Chapter 796 --796

Chapter 796: Chapter-796

But the moment his eyes landed on the tall figure standing in the dirt street, the curse died in his throat. The thugs froze, turning to follow his gaze.

Heena stood just a few paces away. Her empty hands hung loosely at her sides, completely relaxed. Her expression wasn’t twisted in rage; it was frighteningly, unnervingly calm. But her dark eyes were fixed on the men with an unmistakable, lethal chill that made the morning air feel suddenly freezing.

The three thugs instinctively took a step back, parting like the Red Sea.

Heena didn’t even spare a glance at the splintered bucket. Her gaze slowly swept over the ruined medicinal herbs in the dirt, shifted to Madam Lin’s trembling, pale face, and finally locked dead onto the Lu family servant.

A slow, terrifyingly cold smile curved the corners of Heena’s lips.

"How dare you."

Her raspy voice wasn’t loud. She didn’t yell. But the sheer, murderous weight beneath those three words was enough to make the servant’s spine stiffen in terror.

Heena took one slow, deliberate step forward, entering her own territory.

"Who," Heena asked softly, her eyes practically burning holes through the servant’s skull, "gave you permission to enter my house, and throw my family’s belongings into the street?"

The street went so quiet you could hear the morning breeze rustling the dry leaves in the dirt.

Heena stood over the kneeling thug, her iron grip unrelenting, grinding the woman’s wrist bones together until the massive enforcer was practically whimpering. But Heena didn’t look at her. Her pitch-black eyes were locked dead onto the terrified Lu servant, pinning the arrogant woman in place like a butterfly on a mounting board.

"You want to know where I got the silver?" Heena whispered, a dark, venomous smirk curving her lips.

She leaned forward just a fraction, projecting her raspy voice so that every single word struck like a physical blow in the crisp morning air.

"Go and tell her," Heena commanded smoothly, her tone dripping with absolute, unadulterated contempt. "Go back to that sprawling estate and tell the Matriarch exactly what you saw today. Tell her that unlike her, who needs to force merchants into submission, force men into her beds, and live off the political dowries of a harem... unlike her, I actually have a brain. I can do whatever the hell I want."

The Lu servant’s face completely drained of color, her jaw dropping in sheer, horrified disbelief. To speak of a noble Matriarch that way in the open street was not just scandalous—it was absolute, unforgivable blasphemy.

Heena didn’t care. Her modern, ruthless mafia edge violently shattered the aristocratic veneer of the ancient empire.

"Unlike her," Heena sneered, her voice dropping into a deadly, crude register that belonged in the bloody gutters of the underworld, not the high courts, "who needs to survive on men’s dicks to maintain her fragile power... I can survive entirely on myself."

A collective gasp echoed from the few brave neighbors peeking out from their shutters. Madam Lin, still clutching the doorframe, stared at Heena’s back with eyes wide as saucers, her hands trembling—no longer from fear, but from profound, staggering shock.

The Lu servant stepped backward, stumbling over the uneven dirt road. "You... you are a monster! You are completely insane! The Matriarch will have your head for this!"

"Let her try," Heena replied deadpan.

With a sudden, violent flick of her wrist, Heena released the pressure point and shoved the towering female thug backward. The massive woman scrambled away like a frightened dog, clutching her bruised, throbbing arm against her chest.

Heena smoothly pulled a clean white handkerchief from her pocket and began wiping her fingers, completely unbothered by the three heavily muscled enforcers standing just a few feet away. She looked at the Lu servant with the bored, empty expression of someone deciding whether or not to swat a fly.

"This apothecary is my territory now," Heena stated, tossing the soiled handkerchief onto the dirt right at the servant’s feet. "If I ever see your face, or the face of any Lu family dog on this street again, I won’t just break your wrists. I will snap your legs and drag you back to the Matriarch’s gates myself. Now get off my property."

The servant didn’t need to be told twice. Stripped of all her arrogant authority and terrified of the cold-blooded monster the "useless" Second Miss had become, she turned and bolted. The three brawny thugs scrambled right after her, completely abandoning the confrontation, leaving nothing but dust and a shattered wooden bucket in their wake.

Heena watched them until they rounded the corner and disappeared from sight.

Only when the street was completely clear did the suffocating, lethal aura finally dissipate from her shoulders. She let out a slow, steady exhale, turning around to face the entrance of her shop.

Madam Lin was still standing by the door, completely frozen amidst her scattered woven baskets and spilled herbs. The older woman looked at Heena as if she were looking at a ghost, her mouth opening and closing without a single sound coming out.

Heena casually stepped over the broken wood of the wash-bucket, her dark eyes softening just a fraction as she looked at the elderly woman.

"Are you hurt, Madam Lin?" Heena asked quietly.

"I... you..." Madam Lin stammered, pointing a trembling finger toward the street, completely unable to process what she had just witnessed. "You just... the Matriarch... you..."

"I know," Heena sighed, reaching down to calmly pick up the spilled basket of dried medicinal roots. She dusted it off and placed it gently back into the older woman’s hands. "Come inside. It’s too early in the morning to be dealing with garbage."

Before stepping over the threshold to follow Madam Lin inside, Heena paused at the doorway.

She didn’t just turn her back on the open street. Instead, she slowly turned her head, casting a lingering, deliberate glance at the small crowd of neighborhood aunties who had gathered at a safe distance to watch the spectacle.

The lethal, pitch-black coldness in Heena’s eyes hadn’t completely faded. As her gaze swept over the very same women who had been loudly mocking her lack of husbands just minutes ago, the sheer, dead-eyed calculation in her stare felt like a physical weight.

The gossiping women collectively held their breath. Several of them literally took an involuntary step backward in the dirt, their survival instincts screaming at them to run.

Seeing their sheer terror, the terrifying chill in Heena’s eyes vanished in an absolute instant.

Like flipping a switch, a bright, incredibly warm, and cheerful smile blossomed across her face. The violent syndicate boss disappeared, instantly replaced by the polite, neighborly grocery store owner.

"I’m going to have breakfast," Heena called out casually, gesturing inside as if she hadn’t just violently crippled an enforcer and committed high treason against a Matriarch. "Wanna come?"

The aunties stared at her, utterly paralyzed by the sheer, psychotic mood whiplash.

"Uh..." Auntie Guo stammered, clutching her unlit pipe to her chest as if it were a shield. "No... no. It’s okay. Some other time."

Heena let out a soft, highly convincing sigh, her bright smile faltering into a mask of polite regret.

"Oh, okay," Heena said sweetly, offering them a charming little wave. "Let’s definitely have breakfast together some other time then."

With that, she turned around, stepped inside the apothecary, and pulled the heavy wooden doors shut. Clack. The iron bolt slid firmly into place, sealing the building.

Out in the street, the morning breeze blew a stray leaf across the dirt road. For ten long, suffocating seconds, nobody moved.