The wicked old woman was still cursing when Yan Xia narrowed her almond-shaped eyes slightly and gave a cold laugh.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you. I haven't had enough fun yet. People like you deserve to live to be a hundred. I'll torture you every day until you die. Since you have such a foul mouth, you can forget about having any teeth either."
Yan Xia smashed a stick into Chen Li's teeth, knocking out most of her already broken teeth.
Chen Li rolled on the ground in pain, covering her mouth tightly, and blood flowed from between her fingers. Scattered on the straw pile were fragments of yellow particles, which turned out to be Chen Li's teeth, covered with tartar, making people want to vomit.
"Stop hitting me! Ouch, it hurts so much! Waaah, stop hitting me!"
Because she had lost all her teeth, Chen Li's speech was slurred, and she kept begging for mercy.
Yan Xia would not stop. The entire woodshed was almost completely silent except for the sounds of sticks and Chen Li's sobs.
Before long, the wicked old woman on the ground fainted.
Yan Xia stripped Chen Li's clothes off and threw them behind her, then opened the door to the woodshed and left.
Keep in mind that she was still a young girl, and suddenly becoming a mother, she had to meet her newborn son and daughter.
In the Chen family, the original owner lived at the very bottom. The pigs and chickens in the family were more important than her. Next were the original owner's children. No matter how wicked Chen Li was, she would not harm their lives. After all, they were her own grandchildren.
That's all there is to it; it's just that you can eat and drink your fill and live in a slightly better place than the original owner.
The two daughters slept in the storage room, while the three sons squeezed into the smallest side room of the Chen family. Because the bed was too small, the honest and hardworking eldest son, Chen Jinfu, volunteered to sleep on the floor. The muddy floor was covered with just a layer of wooden planks, and the rats crawling around at night were terrifying, not to mention how cold it was in winter.
As soon as Yan Xia reached the backyard storage room, she saw Guihua sitting at the door, secretly wiping away tears. She didn't even dare to make a sound when she cried, which made Yan Xia feel a little sorry for her.
Yan Xia thought it might be a reaction from the mother and daughter connected in this body.
"Guihua, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"
When Chen Guihua saw her mother arrive, she immediately wiped away her tears and got up to greet her.
"Mom~ I'm fine, it's just that the wind is a bit strong, which is why my eyes got wet. Mom, are you feeling better? Does it still hurt? Next time Grandma hits you, just apologize quickly, or hide behind me. Mom, your health isn't good to begin with, I'm really worried..." Before she could finish speaking, Guihua's tears started flowing again.
"Alright, stop crying, I'm fine. What exactly did your grandma mean by 'matching you up'? Which family did she introduce you to?" Yan Xia asked. The original owner had no memory of this, so it seemed the Chen family had never mentioned it to her, her own mother.
It's utterly ridiculous that one has to find out about their own daughter's marriage from other people's stories.
[Original owner, oh original owner, you lived a truly pathetic life.]
Yan Xia mentally ranted. The people she hated most in her life were her parents, followed by the soft-hearted man. There was nothing she could do; she had used his body, so she could only curse him in her heart.
"Mother, I... I don't want to get married. I heard from Aunt Zhao next door that the family Grandma found for me is... is..." Chen Guihua's soft voice trailed off.
She glanced at her mother and swallowed all her grievances.
Even if Mother finds out, what can she do? If Mother asks Grandma, she'll definitely get another beating. So let it go.
"Speak your mind. Which family did they find for you?"
“It’s Zhou Changmin from the next village…” As soon as Chen Guihua finished speaking, Yan Xia’s eyes widened immediately.
This name is known to everyone.
Zhou Changmin, thirty-five years old, passed the imperial examination eight years ago and became extremely arrogant. He harassed the only daughter of a landlord and was beaten by the landlord until he was paralyzed on one side. The incident caused a great stir. Although Zhou Changmin was only a candidate for the imperial examination, he was still considered a scholar. The county magistrate sentenced the landlord to 10 strokes of the cane and that was the end of the matter.
However, this was just the beginning. Zhou Changmin was the only son in the family. After becoming paralyzed in bed, he married five wives in succession, all of whom died within half a year. Some jumped into a well, some drowned themselves, and some hanged themselves at the gate of the Zhou family.
Therefore, the Zhou family was well-known in the surrounding area.
No one dared to marry their daughter to him, because they heard that Zhou Changmin was unable to have sex after becoming disabled, so he beat his wife every night.
These poor women, tormented by their mothers-in-law during the day and beaten and scolded by their husbands at night, are lucky if they can endure it for half a year.
However, that wicked old woman Chen Li actually wanted to marry Guihua into such a family. What kind of nonsense is this, that even tigers don't eat their cubs? In her eyes, her granddaughter isn't even human!
"mother--"
"Actually, I don't want to marry him at all. I'm scared—"
Seeing Yan Xia's face grow increasingly somber, Guihua could no longer hold back and grabbed Yan Xia's left arm, bursting into tears.
"Don't be afraid, your mother is here. Your mother will not let you marry him. Don't worry, as long as your mother is here, no one will dare to harm you."
Yan Xia didn't expect her to get into character so quickly.
At this moment, she gently stroked the back of Guihua's head with her right hand to comfort her eldest daughter.
Where are your older brother, younger sister, and younger brothers?
Yan Xia peered into the house but didn't see a single person. They had been talking for seven or eight minutes already.
The sound wasn't quiet either.
"My eldest brother went to chop firewood, my younger sister is cooking wild vegetable porridge in the kitchen, and my younger brothers went out to do farm work early in the morning. Grandma said that they must pull out all the weeds in the field, or they shouldn't come back."
Guihua stopped crying and looked very well-behaved.
Yan Xia looked up at the sky.
It's early summer now, pitch black, and only late morning. How can she tell the difference between weeds and crops if she goes out to pull weeds in the middle of the night? That old hag is just trying to torment people.
If my two sons had pulled up the wrong crops, they would probably have gotten another beating today; this had happened quite often in the past.
The Chen family valued their reputation and didn't want it to be ruined in the village, so even when they beat the original owner of the body, they made up a pretext.
For example, she's not good at working, and she eats a lot.
Whether it's true or false, it's all up to that old hag to decide.
"Alright, go and call your eldest brother and two younger brothers back. Let's go to the kitchen for dinner. We still have a tough battle to fight today. Guihua, do you want to leave here? You might have to suffer for a while."
Yan Xia didn't want to see those awful people from the Chen family anymore. She wasn't the original owner of this body, and she couldn't stand that kind of treatment.
The plan in my mind slowly took shape.
She had five children, and she always had to ask them what they thought.
"Mom, can I really leave? I want to leave, even if it means suffering! I don't want you to be so tired every day, and Grandma keeps hitting you. Mom, I don't want you to suffer like this anymore. I'd even rather go hungry."
Upon hearing this, Guihua's bright eyes shone.
It was as if suddenly there was hope to survive.
"Alright, then we'll leave together. You can ask them what they think later. We'll leave today. Mother will wait for you in the kitchen."
After speaking, the mother and daughter went their separate ways.
Yan Xia went to the kitchen.
In the small, dark room, there wasn't even a candle; only a faint light shone from under the stove.
A girl who looked even younger than Guihua was sitting by the stove, sweating profusely.
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