Lugging along a large suitcase, Jian Huai slightly pursed his lips and glanced about his surroundings. He noticed that he had just passed a stone tablet with the words “Datong Village” carved on the surface.

Is he there?

As he followed the old farmers who were moving energetically in front of them, it felt awkward and heavy as they sped up their footsteps.

“Ah Huai, are you hungry? I have some biscuits.” Jian Jiang quietly merged over and asked his younger brother.

Hearing his second brother’s concern, Jian Huai shook his head gently. After all, the road up ahead was unpredictable, so he knew it was wiser to save whatever provisions they had at the time.

Noticing the sight of his already pale and fair younger brother becoming more and more emaciated, the worried Jian Jiang felt helpless.

When faced with a tidal wave, you can only go with the flow.

He recalled how his parents searched through all their contacts just to put them on the bus back to their hometown. Others who were in the same program were forced to accept the countryside, while their parents racked their brains just to send them away as far as they could.

Though there was a lot of crying at the departure point, Jian Jiang and his brother had left independently. This was because most of their family members were displaced in the rural farmlands, ready to undergo more extreme “reformations.”

Jian Jiang had ignored every complaint the others made along the way because he knew that this was a rare opportunity to learn what it meant to be “born with dignity,” as his grandfather requested.

“Ah Jiang, Grandpa knows you can’t withstand much suffering, because to pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps is far more difficult than you can imagine. Grandpa has used up his last connections and could only send you and Ah Huai as far as I could.” With his gaze as deep as the valleys, he said this, “When you arrive, you might meet some scary people, or perhaps people who had it better than your grandfather and father. Grandpa has no idea what’s out there now, so you would have to depend on yourselves.”

“Remember, live on.”

At that time, it was obvious Ah Jiang did not understand what all this talk was about, and he could only ignorantly nod at his grandfather’s words.

Live on, he says. Hasn’t he been doing that all this time?

But since then, Uncle Li, who lived within the same compound, had suddenly transformed into the head of the “Revolutionary Committee” that commanded several families in the surrounding compounds with an imposing and arrogant manner. It was as if he were a completely different person.

While he had never intended to divulge his family name and identity, it was betrayed by his relatives.

…

Jian Jiang made a few notes from the old farmer’s back profile: unable to guess his age, dressed in simple attire, his back arched with a slight camel’s hump, and his skin was a little yellow, but his complexion looked good, with a little flesh on his cheeks. He was not tall and when he stretched out for a handshake, they were full of calluses. At first glance, he looked like a skilled and humble labor worker. He introduced himself as Lin Jianjun and continued forward without saying much.

Jian Jiang made a few mental observations of this person: Hardworking, simple, impoverished, not many positive descriptions… and let out a sigh of relief. If even “educated” farmers like themselves could receive satisfactory rations, then perhaps living in Datong village isn’t the worst thing that could have happened.

Lin Jianjun, who was walking in front of him, moved briskly forward. He didn’t show much interest in chatting with the young men and women who arrived in cities that were lagging behind him.

This time, there were 6 educated youths who arrived in Datong village. 4 boys and 2 girls, and they all came from B city. Their names were Jian Jiang, Li Chunfu, Wang Xiaowen, Jian Huai, Meng Meng, Gong Yuzhi…

Lin Jianjun repeated those few names in his head and tried to commit them to memory. After all, this is his first time representing the village to welcome guests. His older sister-in-law said he must never bring shame to the family!

His sister-in-law also reminded him to never allow his gaze to wander on other girls, for it might hurt Qiuyun, and that he should hurry up and send them to the team captain so that the team captain would consider sending him on errands again! Coming out like this does not require him to farm the land, but it would still earn a day’s worth of work points! It was just walking out of the village and back again so it was even better than a day off!

…

Every sentence from his sister-in-law was firmly imprinted in his brain. If you were to ask Lin Jianjun when he started putting his sister-in-law on a higher pedestal than his mother, he could only scratch his head and let out a silly chuckle.

After losing his older brother, he was branded as the dumbest person in the Lin family. Lin Jianjun never enjoyed overthinking things. When he was young, he listened to his mother, and now, he listened to his older sister-in-law… He has never had to make decisions for himself in this life!

All this had also surpassed Dan Jingqiu’s expectations. In her previous assumptions, the second brother’s family was like hers, other than being overly filial, what else could be wrong with him?

The oldest son wanted to take care of his parents, but since she figured that Sun Jinhua and Lin Yaoxi’s lifespans were still pretty long, she wasn’t all that concerned.

As for the second brother, Dan Jingqiu originally thought that the female lead, Lin Qing, would soon encourage her family to split up, and believed that after splitting the family, Lin Qing would be blessed with the female lead’s halo and work everything out without hindrance.

But her butterfly’s effect was just slightly stronger. After successfully controlling Sun Jinhua and taking over all affairs of the Lin family, she realized her mistake —— Without a strong motivation to leave, why would Lin Qing choose to separate the family?

After all, the female lead was a white-collared transmigrator, just like Dan Jingqiu. In a strange and scary timeline, without enough motivation, where would she find the courage to change?

So, Dan Jingqiu decided that she would get rid of the former “vengeance” plot, and changed it into a “let’s work together and towards a well-off future” plot!

Within her previous host’s memories, while enduring the days of being subjugated by Sun Jinhua, the second brother and his wife would always secretly send food to her. Up till her death, their kindness was never forgotten by the original host.

And besides, she secretly smiled to herself as she rubbed her chin, having the assumed good-for-nothing second son’s family become more prosperous right in front of Sun Jinhua’s eyes would definitely make her “blossom with fury.”

Previously, Dan Jingqiu had planned to imitate the heroines that she had read from stories by going up the mountains and hunting some game. If that didn’t work, then she would exhibit her strength and make it work.

At that time, she didn’t know that she would later become a legendary being in this village.

On that day, it began with an earth-shattering scream from the village’s infamous wild child, Dog Egg* —— (TL Note: In the old days, due to low infant mortality rates, superstition drove the Chinese to come up with nicknames relating to animals or livestock in hopes of lengthening their children’s lifespans.)

“GHOST!!!”

Dog Egg had just taken off his pants to play in the river at the foot of the mountain when he heard a gentle female voice calling out from behind him: “Dog Egg, help me call the team captain…” Before that voice could finish, Dog Egg was scared out of his wits by the bloody person behind him and took off running. He jumped buck naked from the river and into the fields, all the while screaming that there was a ghost at the bottom of the mountain, leaving behind a helpless looking Dan Jingqiu.

Not long after, a mob of anxious people armed with stones and all sorts of farm equipment followed closely behind the team captain to this “place haunted by ghosts.”

Dan Jingqiu, who had taken the liberty to rest on the ground, raised her head and gave a toothy smile at the crowd. Well, it created quite a disturbance, for it caused every one of them to scream in unison, rendering Dan Jingqiu into a helpless silence.

As the captain of the group, having expended all of his courage, sense of responsibility, and patriotic pride, Lin Yaobei forced himself to take a closer look, (because it was far more shameful to turn tail and run.)

And it was with this look that he realized the person drenched in red and white that was sitting beside the wild boar, was none other than his second brother’s daughter-in-law, Dan Jingqiu!

His first reaction was not out of horror, but ecstatic joy!

After all, only one to two pigs were ever successfully hunted in a year, and replenishing cooking oil was not an easy feat!

And now there’s meat!

So when the shocked crowd came to their senses, the group quickly helped the boar hunter haul her prey. It took several grown men to carry two boars, so the sight of Dan Jingqiu hoisting a young hog in one arm made the excited crowd shudder.

Not to mention the sight of leaking brains and blood coming out of the completely smashed pig skulls!

The wild boar in the mountains loved to roll in the mud, so their hides were thicker than domestically reared pigs. Without the right technique and muscle, cleaning these animals out would not be an easy feat. And so the villagers were keenly aware of just how amazing Dan Jingqiu’s strength was when she was able to easily penetrate through the thick hide of the wild boar and crack open their heads.

The truth was, as someone who possessed the Beginner Martial Arts skill, Dan Jingqiu purely possessed immense strength but lacked control of that ability. So when she was unexpectedly ambushed by a herd of wild pigs that were rushing towards her, she countered by boxing her fists at them in surprise, crushing half their brains and instantly killing them.

So on that day forward, Dan Jingqiu suddenly gained the baffling title of “village brute” within Datong. In other villages, brutes were made up of unsavory characters who were constantly up to no good. However, in Datong village, under her jurisdiction, all the shady figures have ceased their activity and remained dormant.

Though doing crime might be fun, their lives were more important.

Within the village, you might occasionally find a family having a serious conversation suddenly tap their heads lightly with a fist with a terrified look.

Ask no further. They were all talking about the boar-killer-little-brute who lived at the village entrance, Dan Jingqiu.

Out of awe and respect, they came up with a secret nickname for this demon king of theirs.

She was called “The Stone Fist.”

The fabled wolf monster that was used to scare little children into obedience was changed overnight——

“If you don’t listen to me, I will send you to The Stone Fist’s house. You will lose half your brains with one smack!” And with that warning, parents would knowingly make a hand gesture of their fists colliding on the heads of their unruly children.

So no matter how disobedient the child may be, they would swallow their sobs and suppress their tears.

Nope. No one wants to lose their brains!

The author has something to say:

Dan Jingqiu: It wasn’t me! I didn’t do anything!