Julie lowered her head and kept eating, as if nothing had happened—like it wasn't her who had stomped down just now.
She didn't hold back at all.
With her strength, it wasn't just a little pain—someone would need to rest for at least half a month.
Itchy foot? Julie has the cure.
She kept eating nonstop, picking at several dishes in front of her and even finished two bowls of rice.
She was full now.
Whether the others came to eat or had other intentions, it had nothing to do with her.
As soon as the county magistrate left the table, Julie got up to leave too.
When Wu Chun saw her leaving, she didn't plan to stay behind for small talk either and followed her out.
Julie had already noticed her, and a cold glint flashed in her eyes.
Instead of going to the back yard to get her horse, she walked straight ahead.
She walked faster and faster until she reached a dark, empty alleyway.
Wu Chun was still following close behind.
Seeing Julie walk into a dead end, Wu Chun laughed at her for being stupid and mocked her out loud, "Idiot, you walked into a dead end. Since you want to die so badly, I'll teach you a lesson you won't forget."
Julie didn't bother arguing. Talking wouldn't solve anything—it was about strength.
Wu Chun got angry when she saw Julie staying silent and unafraid.
She charged at her with a raised fist.
Julie had some pent-up anger from the night before, and Wu Chun just happened to show up at the right time.
She grabbed Wu Chun's arm and twisted it hard—there was a loud crack, and Wu Chun screamed in pain but refused to back down.
She tried to hit Julie with her other arm, but Julie quickly twisted and dislocated it too.
Wu Chun started sweating all over and finally begged for mercy, completely panicking. She was afraid she might die here.
"Please, let me go. I swear I won't mess with you again. It's my fault. I was wrong. I was nosy. Please don't kill me."
Julie ignored her words, pulled out a wooden stick from her storage space, and started beating her.
Wu Chun tried to block it, but one arm was sprained and the other was dislocated, so she couldn't defend herself or escape.
She could only cry and curse, taking the beating helplessly.
Julie didn't hit her for long. People in this era weren't as tough as those in the post-apocalypse.
After less than half a cup of tea's time, she stopped.
Wu Chun was shaking from the pain, her face pale, completely defeated—nothing like the arrogant woman who had just walked into the alley.
Julie knocked her out with a chop to the neck.
She searched Wu Chun but only found two taels of silver.
She sighed. With her fancy clothes, she thought Wu Chun was rich.
Still, she took the silver as payment for wasting her time.
Then she pulled out a special powder from her storage space—the same one she gave to Liu Hongjuan and her husbands.
It made people forget everything that happened in the past six hours, including who they met.
After Wu Chun swallowed it, Julie carried her to the alley entrance so someone passing by would find her.
She never planned to kill her. So many people saw their argument earlier—if Wu Chun died suddenly, Julie would be a suspect.
This was her favorite kind of revenge—
She beats you up, feels great, and you don't even know it was her.
You want revenge but don't even know who to blame.
Sure, it felt nice to have people hate her but not be able to touch her,
But she didn't like unnecessary trouble.
She returned to the county magistrate's back yard, got on her horse Xiao Hei, and headed to the gold shop.
She carried a small bundle with twenty gold bars that she had taken from her storage after leaving the office.
She tied her horse outside the shop and gave a coin to the attendant to watch him.
The boy smiled and agreed.
When she went inside, the shopkeeper greeted her, "Hello, would you like to buy or pawn something?"
"Can I exchange these gold bars for silver?"
She had too many gold bars in her storage—it wasn't practical to spend them directly.
Small merchants wouldn't be able to give change.
The shopkeeper had seen a lot and never judged people by appearances.
"Yes, do you have the gold bars with you? We'll need to weigh them and check the purity to give you a price."
Julie nodded and put her bundle on the table.
She took out two kinds of bars—one around 100g and the other around 300g.
The shopkeeper took them, weighed them, and examined their color:
Greenish yellow: ~70% pure
Yellow: ~80% pure
Purplish yellow: ~90% pure
Reddish yellow: nearly 100% pure
Then he held them to get a feel for the weight.
He asked her to wait a moment while he calculated.
After a short while, he returned.
"These two bars are just over 15 taels of gold. They're 100% pure. The exchange rate is one tael of gold for ten taels of silver. That would be 155 taels of silver. Will you exchange?"
Julie remembered that in ancient times, one catty was 16 taels.
"Yes, since I'm already here, I'll exchange them all."
She exchanged all twenty bars—1,550 taels of silver.
The shopkeeper gave her ten 100-tael notes, ten 50-tael notes, and the rest as loose silver coins in a pouch.
Julie took it, placed it in her coat (actually into her storage), thanked him, and left.
She led Xiao Hei away and went to the pastry shop.
She tied the horse at the door, and the boy there offered to watch him for free.
Julie thanked him.
Inside, the shopkeeper introduced the items.
She bought some new rose-flavored cakes, sesame cakes, and sticky rice rolls—five of each, spending 82 coins.
She tucked the treats into her coat.
On the way home, she saw rabbits for sale and thought about the lonely rabbit at home that couldn't have babies by itself.
She didn't know if it was male or female,
So she bought two of each, knocked them out to keep them from moving, tied them up, and hung them by the saddle—then headed back home.
When Julie returned to the village, the sky had already started to darken—it was almost evening.
Mr. Leng stood at the door, looking around.
When he saw Xiao Hei (the horse) getting closer, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The lady had been gone all day.
She was finally back.
The three brothers were worried too. To keep their minds off it, they each tried to stay busy.
Bailee was in the kitchen cooking, absentmindedly picking vegetables. A few times, he threw the leaves on the ground and kept the stems in the basket, not even realizing it.
Haven was in the main room sewing a pouch, but his mind was elsewhere. "Ouch!" He looked down—he had pricked his finger with the needle. He quickly put his finger in his mouth and kept glancing outside.
Lorrie couldn't sit still, so he went to mess with the chickens.
He said he wanted to count their feathers.
The chickens sensed something was off and started running everywhere.
The chicken coop turned into a scene of chaos.
From time to time, clucking and chasing sounds came from inside.
The chickens were basically thinking, "Leave us alone, please."
At this moment, it was clear just how important a woman could be.
She wasn't just their wife—she was the heart and backbone of the household.
Mr. Leng saw Julie return and quickly went to greet her.
She got off the horse.
Mr. Leng naturally took the reins and led Xiao Hei to the back.
As soon as she came in, Haven was the first to see her. He stood up and walked toward her, smiling brightly. "Wife, you're back."
Julie nodded and handed him some pastries she bought.
As Haven took them, she noticed his pricked finger. "You hurt yourself? Go put on some medicine. I'll leave the pastries on the table." She pulled out a small bottle of medicine from her pocket and handed it to him.
Haven took it and thanked her, blushing a little.
Julie put the pastries on the table, picked up the rabbits, and walked toward the backyard.
Three of the rabbits had already woken up, one was still passed out.
As soon as she reached the backyard, she saw chickens flying around and chaos everywhere.
She held her forehead and asked, "What are you doing?"
Lorrie popped his head out when he heard her voice. "Wife! You're back! I was so worried about you! Come look—this rooster has such beautiful feathers. Can I pull some out and give them to you?"
He held up the chicken in his hand.
The rooster: "...…" Please let me go.
Julie sighed. What would she even do with chicken feathers?
Make a feather duster?
"Stop messing around. We still need it to lay eggs. Scare it again and it won't lay anything—we'll have to eat it instead."
Lorrie nodded and put the chicken down.
When he saw the rabbits in her hand, his eyes lit up. "You bought so many rabbits? Can we have spicy rabbit heads tonight?"
Julie paused. Spicy rabbit heads, huh?
She hadn't had that in a long time either.
She looked down. One of them was still unconscious—perfect, and it looked quite plump.
She put the other three rabbits in the rabbit hutch and told Lorrie to feed them some vegetable leaves.
Then she carried the unconscious rabbit to the kitchen.
When she arrived, Bailee was still absentmindedly sorting vegetables.
She noticed the vegetable leaves all over the floor and the basket full of stems.
Her mouth twitched.
She walked over to Bailee and waved her hand in front of him to bring him back to reality.
He looked like his soul had left his body.
When Bailee saw her in front of him, the heavy weight in his heart suddenly lifted.
He immediately pulled her into a hug.
He had been worried and scared, and his instinct was to seek comfort.
Julie froze for a moment but didn't push him away. She patted his back to calm him.
Even though she tried to be gentle, her pats were still far from soft.
Bailee: "…"
Once he had calmed down, he gently let go of her.
She picked up the kitchen knife from the table.
With one chop, the rabbit's life came to an end.