Chapter 2: I won’t pay for any more, but I’ll call the police if I pay less

Jiang Peiyu turned her head and looked—Madam Xia was forty-eight this year, her hair curled in the most fashionable perm of the time. Her lips were painted red, eyebrows neatly drawn. She wore a deep lake-blue dress and black leather chunky-heeled sandals. Around her neck and ears were white pearl necklaces and earrings. On the hand holding the bowl was an oversized pearl ring. Hmm, Jiang Peiyu thought her whole look screamed nouveau riche.

“You’re awake? Good. Just rest well for the next couple of days.”
“The day after tomorrow, you must leave our house. I’ll have a driver send you back to your biological parents in the countryside.”

Chen Hui handed her a bowl of sweet boiled eggs and sat down on a stool by the bed.

“You’re no longer our daughter. We raised you for twenty-two years. That’s already enough.”
“Don’t think you can stay in our house just because you feel like it. You hear me?”

“I hear you…” Jiang Peiyu was genuinely hungry and ate the eggs in big mouthfuls, lazily responding.

“And don’t say we’re being heartless. You can take your belongings with you.”
“We’ll give you 200 yuan. Don’t ask for anything else.”

Jiang Peiyu thought to herself for a moment and then spoke up.

“No way. Two hundred? That’s what you give to beggars. I ended up in this bed because your biological daughter pushed me.”
“I’m not asking for much. Two thousand yuan. Or I’ll call the police.”

“You… you ungrateful wretch! We gave you the best of everything for twenty-two years, and this is how you treat us?”

Hearing the demand for two thousand yuan, Chen Hui stood up in anger, pointing at Jiang Peiyu and cursing.

“Oh, Auntie, don’t be mad. I’m just following your example.”
“You raised me for twenty-two years, and now just because I’m not your biological child, you’re throwing me away…”
“You’re kicking me back to the countryside, and I’m supposed to thank you for that?”
“Two thousand yuan. Not a penny more, not a penny less. Give me the money, and I’ll leave.”

“You… You enjoyed twenty-two years of luxury that was meant for my daughter. What more do you want…”
“My daughter should have been cherished her whole life, but she ended up suffering in the countryside for twenty-two years instead of you…”

Thinking about it, Chen Hui was overwhelmed with pain.

“Right, it was a hard life. No wonder she’s so love-starved…”
“People in the countryside could barely get enough to eat, yet she managed to weigh over 120 jin (about 60kg).”
“Even the pigs during New Year’s probably weren’t as fat as her…”

“You…” Chen Hui was so enraged by Jiang Peiyu’s shamelessness that she was speechless. She turned and stormed out, slamming the door behind her with a loud bang.

Jiang Peiyu wasn’t worried at all. She continued happily eating the eggs in her bowl.

She didn’t know exactly how much money the family had, but for a textile factory director’s household, 2,000 yuan was no big deal.

In fact, she already knew that at first, Xia Zhihao had wanted to keep the original Jiang Peiyu and raise both daughters together. But how could Xia Lizhu tolerate that? She plotted against her at every turn.

The original Jiang Peiyu was a spoiled young lady, no match for Xia Lizhu, who kept framing her. Over time, Xia Zhihao and Chen Hui naturally began to favor their biological daughter.

Maybe the original Jiang Peiyu didn’t understand why Xia Lizhu was targeting her, but Jiang Peiyu, who had transmigrated here, understood clearly.

There was only one possibility—Xia Lizhu had been reborn.

Otherwise, how could a country girl with just a high school education possibly know the truth about her own identity and even track down Xia Zhihao?

The next evening, Chen Hui pushed open Jiang Peiyu’s bedroom door again and tossed an envelope in front of her.

“Here’s 2,000 yuan. Take it and get out.”
“By the time we get back tomorrow afternoon, I don’t want to see you here.”

Without waiting for her reaction, she stomped off in her heels, still fuming.

“Wahaha… I got the money! Two thousand yuan!”

In the 1980s, when the average worker’s salary was only forty to fifty yuan per month, two thousand was equivalent to three and a half years of wages.

“I’m rich, I’m rich, I don’t even know how to spend it all…”

“I’ll hold a Nokia in my left hand and a Motorola in my right. I’ll switch numbers daily with China Mobile, China Unicom, and Xiao Ling Tong…”
“I’ll eat clams with beer, ride in a Benz, and drive a BMW…”

Jiang Peiyu hummed cheerfully as she counted the money over and over, at least ten times. After that, she hummed again while crawling out of bed, pulling two large suitcases out from underneath.

She began packing, carefully stuffing in all the pretty clothes, dresses, shoes, bags, and jewelry—she wasn’t going to leave Xia Lizhu a single thing.

Not that she could wear them anyway. With her height of 158 cm and weight of 120 jin, well… let’s just say it’s hopeless.

Once her suitcases were packed, she opened the second drawer of her desk and found a metal cookie tin.

Inside were the original owner’s secret savings along with some ration coupons—for food, meat, and cloth.

Jiang Peiyu counted it up: 262.50 yuan. Jackpot.

There was also a vintage women’s gold watch. It looked beautiful on her wrist.

Then she stuffed all the old books from childhood into a burlap sack and dragged them to the recycling station—two fen per jin—and got 2.40 yuan.

She wasn’t going to let go of any chance to scrounge up some cash.

She also knew where Chen Hui hid her own private stash—a place the original Jiang Peiyu had stumbled upon.

Knowing that money was used to help Chen Hui’s own family, she had kept quiet about it before.

The next day, she slept until nearly noon. When she got up, she dragged her two suitcases into the living room—no one else was home.

Perfect timing. Jiang Peiyu quietly crept upstairs and opened the attic door. In a box, she found Chen Hui’s stash of secret money—hundreds, fifties, tens… big and small bills added up to over 2,800 yuan.

In that instant, Jiang Peiyu could practically see a flock of “WTFs” flying across her mind.

“Damn! I regret it—I should’ve asked for 4,000, not just 2,000…”
“Oh well, I’ll just consider this stash as extra compensation. Besides, even if Chen Hui realizes the money’s gone, she wouldn’t dare report it.”

Xia Zhihao, the factory director, was a typical chauvinistic man—what he said at the factory was law, and at home it was the same.

If he found out Chen Hui had saved up that much money to secretly support her natal family, it would definitely lead to a huge fight, maybe even divorce.

So with this money missing, Chen Hui would have to swallow the loss in silence. She wouldn’t dare say a word, because if Xia Zhihao found out, she’d be in deep trouble.

Stuffing the cash into her pocket, Jiang Peiyu happily went downstairs. She rummaged through the kitchen, pulled out some noodles, and cooked herself a bowl, cracking in three eggs.

It was delicious—absolutely satisfying. She didn’t feel the slightest bit guilty. If she had the strength, she would’ve packed up all the noodles, rice, and eggs from the kitchen and taken them with her.

After finishing the noodles, she casually placed the bowl on the table, wiped her mouth, stretched her limbs, and then swaggered out the door with her two large suitcases.

“Huh? Didn’t they say they’d send a driver to take me back to the countryside? Where’s the car?”

She set down her suitcases and looked around. No car. No driver.

But she did see someone she really didn’t want to see.

“Peiyu.”

The person approaching was the original owner’s fiancé—Wang Shengjie, son of the director of the machinery factory. He was slowly walking toward her from the side.