“No,” Jiang Yan turned around, frowning, and asked, “I remember the second day I arrived at your house, you said you had already added my name to your household registration book. How is it that today, my sister still needs to go to the household registration office on my behalf?”
“This? That?” Liu Manli couldn’t explain and resorted to emotional blackmail. “Yanyan, your dad is the sky of our family. If the sky falls, no one will stand up for you if you’re bullied to death. When you get married in the future, your in-laws will look down on you…”
“Is that so?” Jiang Yan smiled faintly. “You were so eager to tell me my household registration was already with your family back then, weren’t you afraid I’d run away? You never registered it, weren’t you afraid of being implicated by my adoptive parents’ issues? Wouldn’t it be better to wait until I marry Section Chief Zhu and my household registration is with his family? Then you’d get benefits and avoid trouble!”
Liu Manli’s mouth opened and closed, unable to answer.
“You’re rushing to register now because you’re afraid Aunt Zhang will hold onto you because of this. If I’m not on your household registration book, I’m not your family. If I go to the countryside, Shi Hongmei will also have to go!”
Huh? Liu Manli was still in a daze. That brat was supposed to be someone who only cried when things happened. How could she suddenly become so sharp-tongued? Was she possessed by a ghost? After a long while, she said, “Yanyan, don’t be like this. Families always have minor disagreements. It’s meaningless to hold a grudge. We are a loving family that should be united and strive for progress.”
Jiang Yan chuckled, “I can not hold a grudge if…” She extended a hand in front of Liu Manli. “I need luggage, travel expenses, and living expenses for going to the countryside. If you truly consider me a loving family member, give me this amount, and I’ll go to the police station now and say what you told me to say.”
Liu Manli opened her mouth again. Wasn’t this brat a scholar who viewed money as dirt? She was actually asking for money in public? Fine, she had to do as Ronggui instructed first. Getting him out was the most important thing.
“Alright,” Liu Manli reluctantly took out a few crumpled bills from her person. “Here, five yuan. Use it sparingly.”
Jiang Yan didn’t take it. “That’s not the amount I’m talking about.”
Liu Manli was shocked: “Are you saying you want fifty yuan? Jiang Yan, don’t be so greedy!”
“I said five hundred yuan!” Jiang Yan’s lips tightened, and tears almost welled up. When her adoptive parents sent her away, they had forced three hundred yuan into her hands. Those two elders, trapped in a quagmire, clearly needed the money more! She had originally planned to send it back after arriving in Jiangcheng, but these two had tricked and robbed her.
In this life, she was determined to get it back and use it all for her adoptive parents! The other two hundred yuan would be compensation for this couple.
Liu Manli’s eyes turned into a cross-eyed stare, and her hands flapped like a duck’s as she jumped up: “Five hundred yuan? Why don’t you go rob someone? I…” Finally, her reason prevailed, and she didn’t say anything further. Liu Manli rushed out of the door like a cannonball, slamming it shut with a loud bang.
Immediately, a neighbor outside asked, “Shi family, you were shouting and slamming the door. Are you abusing that child Jiang Yan? We’re going to report you to Officer Zhang!”
“How dare I abuse her?” Liu Manli cried and yelled, “I treat her like an ancestor and worship her on the wall! If you want to report me, go ahead. Let Officer Zhang come with a rope to strangle me!”
“Jiang Yan, are you alright?” Someone knocked on the door. Jiang Yan dabbed some water on the sides of her eyes and opened the door. “Thank you, aunties and uncles, I’m fine.”
“You child, if something happens, you must call out and shout. Don’t endure it.” After the neighbors dispersed, Jiang Yan closed the door and went inside. As she passed the kitchen, she heard Shi Hongmei’s snorting laughter: “You really don’t understand your own mother. Don’t talk about you, even if Dad asked her for five hundred yuan, she’d flip out. Give up on that idea!”
Jiang Yan smiled and walked towards her small room. “Sister, you understand Mom’s temper so well. It seems you also know you won’t get money from her when you go to the countryside.”
The bowl she was washing almost fell to the ground. Shi Hongmei caught it with both hands, a cold sweat breaking out on her back. She understood. If she dared to break a bowl, that mother would make her kneel on broken bowl shards and forbid her from eating. Putting down the bowl, Shi Hongmei wiped her hands on her apron and quickly stepped forward to grab Jiang Yan’s arm: “Wait.”
Jiang Yan frowned and stopped: “What is it?”
Shi Hongmei craned her neck and looked around, then asked in a low voice, “If I give you five hundred yuan, can you register your household with our family’s book and go to the countryside?”
Her heart pounded. Jiang Yan said disdainfully, “You give me five hundred yuan? Fine, as long as you give me five hundred yuan, I’ll do as you say. But you’d better hurry. Aunt Zhang only gave me three days.”
“I’ll get the money for you,” Shi Hongmei’s eyes flickered. “Go back to your room and wait.”
“Mmm.” Jiang Yan went back to her room, closed the door, and peered through the crack. She saw Shi Hongmei first go to the window and look outside, then turn and quickly walk towards the Shi family’s master bedroom.
If she guessed correctly, this girl was going to steal her mother’s savings passbook. Very good. Jiang Yan knew that getting five hundred yuan from her stepfather and mother would be harder than pulling tusks from a dog’s mouth.
As long as her stepfather wasn’t around, she could find a breakthrough from Shi Hongmei.
But as Shi Hongmei approached the bedroom, the front door creaked open, and Liu Manli’s fierce voice came, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“I, I want to wash your old clothes!”
“Wash your ass!” The woman lunged forward with her claws, grabbing Shi Hongmei and pinching and hitting her. “You’re something that came out of my womb. I know what you’re thinking the moment you lift your butt!”
Shi Hongmei wailed, and Liu Manli cursed as she entered the bedroom. When she came out, Jiang Yan clearly saw the woman tucking the savings passbook into her clothes, and her heart sank. Shi Hongmei was right.
No matter how stupid Liu Manli was, she was extremely sensitive to money. She kept the passbook on her at all times. How could Shi Hongmei get the money to give to her? By the time Shi Ronggui was released, she would have no chance. She would have to go to the countryside empty-handed.
How could she take care of her adoptive parents?
Liu Manli, still cursing, ordered Shi Hongmei to prepare food and pack it into a thermos. She then slammed the door and left. Jiang Yan quietly slipped out. In her past life, she heard Huo Ying and his comrades say that when the enemy has no flaws, don’t rush. Observe their every move in secret, and you will eventually find a breakthrough.
The woman walked all the way to the police station. She hesitated at the entrance, turned, and walked for a long time, winding her way into a small alley.
It was already dusk. Jiang Yan watched her knock on the door of a house and enter, but she didn’t dare to get too close.
The alley was deserted and dark. If her mother lured her in to ambush her, no one would hear her even if she screamed to death. Jiang Yan was anxious when four or five little boys ran past her, cheering, and entered the alley.
They started setting off firecrackers and sparklers in front of that house. The noise and light attracted many children to watch, and with parents bringing their children, the alley suddenly became lively.
Heaven was helping her! Jiang Yan’s eyes lit up, and she hurried into the alley. She didn’t notice that not far behind her, a certain tall man stood with his arms crossed, looking at her with a scornful shake of his head, but a happy smile on his lips.
In the alley, as Jiang Yan blended into the crowd, the door opened, and Liu Manli appeared with an old woman wearing a slanted-collar jacket and a sharp-mouthed, simian-faced appearance.