"Warning! Body fit rate dropped to 65%!" The mechanical voice, mixed with the sound of electricity, pierced the nerves.
The shadows of jujube leaves shimmered like shattered silver on the bluestone slabs, and Lin Cuiying stared at the blood-stained chipped edge of the millstone.
The warmth from the two little girls nestled together made her eyes sting, and she vaguely saw the original owner's soul slowly dissipating from between the fingers of this body.
Lin Cuiying pushed the two maids into Sun's wife's arms, grabbed Aunt Li's washing mallet, and rushed forward.
Wang Fugui's greasy cuffs were still stained with wine. He had just opened his mouth to curse when his throat was slammed against the earthen wall by the handle of a mallet.
Just then, an image flashed through Lin Cuiying's mind of the original owner having her ribs broken.
The woman, huddled in a damp pile of firewood, held Daya, who was convulsing with a high fever, in her arms, her fingernails digging into the mud and leaving five bloody marks.
Lin Cuiying felt a metallic taste rise in her throat, and in a daze, she saw the original owner hunched over, beating her frozen clothes by the icy river.
A chapped hand slammed onto the bluestone, and drops of blood splattered into the ice hole, where they congealed into red coral.
These were all scenes of how the Wang family treated the original owner of the body, which made Lin Cuiying's eyes turn bloodshot.
"Stop them! Stop them now!"
After the village headman's hoarse roar, just as Lin Cuiying's washing mallet was about to strike Wang Fugui, Lin Cuiying stopped.
A voice kept shouting in my head: "Host, the body compatibility rate is about to drop below the critical threshold!"
"What do you mean?" If the system hadn't kept interfering with her with the electrical noise, the washing mallet would have already sent Wang Fugui to his death.
You should know that Wang Fugui is the one in charge of the Wang family, and all the suffering of the original owner and the two little maids was caused by Wang Fugui.
It was Wang Fugui's idea to sell the original owner to Zhang Ergou.
"If the host's compatibility falls below 50%, this body will completely collapse." A mechanical voice, laced with the crackling of electricity, pierced Lin Cuiying's ears. "At that time, the two little girls will lose their last protection."
Lin Cuiying's hand, gripping the mallet, bulged with veins, and the mallet head trembled as it hovered three inches above Wang Fugui's Adam's apple.
A blood-red warning box even floated before my eyes, and the countdown numbers jumped between the cracks in the mud wall: Compatibility rate 64%...63%...
Taking advantage of the moment when Sun's daughter-in-law was distracted, Granny Wang suddenly snatched the girl away, grabbed her by the neck, and shouted viciously, "You filthy slut, how dare you touch my son! This old woman will strangle this good-for-nothing!"
"Mother!" The little girl's shrill cry made Lin Cuiying's pupils suddenly contract.
"Let go." Lin Cuiying turned around, staring at Wang Pozi's withered hand, her voice hoarse as she spoke.
Wang Fugui, his crotch soaked with a foul stench, shivered as he shuffled over the moss-covered wall: "Give them...all...all of them away!"
His yellow, cloudy eyes reflected Lin Cuiying's bloodstained hammer head, and his throat felt like it was stuffed with a lump of scalding coal.
The system alarm suddenly turned into a rapid beeping sound, and Lin Cuiying's health bar began to slowly recover from 62%.
"Let's put it in writing!" The village head knew in his heart that even a rabbit will bite if it's pushed too far.
Granny Wang's withered, claw-like hands suddenly clenched: "If you're going to divide it, you'll have to pay compensation for these two..."
"Smack!"
The mallet head grazed Wang Pozi's ear and slammed into the mud, sending up bits of dirt that fell into her gaping mouth.
Lin Cuiying stepped forward and shielded the little girl in her arms. As she turned around, the tip of her shoe crushed Wang Pozi's toes.
"Ouch—" Granny Wang's cry of pain was rather jarring.
Lin Cuiying glanced at her, then, holding the little girl, coldly uttered, "If you bark again, I'll rip your tongue out and feed it to the dogs!"
Granny Wang shuddered, and the atmosphere instantly turned extremely tense.
The village head urged the literate young men in the village to finish writing the divorce papers and the severance of ties.
Lin Cuiying took the letter of severance of kinship from the village head, dipped her fingertips in the ink and pressed her fingerprint on it, then pulled the two maids to press their fingerprints as well.
When Wang Pozi pressed her handprint
But she didn't move for a moment. Her neck stiffly turned, her face contorted, her eyes glaring as if she'd been stabbed twice: "This...this..."
"What? Don't want to get a massage?" Lin Cuiying moved closer to Granny Wang, her nose almost touching the other woman's face. "How about I cut off your fingers to massage you?"
"No...no, you...you go away!"
Wang Pozi suddenly trembled, and slowly inserted her withered right index finger into the inkpad, forcefully poking it with the base of her finger.
The village head said with a stern face, "Let's distribute the goods."
Granny Wang pursed her lips and remained silent. Lin Cuiying was not in a hurry either. She put the little girl on the ground and picked up the washing mallet to play with.
Under Wang Fugui's instructions, Granny Wang trembled as she distributed two tattered quilts, two chipped bowls, and three days' worth of food.
Lin Cuiying glanced at the tattered bedding and was about to get angry again when the system in her mind gave her another suggestion: "Take these and leave, wait for the right time to come back."
Even with a system around, life is still so stifling.
Lin Cuiying felt that she must have owed the system something in her past life.
She stuffed the chipped ceramic bowl into the tattered cotton wadding, took Da Ya's hand with one hand and Xiao Ya's hand with the other, and walked out of the Wang family's courtyard.
Everyone was asking Lin Cuiying where she was going.
Following the system's instructions, Lin Cuiying said she was going to return to her parents' home.
"How is your family doing now?" Aunt Li suddenly grabbed Lin Cuiying's sleeve.
Lin Cuiying's family home is in Luhua Village, which is more than 20 miles away from Shangdu Village.
When the original owner first married into the family, their situation was quite good.
Unfortunately, when Lin's father went hunting in the mountains, he accidentally broke his leg. He also had a younger brother to support, and the family became increasingly poor.
When the original owner's husband was still alive, she could still go home to visit, but unfortunately...
According to the original owner's memories, it had been three years since she had returned.
"I wonder how they are now." Lin Cuiying tucked the tattered quilt under her armpit, shielding the two little girls beside her, and shook her head with a sigh.
"Why don't you stay at my house for a couple of days? We can make a decision after we've found out about your family's situation," Aunt Li said, tugging at Lin Cuiying's sleeve.
Lin Cuiying felt a warmth in her heart, but firmly shook her head: "Auntie, I appreciate your kindness, but I can't cause you any trouble."
"This is hardly a problem..."
"No need. I haven't been home for three years; I have to go back and see my father."
Lin Cuiying tucked the tattered quilt under her armpits, then, holding the hands of the two little girls, walked resolutely out of the village.
Aunt Li stood there, watching Lin Cuiying and the other two figures gradually disappear into the distance, finally vanishing on the winding mountain road.
"Mother, are we really going back to Grandpa's house?" The little girl looked up at Lin Cuiying, her clear black and white eyes full of doubt.
"Yes, we're going back to Grandpa's house." Lin Cuiying reached out and patted the little girl's head, smiling gently.
Daya also looked up at Lin Cuiying, her eyes sparkling with anticipation.
Five-year-old Xiaoya had never been to her maternal grandfather's house. Only Da Ya had been there with her, but Da Ya was only two years old at the time and didn't have any memory of it.
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