“No! Shangyu, listen to me, I’m innocent!” Qi Ruobing screamed and sobbed hysterically.
Ignoring her completely, Mu Shangyu dragged her by the arm, shoved her into the car waiting outside, and drove straight to the psychiatric hospital.
Seeing this, Qi Ruobing’s parents and brothers exchanged glances and hastily ran after them. They still needed to figure out the wild man’s identity; otherwise, who would they demand money from?
Mu Zhaozhao withdrew her sly gaze and walked upstairs in high spirits, entering Mu Yunxing’s bedroom.
She looked around the room—it featured a large balcony, faced south to catch the sun, and was the absolute best bedroom in the ancestral mansion. This room had originally belonged to the original host of this body. Back when Grandfather Mu was still alive, the best of everything was reserved for her. But after she turned six, all of it was snatched away by Mu Yunxing, leaving the original host to sleep in the smallest, sunless bedroom.
Mu Zhaozhao looked cold-eyed at the items in the room; everything was high-end.
She slowly opened the jewelry box on the vanity table. Inside were dragon-and-phoenix bangles, gold necklaces, longevity lock pendants, and an astonishing number of gold pendants in various styles.
She then opened Mu Yunxing’s wardrobe and pulled out two large chests from the bottom. One was filled with dozens of jadeite bead necklaces, numerous jadeite cabochon rings, five or six diamond necklaces, and over a dozen emerald-and-diamond headpieces. The other chest contained raw jadeite boulders that hadn’t been crafted into jewelry yet; they were vividly green and worth a small fortune.
Mu Zhaozhao had guessed long ago that although Mu Shangyu wouldn’t hand over financial control to Qi Ruobing, he would never be stingy with his daughter—she was his flesh and blood, after all. On top of that, Mu Yunxing was scheming, so she undoubtedly had a massive stash of private funds.
Since all of this originally belonged to the Mu family’s estate anyway, why let outsiders profit from it?
With a wave of her arm, Mu Zhaozhao swept all the treasures in Mu Yunxing’s room into her dimensional space.
Feeling that Mu Yunxing definitely had more than just this, she continued searching the bedroom. Eventually, she tapped on the third floorboard under the bed, which emitted a hollow sound.
Mu Zhaozhao’s eyes lit up. She pulled a dagger from her space and pried open the floorboards one after another.
Sure enough, three large chests were hidden underneath. Mu Zhaozhao flipped them open—they were packed with cash, all brand-new Huaxia Banknotes. Another chest contained various ration vouchers: grain coupons, meat coupons, vegetable coupons, bicycle coupons, radio coupons, and more—everything one could possibly need.
It seemed Mu Yunxing, just as written in the book, had never intended to leave Shanghai for Hong Kong with her parents. She had even hoarded enough money and coupons to last the rest of her life.
Without a shred of hesitation, Mu Zhaozhao stashed all these riches into her space and restored the floorboards to their original state.
After stripping away Mu Yunxing’s fortune, Mu Zhaozhao headed to Qi Ruobing’s bedroom. Even if Qi Ruobing had no financial power, she bound to have saved up a modest stash.
Mu Zhaozhao searched high and low through Qi Ruobing’s room and eventually pulled a wooden box from the gap behind the wardrobe. Inside was roughly two thousand yuan in cash, two pearl necklaces, and an old-fashioned diamond ring.
This was likely her entire life savings. It seemed the Qi family had exploited her heavily over the years. Truly, evil people get plagued by evil people.
Even if it wasn’t much, Mu Zhaozhao swept it into her space without leaving behind a single cent, then returned the empty wooden box back to its place. She then casually walked out of Qi Ruobing’s room.
Having finished all this, Mu Zhaozhao checked the time and saw it was still early. She stepped out of the house and hailed a rickshaw directly to the suburban manor.
Relying on the original host’s hazy memories, she found Third Grand-Aunt’s home. The memory was vague because the original host hadn’t visited her in six or seven years.
She had heard that the old lady’s health was deteriorating, which was why over the past few years, she had relied on her servant, Liu Aying, to go to the Mu family ancestral residence to check on the original host. The old lady was hanging on to her last breath just hoping to see the original host grow up into an adult before passing away, so she could face her elder brother, Mu Yuanqiao, in the afterlife with a clear conscience.
When Mu Zhaozhao stepped inside, she caught a strong scent of traditional herbal medicine in the air.
Liu Aying was carrying a bowl of medicinal soup out from the opposite room. Seeing Mu Zhaozhao standing at the doorway, she thought her aging eyes were playing tricks on her and accidentally fumbled the bowl.
Quick-witted and agile, Mu Zhaozhao instantly reached out and caught the bowl. Though most of the soup had spilled, she handed it back to her: “Auntie Liu, I came to visit Third Grand-Aunt. How is she?”
Snapping back to reality, Liu Aying immediately beamed with a relieved smile. “Young Miss, you’re finally here! The Old Lady has been longing for you. Come in, quickly!”
As she spoke, she shouted toward the inner room, “Old Lady, look who’s here!”
Lying on the bed, Mu Lanchuan weakly lifted her head. Looking blurrily at Mu Zhaozhao’s figure, she hardly dared to believe her eyes. “Is that… Zhaozhao girl?” she asked frailness.
“It’s me, Third Grand-Aunt. I came to see you,” Mu Zhaozhao replied softly, taking large strides toward the bed.
Sitting beside the bed, she held Mu Lanchuan’s withered hand tightly in both of hers, saying apologetically, “Third Grand-Aunt, I’m sorry. I’m only coming to see you now.”
As she spoke, a mist of tears welled up in her eyes—not just because she felt empathy for the original host, but because the elderly woman before her looked exactly like her grandmother from her past life.
In her past life, her parents were police officers who sacrificed their lives catching criminals when she was very young. It was her rural grandmother who raised her and brought her up well. Two years before she transmigrated here, her grandmother had also passed away from illness, leaving her a complete orphan in that world.
She hadn’t expected to be so lucky upon coming here as to see her grandmother again.
Mu Lanchuan made a great effort to raise her other hand, gently wiping away the crystal-clear tear from the corner of Mu Zhaozhao’s eye.
“Zhaozhao, don’t cry. Third Grand-Aunt is doing just fine. I was only hoping for the day you’d come. Seeing you grown up so elegant and graceful, my heart is at peace.”
Knowing her days were numbered, being able to wait until Mu Zhaozhao came to visit made her completely content.
“Third Grand-Aunt, it was Zhaozhao who was foolish before. I was misled by Mu Shangyu’s family and refused to come see you. I thought you were teaching me bad habits when you kept telling me to watch out for them. Only now do I understand your painstaking intentions,” Mu Zhaozhao said with genuine, heartfelt emotion.
Mu Lanchuan’s eyes reddened slightly. “Now that you can see things clearly, nothing could be better. I don’t have to worry about you being deceived by them in the future anymore.”
“Zhaozhao, the Mu family’s estate was earned entirely by your grandfather. When he passed away back then, he entrusted you to Mu Shangyu and merely asked me to assist in looking after you from the side. After a few years, when I realized the wild ambitions of their family, I tried everything to drive them out of the Mu family and reclaim custody of you. But I didn’t succeed. Without any hard evidence, I simply couldn’t win against them, so I really had no way to keep you under my wing. You won’t blame Third Grand-Aunt, will you?” Mu Lanchuan explained slowly, gasping weakly for air.
Mu Zhaozhao shook her head frantically. “Third Grand-Aunt, I don’t blame you at all. It was my fault for not trusting you back then. From now on, I will be the one taking care of you.”
Mu Lanchuan suddenly coughed and said, “My time is near, there’s no need for you to take care of me. My biggest wish now is simply to see you living a good life.”
Mu Zhaozhao supported Mu Lanchuan’s back, gently patting it to help ease her breathing. “Don’t say that. You are going to live to a hundred, spending year after year by my side.”