"You traitor! You womanizer! Wasn't everything you did enough?!"
Mǐ Yuè shouted angrily as she pointed a finger at Jian Long.
"And what's this?! Have you brought another woman with you too, you scoundrel?!"
Because of the dim lighting, combined with Jian Long's long silver hair and the slender frame of his still-growing teenage body, Mǐ Yuè mistook him for a girl.
As for Jian Long, the moment he realized that the "girl" she was referring to was him, he froze on the spot.
The shock was written all over his face, as though his mind refused to process what he had just heard.
At the same time, Zhou Quan quickly raised both hands, trying to calm the situation.
"Please, calm down... my dear..."
The instant those words left his mouth, Mǐ Yuè's anger flared up even further.
"Don't call me 'my dear'!"
She shot him a sharp glare.
"We broke up a long time ago."
Taking a deep breath, she continued even more furiously,
"And don't think I've forgotten about the debt you left me with before you ran away, you shameless swindler!"
Zhou Quan spread his arms as though trying to embrace her from a distance and said apologetically,
"Please... forgive me, my dear. I was wrong, and I'll make it up to you. I promise."
His apology was answered by a wind blade that shot toward him with a wave of Mǐ Yuè's hand. It nearly split him in half, but he narrowly dodged it at the last moment.
"I told you, don't call me 'my dear'!"
Zhou Quan glanced back at where the wind blade had landed. It had sliced open the cloth curtain that served as the kitchen's right wall. He then turned back to her and shouted angrily,
"You whore ! You almost killed me! That's exactly why I left you crazy woman!"
Mǐ Yuè's anger flared even higher.
"Hah! So you've finally shown your true colors, you shameless womanizer! Take this too!"
She swung her hand again, launching a second wind blade.
"Stop it, you lunatic!"
The shouting and fighting quickly attracted everyone's attention. People gathered outside the kitchen, peering through the tear the wind blade had cut into the curtain.
One of the onlookers laughed and remarked sarcastically, assuming they were a married couple.
"Looks like someone didn't satisfy his wife in bed last night."
Another glanced at Jian Long, who was standing there completely frustrated, and said sympathetically,
"What a poor child... I'm afraid his parents are about to get divorced, leaving him all alone."
At that moment, a pained cry rang out from the crowd as someone looked at the pot of food whose meat had been scattered across the ground.
"Oh, heavens! Mǐ Yuè, what have you done to our lunch?!"
Before he could finish speaking, another man shouted,
"The biggest piece of meat is mine!"
He threw himself onto the ground, and in an instant the crowd began shoving and fighting over the scattered food.
Amid the chaos, the old Lady Nian slowly made her way over.
"Mǐ Yuè... Zhou Quan... why are you two fighting?"
One of the bystanders quickly corrected her, as she was looking in the exact opposite direction.
"Lady, they're over there... not here."
Only then did Zhou Quan realize that a large crowd had gathered around them. He immediately cried out,
"Everyone! Grab this crazy woman and tie her up! She's trying to kill me!"
Mǐ Yuè glared at him, her eyes blazing with fury.
"I'm the crazy one?! You shameless womanizer! Is there even a single woman left in this city that you haven't chased after?! Is there a single brothel you haven't visited?! You squandered all of our money!"
Then she burst into tears.
Zhou Quan let out a helpless sigh and shook his head.
"There she goes crying again. You can't say two words to them without them bursting into tears and screaming... and then they blame men for spending time with other women."
The moment he finished speaking, one of the men in the crowd shouted enthusiastically,
"Well said!"
In the very next moment, his wife smacked him hard across the back of the head, instantly silencing him.
The moment Zhou Quan finished speaking, Mǐ Yuè lunged at him in a fit of rage. She tackled him to the ground in an instant, straddled him, and wrapped her hand tightly around his throat, trying to choke him.
Had he been an ordinary man, his neck would have been crushed under the immense strength of her grip.
But Zhou Quan was no ordinary man. Taking advantage of the brief opening in her balance, he grabbed hold of her, twisted his body, flipped her onto the ground, and pinned both of her wrists above her head.
It seemed that her last attack had finally brought him back to his senses.
Looking at her seriously, he said,
"Mǐ Yuè, stop this at once. I didn't come here to fight with you."
His tone softened.
"I came here to talk."
He let out a sigh before continuing,
"I'm sorry... and I want to make it up to you. Just listen to me, and trust me this once."
Mǐ Yuè stared silently into his blue eyes.
Several seconds passed without either of them saying a word.
Finally, she replied coldly,
"Fine... I'll listen."
Then she added sharply,
"Now get your hands off me."
Believing the situation had calmed down, Zhou Quan loosened his grip and released her wrists.
But the very moment he lowered his guard, she drove her foot into his stomach with all her strength.
Zhou Quan shot through the air like a projectile, slammed into the wall behind him, and smashed straight through it.
Mǐ Yuè stood up, brushed the dust from her clothes, and said as though nothing had happened,
"Come."
"Let's go somewhere more private to talk."
"Crazy woman..."
Zhou Quan muttered as he lay sprawled among the rubble of the shattered wall.
He then turned toward Jian Long.
"Come on, let's follow her."
But Jian Long wasn't listening to him at all.
Throughout the entire exchange, he had been standing in front of a mirror hanging on one of the kitchen walls, quietly studying his own reflection.
Only then did he turn toward Zhou Quan and ask with complete seriousness,
"Do you think long hair really makes me look that much like a girl?"
He paused for a moment, gently touching his silver hair before adding,
"...Maybe I should cut it."