Chapter 97: The Painting Sent to Chen Lie

Su Qinghu sat on her bed, clutching her wildly pounding heart, feeling like she’d almost died from fright.

She had no idea when she’d fallen asleep. When she first heard the knocking at the door, she subconsciously thought she was dreaming and just drifted back into a hazy sleep…

It wasn’t until the urgent, heart-stopping pounding on the door exploded in her ears that she jolted upright.

Then she saw the beam of a flashlight shining in from outside the window…

“You two—” Su Qinghu, shuffling out in her slippers, squinted at the two troublemakers who were just getting up. “What are you up to?”

Da Dan stood up, patted the dust off himself, and said nothing.

Er Dan said, “We wanted to wake you up for dinner.”

Dinner?

Su Qinghu blinked in confusion, raised her wrist to check her watch, but it was too dark to see the time. Just as she was about to give up, Da Dan shone the flashlight over for her.

Su Qinghu glanced at him, then looked down at the time.

“Ten eleven?” Su Qinghu looked up at the sky in disbelief, but all she saw was darkness. She started to feel guilty. “Why didn’t you go out to eat at dinnertime?”

She felt like she’d only napped for a little while…

Da Dan replied, “We were doing homework too late and forgot about dinner.”

“I’m punishing myself,” Er Dan said earnestly, looking at Su Qinghu.

Su Qinghu almost rolled her eyes. “You’re punishing yourself? Do you even know what you did wrong?”

“I shouldn’t have skipped school.” Er Dan quickly added, “Big brother already beat me up, and I know I was wrong. I definitely won’t skip school again.”

Su Qinghu crossed her arms and looked down at him. “Skipping school isn’t the end of the world, but getting caught by the teacher and making them come for a home visit—that’s where you messed up.”

Er Dan’s mouth fell open, not sure if he’d heard her right.

Da Dan really wanted Su Qinghu to stop talking. What was she saying? They already had a record of skipping school, and now she was encouraging Er Dan to keep doing it?

People in the alley said some stepmothers just want to ruin kids—never scolding or punishing them when they do wrong, even encouraging and praising them…

“Do you know what kind of student can skip class without the teacher making a fuss?” Su Qinghu leaned down, looking at Er Dan.

Er Dan tensed up. “Uh… I don’t know.”

“Only if you’re so outstanding that no one else can compare, then the teacher won’t care. At that point, whatever you do, the teacher will think it’s all to make yourself even better.” Su Qinghu straightened up as he stared at her in shock, then added, “Actually, there’s another situation—”

Er Dan’s eyes widened.

Su Qinghu continued, “Another situation is if our family is rich—like, at least the richest in the provincial capital. If money is just a number to us, and your mom gives the teacher a heads-up, saying we have so much money we can’t even count it, and even if you turn out to be a good-for-nothing, the family will never let you starve—then sure, skip class all you want.”

Er Dan’s mouth dropped open. The richest person in the provincial capital—just how much money was that…?

“Of course, there’s a risk you have to consider with that second scenario.” Su Qinghu took a couple of steps, then smiled. “Er Dan, use your smart little brain and think—what’s the risk?”

Da Dan finally shifted from anger at Su Qinghu’s earlier words to thoughtful consideration.

Er Dan thought hard, really hard, but in the end, under Su Qinghu’s gaze, he could only shake his head. “I can’t figure it out.”

“What about you, Da Dan?” Su Qinghu asked.

Da Dan thought for a moment. “If you rely on a mountain, it can collapse. If you rely on people, they can leave. If the parents get divorced and neither wants the kid, then the good-for-nothing might starve to death?”

Er Dan’s eyes went wide. He was looking at Su Qinghu, but his mind was already picturing the scene his brother described.

Su Qinghu was momentarily speechless at Da Dan’s answer. Well… he’s not wrong. That scenario isn’t impossible.

But—

“What you said could happen, but it’s not the worst.” Su Qinghu’s face turned serious. “The worst is if the family goes bankrupt, everyone’s eating gruel, and debt collectors are chasing you down. The debt is so big that it’ll take your parents, you, and your children’s children to pay it off.”

Er Dan sucked in a sharp breath.

The old men in the park had told them the story of ‘Yu Gong Moves the Mountain.’ If paying off debt was like digging a mountain…

Just thinking about it made Er Dan shiver.

“Are you thinking of Yu Gong Moves the Mountain?” Su Qinghu glanced at Er Dan with a fake smile. “Don’t even think about it. Yu Gong didn’t have anyone interfering. If you owe money, crowds of people will be camped at your door every day, so you won’t even have time to go out and earn money. You’ll be worn down until you die.”

Er Dan gulped. “I… I’ll call the police.”

“They’re just collecting debts, not doing anything illegal. What can the police do?” Su Qinghu kept hammering it in. “Good news never leaves the house, but bad news travels a thousand miles. With so many people chasing you for money, it’ll be hard to find a job, and if you want to start a business, people will doubt your credit and might not want to work with you…”

“Tsk tsk…” Su Qinghu shook her head. “That’s just miserable.”

Er Dan stood there in a daze. If the debt collectors came in droves, even if he had five hundred little followers, they couldn’t hold them off, right?

Even Da Dan felt a chill down his spine at Su Qinghu’s words, unable to stop himself from picturing that debt-collection scene…

“Sigh, you two think about it.” With that, Su Qinghu headed for the kitchen.

At this hour, there was probably nowhere open to eat, so she’d have to cook herself.

What was in the kitchen?

Tomatoes, eggs, seasonal vegetables, flour, rice, and other easy-to-store root vegetables.

Tomato and egg drop noodle soup, then. Easy to make and easy to digest.

She put flour in a bowl, added water, mixed enough for three people, stir-fried tomatoes until juicy, added water to boil, dropped in the dough bits, poured in the beaten eggs…

In less than twenty minutes, the three of them were sitting at the table, each with a bowl, quietly eating their soup.

After eating, the two boys went to wash the dishes and clean up. Su Qinghu stood to the side, watching them, her mind elsewhere.

Soon, as they finished tidying up the kitchen, Su Qinghu spoke. “Tomorrow, I’m taking you two somewhere.”

“Where?” Er Dan’s mood perked up a bit.

Tomorrow was the weekend. Was their new mom taking them out to play again?

Su Qinghu said, “The police station.”

She said it so casually that the two boys almost choked.

Er Dan’s eyes went wide. “Why are we going to the police station? I didn’t commit a crime!”

He started babbling, “Okay, I did start a gang, and I do have little followers, but I’m not collecting protection money or doing anything bad!”

Why?

Why was she taking him to the police station?

“Even if—even if I sent your painting to Dad without your permission, that’s not a crime, right?”

Su Qinghu froze. “What?”

The little brat sent the painting to Chen Lie? Was it the one she’d been searching for days and still hadn’t found?!!

That’s it, she was going to beat this kid!

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