Xiao Qian arrived home to a pitch-black house.
Her mother was nowhere to be seen, probably gone to her uncle's house to cry, and her father wasn't home either, certainly off to play mahjong all night again.
Her younger brother, Chen Zilong, had not come back either, likely lost in a drunken stupor at an internet cafe.
Only the light in Chu Xue's room was still on.
Chu Xue had the audacity to stay here even after having turned a perfectly good home into this, and slept soundly.
Xiao Qian pondered for a bit.
Barging in to bash her with a stool or swear at her... Those things that might tarnish her own image, Xiao Qian would never do.
She despised people who resorted to violence when they encountered problems—problems that could be solved by using intelligence. She despised violence, it had no technical content. Xiao Qian thought about this as she walked upstairs.
Her parents' bedroom was vacant. She walked in calmly, wondering if her mother's phenolphthalein for constipation was still available...
She found the phenolphthalein, went downstairs, and calmly found Chu Xue's tea cup. She opened it, threw the pills in, and stirred it evenly with her finger.
Phenolphthalein, commonly known as "fruit guide" tablets, can make normal people have diarrhea. Of course, besides having diarrhea, there might also be a change in the color of urine. This could happen, but it might not happen for some people. These days, you really need to be well-read, knowledge is power indeed.
She went back upstairs. Seizing the opportunity of no one being at home, Xiao Qian started rummaging for the box.
She didn't know whether her father had hidden her admission notice or had torn it up.
Although it seemed like this item could be recovered, the paperwork and the rest were quite troublesome. It would be best if she could find it directly—school was starting in just half a month.
If she couldn't find the notice, her time would be limited; to find the school and prepare the paperwork, all of this would take time.
She turned things upside down but still couldn't find it. Xiao Qian sat on her parents' bed and thought about her father—how he might have sneaked Chu Xue up when her mother was out gossiping with people; the two of them "doing it" made Xiao Qian feel nauseous.
She wanted to wash her hands again. Xiao Qian stood up, thought about the fact that there was no soap in the house's washbasin, so she opened the cabinet. She remembered that her mother had a habit of using new bars of soap to scent the wardrobe.
There was a brand of soap called Sanxiao that was made with the scent of fresh flowers and fruits. It was one yuan per bar and had a strong scent, probably due to a lot of essence used. However, the scent faded after a while. Her mother loved this scent and all the wardrobes at home had a piece of it. The moment one opened the wardrobe, the scent would fill the room.
Opening the wardrobe, she found the soap box at the bottom. It was a special soap box, the kind that could hold two bars of soap. It was a promotional gift that Chen Lin had insisted the salespeople give her when she purchased goods.
She opened it. Xiao Qian wanted to take the soap, but, to her surprise, stumbled upon a piece of paper.
After unfolding it, Xiao Qian couldn't help but laugh.
She got it without any effort!
Unexpectedly, her dad had actually hidden her admission notice in a place like this!
Now that she had found this item, the ID card and the household registration book were the next things to find. She remembered that her mother kept all these documents in a shoebox on top of the wardrobe. She could sneak them out and secretly photocopy them tomorrow, and then return the household registration book.
Having done all this, Xiao Qian was about to walk out with the items when she suddenly turned around and got a fright.
A boy with a side parting and yellow-dyed bangs was standing at the door, looking at Xiao Qian suspiciously.
"Chen Xiao Qian! Are you stealing our dad's money?"
This was Chen Zilong, the playboy son of the Chen family. Even though their parents hoped he would grow into something great, he wasn't even comparable to a caterpillar.
Xiao Qian was startled by his sudden reappearance, but she quickly regained her composure and confidently strode over, "Are you projecting yourself onto me?"
This stinking kid skips classes, is addicted to online gaming, always steals money from his parents to go online, gets involved in fights at school, participates in social groups, his hippocampus is entirely replaced by muscles in his brain. He is reckless and loves to cause trouble. In a nutshell, he is a classic bad boy.
Xiao Qian scorned him.
Not only because he is a troublemaker, but more so because her parents have given all of their love to this boy, showing favouritism. Even to save money for his college, they hid her university admission notice.
But this boy quit high school before the examination, causing trouble outside, breaking someone's leg. The victim insisted he pay for it. Chen Lin couldn't pay, so he took the money from Xiao Qian. When Xiao Qian found out that Ni Jianren was an inhumane homosexual and tried to divorce him, Chen Lin stubbornly refused to consent to the divorce to pay off his son.
In retrospect, Chen Zilong, although being a bad guy, didn't seem to have directly harmed Xiao Qian. Her resentment towards him was more like a case of guilt by association.
In her past life, her brother had been so miserable that she even let him drive for her, paying him a few thousand dollars a month. It delighted him, and she loved the feeling of stepping on him and making him say thank you.
Seeing his sister ignore him, Chen Zilong grabbed her arm.
"Sis, can you give me 5 yuan for study materials?"
"You mean you don't have any money to stay at the internet cafe overnight?"
As if he genuinely wanted study materials.
Once his thoughts were exposed, Chen Zilong became evasive.
"Come with me to my room, I'll give it to you there."
"Thanks, sis!"
Xiao Qian scrounged a few coins from her piggy bank to give to him, considering it a hush-up in case he went to complain to their parents about her riffling through the household register.
Chen Zilong clutched the coins and was about to leave for an all-night binge online. He took a few steps, then seemed to remember something.
"Sis, I saw brother-in-law go into Binhai Hotel with another man. Are they going to play mahjong all night?"
The internet cafe was just across the hotel.
Xiao Qian pushed up her glasses, "Fool, who told you that they must be going to play mahjong if they go to a hotel?"
"If two men go to a hotel and don't play mahjong, what else can they do?" Chen Zilong was only 12 years old. Although he had sneakily watched adult videos behind their parents' backs, he had only seen ones involving men and women.
Videos of males with males were simply too heavy for his taste.
"Apart from playing mahjong, two men going to a hotel could also...pick up soap..."
She thanked her playboy brother for providing her with this information, as it concerned her future tuition fees.
"What?" Chen Zilong didn't understand what his sister was saying. He felt that his sister was different today, her eyes behind her glasses were extremely bright and it was rather eerie.
"You'll be hungry after staying up all night. I'll give you another 2 yuan, and you can buy yourself a pancake after your all-nighter." Xiao Qian took out another two yuan from her piggy bank.
Chen Zilong looked at his sister, dumbfounded, "Sis, are you feeling okay?"
She was not the usual indifferent sister. Why was she suddenly so nice to him?
"Are you leaving or not? If our parents come back and you're still here, they'll beat you!"
Ruining a person often starts with indulmentation. Unconditional coddling could thoroughly ruin a person. Xiao Qian smiled and stood by the window, watching her money-holding brother run happily towards the internet cafe.
Calculating the time span, that bitch and his lover should be opening their "special surprise" from her about now, right?
Hopefully, they will like it.