I Became the Eldest Daughter of a Fallen Family - Chapter 25

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 25. A Cruel Slander
“I don’t care if you grab her wrist or not!”
Wang Chun-bae’s legs trembled slightly. Fear had clearly taken hold, yet pride kept him stubborn—he thrust his chin upward, clinging to his bluster.
But his opponent was no ordinary man. So Jin didn’t so much as blink before delivering a chilling warning.
“It seems these women have no husband present, yet you molest a married woman. That is ‘Harassment of Married Woman’—a grave crime punishable by ninety lashes.”
“What crime did I commit? Besides, my elder cousin—he’s the local official in Haenghwa-jin, you fool! What do you know?”
How true that a cheap man grows all the more indignant when corrected. Wang Chun-bae’s voice rose in outrage, each word a desperate flail.
Such brazen shamelessness was unbearable. Song could hold her tongue no longer.
“The law of the realm is set by the King, not bent to your whims! Even if your cousin were a local official, the law stands—you won’t escape the rod for this!”
The Wang clan had always lorded their connection to the district official over the villagers, speaking with arrogance at every turn.
If she could endure such injustice in silence, she would have shaved her head and entered a nunnery rather than marry.
Song planted her hands on her hips, her posture rigid with conviction.
Wang Chun-bae’s face twisted uglier still, fury rising to the crown of his head as he began to spew words better left unsaid.
“You women rolled up your sleeves and wagged your tails first—now who’s slandering whom? Frankly, you’re no virgins, yet you feign chastity! Bah! Filthy creatures!”
“Watch your mouth! Every word you speak will count against you.”
So Jin raised his voice in a manner rarely seen from him—openly menacing.
With his young daughter at his side, hearing such vile language wore thin what patience remained.
Unaware of—or indifferent to—So Jin’s torment, Wang Chun-bae grew bolder still, trusting only in his backing in Haenghwa-jin.
He went so far as to leer at So Yeon-hee, his mouth spilling filth.
“What did I say that’s wrong? Bearing a child means you rolled in the dirt with a man, didn’t it? You’ve seen it all already, yet you play the refined lady. Isn’t that amusing?”
“You swine……!”
So Jin’s teeth clenched hard.
His heart screamed to beat the man senseless on the spot, yet as a convict, he could not afford to cause trouble again.
But perhaps Wang Chun-bae mistook So Jin’s restraint for fear.
His expression turned vile as he looked between So Jin and So Yeon-hee, then broke into a leering grin.
“Speaking of which, this woman is strange to the village. She hasn’t pinned up her hair—is she a virgin? Yes?”
Wang Chun-bae reached out his hand toward So Yeon-hee.
“Yeon-hee!”
So Jin called out urgently, setting down the water jar, but the man was already within reach.
Just then.
So Yeon-hee let out a soft, derisive laugh.
One hand seized the man’s wrist with sudden force, while the other gripped his collar tight.
As her feet dug into the earth, dust billowed lightly.
Whirr—
She lowered her center of gravity and hurled him over her hip in one fluid motion.
Crash!!
Wang Chun-bae’s back slammed hard onto the dirt ground.
Before he could even process the spinning sky, So Yeon-hee wrenched his arm up behind him again.
“Agh! Aaaaagh! W-wait! Please, wait!”
Pain he’d never anticipated tore screams from Wang Chun-bae’s throat.
But So Yeon-hee showed no mercy. Instead, she kicked his ribs lightly and spoke.
“What foul business brings you here? It’s true—garbage sees only garbage. A virgin, am I? A woman? How about I make you one too? Yes? Shall I have you lose that useless little thing of yours?”
It was So Jin who found himself wordless before her relentless expertise.
He had raised his fifteen-year-old daughter as carefully as a hothouse flower, yet here she was trampling the Wang man underfoot like some street thug from the back alleys.
But as a father, how could he let pass the man who had threatened his child?
He clenched his fist and approached the writhing figure slowly.
“Step aside. I’ll handle the rest.”
Sanity returned to So Yeon-hee at last, and she broke into an awkward smile. She released the Wang man’s wrist and quickly stepped back toward Yu and Song.
“P-please, spare me! I won’t do it again! Please! I b-beg you…….”
Wang Chun-bae trembled, tears and snot streaming down his face as shame and agony consumed him.
The rage that had been boiling in So Jin moments before cooled suddenly, deflating like air from a punctured bladder.
Just then.
“Get away from my son, you criminal dog!”
Wang, the village headman, came running at a shout.
Moreover, he’d brought relatives wielding clubs and villagers in a mob, as though meaning to make an example.
“Ungrateful wretch! We took you in, criminal though you are, welcomed you as one of us, yet you repay our kindness with enmity? I’ll report you to the District Office and have you beaten! How dare you!”
At the old man’s furious cry, So Yeon-hee’s hand went to the back of her neck.
Welcomed as one of us? Who welcomed anyone?
If that were true, why was the So family confined to that cramped, ramshackle cottage on a slope, surrounded by the Bamboo Forest like a prison, when flat, open land lay unused?
The headman squeezed taxes from them while refusing them a single decent plot to farm—so So Yeon-hee’s gaze toward him could not have been colder.
How could the So family not see this injustice?
Song, naturally, and even Yu—timid as she was, never having dared speak before now—turned to resist against Wang, the headman.
“That’s not right, Headman! We So are only called villagers in name—when have we ever been treated as true members?”
“Y-yes, that’s true! You call us out to work the commons, but all the taxable fields—you seized them all, didn’t you? That’s unfair!”
It was common knowledge that the headman had long robbed incoming migrants and poor neighbors of their land to build his wealth.
Yet what villager would dare speak it aloud before the Wang family, who had held the headman’s seat for generations?
The villagers, illiterate and dependent on the headman’s aid even for simple documents, watched the So women’s outburst with deep unease.
They feared the headman might punish the entire village out of spite for this day.
The headman himself knew their hearts well, so he spoke all the more freely.
“Hmph! You should be grateful for even a broken cottage! And I’ve even allowed you to share the Well with my village all this time! Who knows—those wretches might poison it!”
Did he just say that?
So Yeon-hee’s mouth fell open.
Though she’d expected him to defend his reckless son, she’d never imagined he could spout such outright madness.
“P-poison? But we have no way to……!”
As her voice rose, So Jin’s hand quietly pressed on her shoulder.
She turned, confused by the injustice, and saw him shaking his head silently.
‘But how…… how can I bear to hear such words?’
Tears threatened to spill as So Yeon-hee bit down hard.
She glanced around, hoping someone would refute such nonsense, but the villagers looked away in shame, knowing it was false yet powerless to speak.
To live in Mangok Village was to live under the thumb of the Wang clan—there was no other choice.
In the end, So Yeon-hee and her father had to leave the Well without even approaching the Bucket.
Walking back with the empty Water Jar, she felt the whispers of the crowd pierce her back like daggers.
“……Forgive me. This father is powerless.”
“No. If I had pressed further, the villagers might have truly believed we were a threat.”
At first they would dismiss such a lie as absurd, but hear any falsehood often enough and it begins to sound plausible.
Moreover, the So family had already been oppressed by the villagers—all because they bowed to the Wang headman.
To justify their own cruelty, they might choose to believe that outlandish claim.
“I should have just endured it. What harm was a ruffian’s words? I shouldn’t have lost my temper and raised my hand…….”
If she had only held her peace then, her feelings would have been hurt, yes, but at least nothing worse would have come.
At least they would have filled one jar of water.
So Yeon-hee bowed her head and bit her lip.
Then So Jin stopped walking and spoke with finality.
“That is not true.”
“……What?”
“You did nothing wrong.”
At those brief words, So Yeon-hee’s eyes burned hot with tears.
Her chin trembled as her lips quivered, and So Jin stepped close, placing his hand gently atop her head.
“Don’t grow accustomed to insult. Never apologize for what you have not done.”
If you do, it wounds me deeply. Very deeply indeed.
Watching her father’s weary silhouette walk before her, So Yeon-hee felt her chest sink heavy with sorrow. Yet at the same moment, a fire kindled within.
‘That wretched Well…… I won’t use it again!’
So Yeon-hee turned, eyes blazing, to look down upon the village.
Then she turned away, letting her gaze lift toward the mountains.
She resolved that today would be the last she begged for a single bucket of water, watching others’ eyes.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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