At this moment, everyone's eyes turned excitedly towards Qin Rong's phone.
What a bombshell!
[Wait, how can she be so certain? Could it be true? I want to see, but no, what if it taints my eyes? But... I really want to look!]
The Qin family was also stunned, looking at Qin Rong in disbelief. But Qin Rong did have this habit; there were surveillance cameras in the home studio.
Cheng Miao knew about Qin Rong's habit too, but didn't expect she'd bring it to that shabby rented apartment. Seeing her light up her phone, his mind went blank with panic and he lunged forward to snatch it.
Qin Xian stepped in front of Cheng Miao to block him, while Cheng Yue seized the opportunity to rush towards Qin Rong and grab for the phone.
In the next second, Qin Rong suddenly retracted her hand and with her other hand swung in a wide arc, delivering a resounding slap to Cheng Yue's face.
Cheng Yue, all bark and no bite, staggered from the blow. Before he could react, Qin Rong followed up with another backhand slap.
Everyone was dumbfounded.
Qin Xian was so shocked he forgot to intervene, allowing Cheng Miao to lunge forward, shouting, "How dare you hit my brother!"
The result was two more loud slaps, one forward and one backward.
Everyone: ... Qin... Miss Qin... the campus beauty... the naive sweetheart who got deceived... the delicate flower... had just delivered four earth-shatteringly loud slaps.
Looking at the red marks on Cheng Yue and Cheng Miao's faces, everyone fell silent.
[... Being cheated on really does make people grow up. Youth has no price tag, but slapping scumbags is priceless! Thumbs up to you.]
Even Ji Fei couldn't help but applaud Qin Rong, and others soon followed suit, with some whistling and cheering, "Well done!"
When the two scumbags finally looked at Qin Rong in a daze,
Qin Rong smiled, a mix of sorrow and mockery: "I was bluffing. Thank you for proving your guilt."
This sentence set off another round of thunderous laughter from the crowd.
The two, now looking like jumping clowns, glared at Qin Rong with venom in their eyes. They seemed ready for revenge, but before they could act, two people behind them rushed forward.
Cheng's Father landed a punch on his stepson's face, then began kicking him furiously.
"Damn it, you dare mess with my daughter! I brought you and your mother into our home, and this is how you repay me! You ungrateful bastards!"
Cheng's Mother had grabbed her stepdaughter's hair and was slapping her repeatedly.
"You little slut, you must have seduced my son. Otherwise, how could he do such a thing? It's all your fault, you shameless thing, just like your birth mother! You've brought great shame to our family!"
"Dad, stop hitting my brother. Brother, save me."
"Mom, stop hitting my woman! Let go, you old fart!"
The four of them were almost tangled together.
In an instant, the family of four that had just been united against outsiders was now in utter chaos.
The Qin family quickly moved to protect Qin Rong, retreating to avoid getting splashed with any filth.
However, the office staff had to intervene, despite wanting to continue watching the drama unfold. If someone got seriously hurt, they would be the ones in trouble.
"This is the office for exchange student procedures. If you don't have the money, go raise it. The deadline is 6 pm tonight. Don't cause trouble here, or I'll call security," the staff member sternly rebuked.
This statement brought the family back to reality.
"I get it now, you were just using my son, making him help you scam an opportunity to study abroad and the funds for it. You can't go now, can you? Keep dreaming!"
"Who says she can't go? We'll sell the house when we get back! My daughter is leaving, getting far away from your son, to avoid being coveted by that little beast!"
"You can't! That house was promised to my son! He's supposed to take care of you in your old age! If you use it for your daughter, she'll fly away, who will you rely on then?"
"At least she's my own flesh and blood! Unlike your son who wants my money and won't leave my daughter alone! So greedy!"
The parents started arguing. Cheng Yue watched with an irritated expression, not bothering to intervene even as his parents looked ready to come to blows.
Cheng Miao was the most anxious. Looking around helplessly, she finally glared viciously at Qin Rong.
Suddenly, Qin Rong took out her phone and typed a message, then signaled for Cheng Miao to look at it.
Cheng Miao frowned suspiciously, lowered her head to check, and her face changed dramatically upon reading.
"Actually, your brother secretly met with me several times behind your back, and told me not to tell you."
Ji Fei happened to be standing right behind Qin Rong and saw the message content. She pondered it for a moment, then looked at Cheng Miao and Cheng Yue.
Cheng Miao, her face pale, went to pull Cheng Yue's hand and said, "Brother, no matter what, let me go abroad first. If I stay here, we'll both be constantly pointed at and gossiped about. This opportunity is hard to come by, please stop Mom."
Cheng Yue snapped out of his daze, "If you go abroad, what about me? I'll be gossiped about too, and with the house money spent on you, how will I secure my future? You're not planning to run off and leave me behind, are you?"
"Brother, don't you trust me? How could I possibly..."
"You're more cunning than anyone, how can I trust you..."
The once loving siblings finally started arguing when faced with their own interests.
That message was the spark that made Cheng Miao doubt Cheng Yue's feelings for her, causing her to start thinking only of herself.
Ji Fei believed what Qin Rong said was true, remembering how Qin Zhao had reacted when he first saw them.
If it was just acting to help his sister, why would he behave that way when no one was watching?
This proved that Cheng Yue wasn't an honest person to begin with.
With a girlfriend like Qin Rong, whether for novelty or as a trophy, it overshadowed his feelings for Cheng Miao developed over years. He just had the desire but lacked the courage for now.
After all, how much true love could such a despicable person really have?
Finally, the staff couldn't take it anymore and called security to escort them out.
This farce finally came to an end.
Qin Rong still had paintings left in the rented apartment. At first, Cheng Yue tried to play dirty and refuse to return them, but Qin Xian immediately called the police. With the police there, there was no dispute over the ownership of the items.
In the end, Qin Rong cried all the way home in the car, holding her paintings.
Meanwhile, the Cheng family got into a physical fight. In the end, Cheng's Father, his face covered in scratches, sold the house at a loss to secure his daughter's chance to go abroad.
Cheng Miao swore that as soon as she started studying, she would begin selling paintings and definitely repay her father.
Cheng's Father was looking forward to her becoming a great artist, while Cheng's Mother and Cheng Yue became enemies with them but had to helplessly accept reality.
However, the next day, Cheng Miao received a call. The foreign school had suddenly decided to reduce the number of spots, and since she was the last one accepted, her offer was rescinded. The money would be returned.
For the Cheng family, this was like a bolt from the blue.
They couldn't buy back their house at the original price, and the remaining money could only buy a small, old apartment for a family of four.
Cheng's Mother and Cheng Yue were secretly gloating, outwardly arguing, but their joy was short-lived. Cheng Yue ran into some thugs and was beaten badly. The medical bills ate up a lot of money.
In the end, they couldn't even afford the small, old apartment. The whole family was crammed together, arguing every day.
Cheng Miao wanted to return to school, but the video of that day had already spread all over the campus forum. Everyone at school knew about her sordid affair.
Unable to bear people's strange looks, she had to drop out.
In the end, no one knew where the family moved to.
When Qin Zhao told Qin Rong about this, she was still in a daze from all the tragic experiences. After hearing it, she couldn't help but ask, "Is this really karma?"
Qin Zhao was about to nod when he heard Ji Fei's inner voice.
[Of course not. It was your father and brothers acting as agents of justice. Should good people like the Qin family suffer at the hands of such scoundrels? That would be too unfair. Power should be used when it's needed, to teach them a lesson about how high the sky is.]
Qin Rong paused for a moment, then finally smiled.
That evening, she went downstairs to have dinner with everyone. After the meal, facing her family, she bowed deeply to apologize, repenting for her foolishness.
Ji Fei's comment on this was: [When she was love-struck, it was truly infuriating, almost wanted to send her to dig wild vegetables. But she sobered up quickly too, I guess she can be taught after all.]
The Qin family members fake-coughed to cover their embarrassment.
Qin Rong, however, looked at her second sister-in-law, who had saved her, with stars in her eyes.
Later, she secretly asked her second brother,
"I want to thank second sister-in-law. Do you know what she likes?"
Qin Xian was about to say it wasn't necessary, because for saving the fourth sister, his family had already found various reasons to send red envelopes to Ji Fei. He felt that if this continued, Ji Fei would soon have enough for the two hundred million divorce settlement.
Fortunately, all the money had been transferred to him.
But then he heard Qin Rong muttering to herself: "I know that in the past, second sister-in-law was very infatuated with you, so anything related to you would have been fine as a gift. But now it seems that's no longer the case. Second sister-in-law has changed a lot."
Qin Xian: ?
...It felt like an arrow to the knee.
Was she even his real sister?
"What should I get her?" Qin Rong hadn't realized she had inadvertently stabbed her second brother.
So when she couldn't find an answer from her second brother, she felt puzzled.
She turned to ask her eldest sister and got the correct answer: Second sister-in-law doesn't like second brother anymore, she likes money now.
Qin Rong, who had just experienced the baptism of dark love, expressed: Second sister-in-law has great wisdom.
Qin Yan, who was now doing well in her career, also nodded in agreement.
Then Ji Fei received a bank transfer.
With a message attached: Thankfully, second sister-in-law ordered takeout for me to wake me up. This is my heartfelt gesture, thank you second sister-in-law.
The amount was over two million.