Chapter 49: Revenge

Early morning was the time when every household headed out to work in the fields. Coincidentally, Jing Xi’s house was located right next to the fields on the embankment. So, in no time, the villagers, carrying their hoes and iron shovels, all turned their heads to watch the commotion—no, not a fight, but rather, Jing Xi beating someone up.

Jing Xi finally let go of Li Fenghua’s hair and put away the fire poker.

Standing with her hands on her hips, she declared, “If you dare come to my door looking for trouble again, I’ll beat every single one of you! One comes, I beat one. Two come, I beat a pair!”

Li Fenghua, now released, sat on the ground gasping for breath, her exposed backside making it too embarrassing to stand up. “You damn girl, this isn’t over! I’ll make you pay for this!”

Hearing that, Jing Xi picked up the fire poker again. “Oh? It’s not over? What was your name again, Li something?”

“Ahhh! I already told you, my name is Li Fenghua!”

“Oh, Li Cuihua.”

“…”

Madam Li Fenghua wanted to continue the fight, but with her rear end exposed, it was impossible for her to make a move—especially with all the villagers in the fields watching and laughing.

She wasn’t even sure if they had seen her bare backside.

Having no other choice, she threw down a threat. “Just you wait! You messed with Li Fenghua—there’s no way you’ll get away with it!”

“Xiao Wen! Hurry up and give me your clothes to cover myself!”

Xiao Wen, seeing her mother-in-law in such an embarrassing state, felt utterly disgusted but still handed over her outer garment to cover Li Fenghua’s backside. The two of them then hurriedly fled as if running for their lives.

Jing Xi watched them leave and couldn’t help but laugh.

Since coming here, she had only ever been on the receiving end of beatings. The first time she hit someone was when she fought Wu Dazhuang, and that had been incredibly satisfying.

She never expected that the second time would feel even better.

After exerting so much energy so early in the morning, her stomach growled.

Suddenly, she had a craving for braised pork.

—

By midday, the entire village had already heard about how Li Fenghua went to Jing Xi’s house asking for a beating.

Jing Xi hadn’t stepped outside, but after lunch, Zhang Rui came knocking.

“Silly girl, that woman is tough! She’s the undefeated champion of the village. This time, she lost to you, but you can bet she won’t let this go easily!”

Zhang Rui was extremely worried. That woman was not only vicious but also strong. How could Jing Xi’s small frame possibly stand a chance against her?

Jing Xi shrugged. “Auntie, it’s fine, don’t worry. Besides, she came to my doorstep and started cursing me first. That was her fault. She threw the first punch too. I was just defending myself!”

“That may be true, but that woman fights dirty! I’m afraid she’ll try something underhanded when you’re not paying attention!”

“You don’t know this, but one year, Zhou Wenwu talked a little too much with a newlywed woman from the neighboring village, and Li Fenghua slashed that poor woman’s face! She still has a scar to this day.”

“And do you remember Meng’s second daughter-in-law? She got into a dispute with Li Fenghua over cow dung placement in front of their houses. Li Fenghua broke her leg! She didn’t even pay a single penny in compensation and was even jailed for it! But that didn’t scare her one bit—she came back and kept fighting like nothing happened!”

Jing Xi was a little surprised. “She’s that ruthless? All over something so trivial?”

“Exactly! That’s why I’m telling you, you need to get out of here for a few days! Go stay somewhere else! Maybe go to my brother’s place—my sister-in-law’s workplace at the bus station is hiring ticket sellers right now…”

Zhang Rui was pacing back and forth in Jing Xi’s room, desperately trying to come up with a solution.

Jing Xi, however, wasn’t paying much attention.

Instead, she was thinking about Li Fenghua’s face—it looked incredibly familiar, as if she had seen her somewhere before.

But no matter how hard she thought, she just couldn’t recall where she had seen her.

Seeing Jing Xi lost in thought, Zhang Rui quickly snapped her back to reality.

“Xiao Jing! Did you hear me? I’m telling you, leave the village for a few days! I’m really afraid she’ll come after you for revenge!”

Jingxi saw Zhang Rui looking scared and quickly pulled her down to sit. “Auntie, don’t be afraid. Have you forgotten that I have the Long family backing me up…?”

Zhang Rui hesitated. “I know, but… what if she comes looking for trouble and the Long family isn’t around, or they don’t step in?”

“Don’t worry, it’s fine. Besides, she’s so ‘tough,’ yet she didn’t even manage to touch a single strand of my hair today. Why should I be afraid of her? People like that only pick on the weak. Who knows, maybe she won’t even dare to come back!”

Zhang Rui couldn’t argue against Jingxi, and Jingxi wasn’t the least bit concerned. In the end, Zhang Rui could only sigh and let it go.

But before leaving, she still warned Jingxi to be careful and to make sure she locked her doors at night.

Jingxi nodded in agreement.

For the next few days, she remained on high alert, ready at any moment for a showdown with Li Fenghua.

But strangely enough, Li Fenghua seemed to have completely vanished—there wasn’t even a trace of her around.

It wasn’t until four days later, when Xiao Jie came by to deliver some radish seeds, that Jingxi finally caught wind of some gossip at the village’s ‘rumor hub.’

Some said that Li Fenghua had gone looking for trouble with Jingxi, got beaten up instead, and ended up running home bare-assed after her pants were torn apart.

Others claimed that after losing the fight and feeling humiliated, she went home only to get another beating from Zhou Wenwu.

There were also rumors that Li Fenghua’s son was nothing more than a useless loafer and that the village would never let him become a temporary accountant. Supposedly, that was the real reason Li Fenghua had gone to pick a fight with Jingxi—to vent her frustrations—only to end up suffering a rare and complete defeat.

The most outrageous rumor?

That Li Fenghua had been caught cheating by her own daughter-in-law, and in her panic, she ran back home naked!

…

At last, Jingxi understood why rumors were called rumors.

Because while some parts were true, most of it was just made-up nonsense loosely based on reality.

Absolutely ridiculous.

When Jingxi and Xiao Jie went to the fields to find Liu Jianchang, they happened to pass by a group of village women gossiping together. The moment they saw Jingxi—one of the people involved in the latest scandal—they enthusiastically greeted her.

“Xiaojing, heading to the fields?”

“Yep, Aunties!”

“Good, good. That Li Fenghua didn’t come looking for trouble with you again, did she?”

Jingxi simply shook her head without answering. “You ladies enjoy your chat—we’ll be on our way!”

After walking about ten steps away, Xiao Jie finally asked, “Who’s Li Fenghua? The moment I stepped into the village, I heard people talking about you getting into a fight. Don’t tell me it was with her?”

Jingxi: “…”

Xiao Jie: “So it was her.”

Jingxi sighed. “I really underestimated this village’s ability to gossip…”

Xiao Jie grinned. “Come on, tell me what happened. Now I’m really curious.”

Jingxi wasn’t planning on keeping it a secret, so she told him everything.

Especially when it came to Li Fenghua’s ‘battle prowess’—she recounted Zhang Rui’s version of Li Fenghua’s past fights word for word, without missing a single detail.

Xiao Jie’s curiosity was completely satisfied. He hadn’t expected such a big scandal—his eyes went wide like bronze bells, filled with shock. “This Li-something-Hua is actually that fierce?!”

“Li Fenghua.”

“Oh, right, Li Cuihua.”

“…”

Xiao Jie burst into laughter. “I was just messing with you! Haha, I know her name is Li Fenghua.”

“…”

“But seriously, aren’t you scared? What if she comes after you again? Do you need me to step in and take care of it?”

Jingxi shook her head. “If she comes, we’ll just fight again. Who’s afraid of who? I’ve got my trusty fire poker on standby—if she dares, I’ll beat her until she’s rolling on the ground! If I can’t even handle something this small, then you might as well stop leaving money in my care.”

Xiao Jie gave her a big thumbs-up, full of admiration.

Deep down, he couldn’t help but think—Damn, this girl really is just like Fourth Master said… fearless to the bone!