Mrs. Thompson Gets Beaten Up

Mrs. Tang was happily counting her money, completely unaware that someone would jump over the wall to deal with her. With a howl, she tried to run, but the man caught her and pinned her down for a brutal beating.

When Su Li and Xiao Zetian rode their horses into the village, they saw many villagers running towards Mrs. Tang's house. Su Li noticed Aunt Zhu heading that way too and quickly called out, "Aunt Zhu, where is everyone going?"

Aunt Zhu, with a face full of gossip, said, "Oh, we're going to Mrs. Tang's house to watch the excitement! I heard Mrs. Tang embezzled someone's money and is getting beaten up!"

"Huh?" Su Li and Xiao Zetian exchanged glances. They had only been gone a short while, so why was Mrs. Tang causing trouble again?

"Let's go check it out together!" Su Li and Xiao Zetian headed towards Mrs. Tang's courtyard.

At the entrance of Mrs. Tang's courtyard, a crowd of onlookers had gathered, all standing outside the wall, craning their necks to listen to the commotion inside.

Aunt Zhu rushed over, ears perked, stomping and clapping excitedly as she exclaimed, "Ouch! That sounds like a slap to the face! Wow, they're really going at it!"

At Mrs. Tang's door, the village chief was pounding hard, shouting, "Open the door inside, don't let anyone get hurt!"

From inside, an angry man's voice rang out, "I can't kill that damn woman, Mrs. Tang!"

The village chief, sweating profusely, said anxiously, "If you kill her, you'll be in trouble with the law and might lose your life!"

Then from the backyard came Mrs. Tang's pitiful scream begging for mercy, "Please spare me, sir, don't hit me anymore!"

Then the man's voice again, "That damn woman Mrs. Tang ruined our livelihood and cheated us out of money. Cutting off someone's income is like killing their parents. Even if I kill her, it wouldn't be enough!"

The village chief kept pounding on the door, "Open the door, don't lose your temper! If someone dies, our village's reputation will be ruined!"

Su Li and Xiao Zetian approached, and the village chief, seeing them, urged, "A Li, come listen! Mrs. Tang is about to be beaten to death!"

Su Li frowned, hearing Mrs. Tang's heart-wrenching screams, realizing she was being beaten badly behind the closed door.

"Well, I can't do anything about this." Su Li looked at the tightly shut door. She wasn't a hero and couldn't fly in.

The village chief sighed heavily, sweat pouring down his forehead, then turned to ask several villagers if any young, agile men could go in and break up the fight to prevent a tragedy.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Tang was extremely unpopular in the village and had a history of scamming, so no one wanted to get involved.

Several young men looked troubled as they told the village chief, "Chief, it's not that we don't want to help, but we can't! Last time Mrs. Tang tripped over her own son and tried to blame Miss Lingdang, saying Lingdang pushed her and demanding compensation! We're all poor villagers; if we help her and she causes trouble again, blaming us for her injuries and demanding money, we simply can't afford it!"

"Exactly, we can't afford to mess with her. We just avoid her. Mrs. Tang really is... reaping what she sows!"

The village chief exclaimed, "What do we do now? Mrs. Tang, that wicked woman, dying would be one less troublemaker. But the man beating her is our villager Xiongzi! Xiongzi has an eighty-year-old mother and a newborn baby to support all by himself. If he gets involved in a murder case, who will take care of his whole family!?"

Despite the village chief's words, the young men lowered their heads and stepped back, no one daring to stand up for Mrs. Tang.

"Blame it on Mrs. Tang herself. She's done so many bad things, there's nothing we can do about it."