When Gu Qingjiao woke up, the news that “The Second Young Master passionately kissed his fiancée late at night” had already spread throughout Nanzhuang. Not only did the servants and bodyguards know about it, but even the relatives who had come from Beizhuang were fully aware.
When the aunts looked at those photos of the Second Young Master pinning Gu Qingjiao against a chair and lowering his head to do who knows what, their hearts shattered.
[Such a little fox spirit! It looks like everyone was right earlier, she really knows how to put on an act!]
[Pretending to collect red envelopes is one thing, but to toy with our emotions too? The Second Young Master must have been tricked by her as well!]
[It is just like the time Shen Kewen seduced the head of the Shi family. Her whole family is a bunch of vixens.]
[If we do not teach her a lesson today, she will never know what wealthy family rules are!]
[Sis, tell us, how should we deal with her?]
System: [Host, this is the third time they have cursed you.]
Gu Qingjiao sat in front of a small square table, meticulously applying her nail polish. “I know.”
System: [Should we blow up their group chat?]
“Why blow up the group? The chat is innocent.”
System: [Ah? Then what?]
“Blow up the people instead.”
System: [Host is mighty!]
Ten minutes later, a knock sounded at the door.
Gu Qingjiao opened it and found herself face-to-face with a smile so eerie it looked like the left and right halves of the face belonged to different dimensions.
Because of this, Gu Qingjiao specifically pinged the system: Excuse me, are all the villains in books this caricatured?
System: [Some are not so caricatured, like Shi Lijin, as long as he does not open his mouth, no one would know he is a villain.]
The person knocking was a servant specifically assigned to look after the Beizhuang relatives. She said the elders wanted to invite Miss Gu to watch a movie together on the basement floor. Because this minor character was truly too caricatured, Gu Qingjiao could not help teasing her a bit.
Gu Qingjiao stared into her eyes and asked with lively interest, “What kind of movie is it? Is it good?”
The servant was suddenly hooked by that pair of expressive eyes, and two blushes gradually surfaced on her cheeks. Stammering slightly, she said, “It seems to be a documentary.”
“Huh? So they like documentaries?”
The servant shyly lowered her head, the eerie vibe on her face already dissipating. “Yeah, for the first ten minutes.”
“What about the first ten minutes?”
Gu Qingjiao tilted her head to catch her expression, but the more she looked, the more the girl dodged. Finally, the young woman turned around entirely, pressed her lips together, and said, “They said, they will play a documentary for ten minutes, and then…”
“Then what about after ten minutes? What happens after that?” Gu Qingjiao asked, blinking.
“Ten minutes later.” The servant grew flustered.
Gu Qingjiao got carried away teasing her and finally reached out to poke the girl’s pink little cheek. That poke seemed to hit a switch on the young girl; she abruptly raised her head and blurted out to Gu Qingjiao, “Forget it! Miss Gu, you should not go! What is so great about a documentary? Is it not better to just sleep in your room?”
With that, the young girl ran off with a burning face.
Gu Qingjiao: ?
At this moment, the system’s applause sounded: [Not bad, Host, slaying across all genders, but do not play too wild.]
Gu Qingjiao shrugged and tucked the bottle of nail polish into her pocket. “I was not doing it on purpose.”
Although the servant had hinted that she should not go and meet the relatives, Gu Qingjiao went anyway. There was no help for it; if she did not show up, she would be considered ignorant of wealthy family rules and gossiped about in the group chat by everyone.
Since that was the case, she would let those aunties and great-aunts know exactly which rules she understood in this lifetime.
The basement floor primarily consisted of several large entertainment rooms, with the home theater located at the very back of the entryway.
As soon as Gu Qingjiao walked in, she saw two rows of leather sofas capable of holding twenty people. The environment was extremely quiet, decorated with top-tier sound-absorbing walls and a dreamy deep-blue starry ceiling.
When the aunts arrived together, they discovered Gu Qingjiao had already arrived.
Exchanging glances, they decided one person would handle the screening while the rest sat around Gu Qingjiao.
“Miss Gu, we have all heard about you and the Second Young Master. Since things are like this, we are family from now on, so we should get along well. This documentary is about restoring ancient books. Um, can you understand it?” The second grand-aunt sitting beside her asked with a smile.
Gu Qingjiao twitched her lips into a smile. “I do not understand it at all. Guess I will leave.”
“Hey, no!” The woman hurriedly grabbed her. “Even though the beginning of this documentary is a bit boring, the back half is exciting! Watching more of this can improve your knowledge and bring honor to the Gu family. Wait here, I will go get you two packs of snacks and we can watch slowly.”
Three minutes into the movie, Gu Qingjiao was watching half-asleep, unaware that several gazes were already drifting toward her from nearby.
Five minutes into the movie, Gu Qingjiao opened her phone and intermittently looked at something, gradually arousing the aunts’ curiosity.
Eight minutes into the movie, Gu Qingjiao could not hold on much longer. She leaned against the sofa and slightly closed her eyes while her phone screen happened to stay lit. The woman beside her quietly leaned her head over to take a look and discovered she was actually reading a romance novel!
The woman exchanged a look with her other sisters, then softly whispered in Gu Qingjiao’s ear, “Miss Gu, I am going to the restroom.”
Gu Qingjiao supported her temple with one hand and nodded slightly, seeming already half-asleep from weariness.
The woman smiled bizarrely. Instead of going to any restroom, she walked straight into the adjacent projection room.
She asked her companion operating in front of the computer, “How is it? Is the time set?”
“Did you even need to ask? It has been done long ago. In three minutes, it will switch to a horror movie. Just wait.”
The woman nodded in satisfaction. “This is just a small lesson. Let us see how she puts on airs from now on.”
Following that, the woman took out her phone and sent a message to the group chat:
[Almost time. You guys head out one by one now, make sure not to let her suspect anything.]
[OK, just teach her a lesson and do not lock her in too long. It will be bad if the Second Young Master finds out.]
[Would the Second Young Master care about her? I heard he even refused to sign the marriage agreement.]
[Hurry up and leave. The horror movie I picked is top-tier foreign stuff; it can scare a tough girl to tears.]
Gu Qingjiao still looked listless.
On screen, three veteran masters were repairing an ancient book while a deliberate, slow-paced baritone voice resonated through the speakers, the rhythm sounding somewhat like a junior high school history teacher.
Not long after, two aunts sitting nearby left together, not forgetting to explain to her, “We are going to use the restroom too, haha.”
Gu Qingjiao smiled without a word.
A little while later, the aunts in the back row left one after another.
Soon, Gu Qingjiao was the only one left in the small theater.
They had all gathered in the projection room, just waiting for the good show to begin.
The documentary happened to hit the ten-minute mark when suddenly, the sound in the speakers cut off abruptly, and the screen went completely black!
“Here it comes! The good show begins!”
“Let us see how this little vixen puts on airs after this. Scaring her half to death!”
“Remember to lock the door tight and lock her up for eight hours. Let us see if she behaves after that.”
The projector’s indicator light flashed on, and a pink beam of light finally projected into the center of the dark theater. When images finally appeared on the screen, the women’s hearts beat wildly, their expressions filled with eager anticipation.
A delightfully pleasant character voice rang out loudly in the surround sound speakers:
[I am Peppa Pig!]
The aunts: ?
[This is my little brother, George.]
The aunts: ??
[This is Mummy Pig.]
The aunts: ???
What is going on?!
Wasn’t this supposed to be a horror movie? How did it turn into a cartoon? Huh?
The aunts’ faces were covered in varying degrees of shock.
In contrast, seeing pink Peppa, Gu Qingjiao instantly perked right up. Her back stopped aching, her legs stopped hurting, and she watched with absolute relish!
The women in the projection room looked at each other in dismay, their complexions instantly stiffening like a stack of pancakes. Red Sister, who was in charge of the screening, hurriedly clicked on the computer playlist and found that the movie title indeed read Dismemberment Horror, but the runtime, why was it only five minutes?
Red Sister hurriedly explained, “It is fine, something must have gone wrong somewhere. Let us go back in and wait a few more minutes. This time I will use a USB flash drive with an automatic timer playback, it definitely will not go wrong again.”
With their plan suddenly collapsed, they had no choice but to re-enter the theater, find their seats, and continue putting on an act.
Gu Qingjiao was watching with great enthusiasm and did not pay much attention to their movements.
The second grand-aunt beside her leaned her head over again and said with feigned surprise, “Strange, how did it turn into a cartoon?”
Gu Qingjiao secretly sneered to herself, thinking these people were truly sickening to the core.
Fortunately, she had learned of their scheme through the system beforehand, so she had entered the theater early, replaced Dismemberment Horror with Peppa Pig, and conveniently changed the movie title as well. Otherwise, she would have been played for a fool by this group of old schemers today.
Gu Qingjiao pulled out a wet wipe to clean her hands and replied nonchalantly, “It is pretty good. Purifies the soul.”
“Right, some people just need a bit of soul-purifying so they stop learning those vixenish tricks to seduce men around the house,” the woman said meaningfully.
Gu Qingjiao’s gaze froze slightly, but she quickly returned to calm.
“I am going to the restroom.”
Since the lid was already half-open, how could the woman easily let her walk away? Furthermore, seeing that the cartoon was about to end and an even more exciting scene was waiting for her next, she absolutely could not let her run off.
The woman stood up as well and signaled the rest of the veteran sisters, meaning to surround Gu Qingjiao. However, the exact moment they stood up, they suddenly felt a sticky sensation behind their pants, and everyone grew nervous, what is this?!
Someone deliberately reached out to touch it, then brought it to the tip of her nose to sniff carefully, catching the pungent smell of nail polish.
Nail polish?
No one wanted anyone else to discover such a humiliating incident that ruined their dignity, so they quickly swept their eyes across the other sisters’ states in the dim light.
Seeing everyone else maintaining calm expressions, each assumed that only her own backside had gotten stained with nail polish, so one after another, they silently sat back down.
They could only watch helplessly as Gu Qingjiao left.
“Forget it, we will wait for her to come back.”
The second grand-aunt tied her outer garment around her waist, acting completely unfazed on the surface, but she was already biting her teeth down hard. She guessed this matter must have been Gu Qingjiao’s doing, because when everyone went to the projection room just now, she was the only one left in the theater!
The woman immediately took out her phone, found her chat window with Shen Kewen, and typed out a line of text: [Cousin-in-law, your niece’s methods are so venomous.]
The moment this text was sent out, she heard a bang from outside. It sounded like the sound of a door locking.
Everyone panicked. At this point, nobody cared about face anymore; they all stood up and rushed toward the door.
However, the theater door refused to open no matter what.
Gu Qingjiao had actually locked it from the outside!
Just then, the cartoon finished playing, and the entire theater suddenly plunged into darkness. Everyone present knew what was coming next, and their inner panic escalated. They hammered on the door like they were running for their lives and screamed outward.
The projector lit up once more, and the new movie was about to play.
Inside the quiet, enclosed theater, a low and eerie opening theme song played in surround sound.
As the final sound effect faded, four thrilling characters slowly emerged in the center of the screen: Dismemberment Horror.
“Ah!”
“No! No! I do not want to watch, turn it off quickly!”
“How terrifying! Gu Qingjiao, you thousand-mercy-damned wretch, hurry up and open the door for us!”
Having no acquaintances in Nanzhuang, they tossed and turned before finally managing to contact Shi Lijin.
The order went: first crying, then filing a complaint, and finally screaming insults at that Gu Qingjiao over the phone, calling her ruthless and vicious.
Shi Lijin hung up the phone and brought Jason down to the basement floor.
Outside the theater, Gu Qingjiao sat calmly on the steps. Looking up and seeing Shi Lijin, she pointed at the door behind her and said in a gentle tone, “Sorry, I locked them all inside.”
Shi Lijin merely glanced at the heavy door without saying a word.
He and Jason walked into the projection room and looked at everything inside the theater through the small window.
A particularly bloody horror movie was playing on the screen, while the women watching it covered their ears and closed their eyes tightly as they squatted on the ground, huddled in groups of three or five in sheer terror.
Seeing that his face remained completely ripple-free, Jason did not dare to act on his own accord and instead asked first, “Second Young Master, should we open the door for them?”
Shi Lijin did not answer.
He was wondering about Gu Qingjiao, who sat outside the door. Since she had already locked everyone up, why didn’t she just go back inside instead of deliberately staying at the door waiting for him to arrive?
Jason waited for a long time without receiving a reply. He knew he should not keep asking, but those women inside were crying so horribly it sounded like banshees, making an unbearable racket. Swallowing hard after multiple hesitations, he said, “Second Young Master, those women from Beizhuang are howling worse than ghosts, it is so noisy.”
Shi Lijin lowered his gaze to rub his wrist, showing no reaction to those ghostly howls.
“Let them calm down for a bit first.” Shi Lijin turned off the computer and walked out of the projection room.
Instead of opening the theater door, he walked straight up to Gu Qingjiao and asked her, “Why did you lock people up?”
Gu Qingjiao answered quite naturally, “They cursed me and played a horror movie for me. I did not like it, so I locked them in.”
“Then why are you still sitting here instead of going back to hide?”
“Waiting for you to come discipline me,” Gu Qingjiao explained. “I showed disrespect to my elders and do not understand wealthy family rules. Locking up the elders is such a huge offense. Plus, listen to how miserably they are crying; once they come out, they will probably want to kill me to vent their anger, so I am waiting right here just in case you guys did not want to make an extra trip.”
Shi Lijin froze for a moment, then looked at her with a complex gaze. “You think things through pretty thoroughly.”
“Of course, otherwise how would I end up paired with you?”
Shi Lijin gave a faint smile, turned around, and said to Jason, “Let them out.”
Jason paused for a second. “Huh?”
Let them out? Wouldn’t Gu Qingjiao be in deep trouble then?
Knowing the current state of those people inside, they were basically rabid dogs.