With the order from the current head of the family, Lang Caimeng moved at once to take Lang Jiuchuan by the arm, and called out to his wife at the same time: “Wan Fang, take Ninth Sister and settle her somewhere.”

Leave? That was absolutely out of the question.

If she left, how was she supposed to keep absorbing this merit and karmic fortune?

“Let go. I’m not going anywhere. No one can stop me from staying here to fulfill my filial duty.”

Lang Jiuchuan pulled away slightly — and then came a sharp crack.

Wu Shi let out a startled cry, her face going pale as she stared at Lang Jiuchuan’s hand.

Lang Caimeng also felt something wrong in the hand he was gripping and instinctively loosened his hold. Good heavens above — since when did he have supernatural strength?

But there was Lang Jiuchuan’s right hand, bent completely the wrong way, hanging limp and soft without any bony support, clearly broken.

The stunned stares in the hall swept over to Lang Caimeng’s face all at once. Just how much did he resent this country girl, to come down on her that hard?

Lang Caimeng flushed red, flustered and frantic as he tried to explain: “No — I didn’t use any force, I didn’t do it on purpose.”

Heaven and earth could bear witness — he had only grabbed her, not roughly, not with any force at all. But Ninth Sister’s hand was unmistakably broken, and who would believe him now?

“You really are — would you just call for the household physician?” Lang Zhengping was startled too. Was this niece he hadn’t seen in years really so fragile?

He didn’t dare say anything too harsh to reproach the girl now either — she was the only flesh and blood of his second brother who had died young, the last of that line. And second brother’s wife was standing right there watching.

Lang Zhengping glanced at Cui Shi, feeling a pang of guilt, then scolded Lang Caimeng: “You don’t know your own strength — going that hard on your own Ninth Sister.”

Lang Caimeng: “!”

I’m being wronged! I genuinely only gave the tiniest little pull!

Wu Shi shakily moved to support Lang Jiuchuan, her voice quivering: “Ninth Sister, the household physician will be here soon — let’s go to the side room and wait. We should have you looked at.”

It wasn’t that she harbored any particular fondness for Lang Jiuchuan — it was that this little sister-in-law she had never met had only just returned to the house, and she was the only child left of the second branch, and now her husband had “broken” her hand. If word got out that the eldest son and heir of the first branch had bullied an orphaned girl from the second branch right in the middle of their grandfather’s funeral rites, the spit alone could drown them all.

Lang Jiuchuan shook her broken hand loose. “No need.”

Wu Shi nearly fainted watching that broken hand swing about, her heart hammering wildly.

Without a flicker of distress on her face, Lang Jiuchuan seized the hand and snapped it back into place — another sharp crack — pinched a technique into it, then lifted the arm. “I can set it myself.”

She’d have to find some proper tendons to graft onto it soon. Otherwise it snapping loose every now and then would be a genuine nuisance.

Everyone gaped at Lang Jiuchuan as though she were something inhuman. She looked perfectly ordinary — and yet there she stood having broken her own hand and reset it without so much as changing her expression. Was that really something a young girl was supposed to be capable of?

“Nothing to worry about now. I can get back to burning paper.”

Was the burning of paper actually the most important matter at hand right now?

Cui Shi felt as though she had lived through an entire lifetime of upheaval in the space of a few short breaths. She stepped forward with a darkened face, stared at Lang Jiuchuan, and said sharply: “Wretched creature — will you not come with me?”

Lang Jiuchuan paused mid-step, turned her head toward her, and said: “What did you just call me? Wretched creature?”

Cui Shi looked into her eyes and her heart gave a violent lurch. She was overcome with sudden panic and forced herself to blink hard — and when she looked again, the child’s eyes were round and bright. Had she imagined it?

Just now, she could have sworn she had seen two hollow, empty eye sockets staring back at her — nothing inside them at all — deeply unnerving.

She must be seeing things.

The onlookers could see that mother and daughter were squaring off against each other and silently panicked. Lang Zhengping immediately shot his daughter-in-law a meaningful look.

They could lose all the face they liked — just not in front of outsiders!

Wu Shi stepped forward at once and reached to support Lang Jiuchuan’s arm: “Ninth Sister, please do go let the household physician have a look. Whatever medicine needs to be applied, let’s apply it — you mustn’t let it drag on.”

Lang Jiuchuan shook off her hand, fixed her gaze on Cui Shi, and gave a cold laugh: “After more than ten years, a daughter comes home — and you call her a wretched creature. May I ask, Madam, what exactly have I done to deserve that title? Is it simply because I said this old gentleman did not have long to live?”

Everyone’s vision went dark again. Your mother wasn’t entirely wrong to use that word on you, you absolute wretch — which pot isn’t boiling, and you go right ahead and lift the lid. Hadn’t the whole business just been smoothed over? Why drag it back up and pour oil straight onto the fire?