Murderous Intent
Su Li, unable to tolerate any longer, fiercely kicked Tang Shi in the face, cursing, "Get lost!"
Tang Shi cried out and fell backward onto the ground, a shoe print marking her face and blood trickling from her nose. Furious, she got up, dusted off her skirt, and scolded, "Su Li, how dare you hit someone? Just because you made some silver, you think you’ve forgotten who you are? You even dare to hit a fellow villager!? Zhang Mu and Wu Caiwei aren’t any better, and neither are you! Tsk tsk, who knows how many people you’ve cheated out of that hundred thousand taels of silver? Filthy money, I spit on it! Wu Caiwei, your son was kidnapped by bandits so many days ago, he’s surely dead by now. And you’re still throwing silver trying to ransom him? Ransoming a dead child with a hundred thousand taels? Better to do some good and share that silver with everyone in the village. A hundred thousand taels divided among the families would be plenty for a lifetime of food and drink. Consider it a good deed for your dead son, accumulate virtue and kindness, so he can be reborn into a good family in his next life!"
Tang Shi’s words about Wu Caiwei’s son being dead struck a sensitive nerve. Wu Caiwei’s eyes welled up with tears as she clutched her clothes tightly, saying, "My son is definitely not dead. He’s still alive. Tang Shi, stop cursing him!"
"Even if he’s dead, such a little child missing for so long has surely already met the King of Hell!" Tang Shi jumped up, shouting triumphantly.
*Smack!*
Suddenly, a fierce whip cracked across Tang Shi’s face. She clutched her face in pain and let out a howl. Feeling her face, she found a bloody whip mark.
Su Li’s eyes were bloodshot as she jumped down from the carriage, whipping Tang Shi relentlessly as if raining down lashes.
Su Li’s expression was chillingly cold. Tang Shi, clutching her head, tried to run, but Su Li grabbed her hair and kicked her to the ground. Then she lashed Tang Shi’s face with a whip as thick as an arm, her voice dark and terrifying: "Tang Shi, you think I can’t deal with you after all the evil you’ve done?"
With that, Su Li cracked the whip hard against Tang Shi’s head. Tang Shi felt a sharp pain in her scalp, then warm blood flowed down her face.
"Ah! Murder!" Tang Shi screamed, clutching her head and curling up on the ground in fear.
This time, Su Li truly had murderous intent. The whip left bloody marks all over Tang Shi’s body. Tang Shi rolled on the ground, screaming and writhing in pain.
Seeing Tang Shi covered in blood, Su Li knew she couldn’t waste any more time on her. Saving the child was the priority. Once they returned...
A cold flash gleamed in Su Li’s eyes: "Tang Shi, you brought this on yourself. Don’t blame me when you meet the King of Hell!"
Su Li put away her whip, her face dark as she climbed back onto the carriage. Tang Shi staggered up from the ground, spat at the retreating carriage, and shouted, "Su Li, you beat me like this, you’ll have to pay! This time, I want ten thousand taels of silver from you, or I’ll report you to the government! Wu Caiwei, you heartless rich woman, getting rich and forgetting your roots, hoarding silver without sharing with the villagers. Serves you right that your son died!"
Tang Shi’s shouts echoed behind Su Li, who snorted coldly and cracked her whip against the horse’s rump. She turned to Lingdang and said, "Prepare paper ingots worth ten thousand taels."
Lingdang was momentarily stunned, then immediately understood: paper ingots are burned for the dead...
As the saying goes, if you don’t provoke trouble, you won’t die. Some people stubbornly make mistake after mistake, pushing others to the brink, and ultimately sealing their own fate...
Lingdang looked back at the still squirming, lively Tang Shi and shook her head: thinking that being a shrew would let her run wild in the village, tsk, little did she know she really kicked a big iron plate this time.