Chapter 103: Chapter 103: An Excuse for Revenge?

Su Qing’s words struck a deep, unfounded fear into the three men.

To be honest, they never imagined they’d be taken down the moment they walked in the door. Most importantly, Su Qing had felled all three of them in an instant. They didn’t even have a chance to fight back. And they were three grown men!

Besides, their visit today was a last-minute decision. There was no way Su Qing could have known they were coming. This only proved one thing: Su Qing was no ordinary, helpless girl. She had her ways.

They thought they were dealing with a helpless little lamb, but she turned out to be a man-eating wolf. The feeling was absolutely dreadful.

With that realization, the three men didn’t dare lie. Besides, it wasn’t as if they were men of great integrity to begin with.

"I’ll talk! I’ll talk!" one of the men blubbered, his face a miserable wreck. "We’re from Yuan Shan Village. Brother Liu sent us. He said you had five hundred yuan here and told us to take it. And... and also..."

At this point, the man dared not continue, quickly lowering his head.

Su Qing raised an eyebrow. "And also what?"

"Uh, ma’am," the man whispered, trying to bargain. "If we tell you, can you let us go? We promise we’ll never bother you again, okay?"

Su Qing sneered. "Do you really think that’s possible?"

The man said hurriedly, "Ma’am, we didn’t get to do anything! Just let us go. We swear we won’t tell a soul about what happened tonight, and we won’t do anything to ruin your reputation, alright?"

"Heh. So the other thing you were supposed to do involved my reputation?" Su Qing said coolly. "Let me guess. You were going to steal my money, but you weren’t planning on stopping there, were you? Afterwards, you were going to spread rumors about me to ruin my name. Am I right?"

The man fell silent. Su Qing had guessed everything, down to the last detail. Their goal today had been to hit the jackpot—money and a woman. Though at the moment, the ’woman’ part seemed utterly terrifying. He didn’t even dare to look directly at Su Qing’s face anymore. She was too frightening.

Seeing the looks on their faces, Su Qing knew she was right. But...

"Who is this Brother Liu?" Su Qing asked calmly.

"Brother Liu... he’s our boss," the man said quickly. "He’s the one who sent us. We wouldn’t have come looking for trouble with you otherwise. Ma’am, we were just following orders! We have no personal grudge against you, really. Please, just let us go."

Su Qing ignored his pleas. "What does Brother Liu do? How did he know about me, and why did he target me? Tell me everything, and be honest. Or else..."

"I’ll talk, I’ll talk!" the man yelped. "Brother Liu runs a gambling den. He gives loans to people who lose and want to borrow more. This time, he found out about you from someone who couldn’t pay their debts. It was that family... they said you had five hundred yuan and hoped Brother Liu would cancel their debt in exchange for the information."

The man speaking was, in fact, one of the men who had gone with Brother Liu to the Pang family’s home to collect on their debt.

"Are you saying that a family who couldn’t pay their gambling debts wanted to use my money to pay them off?" Su Qing’s expression grew cold. "Which village is this family from? What’s their surname? And how do they know about my situation?"

"They’re... they’re from Qianshan Village. The family’s surname is... Pang. They know about your situation because their daughter married a man in your village," the man spilled, telling her everything he knew.

Su Qing’s eyes narrowed. ’From Qianshan Village... surname Pang... and married into our Lihua Village...’ The only person that could be was Pang Xiaofang, the wife of the village party secretary!

Su Qing took a deep breath. Now it all made sense. ’So, when Pang Xiaofang came to borrow money from me, it was to pay off her family’s gambling debts.’

She had refused. ’So this is her way of getting revenge?’

A surge of anger rose in Su Qing’s heart. ’They really think I’m an easy target, don’t they?’

Su Qing stood up. As she did, a wisp of gray mist drifted toward the three men, and they instantly fell unconscious again.

After a final glance at the three unconscious men, Su Qing left her courtyard and headed for Zhao Youcai’s house. This couldn’t wait. If she held off until tomorrow morning, who knew what kinds of rumors might start to spread. After all, the Old Su Family lived right next door. Those men’s shouts hadn’t been quiet; it was impossible to know if her neighbors had heard. And while the Old Su Family wasn’t actively causing her trouble these days, it was always best to be proactive.

"Hmph, who’s knocking at this hour?" Hearing the noise, Tang Suqin woke up groggily, muttering in displeasure.

"I’ll go see. Maybe someone has an emergency." Zhao Youcai knew a knock in the middle of the night meant something important, so he quickly got out of bed to open the door.

Tang Suqin said quickly, "Put a jacket on, you’ll catch a cold."

"I know," Zhao Youcai called back, already outside the bedroom. Tang Suqin rubbed her eyes and decided to get up and see what was going on as well.

"Su Qing!" Zhao Youcai exclaimed in surprise when he opened the door and saw her standing outside. "What’s wrong? Quick, get inside. It’s cold out."

Su Qing nodded. "Brigade Leader, I’m so sorry to bother you this late."

"It’s no trouble. Tell me, what happened?" Zhao Youcai asked with concern.

Su Qing followed Zhao Youcai into the main room and told him everything that had happened that night from start to finish. "Brigade Leader," she finished, "the man said it was a family from Qianshan Village with the surname Pang, whose daughter married into our village. I know there’s Aunt Wang, but this person... she’s the wife of the village party secretary. I can’t be completely certain, and I’m afraid the party secretary will blame me, especially since I’m young. That’s why I came to you. I was hoping you could... give me a bit of courage."

Su Qing’s voice was soft and held a touch of grievance. Hearing this, Tang Suqin, who had just come out of the bedroom, was filled with rage. "That Pang Xiaofang has some nerve! Her family is in gambling debt, so she tries to borrow a huge sum from a young girl? It sounds to me like she never intended to pay it back! She’s just bullying Su Qing because she’s young and she thought she could be easily pushed around!"

What made Tang Suqin even angrier was that because Su Qing refused, Pang Xiaofang brought this trouble down on her. If the girl hadn’t been so vigilant, who knows what tragedy might have occurred tonight. ’Her heart is truly venomous,’ she thought.

Zhao Youcai shot Tang Suqin a look. "We don’t know all the facts yet. Don’t jump to conclusions."

Then, he turned to Su Qing. "Let’s go. I’ll take you over to the village party secretary’s house and we’ll get to the bottom of this. I promise, you’ll get a proper resolution for this."

"Thank you, Brigade Leader," Su Qing said gratefully.

"I’m coming too," Tang Suqin added, still worried.