In the blue-gray sky, thunder rumbled, slow to settle.

But for Song Ciwan, standing in the present moment, reality was but a fleeting instant. Under the influence of a demonic vision, she felt as if she had lived out another person’s entire life in a different world!

In the 127th year of the Yun Country, a great drought plagued the land.

Refugees from the north were like a plague of locusts, surging southward.

Wealth Village lay at the foot of a great southern mountain, nestled by peaks and rivers. The villagers had once led prosperous and peaceful lives.

Until the day Sun, the village chief’s mother, welcomed the family of her sworn sister, who had fled from the north. The group, a collection of relatives and acquaintances, numbered over thirty strong. They all flooded into Wealth Village, waiting for Pang Shougui, as the village chief, to arrange for them.

Pang Shougui saw their pitiful state, and urged by his mother, he used his authority as village chief and his own silver coins to disperse the thirty-odd people among the various village households.

He took in several himself, chief among them his mother’s sworn sister, Mrs. Guo, and her young grandson, Mao Dan.

Mrs. Guo was very good with words and could always coax Sun, Mother of Pang, into smiles. Her young grandson, Mao Dan, however, was an extremely domineering and greedy child.

He always had to have the most and the best of everything, from food to clothing.

Pang Shougui had a five-year-old daughter, Xiaoya. Seven-year-old Mao Dan would always bully Xiaoya when the adults weren’t looking, stealing her toys and snacks, tearing her clothes, pulling her hair, and hitting her until she cried.

Sun, Mother of Pang, favored boys over girls and had never liked Xiaoya, always feeling that she stood in the way of her getting a grandson.

At first, Mao Dan tried to hide his bullying of Xiaoya. He soon discovered, however, that Xiaoya’s grandmother, Sun, didn’t care. His own grandmother, Mrs. Guo, would even side with him. Xiaoya’s parents worked outside during the day, and when they returned at night, it was Sun who put the girl to bed, leaving them completely unaware of the situation...

Most importantly, Xiaoya never told on him!

She was a silent child. Although her parents never let her want for food or clothing, she was raised by her grandmother. From a young age, she had endured her grandmother’s beatings and verbal abuse, to the point that she had lost the ability to cry out for help or tell on anyone.

And others just thought she was a naturally well-behaved and quiet child!

Ten days or so passed like this. On the surface, Wealth Village seemed to be getting by, but beneath it, an undercurrent of turmoil was surging, with incidents constantly cropping up.

More and more refugees arrived from the north. When they saw this land of green mountains and clear waters, they were like thirsty travelers in a desert seeing an oasis. They camped here, hunting in the mountains and fishing in the rivers, plundering and destroying their surroundings as if they wanted to scrape the very land bare...

That was one thing;

The refugees’ actions encroached upon the living space of the villagers of Wealth Village and several surrounding villages. This led to a dozen or so conflicts of varying sizes with the local villagers. Some people were injured, some lost their belongings, and some turned against their own friends and family during the quarrels...

That was another;

And within Wealth Village itself, the refugees who had arrived with Mrs. Guo were constantly causing trouble.

They quarreled with the local villagers, or were accused of theft, or some families’ young women and new brides endured humiliation in shame. Though they didn’t dare to speak up, they secretly told their fathers and brothers, begging them to stop housing the outsiders...

On top of that, the silver coins Pang Shougui had initially given out were all used up within those ten days. The other villagers couldn’t be expected to feed a bunch of strangers for free, losing grain and property endlessly, could they?

It wasn’t just unreasonable; they truly couldn’t afford it!

All these trivial, vexing matters piled up on Pang Shougui. Overwhelmed and at his wit’s end, he returned home one evening to find that Xiaoya was missing.

Meanwhile, Mao Dan was at home, throwing a tantrum, wailing and demanding they slaughter a pig for him to eat.

Pang Shougui’s family was raising two half-grown fat pigs, which were meant to be kept until the New Year before being sold or slaughtered. They were already accounted for.

No matter how much Mao Dan cried and screamed for it, Pang Shougui couldn’t just slaughter a pig for him. Besides, he had to find his daughter; he had no time to deal with Mao Dan right then.

But Mao Dan, having been spoiled rotten by his grandmother, Mrs. Guo, and Pang’s mother, Sun, was relentless. His earth-shattering cries attracted a boisterous crowd of neighbors and refugees.

Pang Shougui couldn’t quite recall how chaotic the scene was at that moment.

He only remembered that the sky was dark. There were many people, and noise was everywhere—children crying, women shouting. And then, at some point, his wife appeared, a meat cleaver in one hand and a small drum in the other. Bloody tears streamed from her eyes, and her expression was more terrifying than anything he had ever seen...

She walked step by step toward the screaming, tantrum-throwing Mao Dan and asked him, "You want to kill a pig. Is it really because you want to eat pork? Or is it because you’re afraid of the pigs?"

Mao Dan stopped crying at once. As if terrified, he just stared blankly at Pang’s wife.

Pang Shougui’s wife asked, "Why are you afraid of the pigs?"

Mao Dan trembled but didn’t answer.

Pang’s wife asked again, "What did you do to the pigs?"

Mao Dan still didn’t answer, his face pale. But his expression began to fill Pang Shougui with a profound sense of unease.

Pang’s wife pressed on, "And what did you do to my daughter, Xiaoya?"

Mao Dan remained silent. Just then, his grandmother, Mrs. Guo, who had been shoving other villagers, came to her senses. She lunged forward and started beating Pang’s wife with her fists.

"You goddamn monster! Have you no conscience?! You’re a grown woman scaring a little child! Who do you think you’re frightening? Back in the day, when I became sworn sisters with your mother-in-law, I spent my family’s fortune helping her... Now that we’ve fallen on hard times, a junior like you dares to bully an old woman like me..."

As Mrs. Guo cried and hit her, Pang’s wife suddenly raised the meat cleaver, her expression a mask of laughter and tears. "Just asking a few questions, and that counts as bullying? You people wouldn’t dare say what real bullying is!"

With that, she pushed Mrs. Guo aside and ran toward the pigsty.

In the pigsty, the feeding trough was empty. The two half-grown fat pigs were huddled together, snorting and grunting restlessly.

Beneath the trough, there seemed to be a small, dirt-red shoe.

Pang’s wife threw open the pigsty gate and, raising the cleaver, charged at the two fat pigs.

This act stunned everyone. Slaughtering a pig was no easy task; what woman would charge into a pigsty with a meat cleaver to kill one? This wasn’t slaughter—it was suicide, wasn’t it?

Some of the people who ran after her shouted, "Shougui’s wife, what are you doing? Don’t be rash!"

Someone yelled, "Quick, quick, pull her out..."

A child cried, "Daddy, Mommy... I’m scared!"

"Scared? Then why are you here? Go on, get home! Who told you you could come watch the commotion?" SLAP, SLAP, SLAP. His parents gave him a couple of smacks.

Amid the chaotic noise, the only thing that could be heard was the piercing squeal of a pig.

No one knew where Pang’s wife found the strength. Armed with just a meat cleaver, she swung it up and brought it down, actually managing to kill both fat pigs!

The cleaver hacked into porcine necks as the thrashing pigs rammed and wounded her.

Amidst the dreadful squeals, human and beast fought a battle to the death.

Blood splattered out of the pigsty, and it was impossible to tell whose was whose.

Until, at a certain moment, the awful screams stopped. Both fat pigs had been disemboweled.

The chaotic noise from the onlookers also ceased. The people were, in fact, so stunned they couldn’t make a sound.

What had they seen?

From within the pigs’ opened guts, amidst the filth, a pile of tattered children’s clothing was clearly visible, along with scattered bone fragments and undigested hair...

In the utter silence, Pang’s wife let out a despairing, horrifying howl.

"AHHH—!" Her piercing wail seemed to make the twilight clouds in the graying sky tremble.

"It was you!" She charged out of the pigsty, covered in blood, and swung the cleaver down at Mao Dan.

"It was you! You’re the one who locked Xiaoya in the pigsty, weren’t you?" She questioned him as she hacked, her words coming fast, her strikes even faster. "At noon, I asked if you’d seen Xiaoya, and you lied, telling me she went to the river. You were even snickering then. I should have known you were lying..."

"You lied to me, you bullied Xiaoya, you stole her things, and you even forced her to sleep in the pigsty! How can you be so vicious at such a young age?"

Mao Dan was hit. He cried out in pain and fell to the ground, terrified, panicked, and scared, sobbing uncontrollably. "Don’t, don’t kill me! I didn’t mean to hurt anyone! It was Grandma Sun who told me that little girls are born worthless and are just there for boys to play with."

"I just wanted to play with her! She was crying and screaming, and she only got quiet when she saw the pigs, so I let her stay with the pigs."

"Grandma Sun knew too! She said it was fine, that the pigs were tame and recognized people, so I should just let Xiaoya rest in the pigsty for a while..."

"It’s not my fault, it’s not... AHH!"

He screamed and cried, crawling as he tried to escape from the relentless hacking of Pang’s wife. But he was small and weak, and she was in a murderous frenzy. She had just disemboweled two fat pigs; what chance did a little boy like him have?

He couldn’t dodge, couldn’t escape.

Blade after blade, more blood splattered. His struggles and cries grew faint.

His grandmother, Mrs. Guo, wailed as she continuously chased and beat at Pang’s wife, trying to save his life. But in the face of such madness, her efforts were all in vain.

People are often inclined to pity the weak one before them. Some in the crowd felt Pang’s wife was going too far and yelled for her to stop. But her actions were too fast. By the time more people rushed forward to restrain her, Mao Dan was already silent, and Mrs. Guo had been grievously wounded by the cleaver in the process.

And then, everything descended into chaos.

Mrs. Guo and Mao Dan were not alone. The thirty-plus people they were traveling with were all from the same clan, and most of them were able-bodied young men.

The moment Mao Dan died, these young men charged forward, howling for Pang’s wife to pay with her life. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Pang Shougui refused and was the first to step forward and block them.

He was the chief of Wealth Village, a local with many of his own clansmen. At his rallying cry, the native villagers clashed head-on with the thirty-odd young men from out of town.

In truth, this was a conflict that had been brewing for a long time. The local villagers had long been dissatisfied with the refugees. Now, with a reason and an opportunity, an eruption was inevitable.

From that moment on, the cries of battle rang throughout Wealth Village.

People shoved and cursed. Some threw punches. The more vicious ones grabbed wooden sticks, hoes, firewood choppers—anything that could be used as a weapon...

Some trembled at the sight of blood, while others became even more excited by it.

Everything became even more chaotic. And at this critical moment, more refugees who had been watching from the outside seized the opportunity. They gathered, and with a great clamor, surged into Wealth Village like a tide.

And so, the real nightmare began.

’What happened after that?’

Pang Shougui’s memories grew more and more confused. He only remembered the refugees storming the village. They poured into every home, beating, smashing, and looting...

And at his own home, his wife took advantage of the chaos to suddenly stab his mother with the cleaver.

At that moment, Pang Shougui was caught up in the brawl. He could only watch helplessly, unable to even cry out a word to stop her.

Then he saw his wife turn and, with another strike of the blade, kill Mao Dan’s grandmother, Mrs. Guo.

Finally, she turned the blade on herself.

"Xiaoya, Mommy has failed you. Mommy is coming to find you. In our next life, let’s not be mother and daughter. Let Mommy be your pet cat or dog..."

Covered in blood, Pang’s wife breathed her last and died.

Pang Shougui stood frozen, his Heart Soul shattered. At that moment, he was struck by a refugee’s firewood chopper.

"You..."

He only had time to turn his head and glance at the person who had struck him before he collapsed and died, filled with bitter resentment and agony.