After saying that, she slapped Ge Erlin hard across the face again: "I should have exposed your affair at the county government that day." Then Xiaoyue kicked Ge Erlin hard.

"You think I don't know what you and Fatty Ren discussed? Li Shuanshu, the idiot from Guaibo Village, Ge Erping, and Old Lady Ge—Ge Erping is responsible for informing you of my whereabouts."

The idiot will hold me off in the woods, Ge Erping and Old Lady Ge will hold Liang Qi off. There are six of you in total, enough for a gang to commit a crime.

How dare you seek revenge against me today? Where is your face? Where has your face gone? At this point, Xiaoyue became even angrier. If Liang Qi had arrived that day, she wouldn't have suffered so many injuries.

Xiaoyue kicked a few more times, still not satisfied. She turned to look at Lu Xiaomei and said, "Third sister-in-law, who are you? Don't you know what happened that day?"

Xiaoyue's eyes were fixed on Lu Xiaomei's face, and Lu Xiaomei was so frightened that she kept backing away, step by step.

Xiaoyue pointed at Lu Xiaomei, who was hiding behind her, and said coldly, "You, Lu Xiaomei, if I hadn't called a doctor for you, brewed medicine for you, and taken you to live in my house, would you still be standing next to Ge Sanlin today? You would have been dead long ago."

Xiaoyue glanced at the Ge family members again, and sneered, "This family is full of monsters and demons! They're really something." She sighed and said, "Just wait and see. Tomorrow I'll go to the county government to file a complaint and tell the magistrate everything that happened that day, explaining my grievances."

When Ge Sanlin heard Xiaoyue say this, which was completely different from what Ge Erlin had said, he became anxious. He hurriedly looked at Ge Erlin and Old Madam Ge and realized that Xiaoyue might be telling the truth.

Ge Sanlin stepped forward, glared at Ge Erlin, and asked, word by word, "How did Second Sister-in-law, Xiao Sunshi, jump into the well?"

"explain!"

Ge Erlin said tremblingly, "Little Sun was sent back from her parents' home yesterday. Her family used her to arrange a good marriage for Ge Erping, so they gave her a way out and she was allowed to come back. Little Sun said that the coffin shop offered fifty taels of silver to find a wife for the second son."

“After seeing the people off during the day, Xiao Sunshi came home and started fighting with me. She wouldn’t let it go until she saw my broken body. She started crying and said that even her mother wouldn’t accept her. She said that she was with such a worthless man and that there was no point in living. She couldn’t think straight and ran out to jump into the well.”

He turned to Xiaoyue and said, "My broken body was caused by Xiaoyue's people."

Ge Sanlin wanted to kick Ge Erlin again. "Is this what you said: Xiaoyue had someone beat your leg and scared your sister unconscious? Is that right?"

"Fine, fine, you've all turned right and wrong upside down, calling a deer a horse. You're all cunning schemers. Tomorrow, Xiaoyue will go to the county government to sue you. The county magistrate will beat you up with less than ten strokes of the cane, and you'll have to confess long ago."

Terrified, Ge Erlin had no choice but to tell Ge Sanlin everything that had happened that day. Upon hearing this, Ge Sanlin felt a sharp pain in his lower back.

Ge Erlin was kicked and couldn't get up for a while.

Ge Sanlin glanced at Lu Xiaomei again, but ultimately said nothing. He slunk away, and as he walked quickly, his limp became visible.

Grandma Ge felt sorry for her second son, so she and Grandpa Ge helped Ge Erlin back home, leaving only Ge Erping, who was so frightened he was incoherent. Seeing his parents go back, he ran back as well.

Seeing that everyone had left, Lu Xiaomei only gave Xiaoyue a perfunctory bow, and then left without even raising her head. The villagers left, talking amongst themselves, leaving only Liang Qi, a lonely figure.

The two stood silently in the moonlight, their shadows stretched long by the moonlight. The wind rustled the leaves, and the light and shadow flickered, always circling around a single point. Xiaoyue gazed at the moon above the treetops.

A hazy glow shrouded the round moon. Xiaoyue took a step forward and realized she had stepped on Liang Qi's shadow. Looking up at Liang Qi, she saw his face through the dappled shadows of the trees, his eyes gleaming with a lake-blue light in the moonlight.

Xiaoyue awkwardly took a step to the side, leaned against a tree, and lowered her head. She saw Liang Qi's shadow reach out his right hand, and the shadow seemed to pat her shoulder. Xiaoyue glanced at Liang Qi again, turned around but did not leave immediately.

Hearing the hesitant footsteps behind him, he glanced at the shadow gradually approaching, until the dark shadow behind him brushed against his own shadow.

Xiaoyue was startled, remembering the sound she heard at the gate that day. She ran away, leaving Liang Qi stunned for a long time. He stood there for a long time until Xiaoyue went inside and turned off the kerosene lamp. Liang Qi left with heavy steps.

The next day, Xiaoyue didn't ask anyone to write a complaint, but instead received an uninvited guest.

Li Qianqian was looking around at the gate when Xiaoyue spotted her and let her into the courtyard. Li Qianqian forced a smile through her swollen eyes from crying.

Xiaoyue patted Li Qianqian on the shoulder and said kindly, "If you want to cry, then cry. There's no one else here."

Li Qianqian wiped away her tears, stopped crying, and followed Xiaoyue to pick green beans. Xiaoyue put the dried cucumber slices into a bag.

They planned to dry the green beans again. Li Qianqian silently picked dried green beans with Xiaoyue. "Does your father still want you to marry that fat Ren?"

Li Qianqian sobbed and softly hummed in agreement.

"Fatty Ren is at your house."

"Yes, my brother hit him, my dad hit my brother, and my brother let me run away."

Xiaoyue was chatting with Li Qianqian when she heard a noise at the courtyard gate. Li Qianqian was startled and started trembling. Xiaoyue quickly comforted her and told her to hide under the bean trellis.

He walked out of the bean field and opened the door in front of it.

Li Lei, whose face was covered in blood, was someone Xiaoyue barely remembered in her previous life; she only knew him.

Li Lei stretched out his blood-covered arm, grabbed Xiaoyue's hand, and without saying a word, led Xiaoyue to Li Qianqian's house.

Li Lei pushed Xiaoyue into the house and closed the door from the outside.

Ren Pang laughed loudly and lewdly. Xiao Yue looked at his shameless behavior. Li Shuanshu was also in the room. He looked at the closed door with surprise, so Xiao Yue stood by the door.

Fatty Ren said with ill intent, "Come here, let me see what kind of three heads and six arms you have. You've managed to escape so many times."

Xiaoyue was on high alert, her eyes darting around. She saw Li Lei sitting on a rock in his yard, cleaning his wound with water.

Seeing Xiaoyue enter the house, Li Shuanshu sensed that the atmosphere was getting increasingly strange, so he decided to hide in the inner room.

Seeing that Xiaoyue didn't move, Fatty Ren nimbly jumped off the kang (a heated brick bed), his belly jiggling with each step, rising and falling. He was even fatter than he had been six months ago. He came to within five steps of Xiaoyue.

Fatty Ren, with his protruding belly, suddenly couldn't get close to Xiaoyue. Xiaoyue looked at the boy wiping away blood and asked Fatty Ren, "What did you promise Li Lei?"