Translator: CinderTL
Lin Wan'er said casually, "She knows what I'm capable of. She doesn't have many years left. She has to consider her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. She doesn't want to see them go before her."
"I have friends at the funeral home. When the time comes, a slight slip of the hand, and her urn gets smashed. It'll just be an accident." Lin Wan'er took out her phone. "Let's pick a day with a good southeast wind. We won't even need to collect the ashes."
Huai Yi's expression changed. He couldn't help but think, "Crimson is awesome!"
He had been present yesterday when Jiang Cheng had showered Xue Jinhua with verbal abuse. "Does Crimson offer courses on how to insult people?" Huai Yi wondered, "Why do their words sound so similar?"
"Could there be a cyberwar between Crimson and the Night Watcher, where they use keyboards to send greetings to each other's families?"
"What's this? A battle for morale?"
Before Huai Yi could figure it out, Jiang Cheng and the others had already opened the gate and left. A few seconds later, Fatty returned, standing at the door. "Hey, you! They want you to come with them!"
"Bring everything you need."
"Alright, alright," Huai Yi said immediately, packing up his things. He crammed his laptop, projector, hard drive, and everything else into his backpack, worried about slowing down the Crimson Trio.
Before leaving, he remembered to lock the door from the outside.
Parked downstairs was his old black Mercedes-Benz Jeep. He volunteered to be the driver.
Fatty, without a word, opened the front passenger door with remarkable foresight and slid in, leaving the back seat for the Doctor and Boss Lin.
Following the navigation, the group from Jiangcheng soon arrived near the studio.
"Where's Xue Jinhua's car?" Jiang Cheng frowned. "Where could they be?"
Xue Jinhua was known for her extravagant displays. If she had arrived, her convoy would be visible from a distance. Pi Ruan had picked up many of his bad habits from her.
"She said she was already here when she called me," Lin Wan'er said, glancing at her phone. A strange expression flickered across her face.
As the car turned toward Lin Wan'er's private parking spot, a figure suddenly darted out from behind a black sedan and charged straight toward them.
In the nick of time, Huai Yi slammed on the brakes, stopping just two meters away from the old man.
Huai Yi never expected the old man to step forward with light, nimble steps, twirling around before collapsing in front of the car. The vegetable basket clattered to the ground, scattering carrots, cabbage, and other produce across the road.
"Ow!" An old woman with a headscarf lay on the ground, groaning in pain. "It hurts so much! This heartless driver almost killed my old bones!"
"What the hell!" Huai Yi exclaimed, his voice rising in panic. "I didn't even touch her!"
"This is a setup, isn't it?" Fatty's eyes widened. He had only seen such things on TV before; this was his first time encountering it in real life.
The old woman's wails quickly drew a crowd of onlookers. But when they saw it was the same old woman, many wore expressions of anger.
This wasn't the first time. She was a public nuisance in the neighborhood, and she usually targeted only luxury cars for her scams. Her acting skills were so polished that her success rate was remarkably high.
The old woman's wails grew louder, while her small eyes, hidden beneath her arms, darted around nervously.
Sitting in the car, Jiang Cheng immediately realized this was a trap Xue Jinhua had set for them. The old woman was her pawn.
Jiang Cheng suspected that Xue Jinhua had secretly filmed everything that happened here.
She planned to use this footage as a Bargaining Chip to blackmail them into staying out of Pi Ruan's affairs.
"Don't move," Jiang Cheng said as he opened the car door and stepped out.
Seeing someone get out of the car, the old woman's expression grew even more pained. She kept shifting her body toward the wheels, making the scene look more convincing.
Jiang Cheng jogged over and knelt beside her, his voice filled with concern. "Are you alright, ma'am?"
"Oh, you heartless devils! You didn't even slow down on the curve! Did you want to kill this poor old woman? My left leg is numb—it must be broken!" The old woman's performance was over-the-top. She cursed and ranted, playing the victim to the hilt.
"At your age, can't you show some decency? How many people have you swindled already? As a human being, I urge you to be kind!" An old man passing by couldn't stand it any longer. He pointed his cane at the old woman and scolded her.
"None of your damn business, you old turtle bastard! Watch out tomorrow when you go out—you might get run over by a car, and your wretched little bastard of a grandson will get crushed along with you!" Hearing this, the old woman half-sat up and unleashed a torrent of abuse at the old man, who was out with his grandson.
The Old man was shaking with rage, half his body trembling.
Despite lying on the ground, the old woman's spirit was remarkably strong. She had single-handedly driven away three or four people who had tried to scold her. Seeing that no one in the crowd dared to speak up, she lay down again in front of the car wheels with an air of arrogance.
Jiang Cheng stopped a female student who was crying from the scolding and smiled at the old woman on the ground. "It's cold on the ground. Why don't you get up and talk?"
The old woman's eyes darted around, and she lowered her voice, sneering coldly. "Young man, I can see you're a reasonable person. Here's the deal: give me 20,000 yuan, and I'll be on my way. I won't make things difficult for you.
"Otherwise, I'll stay here all day. I'm a member of a vulnerable group. Even if you call the police, it won't help. My health isn't good, and the police won't dare to give me a hard time.
"If anything happens to me, you'll all be held responsible!"
"Don't give her anything! We can't let these people's wicked behavior go unchecked!" The female student, still crying from the old woman's insults, was furious. She recorded the scene with her phone as she wept.
"You slut, look at how you're dressed! No man would want you. You're just trying to seduce someone. You're rotten to the core. Even if you found a man, he'd just use you and then dump you!" The old woman, watching the crowd jump up and down in anger and helplessness, wore a smug expression that fully revealed her satisfaction.
"Alright," Jiang Cheng said with a helpless nod, his face showing genuine exasperation. "But I don't have any cash on me right now. Why don't you come with me to get it? My home is nearby."
"Heh, so you know how to behave," the old woman said, hobbling to her feet and heading for the car door. Before getting in, she struck a triumphant pose, waving at the furious onlookers with a haughty air. "Keep cursing all you want! I'm going to get my money. You bunch of cowards! You deserve to be poor!"
Once inside, the old woman began to examine the car, her eyes lighting up when she noticed the hairpin in Lin Wan'er's hair. She realized these people were even richer than she'd thought. They'd agreed to two thousand yuan so readily, they must have been lowballing her.
"You have the gall to ask for two thousand yuan? You're really something," Fatty said, watching the old woman through the rearview mirror.
The old woman's eyes darted around. "What two thousand yuan? You hit me! You think you can just brush me off with two thousand yuan? I want fifty thousand!"
"If you don't give me 50,000 yuan, this matter isn't over today!"
(End of the Chapter)
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