How Dare I?

"Ah!" Er Gouzi let out a terrified scream, his limbs flailing wildly in the air.

"Doggie!" Village Chief Li and Li Wangshi cried out in heartrending unison, lunging forward like mad to snatch back the child.

"Get lost!" Fang Yuan did not even look at them, casually kicking out with both feet!

Bang! Bang!

Village Chief Li took a kick to the stomach. With a muffled groan, he clutched his belly and dropped to his knees, nearly vomiting.

Li Wangshi was kicked in the shoulder instead. She screamed as she staggered backward, then landed hard on her backside, her hair disheveled and her appearance utterly bedraggled.

The next moment, beneath everyone's horrified stares, Fang Yuan swung up a palm as broad as a cattail fan toward Er Gouzi's chubby face—

—and slapped down without the slightest mercy!

Slap! The crisp, resounding smack stunned the entire crowd!

"This slap is for stealing other people's things!" Fang Yuan's voice was icy.

"Waaah!" Er Gouzi saw stars from the blow. Half his face instantly swelled red as he wailed like a pig being slaughtered.

Slap!

"This slap is for using your mouth to wound others!"

Slap!

"This slap is for being so young, yet so vicious-hearted!"

With every sentence Fang Yuan spoke, he delivered another savage slap!

Sometimes, actions carried more force than words!

The sight alone sent chills down every watching villager's spine, their teeth chattering!

They had never seen such ruthless methods, methods so unconcerned with the fact that the other party was a child!

Village Chief Li and Li Wangshi struggled on the ground, trying to rise, only for Fang Yuan to stomp them flat again with one foot.

At first, Er Gouzi continued crying and cursing. "You dare hit me! I'll have my father kill you! I'll have my uncle kill you!"

Fang Yuan paid him no heed and delivered several more slaps!

After those slaps, every trace of his arrogance had been beaten out of him, leaving only terror and agonizing pain.

He cried so hard he could barely catch his breath. No more tough words came out of his mouth; he could only glare at Fang Yuan with utter venom.

Would Fang Yuan indulge that look from him?

"You still dare glare at me?"

He made as if to raise his hand again.

"Stop!!" An aged but furious shout came from beyond the crowd.

At the sound, the villagers hurriedly moved aside and opened a path.

The Fang Family's Clan Elder, his beard and hair white as snow, came hurrying over with the support of a young man.

Seeing that the Fang Family's Clan Elder had arrived, the crowd thought, wasn't Fang Yuan about to become even more lawless?

Village Chief Li's face immediately fell. The Fang Family's Clan Elder had come—surely he would stand on Fang Yuan's side.

Fang Family Village was a large village. Besides the Fang surname, there were other clans as well, and the man who had arrived was an elder of the Fang Family's main line!

As soon as the Fang Family Clan Elder entered the courtyard, he first saw Village Chief Li and his wife lying on the ground after being kicked down.

Then he saw Er Gouzi, held in Fang Yuan's grip, his face swollen like a pig's head as he cried himself hoarse.

Finally, his gaze fell on the expressionless Fang Yuan, and his beard trembled violently with fury!

Without asking about the cause or the circumstances, he slammed his cane heavily against the ground and pointed at Fang Yuan as he sternly berated him.

"Fang Yuan! You little wretch! Did all those books you read go into a dog's belly?! It would be one thing if you failed to earn a scholarly title, but now you have even cast aside the morals of being human?!

"In broad daylight, you dared attack the Headman and brutally beat a child so young!

"You... you are simply the disgrace of our Fang Clan! Release him at once!"

The moment he arrived, without distinguishing black from white or right from wrong, he placed every bit of blame on Fang Yuan's head.

The next moment, the Fang Family Clan Elder shoved Liu Wanwan aside, tremulously helped Village Chief Li to his feet, and had the young man beside him assist Li Wangshi, who was crying to high heaven and beating the earth.

Liu Wanwan staggered from the shove and nearly fell!

Fang Yuan caught her with quick eyes and swift hands, his gaze turning cold!

The VIP member reading experience has been optimized. Tap the middle of the screen to bring up the menu, where you can conveniently select "Settings," "Previous Page," "Next Page," or "Back to Top."

Without allowing Fang Yuan to explain, the elder's grizzled beard quivered with rage as he struck his cane heavily against the ground, sending a few specks of dust flying.

Judging by his emotion, anyone ignorant of the situation would have thought Fang Yuan had committed some unforgivable crime of betraying his master and ancestors!

"Lawless! Utterly lawless!" The Clan Elder did not even look at Fang Yuan, speaking only to Village Chief Li and his wife in a grief-stricken tone.

"Headman, you have suffered a fright. Madam Li, you have suffered greatly. This old man has failed in his discipline, allowing such a rebellious and vicious fiend to emerge from our clan!"

Village Chief Li clutched his still-throbbing stomach. Hearing those words, his eyes shifted. This old fool had not come to help Fang Yuan?

His back immediately straightened a little.

Pointing at Fang Yuan, he wailed to the elder, "Seventh Uncle-Grandfather! You must uphold justice for us! This Fang Yuan... he... he failed to steal something, so he tried to beat us to death!

"He would not even spare a child of only a few years old! Look at what he did to my Doggie!"

Li Wangshi instantly joined in with loud sobs, pushing Er Gouzi, whose half-swollen face trembled in terror, forward.

"Heavens damn him! What if my son has been beaten senseless? That heartless little thief!"

The Clan Elder glanced at Er Gouzi's red, swollen cheek, then turned to Fang Yuan and launched into a blistering rebuke.

"Fang Yuan! Have you no sense of rules at all? The Headman is the head of the local district and represents the government's dignity! How dare you lay hands on him?

"And this child is still young. Even if he has done wrong, he should be properly taught. How could you strike so heavily?

"Where is the bearing of a scholar? You have disgraced the Fang Family beyond measure!"

He gave Fang Yuan no chance to speak, his tone becoming ever harsher.

"I said long ago that you were not one to stay peaceful! I knew you would cause trouble! And now you have indeed stirred up a calamity, even daring to attack the Headman!"

The elder took a breath, his cane nearly poking Fang Yuan in the nose.

"Now, immediately kowtow and admit your fault to the Headman! And that Gold bracelet... no, you must also pay compensation for medical treatment!

"Perhaps this matter can still be settled peacefully! Otherwise, do not blame the clan for opening the ancestral hall, invoking the Family Law, and expelling you from the Fang Family!"

Village Chief Li and his wife could not stop smug looks from spreading over their faces as they glared viciously at Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan stood where he was, listening to this upside-down, black-and-white-reversed scolding.

Then he gave a very soft laugh, one without a shred of warmth.

"Oh? I thought it was a Clan Elder from the Li Family who had come!"

The Fang Family Clan Elder's expression darkened.

"Seventh Uncle-Grandfather," Fang Yuan said, his voice calm enough to be frightening.

"You did not ask a single question before deciding it was all my fault. You only saw Village Chief Li lying on the ground. You only saw this child's swollen face."

He paused, shifting his gaze toward Village Chief Li.

"Then why don't you ask why they are lying on the ground? Why don't you ask who left that bloody mark on my sister's wrist after forcibly wrenching off her bracelet?

"Why don't you ask whether, when they told us to move out, they ever spoke of the rules and propriety you keep talking about?"

The elder trembled all over with fury, pointing at him with a shaking finger.

"You... you wretch! What nonsense are you spouting?! There is naturally a reason for making you move out! The Headman did it for the sake of the entire village, you..."

"For the sake of the entire village?" Fang Yuan cut him off, the hint of a cold smile at the corner of his lips sharpening.

"Or so that you can keep currying favor with Village Chief Li and still have a voice in this village?

"You see that his household is prosperous and powerful, and you see that my Fang Family is an easy target—an orphaned mother and her children. Isn't that right?"

He stepped forward, staring straight into the elder's clouded eyes.

"You want me to kowtow and admit my wrongs? Pay medical compensation? Then obediently be driven out of the village where my ancestors lived generation after generation?

"Seventh Uncle-Grandfather, is your heart truly surnamed Fang, or has it long since taken the surname Li?"

"You insolent brat!" The elder's face reddened as he stamped his cane against the ground with repeated thuds.

"I'm insolent?" Fang Yuan's voice abruptly rose. "Didn't you keep saying I hit people? Didn't you want me to show you how I hit them?"

Before his words had even faded, he bent down sharply and yanked the terrified Er Gouzi out from behind Li Wangshi like he was lifting a chick!

"Ah! My son!" Li Wangshi let out a shrill scream.

"Doggie!" Village Chief Li's eyes nearly split open as he tried to pounce forward.

But Fang Yuan moved faster! He locked his grip around the desperately struggling, sobbing Er Gouzi, raised his hand, and toward that chubby face, without mercy—