Chapter 270: No Mercy

After everyone had finished eating, tidied up, and locked the door, they headed towards the commune. Lu Yichen suddenly remembered that they needed to leave earlier today. Since he only had one bicycle, it wouldn’t fit everyone, and they would be late if they followed the usual schedule.

However, as they took the small path down, they saw Zhao Jianing standing at the village entrance. Luo Qiao didn’t want to get involved in their matters, so she said to Lu Yichen and Shitou, “Let’s go first.”

She then got on the back seat of Lu Yichen’s bicycle. Zhao Jianing, however, bypassed the Luo brothers and approached Luo Qiao, saying, “Wait a moment. I have something to say to you.”

Luo Qiao turned to Lu Yichen and said, “Let’s go. I have nothing to say to her.”

Seeing that Luo Qiao was ignoring her, Zhao Jianing became somewhat frustrated and said, “Don’t think that just because you are going back to Beijing with them, you will blend into city life. The people in the compound will still see you as a country bumpkin.”

Luo Qiao found this amusing and replied, “If you have problems with your own brain, it doesn’t mean everyone else does. How things turn out in the future is my own business. You don’t need to teach me. You should think about how you’ll manage living in the countryside.”

Lu Yichen pedaled quickly, and they soon left the village entrance. Zhao Jianing watched Luo Qiao’s departing figure with resentment in her eyes.

Turning to the Luo brothers, the malice in her eyes immediately disappeared. She said, “Third Brother, Fourth Brother, what I said earlier was just a reminder, nothing more.”

The Luo brothers’ remaining sympathy for her vanished with her words. Luo Siyuan said, “Don’t call us ‘brother’ anymore. That relationship was stolen from us in the first place.”

He turned and began to leave.

Zhao Jianing said, “The things I brought back were all burned yesterday. Can you leave me some money?”

Luo Siyuan sneered inwardly at her audacity, thinking she still saw herself as the Luo family’s eldest daughter.

Recalling that they had wanted to give Luo Qiao some money in the morning, but she had refused all of it, saying she could support herself, the two brothers had no choice but to keep the money.

Luo Siyan looked at Zhao Jianing with disgust and asked, “What gives you the right to ask us for money?”

Zhao Jianing was taken aback for a moment, then said, “We’ve lived together for more than fifteen years. I’ve called you ‘brother’ for years. Now that I’m in such a miserable state, don’t you have any sympathy at all?”

Luo Siyuan snorted, “Don’t forget what you did when you left. It’s too late to talk about sympathy now.”

After saying that, the two brothers quickly left the village entrance. Zhao Jianing truly had no sense of shame.

Zhao Jianing’s actions were seen by gossip-loving women from the hillside’s private fields. Within half an hour, the news spread throughout Qingshan Village.

Everyone was saying that Zhao Jianing, the sixth daughter of the Zhao family, was shameless. If she had any dignity, she wouldn’t have said such things to Luo Qiao or asked the Luo brothers for money.

The Luo brothers had taken only a short leave, so they didn’t stay long in Ji City. After lunch, they bought afternoon train tickets back to Beijing.

Before leaving, they wrote down their work and home phone numbers for Luo Qiao and repeatedly advised her to call if anything came up. Reluctantly, they took the mushroom meat sauce and cucumbers from the backyard that Luo Qiao gave them and left.

After the brothers returned to Beijing, the families gathered again and discussed Luo Qiao’s situation. Knowing that Luo Qiao would come over during the National Day holiday, everyone was excited, and Ning Xueling’s face was full of anticipation.

However, she eventually asked, “How is Jianing doing over there?”

The previously warm atmosphere turned cold with that question. Ning Xueling quickly added, “I was just asking out of curiosity, not because I want to take care of her. After all, I raised her myself.”

Luo Siyuan said, “She’s doing fine. She even asked us for money when we left yesterday, but neither the Third Brother nor I gave her any.”

The others’ faces darkened upon hearing this. Zhao Jianing had gone too far. She had emptied her room, had several hundred in her personal savings, and probably had more than most people. Her greed was unbelievable.

Luo Siyuan deliberately did not mention that Zhao Jianing’s belongings had been burned. Everyone knew she had taken things from the Luo family, which was obvious to all.

Ning Lingyu said, “Last time, she bragged to me that she had more pocket money than I did, saying she saved over three hundred. How can she now have the nerve to ask for more money?”

As the room filled with criticism of Zhao Jianing, the women went to the kitchen to prepare the meal. The old man of the Luo family took everyone to the study, and once they were seated, he asked, “Haotian, how do you plan to deal with the Zhao family from Qingshan Village and the Luo family from Ji City?”

Luo Haotian replied, “I’ve had someone recheck everything about Qiaoqiao over the past few days. Both families are truly despicable, so I will not show any mercy.”