Chapter 6: Debt Collection

Ye Jiao quickly grabbed a kitchen knife and followed behind her sister, her short hair, round eyes and rough skin making her look mischievous.

Ye Qinglan turned her head and glanced at her: “Stay at home.”

“How can that be? Big Sister is going to collect debts, how can she not have a little brother to pave the way? That’s too lacking in style. I, Xiao Jiao, will pave the way for you.”

She waved the kitchen knife.

She was a very capable lackey, and even her nickname had been downgraded to “Xiao Jiao”.

Ye Qinglan rubbed her head gently, her voice soft: “Your legs are short, you run slow.”

Ye Jiao: “…”

“Sister~~”

“Even if you called me ancestor, it wouldn’t work.”

Immediately, Ye Jiao’s mouth pouted like an oil bottle.

Yang Wenying also wanted to go, and even suggested finding a few people from the factory to go together, more people would be more reassuring.

But Ye Qinglan left with a sentence: “You’ll just hold me back,” and went out the door.

Ye Qinglan walked about a mile, then pulled open the truck waiting at the crossroads. Her hidden bodyguard was waiting in the driver’s seat.

It took almost two hours to reach Daniu Village.

Even though it was her first time there, she didn’t need to ask for directions. She switched to the driver’s seat and drove the truck around the village for half a circle, accurately finding the location where Old Lady Ye and the others were. Only the sound of the truck attracted the attention of many villagers.

At that time, in the Ye family home, Ye Song was telling Old Lady Ye about the marriage with the supply and marketing cooperative director’s family.

He was afraid that Old Lady Ye would suspect him because of the high bride price, so he only said that the bride price was 150 yuan.

Ye Shujuan was unhappy when she heard this. 150 yuan? Who did they think they were? The accountant’s daughter in the village got married, and her husband’s family gave 200 yuan in bride price. Why was she only getting 150 yuan? That was too demeaning!

Ye Song glanced at her, disdainful in his heart. What did the accountant’s daughter look like, and what did you look like? Did you have no idea?

He didn’t want to argue with her about this, he just told Old Lady Ye:

“Grandma, the bride price given by the Cai family is not much, but they eat rationed grain, and they are the director of the supply and marketing cooperative. What good things can’t they get from the supply and marketing cooperative? When we get married, we will have bicycles and watches, and they will find a way to get a TV. A TV is such a rare thing! Our entire village doesn’t have one.

And their eldest son-in-law works in the city’s youth league office. The Cai family said that the eldest son-in-law will help get their son and daughter-in-law to work in the city in the future. If my aunt marries into their family, won’t she have a job and a household registration?”

The pie Ye Song painted made Ye Shujuan very tempted, but Old Lady Ye always felt that he was hiding something.

This grandson of hers was so sly and cunning. When her second son was still alive, he came back to celebrate the New Year one year. Because the New Year’s money he gave Ye Song was less than the previous year, this kid directly punctured his bicycle tire.

Shujuan was not kind to this kid, why would he be so concerned about her marriage?

“Knock, knock, knock—”

The knock on the door interrupted her thoughts.

Ye Lao Da’s wife went to open the door, and seeing a strange woman, she asked in confusion: “You, who are you?”

“Ye Qinglan!”

The woman said as she pushed Ye Lao Da’s wife inside, and told her to close the door.

Ye Lao Da’s wife was furious when she heard this. She was the one who injured her son!

She closed the door and shouted inside: “Mother, husband, there’s a thief!”

As soon as she shouted, there was a sound of banging inside the Ye family’s house, as if they were grabbing weapons.

The comrade in the truck shook his head, what kind of family were they?

Ye Song was holding a stool in his hand, thinking it was really a thief. When he saw it was Ye Qinglan, he was stunned, then angrily said: “Ye Qinglan, you dare to come to my house?!”

And she came alone. The next second, the stool swung towards her.

But before the stool could hit Ye Qinglan, it was knocked away by a snake whip.

The whip seemed to come alive, and then it wrapped around Ye Song’s neck. It was cold and icy. He looked down and only caught a glimpse of something that looked like snake skin before he was dragged in front of Ye Qinglan by the whip. Then, she dragged him into the main room.

“What are you doing! Let go of Song!”

“You heartless stinky girl!”

“…”

The whole family was yelling at each other, giving Ye Qinglan a headache.

“Shut up! If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll strangle him!” She tightened her grip on the whip, causing Ye Song to instinctively grab the whip around his neck, but he couldn’t pull it off. The lack of air forced him to stick out his tongue.

The noise in the room stopped abruptly.

At this time, Ye Qinglan held the whip in one hand and took out a list from her pocket:

“In May 1977, you borrowed 20 yuan from my family. In June 1977, Ye Shujuan took a pair of leather shoes from my family… On October 2, 1979, Ye Song and Ye Shujuan took four pounds of apples, two pounds of mooncakes, two pounds of white sugar, and one pound of meat from my family. I’ve calculated everything you’ve eaten and worn, and it totals 390 yuan!”

Old Lady Ye was about to say that she was dreaming, but then she heard Ye Qinglan continue:

“The coat on Ye Shujuan’s body is mine, and the pair of shoes she wore to my house yesterday are also evidence. If you don’t pay me back today, I’ll cripple Ye Song’s leg. Don’t even think about going to the police, my people are blocking your door, try to move a muscle!”

What kind of joke was this? They had eaten the food, and now they had to pay it back? That was ridiculous!

Crying, making a fuss, and hanging herself were Old Lady Ye’s tricks!

She immediately sat down on the ground, closed her eyes, and slapped her legs, starting to cry about how she had no money, and how Ye Qinglan was unfilial, blah blah blah.

Ye Qinglan didn’t want to see her act, so she changed her grip on Ye Song, swung the whip towards Ye Shujuan, and said: “For every cry you make, I’ll whip her once!”

The pain made Ye Shujuan hug her arm and scream as she ran far away.

Old Lady Ye stopped crying.

Then, she looked at Ye Lao Da: “Ye Rukun, you wouldn’t want your son to be crippled, would you?”

Ye Rukun definitely didn’t want that. He only had this one son, and he relied on his son to be successful and bring him wealth and luxury.

But where did he have the money? The family’s money was all controlled by the old woman.

Seeing that he didn’t move, Ye Qinglan kicked Ye Song’s knees, causing him to kneel down.

She stepped on Ye Song’s leg, the pain making him sweat profusely.

Ye Rukun had no doubt that she would break his son’s leg next. Where had this girl been all these years? Why was she so fierce, like a female demon?!

Ye Qinglan: “60, 59, 58…”

After only counting three numbers, Ye Rukun swiftly grabbed Ye Shujuan and choked her neck with the other hand. His movements were as swift as if he hadn’t been injured yesterday.

Old Lady Ye and Ye Shujuan were both shocked by his actions.

But Ye Rukun was very clear-headed at this moment. He immediately threatened Old Lady Ye, saying that if she didn’t pay the money, he would strangle Ye Shujuan.

Old Lady Ye wanted to pull Ye Rukun away, but his wife blocked her from getting close.

When she counted to 20, Old Lady Ye reluctantly went back to her room to get the money.

Ye Rukun and his wife had always thought that they didn’t have that much money at home, and they might have to give Ye Qinglan some food as well. Although they had made a lot of money from Yang Wenying in the past two years, and they had also received a lot of bride price when their daughter got married two years ago, their family’s expenses were high.

The old woman was reluctant to let her daughter suffer any injustice, so she provided very good food and drink at home, and the three of them also benefited a lot from it, otherwise they would have rebelled long ago.

But they didn’t expect that the old woman could actually take out 390 yuan in one go!

Suddenly spitting out so much money, Old Lady Ye felt like her heart was being ripped apart. She was unwilling to give up and tried to negotiate: “Lan Lan, we are all family. No matter what, I am your grandmother. It’s not right for your family to be so unfilial to me. How about 90 yuan? That 90 yuan is for your family’s filial piety to me, okay?”

Ye Qinglan snatched the money from her hand and said: “Stop being shameless! Look at the living people in my family, who has the obligation to be filial to you? Besides, are you even worthy?”

Then she let go of Ye Song and swaggered out of the Ye family’s main room.

Old Lady Ye was furious.

Ye Rukun wanted to attack her while she was turning around, but she was like she had eyes in the back of her head. She turned around and whipped him with the whip.

When Ye Qinglan came out, the neighbors were peeking out from their doors.

She glanced at them, then opened the truck door and got in. She didn’t leave immediately.

Through the courtyard wall, she saw Old Lady Ye scolding her eldest son, saying that he was heartless for choking his own sister.

Ye Shujuan was also crying, scolding her brother one moment and her sister-in-law the next.

Ye Song and his mother were looking at the injuries on their knees.

But soon, the scene changed. Ye Lao Da’s family of three forced Old Lady Ye to take out more money so they could go see a doctor. The whole family was arguing and making a mess.

On the way back to the city, the bodyguard, Comrade Xiao Chen, asked: “Aren’t you worried that they will go to the police and report you?”

After asking, he felt silly. Although he didn’t know Ye Qinglan’s true identity, a comrade who needed protection at such a young age must either be an important talent or a hero. No matter which one, if they encountered the Ye family, it wouldn’t be a problem even if they went to the police station.

“Worried about what? If they go to the police station, we’ll have to sort things out. But they’ll have to see if I give them the chance.”

Ye Qinglan wiped her whip while saying: “I’ll go to the post office tomorrow morning. I’ll return the car.”

“Okay.”

They soon reached the crossroads. She got out of the car and walked back.

No one noticed her when she left, but when she came back, she met the 403 hostess returning from the toilet. The rooms in the apartment building didn’t have toilets, so if you wanted to go to the bathroom, you either had to put a chamber pot in your house or go to the toilet in the yard downstairs.

Ye Qinglan nodded at her and pushed open her door. Ye Jiao and Yang Wenying were still awake. Seeing her return safe and sound, they both breathed a sigh of relief.

When she took out a stack of large unity bills, Ye Jiao’s mouth was wide enough to swallow an egg!

“Sister, you—”

She wanted to express her feelings, but Ye Qinglan didn’t give her the chance: “It’s late, you two go to sleep first. We’ll talk about it tomorrow if there’s anything. I’ll sit here for a while and then go wash up.”

Yang Wenying: “Why don’t you go wash up now? The water room is dark, I’ll go with you.”

“No need, Mom, you go to sleep first. I’m not afraid of the dark.”

What was darkness? She had spent many days in a three-square-meter dark room. According to Commander Xie, she had spent the same amount of time as Xiao Gu. She had never met Xiao Gu, but she had heard his name many times from others.

It was already midnight, and Yang Wenying had to go to work tomorrow, so she went to sleep with Ye Jiao.

Ye Qinglan sat in the chair, propped her chin on her hand, and quietly looked at the wall closest to 403. The 403 hostess was eavesdropping.