Everyone in the room turned to look at Xie Jin'an. He saw the burly man gripping his daughter's neck, holding the infant up in the air.
Yan's hand was pinned beneath his foot, swollen and red, unable to move.
Both she and the child were crying their hearts out.
Xie Jin'an finally could bear it no longer. Fury blazed in his eyes, and he snatched up the wooden club by the door and swung it at the burly man with all his might, looking as though he would devour the villain alive.
"Let them go!"
The infant was flung from the burly man's hand and landed back in her crib with a dull thud, then began crying even more heartrendingly.
"You're asking for death!"
The burly man was one of Southern Yue's surviving loyalists and had some martial skill. With a swift shift, he dodged Xie Jin'an's attack.
The bones in Yan's hand had already been crushed underfoot. Ignoring the pain entirely, she tearfully picked up her child to check her over.
"My child, my precious child!"
Though she had conceived her as part of a transaction, this was still a new life she had carried for months and brought back through the gates of death.
How could she feel nothing for her?
Seeing her daughter treated like this broke her heart.
"So you're the one who got my brothers killed?" Anger surged through the burly man at the sight of Xie Jin'an.
To think the man who had reported them was such an unremarkable, ordinary fellow.
"You Southern Yue remnants deserved to die for daring to harm the common people after the last purge spared your lives. Now you've dared to hurt my daughter. I'll fight you to the death!"
Gripping the club tightly, Xie Jin'an struck at the