Because they had caught fish here earlier, the hole in the ice hadn’t been sealed yet. The village children usually loved coming here to try their luck. However, no one ever expected someone to do something so completely deranged as to drown a person alive.
It was true that Bai Jiu had fainted, but the moment the freezing water hit her, she snapped awake. After a brief moment of panic, she calmed down. Fortunately, seeing her unconscious, they hadn’t tied her up with ropes. Otherwise, she really would have met her end here today. She probably would have become the first transmigrator to be drowned by the locals right after crossing over.
The cage wasn’t tied securely. With a forceful push, she burst it open. She knew how to swim—unlike the original owner of this body—so she quickly surfaced and climbed out of the water. As soon as she got out, she saw the mother and son of the Gao family walking away.
Without a word, Bai Jiu—fueled by an unknown surge of strength—dashed after them. She snatched up an arm-thick wooden stick from the ground and ruthlessly beat the pair. It wasn’t until she brought the stick down hard enough to snap Gao Laoer’s leg that his piercing shrieks finally alerted the villagers.
Bai Jiu didn’t care in the slightest about Song Caihua’s screams. A ghost? She was far more formidable than a ghost. Even if she were one, she would be a vengeful spirit—a vengeful spirit here to claim their miserable lives.
"Miss Bai, what are you doing?" Because the screams were truly too wretched, quite a few people came running over. Among them was Aunt Peng, who had been in the middle of making breakfast. As soon as she arrived, she saw Bai Jiu clutching a broken stick, its surface stained with blood and bits of flesh.
"Child, why are you wearing so little? You’re soaking wet." Seeing her in such a state, Aunt Peng hurriedly took off her own padded cotton coat and draped it over her. Seeing his grandmother take off her coat, Gao Aiguo quickly removed his own jacket to put on her.
Bai Jiu’s entire body was burning up, and her heart blazed with fury; she didn’t feel the cold at all. All she felt was sheer hatred for the two people writhing on the ground. She wanted them dead. It was true that she had lived in a peaceful era, but she wasn’t some saint who would spare those who tried to murder her.
As Aunt Peng spoke, the villagers finally shifted their attention to Bai Jiu. When they first arrived, they had been entirely focused on the people on the ground, completely forgetting about the other party involved. Seeing her completely drenched, a wild thought sprouted in everyone’s minds. Could this mother and son have...
"Why are you out here so early in the morning? You didn’t even put on enough clothes before coming out, and now you’re completely soaked," Aunt Peng said, her heart filled with anxiety and fear.
Bai Jiu patted the hands that were hugging her tightly and shook her head. "I’m fine."
Old Mrs. Song also crawled over to her son’s side. "My son! How are you?" Despite her fear, she was even more worried about her son.
Gao Zhiguo just cradled his leg, wailing non-stop. "Mom, my leg! My leg is broken!" The trouser leg on Gao Zhiguo’s injured limb was soaked with blood, though the freezing weather had already caused it to clot.
Looking at the mangled leg, Old Mrs. Song cried even more sorrowfully, her face covered in snot and tears. "Someone, come quickly! Save my son! Please save him! Save him!"
Since they had watched him grow up in the village, a few of the villagers finally snapped out of their shock.
"Quick, get him to the hospital first!" shouted an elder around the same age as Old Man Gao. The moment he spoke, several burly men stepped out from the crowd.
This commotion stirred Bai Jiu, who had been momentarily enveloped in Aunt Peng’s warmth.
"Stop! Don’t move." Bai Jiu took a step forward, raising her wooden stick. "Whoever dares to touch him, I wouldn’t mind breaking one of your legs too."
Bai Jiu’s ruthless words echoed in everyone’s ears. The men who were about to step forward stopped in their tracks, all staring at Bai Jiu in fear.
Standing next to Bai Jiu, Aunt Peng was also startled into a shudder by the girl’s ferocity.
"Jiu," Aunt Peng called out involuntarily.
Bai Jiu gently pushed Aunt Peng away, letting her fall safely into Gao Aiguo’s arms. Then, she walked right up to Song Caihua and her son.
"You want to save him? You’ll have to see if I agree first." With that, she delivered another vicious blow to Gao Zhiguo with the stick.
Seeing her strike him again, the villagers jumped in fright. However, someone still spoke up to stop her. "Zhijun’s wife, what on earth are you doing?"
Bai Jiu turned her head and looked at the person who had spoken. "What am I doing? Hah, I’m just doing what they did to me a moment ago. I’m killing him."
As she uttered those last three words, Bai Jiu unleashed a terrifying aura of hostility. Those standing closest to her broke out in goosebumps.
"K-Kill him? How... how dare you?"
"Why wouldn’t I dare? This is exactly what they tried to do to me. They drugged me, locked me in a cage, and pushed me into the river. They were already trying to murder me, so why can’t I fight back?" Bai Jiu recounted evenly.
The calmer she acted, the more terrifying her presence became. Fortunately, she had no intention of attacking the bystanders. Otherwise, they would have fled long ago.
"What’s going on?" Hearing this, the people standing further away immediately started asking questions.
Bai Jiu pulled a piece of yellow paper from her soaked clothes. "You’ll have to ask them." She held up the paper. "I truly didn’t expect that even after the founding of New Blue Country, they would still want me to be buried alive as a sacrifice for the dead. It seems the ideological education in our production brigade is severely lacking."
The paper had stuck to her body after getting wet. She had only noticed it after climbing out of the river and had kept it safe since. Hah, she really never expected them to be this ruthless.
Right at that moment, the brigade captain and the village chief came running over. They had no choice. With such a massive commotion, it was hard for them not to know. As soon as the brigade captain arrived and saw Bai Jiu, his heart sank. What had this little ancestor done now?
As the brigade captain and the village chief approached, the crowd parted to make way for them.
"Bai Jiu, did you do this?" the brigade captain asked, his hand trembling as he pointed at the two people on the ground.
Bai Jiu didn’t deny it, but she didn’t answer him directly either. Instead, her face darkened.
"Captain, you aren’t doing a very good job at your post if remnants of feudal superstition still exist around here." Bai Jiu held up the yellow paper and looked at the brigade captain with a cold smile.
The brigade captain felt an aching pain in his chest from sheer anger. Was this girl out of her mind?
Angry as he was, he didn’t dare to provoke her further. "Put down the stick first. We can talk things out properly. It’s my fault. I didn’t educate them well. Just put the stick down, and let’s talk this out, alright?" He was terrified that she would actually beat them to death.
"Hah." How could Bai Jiu possibly listen to him? "Then why don’t you ask them what they did?" she sneered. With that, she swung the stick and smacked Song Caihua, making the older woman howl in agony. Her screams were incredibly tragic, and the pain left her completely unable to string a sentence together.
Hearing Bai Jiu’s words, the brigade captain and the village chief turned their attention to the two on the ground, their faces instantly turning stern.
"How on earth did you provoke her this time?" the brigade captain demanded, utterly exasperated.
Gao Zhiguo’s leg was broken, and apart from lying there wailing, he couldn’t get a single word out. Song Caihua had just been thrashed with the stick and was half-dead from the pain. But upon hearing the captain’s words, she immediately screamed at him.
"She’s not human! She’s a ghost! She’s a Water Ghost!"
Hearing this, the brigade captain nearly died on the spot. Fortunately, someone caught him, preventing him from collapsing to the ground.