Chapter 14: This Kind of Family Is No Different from Vampires

The neighbors were whispering among themselves when Wang Shufen just happened to come rushing out, and the two police officers followed behind.

She heard the tail end of their gossip and immediately felt a chill of fear.

Because when she was still in the village, she had heard the old folks say these kinds of things.

She had really heard stories about ghosts following people back home. So now, fear gripped her heart as she kept swallowing nervously.

The two police officers were about to leave when Lu Minghua chased after them.
“Aren’t you going to do anything about this?”

“We’ll do our best to investigate,” one of the officers replied. “But as you all said, it’s possible something supernatural is involved. The keys were clearly at home, but the money and items just disappeared for no reason.”

“If we find anything from the investigation, we’ll let you know.”

That was just an excuse. After saying that, the two of them quickly walked away, as if afraid of getting caught up in some unclean business.

Once they had gone quite a distance, one of the officers finally spoke up.
“That family really is cursed. We’ve handled so many cases, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Exactly. I’ve never seen a situation like this either. What kind of terrible luck must they have?”

“Or maybe,” the other officer said after a pause, “maybe it’s not just bad luck… maybe they did something awful to bring this on.”

After that comment, both of them quickly shook their heads. As people’s police, they served the public—this kind of thing shouldn’t be said lightly.

Back at the house, Wang Shufen was genuinely shaken by the neighbors’ gossip. She liked her younger son, yes, but she didn’t want his ghost hanging around!

Ghosts were terrifying!

After thinking for a moment, she quickly bowed toward all directions and muttered,
“Zhoushan, now that you’re gone, you should rest in peace. Just stay down there quietly. We’ll burn you spirit money.”

“But if you really did take the 500 yuan of pension money, please give it back. Otherwise, your dad and I will have nothing left. The house has been emptied! If there’s no money, are you trying to drive your parents to death? We wouldn’t even have money to burn you offerings!”

She sobbed as she spoke.

Lu Minghua, after seeing the officers off, went back inside and slumped down into a chair.

The whole house had been ransacked, and the 500 yuan of pension—the money they had exchanged for the life of their favorite son—was gone too.

They had hoped to buy some furniture, make do for a while, and wait for the older son to return, marry a wife, and the couple could take care of them.

But now even that hope was gone.

They didn’t know when the elder son would come back, and after this incident, the neighbors probably wouldn’t lend them a cent.

What were they supposed to do now?

Were they supposed to just fend for themselves until they starved?

If they had known the money would go missing, they never should’ve said those harsh words yesterday. They should’ve just kept Gu Qiangwei around!

Now, even having a meal was a problem.

The couple was enveloped in despair.

—

Meanwhile, Gu Qiangwei, after seeing the officers out, lay down on the sofa.

She had left the keys in her room last night—so long as they were still there, no one could frame her.

And truth be told, she didn’t even know where the money had gone.

Even if the police got involved, they’d never be able to figure it out in this lifetime.

As long as there was no solid evidence proving she stole the money, she was in the clear.

Who would guess that she had a space (dimension)?

And this space had been an enormous help to her.

After lying on the couch for a bit, Gu Qiangwei remembered she still lacked some daily necessities, so she went out and used some money to buy everything she needed—new toiletries, a fresh bedsheet and duvet cover.

Anything she could use, she bought new again. Then she rolled up her sleeves and started cleaning.

After thoroughly tidying the place, she looked at the newly changed sofa cushions, the throw pillows on them, the fresh coffee table, and the fruit on the table—her lips curled into a smile.

From now on, she could live here however she liked. She didn’t need to care about anyone from the Lu family.

Let them rot on their own!

Right now, everyone thought the one who died was Lu Zhoushan. Sooner or later, those two old fools would learn the truth.

And so what?

To her, Lu Qingming was finally free.

Having parents like that—it’d be better not to have them at all.

In the next life, please don’t be born into a family like that again.

Families like that are no different from vampires!

—

She stayed home for another day, then the next morning, Gu Qiangwei went to the shop on Longting Street, where she ran into Su Qingshuang again.

“Sorry I didn’t come by yesterday, something came up at home.”

Gu Qiangwei smiled, but Su Qingshuang immediately waved her hands.
“If something came up, of course you should handle that first! Look, I finished the rest of what you left behind yesterday. Impressive, right?”

Gu Qiangwei had finished about two-thirds of the paint job that day, and Su Qingshuang had taken care of the rest by herself yesterday.

Seeing how naturally Su Qingshuang linked arms with her and how comfortably they chatted, Gu Qiangwei couldn’t help but recall memories from her past life.

“I already contacted the garment factory to produce the first batch of clothes. They’re also making us some racks for hanging the clothes, just like we discussed in the renovation plan.”

“At our current pace, once the shop is ready, the clothes will arrive right on time.”

Su Qingshuang rubbed her chin in thought.
“We should be able to open by the beginning of next month.”

This timeline wasn’t much different from her past life. The only difference was that last time she had been truly heartbroken over Lu Zhoushan’s death.

It had taken her a while to recover before she was ready to focus on work again.

But this time, she had thrown herself into work right away—she couldn’t care less about Lu Zhoushan’s death.

“I think we can run a small promotion when we open,” Gu Qiangwei suggested, “like a 20% discount or a spend-more-save-more deal.”

They had experimented with many things in their past life, and these were proven strategies that had worked.

Once the business picked up, they could even introduce a prepaid recharge model.

The more customers recharged, the more rewards they’d receive—this would drive up their desire to shop, and sales would climb.

As Gu Qiangwei offered her ideas, Su Qingshuang gave her a thumbs-up.

“You’re full of good ideas,” she said. Then, after thinking for a moment, added,
“I think your mind works really well. The first batch of clothes is based on designs I drew earlier—once they’re done, how about I take you to the factory to check things out?”

“Maybe you can give me some suggestions. We’ll improve what we can and make sure everything looks perfect when we open!”

Su Qingshuang felt that although she hadn’t known Gu Qiangwei for very long, she had already discovered many talents in her.

Like the time they just found the shop space, and Gu Qiangwei immediately drew up a design plan for the clothing store’s interior.