The Clan Elder Loses Face

Fang Yuan suddenly looked at the ashen-faced Clan Elder, startling him into a shudder.

"As for you, old bastard! You want to expel me from the clan register? Go ahead! With people like you in this Fang Family, I don't even want to stay!"

Having said that, he looked at no one else. Turning around, he tightly held Little Bean Sprout's still-sobbing hand with one hand while shielding the pale-faced Liu Wanwan with the other.

Without looking aside, he headed toward his own home.

The watching villagers instinctively stepped back, making a wider path for them.

No one spoke, and no one tried to stop them.

Their gazes clung to Fang Yuan, tangled with fear, astonishment, and a trace of barely perceptible awe.

Only then did many people belatedly realize that this Fang Family boy was completely different from the bookish scholar who had once kept his head down and studied.

Those few moves had looked simple, but the more they thought about them afterward, the more they saw how fast, precise, and ruthless they had been! With a few casual kicks, he had knocked down the burly Village Chief Li and his sturdy wife.

And the icy ferocity in his eyes when he had grabbed Er Gouzi and slapped him—he clearly was not someone who could be bullied!

Such skill, such ruthlessness... who else in the village had that?

They had once thought that his family's scholar was thin-skinned and easy to manipulate. Now it seemed he was plainly a wolf cub lying low with its head tucked in!

Who would dare casually come to his door looking for trouble now? Who would dare trip him up in the dark? They would have to weigh whether their own bones were hard enough first.

The crowd's gazes quietly drifted toward the other side.

The Clan Elder clutched his burning cheek. His grizzled hair was disheveled, his robe stained with dust, and a young man was supporting him.

He was still muttering, "Outrageous... utterly improper...," but his voice was weak, utterly lacking in conviction.

Several elders who had once been close to him now had shifty eyes and quietly moved a few steps away. Unlike before, none immediately stepped forward to comfort him.

Highly respected and virtuous? That required having one's heart set straight.

When a man's heart was crooked, when he could not protect his own family and instead helped outsiders bully the younger generation of his own clan, and when trouble came he only knew how to put on airs and scold people... a Clan Elder like that

was nothing more than a doddering old man before fists and facts.

As for the Clan Elder's reputation? Someone secretly curled their lip. That old bastard had truly lost all face today.

The afternoon sun shone dazzlingly upon the snow, and the shadows of the three figures stretched long across the pristine white ground.

Liu Wanwan kept her head lowered, her shoulders trembling faintly as suppressed sobs came and went.

But she was not crying from grievance.

The old Fang Yuan might have chosen to swallow his anger for the so-called greater good, to avoid making more trouble, perhaps even truly knelt and kowtowed to apologize.

She had grown used to disappointment, and grown used to endurance.

But today, he had not.

For a single red mark on his little sister, he had torn apart every hypocritical mask. Even though offending the Clan Elder meant that the days ahead would visibly become harder.

Yet the breath that had been lodged in her heart finally flowed free.

When had compromise ever earned true respect? It only invited ever-worsening humiliation.

When the Clan Elder had pressed and threatened him again and again, demanding that he abandon his family to preserve the so-called dignity of the clan, he had not hesitated for a moment.

He had stood on their side.

A warm palm gently patted her trembling shoulder, while the other rubbed Little Bean Sprout's hair.

Fang Yuan's voice was gentle, devoid of the violent fury from before.

"You are my family. If I don't stand up for you, who will?"

In this world, fists were more useful than reason and the bigger picture. Reason was something you saved for your own family!

Liu Wanwan raised her tear-filled eyes and met her husband's calm yet resolute gaze.

There was a brightness in those eyes that she had never seen before, as if there were light within them.

Little Bean Sprout tilted up her face and asked softly, "Brother, aren't we leaving?"

Fang Yuan did not answer. He merely led them back, step by step, to the little courtyard that belonged to them.

The courtyard gate creaked shut behind them, cutting off the prying eyes that might have been watching from outside.

Fang Yuan crouched down and took the Gold bracelet from his clothes. Carefully, he slipped it back around Little Bean Sprout's slender wrist.

The icy metal touched her skin, and Little Bean Sprout shrank back slightly before wrapping her arms tightly around her brother's neck.

Fang Yuan rose to his feet with his sister in his arms.

"From now on, no one can bully you in this family."

"Whoever comes again, I'll break their legs."

At the Li Family home, once the villagers who had come to watch the spectacle had all dispersed, the last trace of commotion in the Li Family courtyard fell completely silent.

With a bang, Li Wangshi slid the bolt into place. When she turned around, the pitiful expression she had forced onto her face instantly twisted into venomous resentment.

"Fang Yuan, you damned bastard! You short-lived wretch! You poor, ruined bastard who deserves a thousand cuts!"

She jumped and cursed, spittle flying everywhere, her shrill voice sharp enough to slice through the frozen air.

"He'll die a miserable death! A bastard doomed to have his line cut off! How dare he hit my son! How dare he make me suffer such humiliation! I... I'm not done with him!"

Village Chief Li slumped on the icy stone steps, clutching his arm, which still throbbed faintly. His face was iron-blue, and he did not say a word.

During all his years as Headman, when had anyone in the village not respected and flattered him?

Yet today, Fang Yuan had kicked him to the ground in front of everyone, hauled him up like a dead dog and forced answers out of him, then torn away the last shred of his dignity!

His face had been swept clean away! He had lost both substance and appearance!

He could even feel the whispering and mocking stares behind the closed Door and Window of the neighboring homes.

"Didn't you hear me?" Seeing that her husband remained silent, Li Wangshi rushed over and shoved his shoulder hard.

"You're just going to be this cowardly? Let that beast shit on our heads? You're the Headman!"

"Headman? Headman my ass!" Village Chief Li violently shook off her hand, his voice hoarse as he snarled.

"Didn't you see how ruthless he was? Today, he dared hit the Clan Elder in front of the entire clan. Tomorrow, he might truly tear down our house!

Why did you provoke him? We never should have coveted that damned bracelet in the first place!"

"I coveted it? Wasn't it all for this family? For Doggie?" Li Wangshi grew even angrier.

She pointed inside at Er Gouzi, who was still groaning, his face swollen sky-high.

"Look what they did to your son! You're his father, yet you don't dare let out a single fart! I'm telling you, this isn't over!

I'll send word to my brothers right now! I'll have them bring people here! If they don't beat those three little bastards from the Fang Family into submission, then my surname isn't Wang!"

At the mention of those broad-shouldered, thick-waisted brothers-in-law, who ran wild even in the neighboring villages,

a complicated light flashed through Village Chief Li's clouded eyes—fear, mixed with a faint rising hope.

Besides his status as Headman, the reason he had been able to stand firm in Fang Family Village was indeed because he relied on his wife's several formidable brothers.

Just then, Er Gouzi, who had been lying on the heated brick bed inside, heard the commotion and struggled to climb up, squeezing himself to the doorway.

His eyes, swollen into narrow slits, gleamed with the same venom as his mother's as he shrieked.

"Yes! Call Uncle here! Beat him to death! Beat Fang Yuan to death! Sell that little bitch from his family to the human traffickers! Sell her to the filthiest, most rundown brothel!"

The child's voice was young and tender, yet his words were so vicious that even several winter crows on the withered trees outside the courtyard took startled flight.

Li Wangshi pulled her son into her arms and agreed heartily.

"That's right! Sell her! Let's see how Fang Yuan can keep acting so high and mighty then!"

Village Chief Li looked at his hideous wife and son, his chest heaving violently several times.

In the end, he did not speak in opposition. He merely slowly rose from the stone steps and brushed the dust from his clothes.

His eyes dark and gloomy, he stared toward the Fang Family home.