After The Coquettish Fake Master Was Driven Away - Chapter 39

On the other side, Old Second Tian was still shouting:
“Where is he, huh? Dares to hurt me but won’t come out and face me, a bunch of turtle spawn!”

He swept his gaze around.
“Fine then, every one of you here hand me half a tael of silver for medicine. Don’t give it, and I’ll just go take it straight from your homes!”

The crowd instantly grew chaotic.

“N-no, it wasn’t me.”

“Not me either, I-I just came along with them…”

Having long been oppressed, the villagers dared not resist. Now their fear only deepened. They avoided Old Second Tian’s gaze, quietly edging backward.

If even one of them ran, the rest would surely scatter in a panic.

“Old Second Tian!” Li Dongsheng roared, “Do you have no regard for the law anymore?!”

“The law? What the hell is that.”

Old Second Tian stomped down on a wooden stick, crushing it to splinters. The sharp crack made the surrounding crowd gasp in fright. His greasy, sweat-slicked face twisted with a smug grin, grotesque and ugly with pain. “You’re in my house now. Here, you follow my rules.”

“It was me.”

Old Second Tian froze, his swelling arrogance abruptly stalling.

Yan Yi slung his bow behind him. “What do you intend to do about it?”

The man was tall and imposing, like a towering mountain. Each step he took pressed down with suffocating weight. His expression was detached, his eyes black and fathomless as the sea. Yet when they fell upon Old Second Tian, they were calm and unshaken—

As though the man before him were nothing more than a worthless weed, the lowest insect, a puddle of mud not worth stirring his emotions.

Old Second Tian swallowed hard.

“Three chances are all you get. I’ve already given you more than enough. Today, either you leave Hetian Village and never return, or—”

The memory of Tian Xiaohua’s injuries and Xie Jinning’s half-torn clothes flashed through his mind. A blade of icy killing intent burst forth in his eyes, unrestrained and lethal.
“—I cripple you.”

“Fvck your father—!”

New and old grudges surged together, washing away his fleeting fear. Old Second Tian roared in fury and lunged, throwing a heavy punch straight for Yan Yi’s chest.

“Watch out!” Xie Jinning cried.

The wind of the blow was fierce, swirling up dust with a shrill whistle. But Yan Yi only stepped half a pace back, dropped his shoulder, and slid aside with ease, dodging the deadly strike.

Old Second Tian swung empty, then immediately turned for a backhand strike. He wasn’t slow—yet still too late. Yan Yi had already slipped behind him, kicked into the crook of his knee, and twisted his arm.

Thud.

Old Second Tian crashed to his knees. His arm, wrenched loose, drooped uselessly by his side at a crooked angle. Before the pain in his kneecap could even reach his brain, a fresh force slammed into his back. His forehead smashed into the dirt, his mouth filled with dust and gravel.

In an instant, utterly defeated—without the slightest chance to fight back.

“Bravo!”

A cheer erupted from the crowd.

“Ah! I’ll kill you!”

Rage, pain, humiliation—all boiled together, the cheers like oil poured into fire.

Old Second Tian had always delighted in others’ screams, in their terrified, pleading faces. That had been the sweetest music to him.

Now the tables turned—he was the monkey, while the crowd watched and laughed. His bl00d rushed to his head, the pain of his dislocated arm dulled by blinding fury.

Bloodshot eyes bulging, he pushed at the ground, trying to rise. But the boot on his back weighed like a thousand catties. Another push and his barely lifted body was crushed flat again.

Though burly as a bull, pinned to the ground he flailed like—

Snickers and muffled laughter spread all around. Even Tian Xiaozhi tugged her sister’s sleeve.
“Sis, wake up! Look, there’s a huge turtle in the yard.”

But her sister’s eyes were still lifeless and gray.

Old Second Tian was a pitiful sight. Yan Yi, in contrast, stood immaculate—not a speck out of place. His sharp-boned features, his cold, hard lines—like a blade freshly drawn from its sheath. The power radiating off him rolled like an invisible tide, drowning the noise around them.

As the soldierly figure filled his eyes, the tight knot in Xie Jinning’s chest finally loosened—yet didn’t return to its place. Instead, an unseen net pulled it up into his throat, making it pound in his ears.

The world’s clamor seemed to vanish, leaving only the rapid beat in his chest—thump-thump, thump-thump—a jumbled, discordant drum.

His lashes trembled, lips parting slightly. His pale throat showed the rush of bl00d beneath delicate skin, pulse leaping with each beat.

He exhaled hot breath, eyes drifting over the outline of muscle beneath Yan Yi’s sleeve, and began to lose himself.

Meanwhile, Old Second Tian thrashed desperately, but Yan Yi stood solid as stone.
“I warned you. Raise your hand again, and it won’t just be a beating.”

His boot lifted, then came down on the man’s neck. A grind of pressure drew a shrill scream.

He would snap his neck!

“Don’t! Don’t step, I yield!” With death pressing down, Old Second Tian panicked, shouting, “He wants to kill me! Village head, save me!”

“Xiao Yan,” Li Dongsheng stepped forward, “Don’t be reckless.”

A man like that wasn’t worth a murder charge.

Yan Yi nodded lightly. “So—what do you choose?”

Old Second Tian froze, until another sharp crack on his neck jolted him. Cold sweat drenched him. Snot and tears smeared his face.
“I’ll go! I’ll leave the village, never come back—just don’t kill me!”

Yan Yi let up and hauled him upright. Villagers stepped in with rope, binding him tight.

“Everyone,” Li Dongsheng announced loudly, “you all know what kind of man Old Second Tian is. For years he’s bullied the weak, robbed households, never mended his ways. As head of Hetian Village, I hereby expel him. His land stays with his two daughters. Any objections?”

“None.”

“Good!”

“Get out of our village!”

Bolder villagers even threw stones, smashing lumps into his swollen head. He barely shut his eyes in time to avoid being blinded.

For the first time, Old Second Tian felt true regret.

Being driven out didn’t matter—he could always sneak back for revenge. But losing his house, his land, to those two useless girls? Unbearable!

Through a slit in his bruised eyelids, he spied Xie Jinning holding Tian Xiaohua. Inspiration struck, and he shouted:
“I object!”

“I never meant to hit anyone! It was that shameless brat Xie, seducing my daughter Xiaohua, trying to take her as a child bride! He even said he wanted Xiaozhi too, that the sisters would serve one husband together so they could look after each other!”

The more he spoke, the bolder he became, even striking a tone of pained, protective father.

“I wouldn’t allow it, but Xiaohua insisted. I’d had a little to drink at noon. I lost control, that’s all—”

His voice faltered as Yan Yi’s killing intent surged like ice, but what was said was enough to shock the yard.

“You—you slanderer!”

Xie Jinning had never faced such brazen lies. He trembled with fury.

Anger that Old Second Tian smeared him so, but more that he trampled the sisters’ reputations.

In this world, a woman’s name meant everything. Even in the capital, where girls could attend school, reputation chained them. How much worse here in the countryside?

Old Second Tian meant to ruin them completely!

His chest throbbed painfully where the blow had landed. Rage broke through his defenses, and he choked out a cough of bl00d.

“Ah Ning!”

Yan Yi’s eyes widened. He swiftly handed Xiaohua to a village woman and gathered Xie Jinning into his arms.

In just half a day, he seemed thinner again.

Tear streaks still marked his face. His lips, once rosy, were bloodless, the streak of red at their corner as striking as a fallen blossom in the mud. Against his paper-white cheeks, it was a cruel splash of color.

Seizing Yan Yi’s distraction, Old Second Tian fanned the flames:
“If you don’t believe me, search him! He’s got the token and money in his pocket. Said once he had enough dowry, he’d come take them both home!”

The villagers holding him checked—and sure enough, pulled out a pouch. Inside, they glimpsed a jade pendant of rare wealth. Startled, they shoved it back in at once, but one glimpse was enough.

None in the village had ever seen such value. And only Xie Jinning had returned from a wealthy household in the capital.

The owner of that pendant—there was no doubt.

“Could it be true?”

“Never thought, at his age, he’d do something like that. Those girls are just children—this is abduction! Maybe he did worse in the capital…”

“You’d believe Old Second Tian? Idiot. Nothing but sh1t comes from his mouth.”

Still, their eyes changed—looking at the sisters, and at the pale boy gasping in Yan Yi’s arms.

Clutching Yan Yi’s robe with all his strength, Xie Jinning shook his head desperately. His throat blocked, he could say nothing—only open and close his mouth in helpless silence.

His brows pinched tight, breaths shallow. His eyes rimmed red, lips stained, the rest of him white as frost, fingertips drained of color, like a piece of jade cracked by the sea.

His lashes clumped with tears, a bead slipping down to sear Yan Yi’s skin.

“You wouldn’t. I know it.”

And as he wiped those tears away, Yan Yi pressed a fleeting kiss to his dark crown—light, careful, and gone in an instant.