Chapter 15: Shocking Scandal

Mu Jiu received a group chat invite, but she only took a quick glance before exiting.

Then, with her small kettle filled with spirit spring water, she headed out to water the flowers and plants in the front yard.

After enduring years of torment in her previous life during the apocalypse, she’d long since seen through the fickleness of human nature. Mu Jiu had no interest in meddling in others’ affairs.

On the surface, this chaotic brawl looked like the butler division ganging up on one family.

But in truth, it was rooted in the deeper conflict throughout the entire hot spring resort: too many people, too little food. The butlers just concentrated everyone’s resentment and redirected the tension.

Even without the butlers, the villas would have eventually fought each other over food.

Mu Jiu wasn’t some government authority, let alone a savior.

She had no ties with these people—so the whole “rob the rich to help the poor” heroism was best left to those with ambition and a savior complex.

She just wanted to lie flat and quietly exist through the apocalypse as an invisible nobody.

As expected, the family lost—and lost horribly.

The elderly father was kicked to death trying to protect his family.

His middle-aged sons were beaten unconscious, vomiting blood.

The three younger grandsons had their arms broken—one even had his fingers chopped off…

Then came the women of the family, left lying in pools of blood, forced to endure the storm that followed.

The group chat’s livestream turned from bloody to outright sickening and depraved in an instant.

Mu Jiu didn’t watch. But in the newly formed chat group, she was suddenly spam-tagged by a swarm of people begging the “sickly granny” to come save the poor victims.

By the time she finished watering her plants, her phone was already blowing up with messages.

Soon, someone in the group took the moral high ground, saying that the capable should take more responsibility.

They argued that since Building 050 had the strength to save others but didn’t, she was no better than the attackers—a monster among monsters!

Immediately, a bunch of people chimed in in agreement, attempting to morally blackmail Mu Jiu.

But they were wrong—Mu Jiu had no interest in playing the moral game.

She tapped out a reply on her phone:

Youcanyouup, nocannobibi.

And exited the group.

Even though they all lived in the same hot spring resort, she hadn’t met a single one of them. At most, they were online acquaintances.

When she was publicly threatened by the butlers, not a single person spoke up for her—so what gave them the right to lecture her now?

But things weren’t over yet.

The butler division apparently found out later that the attacked family had been livestreaming.

So, they snapped photos of the aftermath and posted them in the big group that included all the butlers.

Dozens of gruesome injury and humiliation photos from that family were shared—used as a brutal, visual threat.

They also issued a public notice: obey the rules and hand in your food rations on time, or you’ll end up like them.

After seeing such filth, Mu Jiu immediately exited the main group too. She’d had enough of watching these scumbags perform daily.

In the days that followed, though Mu Jiu wasn’t in the group anymore, she still saw the butler division’s grain-collecting team appear outside various villas every morning.

They went door to door, and each villa—wanting to avoid trouble—handed over their daily food. The more they bowed their heads, the more they were bullied.

Mu Jiu’s side, however, remained calm and undisturbed for half a month.

During that time, the hot spring resort finally reached its breaking point—power and internet were shut off completely, putting an end to the WeChat groups for good.

Now, the butlers and residents had to communicate face-to-face like in the old days.

As a result, more people started going out during the day.

One afternoon, while Mu Jiu was watering her short golden osmanthus tree in the front yard, two strangers appeared outside her fence.

They looked around seventeen or eighteen—a boy and a girl. The boy was much taller than the girl.

Both had delicate features, like two beautiful porcelain dolls.

The boy carried a large bundle of firewood on his back, the girl a smaller one. They stood in front of her gate, nervously ringing her doorbell.

Mu Jiu had already seen them coming down the mountain from afar.

Tree-chopping was usually done by the butler division—why had these two gone up there alone?

More surprisingly, they dared to approach her.

This was the first time anyone had come to her door since she’d taught the butler division a lesson.

Mu Jiu didn’t open the door. She simply stood up, set her kettle aside, and asked, “What do you want?”

The two looked at each other. The boy said softly:

“Big sister, my mom is sick…

I wanted to ask if we could trade this firewood for two eggs, so I can make her brown sugar and egg soup to nourish her…”

“Which family are you from?” Mu Jiu walked closer to the gate and examined them.

The boy looked straight into her eyes and carefully replied:

“We’re from Building 8. My dad’s the owner of this resort…

My name is Gu Yang, and this is my sister, Gu Nuan.”

Nuan-Yang… Mu Jiu raised a brow. So these were the rumored “dragon-phoenix twins” from the chat group—the illegitimate kids!

Thinking back to that chaotic chat fight between the “boss’s wife” and Butler Chen Xiao two months ago, she figured their household couldn’t be doing well.

They’d offended the head butler, and without a man at home, it was only a matter of time before disaster struck.

Yet these two kids looked clean and well-fed, with pristine clothes and rosy faces—they seemed to be doing fine?

Maybe they brought enough supplies when they first moved in and weren’t harassed by the butlers?

But if they had supplies, why go up a mountain to gather firewood? In this weather, it was hard enough just to leave the house, let alone climb a mountain.

They’d freeze to death doing that.

“Big sister, is that okay?” Gu Yang asked softly, seeing her lost in thought.

Mu Jiu came back to her senses and glanced at their bundle—it was just a pile of brittle, fallen branches. Barely usable as fuel.

“No. I don’t need firewood. Not yours or the butlers’.

Go try someone else.”

She turned away. She didn’t want to set a precedent—once word got out, others would line up to beg with sob stories.

“Big sister… My mom was assaulted by that bastard Chen Xiao.

She got pregnant with his child…

But a few days ago, she was beaten while trying to protect us and miscarried after being slapped twice.

The butler division stole all our food and supplies…

My mom desperately needs nutrition now, or she’ll die. Please… help us.

We truly had no other choice but to come here.

My mom’s not a homewrecker! That bastard Chen Xiao spread all those lies just to destroy her reputation and get what he wanted.

He even confiscated all our phones—so we can’t speak out even if we had a hundred mouths.

Now everyone believes his lies and doubts my mother’s innocence…

Because of our identity, no one else in the resort will help us.

If you think the firewood isn’t enough, we can do something else. Anything. Please!”

Gu Yang clenched his fists and finally shouted in desperation.