Robert Black remained silent, only knowing to rain down punches on Holt's face. Although he left Holt with disheveled hair and a bruised, swollen face, he ultimately couldn't cause any real harm. She gathered her strength, then suddenly pushed out with both hands, landing squarely on Robert's stomach, flipping him over stiffly so that the back of his head struck the ground, knocking him out cold.

Holt was just about to get up when she saw Charles Brooks, his eyes bloodshot, holding a brick from the stove, standing before her with a cold, icy gaze.

"Stop it..." Holt screamed in terror.

"Stop your ass! Why didn't you stop?" Charles Brooks cursed, then raised the brick and slammed it down toward Holt's face. Even though it was a mud brick, a blow like that to the face would definitely turn it into a mess.

Holt instinctively raised her arms to shield herself, and just as she blocked in front of her, the brick came crashing down, shattering into pieces with a bang, and her arms went completely numb. Charles Brooks tossed aside the broken brick and began kicking wildly. Although he wasn't as strong as Robert, he knew exactly where it hurt the most—every kick landed fiercely on Holt's soft belly!

"Ah, ah..." Holt was beaten to the point of unbearable pain, rolling on the ground and letting out shrill, miserable screams that could be heard throughout the village. In fact, Charles Brooks's earlier roar had already alarmed the workers, who put down their bowls and chopsticks and rushed over to see what was happening. From a distance, they saw a young man, looking like a mad tiger, kicking what seemed to be a sack... But as they got closer, they realized it wasn't a sack at all, but their boss's wife, the matron of the The Brooks Family, Holt!

"Stop right now!" Although none of them respected Holt's character, they couldn't just stand by and do nothing. The hired hands shouted loudly to stop him and quickened their pace to run over.

Glancing up at the crowd, Charles Brooks's face was expressionless as he leapt up, putting all his strength into his knee, and slammed it hard into Holt's back. A chilling crack of breaking bones was heard, and Holt let out a piercing, inhuman scream before passing out instantly.

The next moment, Charles Brooks was tackled to the ground by the workers and held down tightly, but he strained to lift his head, looking toward his two younger brothers, hoarsely shouting, "Let me see them, let me see them..." The workers looked at each other, until Uncle Reed said, "What are you afraid of? He's just a kid, he can't get away."

※※※

Sichuan, with its lush mountains and rivers and evergreen seasons, provides the people of Shu with incredibly favorable living conditions. The people of Shu, in turn, cherish their homeland and strive to build their ideal homes. On the western Sichuan plain, harmony between man and nature is everywhere; strolling through it feels like walking inside a beautiful ink painting.

The village of Shiwang, located just outside Qingshen County, is but a corner of this magnificent landscape, yet it does nothing to diminish the beauty of the whole scene. Nestled among green mountains and clear waters, the village is built along the contours of the hills, with houses stacked layer upon layer, hidden beneath nearly a thousand ancient banyan trees with dense, towering canopies.

Most of the village buildings have small green-tiled roofs, two-story stilted houses with 'wood-through-dou' structures, and walls of bamboo lath, mud, and white lime. Between the whitewashed walls are cleanly washed stone-paved alleys... all speaking to the prosperity and comfort of Shiwang Village.

The leading household in the village is a not-so-large courtyard house, with stone-carved column bases and whitewashed walls with black tiles on the outside, and intricately carved wooden flower doors and window lattices inside. This was once the much-envied The Brooks Family, but that is now a thing of the past. These days, when people pass by the The Brooks Family and hear the miserable cries of pain from within, they all say, "Serves them right!"

"Oww, oww, it's killing me..." The cries of pain naturally came from Holt, who lay in bed, her whole body wrapped up like a zongzi. She had been carried home horizontally, and when the doctor came to examine her, he found both arms fractured and three ribs broken... The old doctor, who had treated the villagers all his life, said she was extremely lucky—not to have injured any internal organs, or else she would have been as good as dead, with no strength left to shout and scream like this.

As for the rest, Charles Brooks was too weak to cause her any real harm.

Although she escaped death, the suffering was almost as bad. Both her arms were splinted, and she was told she must stay in bed for a month. But even lying perfectly still, every breath tugged at her injured ribs, leaving her in constant agony. Yet her mouth never rested—first cursing Charles Brooks, then extending it to the whole family of her husband's younger brother, and finally cursing the The Brooks Family's ancestors for eight generations.

This finally made The Brooks Family's eldest, Stephen Brooks, who had been sitting by her side with a worried face, unable to hold back any longer. He said, "I've told you before, don't go too far in everything, or you'll get your comeuppance. You never listen, and now look what's happened..."

"You heartless wretch, oww..." Hearing her husband say this, Holt immediately glared and snapped, "You egged me on to be the villain, and now you want to play innocent? Just wait till I'm better and see how I deal with you!"

"Alright, alright, I won't say anything." Stephen Brooks shrank his neck and said, "But what should we do now? We're all family, surely we can't really take this to court?"

"We must report him to the authorities! I wish I could kill that little beast myself!" Holt said viciously, "He nearly killed me—I absolutely can't let him off!"

"Report him?" Stephen Brooks sighed and said, "Eldest son is about to take the exam; let's not make things more complicated."

"What are you afraid of? I'm the victim here!" Holt hissed through her teeth, "Carry me to the county yamen. Once the magistrate sees my miserable state, he'll definitely give that little beast a heavy sentence!"