Seeing his little sister on the verge of a complete breakdown, Xie Changyu hugged his skink and rolled his eyes at her.
“The moment homework comes up, your brain goes offline. This is a society governed by law—where would we even get a profession like assassin?”
Xie Tangning was too immersed in the sorrow of having to do homework to argue back, but Lu Huaiyu immediately chimed in, lazily roasting him.
“Then go find an ancient-style romance novel and leave a couple of nasty comments in the section. Maybe you’ll accidentally transmigrate into the book. Wouldn’t that give you your assassin career?”
Xie Changyu bared his teeth in fright. “Big Bro, stop saying things like that! You have to avoid tempting fate, you know?”
“To prevent that kind of accident, no ancient-style romance novels are allowed anywhere near me for a long, long time!”
With that, he tossed his beloved skink into his eldest brother’s arms.
Then he turned around and began frantically messaging all his friends, even bombarding the estate’s employee group chat with notifications.
Everyone he bombarded exclaimed that their perfectly normal, strapping young friend had suddenly gone crazy.
Blue-Tongued Skink: Does your master still want me?
Lu Huaiyu was already used to his idiot little brother’s antics. Holding the skink, he turned around and resumed his “battle of wits” with Xie Tangning.
“Come on, get up~ Our family’s best all-around student~ Hurry, hurry. Even if you sit here all night, it won’t help. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll be free~”
Xie Tangning’s eyes darted around as another mischievous idea began brewing in her mind. Whenever she got the chance, she loved digging a pit for her brother to fall into.
“Big Bro, can I ask you one question before I go do that blasted homework?”
Lu Huaiyu had been her brother for more than a decade. How could he not see the little knot of hesitation in her heart?
Still, he was happy to play along. Teasing his little sister was an essential part of his after-work entertainment.
“Ask away. I can’t guarantee I’ll answer, though.”
Xie Tangning asked with an utterly serious expression, “We make money so we can enjoy life better, right?”
She looked as if she were asking one of the great questions of the universe.
Lu Huaiyu immediately burst out laughing. So that was the angle she was taking!
“Not really. I work so hard to make money purely to clean up after two idiots who don’t know when to quit provoking people and keep making enemies everywhere!”
“What enjoyment am I getting out of life? None! I’m simply paying for some peace and quiet!”
Her eldest brother had refused to follow the script, leaving Xie Tangning’s mind suddenly blank.
“Big Bro, couldn’t you cooperate with me just this once?!”
Her puffed-up expression looked exactly like his little golden toad, and Lu Huaiyu found it hilarious.
“No. For an evil child who’ll stop at nothing to avoid doing homework, how could a model citizen like me possibly cooperate with you?”
Unable to get the answer she wanted, Xie Tangning threw a tantrum.
“Ahhh! I don’t care! I don’t want to do homework!”
Her sudden outburst startled the skink in Lu Huaiyu’s arms. It nearly slammed headfirst into the glass enclosure.
Seeing this, Lu Huaiyu immediately laughed at her. “Just like master, just like pet. You’re both as timid as Er Yu!”
Xie Tangning felt a little guilty. She released the handrail she had been clutching and leaned over to hug the glass enclosure in her brother’s arms.
Then she gently stroked the little skink inside to comfort it.
“Sorry, sorry~ I didn’t mean to scare you! How about I give you extra snacks tomorrow?”
Lu Huaiyu took the opportunity to steer the little girl toward the study. Because she trusted her big brother and felt guilty about frightening the skink in his arms, Xie Tangning failed to notice that they had already reached the study door.
Lu Huaiyu swiftly pulled the skink back, shoved her into the study, and said, “Go create a miracle, Xie Xiaoning!”
Xie Tangning: “!!!”
“Ahhh! Whoever invented summer homework, I’m going to assassinate that bastard sooner or later!”
Lu Huaiyu had long since escaped the torment of summer homework. Standing outside the study, he kept forcing the corners of his mouth upward to play a game of fighting the landlord with the moon.
But he had to desperately hold his laughter in. He couldn’t let the little girl, who was now sitting at the desk with a pen in hand, see him.
If Xie Tangning caught him laughing, there would probably be another great commotion.
The pen in Xie Tangning’s hand stayed raised for two seconds before she put it down again. Then she picked up her phone and called her best friend on video.
She found that her best friend was also sitting there with a resentful look on her face, trying to finish her homework. In the distance behind her stood her father, Qin, who was barely managing to suppress his laughter.
“Hahaha~ I feel so much better now!”
“Get lost!”
Qin Shuchun wasn’t about to indulge her maliciously delighted best friend. After spitting out a curt “Get lost,” she decisively ended the call.
Then she lowered her head and continued working on her homework. She was determined to finish before Xie Tangning, and then take a bucket of ice cream over to her house and mock that awful girl mercilessly!
The two really were best friends, because Xie Tangning had exactly the same idea.
At that point, she no longer needed Lu Huaiyu to coax her. She briskly opened her summer homework and began writing so fast that her pen seemed ready to smoke.
There was nothing she could do about it. This was simply how students in China were: never willing to admit defeat!
Lu Huaiyu secretly recorded a short video of his little sister working hard at her homework. It was another trace of her growth, and he loved recording moments like these—just as their parents loved recording the changes in all three of their children as they grew up.
After he finished recording, he quietly closed the door and carried the skink in his arms off to find its unreliable owner.
Xie Tangning struggled through her homework with one pen and one lamp, creating a miracle. Every so often, she also had to endure interruptions from Monkey Bro and the others, who were likewise busy creating their own miracles.
Every poor soul who called her received a colorful greeting in return from Xie Tangning.
Then they ended their video calls, each one seeming crazier than the last.
…
For the past few days since returning to Haicheng, Su Xiaoye had been dealing with the issue of her household registration.
With the people Lu Huaiyu had arranged to assist her, everything proceeded smoothly, and her registration was successfully transferred out.
Shi Jiahui’s prison sentence was now unavoidable, and Su Yue’er was in the same situation. Even while in custody, she kept making a scene and demanding to see Su Xiaoye.
But Su Xiaoye never agreed to meet her even once. She only had her lawyer represent her and told Su Yue’er that Li Boyan had also been imprisoned for his crimes.
The moment Su Yue’er learned the news, all the color drained from her face. She completely lost hope and began muttering to herself in prison.
“Everyone I rely on eventually falls. I clearly understood that principle—so why did I place my hopes in Li Boyan back then?”
“If I hadn’t made those sarcastic remarks toward the Xie siblings, the Xie family wouldn’t have held a grudge against me, and I wouldn’t have ended up like this!”
“But why was I so stupid back then?”
By then, no amount of regret could change anything.
What she failed to realize was that her imprisonment was not entirely due to the Xie family.
She had tried to take shortcuts and climb upward by any means necessary, even going so far as to break the law. That was what had led to her current downfall.
For a woman without any family background, making it in the entertainment industry was indeed extremely difficult. There was nothing inherently wrong with choosing to use unscrupulous methods to climb higher.
But the law was still the law. No one was permitted to trample on it.
Of course, no one ever learned about her regret—not Su Xiaoye nor anyone else, and none of them needed to.
