“Ahhhhh! My hair!”
“Qin Mingzhi, let go! You’re going to rip my scalp off!”
Qin Mengxue was forced to lean backward at an extremely awkward angle. She was in so much pain that she didn’t dare move, tears of pain streaming down her face as she looked utterly miserable.
Seeing her daughter being bullied, Zhu Caiyan hurriedly scrambled to her feet and rushed over, intending to grab Qin Mingzhi and restrain her so Qin Mengxue could fight back.
But Zhu Caiyan had barely taken two steps toward Qin Mingzhi when Qin Mingzhi swiftly kicked the cups and teapot off the stone table.
The porcelain teacups and teapot crashed directly onto Zhu Caiyan’s knees before clattering and rolling across the ground around her feet.
It all happened too suddenly. Zhu Caiyan couldn’t stop herself in time and stepped directly onto one of the cylindrical teacups.
Her foot slipped, and her leg shot forward—
“Thud!”
She crashed heavily onto the ground, the dull impact echoing through the yard. She rolled around in pain, crying out repeatedly.
“Mom!”
Qin Mengxue was still being held by the hair, her wrist firmly gripped by Qin Mingzhi. Even the slightest turn of her head sent a sharp pain through her scalp, leaving her helpless and frantic.
“What exactly are you trying to do?! Are you really going to kick us out of the house? How can you be so heartless?!”
Qin Mingzhi sneered.
“Heartless? This is my mother’s house. I’ve already shown you two uninvited guests more than enough kindness by letting you live here for all these years. And instead of being grateful, you have the nerve to call me heartless?”
“Since that’s how you feel, then I suppose I should settle the accounts with you properly.”
“For a house in this location, even if I rented it out, the rent over all these years would have amounted to at least forty or fifty thousand yuan.”
“You want to keep living here? Fine. First, pay me all the rent you’ve owed over the past few years. Then we can discuss whether you’re allowed to continue renting it.”
“If you refuse, that’s fine too. I’ll call the police right now and settle this through legal channels.”
Zhu Caiyan lay sprawled on the ground, rolling around in pain with her brows tightly furrowed.
Qin Mengxue was completely speechless.
After all, the name on the property deed was Yan Tong’s, and the house had been her mother’s property before marriage. It had nothing to do with Qin Shaoyang.
Even as a stepmother, Zhu Caiyan had no right to occupy her stepdaughter’s house.
They had no legal ground to stand on.
The mother and daughter gritted their teeth, their eyes darting around as they desperately tried to come up with a way out.
But Qin Mingzhi had no patience left.
She suddenly yanked Qin Mengxue’s hair hard.
“Still refusing to leave? Then forget about taking your luggage. Get out. Now!”
Grabbing Qin Mengxue by the hair, Qin Mingzhi dragged her toward the door like a dead pig.
She opened the door and kicked her outside.
Qin Mengxue cried out in pain as her head slammed into the wall opposite the doorway.
Qin Mingzhi then reached out to grab Zhu Caiyan.
Seeing that she couldn’t win in a fight or an argument, Zhu Caiyan realized that if she didn’t make a decision soon, they might not even be able to keep their belongings.
She was finally frightened into submission and hurriedly stopped Qin Mingzhi.
“I’ll leave! I’ll pack my things and leave right now, okay?!”
Qin Mingzhi released her expressionlessly.
It was better if Zhu Caiyan packed everything herself. Otherwise, Qin Mingzhi would have to find someone to clean everything out and throw it away later. What a hassle.
“You have ten minutes. Anything you haven’t taken after ten minutes is staying here.”
“Ten minutes? Didn’t you say half an hour?”
Qin Mingzhi glanced at her with a faint, mocking smile.
“Then make it five minutes.”
Zhu Caiyan’s nostrils flared with anger. She gritted her teeth.
“You…”
Qin Mingzhi raised her wrist and checked her watch.
“Four minutes and fifty-seven seconds. Four minutes and fifty-six seconds…”
Zhu Caiyan had no time to argue. She stamped her foot anxiously.
“Qin Mengxue, what are you standing there for? Hurry up and pack!”
Qin Mengxue covered the side of her scalp that was practically half-bald from being yanked and rushed inside through her tears.
The mother and daughter frantically pulled out cloth bundles from the cabinets and stuffed their daily necessities inside as quickly as they could.
Qin Mingzhi sat calmly between the two rooms throughout the entire process, drinking tea while keeping a close eye on them to make sure they didn’t take anything that didn’t belong to them.
After packing her clothes, shoes, and socks, Qin Mengxue stared helplessly at her desk.
“Mom, what about my desk? You just bought this for me two years ago…”
Zhu Caiyan glanced at Qin Mingzhi, who was calmly drinking her tea, then quickly rushed into Qin Mengxue’s room and pulled her aside, whispering,
“Just pretend to be packing it. She’s only acting like this because she’s angry over that jade pendant.”
“Qin Mingzhi grew up without a father or mother. I’m the only person who’s ever treated her well. She’s so starved for affection that once she cools down in a few days, I’ll just coax her a little and say a few soft words. We’ll be able to come back and live here again.”
“For now, just take some clothes and things you need every day. She’s only putting on a tough front. She definitely won’t throw away our belongings. And even if she did, the neighbors would never let her get away with it. She’d be cursed out by everyone on the street, wouldn’t she?”
Qin Mengxue was still uncertain.
“Mom, are you sure? I have so many things…”
“Oh, relax. I know that girl better than anyone. I’ve endured all these years and treated her so well. If I didn’t have even this much confidence, wouldn’t all my effort have been for nothing?”
Qin Mengxue smiled and nodded.
“I’ll listen to you, Mom.”
“Don’t listen to her. You’d better listen to me instead.”
A ghostly voice suddenly drifted from behind them.
Every hair on Qin Mengxue’s body stood on end. Zhu Caiyan let out a terrified scream and jumped aside.
When they turned around, Qin Mingzhi was standing there with her hands behind her back. Half of her face was hidden in the sharp shadow cast by the sunlight, making even her smile look particularly sinister.
“Five minutes are up. Looks like you don’t intend to take the rest of your things.”
“Good. I gave you a chance, but you failed to use it. If you leave it behind, that means you don’t want it.”
Qin Mingzhi immediately grabbed all the clothes they had packed and threw them out the front door.
“Hey! What are you doing?!”
Qin Mengxue and Zhu Caiyan hurried outside to retrieve their belongings.
Qin Mingzhi took the opportunity to turn around and shut the door firmly.
She then climbed onto a stool, leaned over the wall, and smiled at Sister-in-Law Wang from across the way.
“Sister Wang, doesn’t your husband work at the recycling station? Could you ask him to bring a tricycle over? I want to sell some scrap.”
“What?! You wretched girl! You really dare to sell our things to the recycling station?”
“Qin Mingzhi, have you gone crazy?! These are perfectly good things! What right do you have to sell them as scrap?!”
Qin Mingzhi ignored them completely.
Seeing that Qin Mingzhi was finally standing up for herself, Sister-in-Law Wang was genuinely happy for her. She immediately agreed and turned around to call her husband.
Not long afterward, Sister-in-Law Wang’s husband arrived on a tricycle with a coworker. Under Qin Mingzhi’s instructions, they went straight into the house and began carrying everything out.
Qin Mengxue and Zhu Caiyan desperately tried to rush inside to stop them, but Sister-in-Law Wang and her high-school-aged son blocked them firmly.
“My husband is working. Why are the two of you causing trouble?”
“Exactly. Mingzhi already made it very clear. Whatever you left behind is scrap now. You chose not to take it, so who can you blame?”
As they spoke, two more neighbors who had once received help from Qin Mingzhi’s father came over to help block the women.
This time, Qin Mengxue and Zhu Caiyan were completely shut out.
They could only stand outside helplessly, watching their belongings being treated as scrap, bundled up, and carried onto the tricycle.
Their eyes turned red with rage as they screamed at the top of their lungs like madwomen.
Meanwhile, Qin Mingzhi leisurely sat beside the stone table in the courtyard, sipping her tea and humming a tune, calmly calculating everything in her mind.
In her previous life, shortly before she died, she vaguely remembered hearing something about the houses in this area being slated for demolition.
No wonder Zhu Caiyan had been so happy during that period, as if she had suddenly struck it rich.
But now that she had been given a second chance at life, Qin Mingzhi would never allow a single cent of the demolition compensation to fall into the hands of this wicked mother and daughter.
The house was hers.
And so would every penny of the demolition compensation.
No one was going to take it from her!