Jiang Yan walked slowly, but every step felt as though it were crushing down on Old Madam Zhao, filling her with terror.
“Don’t! Don’t hit me! I was wrong! I really know I was wrong! I shouldn’t have abused Xiao Jin and Xiao Xi. I shouldn’t have falsely accused you of trying to kill your stepson… Sob, sob…”
Old Madam Zhao was scared out of her wits. She kept apologizing to Jiang Yan and begging her not to hit her.
Zhao Xiaomei, however, still held her head high. She didn’t think she had done anything wrong. She only thought her plan hadn’t been perfect enough and that she had failed to frame Jiang Yan successfully!
Her days in the military detention cell had only made Zhao Xiaomei hate Jiang Yan even more. Why had Jiang Yan appeared? Why had she stolen her man?!
Seeing that Zhao Xiaomei still refused to repent, Jiang Yan found it utterly ridiculous that these people actually expected her to forgive someone like this through moral pressure.
People really didn’t know how much something hurt until the fire landed on their own feet!
Jiang Yan suddenly stepped forward, grabbed Zhao Xiaomei, and slammed her hard against a nearby tree.
The tree was so thick that even two adults wrapping their arms around it couldn’t completely encircle the trunk, yet the impact made it shake violently.
The tree couldn’t support Zhao Xiaomei’s body, and she crashed heavily onto the ground.
Political Commissar Sun stared in stunned disbelief.
When Jiang Yan had said she would “give them a beating,” had she meant *beating them half to death*?
Everyone else was equally shocked by Jiang Yan’s ferocity.
*Had they been wrong?*
*They shouldn’t have persuaded Jiang Yan to forgive them. They should have simply let these people go to prison.*
At least they wouldn’t have been beaten half to death!
Jiang Yan paid no attention to the terrified looks around her. She grabbed Zhao Xiaomei off the ground and gave her another beating before throwing her away again.
*Bam!*
She slammed heavily onto the ground.
Every organ in Zhao Xiaomei’s body felt like it was on fire. She was in so much pain that she couldn’t even cry out.
She finally knew fear.
Fortunately, Jiang Yan didn’t hit her again.
In full view of everyone, Jiang Yan wasn’t actually going to beat someone to death.
But while a death sentence could be avoided, punishment was still unavoidable!
“You’re next!”
With a smile playing at the corners of her lips, Jiang Yan walked toward Old Madam Zhao.
Old Madam Zhao was trembling all over, her face filled with terror.
She had even wet herself. A pale yellow stain was spreading beneath her.
Jiang Yan was disgusted.
*Wouldn’t beating her mean getting my hands dirty?*
But letting her off like this was something Jiang Yan couldn’t accept either.
Just as she was considering how to deal with Old Madam Zhao, something seemed to click in the old woman’s mind.
She crawled and rolled her way over to Zhao Dahu.
“Son! You’re the most filial son in the world! Take the beating for your mother!”
Afraid that if she was even a second too slow, Jiang Yan’s massive fists would come crashing down on her, she hurriedly turned to Jiang Yan.
“Jiang Yan, beat him! He’s my son! There’s an old saying that says a debt owed by the parents is repaid by the children. Beat him! Go ahead and beat him!”
Old Madam Zhao did love her only son.
But if her son didn’t take the beating for her, she was going to be beaten to death!
Her son was strong and healthy. No matter how badly he was beaten, he probably wouldn’t die.
Besides, he was a company commander. For his rank and position, Jiang Yan certainly wouldn’t beat him to death.
Old Madam Zhao kept making excuses for her selfishness, repeatedly reassuring herself in her heart.
Zhao Dahu had also been frightened by Jiang Yan’s ferocity.
If Jiang Yan crippled him, his military career would be over.
He still had a son to support. His mother was getting old, and he had a wife to provide for too.
If he lost his job, how would the whole family survive?
He couldn’t take the beating!
So Zhao Dahu grabbed his wife beside him.
“Wu Xiaohua, you take the beating for my mother. As her daughter-in-law, it’s only right that you take a beating in her place!”
Zhao Dahu even urged Wu Xiaohua.
“Hurry up and say it! Say that you’re willing to take the beating for your mother-in-law. Beg Jiang Yan to hit you!”
Jiang Yan had never imagined there could be such a move.
She had already realized that this man was spineless, but she hadn’t expected him to be not only a coward, but also a complete scumbag!
Old Madam Zhao was accustomed to ignoring her daughter-in-law. She simply hadn’t thought of her in the heat of the moment and had instinctively dragged her son out to take the beating.
Now that she saw her son dragging his wife out to take it instead, she didn’t think there was anything wrong with it at all.
“Yes, yes! Beat her! She’s my daughter-in-law. Do whatever you want with her. You can even beat her to death!”
Old Madam Zhao said excitedly.
“But once you’ve beaten her, you can’t hit me anymore!”
Jiang Yan had a giant, speechless expression on her face.
Even during the apocalypse, when human wickedness had been magnified countless times over, she had never encountered a family this shameless.
This was simply…
While Jiang Yan was speechless, Wu Xiaohua managed to leave her even more speechless.
She actually knelt down in front of Jiang Yan.
“Regiment Commander’s wife, please beat me instead! Spare my husband and my mother-in-law!”
Jiang Yan: “…!”
It took her a while to recover from her speechlessness.
“It’s a new era now. We believe in the principle that whoever owes the debt must repay it.”
The moment she finished speaking, Jiang Yan rushed forward, grabbed Old Madam Zhao’s right wrist, and twisted it with force.
*Crack!*
She broke Old Madam Zhao’s right hand outright.
“Ah!”
Old Madam Zhao let out a blood-curdling scream that made everyone’s scalp tingle.
Old Madam Zhao was simply too filthy for Jiang Yan to stomach putting her hands on her.
So she had only crippled one of the old woman’s hands.
In the countryside, losing the use of one’s right hand would make life extremely difficult—practically like being sent away for hard labor.
Then Jiang Yan decided that Zhao Dahu was simply too much of a scumbag, and far too selfish, so she grabbed him and gave him a thorough beating too!
“Whew!”
After beating Zhao Dahu, Jiang Yan finally felt completely refreshed.
Sure enough, when conflicts arose, it was better to just throw a punch instead of wasting time arguing!
But Jiang Yan preferred something even more satisfying—destroying someone psychologically.
“Zhao Dahu, actually, you’re the most selfish, cold-blooded one of all, aren’t you? Deep down, you were hoping Zhao Xiaomei’s plan would succeed so you could continue taking advantage of Old Huo!”
Zhao Dahu’s mouth was so swollen from the beating that it hurt to speak.
Hearing this, he frantically denied it.
“I didn’t! That wasn’t me!”
Jiang Yan sneered.
“You must have thought to yourself, ‘So what if Huo Zhanting rises higher and earns more money? Won’t all that money eventually end up in *your* pocket anyway? And won’t his two sons still have to depend on you to survive?’”
“Deep down, you were secretly enjoying yourself, weren’t you?”
“No! I never thought that! I didn’t!”
Zhao Dahu denied it even more desperately.
“Don’t deny it. That’s exactly what you thought, and exactly what you did!”
Jiang Yan’s words were sharp and relentless.
She had dragged the darkness hidden deep inside Zhao Dahu’s heart into broad daylight.
Zhao Dahu felt as though he had been stripped naked and subjected to torture for everyone to see.
“I said I didn’t!”
Furious with humiliation, Zhao Dahu glared at Jiang Yan with bloodshot eyes.
At that moment, Huo Zhanting suddenly rushed over to shield Jiang Yan and kicked Zhao Dahu flying.
His wife had gotten her fill of beating people.
It was time for this farce to end!
Huo Zhanting turned to Political Commissar Sun.
“My wife has made her decision. She said to give them a beating, and we won’t pursue legal action.”
“However, I hope you can arrange for Old Madam Zhao and her niece to be transferred out as soon as possible. No one is going to feel safe with a murderer living in the compound.”
With that, Huo Zhanting turned toward the crowd watching.
“And don’t think my wife is too vicious. You don’t know how much something hurts until the knife is in your own flesh, right?”
“So just imagine your own son or grandson being bitten by a venomous snake and left fighting for his life, while your wife is falsely accused of being a murderer…”
Huo Zhanting hadn’t even finished when one of the military wives couldn’t help shouting:
“Whoever dares hurt my son, I’ll kill her whole family!”
Heh.
Huo Zhanting sneered.
There was no need to say anything more.
The military wife who had shouted immediately felt embarrassed, her face burning.
Putting themselves in the other family’s shoes, they realized they probably wouldn’t be able to forgive anyone who harmed their children either.
So what right did they have to demand that the Huo family forgive their attackers?
The realization hit them hard.
One by one, they lowered their heads in shame.
Political Commissar Sun felt that he had come up with a terrible idea. He was already wondering how to clean up the mess when he heard Huo Zhanting say:
“Political Commissar Sun, someone who’s afraid of being beaten and drags his own wife out to take the beating for him probably isn’t fit to be a soldier, is he?”
“After all, you can’t guarantee that when he’s afraid, he won’t drag one of his comrades out to take a bullet for him.”