"What are you even talking about? There's no such thing at all!" The smile on Mu Yao's face crumbled, and she was cursing Mu Yue out loud in her head. Her eyes darted left and right, only to snap back into place the second they met the inquisitive gaze of her mom Jiang Yunfang. She then added dryly, "You're really good at cracking jokes."
Mu Yue stared at her and let out a meaningful, unreadable laugh. Mu Yao unconsciously took half a step back. Just then, Third Brother Mu stepped in to smooth things over, he warmly pulled Mu Yao a little further back and greeted everyone, "Come on now, no more standing around, let's head inside first."
"Sis, you've got so many things, let me help this big fellow carry some!" Mu Jun scurried over eagerly, picked up an elegantly packaged box to hold. But the second he got it in his hands, he realized it was a set of skincare products. He didn't know the brand, but his mom's eyes were already glued to the box.
Mu Yao rolled her eyes so hard they nearly got stuck. She thought to herself that Mu Jun was acting like such a sycophant, as if just holding the things for a little while would earn him a share of them!
Mu Yue didn't rush to go in. Instead, she said to her Third Aunt Jiang Yunfang, "Third Aunt, all these are gifts I got for you. You can go put them in your car first, so none of them get lost later."
All the Mu family members turned to look at Jiang Yunfang at once. Second Aunt and Mu Yao were the most visibly emotional, and oddly enough, Mu Yao was looking at her mom with clear displeasure.
"Little Yue, these are far too valuable, I can't possibly take them..." Jiang Yunfang never expected all these gifts were meant for her. She had assumed Mu Yue had prepared one small gift for every single person in the group, and the rest of the family had thought the exact same thing, that they would each get a share.
Mu Yue smiled and said, "Third Aunt, just accept them. If you won't take them, I'll leave right now."
"You silly child..." Jiang Yunfang had no way to say no to her, so she had to accept the gifts.
There were quite a lot of items. Jiang Yunfang's car was parked in the underground parking lot on this side, so she had to go there with Mu Yue's driver to stow all the gifts away carefully. Mu Jun didn't think much of it, so when the driver came over, he handed the box he had been holding back immediately, earning a sharp glare from his mom.
When Mu Yue's original parents passed away, Jiang Yunfang didn't take the original Mu Yue into her home on her own initiative. She knew she already had two kids of her own, and they were always bickering and fighting. If she brought the original Mu Yue back, the conflicts between the kids would only get worse. She simply didn't have enough time or energy to take good care of another child, but she did care for the original Mu Yue. She would slip her pocket money every now and then, and buy her new clothes. Later on, she noticed how upset Mu Yao would get over it, so she started giving those things to the original Mu Yue behind Mu Yao's back.
Once Jiang Yunfang was sent off, Mu Yue followed the rest of the family into the restaurant. Second Brother Mu and Third Brother Mu even pulled out a chair for her when they got to the private dining room.
"Yueyue, that car of yours... it can't be cheap, right?"
"It's a brand new car, isn't it? It looks like it's a really famous luxury brand..."
Mu Yue said, "Yeah, it's a Maybach. It costs over ten million."
The whole room let out a small, collective gasp. Every member of the Mu family had a different expression on their face. Mu Yue sat down calmly, taking in every single one of their reactions, then suddenly shifted her tone: "But what does that have to do with any of you?"
"Now that's a funny thing to say, we're family, aren't we? What's wrong with your two uncles asking a little?" The old man of the family wanted to fly into a rage, but he remembered what happened last time they met, so he could only force a strained smile as he spoke.
Mu Yue smiled back at him too. "No, that's not right. I'm not family with any of you. You all know that perfectly well, don't you?"
Everyone in the room was left speechless. There was no way to follow up on that line.
Mu Yao shot to her feet, furious. "Mu Yue, I've put up with you for so long! Do you think you're so amazing now? Ever since you walked in the door, every single thing you've said has been snide and sharp. You have zero manners, you really are so—"
"Unraised, with no upbringing, right?" Mu Yue glanced at every single person in the room. "I'm just doing what you all wanted, aren't I? You've spent years spreading rumors about me outside, saying exactly that. I'd be letting you down if I didn't live up to the persona you made for me. And besides, manners are for actual decent people. None of you qualify."
Holy crap!
The two waitresses who had come outside the private room to pour tea were making frantic eye contact with each other:
[666! That's such a brutal burn!]
[That girl's got a sharp tongue! I'm taking notes!]
"You, you little little wretch..." The old man was huffing and puffing, pointing a trembling finger at Mu Yue, looking like he was so angry he was about to pass out.
Mu Yue didn't let him finish yelling. She cut him off, perfectly calm and composed, "Old man, are you about to collapse and play the victim? Go right ahead. If you love lying down that much, don't worry, as your former granddaughter, I'll definitely make it worth your while, you can stay lying down for as long as you like."
After saying that, Mu Yue even cracked a mischievous, mean little grin.
The old man suddenly didn't feel like fainting at all. He huffed a few more times and steadied his breathing all on his own.
The whole Second Brother Mu family went quiet. Third Brother Mu was also deep in thought, wondering if what Second Brother Mu had told him before was actually true. The only one still jumping up and down was Mu Yao: "Mu Yue, you're way too arrogant!"
"Why shouldn't I be? Do you expect me to grovel and fawn over a bunch of leeches like you?" Mu Yue had meant that as a sarcastic remark, but to her shock, she saw Mu Yao and the rest of them all make faces that clearly said "that's exactly what you're supposed to do".
Whoa! Mu Yue was genuinely stunned.
Mu Yue asked, genuinely confused, "I really don't get it. Did all of you lose your memories? Or did you all lose your minds? You know perfectly well how you treated me back then. Where do you even get the nerve now to expect me to be all nice and sweet to you? On top of that, you even want to leech money and benefits off me? Do you all think I'm an idiot, or do you really just think you're that deserving of everything? If you're sick, you need to go get treatment as soon as possible!"
Mu Yue's words were so blunt that Mu Yao was so angry her chest was heaving up and down, and she was yelling out threats like "Mu Yue, you just wait and see". The rest of the family had all kinds of ugly, complicated expressions on their faces. Second Aunt and the old lady were moving their lips, gearing up to spit out a whole string of filthy, vulgar curses.
Mu Yue's face turned cold. She stared right at the two of them and said, "Try saying one single curse word. Just try me."
The two of them flinched so hard they swallowed all the curses they had been about to say. They remembered what happened the last time they met her. This girl is totally unhinged now, better not mess with her.
Mu Yue swept her gaze across the whole room. She thought, logically speaking, when someone you used to bully and exploit suddenly gets rich and powerful, the first reaction you should have is fear, right? You'd think they'd come back to get revenge on you.
But this group of shameless people was still standing right in front of her, thick-skinned as ever, still trying to take things from her. Mu Yue thought it over seriously and found the reason: they hadn't gotten hit hard enough yet. If you don't get a solid, real beating, you'll always hold onto stupid lucky hopes, even ridiculous delusions.
Right, I found the problem, I'll fix it, and become an even better version of myself!
Mu Yue immediately placed an order in her system shop for the new discounted item that had popped up for her—[10-Minute Professional Beatdown Service]: a professional team, highly skilled fighters, zero traceability, only 5 system points for one use. She selected the targets, and used the item right away. 5 minutes to mess the whole place up, 5 minutes to beat them up. This team isn't a character card, it's a utility item. It manifests as five big burly men, they move around completely unseen, vanish immediately after finishing the job, and there is zero evidence anyone could ever dig up.
Besides this straightforward, no-nonsense item, there are tons of other fun little trinkets, like bad luck talismans, (fake) ghost apparition talismans, nightmare talismans, stinky fart talismans and more. These little items are all cheap too, between 5 to 10 system points, and their effects last even longer than the straightforward physical items.
Mu Yue finished all her study tasks, and she's spent quite a bit of money lately, so she has 46 system points right now, more than enough to cover the costs. She'll hit them with a round of physical beating first, then follow it up with a round of those fun little "magic" items. Two-pronged attack, guaranteed to cure their nonsense for good.
It might seem a bit wasteful to spend anything on these people, but studying is tough, and everyone deserves a little fun and relaxation to unwind now and then. Besides, once she knocked some sense into their messed-up heads, they would finally stop popping up in front of her to get in her way.
"Huh? Why is everyone so quiet?" Jiang Yunfang walked in after putting her things away. "Have you all ordered the dishes already?"
Just then, Mu Yue stood up. "Aunt San, I have other things to take care of, so I'm heading out now. I won't stay for the meal. And as for the rest of you, today's Sunday, so you know what I mean by before 10 p.m., right?"
"Little Yue?!" Although Jiang Yunfang had no idea what had just happened, she could tell it was definitely nothing pleasant. She hurried a few steps after Mu Yue, pressed the birthday gift she had prepared for her long before into her hands, and was just about to say something more when Mu Yue waved her off and left with the present.
Mu Yue asked Qianqian to find a highly-rated restaurant, had a delicious meal there, then went straight home to get back to her studies. The Mu family, on the other hand, spent the entire noon cursing and ranting nonstop, spouting all sorts of vicious threats and cooking up one nasty scheme after another—like storming over to Mu Yue's school to make a scene, or dragging her into the news with moral blackmail. Jiang Yunfang tried her best to stop them, but they even started yelling at her too, calling her a traitor who was the only one getting all the benefits.
Jiang Yunfang felt drained and bitter. She could ignore what the others thought, but the worst part was that her own daughter Mu Yao felt exactly the same way.
But no sooner had they finished their ranting at the restaurant than the whole Mu family was left dumbfounded the moment they got home. Especially Second Brother Mu and his group: the two elderly Mu grandparents followed them back, only to find their front door pried open, and every single thing inside the house ransacked and wrecked—even the cockroaches hiding in the gaps of the cabinets didn't get spared.
And that wasn't even the end of it. Their loud yelling quickly turned into screams of pain. Five big men popped out of nowhere and started beating them all over, nonstop for a full five minutes. The neighbors heard their cries, some peeked through the crack of their doors to watch, but none of them dared step in to help. The moment the beating was over, the five big men ran off without a trace, and no one dared to stop them.
It was only after the men were completely gone that the neighbors came over. Amidst the family's constant "ow ow ow" groans of pain, the neighbors saw the devastated scene inside the house and gasped in shock. "Who on earth did you guys piss off to get treated like this?"
Who else could it possibly be?
When the police questioned her, Mu Yue looked perfectly innocent. "They messed with me at noon. Even if I wanted to hire people to do that, there's no way I could arrange it that fast, right? You can check my phone all you want, go ahead. What did I mean by 10 p.m.? And raising money? Well, I did say that, but what I meant was that if they don't pay back the money they owe me before 10 o'clock tonight, I'm going to get a lawyer to sue them for embezzling my property."
"Happy? Of course I'm happy. Those people have been occupying my house, embezzling my parents' insurance money, and mentally abusing me for years. Why on earth wouldn't I be happy when they got beaten up? If they got beaten half to death or maimed, I'd even clap my hands in cheer."
Mu Yue wore a bright smile on her face, glanced sideways at the Mu family members who were all black-and-blue and wrapped in bandages, then walked out of the police station completely unruffled.
As for the Mu family, they felt that the spring night was colder and more biting than winter. They were finally seized by fear and regret. It's all Third Brother Mu's fault! We all told her she wasn't just putting on an act, but she insisted on dragging her feet. If we'd just moved out and raised the money properly, we wouldn't have suffered all these losses and gotten beaten for no reason!
The worst part was, they had obviously pissed this little demon off now, and no one knew if there'd be a second or third round of this.
Meanwhile, Third Brother Mu, who was being cursed out by the entire Second Brother Mu's family, was also at his wits' end. Mu Yao had to return to school that night, and she'd gotten into a fight with her classmates. According to the teacher, Mu Yao had behaved so badly that she was going to get a major demerit on her record.
By the time he rushed over to the school, Mu Yao was still spouting nonsense, hurling insults at the teacher, the dean, and every single person who had witnessed the incident but refused to side with her. She's gone crazy! What on earth is she throwing a fit over? How could she say such things out loud in front of everyone?
That night, the entire Mu family was destined to have no sleep at all, while Mu Yue had already fallen into a deep, peaceful slumber early on.
