Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The guards moved at once. A few moments later, Xie Er and Xie Er’s Wife had been beaten until they lay motionless on the ground.

Xie Er glared up at me and snarled, “You shrew! How dare you hit me? When my elder brother comes back, I’ll make him divorce you! And you, you little bastard! I worked myself to the bone raising you, and this is how you repay me…”

Xie Er’s Wife chimed in, “We’re Goudan’s elders. What’s wrong with disciplining a child? He’s lazy, greedy, and rotten to the core. Teaching him a lesson is only right and proper.”

They were still talking a mile a minute. Looked like they had plenty of strength left.

I wanted to dismount in some dashing, graceful way and give them a proper lesson.

But the horse was too tall. I didn’t dare jump.

In the end, I had no choice but to turn around, stick my backside in the air, and carefully climb down.

Sigh. How humiliating…

The female guard steadied me with care, the corners of her mouth curving despite herself.

Xie Lanting, on the other hand, seemed to have mastered it without any instruction at all. He leaped down from the horse with an easy grace and stood beside me, his expression carrying a trace of trust and admiration.

I lifted his sleeve and said coldly, “His father sends you money every year, hoping you’ll treat him well. Is this how you raise a child?”

The whip marks on his body made everyone suck in a sharp breath, but in the village, beating children was considered perfectly normal.

Someone immediately stepped forward to play peacemaker and put in a good word for Xie Er.

Xie Lanting simply took off his shirt and showed everyone his wounds.

At that, the crowd fell silent.

Then they began condemning Xie Er for being so cruel, asking how he could do something so inhuman.

I felt a little gratified. Had he been protecting me just now?

He was actually a very good child. He knew gratitude, and he understood the situation clearly.

He had simply been unlucky. All this way, he had been alone, never meeting anyone who would shield him. That was why, for the smallest bit of sweetness, he would desperately try to prove he was loved-confirming it again and again, hurting again and again, offering himself up to the abyss and dragging others into hell with him.

I did not think what he had done was right, nor did I want to make excuses for him.

I simply felt that I could do something-something that would help him truly find himself again and seize the fate that should have been his.

I straightened Xie Lanting’s clothes for him. Then I gripped the horsewhip and lashed it down over Xie Er and his wife without holding back.

“I am your elder sister-in-law, and I am also your elder. Since you don’t know how to behave like decent people, I’ll teach you.”

“The two of you are stupid and vicious, greedy for money and black-hearted. Only people with no conscience would abuse a child the way you have.”

“If your brother finds out his son was bullied and can still swallow that insult, that’s his business. But I can’t swallow it today, so the two of you can just endure it.”

“If I get divorced in the future, I’ll come straight here with a blade and chop you both to pieces. After all, a divorced woman can’t go on living anyway. Before I die, I might as well drag you both down to hell with me.”

Xie Er and his wife screamed again and again.

They knew when to bend, at least, and kept begging for mercy.

But I found it very fake.

Their acting was terrible, completely perfunctory. They were only trying to get beaten less, and I could tell the moment I heard it.

Suddenly, a child rushed out and shouted, “You’re not allowed to bully my father and mother!”

He threw himself over Xie Er and his wife, and I stopped.

Xie Er’s Wife immediately pulled the child into her arms protectively. Hatred swept across her face as she looked at me, then at Xie Lanting, making no effort to hide the murderous intent in her eyes.

I believed that if she had the chance to do it all over again, she would kill Xie Lanting without the slightest hesitation.

Yet the way she held her own child in her arms showed her love for him was very real.

The child broke free from Xie Er’s Wife’s embrace and lunged at Xie Lanting, kicking and hitting him.

“I’ll beat you to death! Beat you to death! You stole my food and drink, and now you brought people here to bully my parents! I’ll beat you to death! Beat you to death!”

Xie Lanting did not dare fight back at all. He even instinctively crouched down and covered his head.