Qiao Qingqing still didn’t feel any sense of relief.
“After taking over the business, you spent day after day scheming and striving, full of grand ambitions, yet every time ended in losses and frustration. Where did your capital even come from? If it weren’t for the gold bars my parents gave, would you even have today?”
“My mother has spent years saying I came into your family with nothing, no dowry, empty-handed—shamelessly opening doors for the shameless. And you, always grumbling about small businesses being troublesome and unprofitable, envious of others buying apartments and cars, dreaming sky-high but without the ability to achieve anything—yet you still rely on me running a small pharmacy, year after year building a reputation, to finally open the first small pharmaceutical factory. Then you complained that the nanny didn’t take care of your father well enough, so I returned home. So again, what gives you the face to say you ‘raised me’?”
“One year, I saw my mother’s dowry furniture in a photo of you and a Hong Kong businessman. When I asked you about it, you initially denied it. It was only after I pressed that you admitted my mother had secretly entrusted the items to you and that you sold them to give me a better life. But how could that be? How could she have managed to hand over such large furniture to you at that time?”
“And your cousin was a cadre in the Revolutionary Committee, so even if you weren’t directly involved in raiding houses, you still ended up sharing in the spoils. I always found that suspicious, waking in the middle of the night from nightmares. But I never dared to imagine someone could be so vile, so wicked.”
Lin Chaohai, still in pain and drenched in sweat, leaned back and argued, “How is the pharmacy entirely your achievement? The prescriptions were mine, the medical books were mine. Without me, what could you have accomplished? You married me and became part of the Lin family—taking care of the elders and children is your duty! So why shouldn’t the things you have also be mine?”
Qiao Qingqing glared at him coldly.
Suddenly, she understood. With a man this selfish, no matter what you say, he won’t listen. He will live by his own twisted logic.
Arguing is a waste of time. When you try to expose his shamelessness and hypocrisy, he doesn’t care. Only by taking away what he values most can you make him truly feel pain.
So Qiao Qingqing stopped arguing and asked simply, “Where does Xu Peiling live?”
“Are you going to see her?” Lin Chaohai hesitated for a moment, then said, “I can tell you where she lives, but she’s visiting Xiao Xuan these past two days. She’s not home, so you won’t find her. Don’t say I lied.”
Qiao Qingqing raised her hand and slapped him across the face again. “Enough talk.”
Suppressing his anger, Lin Chaohai gave her the address.
He was tied up at home, and because his business often took him to Hong Kong, unless someone urgently needed him, no one would notice if he was gone for two or three days.
But just one day of being tormented by this crazy woman, he was already near breaking.
If she went to Xu Peiling, it might escalate, and authorities could get involved. That might actually save him from her current wrath.
After all, Xu Peiling lived in a high-end villa with tight security, so letting this madwoman stir trouble there was safer than continuing to wait and be tormented.
Lin Chaohai gritted his teeth.
He had taken note of everything that happened today. He would make Qiao Qingqing regret it. He would watch her suffer as her terminal illness raged through her body, withholding medicine, letting her writhe in pain until death, and only then would he feel vindicated.
Qiao Qingqing looked at his twisted expression and sneered.
“Lin Chaohai, wait for a special gift from me.”
She picked up the towel on the floor and forcefully stuffed it back into his mouth, wrapping it dozens of times with tape.
Then she retied the ropes tightly, making Lin Chaohai roll his eyes several times, ensuring nothing would loosen before stopping.
Before leaving, Qiao Qingqing put on one of Lin Chaohai’s men’s cotton jackets.
It was a bit large, but it effectively concealed her figure. She also wore a mask, glasses, hat, shoe covers, and gloves, eliminating any chance of being recognized.
Although she wanted to confront Xu Peiling, her priority was still acquiring money and stockpiling supplies.
Driving the truck to a street near the villa, Qiao Qingqing circled a few times and found a spot behind some trees with good cover.
It was late at night. She didn’t see any cameras nearby, but even if there were some, as long as she made no noise, it should be fine. She stepped into her space at the wall and walked three steps forward inside it.
When she exited, she was already standing on the inner side of the wall in the landscaping area.
She carefully made her way toward the villa Lin Chaohai had mentioned and found it dark, no signs of anyone home.
Qiao Qingqing used the same method to pass through walls, entering the villa.
The power box was usually near the entrance or on a living room wall. She quickly located it and turned off the electricity.
Using an LED light from the space, she scanned the living room and saw art-style photos of Lin Chaohai with a woman, confirming this was Xu Peiling and Lin Chaohai’s home.
She then began frantically collecting items inside the villa.
From expensive sofas and rosewood coffee tables to kitchen pots, pans, and ovens—anything she saw, she took.
She casually walked through walls to the second floor.
Xu Peiling had two large boxes of jewelry, including more than a dozen gold pieces. Qiao Qingqing gleefully pocketed them.
There was also about 20,000 yuan in cash, but the bankbook held little.
She ignored the bed and wardrobe used by the couple, simply clearing out everything to make them suffer. She also knew there must be some secret items of Lin Chaohai’s in the house.
Lin Chaohai was in the pharmaceutical business.
The Lin family had been poor peasants for three generations, and although his mother was illiterate, Lin Chaohai held numerous intricate prescriptions, supposedly handed down from ancestors.
When Lin Xuan was a child, Qiao Qingqing had carefully studied the medical books and prescriptions to strengthen his weak body. She had never believed they were truly ancestral, only having looked superficially. Now, recalling that Lin Chaohai had a cousin who was a Revolutionary Committee cadre, she suspected most of these prescriptions had been appropriated by them.
After serving in the military, Lin Chaohai opened a pharmacy and eventually established a pharmaceutical factory.
His medicines were effective, but he had economized on materials. The original prescriptions, often using rare and expensive herbs, were reserved for wealthy clients in Hong Kong, so he frequently traveled there.
Qiao Qingqing had only seen a portion of the prescriptions, some rare herbs were carefully hidden by Lin Chaohai.
The stairway from the second to third floor had a door and a security door, which she sensed contained the main treasures.
On the third floor, she soon saw multiple partitioned glass rooms and her heart raced.
They were filled with rare medicinal herbs.
The small rooms varied in size, with grow lights for some, shades for shade-loving herbs, and proper ventilation. The renovation must have cost a lot.
In a corner stood a medium-sized safe. Qiao Qingqing, knowing a few of Lin Chaohai’s usual codes, tried them and surprisingly succeeded.
Inside were several old medical books. One she had read before, though the cover was torn off. Another was labeled “Cui Family Acupuncture.”
Qiao Qingqing sneered—it had indeed been looted, with no relation to the Lin family.
There was nothing else in the safe. She felt slightly disappointed not to find money but knew taking the third-floor items would hurt Lin Chaohai far more than money ever could.
She cleared everything without hesitation.
Silently, she retraced her steps and returned home.
Back at her house, she ignored the foul bedroom; the surveillance feed on her phone confirmed Lin Chaohai was barely alive on the chair. She collapsed in the guest room and slept.
But with much on her mind, she didn’t rest long. By 3 a.m., she was awake.
She retrieved water tanks she had stockpiled in her space and began boiling water.
Heating water in cold conditions could be inconvenient, so while she couldn’t sleep, she filled thirty large water tanks from both a water dispenser and kitchen stove.
This way, during the cold, she wouldn’t have to get up to boil water for drinking or hot water bags at night.
While storing hot water, she began rendering pig lard.
The aroma was irresistible, filling the area for ten meters, and in that era of scarce oil and food, it was impossible to hide.
She had stockpiled too much to finish at once, but by dawn, she had stored over twenty jars of lard.
At 6 a.m., before the neighbors awoke, she turned off the fire.
The smell of lard drove the famished Lin Cha
Of course, the easiest place to install the chimney was inside her house, but from what she understood, many of the people sent for “re-education” back then lived in cellars and couldn’t have such living conditions. That’s why she needed proper exhaust and ventilation.
She told the supplier that she wanted to create a simulated “old-time farmhouse experience,” and didn’t want the metal pipes to look too obvious, so she planned to paint them black.
The supplier responded, “If you want it realistic, small ducts can even be made from bamboo or wood.”
Qiao Qingqing found that idea agreeable. “But I need it quickly. Can you get it done by tomorrow?”
The supplier smiled. “As long as you’re willing to pay extra, it’s no problem.”
Seeing the man was straightforward, Qiao Qingqing didn’t hesitate to flex her cash power.
Besides that, she also bought a bunch of practical hardware, farm tools, and protective gear.
As she saw her funds once again dwindling, Qiao Qingqing immediately picked up the phone to call her high-interest loan contacts.