Upon seeing that the dog was gone, Hu Li stormed in again, hand on her hip, finger pointing and cursing loudly. Her saliva flying, her voice shrill and sharp, an endless barrage of curses typically hurled by shrews in the village came spewing out. Calling someone cheap trash, shameless filthy good-for-nothings, and mentioning illegitimate children in such a denigrating way truly made one’s skin crawl; it stirred an urge to kick her right in the behind, wanting to smash her face and kick her out, further the better.
"You all, what right do you have to make my Xiang Mei move out of this Siheyuan? Does it belong to you?" Hu Li glowered, furiously lambasting the Qin Xiangyang siblings.
"It was me who told her to roll out," Jian Zhiqing walked over and sat down at the stone table, folding her arms and staring unblinkingly at Hu Li.
"What right do you have? What are you anyway?" By this point, Hu Li had completely lost her rationality, her eyes bloodshot with anger.
"I’m nobody," compared to her, Jian Zhiqing appeared elegantly amused, which only made Hu Li look more vulgar. "This is my house. She didn’t pay any rent and even sold my belongings. Out of consideration for the Qin siblings, I merely asked her to leave – that’s already the extent of my kindness. Why, does that seem light to you? Or would you prefer if she gets taken to the police station again? Would that satisfy you?"
"Who said my Xiang Mei sold your stuff?" Hu Li, true to her name, was now becoming completely unreasonable.
"Go ask your daughter," Jian Zhiqing finally understood why Qin Xiangnuan’s temperament had become so twisted. With such a stepmother around, it’s a miracle the Qin siblings hadn’t gone astray.
Qin Xiangmei bowed her head, adamant about staying silent to the end.
"She sold it, so let them pay you," Hu Li pointed at Qin Xiangyang, "He’s Xiang Mei’s brother, what’s wrong with giving his sister some money to spend?"
"He can’t afford it," Jian Zhiqing shot the response straight back at Hu Li’s face.
"It’s just a broken screen. How could it be worth one hundred thousand yuan?" The more Qin Xiangmei thought about it, the more she believed that Qin Xiangnuan and Jian Zhiqing were conspiring to deceive her. An old screen couldn’t possibly be worth 100,000 yuan. They must have been bluffing, trying to scare her. She couldn’t understand how she had been so gullible. It was easy to leave, but to come back, that would be terribly difficult. She curled her lip; she had made up her mind about the Siheyuan today, and that 1,000 yuan – they shouldn’t even dream of getting it back.
"What screen? Which screen?" At this moment, Mr. Song’s ears perked up at the word "screen," and he dashed out immediately.
"My screen, where is my Qingming River Painting? Where is my screen? Tell me, where is my screen?" Mr. Song, who generally detested the likes of Hu Li, had become obsessed with the Qingming River Painting. It had just disappeared, and he was devastated as if on the verge of death. Now hearing about a screen, he suddenly sprang to life.
"Tell me, where is my screen now?"
Mr. Song’s frenzied gaze scared Hu Li so much she almost screamed. Fortunately, she was aware that some people must not be provoked, like old men over sixty like Mr. Song. A bad confrontation could lead to a fall; if he died, she’d be held responsible for his life.
Qin Xiangmei, for some reason, felt a tingling in her scalp, and the word she dreaded most at the moment was "screen." She also loathed it the most.
"Mr. Song, you were asking about your screen, weren’t you?" Qin Xiangnuan casually pointed out Qin Xiangmei, "She sold it, for 1,000 yuan."
"What, 1,000 yuan?" Mr. Song turned back, his gaze vicious as if set to devour someone.
"Qin Xiangnuan, are you looking down on me, or did I do it on purpose? I’m old enough to have eaten more salt than you’ve eaten rice. You wouldn’t sell it to me for 100,000 yuan, but you sold it for a mere 1,000? I’ll kill you..." His eyes reddened with rage; he turned and lunged to strangle Qin Xiangnuan.
"Give me back my painting!" His hands were nearly around Qin Xiangnuan’s throat, but then he hesitated, something didn’t seem right.
Again, she whirled around and glared at Qin Xiangmei viciously.
"Not right, it’s you who sold my screen. Return my screen to me, and I’ll give you one hundred thousand yuan. Bring the screen back to me."
"Ah..." Qin Xiangmei screamed as if she had seen a ghost, not caring about Qin Guohua and Hu Li anymore, she kept yelling and screaming while Hu Li and Qin Guohua, seeing their daughter running away, had no choice but to chase after her with faces beet red in anger.
After this family of three had left.
Mr. Song was glaring at Qin Xiangnuan intermittently, obviously furious.
Qin Xiangnuan felt extremely wronged; it wasn’t her who sold it.
"If you were sold earlier, who else could have bought it?"
Mr. Song was like a frustrated blacksmith, having personally made such a fine screen, sold for a meager 1000 yuan, it was like a slap in his face. The wood alone was worth more than that amount; to pay 1000 yuan for it was both possible and affordable.
"I didn’t fold either."
Qin Xiangnuan spread her hands, but she had to thank Mr. Song for today. She never knew that Mr. Song, when it came to fighting, could be quite intimidating. However, with today’s commotion caused by Mr. Song, Qin Guohua and Hu Li should now understand what to do.
The landlord Jian Zhiqing no longer welcomed Qin Xiangmei. Such unclean methods, casually selling other people’s possessions, and just like that, something worth one hundred thousand yuan was sold. One hundred thousand yuan was not a small sum; even if Hu Li had a thick skin and Qin Guohua was ruthless, they probably wouldn’t dare to make such a request again.
Moreover, their most important task now was to manage their own shame, to ensure they wouldn’t become people that couldn’t show their faces in public in the future.
However, in this world, there’s no such thing as the least shameless, only more so.
Qin Guohua and his wife were exactly that.
"Xiang Mei, is that screen really worth one hundred thousand?" Hu Li was now highly sensitive to the sum of one hundred thousand yuan; it was enough to build a small building.
"I don’t know, stop asking me," Qin Xiangmei lost her temper, it was all because of your incompetence that I can’t return to the Siheyuan, and from now on, I’ll have to stay at school like other students, with nowhere to go on weekends and even spending my own money. If I had stayed longer, I could have asked Qin Xiangyang for money, but now, I have nothing.
"Xiang Mei," Hu Li was frantic, and hurriedly asked again, "What if we get that screen back and sell it to the old man? Won’t our family then have one hundred thousand yuan?"
"Isn’t that the case?" Even though Qin Guohua was illiterate, he was adept at counting money. He was already imagining how to use those ten thousand cents; to renovate the house a bit and with the remaining money, after some calculations, he might even be able to buy a house in the city, secure a stable job for Qin Pengfei, and see the family’s fortunes improve day by day.
"Xiang Mei, where did you say this screen is now? It’s like one hundred thousand yuan just waiting to be grabbed."
He hastened to ask Qin Xiaomei, at that moment he was desperate to lay his hands on that screen.