“What are you trying to do?” Li Weimian frowned deeply as she looked at Wu Hongfei. How dare a cripple come to the Lu residence and act so boldly?
Wu Hongfei didn’t even spare Li Weimian a glance. He simply stood there quietly, waiting for Lu Shiman to appear.
She was nothing more than a nanny’s daughter. Whatever the хозяин family decided to do had nothing to do with her.
“You’re here so early—then hurry up and replace everything. Don’t waste time.”
“Move quickly. Don’t delay my important business.”
Behind Wu Hongfei, the second-hand tables and chairs looked exactly as she had imagined. They weren’t broken, but they were covered in dents and pits. Inside those pits seemed to be layers of black grime, making them look rather disgusting.
Disdain flickered in her eyes, yet there was also a hint of satisfaction. That contradictory look didn’t escape Wu Hongfei’s notice and only made him more curious about what had happened to the young miss.
“Understood, Young Miss,” Wu Hongfei said, clapping his hands. The group of half-grown boys behind him stepped forward, waiting for Lu Shiman’s instructions.
“Move out all the furniture and decorations in the house. Not a single piece is to be left behind,” Lu Shiman said. Judging by how they were dressed, she could tell these boys were probably kids from that alley—perhaps more children who had once benefited from the Lu family.
Their eyes were clean and honest. Faced with this luxurious house, there wasn’t a trace of greed in them. Still, the way they clutched at the corners of their clothes betrayed their nervousness.
“Get started. Try to finish early,” she added, her tone softening a little. She wasn’t the kind of truly outrageous drama queen the original owner had been.
With Lu Shiman’s order, they moved swiftly. In the blink of an eye, the huanghuali table and chairs in the main hall were carried out one by one.
Li Weimian stood there dumbfounded. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief, then looked at Lu Shiman, who was standing to the side, casually playing with her nails.
“Sister Manman, what are you doing? The house is practically being emptied!”
“If the master finds out, he’ll beat you to death. Don’t be stupid.”
Her heart was bleeding. Every item in the Lu family home was a精品—top quality. Even these tables and chairs that looked ordinary could probably sell for dozens of yuan if taken out. And she was just letting them be carried away?
Did she even have her father in her eyes? Was her brain full of mush?
“You’re not allowed to move anything!” Li Weimian stepped forward and blocked the boy who was about to carry away the next chair, her tone fierce. “The master hasn’t said anything—none of you are allowed to touch a thing!”
Lu Shiman let out a soft laugh. She walked over, gave the boy a look to signal him to step aside, then stood in front of Li Weimian.
With her arms crossed, she cast her a casual glance, then raised her hand and slapped her across the face.
The crisp sound of the slap brought everyone to a halt. All eyes turned to Lu Shiman.
“What do you think you are?” she said coolly. “This is my home. I can do whatever I want.”
“You’re nothing but a nanny’s daughter. Anyone who didn’t know better would think you were the mistress of the Lu family! If this were ancient times, you would have been sold off long ago. You’re only lucky you were born in the new era.”
“My things are not for you to lay a finger on. Remember your place.”
Her tone was neither angry nor agitated, as if she were stating the most ordinary of facts. That haughty demeanor made tears stream uncontrollably down Li Weimian’s face.
Why was it that they were both their father’s children, yet Lu Shiman lived like a proud princess while she herself was like rotten mud in the fields?
Biting her lip, she cried softly, looking exactly like the delicate, resilient white-lotus heroine from novels. If a man had been standing opposite her, he would surely have felt pity—but the one in front of her was Lu Shiman.
Lu Shiman didn’t even lift her eyelids. “If you want to cry, get out and cry. Don’t cry away the Lu family’s good fortune.”
That was the last straw for Li Weimian. She turned and ran out, breaking into loud sobs. Before, she had thought her father’s plans were somewhat cruel to her; now she felt that Lu Shiman deserved it. A high-and-mighty young miss like her was nothing but a remnant of capitalism and ought to be sent to the northwest for labor reform, to learn that this society belonged to the working people.
Just nine more days. Nine days, and this proud golden phoenix would become the lowest of the low—cleaning latrines, living in cowsheds, doing all kinds of filthy work.
Endless vicious curses grew in her heart, abuse pouring forth without end.
“Ignore her. Keep moving,” Lu Shiman said calmly. As they continued working, she went upstairs and began by clearing out her own room.
Meanwhile, Xiang Hongmei was frantic. She hurried out to bring Li Shichuan back to put a stop to all this.
With the mother and daughter gone, only Lu Shiman and the movers were left in the vast mansion. This gave her the perfect opportunity. Amid the chaos of furniture being moved, she took advantage of the confusion to empty all the valuables from the upstairs guest rooms. As for Li Shichuan’s room and the mother-daughter pair’s rooms, she tossed all their belongings onto the floor at will and had the beds and furniture carried out as well.
After finishing with the guest rooms, she went to the study. She first cleared out all the valuable ornaments, then opened the safe. She didn’t touch the contents inside for now, but after rummaging through it, she found the household registration book.
To her pleasant surprise, besides Li Shichuan’s hukou booklet, Xiang Hongmei and her daughter’s were there as well. She didn’t need to waste time searching for them later.
She put both household registration books into her space, then looked at the bare study—nothing left but a desk and cabinets—and nodded in satisfaction. If she weren’t worried about alerting the enemy, she wouldn’t have let even the study off.
Wu Hongfei had brought plenty of people, and with Lu Shiman also having taken away some of the items herself, the enormous mansion was cleared out in just two hours.
Truck after truck of furniture was hauled away. Leaning against the wall, Lu Shiman looked at the now-empty house and felt an inexplicable sense of emptiness herself. But when she thought about these things being taken advantage of by others, she felt even worse.
“Move the furniture you bought inside,” she said. Looking at the shabby pieces, she felt a little uneasy. Just visiting the alley yesterday had made her itch all over. If she really used these things, would she end up in the hospital with allergies?
Thinking that, she stepped a little farther back. Seeing how disgusted she looked, Wu Hongfei was even more baffled.
He really couldn’t tell whether the young miss’s way of thinking was simply different from ordinary people’s—it was always so unusually peculiar.
The furniture was being moved in when Li Shichuan rushed back in a hurry. When he saw the mansion looking as if it had been looted, he nearly fainted on the spot.
“You unfilial wretch! What are you doing now? Was taking all that money yesterday still not enough?” he roared.
He really wanted to go over and slap her twice, but with so many people present, and for the sake of his image as a loving father, he couldn’t do anything.
Lu Shiman looked at him, reached out, and pinched herself hard. The pain made tears well up instantly.
“I did this for our own good,” she sobbed. “I… I heard yesterday that they’re planning to liquidate us. Aren’t all these things in our house just obvious targets?”
“Poor peasants don’t own furniture like this. For our sake, I had no choice but to throw it all out.”
“I even had people find some broken-down furniture to replace it. Dad, don’t you think I’m very smart?”