Qin Ziqi quickly withdrew her gaze and went upstairs. She would wait until the Lu family had left before dealing with everything.
From the moment Qin Ziqi entered the house, Zhao Xinhua and Yao Zhenzhen had been holding their breath. Only when they saw her walk upstairs without looking back did they finally relax.
Qin Ziqi left her bedroom door open, and the conversations downstairs drifted up intermittently.
She took out a suitcase and slowly began packing.
She put several changes of clothes into the suitcase. The rest of her clothes were bundled together in an old bedsheet. Anything useful in the room was packed as well. She then sealed everything up and stored it in her space.
She also put a can of malted milk powder, a pound of White Rabbit candies, a pound of brown sugar, and two cans of yellow peaches into the suitcase.
She had to thank the original owner. She kept all her belongings in her own room, so Qin Ziqi didn’t need to search downstairs for anything.
Perhaps the reason was that anything left downstairs wouldn’t have remained hers for long.
Looking at the room, which was now empty except for the furniture, Qin Ziqi straightened her back and took a cup of spiritual spring water from her space.
After drinking it, all her fatigue vanished.
It was time to go downstairs and fight.
There was no sound downstairs anymore. The Lu family had probably already left.
As Qin Ziqi walked downstairs, she saw Zhao Xinhua frantically trying to hide several boxes behind the back of the sofa.
“Auntie Zhao, what are you hiding?”
“N-nothing.”
Zhao Xinhua immediately plopped herself down, forcing a stiff smile.
Qin Ziqi gave her a faint smile.
“The five boxes from my safe. Are you going to take them out yourself, or should I call the police?”
“What boxes? What does it have to do with me if you’ve lost some boxes?”
Zhao Xinhua’s body trembled, but she couldn’t admit anything.
The boxes had already been opened in front of the Lu family. If she returned them now, what would Zhenzhen have to show off at the wedding?
Yao Zheng coughed.
“Ziqi, you don’t lack these things anyway. Just give them to Zhenzhen as a wedding gift. They’re not worth much to you.”
He had intended to persuade Qin Ziqi not to make a fuss.
But to Zhao Xinhua and Yao Zhenzhen, those words only made them resent Qin Ziqi even more.
They had thrown away all their dignity to steal things from Qin Ziqi’s safe, yet in Qin Ziqi’s eyes, those items were merely worthless trinkets.
“You want me to give them to her? Why? What does her marriage have to do with me?”
Qin Ziqi’s cold tone infuriated Zhao Xinhua.
“Qin Ziqi, Zhenzhen is your sister! What’s wrong with giving her a few things? No matter what, I raised you too!”
Qin Ziqi looked straight at Zhao Xinhua with a cold, sharp gaze.
“What did you raise me with? When Auntie Qin was here, she did all the housework. It was only in these past few years that she left. I’ve supported myself with my own money. What does that have to do with you?”
Yao Zheng slammed his hand on the table.
“Qin Ziqi, don’t go too far! I’m your father. There’s no denying that I raised you, right? Can’t you show me at least a little respect?”
Qin Ziqi turned her head and looked at his hypocritical face.
“Do you have any respect from me? Have I ever spent a single cent of the money you earned? If you want your daughter to have a respectable wedding, use your own ability to provide for her.”
Yao Zheng had been the factory’s deputy director for more than ten years. His monthly salary was now around two hundred yuan.
But Zhao Xinhua and Yao Zhenzhen had gone from the countryside to the city and immediately been dazzled by the world around them. They spent money like water and dressed themselves up every day.
On top of that, Yao Zheng and Zhao Xinhua later had a son and a daughter.
There probably wasn’t much of his salary left each month.
Even if he had savings, they were probably money he’d managed to squeeze out of the original owner’s mother back when she was still alive.
“Since Zhenzhen came to our family with Auntie Zhao, I’ve naturally treated her as my own daughter, so—”
“Isn’t she your own flesh and blood anyway?”
Qin Ziqi interrupted him impatiently.
Yao Zheng froze in shock.
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
Qin Ziqi reached into her pocket—or rather, into her space—and took out the voice recorder.
Fortunately, the recorder looked very ordinary. Similar products were even sold at overseas Chinese stores in Shanghai. Of course, its internal structure and functions were vastly different, but Yao Zheng and the others wouldn’t know that.
She turned it on.
The conversation between Yao Zheng and Zhao Xinhua from the previous night immediately echoed through the living room.
Before they had even finished listening, Zhao Xinhua lunged toward Qin Ziqi, trying to snatch the recorder away.
Qin Ziqi reacted quickly, stuffing it back into her pocket, where she actually returned it to her space.
“Last night, I was thirsty and came out to get some water. I didn’t expect to hear all of that. What do you think will happen if I hand this recording over?”
She pointed at the three people across from her.
“Two people committing an illicit affair, and one illegitimate daughter. All of you could be sent down.”
Yao Zhenzhen grabbed Qin Ziqi’s sleeve.
“No! I don’t want to be an illegitimate daughter! I’ll give the things back to you. I don’t want them anymore. Just destroy this recording, okay?”
“Qin Ziqi, what exactly do you want?”
Yao Zheng was furious and humiliated, with the anger of having his deepest secret exposed burning inside him.
Qin Ziqi took out the recorder again and waved it slightly.
“If you don’t want me to expose it, that’s fine. Dad, you and I barely have any father-daughter relationship left anyway. I’ll tell you honestly: I want to get as far away from you people as possible. I’ve already registered to go to the countryside.”
“Now I need you to write a severance-of-family-relations document. Let’s end this meaningless relationship between us and live our own lives from now on. As long as you write it, I’ll throw this recorder into the stove and burn it. How about that?”
“Zheng-ge!”
“Dad!”
Zhao Xinhua and Yao Zhenzhen spoke at the same time.
“All right. I’ll write it.”
Yao Zheng knew he had no choice.
Once this matter was exposed, being sent down was inevitable, and his future would be ruined.
Even though he hated this daughter of his to the bone for showing absolutely no regard for their father-daughter relationship, he had no other option.
He went to the study, took out paper and a pen, and wrote the severance document.
Qin Ziqi looked it over. There were no problems.
Then, right in front of them, she burned the recorder.
Holding the boxes, she went upstairs, picked up her suitcase, and came back down.
The three people were still sitting blankly on the sofa.
“I’m leaving for the countryside in two days. I’ll stay at a guesthouse during these two days so I won’t have to be an eyesore to you anymore.”
“I’ve also taken all my belongings with me. Don’t even think about them.”
Carrying her suitcase, Qin Ziqi first went to the Zheng family’s home and told Shen Chunyue that she would be staying at a guesthouse.
Shen Chunyue invited her to stay with them, but Qin Ziqi refused.
She wasn’t the original Qin Ziqi, and she was worried that acting differently from the original owner might arouse suspicion.
It would be quieter at a guesthouse, and it would also be more convenient for her to buy things.
Besides, Qin Ziqi still had something important to do in the middle of the night.
There was no way she would let Yao Zheng off so easily.
Even if it was simply to avenge the original owner, that family of three had to pay the price.
As for the house, Qin Ziqi couldn’t think of a way to deal with it for now.
Even if Yao Zheng and Zhao Xinhua were sent down and Yao Zhenzhen married, the two younger children probably wouldn’t be implicated.
The house would probably remain theirs to live in.
She would see what happened later.
After arriving at the guesthouse, Qin Ziqi used her notice to go to the countryside and her introduction letter to rent a private room.
She then took out paper and a pen from her space and began writing a denunciation letter.
Her handwriting habits were different from the original owner’s.
The original owner had specifically practiced her handwriting, and Qin Ziqi could imitate that style as well.
But this was a denunciation letter.
How could she possibly use the original owner’s handwriting?
So Qin Ziqi used another handwriting style she had developed in the modern world.
Since she had taken over the original owner’s life, and the original owner had died for no apparent reason, Qin Ziqi naturally had to avenge her.
Yao Zhenzhen was marrying into the Lu family.
Then she could go with the Lu family when they were sent down.
The great Northwest was a wonderful place for that.
Two denunciation letters for the Yao family.
Two for the Lu family.
She included the Lu family for two reasons.
One was because of Yao Zhenzhen’s connection to them.
The other was that if Lu Chenghua hadn’t been fooling around with Yao Zhenzhen, the original owner wouldn’t have lost her life.
The Lu family would naturally have to pay the price as well.