Hearing that Luo Xiaoxiao was going to call the police, Mai Zixuan was the first to regain her composure. She quickly shot a look at her husband, gesturing for him to hold back the grand-aunt, who was still trying to pounce forward. She then turned to Luo Xiaoxiao with an obsequious smile: “Oh my, Xiaoxiao, we’re all on the same side. Just now was purely a misunderstanding, there’s no need to call the police…”
Seeing her son getting up from the floor and attempting to charge forward to inflict harm on Luo Xiaoxiao, Mai Zixuan hurriedly yanked the spoiled child back and restrained him in front of her.
However, Li Jiahao squirmed so violently that Mai Zixuan found it exhausting to keep him under control, her smile turning somewhat hideous from the strain. “Xiaoxiao, let me introduce ourselves. I’m Ma Xiaoli’s aunt, and this is…”
Holding her swollen and aching cheek, Luo Xiaoxiao listened in cold, indifferent silence to Mai Zixuan’s flattering introductions. From the corner of her eye, she noticed that Luo Junjie had actually been fooled by this woman and had failed to make the phone call.
A surge of icy contempt washed over the depths of Luo Xiaoxiao’s eyes, making her dislike this cheap half-brother even more.
She directly pulled out her phone and dialed 110.
Mai Zixuan noticed her action immediately. Hearing her say “I want to report a crime” into the phone, she rushed forward to snatch the phone: “Don’t, Xiaoxiao! We really are family! We—we were sent by Xiaoli! Yes, Xiaoli asked us to come over and ask you for the Jade Buddha on her behalf!”
Prompted by Mai Zixuan’s hint, the grand-aunt hastily chimed in: “That’s right! You took our Xiaoli’s family heirloom Jade Buddha—hurry up and return it! How dare you call the police? You’re a villain filing a false suit first! You…”
Hearing this, Luo Xiaoxiao forcefully pushed Mai Zixuan away and spoke into her phone: “Yes, I want to report a crime. Someone has unlawfully broken into my hotel room and assaulted me…”
“Mom! Mom, stop talking nonsense!”
Mai Zixuan glared in anxious desperation, rushing forward again to snatch Luo Xiaoxiao’s phone. But this time, Luo Xiaoxiao didn’t let her succeed. She dodged Mai Zixuan and immediately ran behind her brother, blurting out a torrent of words to the person on the phone: “Help! These people suddenly burst in, and now they’re trying to grab my phone and restrain me and my brother! Police, please come save us!”
Luo Junjie finally reacted at this moment and hurriedly blocked the way in front, preventing Mai Zixuan from getting near Luo Xiaoxiao.
In fact, the commotion on their end had already disturbed the neighboring guests right from the start.
The curious onlookers saw Luo Xiaoxiao, a frail female college student covered in bloody scratch marks across her arms, with her face slapped red and swollen. At first, they thought it was someone catching a mistress. But hearing Luo Xiaoxiao crying for help behind Luo Junjie’s back, they suddenly realized this wasn’t some drama about catching a mistress, but an illegal break-in.
“There’s something off about these people! Just a moment ago, they knocked on my door too, constantly trying to enter the room to look for something!”
“Right! They knocked on my door just now as well, constantly peering inside!”
“Me too!”
Several guests exchanged information and reconfirmed that the grand-aunt’s family was up to no good.
Someone called hotel room service, and before long, rapid footsteps approached from afar. Several uniformed security guards rushed over, swarming in and cleanly pinning arms behind backs, restraining the shouting grand-aunt and her family.
Mai Zixuan’s face turned pale with anxiety, opening her mouth to offer an explanation: “Misunderstanding! It’s all a misunderstanding! We are…”
Mai Zixuan genuinely intended to clarify matters, but before she could finish her sentence, her words were completely drowned out by the grand-aunt’s pig-slaughtering wails.
“Ouch! Bullying people! How unjust! Are you security guards blind? How dare you touch an old woman like me! I curse your ancestors for eighteen generations…”
The grand-aunt was merely an uneducated, law-ignorant, and greedy old woman. Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, she simply plopped down on the ground and wailed hysterically.
She opened her mouth to accuse the hotel security of bullying, spouting foul and filthy language. The moment she spoke, she cursed people’s ancestors for eighteen generations, blurting out obscene references to body parts, cursing in an exceptionally dirty manner.
The hotel staff’s faces darkened completely. Coupled with testimonials from other guests proving that this family had been knocking on doors and attempting to break into other people’s rooms, their misdeeds were thoroughly confirmed.
By the time the auxiliary police officers arrived at the scene, under Luo Xiaoxiao’s insistence that she “didn’t know these people at all,” along with the testimonies of multiple guests and hotel surveillance footage as supporting evidence, the grand-aunt’s family was left speechless and could only enjoy a complimentary trip to the police station.
Having vented this burst of resentment, Luo Xiaoxiao didn’t feel relieved in the slightest—she still had to clutch the police report receipt and go to the hospital for an injury assessment and record filing.
The hospital was overflowing with people, with queues winding like long snakes. The noisy voices, children’s crying, and the ticking sounds of instruments blended together, making one’s temples throb painfully.
Luo Xiaoxiao clutched the crumpled test sheet. Remembering that the family had mentioned the “Jade Buddha” earlier, she felt an inexplicably intense irritation in her heart—how could they ask her for the Jade Buddha? Could it be that they also knew about the hidden secret within Ma Xiaoli’s Jade Buddha and were trying to seize it for themselves?
However, although she wanted to trick Ma Xiaoli out of the Jade Buddha, she hadn’t executed the plan yet!
It was all her fault for selecting the wrong timing for her rebirth!
If the anchor point of her rebirth had been right beside Ma Xiaoli, she definitely would have tricked Ma Xiaoli out of the Jade Buddha at the very first moment. Yet, she had been reborn right when she was settling Luo Junjie at the hotel. She had intended to stockpile some supplies first before returning to the dormitory in the evening to find Ma Xiaoli. As a result, her order was actually picked up by Ma Xiaoli…
Thinking back to how she had called Ma Xiaoli earlier only to be rejected, and how her subsequent WeChat messages had consistently gone unanswered, Luo Xiaoxiao grew increasingly agitated the more she thought about it.
Her eyes fell resentfully upon this cheap “brother” of hers. Seeing him playing video games with a heartless, carefree attitude, her anger flared uncontrollably!
“When you were outside receiving the oil and rice, did Ma Xiaoli really not know you were my brother? Before she called me, did she really not recognize me?” She turned her head and glared at Luo Junjie, who was playing with his phone beside her, her tone filled with deflected rage.
Without even raising his head, Luo Junjie tapped rapidly on the screen. Hearing her words, he let out a sneer, shoved his phone back into his pocket, and rolled his eyes: “How many times have you asked! The answer is no, no, no! Who knew that delivery runner was actually your roommate! F***, I didn’t even say a single extra word to her!”
He paused, looking Luo Xiaoxiao up and down at her heavily swollen cheek, his eyes carrying uninhibited contempt.
An older sister was merely a money-losing proposition, a stepping stone for him.
His parents had said that when his sister got married in the future, not a single penny of her dowry could be missing—every bit of it had to be saved for him to build a house and marry a wife: “Sister! Today I helped you move things first and then got blocked and harassed by people. Right now my whole body hurts down to the bones! Give me some money, I’m going to a foot bath! On the way over, I saw a foot massage parlor!”
“If you want to go to a foot bath, use your own money. I don’t have any money!”
“Tsk, you clearly took a rich second-generation guy as a boyfriend. If you don’t have money, why don’t you ask him for it?”
Luo Xiaoxiao was too lazy to pay attention to him. She pulled out her phone to contact Ma Xiaoli once again.
The call went through very quickly. Before the person on the other end could speak, Luo Xiaoxiao opened her mouth and began sobbing pitifully: “Xiaoli, I’m so scared… Can you come keep me company…”