RGL – Chapter 127

Biting back—Wenwen really was capable of something like that.

Thinking about how her own daughter had done something so disgraceful and even caused her to argue with Wang Mingsong, Gao Hong was starting to feel impatient with her daughter.

She’s already a grown-up—why can’t she be a little more sensible?

Over at Su Min’s home, they were also talking about Gao Hong and Wang Mingsong.

Sun Qiufang and Su Changrong were both shocked after hearing what their daughter had told them.

They hadn’t expected that even though Gao Hong and Su Changgui were already divorced and had nothing more to do with them, they’d still manage to clash with their family. And this time, it had blown up into such a big mess. In their view, they had never wronged Gao Hong—in fact, it was her family that had bullied Minzi time and again.

Besides, even if Gao Hong wanted revenge, she should be going after Changgui and Shao Min. What was the point of going to such lengths to get back at them?

But regardless of the reason, since Gao Hong’s husband happened to have met Zhang Lihong, and Zhang Lihong’s son also claimed it was him, then it was very likely this man had instigated Zhang Lihong to commit the sabotage against the supermarket. The problem was that this man was still at large, and no one knew when he might strike again.

Sun Qiufang said anxiously, “Changrong, what should we do? Should we report it to the police and get him arrested so Zhang Lihong can identify him?”

Now that Zhang Lihong was already in prison, and since there was no concrete evidence, even if they accused the man, as long as he denied everything, it wouldn’t hold up. In fact, he might even turn the tables on them.

Su Changrong shook his head. “We need to think this through.”

“What’s there to think about? If we keep hesitating, he’ll hurt us again!”

Sun Qiufang couldn’t stand the thought of someone who’d harmed their family still living a carefree life. She and Su Changrong had always been honest people and never thought about harming others. But that didn’t stop others from trying to harm them.

Su Min also knew this wasn’t going to be easy. These days, everything required solid evidence. Just like in Zhang Lihong’s case—if the security guard hadn’t seen her carrying flour into the supermarket, and if she hadn’t gotten flustered and confessed at the police station, they might never have been able to arrest her.

“Dad, Mom, I think that man was also there when we signed the contract with Manager Song the other day. I figure Manager Song might know him. I’ll go ask around and see what I can find out about him, then we’ll decide what to do.”

Su Changrong nodded. “Good, first figure out who he really is, then we’ll find a way to catch him.”

The next day, school was off for New Year’s Day. Thinking about how Wu Zhe and Ke Wan had helped so much during the Zhang Lihong incident—and also wanting to give them a New Year’s gift—Su Min had Sun Qiufang help her prepare a small jar of homemade pickles. She also bought some snacks and fruit, and picked out two sets of warm cotton clothes for Ruirui, before taking a cab to the Wu family home.

With the New Year holiday, Wu Zhe—being the boss—was also home for a rare day off, spending time with his wife and son. In addition to Sister Ping, they had recently hired another nanny to help care for the child.

When Su Min knocked on the door, it was the new nanny, Sister Zhang, who answered.

“Mr. and Mrs. Wu are both home. Let me take these things to the kitchen for you.”

Sister Zhang warmly offered to take the items from Su Min’s hands.

Although she hadn’t been working there long, she already knew that this young lady was a relative of the Wu family—and the Wu family didn’t have many relatives coming and going, so this one was considered a close one.

Su Min smiled and thanked her, then stepped into the Wu residence.

Sister Ping saw Su Min chatting and laughing with Sister Zhang at the door and didn’t look pleased. She had gotten along well with Su Min before, but had always felt a bit threatened by the newly hired Sister Zhang, fearing she might lose her job. Seeing Su Min being so friendly with the newcomer gave her a sense of betrayal.

When she saw Su Min coming in, she didn’t even greet her and just grabbed a cleaning cloth and went upstairs.

Su Min had come in with a smile, but was met with a cold shoulder. She was stunned for a moment, then felt a bit uncomfortable.

She always tried to get along with others and believed in being kind and harmonious, but if someone gave her a cold face, she certainly wouldn’t fawn over them.

In just a few seconds, she regained her composure and went upstairs to find Ke Wan.

“Sister Wan, I’m here,” she called out as she went up the stairs.

“I’m on the balcony.”

Hearing the voice, Su Min quickly walked over.

As soon as she reached the upstairs hallway, she saw Ke Wan sitting on the balcony reading a book.

When she saw Su Min arrive, Ke Wan put down her book and smiled. “I figured you’d come today. It’s a holiday, after all.”

Su Min came over and grabbed a chair to sit on, smiling. “Where are brother-in-law and Ruirui?”

“They’re napping. Ruirui’s been crying a lot at night lately, so your brother-in-law is helping. I’ve been really tired lately too, so with him around, I finally get to relax a bit.” Talking about her husband and child, Ke Wan’s face was full of happiness.

Su Min smiled. “Sister Wan, no matter what you say, I still need to thank you and brother-in-law. You helped us out so much this time. Without you, who knows what would’ve happened to our supermarket. If we hadn’t caught the person responsible, my parents might still be taking the blame.”

Ke Wan took a sip of her hot coffee, smiled, and said, “We’re family. When one of us is in trouble, of course the others should help. By the way, everything with your supermarket has been resolved now, right? Wu Zhe told me that employee was already in prison, and I even saw something about it in the paper.”

“Yes, she’s in prison now,” Su Min nodded. “She said someone instructed her, but she didn’t know who it was, so she couldn’t name them. So when the case was concluded, they had no choice but to convict her as the main perpetrator.”

“Someone else was behind it?” Ke Wan was surprised. Since she’d been busy with the baby lately, she hadn’t followed what happened afterward.

Su Min said, “But we’ve recently found out who that person is. Even though we don’t have solid proof yet, at least we know who it is now. That gives us an edge—better than us being in the open while he hides in the dark.”

Ke Wan was even more surprised to hear that. “You already know who it is? Do you know why they wanted to frame the supermarket?”

“It’s actually kind of complicated,” Su Min sighed lightly. If it were someone else, she wouldn’t have wanted to talk about the messy things at home. But now that Ke Wan didn’t treat her like an outsider, she didn’t hide anything from her and briefly summarized everything that had happened in her family.

“That really is complicated. Logically speaking, even if your third aunt got divorced, she shouldn’t have gone so far as to frame your family.”

Su Min nodded. “I thought so too and couldn’t quite figure it out. But my cousin has always been spoiled and will do anything to bring others down. So I suspect she may have had something to do with it. But we can’t be sure yet—this needs to be thoroughly investigated.”

“When do you even have time to investigate? You have class tomorrow, and don’t you have your finals coming up? Don’t let this stuff get in the way of your exams. I’ll have your brother-in-law ask around for you. His company has a lot of people and some influence, and this happened in their area. He might be able to dig something up.”

“That won’t do,” Su Min immediately objected. “We’ve already troubled him enough. Now that we have some leads, we can do our own investigating. He’s already really busy, and there’s no need to make him worry about our problems.”

Su Min had always disliked owing people favors. Even though Ke Wan truly treated her well, that didn’t mean she could endlessly accept her help.

Once or twice was fine, but if she always relied on Ke Wan and Wu Zhe, how could she still call herself a younger sister? She’d basically just be a burden.

Ke Wan rested her hand on the round table and smiled. “It’s not that big a deal. And besides, based on what you said, the people involved are connected to the company. Your brother-in-law checking things out would be much more effective than you doing it yourself.”

Su Min was about to decline again when a baby’s cry rang out from the direction of the bedroom. A moment later, Wu Zhe came out holding the child.

Wu Zhe had quickly warmed up to this suddenly appeared sister-in-law. Smiling, he greeted her while gently soothing his son. Seeing how clumsy he was, Ke Wan immediately went over to help care for the baby. After a while, Auntie Zhang came upstairs. A seasoned expert in childcare, she expertly felt the baby’s diaper and immediately carried him off to change it.

With all the commotion, Su Min didn’t get a chance to say her refusal out loud again.

At lunch, Su Min stayed and ate with Ke Wan and the family.

Elsewhere, Manager Song from the mall was also having lunch.

But this meal was anything but relaxing—he sat there feeling uneasy.

Across from him, Wang Mingsong kept pouring him wine. Manager Song held his glass with little interest and, after taking a small sip, said, “You’d better give up on that shop. I’m serious—it’s already been sold. It belongs to that supermarket now. Not even our big boss can take it back.”

“I thought it was supposed to be leased out—when did it get sold?” Wang Mingsong looked at him half in disbelief. He couldn’t believe things had slipped out of his control so quickly.

He had originally planned to rent that storefront, but someone else beat him to it. Fine. He then tried to sabotage the supermarket’s operations so they’d give it up—then he could swoop in. But Zhang Lihong had been caught, and the situation escalated. Now he couldn’t make another move and had no choice but to try persuading Manager Song. But hearing that the property had already been sold off—didn’t that mean all his recent scheming was in vain?

Wang Mingsong’s face darkened upon hearing the news.

Manager Song picked his teeth and chuckled. “Actually, there are plenty of other storefronts in this mall. If you want another one, I can maybe pull some strings. But don’t even think about the one belonging to Rongfang Supermarket. That woman is related to our boss—I wouldn’t dare mess with her.”

As he spoke, he took another sip of wine and tested the waters: “By the way, have you heard anything about what happened at the supermarket earlier?”

At those words, Wang Mingsong’s body instinctively tensed. He pressed his lips tightly together. “You mean the incident that was in the papers?”

“Yeah. No idea which bastard did it—almost caused a fatality. That female employee is already sentenced, and it’s not a light one. They say someone was behind it too. Who knows who it was.”

Wang Mingsong quickly responded, “Who knows, really? Anyway, let’s drink, let’s not talk about that.” He picked up the wine bottle and refilled Manager Song’s glass.

Manager Song squinted at him for a couple of seconds.

After that, Wang Mingsong didn’t dare bring up the store again. He just kept toasting Manager Song and finally arranged for someone to drive him home.

As soon as Manager Song staggered back upstairs and walked through the door, the drunk expression on his face vanished. He immediately picked up his home phone and reported the entire dinner conversation with Wang Mingsong to his boss.

Since the boss was already involved in the Su family’s affairs, there was no way his association with Wang Mingsong could stay hidden. Better to come clean early—maybe the boss would think he was honest and straightforward.

When Wu Zhe picked up the phone, his tone was serious. “Find another opportunity to ask again. But someone like him—you shouldn’t work with him anymore.”

“Yes, yes, I understand,” Manager Song agreed quickly.

After hanging up, Wu Zhe relayed what Manager Song had just said to Su Min. “Looks like if he really had a motive, it wasn’t personal—it was about your family’s store.”

“To go so far as to hurt people just for a storefront, and nearly cause a death… And from the looks of it, Wang Mingsong is still thinking about your family’s supermarket. Do you think he might try something again?” Ke Wan looked at Su Min with concern.

Wu Zhe frowned and thought for a moment before replying, “I’ll have Manager Song keep in touch with him. Su Min, you and your family should avoid him. Someone who can come up with such ruthless tactics isn’t a good person. You’re just a young girl—you can’t afford to get hurt.”

“Your brother-in-law is right. This kind of thing—you’re better off staying out of it,” Ke Wan added.

Su Min knew they were speaking for her own good, so she nodded quickly to reassure them. But deep down, she was still thinking about how to make Wang Mingsong reveal his true colors himself.

Since the weather was cold and she needed to head back early, Su Min said goodbye to Ke Wan after afternoon tea and took a taxi home.

That evening, Sun Qiufang and Sun Hai had agreed to have a nice family dinner. When Su Min got home, both Sun Hai and Grandma Sun were already there.

She thought about it but ultimately decided not to share the news she had just learned in front of everyone. Since nothing was confirmed yet, it was better to discuss it with her immediate family first before telling her uncle and the others.

Meanwhile, Grandma Sun was beaming with joy.

“Your eldest brother wrote a letter. He said he wants us to go back to our hometown for New Year’s. He said he’s cleaned up the house nicely and is even thinking about building a new one.”

She shared the news during dinner, her face full of smiles.

Her daughter and youngest son were both successful now. Only her eldest had always worried her, and she’d never been able to let go. But now things were finally looking up. Her eldest son was trying to live a better life and had matured—he no longer deferred everything to his wife. Yanzi was doing business with Minzi and earning money. Qiangzi had joined the military. The family was finally moving in a good direction.

After hearing this, Li Meng stayed silent.

Sun Qiufang glanced at her, then smiled and said, “It’s still early to talk about New Year’s. Changrong and I are both busy now, and Sun Hai’s shop just moved. We don’t know how things will look by then. Don’t stress about it, Mom.”

Grandma Sun laughed. “True, true. You all don’t have things settled yet. Alright, we’ll talk about it later. As long as the family’s doing well, that’s what matters.”

“Yes, yes—let’s eat,” Sun Qiufang said as she served Grandma Sun and then added food to her daughter’s plate too.

After dinner, Sun Qiufang pulled Li Meng into the kitchen.

She looked at her and said, “What Mom mentioned today—if you don’t like it, then just don’t worry about it. But don’t fight with Sun Hai again. The two of you have come a long way, and now that life is getting better, there’s no need to stir up more trouble.”

Li Meng sighed. “Sis, I’m not someone who holds grudges. I used to resent our older brother and sister-in-law—and even the kids a little. But it’s been so long, I don’t think that way anymore. If Mom and Sun Hai want to go back home for New Year’s, I’ll support them.”

After a pause, she lowered her voice and said, “Actually, there’s something I haven’t told you. I didn’t dare to.”

“What is it? So secretive.”

“Remember I went back to the county last time? I saw our sister-in-law on the street carrying groceries, walking beside a middle-aged man. He looked more refined than our brother. They were chatting and laughing as they walked. But your supermarket had just had that incident, so I didn’t say anything. And maybe I was just overthinking it.”