Get out!

Li Guizhi froze, her eyes bulging. The pulp of the green jujube on the back of her head dripped down her curls along with saliva, smearing her neck.

She had a track record of throwing her weight around Shiban Village for over a decade. Even the village chief did not dare talk back to her.

And today, some brat who had crawled out of who knew what backwater had hit her in the head with a jujube?

"Who the fuck do you think you are!" Li Guizhi recovered, her voice rising to a piercing shriek and the veins in her neck bulging.

"I was teaching people lessons before you were even weaned! Where did a feral brat like you come from, daring to throw things at my head!"

Jiang Xun stood up from the threshold, crunching the green jujube in his mouth.

"What do you care who I am?" He spat the pit to one side, sending it arcing through the air to land precisely in the broken winnowing basket in the corner.

"At least I'm not a tub of rancid lard like you."

"You, you..." Li Guizhi choked, unable to get her words out properly.

"What about me? Aren't you here for money?" Jiang Xun's eyes curved into crescents. "Every debt has someone responsible for it. His dad owes you money, so go ask his dad for it. Why come here and throw a tantrum?"

"Didn't his dad jump into the river? If you're that desperate for the money, jump in and find him. You can settle the accounts face-to-face, with no middleman taking a cut."

Li Guizhi trembled with rage, her eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. "You-you little bastard! What are you to Shen Wangjing, protecting him like this? What does his family's business have to do with you?"

"Nothing." Jiang Xun shrugged. "I just don't like the look of you."

"You came demanding money without an IOU. That's extortion. You brought two thugs to block someone's doorway. That's picking quarrels and provoking trouble."

"I hear you're the village chief's wife, too. That makes it even worse. A local official's family member knowingly breaking the law deserves strict punishment."

He paused, blinked, and gave her a brilliant smile. "How about I call the police for you right now and have the officers come give you a little lesson in the law?"

Li Guizhi opened her mouth to curse back, but she had already exhausted her vocabulary.

Her mouth opened and closed, then opened and closed again. Her lips trembled for ages, but all she managed was, "You."

The two burly men behind her exchanged looks. They were used to following the village chief's wife around and bullying everyone in the village. Whoever saw them had to lower their head and give them a wide berth.

Now they had run into a sharp-tongued brat who would yield to neither threats nor persuasion, and for a moment they did not know whether to attack or retreat.

If they attacked, there were several cameras standing right there.

If they did not, Li Guizhi's glare was practically boring holes through their backs.

Li Guizhi's chest heaved. Her brain, so furious she had nearly passed out, finally recognized one fact: she was no match for this brat in a war of words.

But reason had never been what allowed her, Li Guizhi, to throw her weight around Shiban Village all these years.

"I'm not wasting my breath on you!" She flung out a hand and roared at the two burly men behind her. "What are you standing around for! Beat him up! Beat him to death!"

The two men exchanged a glance, finally made up their minds, rolled up their sleeves, and advanced on Jiang Xun.

One had a thuggish face and a cheap gold chain around his neck. The other was broad and thickset, with arms as thick as Jiang Xun's thighs. Standing there, they looked like two walls of flesh.

Jiang Xun's eyes lit up.

Ever since he had been drugged unconscious last night, he had been simmering with anger and worrying that he had nowhere to vent it.

Now this was perfect. He had eaten and drunk his fill, and someone was even delivering punching bags to his door.

He flexed his wrists, his joints cracking twice.

After seventeen years of getting by in the orphanage, fighting came more naturally to him than eating.

Jiang Xun had barely taken a step forward when a large, rough hand pressed down on his shoulder.

He froze for a moment. Before he could react, Shen Wangjing had already shielded him completely behind his back.

He held the hoe he had brought back from the fields, its blade still stained with yellow soil from the cornfield.

He planted himself there, his shoulders so broad that they blocked Jiang Xun's view entirely.

"Get out."

Shielded behind Shen Wangjing, Jiang Xun poked his head out and peered through the gap between his shoulder and the hoe handle.

All his life, whenever there was a fight, he had always charged out in front alone.

The children at the orphanage had ganged up to bully him. With no group of his own, he had fought back alone. When they knocked him down, he got up and fought again, until the other side gave in.

No one had ever stood in front of him before.

The feeling really was rather unfamiliar to him.

Li Guizhi could no longer save face at all.

The cameras kept pushing closer, while the two burly men behind her had become mere decorations in front of Shen Wangjing.

This poor brat had never been so tough when she came to collect debts before. With all those muscles planted in front of her, he really was rather intimidating.

Li Guizhi shot Shen Wangjing a vicious glare, then pointed at Jiang Xun. Her lips trembled for ages before she squeezed out a threat:

"Just you wait! This isn't over! I refuse to believe I can't deal with you!"

With that, she turned and left. In her fury, she stumbled several times on the yellow dirt and nearly fell flat on her face.

Gold Chain and the man with the tattooed arm scurried off behind her, looking for all the world like three drenched chickens chased out of a coop.

The courtyard fell silent in an instant.

Grandpa Shen panted heavily in his wheelchair, his gaunt fingers clutching the armrests.

Jiang Xun poked half his head out from behind Shen Wangjing and called after Li Guizhi's retreating, bedraggled figure, "Take care, ma'am! Remember to bring the IOU next time!"

Li Guizhi visibly staggered, then ran even faster.