"So you wanna gang up on us? Do I look dead to you?"

Linden Golding’s hand froze in mid-air, unable to move. Goldie Thorne had grabbed it and was glaring at him with a sinister look in his eyes.

"You Thornes are taking things too far! I’ll take you on!"

Linden Golding had a temper too and immediately started wrestling with Goldie Thorne. The two were about the same height and build, but when it came to fighting skills, Goldie Thorne was clearly superior.

Within moments, Linden Golding had taken several punches. For Goldie Thorne, who had been fighting since he was a kid, taking on three guys like Linden Golding wouldn’t even be a problem.

"The Thorne family is taking things too far? What a load of bullshit! It was your vixen of a sister, your little bastard nephew, and your little tramp of a niece who ganged up on my six-year-old little girl! They stole my niece’s meat and broke her arm! Motherfucker, the Thornes are not to be trifled with! Let me teach you a lesson you won’t forget!"

When it came to verbal sparring, Goldie Thorne could run circles around Linden Golding. In just a few short sentences, he laid out the entire sequence of events with perfect clarity.

Tang Xiaonan immediately held up her right hand. The bruise was getting bigger. Squeezing out a few tears, she looked pitifully at the crowd and sobbed, "Teacher Golding yelled at me, and she hit me... My arm is broken..."

’At a critical moment like this, I have to back up my family!’

’Besides, that woman, Phoenix Golding, was such a bitch it made me sick. I didn’t think what Phoebe Huxley was doing was over the top at all. She deserved to be beaten!’

"See that? My girl is only six! Are you Goldings even human? A family of three ganging up on her! Look what you’ve done to my niece’s arm! If I don’t beat the crap out of you, am I even worthy of being her uncle?"

The words had barely left Goldie Thorne’s mouth before he slammed a vicious punch right into Linden Golding’s face. Damn it all. The more he looked at his niece’s arm, the more furious he became. He usually didn’t even dare hug his little niece with too much force for fear of hurting her. This family of animals clearly had a death wish!

Meanwhile, Phoebe Huxley wasn’t about to be outdone. She and her brother-in-law, Goldie, completely overwhelmed the Golding siblings, landing one punch after another.

"BOOHOO... I’ll never eat Tang Xiaonan’s meat again! Please stop hitting us..."

Ulysses Spann was terrified. He understood that this whole bloody brawl had started because he’d stolen Tang Xiaonan’s meat at lunch. If he had known this would happen, he wouldn’t have dared provoke Tang Xiaonan even if he were starving to death. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"You stole my meat and spit on it! You’re a robber!" Tang Xiaonan yelled.

’Eating and stealing are two completely different things. I have to make it clear in front of the whole village, so everyone knows what the Spann family is really like.’

"You knocked over my lunchbox and hit me, too! My hand still hurts," Ulysses Spann whined, feeling deeply wronged. He was the one who had gotten the worst of it.

"I oughta beat you to death!"

Jim Thorne raised his fist and cursed viciously. Ulysses Spann flinched, pulling his head in, and cried even harder.

Jacqueline Spann walked out of the courtyard. She really didn’t want to get involved in this mess—it was too humiliating. But the Thornes were getting more and more out of hand. If she didn’t make an appearance, people would surely say she was cold and indifferent. She needed a political review to get into college, and for that, her reputation was paramount.

"It’s true that Ulysses was wrong to steal Tang Xiaonan’s meat," she began, "but Tang Xiaonan and her cousin beat Ulysses up, too. They also spilled his lunchbox all over the ground, so Ulysses didn’t even get to eat lunch. My mom probably didn’t understand the full situation at the time, so in the heat of the moment, her criticism might have been a little too harsh.

"My mom is a teacher. She’s only strict because she wants her students to improve. Her intentions were good. Uncle Felix, Auntie Aurelia, Uncle Goldie, why don’t you all calm down first? Let’s sit down and clear up this misunderstanding, okay?"

Jacqueline Spann spoke softly, her words clear and organized. Every sentence sounded perfectly reasonable. She managed to imply that Tang Xiaonan hadn’t really been wronged, while also highlighting the fact that Phoenix Golding was a teacher. It was only natural for a teacher to discipline a student; for the Thorne family to cause such a scene was simply barbaric.