"AHH—A GHOST—A GHOST!"

At that moment, Brother Zhang was scared witless. In all his life, he had never seen anything so bizarre. What kind of vine could wrap itself around a person, then rise up and slap them across the face?

But now, his entire body was bound so tightly by the vines that he couldn’t move an inch. All he could do was let those two vines whip him. At that moment, he wished he could just faint.

The young man was terrified as well, sitting paralyzed on the ground, staring blankly as the other man was beaten.

This forest was behind Lihua Village and quite far from it. Even if someone had faintly heard the screams in their sleep, they would have likely dismissed them as a dream.

So, Brother Zhang was whipped for a long time. He screamed until his voice was hoarse, but no one came out to investigate.

Deciding he’d been taught enough of a lesson, Su Qing had the vines release him.

The moment he was free, Brother Zhang forgot everything else. Ignoring his stinging face and back, he scrambled to his feet and fled, screaming in terror as he ran, "A ghost! There’s a ghost!"

When the young man saw the vines release Brother Zhang, he grew tense. He stared intently at the vines on the ground and instinctively began to shuffle backward.

Su Qing mischievously made the vines rise and sway toward the young man. ’No matter how you look at it,’ she thought, ’anyone who gets tricked into gambling and stupidly runs up a huge debt deserves a good lesson. But he’s not my kid, so I’ll just give him a good scare. We’ll see if that helps him remember this.’

The young man’s face turned pale when he saw the vines rise. Terrified of being entangled himself, he quickly shuffled back again, and then...

The young man glanced down and saw several vines right next to the hand he had planted on the ground. He shrieked in terror, scrambled up, and bolted. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

After the young man had fled, Su Qing emerged from her hiding place. She watched him run off in the direction of the village. ’He’s definitely from around here,’ she thought, ’but I wonder which family he belongs to.’

As for which family he belonged to, Su Qing found out the very next day.

The next day, Su Qing got ready, finished her breakfast, and was about to head to work when she saw a crowd of people running toward the same spot.

’What’s all the commotion about now?’

Just then, she saw Aunt Tao and Aunt Cuihua hurrying toward her. "Aunt Tao, Aunt Cuihua," Su Qing called out, "aren’t you in a hurry to get to work today?"

"Oh, Su Qing! Come on, come on, let’s go watch the show!" Aunt Cuihua said, grabbing Su Qing’s arm the moment she saw her.

"What’s going on? Who’s causing a scene now?"

"It’s your Uncle Chunshan’s family," Aunt Tao said. "Word is, that boy Shuqing is getting chased around the courtyard and thrashed."

"I have no idea what that Shuqing boy did. The whole family spoils him rotten, but now he’s getting chased around the yard with a stick. Come on, let’s go see what’s happening!" When it came to gossip, no one was more enthusiastic than Aunt Cuihua.

By the time Su Qing, Aunt Tao, and Aunt Cuihua arrived at Tao Chunshan’s house, they saw a young man of about eighteen or nineteen running around the courtyard, shouting, "Dad, I was wrong! I know I was wrong!"

Su Qing’s eyes shot wide. ’Well, I’ll be,’ she thought. ’Isn’t that the young man from the forest last night? What was his name again? Oh, right, Aunt Tao said it was Tao Shuqing.’

"You damn brat! You think causing this much trouble is something you can fix with a simple ’I was wrong’?" a middle-aged man yelled. He was chasing the boy around the yard with a wooden stick, cursing as he went. Su Qing recognized him—it was Tao Chunshan, Tao Shuqing’s father.

Nearby, an elderly man, Mr. Tao, was coughing with rage. "Hit him! Hit him harder! He’ll never learn if you don’t beat it into him!"

"Chunshan, that’s your son! How can you be so harsh?" A middle-aged woman was supporting an old lady, both of their faces streaked with tears. "Stop it! Stop hitting him! You’re going to seriously hurt him!"

Mr. Tao shot them a glare. "This is what happens when you spoil him! Look at what he’s become! He dares to go gambling! What won’t he dare to do next?"

Old Mrs. Tao cried, "But he already admitted he was wrong! He apologized for it!"

"Hmph! You’ve spoiled him into a fool who doesn’t even realize when he’s being set up! If we don’t beat a lesson into him now, he’ll end up gambling the entire family fortune away!" Mr. Tao roared. "Just you dare to coddle him like this again!"

With Mr. Tao enraged, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law duo didn’t dare say another word, their hearts aching as they watched their son (and grandson) get beaten.

The crowd of onlookers chimed in. "Mr. Tao, you’ve got to teach Shuqing a good lesson! You can’t get involved with gambling! It can ruin the whole family."

Hearing this, Mr. Tao glared even more fiercely at Tao Shuqing and said to Tao Chunshan, "Keep hitting him! Hit him until he learns his lesson!"

While the Tao family was in an uproar, Zhao Youcai arrived. "Uncle Tao," he asked Mr. Tao, "what’s all this about?"

The early morning commotion had drawn nearly half the village to come and watch the spectacle.

Seeing Zhao Youcai, Mr. Tao said, "Village Head, I was just about to send my eldest son to find you! The Zhang family from the next village is taking things too far! They failed to arrange a marriage with my youngest granddaughter, so they decided to plot against my grandson instead. You have to help us seek justice!"

Old Mrs. Tao added angrily, "Damn them to hell! They’re trying to drive us to our graves!"

With that, Old Mrs. Tao broke into even more heart-wrenching sobs.

Hearing this, Zhao Youcai’s expression grew stern. "Uncle Tao, what happened exactly?"

At Zhao Youcai’s arrival, Tao Chunshan stopped his hand. Tao Shuqing immediately ducked behind his mother and grandmother, cowering and not daring to meet anyone’s gaze.

Mr. Tao shot Tao Shuqing an angry glare before explaining the whole situation from beginning to end.

"Sometime ago, Zhang Da Kui from the neighboring Yuan Shan Village sent a matchmaker to propose a marriage with my youngest granddaughter. We looked into it and found out he’s over thirty, a widower, and his son is two years older than our granddaughter! How could we possibly agree to that? So we turned them down. But who would have thought that Zhang Da Kui would then scheme to lure my grandson into gambling? He lost a lot of money, and last night, they cornered him to demand payment. They even said that if he couldn’t pay, they would take my granddaughter to settle the debt!"

Mr. Tao grew angrier and angrier as he spoke, shooting another harsh glare at Tao Shuqing.

Tao Shuqing, his face a mask of misery, cried out, "I didn’t agree to it! Besides, I didn’t even know he had tried to arrange a marriage with my little sister!"

"Oh? So if he hadn’t proposed to your sister, you still would have gone gambling, is that it?" Tao Chunshan demanded angrily.

"No! No!" Seeing his father’s furious glare, Tao Shuqing waved his hands frantically in denial. "It was just this one time! I’ll never do it again, I swear! That’s why... that’s why I confessed everything this morning!"

Mr. Tao said furiously, "It’s a good thing you still have a shred of conscience and confessed before you dragged your sister into it! Otherwise, I’d have thrown you out of this house and pretended I never had a grandson!"