Chapter Five: The Formidable New Bride

Hearing his mother’s words, Chu Qingbai rolled up his sleeves and rushed over, ready to pin down Gu Xiaoyao. Gu Xiaoyao, who had stood motionless all along, calmly intercepted his outstretched hand. With a swift motion, she pressed down hard on his shoulder—there was a sharp crack—and dislocated it.

Only now did Chu Qingbai realize that his second brother hadn’t been joking earlier; it was true, this new sister-in-law was no ordinary woman. “Mother, it hurts…” Chu Qingbai’s eyes brimmed with tears from the pain. He clutched his limp right shoulder with his left hand, staring in horror at his now useless arm, and stumbled back several steps.

The gathered villagers, who had come to watch the commotion, exchanged astonished glances when they saw Gu Xiaoyao subdue Chu Qingbai with a single move. “Heavens above! Murder! The new wife is out to kill! Someone help!” Madam Liu’s face turned ashen when she saw her second son’s arm rendered immobile, but still she cried out for help.

Gu Xiaoyao ignored their shouts, her attention instead drawn to the scene before her—verdant mountains and clear waters. It had been a long time since she’d seen such scenery. Unlike the world after the apocalypse, fraught with danger at every turn, this place could only be described as paradise.

“Qingbai’s mother, stop your shouting. Weren’t you the ones who started this? Now you call it murder—crying thief to catch a thief, all with that sharp tongue of yours.” A woman, her hair wrapped in a flowered kerchief, retorted, blocking Madam Liu’s words. The neighbors all saw it was Madam Liu bullying the new daughter-in-law.

Madam Liu glared back, grinding her teeth, thinking this woman meddlesome. “You really have nothing better to do, poking your nose into my family’s affairs,” she snapped.

The woman in the kerchief paid her no heed—just because Madam Liu said not to interfere didn’t mean she would listen. The road was wide; she could walk wherever she liked. “This is precisely the business I will meddle in. Don’t think you can mistreat your daughter-in-law just because your eldest son isn’t home. When he returns, you’ll have to answer for it.”

Who in Lotus Flower Village didn’t know that what Madam Liu feared most was her eldest son? At his sternest glare, her legs would tremble.

“Bah! Why should a mother fear her own son? You venomous woman, you hurt my second son, and now you’ve broken my third son’s arm. Today I’ll make you pay!” Despite her bravado, Madam Liu dreaded that Gu Xiaoyao might dislocate her own arm. She crouched down, grabbed a few large stones, and hurled them at her.

Gu Xiaoyao dodged easily, a trace of impatience flickering in her eyes. If not for the complications of this place, she would have left already.

Moreover, since she had inherited this body, she was obliged to fulfill its wishes. The previous owner had longed to bring her mother and younger brother here, so they could all live a good life.

“How do you plan to punish me? Stones like these won’t kill me,” Gu Xiaoyao stood tall, regarding Madam Liu with a cold gaze. If Madam Liu truly wanted to kill, these petty attempts were laughable.

“You shameless wretch! If I’d known you were so brazen, I’d never have spent money to bring you here! I can’t imagine what sort of parents you have to raise someone so disrespectful to her elders!” Madam Liu gripped another stone and, as she spoke, flung it at Gu Xiaoyao.

Chu Qingbai watched the stone fly, a surge of satisfaction in his heart. That’s right—this insolent woman needed a proper lesson.