"Alright, alright." Zhang Dabao stepped forward and raised his hand to touch the young girl's face. Suddenly, he stumbled and fell to the ground.
It had rained earlier, so the ground was damp; muddy puddles still glistened with water, which hadn't yet been evaporated by the sun.
Grandma Jiang, who used to sit on the ground crying, knew well enough today to stand while she cried, for fear of dirtying her clothes.
A stone bounced off his bent leg and embedded itself in the mud.
"Who! Who hit me!"
The villagers burst into laughter.
He fell down on his own, who was there to blame?
Zhang Dabao got up, not wanting to linger here any longer, and shook the mud and water off his hands before trying to grab Jiang Tanyue.
"Smack!"
"Ah!"
Zhang Dabao had been raised as a precious treasure at home, with idle hands and tender skin, even more so than the village girls. He had never done any farm work. A stone hit the back of his hand, leaving a red mark.
Before he had a chance to react, his face stung, and he couldn't help but cry out again.
This time, the villagers could clearly see.
The stone had come flying from behind.
"Make way, make way, I'm going home."
Grandma Jiang was anxious; with the village chief's intervention after he returned, today's business would be delayed. That old woman from the Zhang family was sure to try to get the fifty taels back. Pah! Once the money was in her hands, it was hers, and no one else could take it away.
Grandma Jiang had even thought about how to spend this small amount of money.
She would save thirty taels, and use a little bit of the rest to buy some meat and cook it with bamboo shoots. She would take a bite of coarse grain steamed buns to go with it, which would be so fragrant... The tuition fees for her eldest grandson would be covered... and so would the money for her youngest son's exams...
At a glance from Grandma Jiang, Qian Zhenzhu, the second son's daughter-in-law, stepped forward, reaching out to grab Lu Jingzhi's face. "Such a vicious little girl, even though your mother is eager to remarry, she never taught you and your sister better. Instead of going to the old house to help cut pig grass and feed the chickens, you run up the mountain like children, growing up like a crazy little girl..."
Lu Jingzhi, having gone in and out of the deep mountain, looked dirty in her patched coarse cloth clothes, which were now even dirtier, stained with mud and grass juice, and even some thorny fruits from shrubs.
Her yellow, dry hair was even messier than Jiang Tanyue's.
Looking at her appearance, she sure looked like the little crazy girl from the mountains.
Of course, Lu Jingzhi wouldn't let that hand touch her face. She immediately crouched down, shifting her feet lightly, and at the same time, the stick in her hand landed on Qian Zhenzhu's head.
Qian Zhenzhu cried out in pain.
This stick, a thick branch torn from a tree, still had some small leaves on its lower half. As it swiped across her head, it ruffled her hair and even took away a few strands.
The villagers were stunned, as was Qian Zhenzhu. No one expected this seemingly meek and shy girl to pull off such a stunt.
It was as if time had come to a standstill.
It wasn't until the viscous blood from her head dripped down and splashed onto the ground that Qian Zhenzhu reacted, crying out again, "I'll kill you, you little worthless thing!" She reached out with her calloused hand that often did farm work and tried to slap Lu Jingzhi's face.
If she had actually been slapped, she would have been in pain for several days.
Her movement was simply too slow, only slightly faster than a zombie two days before doomsday. Lu Jingzhi employed her old trick, crouching down, spinning on her toes, and disappearing before Qian Zhenzhu's eyes. Qian Zhenzhu just felt a blur in front of her, and immediately after, her waist ached. She followed in the footsteps of Zhang Dabao and fell into the mud puddle.
The whole scene, from Lu Jingzhi's entrance to Qian Zhenzhu's fall, happened in the blink of an eye.
Lu Jingzhi wasn't bothered by how dirty Qian Zhenzhu looked, as she walked over gracefully, squatting down and whispering something in her ear.
Qian Zhenzhu's cursing abruptly stuck in her throat.
Blood smeared her squinting eyes, making her look both ridiculous and comical.