After transmigrating, he supported his family by working at a garbage dump.

The woman glanced at the dagger at her neck, then at the reactions of the man and the old woman in the courtyard, seemingly already used to their accusations.

She slowly raised her hand, and Xu Wenjie warily raised the dagger at her neck, but the woman only paused slightly before continuing her actions.

Her hands, red and swollen from the cold, were covered in cracks, not a single patch of undamaged flesh. Xu Zhuzhu stole a glance in the firelight and was shocked by what she saw.

The woman numbly stopped her hand on the belt at her waist, and with a gentle pull, the belt came undone, making her loose autumn clothes look even more baggy.

Zhang He, who was holding a torch to the side, narrowed his eyes and keenly sensed what she was about to do. He was about to grab her hand that was reaching for her collar, but it was too late.

The woman was only wearing this one thermal undershirt. When she pulled it up, her withered and naked body was directly exposed to the air. Xu Wenjie was also taken aback and hurriedly turned his head away.

She herself seemed indifferent, waiting for something.

Just then, the old woman suddenly slammed her hand on the ground and cried out loudly.

Xu Zhuzhu peeked out and saw that the old woman had a wrinkled face, high cheekbones, and narrow eyes that looked around. She had a headscarf wrapped around her head, and was wearing a thick cotton-padded coat and thick cotton shoes, looking very warm.

All that could be heard was the old woman shouting.

"You beasts! My daughter-in-law only asked to borrow a bowl of hot water from your house, and you stripped her naked! How important is a woman's chastity? How is she supposed to live like this!"

The old voice was sharp and piercing, so sharp that Xu Zhuzhu, who was hiding inside the house, covered her ears. But it also made her realize in an instant that this was what they were planning.

This method is indeed vicious. If it were in a crowded village, and even one family was woken up to come and see the woman in her current state, their father would be unable to defend himself.

Seeing how they spoke without blushing and worked together so well, Xu Zhuzhu guessed that they had done this many times before.

However, the old woman seemed to have overlooked one thing. This three-acre area was home to only her family; there were rarely any people around during the day, let alone on a cold winter night.

So, apart from their family, no one else could see this great show. Since no one was cheering, what was the point of having an actor perform?

Xu Wenjie coldly shouted at the woman, "Put it on quickly! This dagger of mine can cut through iron like mud. If anything happens, don't blame me."

Upon hearing this, the woman merely shrugged, then looked directly at the old woman and the man in the courtyard. Seeing that they had no further instructions, she remained motionless.

Zhang He sighed, picked up the woman's clothes, and draped them over her shoulders.

"A woman's dignity is something she earns herself. If others don't treat you like a human being, we can't treat ourselves like one."

Upon hearing this, the woman's dull eyes flickered slightly, but she only moved her lips slightly. She did not follow Zhang He's instructions to put on her clothes, nor did she say anything.

"Heavens above, my poor daughter-in-law! Since they are so heartless, why don't you just kill yourself in their house and haunt them day and night, making them never have a moment's peace..."

The old woman continued her rambling, taking advantage of Xu Wenjie's words.

The man stood with his hands behind his back, sometimes watching coldly, sometimes laughing with disdain. It was as if the old woman throwing a tantrum on the ground and the woman under the dagger were none of his concern.

"...Cuihua, if you have a spirit in heaven, please bless your mother so that she can find you soon, and you two can be reunited and no longer suffer..." The old woman wailed, as if she were mourning, but the other person was clearly still alive.

Xu Zhuzhu had seen old women who only knew how to throw tantrums and act unreasonably before, and she had also seen women who didn't get along with their daughters-in-law and often argued with each other. But this was the first time Xu Zhuzhu had ever seen an old woman who advised her daughter-in-law to die.

Judging from what she said, it seemed that the woman had a daughter named Cuihua who was already dead. Could this be the reason why the woman was so heartbroken?

Sure enough, upon hearing the name "Cuihua," the woman, who had been like a wooden doll, seemed to suddenly come back to her senses, staring intently at the man who was watching coldly.

But the man still did not react, and the woman closed her eyes tightly.

Suddenly, she stretched her neck and was about to crash into Xu Wenjie's dagger. Fortunately, Xu Wenjie was alert and quickly withdrew the dagger, pushing the woman forward. Without any support, the woman fell forward.

But no one came forward to catch her, and she could only let herself fall heavily to the ground.

Zhang He, standing to the side, felt pain just watching, but they were on different sides, and for the sake of their two children, she had no time to sympathize with either of them.

"Stop howling! This whole area belongs to my family, and we're the only household here. No matter how loud you howl, no one will come to watch this show. I don't care what your plans are, anyway..."

Xu Wenjie's brows furrowed, his patience gone. He said coldly, "Take your men and get out of here, or don't blame me for being impolite."

His voice was calm, yet it carried a murderous intent.

Even Xu Zhuzhu felt a tremor in her heart upon hearing this, but she was not surprised, as she had encountered even more dangerous situations on the road to escape.

If her father had always been that smiling, gentle, and refined person, their family probably wouldn't have been able to settle here safely, especially since the world was in chaos at the beginning of the pandemic, and her mother wasn't really ugly.

The old woman sitting on the ground was clearly frightened as well. Ignoring the injuries of the woman who had fallen to the ground, she quickly got up.

She whispered in the man's ear, "Son, this family doesn't seem like good people. Let's hurry up! There's a village just ahead..." The more people there are, the easier it is to fool them.

As she spoke, she grabbed the man and ran out of the yard.

To everyone's surprise, the man looked disdainful and shook off the old woman's hand. "Mother, why are you afraid of him? I am a scholar, destined to become an official in the imperial court. He is just a commoner, what can he do to me?"

As he spoke, he stepped forward, raised his head arrogantly, and looked at Xu Wenjie and the others with disdain. "Since you don't know what's good for you, then I won't hide it anymore. I am a scholar appointed by the imperial court. You know what a scholar is, right?"

Xu Wenjie and Zhang He exchanged a glance, their lips curving slightly upwards, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"Look at you bunch of country bumpkins, I bet you don't know either. Well then, bring me some food. I've been starving for four or five days. If you treat me well, I'll naturally forgive you when I become an official..."

Xu Wenjie looked at the arrogant and ignorant man in front of him with disdain. Scholars are supposed to be humble and polite, but this man was blindly arrogant and did not live up to the demeanor of a scholar.

As soon as he stepped outside, he noticed that the man was wearing a turban and looked every bit the scholar. He never expected that the man was actually a Xiucai (a successful candidate in the lowest level of the imperial examinations). He felt that this man had lowered the standard for Xiucai...

what?

Xu Wenjie strode forward, his dagger flashing as he held it directly in front of the man, and said with a hint of amusement, "An official appointed by the imperial court?"

"I'll make sure you lose your official position!" A ruthless glint appeared in Xu Wenjie's eyes.

He was already tall, and although he didn't have any martial arts skills, he had learned some tricks up his sleeve over the course of a few months.

Xu Zhuzhu saw that although her father had also lost a lot of weight from hunger, he was still a head taller than the man in front of her who claimed to be a scholar, and her imposing manner immediately rose.

Xu Zhuzhu, hiding by the door, couldn't help but exclaim to Xu An, "Father is such a man!"

Xu An nodded frantically, his eyes filled with even more admiration as he looked at his father.

The scholar, who was all bark and no bite, was so frightened by Xu Wenjie's chilling aura and the dagger that he collapsed to the ground. "You...you...what do you want to do?"

His voice trembled, revealing the man's panic.

Xu Wenjie curled the corners of his lips into a slight smile, his coldness vanishing instantly, replaced by his usual gentle and refined demeanor. "If you, brother, have any self-awareness, then I don't need to say anything more, do I?"

The scholar was immediately speechless.

In the end, the old woman apologized repeatedly, and dragged him away by pulling him through the courtyard gate.

After leaving the courtyard, the scholar-official shouted threats back inside, "You brat, just you wait! You dare to bully an official of the imperial court!"

"What hindsight! One thing after another," Xu Wenjie scoffed, utterly disdainful. "He's not even a pretty face."

Only after the old woman and the man left did the women in the courtyard finally get up, when they heard the old woman call out from outside the courtyard, "Are you dead?! Hurry up and follow them!"

The woman who had been pushed down earlier sat there dumbfounded while the scholar and his father were confronting each other. When she heard the old woman's shout, she hurriedly got up and followed her.

Xu Zhuzhu couldn't understand why she would leave after being tortured like this.

Her mother patted her head and sighed, "It's not that easy."

The family watched silently as the fence and earthen wall in Xu's yard collapsed with a crash, half of them broken, due to the old woman's earlier impact.

Xu Wenjie was cursing a lot in his mind.