Chapter 25 : Insidious Calculation

Su Xieqiu was caught off guard when she opened the door.  

Yang Lanhua and the others hadn’t expected her to have a stick in her hand, and they were unprepared.  

Yang Lanhua dodged and fell to the ground, so the stick didn’t hit her, but Han Meili and Zhang Qianyun weren’t so lucky.  

One was struck on the head, and the other on the shoulder. Both squatted on the ground, screaming in pain.  

Han Zhenmin was stunned by her sudden action. After a brief pause, he stepped forward to intervene.  

But Su Xieqiu pointed the stick at him and warned, “If you dare to come closer, I’ll call you a hooligan.”  

“You… you’re shameless…” Han Zhenmin’s face flushed red, and he froze, too afraid to move, fearing he’d be labeled a hooligan.  

Su Xieqiu sneered, looking at him with disdain. “You’re the shameless one. My husband isn’t home, and so many of you come to bully me, a weak woman. How shameless can you be?”  

Hearing this, Yang Lanhua, enraged by the accusation, scrambled to her feet, ready to tear into her.  

Su Xieqiu knew she couldn’t fight Yang Lanhua barehanded. The old woman was strong and used to farm work, she couldn’t win in a direct confrontation.  

But this time, she wasn’t going to run for help like she had before. If she didn’t make a decisive move now, such incidents would only continue after Han Zhenyu left.  

She decided to take a bold approach to intimidate them.  

Turning to the kitchen, she first smashed a pile of bowls and then struck a large hole in the cooking pot with her stick.  

Hearing the commotion, Yang Lanhua rushed to the kitchen and was so distressed by the destruction that she nearly fainted.  

“You damned little bitch, I’ll kill you today!”  

Su Xieqiu laughed maniacally and lit a match, pretending to set the house on fire. “Come on, you want to kill me, right? Then today, I’ll die with your whole family. With so many of you as scapegoats, my death will be worth it.”  

The crackling sound of the match made Yang Lanhua’s heart tremble.  

When Su Xieqiu moved to toss the match into the pile of firewood, Yang Lanhua screamed and lunged to grab the lit match from her.  

Su Xieqiu deliberately loosened her grip, letting the match fall into Yang Lanhua’s hand.  

With trembling hands, Yang Lanhua pointed at Su Xieqiu and stammered, “You… you lunatic…”  

Su Xieqiu chuckled sinisterly, her gaze cold and piercing. “So what if you snatched it this time? Can you keep an eye on me every day? Do you plan not to sleep at night? Let me tell you, one day I will burn this house down. And it’d be best if all of you were burned to death with it. Only then will the hatred in my heart be eased. Hahahahahahaha…”  

At this point, Han Zhenmin, Zhang Qianyun, Han Meili, and the others ran into the kitchen.  

Seeing Su Xieqiu’s crazed demeanor, they swallowed hard in fear.  

Yang Lanhua stared at her for a long moment before silently walking out of the kitchen, clutching the box of matches tightly.  

She concluded that Su Xieqiu had gone mad and might actually burn the house down, so she didn’t dare provoke her any further.  

Su Xieqiu waited until they returned to the main room before retreating to her own room.  

Leaning against the door, she listened carefully. When she heard no further movement from the main room, she sighed.  

Her act of madness had likely frightened the old woman, but Su Xieqiu knew this wasn’t a permanent solution.  

Yang Lanhua was cunning and would surely find other ways to deal with her in the future. It seemed she needed to figure out how to split the family tonight.  

In the main room, Yang Lanhua sat in silence, deep in thought, while the other three were still shaken by what had just happened.  

After a long pause, Yang Lanhua finally spoke. “Stop sitting there in a daze. Meili, Qianyun, go boil some water and start preparing dinner.”  

“Mom, that bitch smashed the pot. How are we supposed to cook?” Han Meili glanced toward Su Xieqiu’s room and cursed angrily.  

“Use the casserole for now.”  

As Han Meili and Zhang Qianyun headed to the kitchen, Yang Lanhua signaled to her youngest son, and the two quietly slipped into the inner room.  

“Zhenmin, I think that woman has truly gone crazy. In the past, she’d tremble in fear just from my glare. Now, it’s like she’s a completely different person,” Yang Lanhua murmured in a low voice.  

Han Zhenmin also felt that Su Xieqiu wasn’t in a good state. That crazy look in her eyes seemed to be genuine.  

If his mother hadn’t moved quickly, the matches she was holding would have fallen onto the woodpile.  

But to say she was crazy, Han Zhenmin didn’t think so.  

Although the woman was unreasonable, her words were clear and logical, and her insults were well-organized. How could such a person be crazy?  

After thinking for a while, he said, “Mom, I don’t think Su Xieqiu is really crazy. She must have been bullied by her younger sister and second sister-in-law in the past. Now that Han Zhenyu is back, she feels like she has a backer, so she dares to act so arrogantly.”  

“What should we do now? Should we just let it go like this?” Yang Lanhua asked, unwilling to accept it as she still hadn’t gotten the 50 yuan back.  

That little bitch had just smashed the only iron pot in the house.  

It had taken a lot of effort to buy that pot. She had saved up coupons for a year or two and used her connections to finally get it.  

But now it was ruined. She had hit it with a stick, and there was a large hole right in the middle of it, which would be hard to fix.  

Han Zhenmin clenched his fists and said viciously, “Mom, don’t worry. Han Zhenyu won’t stay at home for long. He’ll definitely go out to fool around again. We’ll deal with that bitch once he leaves.”  

Yang Lanhua felt her son’s words made sense. She squinted her triangular eyes and whispered, “I don’t know who has the 50 yuan. If it’s in the hands of those gangsters, it might not be so easy to get it back.”  

When Han Zhenmin heard his mother talk about the 50 yuan, his heart ached, and he felt like blood was dripping from his mouth.  

He asked, “Mom, how much money do we have left? I’m about to graduate, and if I stay in the city, I’m afraid I’ll need some money for things.”  

When Yang Lanhua heard that her son might stay in the city, she happily asked, “Zhenmin, how much money do you need to stay in the city?”  

Han Zhenmin held up two fingers and said, “Pei Lian said it would cost at least 200 yuan, and that’s because of his father’s connections. If it weren’t for his parents’ help, I wouldn’t have any chance to stay in the city.”  

When Yang Lanhua heard that it would cost so much money, she frowned. But she also knew that if he could really get into the textile factory in the city, 200 yuan wouldn’t be too much.  

She hesitated for a moment, got up, and closed the door to the inner room. Then she whispered,  

“There are only 50 yuan left at home, but we still have some old things. Your father and I got them when we were playing Landlord. I’ll ask your father and second brother to go to the black market in the city in a few days and see what price they can get for them.”  

Han Zhenmin’s eyes lit up when he heard this. He didn’t expect his family had some wealth. He asked excitedly, “Mom, what good stuff did you and Dad get? How much is it worth?”  

“Not much. A few years ago, there was a famine, and your father went to the black market to exchange food several times. Now, he only has two large yellow croakers and a few Yuan Datou coins.”  

Han Zhenmin’s eyes sparkled, and he smiled, “Mom, I’m familiar with the city. How about I go with Dad tomorrow? Second brother still has to work, so it wouldn’t be worth asking him to take leave.”  

Yang Lanhua was about to nod in agreement when Han Meili suddenly ran over and said anxiously, “Mom, one chicken is missing!”