Su Yanyan felt that Ruan Xining seemed to have changed. She had actually come to the same conclusion as her grandfather. The Ruan Xining of the past would never have thought things through so carefully.
A hospital was a place for saving lives and healing the sick. Human life was more important than anything else, and there could be no room for carelessness when diagnosing and treating patients. Anyone working in such an important place, with other people’s lives in their hands, should never act recklessly.
And Ruan Xining had been exactly the kind of person who repeatedly put her work aside for the sake of romance.
Even if Ruan Xining had now become more sensible and mature, she was still just a young girl like herself, inexperienced and immature. How could she possibly handle matters involving adults?
Su Yanyan did not take it to heart. She rode her bicycle home.
After returning with the medicine, Ruan Xining waited until Song Huizhi and Ruan Jianwei were not paying attention, ground the medicine into powder, and secretly mixed it into dinner.
That evening, she pretended to eat a few bites before casually returning to her room.
After calculating roughly when the medicine should take effect, Ruan Xining knocked on Ruan Jianwei’s door. When she heard no movement inside, she quietly opened the door.
Seeing Ruan Jianwei sleeping soundly on the bed, Ruan Xining waved her hand and looked around the room. The bed, wardrobe, tables, chairs, everything was swept into her space.
Next came Song Huizhi’s room, followed by Ruan Nianzhi’s. Apart from the walls, Ruan Xining left behind practically nothing that could be taken away.
She then went to Ruan Jianwei’s study and swept away all the furniture as well. She did not even spare a single book, no matter how small.
When she saw that the study had been emptied completely, Ruan Xining was just about to leave when the corner of her eye caught a long, narrow groove in the wooden panel behind the bookshelf. A thin wooden strip lay horizontally inside it, its color identical to the wood of the bookshelf.
The narrow groove was hidden behind the books, making it extremely easy to overlook in dim lighting. Ruan Xining walked over curiously, hooked her fingertip around the wooden strip, and gently pulled.
With a creak, the heavy bookshelf moved.
A concealed entrance suddenly appeared.
A flicker of surprise crossed Ruan Xining’s eyes, but she quickly regained her composure and cautiously stepped into the narrow passage.
The farther she went, the more spacious it became. What she saw afterward left Ruan Xining utterly stunned.
Inside a room of roughly forty or fifty square meters, the walls were covered with calligraphy and paintings. Shelves along one side were filled with all kinds of porcelain, while more than a dozen boxes of various sizes were piled throughout the room.
Ruan Xining looked at the calligraphy and paintings, all of which had a long history. When she opened the wooden boxes, she found them filled with gleaming gold bars, six large boxes in total.
There were also all kinds of exquisite jewelry, including jade bracelets, jade pendants, pearl hairpins, and gilt hairpins. The jade was smooth and translucent, while the gold ornaments were luxurious and elegant.
Several other boxes contained gold ingots and silver ingots.
Ruan Xining had never imagined that Ruan Jianwei had hidden so many treasures. Over the years, just how much had he accumulated by using her grandfather’s family’s name?
“Take, take, take.”
Looking at all these things, Ruan Xining did not hesitate for a moment and swept everything into her space.
After returning to her room, Ruan Xining was so exhausted that she collapsed onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep.
It was not until early the next morning that she was jolted awake by the shrieks of Song Huizhi and Ruan Nianzhi.
Ruan Xining quickly swept everything remaining in her own room into the space as well. Then, pretending to be just as shocked as Song Huizhi and her daughter, she let out a scream and hurried out of the room, staring at Ruan Jianwei in astonishment.
“Dad, what happened to everything in my room? My bed, my wardrobe, my desk, they’re all gone! Did someone break into our house and steal everything?”
Ruan Jianwei’s expression was dark. His own room had been emptied of everything, and even his study had been completely ransacked.
How could someone have moved so many large things out of the house in a single night without making the slightest sound or waking any of them?
It made absolutely no sense.
“Dad, let’s call the police. This thief was so fast that he even stole all my clothes. I can’t possibly wear just this one outfit, can I?” Ruan Xining secretly pinched herself, causing her eyes to turn red with pain as she looked at Ruan Jianwei aggrievedly.
“That’s right, Dad, let’s call the police. The thief stole all my clothes too.” Ruan Nianzhi wiped away her tears as she cried.
She had painstakingly managed to save some money, only to have Ruan Xining take most of it from her. Before she had even had the chance to spend what remained, it was gone too. It was enough to make her heart ache, not to mention all those clothes and pieces of jewelry.
“No!” Ruan Jianwei rejected the idea without hesitation.
He had secretly transferred some of his possessions outside just recently. If they called the police now, what would happen if the police discovered what he had moved?
And what would he say about the secret room behind his study? So many of the things he had secretly hidden there had questionable origins.
Even if he called the police, he would never dare mention those things, and there was no way he could recover them. Instead, it might alert the authorities and make the Wen family suspicious of him.
“Dad, why can’t we call the police? Are we just going to let the thief get away with it?”
“Exactly, Dad,” Ruan Nianzhi chimed in, only to be scolded by Song Huizhi.
“Nianzhi, don’t make a fuss. Your father must have his reasons for saying we shouldn’t call the police.”
“That’s right, Xining, Nianzhi, I’ve thought it over, and I’m afraid calling the police wouldn’t be appropriate.
“The thief entered both of your rooms and silently stole even your personal clothing. If outsiders found out about this, who knows what they might say? They might even claim that the thief had violated you as well. A girl’s reputation is extremely important.
“We can’t let you become the subject of gossip over this little bit of money.”
Ruan Xining’s lips twitched slightly as she listened to the flimsy excuse Ruan Jianwei had come up with.
Still, they really could not call the police about this. So she went along with Ruan Jianwei’s words and looked at him with an expression of gratitude.
“You’re right, Dad. People outside love to gossip. If they found out about this, who knows how they would laugh at our family?
“But we’ve lost so many things. We can’t just swallow this loss without doing anything, can we?”
“I’ll handle it. Don’t worry,” Ruan Jianwei reassured them.
Ruan Xining was actually rather curious about how Ruan Jianwei planned to handle it. At the same time, she was starting to regret that she had forgotten to leave everyone a few changes of clothes.
Now she had nothing to wear either.
“Dad, what do we do now? We don’t even have clothes to change into. Give Auntie some money and have her take us to buy some clothes,” Ruan Nianzhi said, her eyes red from crying.
“Dad, do you still have any money? Otherwise, why don’t we stay at Grandfather’s house for a while?” Ruan Xining suggested sensibly.
Ruan Jianwei looked at Ruan Xining with relief.
“We’ll have to do that for now.”
As luck would have it, his wife was there too. He could use the opportunity to visit his wife’s family and put on a miserable act. Perhaps the Wen family’s old man would not be able to bear seeing his two granddaughters suffer and might give him another sum of money.
When Song Huizhi heard that they were going to the Wen family, she became anxious and looked at Ruan Jianwei.
“Brother…”
They all had somewhere to stay now. Surely they would not leave her alone at home? That thief appeared and disappeared like a ghost. What if he came back and stole her too?
“Dad, take Auntie with us,” Ruan Nianzhi said, grabbing Song Huizhi’s arm.
Ruan Xining slowly raised her eyes, her gaze turning cold as a faint, mocking smile appeared at the corners of her lips.
“Dad, you should think carefully. Are you really sure you want to take an outsider who has been having an affair to my grandfather’s house?”