Her personality used to be withdrawn, and she never talked to anyone. But now she was winning with her tongue, speaking with reason and logic, laying out her arguments point by point. The way the villagers looked at her changed again.
How did this Chouya know all this?
The question rose in everyone’s mind, but no one had an answer.
Soon enough, they came up with one themselves. Grandmother Liu had worked for a wealthy household in her younger years. She must have heard those officials and young masters discussing such things, then taught some of it to her granddaughter.
Liu Sandong, now on the back foot, was shaken by the aura she gave off. He stared at her as if he had seen a ghost, doubt churning in his mind. Is this really that weak, ugly little wretch?
Ugly she still was. The person hadn’t changed.
So it seemed she had been pretending all along.
Seeing her utterly unyielding attitude, Liu Sandong ground his teeth in fury, his eyes fixed on her with sinister malice. “You’re determined to go against me?”
“Same as I said. If you’ve got the guts, go file your complaint. I’m just a lone girl with nothing to my name. A barefoot one doesn’t fear the one wearing shoes.”
Shen Yuntan could see right through his character with a single glance. This was a cold, venomous snake. She had no intention of letting him linger, but she wouldn’t strike him openly. Her words remained as hard as ever. “At worst, I’ll face you in court. Exile, imprisonment, whatever. With your whole family for company, I’m not afraid!”
Then she went straight for his weak spot. “I’m willing to risk everything. Let’s see if you, a respected xiucai, are willing to risk your rank and future.”
“You—!”
That was indeed Liu Sandong’s soft underbelly, his fatal weakness.
If this really went to the county court, with Grandmother Liu’s death on the scales, the Liu family stood a strong chance of losing. And then he, a xiucai, would never be able to hold his head up in the county again.
Seeing that he no longer dared to bluster, Shen Yuntan pressed her advantage. “Your Liu family has a basketful of dirty deeds to its name. If I take the lead and file a complaint at the courthouse, asking the magistrate to hear the case, I believe plenty of people in this village and the surrounding ones would gladly join in to settle scores with your pack of trash. The question is, Scholar Liu, whether you can hold up under that.”
“Chouya, if you go to the courthouse to file a complaint, I’ll go with you. I’ll even testify for you.”
An old hunter spoke up first. His family lived next door to the Liu family, and the two households had been fighting and brawling over land boundaries for decades. The grudge ran deep. The only reason he hadn’t gone all-out against the Liu family was that he was wary of Liu Sandong’s status as a xiucai.
Yesterday, he had watched Shen Yuntan beat the entire Liu family from start to finish, and it had set his blood boiling. He had wanted to step in and stomp on them himself, just to let out a breath of foul air.
Later, when she set the Liu house on fire, his family hadn’t lifted a finger to help carry water. They only cared that the flames didn’t spread to their own house. They stood by watching the show, wishing the wind would blow harder and everyone else would carry water slower.
With him leading the way, an old woman who was Madam Qian’s sworn enemy chimed in. “Chouya, you did good beating them yesterday. That nest of rotten things has been asking for it. If he goes to the courthouse to sue you, I can’t walk well, but I’ll have my son carry me there. We common folk will make a trip before the magistrate too, and ask him to sort out right and wrong for us.”
“Chouya, don’t be afraid. We’ll go with you. The Liu family throws its weight around the village just because he’s a xiucai, grabbing whatever they see, running wild. We’ll all go file a complaint against him together.”
“That’s right. Sue him. Strip that layer of skin off him and see how he swaggers then.”
“His family came to rob your house, rob your money, and killed your grandmother. They’re no different from bandits and bullies. If the county magistrate is an upright man, he’ll arrest them and throw them in jail first. Don’t be afraid of him.”
“That’s right, Chouya. Don’t fear him. Stand up to the Liu family. We’ll help you.”
“…”
Seeing that most of the villagers and neighbors were on her side, Liu Sandong was seething with cold fury, but he also feared they really would band together and go to the courthouse. He could only snarl viciously. “You ugly little wretch, this business of you beating my whole family half to death, I’m not done with you. You just wait.”
“Wait for what? Settling it now is better.”
Shen Yuntan couldn’t be bothered with empty threats. She went straight to action.
She lunged forward, her right hand snatching his collar, and dragged the grown man in his early twenties through the courtyard gate like a rag doll.
“What are you doing?”
Liu Sandong panicked and struggled with all his might.
But Shen Yuntan used her inner strength, and he couldn’t break free at all. She twisted and flung him, and he landed face-first in the dirt. His scholar’s cap went crooked, and his black boots nearly flew off.
“I wanted to beat you yesterday, but you got lucky and escaped. Today you delivered yourself to my door. Of course I’m going to take the opportunity.”
Seeing her raise her hand, Liu Sandong scrambled backward in terror. “You wouldn’t dare! I’m a xiucai, I hold a rank. You can’t beat me!”
He was a respected scholar. Even the village headman had to treat him politely in Qingshan Village. And this slip of a girl dared lay hands on him?
“Don’t think I don’t know it was you behind the scenes, egging on that pack of animals in your family. All the dirty schemes were yours. They were just the guns you aimed.”
“So what if you’re a xiucai? You think hanging that sign around your neck means I won’t dare beat you?”
“Today I’m beating you, and I’m stripping that skin off you!”
Shen Yuntan was in the mood for a good morning workout anyway. She rolled up her sleeves and got to work, grabbing a fistful of his hair, her fists raining down on him like a violent storm.
Bang! Bang! Bang…
Her punches landed loud and solid, every blow hitting flesh, and Liu Sandong howled.
He usually put on airs because he was a xiucai, wearing his long robe every day and playing the refined gentleman, always careful about his appearance in public. In plain terms, he put on a fine show.
But now he was rolling on the ground like a live maggot, his hair disheveled and scattered, torn out in clumps all over the ground. His pale face was covered in blood streaks and slap marks she had deliberately clawed into him, and his precious robe was covered in black footprints.
“Good beating! Chouya, hit him harder!”
The old hunter’s wife shouted, egging her on. “Slap him a hundred times, knock him senseless, and I’ll give you eggs to build up your health.”
“He can’t even beat a girl. What a spineless coward.” Someone scoffed loudly.
“That’s not fighting, that’s getting beaten. His arms and legs are like hemp stalks. He didn’t touch Chouya once. What a waste.”
“Oh, he’s the Liu family’s precious treasure. He’s never worked the fields in his life. He won’t even pick up an overturned oil bottle. Doing rough work would lower his status. He’s spent his whole life holding a brush to make a living. He’s nothing like you rough old men.”
“Don’t underestimate Chouya. This girl can really fight.”
“That’s right. Yesterday so many people from the Liu family attacked, and not one of them landed a hit on her. She caught every one of them and beat them until they couldn’t get up.”
“If Chouya had been home the day something happened to Grandmother Liu, she probably wouldn’t have died.”
“Chouya’s always been around. Watching her work, chop wood, carry water, she never seemed that strong. She’s really different these two days.”
“Grandmother Liu always said it’s better to avoid trouble than to seek it, not to fuss over things with people. She probably taught her granddaughter the same. When people cursed her or bullied her, she ignored it and didn’t make a fuss. It seems Grandmother Liu’s death is what set her off.”