Chapter 9 Maggots Don't Listen to Household Matters
Xu Zhili shook her hand, her smile vanished instantly, replaced by a cold expression, and her voice was icy as well.
"You, who cost two dollars, dare to act as my 'mother'? That's ridiculous."
She slowly pulled a yellowed and brittle piece of paper from her pocket, unfolded it in front of everyone, and read it aloud word by word in a clear yet cold voice.
"I have received 2,000 yuan in cash from Lin Jinguo as additional compensation for the marriage of Zhang Jiumei, a daughter of the Zhang family. I hereby write this receipt: Zhang Fugui, date: May 19, 1966."
After reading it aloud, she added, "Oh, this piece of paper was found at the bottom of your camphor wood chest, right next to those shady undergarments you kept there."
She watched as Zhang Jiumei's face turned deathly pale, and she trembled like a leaf.
Xu Zhili continued, "They said it was a dowry of two thousand yuan, but they only gave two yuan... Mrs. Lin, you're quite valuable now."
"puff--"
Lin Jinguo spat out all the tea he had just drunk.
He stared in horror at the paper, then at Zhang Jiumei, whose face was deathly pale.
"How is that possible? The bride price was clearly only two yuan! And she even gave her family an extra two thousand yuan in private?" Lin Jinguo's mind was in complete chaos.
Lin's father suddenly stood up from his chair, the chair legs scraping against the floor with a screeching sound: "How did this thing end up in your hands?" His face was full of shock and panic.
Xu Zhili sneered, her tone full of sarcasm: "What? Scared? When you got married, you boasted to the outside world that the bride price was two thousand yuan and that you would have a grand wedding, but in the end you only gave two yuan? You bought her back with two yuan?"
Her gaze swept over the other members of the Lin family present, and everyone who met her gaze felt a sense of pressure.
Suddenly, Lin's mother rushed forward, reaching out to snatch the paper, yelling, "You brat! How dare you rummage through my things!"
Zhang Jiumei was frantic: she couldn't let Lao Lin know the truth. He only spent two yuan to marry her, and she had been secretly giving her family two thousand yuan without Lao Lin's knowledge. She had always told everyone it was a two thousand yuan dowry, otherwise two yuan would have been too embarrassing!
Xu Zhili nimbly dodged, holding the paper even higher: "What? Now you're afraid your shameful deeds will be exposed? All these years, your whole family has treated me like a free servant, ordering me around. Now, it's time to settle the score!"
Lin Jinguo stood to the side, his face turning ashen with anger. He opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.
Lu Jiahao's eyes flickered, and he quietly took half a step back.
Zhang Jiumei collapsed to the ground like a fish whose bones had been removed, making a hissing sound in her throat. She pointed at Xu Zhili, unable to utter a single word, only extreme shame and fear exploding in her eyes.
"Alright, I have no interest in the maggots' domestic affairs."
Xu Zhili casually tossed the IOU onto Zhang Jiumei's face, like throwing a rag over her feet.
She picked up the cup of scalding hot tea on the table and tilted her wrist—
"Splash!"
Brown tea mixed with tea leaves was poured over Zhang Jiumei's carefully styled hair and swollen face! The scalding liquid caused her to let out another piercing scream.
"My conditions are very simple."
Xu Zhili's voice returned to normal as she held up two fingers and waved them in front of Zhang Jiumei and Lin Jinguo, who were groaning with their wet, red faces covered in sweat.
"First, the job transfer documents, I'll sign them when I'm 'happy'."
"Secondly."
She looked down at the two disheveled figures on the ground, as if delivering a verdict.
"Two thousand dollars in cash, now, immediately, right now. Not a penny less..."
She kicked the handkerchief that Zhang Jiumei had dropped, which was stained with tea and blood.
“I will post this filthy IOU and your confession about selling your niece on the honor roll at the factory gate, so that the whole factory can admire the great achievements of Technician Lin and his ‘two-dollar’ wife.”
"Two thousand?! Why don't you just rob someone?!" Lin Jinguo's eyes were bloodshot.
Xu Zhili's eyes flashed with anger, and she raised her hand as if to slap him again!
Zhang Jiumei was terrified. Ignoring the burning pain on her face, she scrambled to Lin Jinguo's legs and clung to him tightly, crying, "Give it to her! Old Lin! Give it to her! Quickly, give it to her!"
She screamed, her voice distorted with fear and pain.
Lin Jinguo's chest heaved violently. Looking into Xu Zhili's emotionless eyes, and then catching a glimpse of Lin Wanwan's surprised and uncertain gaze, he finally deflated like a punctured balloon and said dejectedly, "I'll give it to you! Wanwan, you...you go get it from my drawer!"
Lin Wanwan felt as if she had been granted a pardon and quickly ran away.
Soon, a thick stack of "big unity" bills, tied with rubber bands, was placed on the table.
Xu Zhili slowly picked up the stack of money, moistened her fingertips with saliva, and began to count it one bill at a time, extremely slowly, in front of everyone.
The rustling sound of banknotes rubbing together was like a knife scraping bone in the deathly silent living room.
After counting the last stack of banknotes, she flicked them with satisfaction and put them into her pocket.
His gaze swept over Lin Jinguo, whose face was ashen, Zhang Jiumei, who was slumped like mud, and Lu Jiahao, whose eyes were darting around, before finally landing on Lin Wanwan's pale and frightened face.
"It's a pleasure to work with you."
Xu Zhili's lips curled into a cold, victorious smile. She turned around, humming an off-key tune, and left the ravaged battlefield with light steps.
Behind them was an oppressive, deathly silence, and an impending eruption of deeper resentment and fear.
The Xu Zhili before him seemed like a different person—the little white rabbit he used to boss around was now radiating a scorching, almost malevolent light that stung his eyes.
Lu Jiahao subconsciously stole a glance at his current fiancée, Lin Wanwan. Her usually indifferent face was now twisted with jealousy, and she looked petty and mean-spirited.
If it weren't for her stepfather Lin Jinguo's promise to arrange a job for him as an office clerk at a machinery factory in the provincial capital, why would he have gotten engaged to this kind of woman?
But who would have thought that this secure job was actually forcibly taken from Lin Zhili's bones?
The first hints of regret were quickly suppressed by a deeper fear.
It's not easy to establish yourself in a machine factory. He got engaged and then changed partners. He'd be drowned in gossip!
but……
If Xu Zhili were willing to turn back and take this job back...
His gaze flickered and lingered on Xu Zhili, then dropped as if electrocuted, forcing himself to stay rooted to the spot, his palms covered in cold sweat.
Lin Wanwan caught Lu Jiahao's sticky and guilty gaze, and a burning jealousy suddenly pierced through her reason!
That scoundrel! That man is still eyeing his ex!
She screamed, like an enraged mother beast, and pounced on Xu Zhili without regard for anything else, her sharp nails aimed straight for the other's face that she hated so much!
Xu Zhili didn't even blink. The muscle memory honed from years of killing zombies in the apocalypse allowed her body to slide sideways at an odd angle, and Lin Wanwan's fingertips brushed against her temple with a whistling sound.
"Looking for death?" Xu Zhili's lips curled into a cold, almost gleeful smile.
Before she finished speaking, she swiftly raised her foot and kicked Lin Wanwan hard in the back of the knee with the sole of her shoe!
"Snap!"
A sharp, teeth-grinding crack was accompanied by a shrill scream as Lin Wanwan slammed to her knees like a piece of rotten wood. The dull thud of her kneecap hitting the concrete sent chills down everyone's spines.
The excruciating pain brought tears and snot to Lin Wanwan's eyes, and her screams were stuck in her throat.
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