At the hospital, Lin Yuzhu couldn’t wait any longer for Wang Aihua to bring the money for the medical fees. When she returned home, she found her mother collapsed on the floor, hair disheveled, eyes wide open, legs stiff as if dead.
Lin Yuzhu immediately rushed over and helped her up, pressing her thumb hard against the philtrum. “Mom… Mom, what’s wrong?”
Wang Aihua gradually came to, though she had been conscious the whole time, her body stiff with anger, unable to move. Gripping her daughter’s hand tightly, her nails digging into her flesh, she sobbed, “We’ve been robbed… robbed of decades of our hard work!”
Lin Yuzhu frowned. “Robbed? What was stolen?”
Kicking forcefully with her legs, Wang Aihua wailed, “The house was robbed! Everything was stolen!”
Lin Yuzhu scanned the room and immediately noticed something was wrong—everything inside was empty. And her money… She couldn’t even spare a thought for her mother, rushing back to her own room in a panic.
Bang! Wang Aihua’s head hit the ground. “Ouch!”
The room was completely empty. The safe was gone. All the gems and gold bars inside were gone. Lin Yuzhu’s heart twisted at the thought of her emerald necklace being stolen—it felt like a knife cutting through her chest. Her vision darkened; she felt faint, wishing this was just a dream.
That necklace had been painstakingly taken from the Li family—a priceless emerald antique. When she first got it, she had lain awake in her room every night, secretly wearing it, handling it carefully, occasionally opening the safe just to make sure it wasn’t stolen. The safe had been cast from steel and concrete, so heavy that three or four men could barely lift it, and even a chainsaw couldn’t cut it.
Who could have taken it? It had to be that Li Jiyue brat. Ever since she went mad and attacked people that day, the household had been plagued with incidents. Who else could it be? That wretch, that wretch—she would never share a sky with her.
“Ah!” Lin Yuzhu let out a tearing roar from deep in her throat, sharp and piercing, filled with uncontrollable anger and despair, echoing throughout the compound.
Wang Aihua crawled out of the room, sitting on the living room floor, slapping her thighs and crying, “Who did this? Which cursed wretch recently—curse their entire lineage! How dare they give us no way to survive! My son is still in the hospital waiting for money to survive! Whoever took it, return it immediately! If I catch you before the police do, I swear I’ll tear you apart!”
Their wailing drew the attention of neighbors, who came to see what was happening.
“What happened? We heard your screams from far away. Didn’t even have time to eat,” several neighbors said, standing at the door and staring at the empty home in shock.
“Are you moving or buying new furniture?” Aunt Li from the next house asked. “I mean no offense, Aihua, but even with money, it’s better to stay low-key. After what happened to Tianbao, you’re probably already being watched. Changing furniture could bring trouble.”
Although the neighbors weren’t especially close with Wang Aihua’s family, an incident like this could affect the reputation of the whole compound.
Wang Aihua snapped at them, “No! We’ve been robbed! Everything’s gone! Did you see anyone suspicious moving things out?”
The neighbors looked at each other.
“No, I didn’t see anything.”
“Neither did I.”
“Me neither.”
“Dismantling beds and cabinets would take at least a day or two… to move out so cleanly, it doesn’t look human. Could it be… witchcraft?” one person muttered, then stopped, realizing how serious the claim sounded. “No, no! I didn’t say anything—let’s pretend I just farted.”
Wang Aihua’s eyes flared with anger, like she was about to breathe fire. She shouted at the neighbors, “How could you not see it? A whole bed and cabinet gone, did you all go blind? Did you steal it? Tell me, did you steal it?”
She looked like a rabid dog, ready to bite anyone in sight. The neighbors, knowing she was in a frenzy, avoided conflict. They just stayed silent.
Lin Yuzhu grabbed her mother and pulled her back. “Mom, calm down. What’s done is done. We need to think about how to fix it.”
She closed the front door, pulled Wang Aihua into a room, patted her chest to calm her down, and whispered, “Mom, go tell Dad. Quickly get the Li family’s things transferred out.”
Back then, her family had stolen Li Jiyue’s key to the Li family basement, only taking the two most valuable items and some cash. They hadn’t dared to take too much, fearing they’d be noticed. The whole family would have been punished and sent to the Great Northwest to eat sand.
Wang Aihua asked, “You suspect it’s that brat?”
“Who else could it be?”
Wang Aihua couldn’t believe it. “How… how is this possible? Even the bed frame’s gone, everything moved cleanly. If that brat had this kind of skill, she wouldn’t have let us manipulate her for more than ten years.”
Lin Yuzhu guessed she must have had helpers. Her own parents were surgical geniuses in the medical field who had saved many powerful figures—someone must have helped her.
Wang Aihua also realized: this money was small change. The real treasure belonged to the Li family. She would go to the police to report the theft, while Lin Yuzhu went to the hospital to help Lin Fuguo transfer the Li family’s treasure back to the countryside for safekeeping.