Snap!
With full force, he slapped Meng Yun'er to the ground.
He suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"Father, you hit me..." The girl looked up at the man with a face ashen as water, her eyes filled with disbelief.
Although she was not favored since childhood and being beaten by her mother and brother was commonplace, in the past thirteen years, no matter how good or bad things were, her father had never hit her once, let alone used such a cruel method.
"Don't call me 'Dad'! I, Meng Yongfu, don't have a daughter as stupid as you!"
The man's eyes were fierce. If he weren't still thinking about Feng Zicai, who was studying at the Fucheng Academy, he would have strangled her to death.
Originally, it was just a minor incident where Fu'er's hand was injured by Su Hua. All it would have been done was to find a good doctor in town or county to treat her, and then have a few people secretly beat up Su Hua.
But she insisted that the Meng family had some kind of jade hairpin and told him to have someone steal it.
In the end, they tried to steal a chicken but lost the rice instead!
After the Meng family's reputation was completely ruined, they still eagerly gave them twenty taels of silver.
It was clearly not only to make Meng Yongfu lose face completely, but also to throw him on the ground and stomp on him a couple more times!
"Don't try to outsmart me! I've lived longer than you've lived. No matter how much you resent Su Hua, she's just born to be pampered by her family. You can't have that kind of life!" The man roared, angrily flicking his sleeve. "You better remember this: if you dare use the Meng family as pawns again, I'll never forgive you..."
After saying that, he picked up the unconscious Meng Fu and slammed the door shut.
Meng Yun'er was left alone lying on the ground.
A breeze began to stir in the calm night sky, a thunderclap suddenly struck, and large raindrops pelted down.
Raindrops dampened the crimson of the girl's lips, and her eyes, reflecting lightning beneath her brows, were even more intensely red than her lips...
Meanwhile, the small courtyard at the end of the village was brightly lit.
The Su family members stared at the two large silver ingots on the table, listening to the thunder and rain outside the window, their minds a complete mess.
"Why is the rain suddenly so heavy, and there's even thunder? Could it be that someone is making false oaths again?"
"I think so too. I've really learned something new today. Even the King of Hell has come."
"There are gods watching from above, so we should burn more incense during festivals and holidays..."
Su Dahu glanced at his sister beside him with a smile, his tone teasing, "There's probably no need to burn more incense. You can have Hua'er pass on a message to Meng Po. If you want to see ghost lanterns, you can have as much as you want; if you want to be struck by lightning, you can have as much as you want!"
"What?" Su Erhu and the others were stunned when they heard the voice.
Wait a minute, who wants to see ghost lanterns? Who wants to get struck by lightning?
They're not stupid!
Moreover, what does all of this have to do with his own younger sister?
"Pfft..." The girl chuckled at the expressions of the crowd. No longer keeping them in suspense, she pulled out the last bit of her stock from under her fingernails and threw it into the air with a burst of energy.
A faint clicking sound rang out.
Immediately afterwards, a cluster of fist-sized, ghostly blue flames shot out. Su Erhu and Su Sanhu instinctively blocked the way in front of the group of women and children, and swallowed hard.
"Why is that ghost lantern that symbolizes the King of Hell's procession here again?!"
"That's not right, no one swore an oath just now, what's going on..."
Su Hua's lips curled slightly as she lightly twirled her fingers. "The ghost lanterns that Yama summons on his patrols are also called will-o'-the-wisps. In fact, they are produced by phosphorus powder, which is formed from the decomposition of bones after a person dies. Once it is dispersed into the air, it will spontaneously combust, forming this ghostly blue flame."
"Phosphorus...phosphorus powder from the decomposition of dead bones?" Su Erhu stared at the grayish-brown powder in the girl's palm, his mind suddenly clearing. "Hua'er means that Meng Fu was burned by will-o'-the-wisps after Meng Yongfu made a false oath just now because of this phosphorus powder?"
“Yes.” Su Hua nodded with a light smile.
From the very beginning, she knew that given the cunning nature of the Meng family, they would not easily admit to instructing Wang Ergou to commit robbery.
If they don't take some unconventional measures, they will have to suffer in silence today.
The ancients believed most in ghosts and gods, and the easiest thing to manipulate regarding ghosts and gods was this 'ghost fire'. As long as the Meng family members told the truth in front of everyone, they would no longer be able to stay out of it.
"So that's how it is! Hua'er is truly clever." Su Sanhu stared blankly at the dying embers in the air. "However, with so many people in the Meng family, why did they choose to use phosphorus powder on Meng Fu?"
“Because he’s stupid.” Su Hua’s smile deepened.
The Meng family is no pushovers, except for Meng Fu, who, despite his domineering ways, is actually the most timid, a typical good-for-nothing who is all show and no substance.
With just a little trickery using the will-o'-the-wisp, it spews out everything.
"Hahahaha... Hua'er is right! Meng Fu is a complete idiot!" Su Sanhu suddenly realized and sneered, "He dared to come to my Su family to harm people, he deserves to be burned to death."
Su Dahu smiled, "So it turns out that Hua'er had planned this all along."
“No, the lightning was a pleasant surprise.” Su Hua shook her head.
Because of her love of reading in her previous life, she was indeed quite knowledgeable, but she knew very little about astronomy and meteorology. Who would have thought that thunder would suddenly appear on a clear night sky, and that it would happen right after Meng Yongfu made his vow.
It can only be said that the Meng family was unlucky; even the heavens weren't on their side.
"Absolutely!" Su Baishi stood up straight, like a proud old peacock.
"Who is my Hua'er?! She is destined for greatness, with a hundred birds paying homage to her at birth. Now that the Meng family dares to harm my Hua'er, even Heaven will not allow it!"
The Su family members nodded in agreement upon hearing this.
“Mother is right! Hua’er is a woman of destiny. Anyone who tries to harm her will suffer the consequences.”
"Exactly! Just thinking about the expressions on the Meng family's faces at the end makes me so happy I can't sleep tonight."
"Later we'll have to offer incense to all the gods and spirits, asking them to keep an eye on Hua'er..."
Su Hua's brow twitched slightly. Luckily, this was during the reign of Yu the Great. If it were in China in the 1950s or 60s, her own family would probably be dragged out for criticism and denunciation, accused of engaging in feudal superstition and bewitching their own daughter...
The scene was so beautiful that it was almost unbearable to look at.
Madam Qian had no interest in the ghost lanterns or the idea of being struck by lightning. As for the matter of her sister-in-law being destined for greatness, she had heard it so many times that her ears were calloused. At this moment, she was only really interested in the two silver ingots on the table.
"Mother, what are we going to do with these twenty taels?"
The woman stared at the silver ingot, her phoenix eyes shining brighter than the oil lamp on the table.
She licked her lips, a smile spreading across her face. "How about we build a big brick house? After all, our eldest and second sons are growing up so fast, it's not right for them to sleep with their older brother and sister-in-law all the time. Twenty taels for a house, maybe we'll even have some left over..."
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