Gateway to Happiness - Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Stabbed With Thorns

“This—” Tong Yu Er looked at the man with a fierce expression on his face and a body packed with brute muscles. She felt afraid in the presence of this wretched man with a terrifying face.

This sort of person could be said to belong to a different world than hers. She felt disgusted to wake him up for questioning.

“Auntie, you should just stand by and watch!” Meanwhile, Lu Xiao Shu was excited at the idea.

They were quite a distance from the river, and she would not waste her energy to draw water from such a distance away. She looked around and ran towards a thorny bush, carefully plucking a few branches of thorns before she waved them around with a bright grin, “Auntie, watch how I wake him up!” Then, she whipped the man with the thorns.

“Ah! That’ll hurt him!” Xiao Xue’s face was a little pale as she cried out. Tong Yu Er did not see that coming as well and was taken aback.

Lu Xiao Shu pouted and said to Xiao Xue, “Xiao Xue, this man is a bad person! He used a club to knock Auntie out cold just now. If we’re dealing with bad people, we shouldn’t be nice, or else he’ll bully you!”

Xiao Xue tilted her head and thought about the things that happened just now before timidly nodding in agreement to her sister’s explanation. However, she still could not bear to look, so she turned around.

On the contrary, Lu Xiao Shu couldn’t care less as she unhesitatingly whipped the man twenty to thirty times. She had no mercy, slashing him with the thorns on his face and his neck, not to mention everywhere with his skin exposed. Droplets of blood slowly dripped from the wounds on his skin.

How much longer can a person endure such pain? Soon, the man knitted his eyebrows and grunted in pain. He slowly raised his head and tried to get a grasp of his surroundings. In the nick of time, he dodged the thorns that were sent towards his face.

“Ah! What are you doing? Stop, you crazy girl!” He cursed at Lu Xiao Shu. As soon as he woke up, he was shocked with cold sweat covering his body. Struggling to move, he realized that he had been tied up like a rice dumpling, making him even more shocked. He angrily roared, “Let me go, you brat! I swear I’ll beat you to death!”

“Let you go? Who are you? You are a fatso with big ears and a face that looks like a swine. A swine with a pig’s brain too! My grandmother’s pig would scream and squeak at me, and you’re just as stupid as that pig! Ah no, you’re stupider than it!” Lu Xiao Shu snapped as she fiercely slashed his face with the thorns, making him yell out a string of profanities as he screamed in agony.

“You dare to swear more? I’ll give you another slash if you curse another time!” Lu Xiao Shu gave a devilish laugh, provoking him further. Her piercing eyes were obviously taunting him, Go on! Say another curse word! I’m waiting!

The man was petrified, his lips, face, neck, and the rest of his body felt like it was on fire. Eventually, he did not dare to provoke Lu Xiao Shu further, so he held his tongue as his face twitched. He glared fiercely at her, cursing her silently in his mind.

“A pig will always be a pig. As expected, you’re greedy yet such a coward!” Lu Xiao Shu rolled her eyes at him and said, “Let me ask you this: My auntie has never offended you, so why did you knock her out and dragged her here for whatever sinister behavior you’re up to?”

The way Lu Xiao Shu worded her question was so smooth that Xiao Xue missed the meaning behind it. However, Tong Yu Er was ashamed and worried. She lowered her head as a pang of grief hit her heart, making her almost shed a drop of tear.

From the corner of her eye, Lu Xiao Shu noticed her startled look and realized how her auntie must have felt. As someone from the modern world, she was taking it too lightly, but her aunt was knowledgeable and grew up from a fine family. Being almost taken advantage of by a pervert was the same as being taken advantage of. How could she deal with it mentally? However, Lu Xiao Shu needed to say those words to get answers! Thus, Lu Xiao Shu said to Xiao Xue, “You should go keep watch up ahead, Xiao Xue. If anyone comes near, don’t let them get here.”

Auntie would be less ashamed if there were one less person around.

Xiao Xue never had an interest in things like this. Since she was a little afraid to see so much blood, she quietly nodded and walked away immediately. Sure enough, Tong Yu Er shot a grateful glance at Lu Xiao Shu.

The middle-aged man’s dark eyes turned slightly, smiling ominously with his yellowish teeth. He sent a perverted gazed towards Tong Yu Er, “Me, sinister? Little girl, you must have been mistaken. It was obvious that this woman was trying to seduce me. Heh! She said— ouch!”

Before he could finish his sentence, his mouth suffered a whip of the thorns. He glared at Lu Xiao Shu with hatred as he could taste the iron in his mouth.

“You!” Tong Yu Er was shaking with anger, and her face paled as tears threatened to fall.

“Cut your jokes!” Lu Xiao Shu snapped, “I’ll beat you to death if you dare to give me more nonsense!”

The man scoffed and glared at Lu Xiao Shu. If looks could kill, he would have slaughtered her with the expression on his face. To think that he was greater than her in terms of age, gender, experience, body shape, and strength, yet he could not even defend himself from being bullied by a little girl not more than six years old. If he could endure such a humiliation, would he still be a man?

“What are you glaring at?” Lu Xiao Shu spatted, “I’ll dig your eyeballs out and kill you! Heh! Don’t think that I’m just kidding. There’s no one around here. If I knock you out and tie some heavy rocks to you before dumping you into the river, no one would find out that you were gone!”

The man widened his eyes in shock, stunned by her calm yet dangerous expression. He felt an icy chill spreading out from his heart, freezing his limbs. He was mad at himself for being useless. He had lived for so many years and spent most of his life around knives and gore with countless pigs dead by his hands. Yet why was he feeling afraid in front of a little girl? However, he knew that the chills that he felt were in fact, real.

Seeing how she was treating him with an air of carefree, he believed that her words were simply not a joke to scare him.

Most importantly, the little girl might not know that he did not have any family, and he was often away, rarely staying at his dilapidated hut. Hence, if he did die here, no one would realize it soon. They might think that he was just away on a trip! Even if a long time had passed and someone found it strange, why would they worry over something like that and waste their effort looking for him when they were not his family? They would at most gossip and guess his whereabouts. In the eyes of the people, he was not worth more than their dinner; a hen that would lay eggs was more valuable than him.

The girl was right; no one would know that he was gone.

Lu Xiao Shu smirked, “You better tell me the truth. Then, I might consider sparing your life. Otherwise, you can prepare yourself for turning into fish food!”

The man licked his bloodied lips, there was a thick taste of his mouth. The strong smell of blood came from the wounds on his body that were still fresh, reminding him that a wise man does not fight when the odds are against him. This little girl was not simple to deal with!

He was quiet and hesitant with an uncertain expression as if he was in a dilemma.

Since he stopped spouting nonsense and hurtful words towards Tong Yu Er, she was slightly relieved. She wanted to know the answers to Lu Xiao Shu’s question, so she focused and listened in.

“If I tell you, will you really let me go?” The man glanced at Lu Xiao Shu.

Lu Xiao Shu rolled her eyes at him, “I want the truth! If you tell me the truth, I’ll consider it, but if you lied, you can prepare to become a feast for the fish!”

He must be joking! Let him go right after that? Release him without teaching him a lesson? It would not be as simple as that!

The man suddenly got worked up, silently cursing the little witch, but he sighed in annoyance, “It was me who was lustful. When I was selling pork a few days ago, I shouldn’t have placed my eyes— Ouch! Why did you hit me?”

He was not done speaking when his lips and cheeks were burning in pain again. It agonized him so severely that he struggled relentlessly as he glared at the little girl. However, the knots tied by Lu Xiao Shu would not let him escape so easily. Otherwise, her technique would have been terrible if he did manage to get loose.

Lu Xiao Shu barked, “I guess you’re not giving up unless you’re placed in your grave, huh? I said that I wanted the truth! The truth! Understood? Stop messing with us! Do you think I’m an ignorant little three years old?”

The man huffed in dissatisfaction, glaring at her in anger: You might not be three, but you’re not much older than three years old. Who on earth taught this brat all these things? How could she become such an evil thing? I wonder what she’ll become when she grows up. If anyone ended up marrying you, his ancestors must have abandoned him!

Lu Xiao Shu scoffed, “You passed by our house a few days ago, so you should know who we are. My auntie is the juren’s wife. If you don’t have any reason, I bet you wouldn’t dare to kidnap her even if you were really lustful! There wouldn’t be anything more important than your life, right? Anyone in their right mind wouldn’t take this risk! You can try to fool me again if you have a death wish!” Lu Xiao Shu fixed a deathly glare at him.

The man widened his eyes in shock, his mouth hung open in amazement. He was skeptical that this little girl, who had her hands on her hips and her head held high, was not merely five years old. Was it a trick of the light?

He was still in a daze, but Lu Xiao Shu had no time to wait for his response. Something in her mind clicked as she coldly demanded, “Would you perhaps know who Madame Xia from the Miao Family’s village is? Was it her who ordered you to do this?”

As soon as she said that, not only did the middle-aged man gasp, but Tong Yu Er let out a cough in shock.

Madame Xia? Could it really be her…

The more Tong Yu Er thought about it, the more she was sure that it might be true. Other than Madame Xia, there was no one else who hated her and her husband that badly. Besides, no one had the guts to do something like this! Since Miao Tian Bao had been put under house arrest, she would hate them even more. Tong Yu Er could not help but feel a bubbling anger deep inside her. She was distressed, angry, and bitter. How evil could that woman be?