The servants exchanged nervous glances. Hemming and hawing, they all shook their heads.
Shi Changying looked at one of the male servants. "You. Tell me."
"I... When I got up to clean this morning, I found that a few of Mr. Chengli’s books had been torn." The male servant shivered. "I swear, I didn’t see anything."
"Next," Shi Changying said coldly.
Her gaze swept over everyone present, sharp as a blade, as if it could slice open their very hearts. Panic rippled through the servants.
"I-I didn’t see anything either! I don’t know who did it, but I swear it wasn’t me!"
"Miss Changying, it wasn’t me either!"
"We all know these are Mr. Chengli’s books. How would we dare touch the masters’ belongings? Miss Changying, you have to believe us!"
The servants talked over one another, frantically shirking responsibility. They had already witnessed Shi Changying’s temper and were terrified of being implicated.
"What is all this racket so early in the morning?" Housekeeper Xu walked in from the garden. Seeing the mess on the floor, he immediately began scolding them. "Why haven’t you cleaned up this trash yet? The old master and madam will be up soon. Do you all want to pack your bags and leave—"
BANG!
Before Housekeeper Xu could finish his sentence, he was slammed against the wall, a fleeting numbness shooting down his spine. The cold fingers gripping his throat brought back the suffocating terror of that night, shrouding him in the shadow of death once more.
"A housekeeper is solely responsible for organizing and supervising all the servants in a household. They might not know, but you must." Shi Changying looked down at him. "Speak. Who did this?"
Only then did Housekeeper Xu realize that the trash on the floor was actually torn book pages. His face instantly drained of color, and cold sweat soaked his clothes. "Miss Changying, it’s my fault for not organizing Mr. Chengli’s history books in time!"
"Three. Two..." With every number Shi Changying spat out, her fingers tightened their grip.
"I’ll pull up the security footage!" Housekeeper Xu cried out, unable to breathe. "Miss Changying, there are security cameras!"
Shi Changying did not loosen her grip. "What are security cameras?"
"The c-cameras record things that happened in the past. We can use them to find out who did it," Housekeeper Xu stammered.
He merely assumed that since Shi Changying had lived in the countryside her whole life, it was completely normal for her to ask such a question.
"Sounds like a useful thing." Shi Changying released her grip, her tone freezing. "You have five minutes. If you are one second late—"
"I won’t be late!" Housekeeper Xu hurried away, sweating profusely.
Three minutes later, he returned with a tablet and respectfully offered it to her. "Miss Changying, the footage from last night to this morning is all here."
Shi Changying didn’t take it. "Play it for me."
Swallowing his resentment, Housekeeper Xu tapped on the video. The footage showed that from eleven o’clock at night to five in the morning, there was no movement in the storage room where the history books were kept. At five o’clock, the front door opened, and someone returned.
Upon seeing that familiar face, Housekeeper Xu cried out in shock, "Young Master Shuyan!"
Meng Shuyan hadn’t alerted anyone. He purposefully walked to the storage room door, casually pulled out the nearest few books, tore them to pieces bit by bit, and threw them on the ground. Afterward, he brought over the dog that Xu Shuyu kept and made it trample over the shredded paper. Having finished all this, he left whistling, his arrogance completely undisguised.
Shi Changying calmly watched the entire clip, then tucked the tablet into her backpack. Even though she didn’t know how to use this device yet, she knew she had to preserve the evidence.
Seeing her action, Housekeeper Xu’s head snapped up. "Miss Changying, Young Master Shuyan is technically your younger brother. He, he..." He wracked his brain but couldn’t come up with a single excuse for Meng Shuyan.
"Ah, a brother." Shi Changying slowly pressed her fingers against her temples, letting out an ambiguous chuckle. "Since he is a brother, he ought to be buried securely in the dirt, especially one harboring disloyal intentions."
Ming Chengli’s tearful admonitions flashed through her mind: do not kill, do not rob banks, do not rob tombs, do not break the law. Shi Changying’s gaze shifted back to the servants lined up against the wall. She uttered three simple words: "Pick it up."
Sighing in massive relief, the servants quickly gathered the torn shreds of paper, placed them in a transparent bag, and respectfully offered it to her.
After collecting all the damaged books, Shi Changying left. The fact that she didn’t do anything else actually surprised Housekeeper Xu.
A servant asked tremblingly, "Supervisor, to think it was Young Master Shuyan who did it. What... what should we do now?"
"What do you mean, what should we do? Even if she took the footage, what can she do about it? Besides, those books are already beyond repair." Housekeeper Xu rubbed his shoulder. "Now that she’s back in the Xu family, what kind of book can’t she buy? Enough, go back to whatever you were doing."
Although he said this, he still had no idea what Shi Changying might do, so he hurriedly went to tip off Xu Zhao Yu.
By the time Shi Changying arrived at the classroom for Grade 12, Class 17, there were already a few students inside. Seeing her, they all greeted her amicably. Shi Changying responded to each of them. This was like second nature to her, much like holding morning court.
"Yingying, here, eat it while it’s hot." Lu Mi, who sat at the desk in front of her, turned around and handed her a bag. She spoke conspiratorially, "This is from a savory crepe stall I’ve been eating at for eight years. The crispy cracker inside is so good. I specially bought you the deluxe version with everything on it."
Shi Changying took a bite, and the rich, savory crispness exploded on the tip of her tongue.
Lu Mi looked at her expectantly. "How is it? How is it?"
"It’s delicious." Shi Changying narrowed her eyes, looking rather satisfied.
"Of course!" Lu Mi said proudly. "If it wasn’t good, I definitely wouldn’t have gone out of my way to bring it for you."
Shi Changying asked casually, "By the way, Xiao Mi, are there security cameras in the school as well?"
"Yeah! Except for the restrooms, there are cameras everywhere. It’s to protect the students’ safety," Lu Mi said. "Once, some punks secretly climbed over the wall into the school and almost hurt someone!"
"I see." Shi Changying looked thoughtful. "Do you have a map of the school?"
Lu Mi rummaged through her backpack for a while and actually managed to fish out a map. She handed it over. "First High is pretty big. Yingying, since you just got here, don’t wander off on your own. You’ll get lost!"
Meng Shuyan and Xu Shuyu both lived at the Meng family residence. After eating breakfast, the chauffeur drove them to school.
In the car, Meng Shuyan was in a great mood, humming a tune.
Xu Shuyu frowned at him. "What’s going on? Mom just told me you tore up someone’s books? Why would you do that?"
She and Meng Shuyan were fraternal twins. Although they were brother and sister, there was no age gap between them.
"Oh, they found out? And they even went whining to Mom about it?" Meng Shuyan admitted to it without missing a beat. "That’s right, I did it. Just a few worthless, raggedy books. What can they do to me?"