Chapter 220: I Remember It Wasn’t This Hard Here Before
Chapter 220: Chapter 220: I Remember It Wasn’t This Hard Here Before
Shen Lu wasn’t annoyed in the least. She calmly forwarded the bill to Shen Lan.
Shen Lu: The bill is here. Be a dear and transfer the money.
Shen Lan: ...
Shen Lan: Shen Lu, you’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? This mysterious "big boss" is just something you made up! You’re the one who owns that shop!
Shen Lu: Made up? Shen Lan, have you forgotten? I was penniless when I was kicked out of the Shen Family. Where would I get the capital to open a shop? Of course I have a boss backing me.
Shen Lu: Are you going to pay or not? If you don’t, I’ll bring people to the Upper City District.
Shen Lan: Don’t you dare come to the Upper City District!!!
Shen Lan: [Transfer 100,000 Star Coins]
Shen Lan: I’ve now repaid every debt I owe the Liu Family! From now on, don’t come to me for a single coin, not even if Liu Qiang and Yang Jing are on their deathbeds, let alone Liu Yaozu!
Shen Lu immediately accepted the money. She was about to say "Thank you, milady," but found she’d already been blocked by Shen Lan.
’Fine. I got the hospital fees and managed to piss her off. If she wants to block me, she can block me.’
Shen Lan slumped onto her desk, fuming. It took her a long time to calm down.
’My life is so hard.’
’Why is life still so difficult even after I returned to my real family?’
Thinking back, she had only been truly happy for that short period right after she first returned to the Shen Family.
Back then, the Shen Family had pitied her for spending seventeen years as a lower-class citizen in the Lower City District and did their best to compensate her. Besides, she had Shen Lu, who was as dumb as a pig, to serve as her foil. With just a few petty tricks, she could easily win the attention and affection of the Shen Family.
Instead, after she went to all that trouble to kick Shen Lu out, her own life in the Shen Family had gotten worse by the day, while Shen Lu’s was flourishing.
’Could it be... that I was wrong?’
’Should I not have been in such a hurry to drive Shen Lu away?’
’No, I wasn’t wrong!’
’Shen Lu was a cuckoo in the nest. She was the one who should have left the Shen Family in the first place.’
’It’s just that all the money she had painstakingly saved was completely gone. There were still about ten days until her next allowance. How was she going to get by?’
AHHHH!
The Liu Family was truly detestable, especially Shen Lu. She was the absolute worst!
...
Liu Yaozu was successfully admitted to the hospital. He lay in bed, acting all high and mighty, ordering Yang Jing to do this and that without a moment’s rest.
It was painful for Shen Lu to watch. She turned to leave.
"Little Deer." Liu Qiang followed her, his face, previously wrinkled with worry about not having money for his son’s treatment, now smooth. "Since we have some time now, let’s go get your name changed, shall we?"
Shen Lu glanced sideways at him. "Did I ever agree to change my name?"
Liu Qiang was taken aback. "But the paternity test results are out. You really are our daughter."
"And what does that have to do with changing my name?"
"You’re our daughter, so of course you should take my last name."
"Is there a specific law that says so?"
This question stumped Liu Qiang, a man who was legally illiterate and hadn’t had much schooling.
"I... I don’t know."
"I’m quite satisfied with my current name and have no intention of changing it. Since there’s no law requiring it, let’s just not change it." Shen Lu curved her lips into a cold smile. "Besides, whether I change my name or not, we’re still family, aren’t we?"
’That seems to make some sense?’
Liu Qiang couldn’t quite put his finger on what was wrong, but he couldn’t find a way to rebut her either.
"You two just stay here and take care of my brother. I’ve been out for so long. If I don’t get back, my boss will start docking my pay."
Having found a perfectly reasonable excuse, Shen Lu made her escape. By the time she returned to the shop, it was already past five in the afternoon. She happened to run into Wang Xiaohui and the other two children, who were there to drop off scrap metal.
After she collected the materials, the system informed Shen Lu that all the parts for the malatang machine had been gathered. All she had to do was click to upgrade.
Shen Lu didn’t click it right away. Based on past experience, the upgrade would likely take some time. With the staff still around, it was better to wait until night.
Today, the three kids asked for Star Coins. Shen Lu paid them, and Wang Daguo led them away.
A little while later, a group of four including Xin Yu and Deng Ying also clocked out and left one by one.
Shen Lu rolled up her sleeves, went into the back kitchen to change her clothes, and got ready to make dinner.
Seeing her return, Cai Su asked about what had happened at noon.
"I had a paternity test done," Shen Lu said, sharpening a knife. "They are indeed my parents."
"Then..." Cai Su frowned slightly. She had been busy serving food at the time and had only caught a glimpse from a distance, so she wasn’t sure what kind of people the Liu Family were. But judging by Shen Lu’s current state, she didn’t seem happy about the successful family reunion.
"It’s going to be a headache," Shen Lu said after she finished sharpening the knife. She took out a piece of pork loin and began slicing it. On her way back, she had already decided to make Guo Bao Rou for dinner.
Since she was already making Guo Bao Rou, she might as well add Di San Xian, Da Ban Cai, and Jing Jiang Rou Si to the menu for a full Northeastern-style home-cooked meal.
Hearing Shen Lu say this, Cai Su understood.
It made sense when she thought about it. If they were decent family members, they wouldn’t have chosen that specific time and method to show up and claim kinship.
They were clearly trying to give Shen Lu no chance to refuse.
If Shen Lu hadn’t handled it properly, she could easily have been branded as unfilial.
After dinner, Shen Lu changed Fu Cheng’s dressings and casually mentioned how she had squeezed 100,000 Star Coins out of Shen Lan.
"She thought I wouldn’t guess who the mastermind behind all this was. She figured she could wash her hands of it by not showing up herself." Shen Lu scoffed. "So what if she blocked me? It’s not like I don’t know where the Shen Family lives. If I really wanted to find her, does she think I couldn’t?"
Fu Cheng: "Mm, she’s dumb."
Shen Lu wrung out a washcloth and wiped Fu Cheng’s chest with just the right amount of pressure. "I think so too. Just you wait. As long as the Liu Family keeps causing trouble, I’ll keep making trouble for her. No one gets to have an easy time."
After wiping a couple of times, Shen Lu’s movements paused. She gently pressed his muscles.
"Huh? I don’t remember it being this hard before."
The tips of Fu Cheng’s ears instantly turned red. He looked away, a little unnaturally, his muscles tensing involuntarily.
He said, quite embarrassed, "It’s the result of my physical therapy."
"Physical therapy?" Shen Lu was surprised. "Don’t you just lie in bed all day?"
Shen Lu was usually busy with her own affairs. She only came into the guest room for meals and to change his dressings, so she wasn’t very clear on what Fu Cheng did during the day. She had assumed he was just resting most of the time.
Fu Cheng didn’t know how to explain it to Shen Lu. Besides, he could only do upper-body exercises for now, which was why the results on his chest muscles were so obvious.
He had originally planned to wait until he could get out of bed to give Shen Lu a surprise. He hadn’t expected her to be so observant and notice the signs ahead of time.
Seeing his silence, Shen Lu thought she had said something wrong.
"Uh... is there anything I can help with? Why don’t you go to the hospital for proper physical therapy? Wouldn’t that be more effective?"
Fu Cheng’s glass-bead-like irises fixed on her. "Okay."
’The surprise plan failed,’ he thought. ’Might as well speed up my recovery then.’
After this period of recuperation, his severely damaged Spiritual Sea had recovered by a third. The mutant beast bacteria flowing through his body were mostly cleared out. Doing a moderate amount of physical therapy wouldn’t be a problem at all.