But today, Liu'er's mother seemed to have gone berserk. She was brazenly defiant, like a dead pig that no longer fears boiling water. She refused to back down even as she was being beaten. The moment Yang Family and He stopped to catch their breath, she'd start right back up, cursing Juhua with every word. This drove Yang Family and He to lose their minds, and they laid into her without mercy, beating her face into a swollen, colorful mess.
Juhua's head ached. 'This can't go on,' she thought. 'If they accidentally kill her, it'll only bring trouble to our family. More importantly, it's just not worth it. This is so unfair. It's a classic case of doing a good deed only to get harassed and blackmailed.'
The curses from Liu'er's mother were so vicious that Zhang Huai worried they would upset Juhua. He urged her to go inside. "I'm going to tie that old hag up and gag her," he said. "Then we'll let the village chief and Sun Tiezhu deal with her."
