Ruan Yudong’s eyes darted around. She suddenly raised her voice and shouted, “Sister!” Then she casually tossed away the stone in her hand, ran behind Ruan Yuchun, and hid there, poking out half her head as she cried out in accusation.
“Ruan Mingzi said she was going to shoot me with that thing!” Ruan Yuchun didn’t like this younger sister much, but she knew their mother, Madam Mao, doted on her. She had to protect her.
Ruan Yuchun shot Ruan Mingzi a glare. “Have you no shame? Bullying a child.”
Ruan Mingzi didn’t even lift her eyelids. She reached out and pulled the trigger of the crossbow, and the bamboo bolt shot straight toward Ruan Yuchun and Ruan Yudong. Neither of them had time to react before the bolt whistled past, missing their heads by less than an inch, and slammed straight into the trunk of the dead-centered old locust tree behind them.
The shaft trembled violently, while the arrowhead had already sunk deep into the wood. For a moment, everyone present was stunned into silence, their minds blank.
After a long moment, Ruan Yuchun and Ruan Yudong finally came back to themselves. Ruan Yuchun’s legs went weak, her face turning deathly pale. She truly hadn’t expected this ruthless woman, Ruan Mingzi, to fire an arrow at them without a word of warning!
“Are you insane?!” Ruan Yuchun shrieked.
“When you were bullying Yanyan, why didn’t you say you were bullying a child then?” Ruan Mingzi said with a faint, mocking smile. She tilted her head slightly, looking innocent and carefree.
“You still had the nerve just now to say I was bullying a child?”
Ruan Yuchun’s expression twisted. She shrieked, “Even so, you didn’t have to draw a bow! You were trying to kill us!”
Ruan Mingzi smiled gently, her voice soft and mild. “I’ve always been very considerate. Since you insist on saying I bully children, then I suppose I really should show you what that looks like.”
As she spoke, she made a show of pulling back the bowstring again. Now Ruan Yuchun looked at Ruan Mingzi as if she were staring at a rabid dog. She truly believed Ruan Mingzi was capable of deliberately shooting at them again.
Half-collapsing, she cried out, “It’s just a shuttlecock! Who even wants it that badly?!” With that, she snatched the colorful feathered shuttlecock from the hands of the little girl with braided hair and was about to throw it at Ruan Mingzi.
“Don’t give it to them!” Ruan Yudong objected immediately. She darted forward and grabbed the shuttlecock back from Ruan Yuchun, stamping her feet.
“You eat from my family and live off my family! What’s wrong with playing with your stupid shuttlecock?!”
Ruan Yudong’s hair was thin and yellow, tied into two little knots on top of her head. She already had high cheekbones and slanted eyes, strongly resembling Madam Mao, with a sharp, mean look. Paired with that hairstyle, she looked even more vicious—nothing like a six-year-old girl.
Her gaze landed on Ruan Mingyan. She snorted derisively and sneered, “Hey… mute, don’t you think so?!”
Lu Ruier was furious. She pulled Ruan Mingyan behind her and rattled off angrily, her small mouth firing nonstop,
“Shameless sisters! And to think you still have the nerve to bring that up! Your grandma and your mother are always running their mouths like that, making everyone think Ruan Mingzi and Ruan Mingyan are useless freeloaders who ate half your family’s grain! But in reality, they brought two whole sacks of grain to your house. Tell me—what exactly did they eat from you? And if nothing else, just look at you! You’ve gotten a whole lot fatter! while Ruan Mingzi and Ruan Mingyan are so thin they could be used as clothes poles!”
Her words made several of the onlookers laugh. But after the laughter faded and they took another look at Ruan Mingzi and Ruan Mingyan’s sallow, skinny appearances, the smiles slowly disappeared.
The girls who could come out to play together were mostly from families that were relatively well-off. In stricter households, girls their age were busy caring for younger siblings or cutting pigweed and feeding chickens—who had time to run around and play?
So seeing Ruan Mingzi and Ruan Mingyan in their ragged clothes and sickly state, aside from a bit of disdain, more people felt a trace of sympathy.
“They deserve it! Those two are jinxes! Killed their father and their mother too! My grandparents were generous enough to take them in. How are they worthy of being compared to me?!” Ruan Yudong spat arrogantly. Though she was young, her domineering manner already resembled the village shrews who cursed in the streets.
“Oh, please, as if they begged to be taken in!” Lu Ruier shot back.
“They’d rather live on their own with nothing than stay in your house. That tells everyone exactly what kind of filthy place your home is!”
True to being Madam Gao’s cherished daughter, Lu Ruier had picked up quite a bit of her mother’s fiery eloquence. Her words made Ruan Yudong shriek in anger. She crouched down to grab a stone, but then froze when she saw Ruan Mingzi holding a bamboo bolt in her hand, lips curled upward in a half-smile as she calmly watched her.
Ruan Yudong was so angry she was on the verge of tears. In a pitiful, high-pitched voice, she cried, “Sister!” hoping Ruan Yuchun would stand up for her.
Ruan Mingzi smiled. “Why are you calling me?”
Driven mad by anger, Ruan Yudong blurted out without thinking, “You poor nobody think you’re worthy of being my sister?!”
Ruan Mingzi smoothly accepted the words. “Fine. Since you said it yourself, don’t blame me later for being a heartless ‘sister’ who won’t even let you play with a shuttlecock. Hand it over.”
Ruan Yudong was utterly dumbfounded. She didn’t know whether to curse or scream. No matter what she said, it felt like it would just be thrown right back in her face. Her expression shifted wildly, as if she’d walked into a dye shop—ugly beyond words.
Ruan Yuchun shot Ruan Mingzi a venomous look, gritted her teeth, and said, “Yudong, give them the shuttlecock. It’s just a worthless toy. Who cares about it? I’ll have Father make you a better one another day. Girls with no parents like them are only fit to play with something like that anyway.”
Ruan Yudong’s face grew even darker. In a fit of spite, she yanked hard and tore out a big handful of feathers from the shuttlecock. Only then did her expression ease slightly. She glanced smugly at the stunned Ruan Mingyan and casually tossed the now-ruined shuttlecock at her.
“Pah! Like I care! Take it back!”
Tears immediately welled up in Ruan Mingyan’s large eyes. Lu Ruier cried out in shock, “Ruan Yudong, how can you be so nasty?!”
Before she could finish, Ruan Mingzi strode forward and grabbed Ruan Yudong by the collar, yanking her right in front of her.
Ruan Yudong hadn’t expected Ruan Mingzi to strike without the slightest hesitation. Terrified, she screamed, “Sister, save me!”
Ruan Yuchun tried to step forward, but Ruan Mingzi shoved her back with the arm holding the crossbow.
“Try taking one more step.”
Ruan Yuchun gritted her teeth and didn’t dare move again.
Trembling and crying, Ruan Yudong sobbed, “What do you want to do?!”
“You just tore the feathers out of that shuttlecock,” Ruan Mingzi said, still smiling gently as she held Ruan Yudong by the collar. “It’s only fair to return the favor. I pull out some of your hair, and we’re even.”
As she spoke, she reached for Ruan Yudong’s hair.
Ruan Yudong finally broke down, bursting into loud sobs, flailing her arms and legs as she tried to escape this deranged Ruan Mingzi.
After all, inside she was still a modern adult in her twenties. Scaring a six-year-old brat into tears was enough—actually hurting her crossed a line she wasn’t entirely comfortable with.
“Apologize.” Ruan Mingzi said softly.
It sounded like a lifeline. Ruan Yudong sobbed, snot and tears streaming down her face. “I’m sorry!”
Ruan Mingzi released her, clearly a bit disgusted and careful to avoid getting snot on her hands. She smiled faintly. “Are you apologizing to me? The shuttlecock belonged to my sister. You took it, pushed her over, and made her fall and scrape her face. When we came to get it back, you refused, and then you tore it apart. That apology should be directed to my sister, shouldn’t it?”
Ruan Yudong wailed in despair, “Ruan Mingyan, I’m sorry!”
After that, she scrambled up from the ground, wiped her face with her sleeve, and ran off crying.
Ruan Yuchun glared darkly at Ruan Mingzi, then hurried after her.
The little girl with the braided hair clicked her tongue at the sisters’ retreating backs. She bent down, picked up the damaged shuttlecock with some regret, and handed it to Ruan Mingyan. “If you fix it a bit, it should still be playable.”
Ruan Mingyan accepted it as if it were a treasure, hugging it tightly to her chest.
Ruan Mingzi gently patted Ruan Mingyan’s soft head. “It’s no big deal. There should still be some tail feathers left at home. I’ll see if I can patch it up.”
Only then did Ruan Mingyan smile through her tears and nod vigorously.