Page 921

Mother, oh Xiao Wang, you were right; he is indeed a scoundrel!

Listening to the shameful noises inside the house, Dawang felt as if two hands were slapping his face, snapping him out of his fevered, dazed stupidity with slap after slap!

He had originally planned to come over and plead with father and mother again, to speak kind words on their behalf. And now? He truly wished he could burst through the door and kick this pair of dogs into the gutter!

His feet shuffled, but ultimately, Dawang bit his lip and could not bring himself to lash out. He snorted coldly, turned around, and left. From now on, he only had a mother and a younger brother; anyone else was no longer family!

After a bout of lovemaking, gazing at Xingxing who showed an expression of satisfaction in her sleep, Da Qiangzi rolled over and began to scheme in his mind.

Keeping the two of them here was definitely not the best course of action; if their presence were accidentally revealed one day, all his plans would fall apart.

Remembering the silver he had hidden upon his arrival in Zhuma Town, Da Qiangzi immediately sat up, cautiously dressed himself, got off the bed, and after observing Xingxing for a while to ensure she was still asleep, he reached under the Kang bed and pulled out a heavy purse.

He tiptoed to the courtyard, looked around, and finally buried the purse beneath the most dilapidated part of the wall’s base.

On the bed in the room, the little girl Niuniu suddenly laughed, her voice crisp and sweet.

Just as Da Qiangzi said, for the next two days, he locked Xingxing and her daughter inside the courtyard and went out. He claimed he was going to discuss matters with Dawang, but what he really did, only he knew.

"Niuniu, be good. Sit here and bask in the sun while mother washes your father’s dirty clothes."

After playing with her daughter, Xingxing carried a large basin and several dirty garments to the well to fetch water and scrub the clothes.

As she was washing and sweating profusely, a noisy commotion suddenly arose. Before Xingxing could react, the front door banged open, and three sturdy men in short attire rushed in, pointing at her and asking, "Are you Da Qiangzi’s wife?"

Startled, Xingxing nodded subconsciously, only to realize something was off and hastily denied it, "No, no, I am not!"

While speaking, she rushed to her daughter to comfort the girl who had been scared into tears.

But before she could hold her daughter in her arms, one of the men had already grabbed her arm and grunted, "Where do you think you’re going? Take her away!"

Xingxing panicked, slapping the man’s firm grip and crying out, "What are you doing? Let me go! Da Qiangzi, Da Qiangzi, where are you? Please come save me!"

Her efforts to slap away the man were futile and, turning her head, she bit hard into his hand.

The man yelped in pain from the bite on his hand and slapped Xingxing across the face, causing her to see stars. However, his words did not miss a beat entering her ears.

"Stop your yelling! Expecting Da Qiangzi to come save you? Ha, what a fool! Your man has sold you to us at the Fragrant Powder Pavilion. He specifically instructed us to watch you closely, saying you are a troublemaker! Humph, seeing this, it seems he was right! Come on, take her back for ’mother’ to properly discipline! "

The man gestured to the other two to come over and threw the dizzy Xingxing into their arms. Her head buzzed—she wasn’t sure if it was from the man’s slap or his words that had stunned her.

But as she was carried across the threshold, her daughter’s loud cries suddenly pierced her ears: "Niuniu, my Niuniu! Da Qiangzi, you will not die a good death!"

Watching Xingxing being dragged away by the men, Da Qiangzi emerged from his hiding spot in the wall corner, happily weighing the silver he received from selling her.

He spat disdainfully: "I will not die a good death? Humph, you little wretch, if it wasn’t for you seducing me in the first place, would I have been so bewitched that I abandoned my own wife and son?

If I hadn’t left Zhuma Town, I would have been the shopkeeper of Rice Flower Fragrance by now! "

Kicking open the latched door, Da Qiangzi entered the courtyard to see his daughter staggering outside, then falling over. Her face, already tear-streaked and covered in snot, now also bore dirt, grimy and filthy.

Da Qiangzi tucked the purse into his waistband, picked up little Niuniu, and while walking to the well, he chatted to himself gleefully, "Niuniu, be good, don’t cry anymore, you won’t look pretty if you cry."