Chapter 63.1

Lu Wenqiang was also a bully who feared the strong. Seeing that his parents weren’t helping him, he stopped crying and, with a sniffle, began to shape snowmen.

Of course, he couldn’t make proper snowmen. Instead, he rolled up four snowballs, stacked two on top of each other, and then looked up at Pei Zheng with wide eyes.

Pei Zheng was unimpressed but understood that this was the best Lu Wenqiang could do. He instructed him to place the “snowmen” back in their original spots and decided to let Lu Nong come later to fix them.

Lu Wenqiang was really annoying. He stepped on the snowman representing Pei Zheng and Gu Huai. If Pei Zheng was not angry, who will be angry?

Lu Wenqiang escaped from Pei Zheng’s hands alive, and Song Dalan hurriedly hugged him. The Lu couple breathed a sigh of relief at the same time, thinking that the young master had a bad temper and they should never provoke him in the future.

But who would have thought that the young master would soften his expression at this moment, pointing at the sofa and saying, “Anyone who comes is a guest. Since you are Lu Nong’s family, you are also one of my family. Don’t be polite. Sit down. I’ll make you a pot of tea.”

…He definitely hadn’t said that a moment ago.

At this moment, Lu Moxing and his wife shared a knowing look, both labeling Pei Zheng as temperamental in their minds. They sat cautiously on the sofa with their son.

Song Dalan, being a woman, was even more perceptive. From the moment she stepped into the house, she observed Lu Nong’s status within the family. Although Lu Nong’s ability to bring Aunt Wu into the Pei family showed some skill, understanding her position required looking at her relationships with her stepson and husband.

Pei Zheng happened to show up.

His earlier actions—first ignoring Lu Moxing, Lu Nong’s older brother, and then showing no mercy to Lu Nong’s nephew—coupled with calling Lu Nong by her name without any respectful title, made it clear that Lu Nong’s life in the Pei family wasn’t easy.

Thinking this brought her some comfort.

Pei Zheng took the teapot into the kitchen to chat with Aunt Wu, curious about how Lu Nong ended up with such a family.

“Grandma Wu, is that man really Lu Nong’s biological brother and his wife? They can’t possibly be just distant relatives, can they?”

Pei Zheng had observed closely. The man named Lu Moxing had shifty eyes, clearly the type to flatter others. His wife had been eyeing the room since she arrived, her gaze greedily lingering on anything of value, as if it were all destined to belong to her in the future.

Even their son was not a good guy. When he saw the candies and fruits on the table, he climbed onto the table and pulled the whole plate of food into his arms before he, the owner, said anything. The sister-in-law was also funny. Not only did she not stop her son, she even took out a cloth bag and gave it to her son, condoning him to take advantage of other people’s families.

Let’s not forget he even kicked over the snowman that Xiao Huai liked.

“What are you talking about? He is her biological brother,” Aunt Wu glared at Pei Zheng. 

“But…” Aunt Wu pondered for a moment. 

Based on the years he had known the old lady, it was true that Pei Zheng couldn’t compare to Lu Moxing in terms of familiarity. However, personal chemistry was a mysterious thing, and sometimes, connections weren’t solely built on time spent together.

Initially, Aunt Wu didn’t like Pei Zheng, but as they interacted more, she grew fond of him for being sensible and hardworking. She felt sorry for his situation, having no maternal love or paternal support, which made her favor him even more. Sometimes, Lu Nong even got jealous, claiming Aunt Wu favored Pei Zheng.

A significant reason for this was that Pei Zheng had always respected Aunt Wu. He never looked down on her past as a servant. After Lu Nong started calling Aunt Wu “Godmother,” Pei Zheng quietly began calling her “Grandma Wu”. Genuinely treating her like family.

In contrast, Lu Moxing was quite the opposite. Although he wasn’t the legitimate young master of the Li family, he often carried himself with more arrogance than one.

As a child, he acted poorly, pretending to be a young master from the Li family at school. Out of jealousy for others being more popular and wealthy, he even injured someone, leading to his uncle having to pay a hefty sum to resolve the matter.

That was all tolerable since it didn’t harm his own family, but he spent his sister’s education funds, causing Lu Nong to give up her lifelong dream of playing the violin.

Aunt Wu subtly mentioned, “Lu Nong is the second child in the family. She and Lu Moxing have never been close. Back in the day, she was exceptionally talented at the violin and was accepted into a prestigious foreign music academy. Just as she was preparing to study abroad, her mother took the money meant for her education and used it to buy a new house for Lu Moxing.”

“That daughter-in-law of his is no good either. After marrying into the Lu family, she caused trouble every day, forcing Lu Nong to stay away from home and take refuge at her uncle’s house.”

Pei Zheng widened his eyes, feeling a bit confused. “Didn’t my stepmother get accepted to Peking University? How did she also get into a foreign music academy?”

“She was accepted into the music academy first, but she couldn’t leave. The Lu family are a bunch of vampires who took her money but mocked her for spending it on something useless. They made her give up on studying music. In a fit of anger, she applied to Peking University instead.”

Pei Zheng: “…”

 He was shocked not only by his stepmother’s audacity but also by the shamelessness of the Lu family.

Top music academies and Peking University… it seems like for Lu Nong, these schools were just cabbages, easily picked at her leisure.

As for what the Lu family did, they ruined her future and also cut off their own daughter and sister’s prospects. Come to think of it, months ago, when he was drinking with Lu Nong, he had asked her about the reasons behind her marriage to the old man.

One of the disputes was over the pension. The two families fought over Gu Weiguo’s pension in front of Gu Weiguo’s spirit tablet. Neither family bothered to care for Lu Nong and her son, completely disregarding their dignity.

He heard that the two families calmed down after the old man arrived. Pei Zheng understood his biological father well. The old man likely married Lu Nong because he saw how she and her son were bullied by the Lu and Gu families.

Another reason was that her so-called brother wanted to marry her off to an old man for his own career. Pei Zheng felt a chill run down his spine. It wouldn’t be that brother, would it?

If it were truly him, it would make sense why Lu Nong didn’t want anything to do with them.

Aunt Wu didn’t have all the information. She knew even less than Pei Zheng did. Her impression of Lu Moxing was still from before the Li family moved overseas. After the Li family left, Lu Moxing never visited Aunt Wu at Li Garden again.

In addition, “Lu Nong” was not close to her at that time. When she went to take care of Lu Nong during her confinement, “Lu Nong” never revealed the fact that Lu Moxing sold his sister for personal gain. Lu Nong, who had traveled back in time, did not want to bother with the annoying Lu family. When she mentioned the reason for her marriage to Pei Ji’an, she only mentioned that the Lu family and the Gu family were fighting for the pension, and she glossed over other things without elaborating.

If Aunt Wu had known what Lu Moxing and his wife had been up to in recent years, she would have kicked them out long ago.

Although she didn’t know everything, Aunt Wu was a clever woman. She quickly noticed the odd atmosphere between Pei Zheng and Lu Nong attitudes. When she suggested inviting Lu Moxing’s family to dinner, Lu Nong deliberately steered her away.

Aunt Wu pondered this and said to Pei Zheng, “When you go out, keep an eye on Nong Nong. I feel like there’s something I’m not aware of.”

Pei Zheng nodded, formulating a plan in his mind. He boiled a kettle of scalding hot water, poured it into a thermos, and walked out to the living room.

“Here, have some tea.”

Pei Zheng unconsciously mimicked Lu Nong’s sly smile when she tricked others. He personally served a cup of tea to each of them. Lu Moxing, noticing Pei Zheng’s expectant expression, raised his cup to take a sip. “Ah, it’s so hot!”

He spilled most of the tea, burning his mouth and letting out a hiss as he inhaled sharply. Pei Zheng leisurely refilled his cup. “Oh, is the tea that hot?”

“It’s a bit hot,” Lu Moxing said with a forced smile, suspecting that the young master was intentionally messing with him.

After the steam evaporated from the tea, Pei Zheng would always add more boiling water just as they were about to take a sip. This confirmed Lu Moxing’s suspicion that Pei Zheng was indeed toying with their family.

Lu Moxing blamed his sister Lu Nong for getting on Pei Zheng’s bad side, which dragged their whole family into the mess. Just earlier, Pei Zheng had entered the kitchen, and Song Dalan had analyzed for him how Pei Zheng addressed Lu Nong without any honorifics. This indicated that Lu Nong held a very low status in the Pei household, at least not recognized by the stepson.

Lu Nong came downstairs with the IOU in hand, having calculated the total expenses in the bedroom. To her shock, she found that Lu Moxing and his wife had drained her of over five hundred and fifty yuan over the years, far more than the three hundred she initially estimated.

Not to mention that every time “Lu Nong” returned to her family with good food and drinks, everything ended up in their mouths. Song Dalan would also run to Lu Nong’s house from time to time to make sarcastic remarks, and when “Lun Nong” couldn’t stand it anymore, she would give her tickets and meat to get rid of her.

The more they were fed, the more they wanted. Lu Moxing and Song Dalan had become insatiable. “Lu Nong” had only served to whet their appetites.

Now that Lu Nong had changed, having ignored the Lu family for months, they were anxious and came knocking on her door.

With her personality completely transformed, Lu Nong showed no signs of nervousness about being discovered as not the “Lu Nong” they once knew. She was herself and didn’t fear being questioned.

In fact, she worried that her changes might not be noticeable enough and that her attitude might not be strong enough to convince Lu Moxing and his wife. She wanted them to know what it felt like to hurt. If they didn’t feel pain, they wouldn’t learn their lesson.

As soon as she reached the ground floor, Lu Nong carried herself with an air of authority, channeling the same energy as a powerful empress. She walked to the single armchair and sat down, looking down on Lu Moxing and his wife as if they were ants. “What do you want from me? Can you tell me now?”

Pei Zheng: “…” As expected of his stepmother, she’s really dramatic.

Lu Moxing momentarily forgot that Lu Nong was no longer the weak and easily bullied person she once was. He felt embarrassed and angry, thinking it was fine for Pei Zheng to make things difficult for him since he was genuinely a noble son, but who did Lu Nong think she was to talk to him like that?

Regaining his composure, he suppressed his anger and exchanged glances with his wife.

Song Dalan, who had originally looked dark and sullen, immediately switched to a flattering expression upon receiving her husband’s signal. With a sickly sweet smile, she said, “Sister, here’s the situation. You know your brother works at the factory’s union. Today, the old director retired, and your brother is quite likely to take over that position. However, he has a competitor whose family has connections. We can’t let them win, can we?”

“I talked it over with your brother, and we figured, it’s not like we don’t have connections. Brother-in-law’s connections are far stronger than that rival’s. Once he speaks, who wouldn’t listen, right?” After saying that, he smiled at Pei Zheng, praising his father, Pei Ji’an, indirectly complimenting Pei Zheng as well.

It was a subtle attempt to flatter both father and son, hoping to curry favor and gain some advantage through their influence.

The flattery was abundant and easy to come by. After years without seeing each other, Lu Moxing had long lost the image of the proud older brother in Lu Nong’s distant memories. That image had vanished the moment Lu Moxing abandoned his childhood sweetheart for the sake of his career.

Lu Nong flicked her nails and thought for a moment, saying, “When you want someone to help you, you need to show some attitude.”

“What do you mean?” Hearing that Lu Nong hadn’t outright refused, Lu Moxing, ignoring his embarrassment, hurriedly asked her.

“What I mean is that as siblings, we need to settle accounts clearly. Why should I help you?”

Lu Moxing was momentarily taken aback. He couldn’t adapt to Lu Nong’s sudden change in demeanor. After a long pause, he scanned her suspiciously and then glanced at Pei Zheng beside her, asking,”Will my brother-in-law listen to you?”

Lu Nong looked at him as if he were foolish. “Whether he listens to me or not, you’ll have to rely on my connections to get to Pei Ji’an. If I were to kick you out now, you won’t have a chance at all.”

Lu Moxing gritted his teeth. “You!”

“What do you want?”

“It would have been nice if you said that earlier,” Lu Nong rolled her eyes like a royal concubine. “I don’t want much, just three things. The first is my red bean jade pendant, which Mom took. I bet she must have given it to you.”

As soon as Lu Nong mentioned the first item, Song Dalan’s expression soured. Lu Nong was right, the red bean jade pendant was indeed in Song Dalan’s hands. It was given to her when she gave birth to her eldest son, Lu Wenqiang. At that time, Song Dalan believed that Mother Lu had valuable items. However, over the years, Mother Lu hadn’t produced anything worth money.

Deep down, Song Dalan didn’t want to return the pendant. She had long considered it her own and was even thinking of stealing the jade pendant from Lu Qing to pass on to her second son.

Now Lu Nong wants to take the red bean jade pendant back, the head of the family’s face wavers, and Song Dalan feels a pang of pain.

Seeing that the two were unwilling, Lu Nong added fuel to the fire and threatened insidiously: “You’d better return my things, otherwise, you will not only fail to accomplish your mission, but also end up in a bad situation.”

Lu Moxing was stunned. Is this really his innocent sister? Even before she lost her memory, her sister was at most a little bit spoiled and arrogant, and she was very innocent, not to mention that she became a little white rabbit sister after losing her memory.

Just a few days in the Pei family had turned her into someone so skilled at collecting gifts. It seemed that the Pei family operated this way. After realizing this, Lu Moxing felt relieved. He was most afraid that the Pei family was upright, which would mean his visit today had been pointless.

One could say the misunderstanding was enormous.

Lu Nong, as a heavy internet addict, portrayed her character perfectly. The joys of a net-addicted girl were endless.

“Okay, I promise you, what are the remaining two?” Lu Moxing reluctantly cut off his flesh.

It originally belonged to her, who was she trying to disgust by acting like that?

Lu Nong replied coldly, “The second item is the money your family owes me. We went to the district office to get it notarized before. If you don’t return the rent within five years, your house will belong to me. It’s been eight years, so where’s the money?”

“The third item is that over the years, you’ve borrowed more than five hundred and fifty yuan from me. I don’t want the change, just return me five hundred and fifty yuan.”

Lu Moxing wiped the nonexistent sweat from his forehead and awkwardly said, “I can give you the pendant and the five hundred yuan, but the money for the house…”

“Just use the house as collateral,” Lu Nong replied decisively.

Lu Moxing: “…”