Chapter 8

“You damn woman—where are you trying to take my son?”

A foul stench hit Xia Wenhua before she could even ask her question. The bearded man roared at her and lunged forward to snatch the child from her arms.

Xia Wenhua sidestepped quickly, frowning at the man while her peripheral vision swept around cautiously.

She had heard from the older generation that things were chaotic before the crackdown, but she didn’t expect it to be this bad. Pei Songbai had been gone for barely ten minutes, and someone was already trying to snatch a child in broad daylight?

Seeing that the bearded man had failed on his first try and was preparing for another attempt—and noticing two more men nearby whose expressions clearly showed they were with him—Xia Wenhua drew a wooden stick from the pile of luggage, hid the two children behind the bags, and stood in front of them, guarding them with the stick.

“My husband’s a soldier—he’s just nearby and will be back any second. I suggest you leave now before he comes back and makes you regret it!”

Xia Wenhua spoke to distract them while slowly backing up, ensuring none of them could get close enough to touch the kids.

But the bearded man and his crew had clearly been waiting here for this exact moment, and had already seen Pei Songbai leave. Her warning didn’t scare them one bit.

Instead, the bearded man’s eyes lit with murderous intent, and he shouted,
“You little tramp! Trying to run off with my kid and that pretty boy? Let’s see if I don’t beat you to death, you bitch!”

As he charged forward, his two accomplices began shouting to bystanders, claiming Xia Wenhua was his wife trying to elope and that he had just caught her.

Even though Xia Wenhua knew talking was useless, she didn’t sit back and let them ruin her reputation. While defending herself, she also shouted at the surrounding people:
“I don’t know these people! They’re trying to steal my kids—don’t believe them!”

But one person’s voice couldn’t compete with three, and the bearded man and his crew had already created enough confusion that the onlookers hesitated, unsure who to believe.

While the crowd debated, the bearded man reached her.

Xia Wenhua’s eyes flashed coldly. Without hesitation, she raised the stick and smashed it toward his face.

He didn’t take her seriously, just lazily raised his arm to block her—
But the next moment, a blood-curdling scream echoed across the station plaza.

“Aaargh!”

His arm broke on the spot, and Xia Wenhua, not holding back in the slightest, charged forward and beat him relentlessly.

His two companions hadn’t expected the bearded man to lose so quickly. They froze, their voices trailing off in shock.

Xia Wenhua didn’t stop there. She glared at them and raised an eyebrow mockingly.
“Your buddy’s already down—what, are you next?”

Her boldness shifted the crowd’s focus onto the remaining two.

“Wait, are they all together?”
“Looks like it. Those two were just now trying to defend the bearded guy.”
“Crap… are they really traffickers?”

…

Human trafficking schemes like this weren’t well-known at the time, since media coverage was minimal and most people hadn’t seen such things. But now, with Xia Wenhua exposing their lies and pointing out the connections, people were starting to realize the truth.

With the bearded man incapacitated, the other two panicked and tried to flee.

But Xia Wenhua had been watching them closely. No way was she letting them escape.

“These two are human traffickers—please, everyone, help me stop them!” she shouted.

This time, the bystanders no longer doubted her. Outraged and indignant, they rushed forward to block the men from escaping.

Xia Wenhua’s stick moved like a weapon of justice—quick, powerful, precise. Most people didn’t even catch how she swung it before they heard screams.

Human traffickers deserved to be punished, and the crowd, now certain of the trio’s guilt and furious at being tricked, attacked them without restraint.

Soon, a tight circle had formed, with all three men getting beaten.

Just then, Pei Songbai returned carrying food, only to hear someone shouting about traffickers at the station. His expression changed instantly, and he pushed through the crowd—
What he saw nearly made his eyes pop out of his head.

At the center of the crowd stood his elegant, soft-spoken wife with a stick in hand, beating the traffickers mercilessly.

Others were also joining in, so her actions didn’t stand out much, but with his trained eyes, Pei Songbai could tell: every strike she made was calculated—and deadly. She had definitely broken someone’s leg.

His pupils dilated as he strode forward.
“What happened?”

His voice snapped Xia Wenhua out of her adrenaline-fueled state. She clenched the stick tightly and growled,
“Songbai, they tried to steal the children!”

Now that Pei Songbai was back, she could finally hand over the kids to him. She passed them off without hesitation, didn’t give him a chance to speak, and threw herself back into the fight.

She had been kidnapped as a child, rescued from human traffickers, and later sent to an orphanage because no one would take her in.

If there was one thing Xia Wenhua hated most in this world, it was traffickers—no contest.

And now, they had dared to mess with her? Try to take her children? If she didn’t make sure these scumbags remembered this day for life, she might as well not have transmigrated at all.

Using the cover of the crowd, Xia Wenhua broke one leg per trafficker, using just enough force to make sure those legs would never recover, before finally pulling back.

Even though the legal system wasn’t strong yet, everyone hated traffickers, and if these three had previously kidnapped anyone, they were probably headed for the firing squad.

Even if they hadn’t succeeded before, just attempting to take a child now meant they were looking at life behind bars. Xia Wenhua felt no guilt whatsoever for the beating she delivered.

Having done her job, she calmly walked out of the crowd.

She met Pei Songbai’s complex, heavy gaze head-on—without the slightest trace of guilt.

She had given him a chance from the start. He’d said his greatest wish was to live a peaceful life, and she had agreed. But that didn’t mean she would live timidly or quietly.

Xia Wenhua had never been one to swallow grievances. Even in a different era, she believed in returning hatred with vengeance. No grudge would survive the night.

When Pei Songbai later mentioned how ruthlessly she dealt with the two men, Xia Wenhua only smiled sweetly:

“Everyone knows I’m from a capitalist family—did you really think I was some clueless, delicate girl? Rich people have to know how to protect themselves too. Breaking a few legs? That’s nothing.”