Chapter 5: Gouging Eyes And Cutting Tongues
“Lin Shenzi, do you know why Little Flower’s great-grandmother is over eighty years old yet her ears aren’t deaf and her eyes aren’t dim?” Lin Xin held down the furious Lin Nan and asked with a grin.
Lin Shenzi racked her brains for a long time but couldn’t figure out who Little Flower’s great-grandmother was, and subconsciously asked, “Why?”
“Hehe, of course it’s because she doesn’t meddle in others’ business!” With that, Lin Xin hugged Lin Nan and quickly left.
They hadn’t gone far when a suffocated laugh and an angry roar came from behind: “Lin Xin, you little wench, how dare you despise me for meddling in others’ business!”
“Hahaha!” Lin Xin burst out laughing heartily.
Back home, she simply cleaned Lin Nan and herself, casually wrapped the ginseng in a piece of ragged cloth and put it into the back basket, then Lin Xin hugged Lin Nan and headed to town.
The original owner had only been to town a few times when her parents were alive. Since her parents passed away, she had worked desperately every day just to keep herself and her younger brother from starving to death, making trips to town an unattainable luxury, so the route to town in her memory had long been blurred.
Fortunately, there was only one road from Willow Forest Village where they lived to town, so there was no risk of taking the wrong path, but the journey was quite long. Even with her supernatural ability, it took Lin Xin nearly an hour to reach town.
“This time, I must sell the ginseng for a good price, then buy all the things at once. Coming here once is too torturous.” Lin Xin felt the soreness in her calves and silently made up her mind.
“Older sister, you’ve been carrying Nan Nan all the way, are you tired?” The child looked at the sweat on his older sister’s face, wiped it off for her with his sleeve distressedly, and asked in a small voice.
“Of course not tired. Nan Nan is so light, he doesn’t even have a few taels of meat, so what weight is there!” Lin Xin rubbed the child’s head and replied.
“Oh!” Lin Nan happily responded.
“Let’s first find an apothecary to sell your big radish, then go buy something delicious for Nan Nan, okay?” Lin Xin hugged Lin Nan and walked forward while looking left and right at every shop’s signboard.
“Yong An Tang, this is it. Let’s go in and see.” Seeing the grand entrance and the people coming and going, Lin Xin felt that she had likely found a good place for the ginseng, so she stepped onto the apothecary’s steps.
“Hey, where did this beggar come from? Don’t you see what place this is? Dare to come in? Get lost quick, don’t delay our business.” Before she could enter, a shop assistant rushed out. Seeing her and Lin Nan in tattered clothes, he immediately started driving them away in disgust.
Lin Nan had probably endured too much malice since childhood. He trembled at the shop assistant’s shout and buried his little face into Lin Xin’s shoulder.
Lin Xin’s face darkened immediately. When the shop assistant reached out to push her, she kicked him. Though she only used thirty percent of her strength, it still sent the shop assistant stumbling back three big steps. He tripped over the threshold and fell backward into the apothecary.
“Come here! Someone’s causing trouble! Quick, come here!” With the shop assistant’s shout, six or seven burly men rushed out from inside the door and surrounded Lin Xin and her younger brother. The leader glared at Lin Xin and demanded, “Was it you causing trouble just now?”
Lin Xin was so angry she laughed. “I originally came to sell medicinal herbs, but before I could enter, this shop assistant called me a beggar, not only chased me away but tried to push me. I just resisted in the heat of the moment. Is that causing trouble?”
“Pah! You don’t even take a piss to look at your own penniless appearance. What good medicinal herbs could you have to sell? I think you’re just eyeing our Yong An Tang’s wealth and came to scam us! Quick, beat her out. Our Yong An Tang isn’t a place just anyone of unknown origin can enter.”
“I say, brothers, didn’t you see this is a little lady? Are you saying she’s here to sell herbs or to sell…?” The last burly man to come out spoke even more vulgarly, his gaze filled with lecherous intent, staring at Lin Xin as if to pierce through her clothes.
It had been a long time since Lin Xin encountered someone daring to look at her like this. Her eyes narrowed slightly, her fingers twitched, and a miserable “Ah!” scream rang out. The burly man who had been extremely arrogant moments ago suddenly clutched his eyes and fell to the ground rolling, bright red blood surging from between his fingers.
“Qiang Zi!” The leader dashed to his side, forcefully pried open his hands covering his eyes, and was horrified to see his two eyeballs hanging on his face connected by colorful veins, blood gushing wildly from the now black sockets, while he wailed shrilly: “Ah! My eyes, my eyes are blind!”
The leader was furious and glared hatefully at Lin Xin, demanding, “You did it?”
Lin Xin innocently shook her head. “Not me. You saw it just now. I’m so far from him. How could it be me!”
“This…” She was indeed right. Even he himself was closer to Qiang Zi than Lin Xin was, so it couldn’t possibly be her. But for some reason, he just felt this matter was inseparable from the raggedly dressed girl before him.
At that moment, an old man with a goatee walked out from the apothecary. He bent down to look at Qiang Zi’s eyes, shook his head coldly, “Can’t be cured. These eyes are deposed.”
After speaking, the old man walked to the apothecary entrance and looked down at Lin Xin. “Young lady, this isn’t a place for you. Hurry and leave!”
Lin Xin paused, and just as she was about to turn, the leader roared, “She can’t leave! She blinded Qiang Zi’s eyes. If she wants to leave, leave the eyes behind first!”
This was pure unreasonable bullying.
As his words fell, he too let out a muffled cry of pain. A deep red piece of meat fell from his mouth to the ground, followed by a fountain-like gush of blood.
All the onlookers retreated three big steps. The timid ones had already turned and left, while those remaining felt a chill on their backs. After all, everyone had seen that before those two were injured, no one had gotten close to them, yet inexplicably one had his eyes gouged and the other his tongue cut.
“You all saw it. It really has nothing to do with me, so can I go?” Lin Xin stood in place without moving, staring straight at the old man and asking.
The old man gave her a deep look but didn’t answer. He flicked his sleeve at her and walked back into the apothecary, ignoring the two still howling burly men.
Lin Xin hugged Lin Nan and walked down the steps. The crowd immediately parted to both sides, making way for a path wide enough for two to walk side by side. No one forgot that the only identical thing those two had done before getting injured was spewing filth at this young lady.
