The moment the childish yet eerie voice fell, the dead silence in the courtyard was shattered by a piercing scream.
“Head of the family! My husband!”
Aunt Zhang from the eldest branch shot out from the east wing like a wild cat whose tail had been stepped on. Seeing her husband, Chen Da, lying on the millstone groaning and unable to get up, and then seeing Chen Zui standing there with a dark, cold expression, her eyes instantly turned red.
“You little beast! That’s your uncle! How dare you lay hands on your elder? You’ve gone too far!”
Zhang had always relied on having two sons and acted tyrannically within the Chen family. She didn’t believe in anything like ghosts or divine punishment—she only thought this “dead girl” was acting up. With her fingers splayed like chicken claws, nails filled with black dirt, she lunged straight for Chen Zui’s palm-sized face.
“Dabao! Erbao! What are you standing there for?! Beat this little wretch to death! Avenging your father!”
As she pounced, she yelled at her two sons behind her.
They were the eldest branch’s two boys—Chen Dabao and Chen Erbao. Dabao was already ten, fat and strong from eating well, often bullying the third branch’s girls for food.
“He hit my dad! Kill him!” Dabao roared, picking up a broken brick from the ground and charging like a bull.
Three against one.
Against a three-year-old child.
A gasp rose from the villagers watching over the wall; some women even covered their eyes in pity.
But Chen Zui did not move.
She watched Zhang’s distorted, ferocious face approaching, even smelling the sour sweat on her body.
Just as Zhang’s hand was about to touch her cheek—
Chen Zui moved.
She did not retreat. Instead, she stepped forward half a pace. Then she suddenly lowered her body. Her small frame—only as tall as an adult’s knee—became her greatest advantage.
Zhang’s strike missed. Her upper body lurched forward due to momentum.
Chen Zui seized the moment. Her right leg snapped out and slammed hard into Zhang’s supporting knee.
Crack.
A crisp snap.
Zhang’s left leg buckled forward uncontrollably. She lost balance completely and slammed face-first into the hard dirt ground at Chen Zui’s feet, collapsing in a humiliating sprawl.
“Ow—my tooth!” Zhang cried, spitting out half a bloodied front tooth.
Before Chen Zui could even catch her breath, Dabao’s brick was already overhead.
Her eyes sharpened.
This kid was not holding back—he really meant to kill her.
She rolled aside. The brick smashed into the ground, kicking up dust.
Dabao, missing his strike, screamed in rage and lifted his foot to stomp on her hand.
Chen Zui lay on the ground, her gaze cold as ice. She pushed off the earth, then snapped both legs together like a pair of scissors, locking onto Dabao’s ankle.
A surge of unnatural strength erupted.
“Lift!”
She gritted the word out.
With a violent twist of her waist, Dabao felt an overwhelming force wrench his foot out from under him. He was tossed like straw caught in a whirlpool.
Bang!
The heavy boy—over a hundred jin—crashed to the ground even louder than Zhang. His head struck the earth and he instantly went limp, eyes rolling back.
From Zhang’s attack to both mother and son collapsing—it all happened in the blink of an eye.
Chen Zui slowly stood up, brushing dirt off her knees. She didn’t pursue further, only stood amid the fallen figures, breathing slightly heavily.
This body was too weak. Even with her strange strength, such explosive movements left her dizzy.
But she could not show weakness.
She turned to look at the villagers who had been ready to watch a joke—but now stood pale and silent.
She pointed at Zhang on the ground, then at the unconscious Dabao.
“See?” she said clearly.
“I told you. Heaven is watching. Whoever dares touch my mother, whoever dares bully our third branch… will get their punishment.”
A cold wind swept through the yard, lifting dry leaves.
The villagers looked at the tiny figure standing under the sun and felt a chill creep up their spines.
How could a three-year-old child defeat three grown people unless she was protected by spirits?
“This is… evil…” someone muttered. “The Chen family must have done too much wrong. They’ve angered the gods…”
“I think that girl from the third branch is possessed. Look at her eyes… no child should look like that…”
Fear spread through the crowd, and the direction of the whispers changed.
Old Chen, sitting in the grand chair, could no longer hold his pipe. It slipped from his hand and hit the ground with a clack. He stared at Chen Zui like she was a monster.
Meanwhile, Chen Laosan—who had been lying on the ground—stared blankly at his daughter’s back.
That back was so small, not even as tall as the crops in the field. Yet she had just stood in front of them like a wall, shielding them from all harm.
He wiped blood from his face, vision blurred, and saw her shoulders trembling slightly.
Exhaustion.
A wave of bitterness and rage surged through him like molten lava, burning away thirty years of cowardice and submission.
That was his child. His daughter he had cherished like treasure.
And he—was he really going to hide behind a three-year-old girl his whole life?
“Aaah—!”
He let out a beast-like roar.
He sprang up, grabbed the wavering Chen Zui into his arms, and turned around. With bloodshot eyes, he picked up the broken brick Dabao had dropped and swung it wildly, forcing Zhang back as she tried to get up again.
“Don’t come near! None of you come near!”
His face was twisted with rage, blood dripping down his chin like a demon crawling out of hell.
He held his daughter in one arm, shielded his stunned wife behind him, and roared toward the main hall:
“Split the family!”
The shout made Old Chen’s ears ring.
“Today we must split the family! Anyone who stops me—I’ll fight them to the death! Worst case, we all die together! I’ll drag Dabao and Erbao down with me into the well! We’re done living anyway!”
His chest heaved violently. Spit flew as he shouted. He had truly snapped.
Old Madam Chen shrank back in fear. She looked at her eldest son and grandson rolling on the ground, then at Chen Zui’s cold, eerie stare.
She was afraid.
That girl was too strange. What if she really brought disaster to the family?
Old Chen’s expression darkened. His calculating eyes swept over the broken third branch.
Useless son, useless daughter-in-law, useless granddaughters—and now this “calamity star.”
Keeping them was only wasting food.
He tapped his pipe against his shoe, eyes flashing with malice.
“Fine,” he said coldly. “If you want to split, then split. Since you don’t recognize your ancestors anymore, get out of the Chen family!”
He stood up and shouted to the villagers:
“Go call the village head! We’re splitting the family today! I want to see how long you can survive after leaving the Chen family!”