After dealing with those two, Shen Yuntan gripped the sharpened firewood knife and walked straight toward the Liu family home at the east end of the village, killing intent rolling off her in waves.
“Hey, Chouya, don’t do anything rash.”
A neighbor on good terms with the Liu family stepped forward to stop her, but the murderous aura pouring off her now was enough to make them keep their distance. They could only shout after her.
Shen Yuntan didn’t answer. She strode toward the Liu house.
Qingshan Village wasn’t large. From the west end to the east was only a quarter-hour walk. There was no high-tech network signal here, but at the slightest stir, the whole village would rouse and take notice.
By the time Shen Yuntan reached the Liu house, a string of curious villagers had already trailed after her. No one dared get close. Everyone kept a few steps back, whispering among themselves.
“Grandpa! Father! Something’s happened, come out quick!”
“That ugly wretch beat Mother and Sister-in-law! Mother’s head is covered in blood, and Sister-in-law got kicked into the ditch!”
Liu Xiuyu, the Liu family’s youngest daughter, was the first to run home and report. The Liu men were all at home, and when they heard the two women had been beaten, they snatched up sticks and leaped to their feet.
“You ugly little wretch, you dare lay hands on people now? You must be tired of living.”
Old Man Liu came out with his tobacco pipe in his mouth and started cursing the moment he saw her. Shen Yuntan lunged forward and delivered a loud, vicious slap across his face.
Old Man Liu was completely off guard. He hadn’t expected her to strike. The tobacco pipe flew from his mouth, and he staggered two steps and fell to the ground, half his face swelling up instantly.
“Father!”
“Grandfather!”
The Liu family in the yard erupted.
“Dadong! Erdong! Beat her to death!”
Old Man Liu was dazed by the slap for two seconds before he came back to his senses. Clutching his stinging old face, he roared orders for his two sons to attack.
“You little bitch, you dare hit my father? You’re asking for death!”
The Liu family had three sons and one daughter. The two elder sons were farmers, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, standing there like two walls. They both swung their fists at Shen Yuntan, cursing all the while.
Even with her power so thin, Shen Yuntan didn’t take them seriously at all. The techniques from her past life were more than enough to deal with them.
As they charged, she quickly sidestepped, flipping the firewood knife in her hand, edge up, spine down, and brought the flat of the blade down on Liu Dadong’s outstretched right arm.
A crisp crack.
Not a fracture. A clean break in two.
Liu Dadong’s right forearm bent outward at a grotesque angle. After a brief moment of shock, a pig-slaughtering howl tore from his throat. He dropped to his knees, clutching his broken arm, convulsing and screaming.
“Dadong!”
“Brother!”
“Father!”
The moment she struck, Liu Dadong’s arm broke. Liu Erdong was stunned senseless, frozen in place for a full two seconds.
By the time he came to his senses and turned to run, Shen Yuntan’s knife came down again.
Same right arm. Same flat of the blade. Same precise strike.
Crack!
Liu Erdong knelt in a row with his elder brother, each howling more miserably than the last.
Both their arms were broken. Beside them, Liu Xiuyu and the nieces and nephews screamed and fled. Old Man Liu, who had looked so fierce moments ago, went pale, his face filled with terror.
“Running?”
Shen Yuntan’s cold gaze fell on Liu Xiuyu and the others. They hadn’t laid hands on Grandmother, but they had bullied her plenty over the years. Calling her an ugly wretch was one thing, but they often threw stones at her, and had even kicked her into the river before. She had a ledger of all of it in her mind.
Liu Xiuyu trembled with fear. “I—I didn’t—I didn’t touch Auntie. Auntie’s—her death—it has nothing to do with me.”
“You didn’t touch Grandmother, but you cursed her, and you cursed and bullied me.”
She didn’t intend to take the whole family’s lives today, but she had to settle accounts for every humiliation she had suffered. Gripping the firewood knife, she charged in, dragging each one out and beating them with overwhelming force.
Not one was spared. Every one of them was left bruised and swollen.
That included Old Man Liu, of course.
He was the most vicious old bastard of them all. Though he was Grandmother Liu’s own brother, he was the one most intent on bullying her. Madam Qian and her sons all took orders from him.
“Stop—stop it, I’m your—your grand-uncle…”
Shen Yuntan pressed a knee into his back, twisted a hand into his hair, and pounded his face with both fists, knocking out all his teeth as well.
Once his teeth were gone, she stood and kicked him viciously again and again.
“Chouya, Chouya, that’s enough, stop hitting them. Any more and you’ll kill someone.”
The village headman had arrived a while ago and had been trying to talk her down for a long time, but Shen Yuntan pretended not to hear. She still acted as if she hadn’t. She turned and walked toward the Liu family’s kitchen.
“What is she doing?”
A neighbor asked, but no one answered.
Shen Yuntan emerged quickly. She had just dug a tinderbox out of the Liu family’s storage shed. A gentle puff, and the flame leaped up.
Then, under everyone’s watching eyes, she tossed the tinderbox onto the roof.
Farmhouse roofs were all thatched, and this was the dry season. The flame met the dry thatch and roared up three or four feet high. Orange-red tongues of fire swept upward, and thick smoke billowed into the sky.
“No! No!”
This was the house where three generations of the Liu family lived. With her setting it ablaze, Old Man Liu and the others forgot their pain, scrambling up to call for help putting out the fire.
Shen Yuntan stood in the center of the yard, firelight flickering across her face, two bright red flames dancing in her pupils. Her lips curved slightly upward into a faint smile. A smile both infinitely gentle and infinitely cruel.
“You killed my Grandmother. I’m just collecting a little interest for now. I’ll be here to play with you slowly from now on.”
Outside the Liu family’s yard, a crowd of Qingshan Village villagers had gathered, but not one dared step forward to put out the fire, and not one dared make a sound.
This Chouya hadn’t exactly been weak or meek before. She was a bit withdrawn, rarely socialized, always came and went with her Grandmother, and never stirred up trouble on her own. But today she seemed like a different person…
Her eyes were too cold now, so cold no one dared approach. When she walked over, they all automatically parted to make way.
After watching her walk away, the village headman glanced at the burning Liu roof and gave orders. “Hurry, bring water to put out the fire! Their house burning is one thing, but don’t let it spread to the neighbors.”
Most of the villagers were simple and kind. The Liu family, relying on their many sons, acted arrogantly and unreasonably, and many neighbors didn’t get along with them.
Now, seeing the entire Liu family beaten down by Shen Yuntan and unable to get up, quite a few people felt they could finally breathe easy. Some even wished the Liu house would burn to the ground, and they were sluggish about fetching water to fight the fire.
By the time the fire was out, half an hour had passed.
The roof had burned through, even the beams had burned and collapsed, and much of the bedding and clothing in the various rooms had been destroyed.
In short, it was a scene of utter devastation.