PS: Please look through the glossary at the bottom for the meaning of some words as they are in Chinese.
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Which wind had ushered these villagers in here? - Su Yao mused as her blank eyes took in the large throng of villagers that stomped the threshold of her little thatched house.
She could hear hushed whispers and acid stares that bored into her being as they pointed their fingers towards her, their eyes ablaze with excitement. She knew this gaze all too well. It was the same gazes they had when they found a good target to curse, to thrash and to spit at.
A shiver coursed through her spine wondering what good praises were they giving her.
"Isn't she the girl?"
"She's quite shameless, for to act as if nothing happened."
"She's just 15. Maybe it's not her."
"What side are you on? The whole village knows this yatou's deeds." A shrill voice resounded amidst the hushed whispers that were in the least bit not tampered down. Maybe intended for her to hear.
What deeds are they talking about?
Her mind wanted to load off the question but yet it could never brought on her tongue. For each and every soul knew that she was as still as a rock, her courage a mere pea size and her aura, intimidated.
Su Yao looked at her mother and father as they ushered in with bent backs the Village Leader Qiao who walked in with a sour face. His greasy face didn't held the usual lust directed at Su Yao but disgust. Her parents gestured her to follow in leaving behind the gossipmongers out in the courtyard contemplating and voicing out her fated doom. Her mother gave an anxious look at her as if she had made some trouble, and her father stared at her seemingly hating the iron for not being steel.
Cold sweat broke out as her breath turned ragged. Her inner conscious was sending out signals of something that was happening, a premonition that something bad was about to happen and her twisted fate of life may not be able to pull out from this pit.
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Su Yao looked on with baited breath as the Village Leader Qiao came forward, his eyes shooting daggers at her petite figure intimidating her into lowering her head, only her raven locks visible hiding her pale face.
"Yatou, one won't beat around the bushes, but would like you to describe everything that transpired the day before to the official here." He pointed with his eyes to a man not far behind from him as he respectfully bowed to the said man. The man was tall that shrouded the much petite Village Leader Qiao, as he came in followed by a plethora of retainers.
