Living like a widow? My rough neighbor is coaxing me to have a baby every night.

Chapter 13: Using Qin Rushan to intimidate her!

The night was as thick as ink that couldn't be dissolved, and the wind carried the earthy smell and the distant howling of wild dogs.

Qin Rushan carried Li Xianglian and strode out of the melon field.

"Go back to my home." Qin Rushan stared straight ahead, his voice deep and heavy. "Tonight, no one will lay a finger on you."

Xianglian nestled in his arms, listening to his strong heartbeat, and her originally panicked and helpless heart miraculously calmed down a bit.

Upon hearing the words "go back to my home," she froze, her fingers instinctively gripping the fabric of his chest.

"no……"

The voice was soft, but it was filled with stubbornness.

Qin Rushan paused, lowered his head, and suppressed anger blazed in his dark eyes: "What? Haven't you had enough of that wolf's den? If I had arrived a moment later tonight, you would have..."

"I know."

Xianglian interrupted him. She looked up, her pale face still streaked with tears, but her eyes shone with an astonishing brightness. "Rushan, I know you care about me. But that's precisely why I can't go to you."

She sniffed, fighting back the tears welling in her eyes: "Even though we're in the right about tonight's events, if I go home with you now and spend the night with you, tomorrow morning, the whole village will be spitting at us. Then, even if we're in the right, we won't be. Zhao Gang hasn't completely cleared things up yet. If I'm branded with the stigma of 'eloping with a stranger,' how can we get a divorce? The Zhao family will have even more reason to turn the tables and might even send you to jail!"

Qin Rushan gritted his teeth, and a hard lump of flesh bulged out of his cheek.

He was a rough man who only thought about protecting his woman with his fists, but he also understood that Xianglian was telling the truth.

These days, rumors and gossip are like a soft knife; they kill without drawing blood.

"What should we do then? Send you back to be tormented by that old hag?" The veins on Qin Rushan's forehead throbbed, clearly showing his fury.

"Take me back."

"Aunt Zhao was terrified by you tonight, and since Chen Dagui failed in his mission, she's feeling guilty and won't dare to do anything to me for the time being..."

Qin Rushan gave her a deep look.

"Fine." Qin Rushan finally gave in.

He said no more, carrying Xianglian around the main road of the village, and deliberately chose to walk on the deserted side paths.

When they arrived outside the Zhao family's courtyard wall, it was quiet all around, without even the sound of insects chirping.

Qin Rushan gently put Xianglian down.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, Xianglian's legs went weak and she almost lost her balance.

Qin Rushan swiftly caught her waist; his large, hot hand sent a shiver down Xianglian's spine.

"Go in."

Qin Rushan released his grip, took a step back, and hid himself in the shadows of the corner. "Lock the doors and windows. I'm not leaving tonight; I'll stay here by this wall. If that old hag dares to cause trouble, just shout. I'll climb over the wall and chop her up."

Xianglian's eyes welled up with tears, but she forced them back.

She nodded, not daring to look back at those burning eyes, and turned to push open the dilapidated wooden door.

Only when the bolt on the woodshed door rang out with a crisp sound did Qin Rushan, who was outside the wall, pull out a crumpled cigarette from his pocket, strike a match, and light it.

The flickering light of the Mars illuminated his gloomy face.

"Chen Dagui..."

He exhaled a smoke ring, his eyes darker and colder than the night.

......

The next morning, just as the rooster of the Red Star Brigade crowed its first crow, an explosive piece of news spread like wildfire throughout the entire village.

The villagers only knew one side of the story from last night's incident; most of them only saw Qin Rushan carrying Li Xianglian away.

But this morning, someone found Chen Dagui in the rocky gully at the foot of the back mountain.

That scoundrel is in a sorry state!

When he was found, he was already unconscious.

The right leg was twisted at a bizarre angle, clearly broken, and broken completely, with bone fragments almost piercing through the skin and flesh.

He looked as if he had rolled through a pile of thorns, his whole body was covered in bruises, and his face was so swollen that even his own mother couldn't recognize him.

When they carried him back to the village clinic, Chen Dagui woke up once. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was the barefoot doctor in a white coat. Terrified, he screamed, "Don't chop me! Don't chop me, Master Qin! I'll never do it again!"

After saying that, his eyes rolled back and he fainted again.

These words, coupled with the sight of that gleaming axe under the moonlight last night, made everything perfectly clear to the villagers.

Beside the well, several women waiting to draw water huddled together, speaking in hushed tones, their eyes revealing a mixture of excitement and fear.

"Have you heard? Qin Lao Er broke Chen Dagui's leg!"

As Aunt Wang scrubbed the clothes, she gestured mysteriously, "My husband got up in the middle of the night last night and heard screams coming from the back hill. The noise was like a pig being slaughtered!"

"Serves him right!" A young woman nearby spat. "That scoundrel Chen Dagui, always stealing chickens and groping young women, he deserved to be taught a lesson long ago. I just didn't expect Qin Lao Er to be so ruthless..."

Shh! Keep your voice down!

Another elderly woman quickly covered her mouth, looking around in horror. "Are you out of your mind? That's Qin Lao Er! Even a scoundrel like Chen Dagui got beaten up like this. If we gossip, our windows might be taken down in the middle of the night!"

Everyone shuddered when they recalled Qin Rushan's act of banging on the door with a knife the night before last. They had originally wanted to discuss Qin Rushan and Li Xianglian's "affair" a bit more, but now they kept it all to themselves, and no one dared to start the conversation.

This is the deterrent power of evil people.

Sometimes, being a good person is useless; you have to be a bad person that people fear in order to protect the people you want to protect.

When the news reached the Zhao family, Aunt Zhao was huddled on the kang (a heated brick bed), holding a bowl of brown sugar water to calm her nerves.

She crawled back home last night, and didn't dare close her eyes all night. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Qin Rushan's axe that could split a person in two.

"Mother, I heard that Chen Dagui broke his leg..." Li Xianglian walked into the house carrying a pig feed trough, her expression calm, as if she were just mentioning it casually.

"Clatter!" The bowl in Aunt Zhao's hand fell onto the kang (a heated brick bed), spilling brown sugar water all over the bedding.

"It...it's broken?" Aunt Zhao's face turned deathly pale, her lips trembling. "Who...who did it?"

"Who else could it be?"

Xianglian glanced at her, her gaze chilling, making Aunt Zhao's heart tremble. "The villagers all say it's retribution. They say someone walked too much at night and encountered a ghost, was so frightened that they broke their leg. Others say..."

She paused, then moved closer to Aunt Zhao, "He was crippled by a ruthless axe-wielding demon."

"Ah!" Aunt Zhao screamed, shrinking deeper into the blankets, trembling like a leaf. "Stop talking! Stop talking! That heartless bastard... how could he be so cruel..."

She was genuinely scared.

Chen Dagui, who was just handling the matter, had his leg broken. She was the mastermind. If Qin Rushan really went crazy, wouldn't he tear her old bones apart?

Seeing her usually domineering mother-in-law so terrified, Xianglian felt a surge of unprecedented pleasure.

"Mother, don't be afraid." Xianglian slowly tidied up the broken pieces on the kang (a heated brick bed). "As long as we don't provoke that evil spirit, he won't cause us trouble for no reason. However..."

She changed the subject, lowering her voice: "Last night, I think I overheard Chen Dagui blurting out something about Gangzi in the city. He said that you wanted to ruin me for Gangzi's future. If this gets to Qin Rushan's ears, or to the commune cadres... that's hiring a murderer, and that's a crime punishable by death."

Aunt Zhao suddenly looked up, staring intently at Xianglian: "You...you tricked me?"

"How could I dare?"

Xianglian poured the shards into the winnowing basket, straightened her back, and her eyes no longer darted away as before. "I just wanted to remind Mother. In the future, it's better to discuss things together in this family. After all, that evil spirit is watching from next door."

After saying that, she picked up the winnowing basket, turned around, and left, leaving Aunt Zhao alone on the kang (a heated brick bed), her eyes filled with resentment and fear.

This Li Xianglian actually dared to use Qin Rushan to intimidate her!

But ironically, this trick works!