Living like a widow? My rough neighbor is coaxing me to have a baby every night.

Chapter 39 brings us to this hell once again.

The cart creaked and groaned on the bumpy dirt road, kicking up dust that made it hard to open one's eyes.

Li Xianglian was curled up on the cart, her hands and feet tightly bound by the thick hemp ropes used for feeding livestock. The ropes had already dug into her flesh, chafing her skin and causing beads of blood to seep out and stick to the hemp fibers.

With each jolt of the vehicle, her skeletal frame would bump against the hard wooden board.

"Get your feet moving, you all!"

Niu Guihua pushed the cart handle, her horse-like face covered in oil and sweat, but she couldn't hide the joy in her eyes and brows. "We have to get home before dark! Zhang the butcher has to come pick him up first thing tomorrow morning. If he looks tired and listless, he'll try to bargain with us for a lower price!"

Li Dabao covered his nose with one hand, blood still seeping from between his fingers, and held the carrying pole he had used in the fight with the other hand, occasionally tapping it on the cart floor, making Li Xianglian's eardrums ring.

"You bitch! You ruined my face!"

Li Dabao spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the ground. "Just you wait! When we get home, I'll starve you for two days! After I get the money from selling you and buy a new wife, I'll eat and drink my fill every day, while you'll be slaughtered like a pig at Zhang the butcher's house!"

Following behind were a group of Li family brothers, who had lost the ferocity they displayed during the fight. Each of them carried a hoe on their shoulder, a cigarette dangling from their mouths, and loudly recounted Qin Rushan's reckless behavior. Finally, they turned the topic to Zhang the butcher's dead ex-wife, letting out a few malicious laughs.

Li Xianglian closed her eyes, her cheek pressed against the earthy smell of the cart floor.

She neither looked nor listened.

My mind is filled with that scene from just now.

The man was kneeling on the ground, his back soaked with blood that was still dripping down his waistband.

Even when he could barely stand, the axe in his hand remained firmly embedded in the door panel, deeply etched into the wood.

That was taken for her.

Li Xianglian clenched her back teeth tightly, her mouth filled with the taste of rust.

She can't die.

Qin Rushan risked his life to save her; if she were to contemplate suicide, she would truly be letting him down!

Before the crowd had completely dispersed, gossip and whispers, as if eager for more drama, buzzed around like flies.

Liu Chunhua leaned against the old locust tree with its bark peeling off, and pulled out a handful of raw melon seeds from somewhere, cracking them open with a loud "crack crack crack".

Watching the cart gradually disappear at the end of the dirt road, and Li Xianglian bound like a dumpling and unable to move on it, she felt a sense of relief wash over her, more so than drinking a bowl of cool well water on a hot day.

The humiliation I suffered at Qin Rushan's place yesterday has all gone downhill now.

"This is what you call karma!" Liu Chunhua spat the sunflower seed shells out of her mouth onto the ground, her voice shrill and piercing.

"She always acts like a delicate, innocent flower, bewitching men. Now look what's happened! She's been dragged off to sell her body like a dead pig. Let's see how she can be so seductive now!"

The women nearby exchanged glances, pursed their lips, and didn't dare to respond.

Liu Chunhua, relying on her father being the Party Secretary, is sharp-tongued and ruthless, and no one wants to cross her.

Only Aunt Wang from next door frowned, unable to bear it any longer: "Chunhua, watch your mouth. We're all women, and Xianglian has had a hard life. What kind of person is that Zhang the butcher? His first wife was beaten to death! If someone really dies, aren't you afraid that if you keep making these sarcastic remarks, ghosts will knock on your door in the middle of the night?"

"Pah!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Chunhua's triangular eyes immediately bulged. She stopped cracking her melon seeds and pointed at Aunt Wang's nose, launching into a tirade: "Wang Guilan, what are you pretending to be, some kind of saint? Li Xianglian's life is miserable? Who's lucky then? I just can't stand her vixen-like face! Marrying into the butcher's family is her fate. Even if she gets beaten to death, it's her own doing! What, you feel sorry for her? If you feel sorry for her, why don't you go marry in her place? It'll be good for getting rid of that old widower Zhang!"

"You... how could you be so wicked!"

Aunt Wang was so choked up that her face turned red, and her finger pointing at Liu Chunhua trembled. After struggling for a long time, she could only manage to utter this one sentence.

"Immoral? This is what they call 'the wicked will get their just desserts'!" Liu Chunhua rolled her eyes and couldn't be bothered to pay any more attention to Aunt Wang.

Only a few gossipy women gathered around, nudging Liu Chunhua with mischievous grins: "Hey, Chunhua, now that you've driven Xianglian away, are you still thinking about that ruthless Qin Rushan? I heard he was seriously injured in the army. He's all show and no substance, a useless silver spearhead. Aren't you afraid of living like a widow, suffering so much at night that you're picking at the walls for comfort?"

Liu Chunhua paused, glanced back at the woman, showing no embarrassment whatsoever, but instead revealing a mysterious confidence.

"What's there to be afraid of getting hurt? Even if he's crippled, he's still a wounded tiger, his physique is still there! Didn't you see his bronze muscles just now? His arms are thicker than my thighs! With that build, how could his thing be anything but good?"

I've already inquired; it's just a minor mental issue, not a complete breakdown! My dad has plenty of money. We can take him to a top hospital in the provincial capital, administer the most expensive medication, and as long as he can stand up, even just a slight tremor will be enough to shake our kang (heated brick bed) down! Then you old women will only be able to watch with envy!

These words were incredibly crude, and several elderly women blushed with embarrassment. One old woman who sewed shoe soles even spat out, "Pah! A young woman like you, not even married yet, and you have no sense of propriety when it comes to uttering such vulgarities! Aren't you ashamed!"

"Ashamed? Can shame feed you?"

Liu Chunhua rolled her eyes, hands on her hips, not giving an inch. "Hey Aunt Li, stop pretending to be some virtuous woman! Last time the commune showed a movie, didn't you go off to the woods with your deadbeat husband? Everyone knows what men and women are like, right? Stop acting all high and mighty!"

"You...you brat!" Aunt Li was so choked up that her face turned red and her neck bulged. She almost threw away the shoe sole she was sewing halfway through.

Looking at Liu Chunhua's shameless behavior, some people pointed and cursed her for being shameless, while others secretly wondered what kind of person Qin Rushan was, that he could bewitch this proud and arrogant young lady like this.

But Liu Chunhua had a smug look on her face, like a rooster that had won a fight, humming an unknown little tune, and swaying her big buttocks as she walked away.

Liu Chunhua cursed vehemently, but her slanted eyes couldn't help but glance at the Zhao family's courtyard again, unwilling to give up.

The courtyard gate was wide open, and Qin Rushan was still kneeling on the ground, the crimson stain on his back making one dizzy.

The axe in his hand was still firmly embedded in the door panel. Although he was in a sorry state, the murderous aura he still exuded could make people shiver from a distance.

She swallowed, partly out of craving and partly out of fear.

The sound of that axe chopping up the millstone is still ringing in my ears, and now I'm rushing over to fawn over him?

That's like an old man eating poison—he's tired of living.

This man is now like a wild beast with a wounded head; anyone who touches him will die.

"Hmph, let you be smug for one night."

Liu Chunhua's mind was racing with calculations, and a sinister smile curled at the corner of her lips.

Once Niu Guihua delivers the person to Zhang the butcher's house, the matter will be considered settled.

Butcher Zhang was a ruthless pig-slaughterer, wielding a boning knife with unparalleled skill. He controlled the pork supply for half the brigade, and even the commune secretary had to offer him a cigarette when he met him.

No matter how ruthless Qin Rushan is, can he be more ruthless than a butcher's knife?

By daybreak, Li Xianglian will be nothing more than meat on the Zhang family's chopping board, having been tormented all night by that butcher who reeks of pork fat, and will have long since turned into a mushy mess.

A worn-out woman and a butcher, what a perfect match!

Even if Qin Rushan wanted to snatch it then, he would have to consider his own strength and whether he could still want that piece of trash that had been played with by another man.

Once the man is completely desperate, heartbroken, and has nowhere to vent his anger, then Miss Liu will bring him fine wine and medicine, and gently plead with him...

Wouldn't that be a piece of cake?

Thinking of this, Liu Chunhua felt the fire in her heart burn even brighter, and she even wished it would get dark right now so she could quickly turn the page.

"We'll see. Good things come to those who wait."

She tossed the last handful of sunflower seed shells into the air, dusted off her hands, swayed her hips, and walked away contentedly in her plastic sandals.

As the sun began to set, the dilapidated walls of the Li family compound finally came into view.

Niu Guihua kicked open the courtyard gate and, together with Li Dabao, roughly dragged Li Xianglian off the car and threw her into the dark woodshed in the corner of the yard.

With a loud thud, her back slammed hard against the woodpile, the pain causing her vision to go black.

With a loud bang, the two woodshed doors were slammed shut, and a rusty iron padlock was hung on them.

The woodshed was cold and damp, filled with the smell of musty straw and old dust.

Before Li Xianglian could recover from the pain, she heard hurried footsteps coming from the courtyard.

Li Laogen, who was usually so quiet you could barely utter a sound, suddenly appeared out of some rat hole.

He was still clutching a pipe in his hand, looking at his relatives who were filled with murderous intent in the yard, and then at his eldest daughter who had been thrown into the woodshed. He turned pale with fright.

"Osmanthus... Osmanthus! What's going on?"

Li Laogen trembled, wanting to step forward but not daring to. "Why...why did you bring Xianglian back tied up? What did she do wrong?"