The false smile on Xu Wang's face finally crumbled.
The feigned kindness in her triangular eyes was instantly replaced by vicious anger and her habitual shrewishness.
With her prowess in a quarrel, how dare Li Xuan insult her!
She had failed to react at first only because the blow had stunned her. Now she had recovered.
She sprang to her feet on the donkey cart, abandoning all pretense of dignity. Planting both hands on her hips, she raised her voice to a shrill, piercing pitch.
She launched into a tirade at Li Xuan and the Li family's dilapidated courtyard:
"You little bastard, Li Three! You ungrateful wolf, turning around and denying your promises! Yesterday, you said it yourself-one hundred taels! Gold bracelets! Jade hairpins! Suzhou satin! You admitted it just now, too! The whole village heard you!"
Her finger nearly jabbed the tip of Li Xuan's nose.
"You made those promises with your own mouth, and now you dare deny them? You're making fools of my daughter and me! You haven't a shred of conscience! You're not human!"
The more she cursed, the more worked up she became, spittle flying everywhere. She turned to the watching villagers, trying to stir them up:
"Neighbors, tell me who's in the right! Who does things like this? He promised a splendid marriage and showered us with honor, then turned around and started hurling insults!"
"With manners like these in the Li family, who would dare marry their daughter into it? What family would dare tie themselves to people who break their word and show no respect for their elders? Aren't you afraid they'll cheat you until not even your bones are left?!"
Accusation after accusation came crashing down-the classic country shrew's tactic of making a scene to force someone to give in.
Quite a few elderly villagers and women began pointing and muttering.
They all lived in the same village. In everyday life, saving face mattered above all.
Li Zhong and Wang grew even paler. For farming families, the threat of a ruined reputation could sometimes be more frightening than debt.
Matchmaker Wang chimed in from the side, sighing heavily:
"What a sin, Third Son. You've handled this badly. Auntie from the Xu Family may speak roughly, but her reasoning isn't..."
Xu Yulian seized the opportunity to cover her face with a handkerchief. Her shoulders trembled as she let out soft sobs, looking utterly wronged.
Just as Xu Wang thought she had found the Li family's weak spot, and was gathering momentum to press harder-
"Hhh... hhh..."
A low, heavy rasping, like the breathing of a wounded beast, drowned out her curses.
Everyone looked toward the sound. Li Xuan had lowered his head, and his shoulders had begun to jerk unevenly.
When he raised his head again, his eyes were shot through with terrifying red veins and opened wide. Veins bulged on his forehead, and his whole face twisted with "fury" as he stared fixedly at Wang of the Xu Family!
He looked exactly like what the village elders called someone "blinded by rage" and "about to go berserk and fight to the death"!
"You old hag... you dare curse my family... I'll kill you!"
With a hoarse roar, Li Xuan whipped the Woodcutter's Blade from his waist, its chipped edge making it look all the more savage!
He gave no one time to react. Like a maddened bull, he charged at Wang of the Xu Family on the cart, brandishing the Woodcutter's Blade like a crazed tiger!
There was no technique to it whatsoever, only a frenzy that seemed bent on hacking everything before him to pieces!
"Mother of mercy!" Matchmaker Wang dropped onto her backside in terror.
Xu Wang's curses stopped dead. The viciousness on her face was instantly replaced by boundless terror!
She knew all too well what Li Xuan had been like before!
He was a reckless, shameless thug. Push him too far, and he was capable of anything!
She saw the Woodcutter's Blade whistle toward her head.
Scared out of her wits, she screamed and forgot all about appearances.
Scrambling and crawling, she squeezed into the narrow gap at the back of the donkey cart!
Crack!!!
The Woodcutter's Blade missed her, but struck the cart's wooden bed squarely!
With a tremendous, teeth-grating crash, it gouged a deep notch in the old planks. Wood chips flew everywhere, and the entire cart lurched violently.
The donkey pulling the cart was startled and let out a braying squeal, stamping its hooves restlessly.
That single blow shattered every last scrap of Xu Wang's arrogance!
In her blind panic, she stumbled and fell to the ground.
The frightened donkey kicked wildly and was so scared it let loose a load of dung.
It landed squarely on her face-fresh and still steaming!
"Murder! Li Three's gone mad! He's really going to kill someone... mmph, mmph!"
The people around them burst into laughter.
Hiding behind the cart, Matchmaker Wang was so frightened that her voice changed pitch. She screamed, nearly crying,
"Go! Driver! Hurry up and go!"
Terrified that Li Xuan would circle around, she crawled out from behind the cart on all fours, utterly bedraggled, no longer caring about her disheveled skirts and hair ornaments or the dirt covering her.
She practically threw herself at the cart shaft, urging on the equally dumbstruck driver.
Xu Yulian's pretty face had long since lost all color. She had even forgotten to cry and clung desperately to the cart's side.
Matchmaker Wang scrambled away, keeping her distance and shouting incoherently:
"He's mad! He's really mad! This has nothing to do with me! Nothing to do with me!"
But Li Xuan seemed to have "gone blood-mad." Blade in hand, he made as if to pursue them, strange rasping sounds rising from his throat.
"Quick! Get moving!"
Wang of the Xu Family hastily wiped the donkey dung from her face. Overwhelmed by the stench and her anger, her eyes rolled back, and she fainted outright.
Amid the villagers' startled cries and clamor, the donkey cart fled the village, a hundred times more panicked and bedraggled than before.
Seeing the troublemakers leave, his sister-in-law was the first to recover. She took a deep breath and summoned the fierceness she normally used to deal with village gossip.
She went to the courtyard gate and called out to the villagers still craning their necks and talking:
"All right, all right! The show's over! Go on, clear out! Didn't you see? Someone's already taken a blade to them right outside our gate! What's there to stare at? Go back to your own homes!"
Her tone was firm. As her gaze swept over them, several women sheepishly dispersed.
Li Zhong rushed forward and locked his arms around Li Xuan from behind. Li Xuan still held the blade and was panting heavily. Li Zhong's voice trembled:
"Third Brother! Third Brother! Let go! Put the blade down! People like that aren't worth it! Don't do anything foolish!"
Held fast in his brother's arms, Li Xuan struggled twice. Then his taut body suddenly relaxed, and the Woodcutter's Blade fell from his hand with a clang.
He turned his head. The frightening redness and distortion vanished from his face in an instant, and his eyes became clear again, even holding a trace of resignation. He said quietly,
"Brother, let go. I'm fine."
Li Zhong froze, released him, and looked at him doubtfully.
Li Xuan rolled his shoulders and brushed the dirt off his clothes. His voice was so calm that it seemed the man who had just tried to hack someone down had been someone else:
"I was pretending. Otherwise, would that old hag have cleared off so readily?"
"Pret... pretending?"
Even Wang and Li Zhong,
along with Li Xiuer, who had come over supporting Li Shan, were all dumbfounded.
That crazed look, those blood-red eyes, the ferocity with which he had hacked at the cart...
He had scared even a hardened, shameless troublemaker like Wang of the Xu Family out of her wits-and it had all been an act?!
Li Shan was badly shaken, too. Once he had caught his breath, he looked at his youngest son. The worry had not left his face, but deeper resignation and a trace of lingering fear had joined it:
"You... you brat! That was far too convincing! Xu Wang is notorious for holding grudges and never letting anyone off. You've offended her badly this time. Later... if you ever want to turn back and marry Xu Yulian, there won't be the slightest chance!"
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