"Crack!" With a sharp sound, Lin Qin dealt Liu Yongming a fierce slap across the face. "Have you said enough?"
Stunned and clutching his cheek, Liu Yongming stared at her in disbelief. "You hit me? How dare you hit me, Lin Qin! Have I been too good to you? You've completely forgotten who your man is!"
"Forgotten what? What is she supposed to remember? To remember what kind of monsters your whole family is?" Standing by to back Lin Qin up, Lin Yi glared menacingly at Liu Yongming.
A flash of ruthless malice crossed Liu Yongming's eyes. "Fine! Very well! You're dead set on not leaving with me today, is that it?"
Lin Qin stared back at him with unyielding hatred, making no attempt to hide the fury in her eyes.
Realizing her stance, Liu Yongming sneered, "Fine! You don't have to come with me! But I am taking my daughter today, no matter what!"
With that, he lunged toward the back.
Lin Yi and Lin Qin immediately threw themselves in his path to block him. "Liu Yongming, you turtle bastard! If you dare touch my daughter, I'll hack you to pieces with a kitchen knife!"
Convinced that Lin Qin was merely making empty threats, Liu Yongming didn't take her seriously at all.
While Lin Qin indeed wouldn't dare hack a person, she and Lin Yi might not be able to stop Liu Yongming, and she was terrified that Liu Yaya would suffer secondary injuries.
Seeing that Lin Yi was about to lose his grip on him, Lin Qin made a decisive move. She let go, grabbed a firewood chopper from the kitchen, and started hacking away wildly at Liu Yongming's bicycle. "I'll teach you to snatch my daughter! Die, die, die..."
At the terrifying sound, the color drained from Liu Yongming's face. Abandoning his attempt to rush into the back courtyard, he spun around and bolted out of the yard. "Lin Qin, you lunatic! Put that chopper down right now! Do you hear me?!"
Watching his beloved bicycle get mangled, Liu Yongming felt as though his heart were bleeding, and he wanted nothing more than to strangle Lin Qin to death.
Wielding the chopper, Lin Qin glared at him with murderous intent. "Liu Yongming, I'm warning you! If you ever dare come to my house to harass us again, next time I chop up won't just be your bike!"
Trembling with fright, Liu Yongming managed to rescue his bicycle from beneath Lin Qin's chopper and fled in panic.
Any thoughts of his daughter had completely vanished from his mind for the moment.
The villagers had never expected Lin Qin to have such a violent fallout with Liu Yongming. Realizing the situation was far more complicated than they had initially thought, no one dared to make wild guesses anymore; instead, they all quietly kept a close eye on the movements around Lin Yi's house.
When Li Lian learned that Lin Qin had smashed Liu Yongming's bicycle with a chopper, she realized that Lin Qin was no longer the pushover she used to be. Not daring to show up and make sarcastic remarks, she stayed away, terrified of provoking Lin Qin and getting chased down with a weapon.
Pushing his battered bicycle, Liu Yongming headed straight to a repair shop. After a thorough inspection, he discovered the frame was badly scratched, the chain was severed, the handlebars were warped, and the brakes were completely ruined.
He completely lost it.
Fang Ying was utterly shocked when she heard about what happened to him. "Didn't you say that woman was submissive and easy to bully? How is this anything like what you described! What do we do now? Can you still get a smooth divorce?"
Annoyed and irritable, Liu Yongming snapped, "Don't panic yet. Let me think this through. I will definitely get payback for today's humiliation!"
Furious at his attitude, Fang Ying turned away and ignored him.
After slapping Liu Yongming and destroying his beloved bicycle, Lin Qin felt her gloomy mood lift considerably.
Ever since they returned from the hospital, Lin Yi noticed that black fish had started appearing in his kitchen again—clockwork regular, one fish every single day.
Now he was more convinced than ever of his previous suspicion, occasionally casting sideways glances at Lin Qin with words trembling on the tip of his tongue.
Knowing what he wanted to ask, yet unable to explain, Lin Qin simply feigned ignorance and happily drank her fish soup and ate her fish meat with a clear conscience.
Lin Yi finally surrendered. After keeping watch for several consecutive days without hearing a single sound outside, he found the fish appearing as if by magic.
Eventually, he hardened his heart and decided not to return to his bedroom at night, opting instead to doze right there in the kitchen.
And that finally led him to catch Chen Wenjun delivering the fish.
"Hahaha, I knew it was you, kid! I finally caught you!" Lin Yi's excitement was as radiant as if he had won the lottery.
Unable to laugh or cry, Chen Wenjun protested, "Uncle! It isn't even dawn yet. You couldn't possibly have been squatting out here all night, could you?"
Chuckling heartily, Lin Yi replied, "If I hadn't staked the place out, I never would've caught you! You're a slippery one, aren't you? Stop bringing us fish from now on; eating your food all the time makes me feel bad! In a little while, come with me to the vegetable patch to pick some greens to take back. Even though you can grow vegetables on your boat, you surely can't grow very many."
"Uncle, there's no need to go to all that trouble. There are only two of us at home; we can't eat that many vegetables anyway, and what we grow ourselves is plenty," Chen Wenjun hurried to refuse.
Instantly piqued, Lin Yi subtly probed into Chen Wenjun's background. "What do you mean there are only two of you at home? Just you and your wife?"
Chen Wenjun shook his head quickly. "I also have a son, the same age as Yaya. The poor boy has trouble with his limbs, so he has to stay on the boat."
"And your wife?"
"She ran off. She couldn't stand the hardship of living with me and abandoned the child, lord knows where."
"Didn't you go look for her at her family's place?"
With a faint, self-deprecating chuckle, Chen Wenjun said, "They looked down on me too! She packed up in the middle of the night, sneaked away by boat, and hasn't lived around Nanxi Creek for a long time. Let her go; I can raise my kid on my own without relying on them!"
Struck with deep pity, Lin Yi sighed heavily. "You've had it rough too. Good thing nothing happened last time; otherwise, what would have become of your child? Be more careful when you go out from now on, and head back before dark—it's dangerous out there! And stop giving us money, either! A-Qin and her daughter still have me; they won't go hungry!"
"I'll listen to whatever you say, Uncle," Chen Wenjun agreed readily.
A smile finally touched Lin Yi's face.
Since it was still too early to see anything in the vegetable patch, Lin Yi quickly asked, "Are you in a rush? If you have things to do, go ahead, and I'll pick the greens and bring them over to you later."
Chen Wenjun shook his head immediately. "No, no need, Uncle, don't stand on ceremony with me. I'll just wait for dawn! I went and set some fish traps earlier, so I can check them right after sunrise anyway. It won't delay anything."
Without pressing further, Lin Yi immediately started a fire to cook, preparing breakfast for Chen Wenjun as well.
Hearing the faint sound of Chen Wenjun's voice from the back courtyard, Lin Qin guessed he had been caught by Lin Yi, and a soft smile escaped her lips.
Sensing that dawn was approaching while Liu Yaya was still sleeping soundly, she tiptoed out of the shed.
Seeing her emerge, Chen Wenjun was visibly stirred. Lowering his voice in the darkness, he asked, "Your dad is cooking in the kitchen. How is Yaya doing these days?"
Feeling her way through the dark, Lin Qin poured him a cup of water. "She's doing all right and recovering. She can sleep flat on her back now, but I'm still worried, so I'm keeping her lying on her stomach for a bit longer. The day we got out of the hospital, Liu Yongming came over and caused a scene, demanding to take Yaya away. I only chased him off after hacking his bicycle to pieces with the chopper."
The smile vanished from Chen Wenjun's face, replaced by a grave expression. "With a temperament like his, he won't let it go at that. What if he brings the whole Liu family over here to stir up trouble?"
Remaining quite calm, Lin Qin replied, "This is Shanglin Village; the Liu family wouldn't dare act recklessly. We'll just take it one step at a time."
Chen Wenjun clenched his fists tightly, though Lin Qin could not see his grim expression in the dark.