Then, the neighborhood women slowly turned to look at each other, their faces pale and their eyes wide with profound, staggering horror.
"Is this woman a maniac?" one of the women finally whispered, her voice trembling.
They had all heard the market rumors. They knew she had supposedly broken bones in the Black Alley, and they knew she had negotiated ruthlessly with the hardware merchants. They had assumed it just meant she was a strong-willed, tragic heroine who knew how to stand her ground.
But absolutely no one had anticipated this.
Usually, the Lu girl appeared so cool and polite. She smiled brightly, memorized their surnames, and gossiped with them over tea like a perfectly normal, slightly heartbroken young woman. But after seeing the completely dead, emotionless way she had choked a giant enforcer to her knees—and the terrifyingly easy way she had snapped back to a cheerful smile a second later...
