Chapter 37 The Greedy and Vicious Nanny 15

"Let's go to the hospital first," Lu Chengjin said, looking down at his nose. "How about that?"

“I’m not going,” Xie Rong pinched her nose and glared at him. “Hurry up and take the things I bought for my mother-in-law upstairs.”

He bought his mother-in-law a lot of amazing things.

A large gold necklace, a large gold bracelet, large gold earrings, and a large gold orange.

The poor folks living in the tenement building would probably stare in disbelief if they saw this.

Xie Rong entered the tenement building first, followed by Lu Chengjin and Assistant Chen, who were carrying a bunch of things.

Even before the black Phantom stopped downstairs, the residents of the tenement building had already started peeking out of their windows. As soon as Xie Rong went upstairs, he went to each and every door to look.

This little mascot is something else! Not only are there two bodyguards following behind it, but the clothes it's wearing are also something they've never seen before—they're incredibly stylish and clearly worth a lot of money.

You've come all this way with such fanfare, are you probably going to take that old woman away to enjoy a life of luxury?

Xie Rong walked to his front door, only to find it open.

He opened the door and poked his head in. He saw a tall figure standing by the window, wearing an apron and helping his mother-in-law chop vegetables.

"Duan Zhiyao, what are you doing here?" Xie Rong asked.

Duan Zhiyao turned around, but before he could speak, Granny Sun came out of Xie Rong's former private cubicle, beaming with joy, "My darling is back?"

Xie Rong had no time to pay attention to Duan Zhiyao anymore. She pulled her mother-in-law into the small room, sat on the edge of the bed, and started taking out the treasures he had prepared from the bag.

No matter what he gave her, his mother-in-law would beam with joy and praise him for his generosity.

Xie Rong raised his chin and curled up his lips. If he had a tail, it would be curled up to the sky.

“Mother-in-law, rich people are so stupid. They can easily trick me into giving them the money,” Xie Rong said smugly. “From now on, I will buy you golden treasures every day.”

Grandma Sun glanced at the men fighting over the pot and spatula by the stove and whispered, "Goodness, they won't make you give it back again, will they? Grandma can't beat them!"

“My mother-in-law can’t win in a fight, but she’ll try to scam us,” Xie Rong said, her eyes darting around. “I’ll go with her and make them pay dearly.”

"My little one is so clever," Grandma Sun said with a smile.

Xie Rong took out the last gift from the bag.

A bright orange sweater with a round orange on the neckline.

Grandma Sun said it was the best gift she had ever received, and Xie Rong also felt it was the most precious gift he had ever given.

He had lived three lifetimes. When he was first picked up by this dirty old woman, he was initially disgusted and eager to grow up quickly to torment the protagonist. When he accompanied the old woman to collect garbage, he would only hold his nose and slowly follow behind, and would even secretly cause trouble.

For example, he might mischievously puncture his mother-in-law's large bag of garbage so he could go home earlier; or he might pretend to be sick so his mother-in-law would have to use the money she earned from collecting garbage to coax him, so he could eat a small bowl of meat that she could only eat during the New Year.

No matter how badly he misbehaved, his mother-in-law would never call him a bad person. She would only blame herself for not being educated enough to teach him properly or afford to send him to school. She thought he was infinitely better than some despicable men who only knew how to kiss him until his mouth was raw.

Xie Rong wove his favorite oranges into a sweater and gave it to his mother-in-law, who was the most important person in the world to him.

Outside the small cubicle, Lu Chengjin washed vegetables while scanning the simple room.

The room was actually very clean, especially the curtain in the small cubicle, where two balls of yarn cat toys were hanging. But even with the door closed, the musty smell of the tenement building could still seep in through the wide crack in the door. The glass windows were patched, the table was broken, the sink for washing vegetables was chipped, and even the wok for frying vegetables had no handle.

Lu Chengjin has lived for nineteen years. During the two darkest years of his life, he could only lock himself in his room and play the piano to vent his frustrations. This room was even more dilapidated than the basement of a villa filled with clutter.

He tried to hold his breath, but when he thought of how many years Xie Rong had lived there, he relaxed his breath and let the musty smell seep into his internal organs.

He should have hated Xie Rong, but what came to mind was the scene of Xie Rong living in this dilapidated house when he was young.

That tiny little snowball sat on a rickety old bench every day, wiping away tears of grievance because it was never full or warm enough.

If he had met Xie Rong when he was a child, wouldn't he have been chased by Xie Rong, the greedy little nanny, calling him "brother" and following him home? He would have even secretly learned those improper ways of acting cute from a young age in order to swindle all his New Year's money.

After all, his nanny was exceptionally greedy.

A barely perceptible smile appeared on Lu Chengjin's lips.

...

During the meal, the five people sat around a rickety table.

This table is small; it was used by Xie Rong when he was a child and sat on a stool to eat. Now, however, there are five stools around the table.

Xie Rong still remembered how Duan Shuyao had humiliated him with a new phone, so he would snatch whatever Duan Shuyao ate.

When Duan Shuyao looked at him, he glared back fiercely.

"Is he your friend?" Lu Chengjin suddenly asked.

"Just neighbors," Xie Rong replied casually, a large chicken leg dangling from his mouth.

There are only two chicken legs in a whole chicken. He has to finish the one in his bowl quickly before he can take the other one.

Grandma Sun sat close to him, her eyes darting back and forth between the three men, while she mumbled something under her breath.

"Grandma, what are you saying?" Xie Rong spat out the bone, hurriedly picked up the second chicken leg, hesitated for a few seconds, put it in her mother-in-law's bowl, and whispered, "Eat quickly, or someone else will snatch it away."

Grandma Sun couldn't bear to eat it, so she put the chicken leg back into Xie Rong's bowl and whispered to Xie Rong, "They can really eat, especially that young man on your left. He's already eaten three bowls of rice. The pot is about to collapse from all that eating! Rich people are different. If it were in our building, who could feed them?"

Xie Rong turned his head.

Lu Chengjin paused in his hand, which was holding the food in his bowl. "What's wrong?"

Xie Rong looked at him coldly: "Why do you only eat rice and not steamed buns? Are you disgusted that the steamed buns my mother-in-law made were leftovers from yesterday?"

Lu Chengjin: "I didn't."

“You rich people just don’t know how expensive firewood and rice are,” Xie Rong mocked him sarcastically, then picked up a cold steamed bun with her chopsticks and stuffed it into Lu Chengjin’s bowl. “Eat up.”

Lu Chengjin looked at the steamed buns in the bowl.

This was the first time Xie Rong had served him food, and she only served him that.

Lu Chengjin lowered his head and took a bite.

The steamed bun skin was hard, yet it had a strangely sweet taste.

To save on coal briquettes, the leftover steamed buns were already cooked, so they weren't reheated.

Xie Rong's expression softened slightly, and he turned back to continue gnawing on his chicken leg.

When he looked up again, intending to feed the protagonist a hard steamed bun, he found the bowl empty. The buns inside had been snatched up by several men, while the bowl of chicken was still quite full.

He knew that even if these men were destined for wealth, they wouldn't live to enjoy it. They loved to eat cheap food and couldn't even get their money's worth from their meals!