"Is she dead? Why hasn't she moved for so long..."
"Er Bao, I'm... scared of... death. What should I do? Why hasn't Da Bao brought Wu Bao back yet?
"Er Bao, San Bao... could Da Bao and Wu Bao have been eaten by... some big, fierce beast?"
In a shabby house, two little boys less than six sat in the corner, holding hands. They looked at the motionless woman on the ground in horror. Although they were afraid to get close, they did not dare to leave the house.
The little ones mumbled in a low voice and sobbed in fear simultaneously. The small movements of their chattering directly woke up the impatient Mo Ruyue.
My head hurts!
The intense pain made Mo Ruyue frown. She didn't even open her eyes but subconsciously raised her hand and touched her forehead.
It was hot and sticky...
Mo Ruyue suddenly opened her eyes and looked at the blood on her fingertips. Her eyes became sharp and murderous. Had her head been split open?
She looked around...
What was this place?
Mo Ruyue pinched her temple. A rare trace of confusion appeared on her cold, indifferent face. Her memory gradually became clear.
She was a professional assassin. She had recently received an urgent mission to assassinate a politician in the United States with her partner, but they were ambushed.
Thinking of this, Mo Ruyue suddenly sat up.
"M-Moved, m-moved..." San[2] Bao, who had lost one of his front teeth, stammered as he looked in Mo Ruyue's direction. Suddenly, he screamed, hugged Er[1] Bao, and burst into tears.
"B-bad... B-bad mother... She's up!"
As soon as he started crying, the five-year-old Si[3] Bao, who was as timid as a mouse, also started crying. "Bad mother is alive! She's going to hit someone... Wuwu, Si Bao is so scared!"
Er Bao was stunned for a moment. After all, he was only a nine-year-old child. He watched as Mo Ruyue 'came to life and sat up.
The fear of being abused that had been instilled in him for a long time broke out, but he still stuttered to protect his siblings. "N-No, no, no, I'm not afraid. Big Brother isn't here, so I'll protect you."
The little guy tried his best to act like a brave little hero, but his trembling limbs and voice, as well as his pale face, betrayed the fear in his heart.
He trembled as he picked up the wooden stick in the corner and pointed it at Mo Ruyue. "Y-You... M-mother, did you turn into a ghost and have come to take revenge on big brother? You can't hurt big brother. You were the one who threw Wu[4] Bao into the mountains and sold us out. Big brother was angry; that's why he hit you!"
"Shut up! Don't cry." Mo Ruyue only felt that the little ones were crying and making a fuss and were extremely annoying. With a roar, she made the little ones shut up with some grievances.
She sat on the ground, her whole body in pain as if she had been crushed by a giant wheel 10,000 times.
Mo Ruyue looked at the three dirty and thin children. Their torn clothes were already too embarrassing to be called 'clothes'...
As for the three children in front of her, the words they had just mumbled and the familiar scene...
Mo Ruyue's heart was filled with an ominous premonition. This plot was simply too similar to a healing-type farming novel she had read not long ago.
The villain's stepmother in the original book had the same name as her. The original owner of her body had just married into the family, and the male protagonist in the book had left to join the army when he reached the right age. In the end, news of his death came not long after.
In the ancient feudal era depicted in the book, the original owner was a newlywed widow and was once said to be a jinx to her husband. Even the male protagonist's children were chased out for freeloading. The original owner had to live in a dilapidated house with her five stepchildren.
The original owner, who had hoped to live a good life by relying on the male protagonist, became perverted in silence, bullying the five children in different ways, almost tormenting the little ones to death.
In order not to starve to death, the original owner wanted to sell Er Bao, San Bao, and Si Bao. She lost her youngest daughter deep in the mountains in order to distract Da Bao, who was extremely strong.
Unexpectedly, when Da Bao found out the whole story, he directly smashed the original owner to death in a fit of rage.
When Mo Ruyue first saw this plot, she even scoffed.
She had never expected that she would come back to life and become the evil stepmother of the ultimate villain in this book!
Just as she was immersed in the thoughts of her previous life, the door of the broken courtyard was suddenly forced open. A middle-aged woman with a pockmarked face walked in.
She covered her nose and pretended to say, "Why is there a bloody smell in this broken courtyard? Oh, how did little Lady Qin end up with such a bloody head?"
The old woman crouched down and poked Mo Ruyue's forehead in a strange way.
The next moment, Mo Ruyue grabbed her wrist, and the woman screamed like a pig being slaughtered, "W-w-what are you doing? Let go! My hand is going to break."
Mo Ruyue expressionlessly wiped the blood off her forehead and said coldly, "Who allowed you to come in? Get out!"
"You ungrateful woman. Ouch, my hand..." The old woman admitted defeat and cried out in pain.
She finally managed to shake off Mo Ruyue and immediately stomped her feet in anger. "Mo Ruyue, you're too bold! You were the one who begged me to help you sell these dolls. It wasn't easy for me to find a buyer and negotiate a good price. Is this how you treat your benefactor?"
Her voice was extremely loud, and she kept shouting and shouting. Not only did she scare the children in the corner to tears, but even the neighbors were drawn over and crowded at the door to watch the show.
"Mo Ruyue still laid her hands on these children! Although she's the stepmom, she's still a member of the Qin family."
"It's a pity that the second son of the Qin family is dead. He only has five children... yet she still had the heart to beat them!"
The neighbor, Aunty Liu, couldn't stand it anymore. She couldn't help but come in, and curse, "Mo Ruyue, the news of Qin Ming's death has just come back. His bones have not even turned cold yet, and you want to sell his children. Aren't you afraid that his spirit will come and take your life?"
The rest of the people also followed and pointed at Mo Ruyue, scolding her.
Mo Ruyue frowned, annoyed at their noise. "All of you, shut up."
At this moment, her face was covered in blood, and her big eyes were full of cold pressure. She was completely different from her usual face of bullying the weak and fearing the strong. Nobody dared to make a sound for a while.
San Bao and Si Bao hugged each other and shivered. They cried and said softly, "Er Bao, when will Da Bao come back? I don't want to be sold..."
Er Bao's face was also pale with fear. He raised the wooden stick with force and shouted at Mo Ruyue and the old woman, "You two are bad women! Don't even think about selling us! When my big brother comes back, he will beat you up."
Although his voice was childish and fierce, he was only an eight or nine-year-old child after all. He did not have much presence, and this made the old woman laugh. "Look at this kid! He's so full of himself. He's much better than the other two weak little kids. This kid will definitely be sold to a good family."
As she said that, she reached out to pull Er Bao over.
Er Bao was so scared that he bit his lips tightly and waved the wooden stick randomly. "Don't come near me. Don't touch me, or else I'll kill you!!!"
The old woman accidentally got hit a few times and was hopping mad.
She pounced over and used her fat body to hold Er Bao down. She took out the wooden stick from his hand. "Bastard, how dare you hit me?! I'll teach you a lesson today."
As she said that, she took the wooden stick and was about to hit Er Bao. She looked extremely fierce and scared San Bao and Si Bao so much that they cried. "Er Bao! Don't hit Er Bao."
Notes:
[1]Er = Chinese character for 2, referring to second brother
[2]San = Chinese character for 3, referring to third brother
[3]Si = Chinese character for 4, referring to fourth brother
[4]Wu = Chinese character for 5, referring to fifth sister
[5]Da Bao = Eldest Brother