Chapter 165: Really Treated Her Like a Thief
She feared that Mengyu would once again flip up the cabinet’s bottom, so she hurriedly shouted, "Stop, your books and clothes are all in the storage room."
Upon hearing her shout, Mengyu snorted, "You should have said so earlier."
She no longer cared about Li Chunhua and quickly headed towards the storage room.
The Jiang Family’s house was a privately purchased property, consisting of a main building with three rooms. The center room was the living room, with bedrooms on either side. Li Chunhua and Jiang Haidong each occupied one of the main rooms, and Jiang Huaiqing took another, while Mengyu and Huaiyu stayed in the east wing room.
There was a patch of vegetable garden in the courtyard, where they usually planted some vegetables, so the west wing room was used as a storage room for infrequently used items. It mainly housed tools.
Since the metal tools were often washed and left directly on the floor, the room was mostly damp.
Mengyu’s clothes and books were just thrown onto the damp floor of the storage room.
Only two months had passed, but the ground was already somewhat moist, and both the books and clothes had started to mold.
Mengyu already knew about Li Chunhua’s character and felt too exhausted to get angry.
She first collected the money hidden inside her clothes, then moved the clothing and books out to the courtyard and shouted, "Li Chunhua, my belongings are all here, come and check if any of your items are inside. If not, I will move them away. Don’t claim later that I stole something from you."
Li Chunhua was huffy—like she would take things from her own family.
Hearing Mengyu’s request for an inspection, she immediately ran to the courtyard, saying, "You white-eyed wolf, you’ve always been untrustworthy, I really ought to check."
As she spoke, Li Chunhua flipped over each piece of clothing one by one, tossing them aside. After shaking out all the clothes, she proceeded to shake the books.
The onlookers, seeing the way she conducted the search, couldn’t help but feel contemptuous—it was as if she really did treat Mengyu like a thief.
Moreover, looking at those clothes, it was hard to find a single piece without patches. An added tell was the damp from the west wing room.
Just based on this, one could tell how Li Chunhua mistreated her adopted daughter.
Mengyu allowed her to shake out all the clothes and books, then pointed at the messy heap of clothing, "Have you checked them all?"
Li Chunhua: "Checked."
"Did you find anything from your family mixed in?"
Li Chunhua didn’t wish to reply, but Mengyu raised her voice and asked again, "Speak up, is there anything of yours? If you don’t respond, come and check them again."
Li Chunhua had shaken every book face down, and no further inspection would reveal anything, so she reluctantly answered, "No."
Mengyu smiled—that was exactly what she wanted Li Chunhua to say!
Mengyu turned to the crowd, "Dear neighbors, you’ve all heard it. Everything I brought out belongs to me, Mengyu, and I did not mistakenly take even a needle or thread from the Jiang family. I ask you all to bear witness for me. Uh, also, does anyone have a lighter I could borrow?"
Someone handed over a lighter, and Mengyu thanked them, then piled up the clothes together and set them ablaze right there in the courtyard.
Li Chunhua was furious, "What on earth are you doing?"
Mengyu replied coldly, "Can’t you see? Setting a fire to burn them. These clothes, tossed on the ground in the west wing tool room by you all, are already moldy and can’t be worn. If I don’t burn them, what else should I do with them?"
When she was in City B, she had bought several sets of clothing for all seasons, so naturally, she no longer needed these rags.
Li Chunhua was taken aback, "If you were planning to burn them, why did you ask me to inspect them?"