Chapter 18: Saving the Child

"Oh my, Third Brother's wife, why are you here?" She feigned surprise while using her body to block the curtain behind her.

"Where have you hidden my daughter!" Jiang Wei could barely suppress her angry voice.

"Third Brother's wife, you can't just slander people. How would I know where your daughter went!"

"Still trying to pretend!" Jiang Wei's gaze went straight to the space behind her.

Sun Shi panicked and hurriedly used her hands to block: "Jiang Shi, don't go too far! I already said she isn't here with us!"

"Who is the one going too far!"

Jiang Wei grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back. "Don't think I don't know she's hidden in the room by you. Release her now!"

"Ah ah! It hurts, it hurts—"

Sun Shi immediately screamed in pain, yet she still stiffened her neck and refused to admit it: "I already said! She isn't here with us!!"

"Very well! Let's see if your bones are harder or your mouth is harder!"

Jiang Wei grabbed her by the throat with one hand and pulled her arm hard with the other. With a forceful tug, a crisp "crack" was heard, and Sun Shi's entire arm was dislocated.

"Ah—"

Sun Shi let out a miserable howl: "Broken, it's broken! My hand is broken!!"

Her face turned pale instantly from the pain, and beads of sweat the size of beans broke out on her forehead.

Jiang Wei threw her aside, letting Sun Shi fall to the ground, and went straight into the inner room.

However, the moment she lifted the curtain, she saw the Li Family Old Woman slapping Jiang Xiaoxiao's face, teaching her a lesson in a low, vicious voice: "Don't you dare make a sound! If you dare make a sound again, believe it or not, I'll pull out your tongue!"

Jiang Xiaoxiao, whose entire body was bound and unable to move in the slightest, was beaten by her until she was nearly at death's door, gradually losing her voice.

The Li Family Old Woman was finally satisfied. She gracefully withdrew her hand and hummed twice: "Dead little girl, if you don't suffer a little, you won't be obedient!"

Just as she finished speaking, she suddenly felt a chill down her spine.

Out of the corner of her eye, a palm swung fiercely toward her face, seemingly carrying the force of a thunderbolt, slapping her flying directly and causing her to roll on the ground.

Hearing the commotion, Jiang Xiaoxiao struggled to open her eyes, but everything before her was a bloody red; she could only vaguely see a blurry figure.

But she knew it was her mother who had come to save her.

"Mother..." she let out a faint sound.

"Mother is here, Mother is here..." Jiang Wei looked at the person lying on the ground. She, who had always been cold and hard-hearted, almost shed tears at this moment.

The tiny little person, curled up, covered in injuries, her cheeks swollen high, some places even congested to the point of turning purple, blood spilling from the corners of her mouth, and her eyes, which she had struggled to open, were severely bloodshot from the brutal beating...

"Jiang Shi, you actually dare to hit me!!" The Old Woman, who had crawled up from the ground, rushed over in a rage.

Who would have thought that Jiang Wei would grab her disheveled hair, pull her head directly, and smash it fiercely against the ground!

"Was it you who did this, wasn't it!!"

"Was it you who beat her into this state, wasn't it!!"

"How can your heart be so vicious! She is only five years old!!"

The rage seemed to have burned away her reason. With every question filled with monstrous anger, Jiang Wei pulled the Old Woman's head and smashed it against the ground. The strength in her hands was so great that she seemed to wish she could crush her skull directly!

"Bang—bang—bang—"

The Old Woman's heart-rending wails were all drowned out by the sound of the banging against the ground...

The Old Woman was smashed until she was dizzy and disoriented, nearly fainting from the pain, and her face was already smashed into a bloody mess...

The ground was soon stained with blood, but Jiang Wei's eyes were filled with a sinister gloom.

It wasn't until the Li family members helped each other in and saw this scene that their legs nearly went weak with fear.

"Jiang Shi! Stop! You're going to kill someone!!"

Several people wanted to step forward to stop her, but they were afraid of the woman with blood-red eyes opposite them, who seemed like an evil beast that had been suppressed for a long time. Whoever dared to go up, she could tear them limb from limb!

Gradually, there was no sound in the entire house.

The person Jiang Wei was dragging in her hand also slumped limply to the ground, unable to let out any more wails.

As if she hadn't seen them, she threw the person on the ground like trash, then turned around, picked up Jiang Xiaoxiao, and left the house.

Outside the Lao Li family's courtyard, Qiulian Niang happened to arrive with the Li Zheng. Upon seeing Jiang Xiaoxiao in Jiang Wei's arms, she was shocked: "What happened? Why is she injured like this!?"

Just as she finished speaking, wailing came from the Li family's main room:

"Mother! You must not be okay!"

"What happened?!" Qiulian Niang just wanted to go in and take a look when she saw Li Shoude rush out with a bloody face, shouting at Jiang Wei's back:

"Jiang Shi! Don't go! You beat my mother like that, come with me to see the official!"

"See the official?" Jiang Wei turned back with a cold laugh, scanning him up and down. "You kidnapped and trafficked people; according to the Imperial Court's laws, you have to go to jail! I see you don't want your scholarly honor anymore!"

Li Shoude was choked for a moment, but still stiffened his neck and argued: "Who said we kidnapped and trafficked people! Do you have evidence!!"

Jiang Wei sneered. Just as she was about to speak, Qiulian Niang stood out and said: "I saw with my own eyes your mother and your wife kidnapping Xiaoxiao! Don't you try to deny it!"

"Who do you think you are, you stinking woman—"

Li Shoude opened his mouth to scold angrily, but the Li Zheng knocked his cane and scolded angrily: "I've heard it all! It's the Huang family in the county seat, right? You wanted to sell someone else's daughter to the Huang family!"

"I..."

Li Shoude moved his mouth guiltily, cursing inwardly about which bastard had leaked the news, but on the surface, he said: "Even if it is, that's because we wanted to marry Er Ya into the Huang family! We are her uncle and aunt; doing this is for her own good!"

Just as he finished speaking, Jiang Wei glanced at him coldly. "You really have a short memory. We have already broken off kinship; Xiaoxiao is no longer a member of your Lao Li family! You took her away without permission; that is kidnapping and trafficking!"

"That's right!"

Perhaps because Li Shoude was too arrogant, the Li Zheng stood on Jiang Wei's side this time. "Your kinship-breaking document was handed to the county yamen for stamping by me personally! If you don't believe it, you can go with me to the county yamen to see it right now!"

Upon hearing that they were going to the county yamen, Li Shoude immediately lost his nerve. He didn't dare to shout about seeking justice for his mother anymore. He stomped his feet twice and turned into the house.

Qiulian Niang finally breathed a sigh of relief and turned to look at Jiang Xiaoxiao in Jiang Wei's arms. The more she looked, the more her heart ached: "Sigh, the people of the Lao Li family are too heartless. How could they beat a child like this! To think they used to be the child's relatives! This Lao Li family is really not a thing!"

Hearing this, the coldness on Jiang Wei's face grew even more intense. She glanced at the Lao Li family's house with sinister eyes.

She would not let these people go.

Every one of them would have to pay the price for this!

The most urgent task was to find a way to save the child!

"Sigh, let's not talk about it for now. You take the child home first; I'll go to the village head to find a physician to take a look!"

Qiulian Niang didn't say another word and flew toward the village head.

Jiang Wei didn't dare to delay any longer, holding Jiang Xiaoxiao and rushing home quickly.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 19 =====