, one, two, three, four, five.
“Sister Niu, apologize.” Jian Yue spoke, keeping a certain distance from the children.
“Apo… apologize…” Sister Niu—or rather, Sister-in-law Liu—was still lying on the ground, her whole body aching, but she didn’t dare ignore Jian Yue’s words.
“You ran your mouth. Don’t you owe an apology?” As she said this, Jian Yue’s gaze sharpened.
Sister-in-law Liu trembled all over, feeling even more pain in her body.
“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have run my mouth, I shouldn’t have tried to get wild boar meat for cheap, I shouldn’t have cursed you… no, isn’t that right?” The more Sister-in-law Liu spoke, the more she noticed the other’s expression turning increasingly wrong, and she stammered with a hint of fear.
“Apologize to my Xiao Si.” Jian Yue said bluntly.
Sister-in-law Liu… no, rather, the village chief and the others seemed to understand Jian Yue’s meaning now, and perhaps they even had some guesses about her motive for the beating earlier.
But wasn’t this supposed to be a vicious stepmother who didn’t care for the children?
It was just one insult.
“Mother… Mother.” Ye Xiqi felt her nose sting at those words, but she was afraid that crying would displease her stepmother, so she clamped her mouth shut tightly.
“Hm, she insulted someone, so she should apologize.” Jian Yue’s gaze fell on the little girl, and her expression softened somewhat.
“Go on, have her apologize.” She wasn’t sure if this was the right way to teach a child.
“Mm.” Meeting Jian Yue’s slightly encouraging words, Ye Xiqi felt an inexplicable warmth, which invisibly bolstered her confidence.
Ye Xiqi took two steps forward and, facing Sister-in-law Liu still on the ground, said in a somewhat small voice, “Qi’er didn’t lie…”
After saying this, Ye Xiqi instinctively glanced back at her stepmother, and upon receiving affirmation, her voice grew a bit louder.
“You apologize to Qi’er!”
“You little brat—” Sister-in-law Liu, unaccustomed to being spoken to like that by such a small girl, instinctively wanted to snap back, but then felt the gaze of death upon her and quickly caught herself.
Her voice trembling slightly, she said, “I-I’m sorry, it was your auntie’s fault, I wronged you, and it was wrong of me to speak ill of you and curse you. I’m sorry, child, your auntie is truly awful. I apologize to you. Can you forgive your auntie?”
“Hmph, Qi’er accepts your apology, but Qi’er does not forgive you.”
“Mother, is it okay if Qi’er doesn’t forgive her?” With her own adult present, her courage had grown considerably.
“Yes.” Jian Yue nodded firmly.
The other little ones, hearing Jian Yue’s words, instinctively looked over, a hint of restless excitement stirring within them.
“…” The village chief and the others witnessed this lesson in child-rearing.
After an apology, shouldn’t one forgive? Who teaches a child like that?
Sister-in-law Liu never expected that last remark from the little girl, and her face cracked with disbelief.
But thinking of the consequences of not being forgiven, she feared being beaten again and looked at Jian Yue with some trepidation.
Jian Yue, however, didn’t bother looking at her anymore.
“It’s early morning, and you’ve already caused a scene. Since nothing’s wrong, you can all head back now,” Jian Yue said.
“…” Who exactly caused the scene.
Someone wanted to argue back.
But combat prowess was a fine thing to have.
Hearing this, Sister-in-law Liu couldn’t sit still any longer and wanted to bolt, and even the young man who’d been beaten black and blue didn’t dare linger.
It was at this moment that only the village chief and his wife remained, along with another young man—their son.
The village chief was somewhat afraid of Jian Yue’s fighting skills, so rather than waiting for her to speak, he stated his purpose for coming first.
“Yesterday, Xixing told me that you…” The village chief paused mid-sentence, looking at the living, breathing person before him and quickly corrected himself:
“Yesterday, I should have come by to check on you, but I couldn’t spare the time, so it got delayed until today.”
“Now that I see you’re fine, we wouldn’t want to impose any longer.”
As the village chief spoke, he didn’t dare bring up the wild boar matter either. Having said his piece, he prepared to leave.
But Jian Yue called out to him.
“Wait.”
The three of them stiffened at the call.
Though he was the village chief of Xinghua Village, this household had been registered here by the authorities.
Yet their names weren’t in the village’s ancestral registry.
So technically, they weren’t even considered part of Xinghua Village.
“Is there something else?” the village chief asked.
“Of course.” Jian Yue nodded. For them to come stir up trouble this early in the morning, she didn’t believe the village chief hadn’t deliberately allowed it.
And conveniently, she was short on labor right now.