Chapter Two: Go, Pikachu

The grandmother in the original heroine’s memories was no kind soul. From the time the girl was four, she was made to wash clothes and cook, and from time to time she was forced to learn “proper manners” as well.

That meant kneeling all night with two bowls pressed beneath her knees. Afterward, she still had to chop firewood and fetch water, until the girl was worn down beyond recognition.

Bullying her was not enough. The moment she turned fifteen, she was sold for eight hundred coins to serve as the wife of an old cripple.

Had Liang Yunqing not arrived through that sudden twist of fate, this novel would already have reached its end. After all, a frail heroine married to an old cripple would not live long.

What a pity. Before she had crossed into the book, the story had been all about a cherished darling. The original text had said this old grandmother doted on the heroine most of all.

The plot had gone completely off the rails. It had collapsed in a truly thorough fashion...

Grandmother Wang had already risen in anger at her words, and was just about to order her to “learn manners” when the woman beside her, who had been crying with her head lowered all this time, suddenly dropped to her knees.

“Mother-in-law, if you must punish someone, then punish me. Please, don’t sell off Big Girl.”

Her voice was hoarse, clearly the result of long hours of crying.

Liang Yunqing looked at the woman kneeling on the ground. Her birth mother really was weak beyond belief. Even now that her own daughter was about to be sold to a cripple, she could think only to beg for mercy.

Grandmother Wang cast a cold glance at the woman on the ground.

“Chu Youmai, you dare talk back to your mother-in-law now?”

“I wouldn’t dare, Mother-in-law. I only beg you not to sell Big Girl again. I have only these two daughters. I beg you.”

Chu Shi slammed her forehead hard against the ground. How could she not ache for her daughter? Ever since she learned that her mother-in-law had taken the eight hundred coins in bride-price, she had already pleaded again and again.

She had thought that today her daughter would go out and never come back, yet she had been sent back by Old Man Qiao. Heaven knew how happy she had been the moment she saw her daughter again.

Wang Shi no longer bothered with her. She raised her eyes and looked at Liang Yunqing, who had stood straight and still, and said,

“Now get over there and learn your manners. Tomorrow I’ll send you to that old cripple.”

“Me?”

Liang Yunqing looked at her with a cold laugh, then nodded. “All right, Grandmother.”

With that, she turned and walked into the kitchen. Inside, she took one look around. The earthen walls had already crumbled by half. This household could no longer even be described as poor.

It was barely fit to be called worse than a beggar’s den.

She picked up two broken bowls from the corner. These were the tools used for the original heroine’s so-called “manners lesson.”

Weighing the bowls in her hands, Liang Yunqing strode back into the yard. Seeing Grandmother Wang seated again on the wooden chair, she let a faint smile touch her lips.

“Grandmother, is this the kind of lesson you mean?”

The old woman on the chair lifted her chin proudly and nodded. Liang Yunqing’s smile deepened. Before anyone could react, the bowls in her hand had already been hurled at her.

She even shouted, “Take this, Pikachu!”

The two broken bowls crashed just beside Wang Shi’s feet, their shards spraying up against her knees.

Wang Shi’s face turned white with shock.

“You—you... you...”

Liang Yunqing planted one hand on her hip and flexed the wrist of the other, looking at her with undisguised contempt.

If she had not known this era prized decorum, those bowls would have smashed straight into that old shrew’s face.

Chu Youmai, still kneeling on the ground, was nearly frightened into a faint. She wailed as she crawled to Grandmother Wang’s side.

“Mother-in-law! Mother-in-law, Big Girl was frightened and has lost her wits. Please don’t take it to heart.”

Wang Shi, who had looked stunned only a moment before, instantly found her temper again at her daughter-in-law’s pleading. She glared fiercely at Liang Yunqing, then shot a look toward her second daughter-in-law.

“What are you standing there for? Can’t you see this wretched girl has gone mad? Go bring your man back from the fields!”

Second Aunt Li Pinghua came back to herself at once. She hurriedly agreed, ripped off the apron tied around her waist, and ran outside, shouting as she went,

“Misfortune! Such misfortune! The dead girl’s gone mad...”

Wang Shi gave Chu Youmai a hard kick away from her feet and said with a sharp breath,

“Liang Big Girl, just wait until your second uncle comes home. When he sees you playing the fool, someone will deal with you.”

Liang Yunqing tilted her head. She had originally intended to help Chu Shi up. After all, no matter what, this was the heroine’s mother. But seeing how she did nothing but cry and plead, irritation rose in her.

Forget it. Let her cry to her heart’s content first.

“Liang Big Girl? What, now you’re pretending to be deaf too?”

Grandmother Wang looked at her in disgust. The girl who had always been so obedient and ready to take any beating or scolding had suddenly turned into this, and she could not help feeling a little uncertain.

Still, she refused to believe the girl could make any real trouble.

At first Liang Yunqing had no wish to keep dealing with this old shrew. Modern ideas of respecting the elderly and caring for the young still had some influence on her, and in truth she did not want to bother with someone half-buried in the grave already.

But why did this old shrew always wear that air of superiority?

The way she looked at Liang Yunqing was as though she were staring at an ant. And now she had called for the second uncle to come back? In the original heroine’s memories, that second uncle had seemed to be a man who feared his wife.

Yet among those fragmented, cluttered recollections, there was also a faint impression that this second uncle was very good at stirring others up.

“Big Girl, Big Girl, hurry and apologize to your grandmother. Hurry!”

Somehow, Chu Youmai had already crawled crying to Liang Yunqing’s feet. With tear-filled eyes, she clutched her hand and said,

“Mother, do you know? Crying never solves anything.”

Hearing her calm voice, Chu Youmai became even more certain that her daughter had been driven mad by the shock.

“Big Girl... Big Girl, what’s wrong with you?”

Liang Yunqing simply shook off her hand. This body had been standing too long already, and she was feeling uncomfortable.

Her eyes swept over the yard, then fixed on the wooden chair where Grandmother Wang was sitting. She walked over with long strides.

“You! You vile thing, what are you doing?”

Wang Shi gripped the chair tightly, panic rising in her heart, while her eyes kept flicking toward the gate.

Liang Yunqing suddenly bent down so that her face was right in front of Wang Shi’s, and said each word slowly and clearly:

“You’re the vile thing. Move aside. I’m tired and I want to sit.”

“You! How dare you insult your elders!”

Wang Shi’s face flushed red. Consumed by fury, she raised her hand to slap Liang Big Girl, who had the gall to act so recklessly before her.

But just as her hand was about to come down, it was seized in a vise-like grip.

Crack.

Liang Yunqing held Wang Shi’s hand with her left, and with her right she struck out cleanly and decisively.

At once, a bright red palm print bloomed across Wang Shi’s face. Chu Shi, still crying, was so startled by the blow that she fainted on the spot.

“You... you dare strike your elders. You’re finished. Finished!”

Fear surged across Wang Shi’s face. Trembling, she lost her balance and fell back from the wooden chair onto the ground.

Liang Yunqing showed not the slightest trace of regret. In fact, she only thought she had hit too lightly. After all, the heroine had been tormented by this woman for fifteen years.

What was one slap compared to that?

Seeing the empty seat on the wooden chair, she sat down without hesitation. Her feet still felt uncomfortable, so she lifted one leg and rested it on the curled-up Wang Shi lying on the ground.

The entire yard changed beyond recognition.

Only when a cry of shock rang out did Liang Yunqing lazily open her eyes and look over.

At the gate stood a man in coarse homespun clothes, staring in utter disbelief. Beside him, Second Aunt Li Pinghua had already turned pale and was pressed against the doorframe in terror.

Soon after, another man came in carrying a woven basket on his back. The three of them were so frightened by the scene in the yard that they could scarcely move.

“Oh? Second Uncle and Second Aunt are back. Father’s back too.”