Chapter 12: Swept Out the Door

As the middle-aged man finished speaking, the room erupted into an uproar.

Zhang Lu’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “What kind of nonsense are you talking?! Xiao Lian’s family is the owner of 1701! She’s lived here all along!”

The man completely ignored Zhang Lu. He pulled a set of documents from his briefcase and opened them.

“I am the owner holding the property deed, Liu Tong.”

The two property management staff members exchanged a glance. “Liu? Our records also show the owner’s surname is Liu, not Chu…”

In truth, they had found it strange earlier. However, because Chu Lian carried herself with such an air of authority, they had instinctively assumed she was a family member of this Mr. Liu and hadn’t questioned it further.

Chu Lian and her mother stood frozen, shock written all over their faces. They knew the owner’s surname wasn’t Chu—but it wasn’t supposed to be Liu either; it should have been Shu ! This house was left behind by Shu Lingchen’s late mother!

“Where did you scammers come from?! The property management must be in on it with you!” Chu Lian’s mother was the first to lunge forward. “If you don’t leave, I’m calling the police!”

The man remained unfazed, calmly extending a hand. “Please, be my guest.”

Chu Mother: “…”

Hearing themselves being slandered, one of the property staff members decisively took out her phone and called the police.

In less than ten minutes, officers arrived.

A policeman in uniform stated, “After verification, this property deed is authentic. The owner of Imperial Garden 1701 is indeed Mr. Liu Tong.”

Then, the man raised his hand, and the uniformed workers behind him sprang into action.

They went first to the display cabinet for the figurines. With a few fluent keystrokes, the cabinet door clicked open. Next, they did the same to the gaming console cabinet—it opened. Finally, they reached the Mao-tai wall. The man took a small box from his briefcase, removed a fingerprint mold, and carefully placed it on the sensor.

Beep.

The two glass doors, which hadn’t been opened for a long time, slid apart!

The man gave a curt command: “Box them up. Move them out.”

Everyone watching was absolutely stunned.

“…Xiao Lian, what’s going on? Isn’t this your house?” Zhang Lu tremblingly tugged at Chu Lian’s sleeve. “How does this man have the deed to your house?”

Chu Lian was currently in a state of total shock. “Is… is this guy really not a scammer…?”

“Definitely not. The police proved the deed is real. Besides, how could a scammer know the passwords to every cabinet in the house and even open the Maotai wall?”

“Looking back at the School Beauty Chu… earlier she said the game consoles were broken and the figurines were too fragile. Now it seems she just didn’t know the passwords and made up excuses because she couldn’t open them!”

“So this luxury apartment doesn’t belong to Chu Lian’s family?!”

“And her stalling to pay the management fee earlier… was it because she actually couldn’t afford it?”

“Then all those times she brought people here before…”

Suddenly, the gazes directed at Chu Lian became complicated.

Seeing her luxury lifestyle being snatched away, Chu Lian’s mother couldn’t hold back. She screamed at the man: “Impossible! There must be a mistake! The owner can’t be you, and it can’t be someone named Liu! The owner of this house is clearly named Shu—”

Mph!

Chu Lian was quick as lightning, clapping her hand over her mother’s mouth. She nearly let Shu Lingchen’s name slip out.

Chu Lian broke into a cold sweat. If everyone found out that this house belonged to Shu Lingchen—and that she had been living in his luxury apartment while rejecting his advances and letting everyone call him a “poor ghost”—her “Rich Young Lady” persona would utterly collapse.

…

Two minutes later.

Everyone was politely “escorted” out of 1701 by the man. Following them, two boxes were kicked out into the hallway. They were the packed belongings of the Chu mother and daughter.

The door shut ruthlessly in their faces.

Chu Lian’s lips trembled, but she forced herself to maintain a front. “…There must be some misunderstanding. I’m going to contact my father and find out what’s happening!”

She opened her phone, feigning anger. The atmosphere was awkward to the extreme. The six or seven classmates who had come excitedly to tour a mansion were now standing in the hallway looking sheepish. This was humiliating.

Only Shu Shu remained relaxed. She pressed the elevator button, preparing to head back to the 16th floor.

When she said she would take the house back, she meant it. Take it back, then sell it. Given current market prices, 1701 could easily sell for about ten million yuan as a pre-owned unit. Not that she lacked ten million, of course.

The others didn’t want to linger either. They began saying their goodbyes to Chu Lian:

“Student Chu, I haven’t finished my homework, I need to get home!”

“My aunt is visiting; my mom told me to come back early for dinner!”

“Uh, I suddenly have an emergency too!”

The elevator arrived, and the group swarmed inside. Zhang Lu, sensing the awkwardness, whispered, “…Xiao Lian, I’m heading back too. See you Monday.”

Once the last person entered, Shu Shu, standing by the door, pressed the “Close” button. She then tapped the back of her phone against the sensor and pressed the button for the 16th floor.

“Hey, Student Shu, you pressed the wrong one. You need the first floor—”

The speaker stopped mid-sentence.

“Wait! Isn’t the 16th floor that large penthouse that requires a key card? Shu Shu, how did you—”

Shu Shu replied calmly, “I’m going home.”

“What do you mean?! Your home… is on the 16th floor?!”

The elevator reached the floor in seconds. The doors opened, and Shu Shu stepped out. The crowd saw the sharp female designer they had met earlier jogging toward Shu Shu with a bright smile. “Miss Shu, you’ve arrived!”

Everyone gasped in unison.

“Holy crap… Shu Shu really is the owner of the 1600 penthouse! She wasn’t lying!!!”

The air was still with disbelief. No one was more shaken than Zhang Lu, who stood there mouth agape.

At that moment, Shu Shu seemed to remember something. She turned around and looked at Zhang Lu. “By the way, should I find you a public restroom, or are you going to ‘consume’ your own supply?”

— “If you’re the owner of 1600, I’ll eat sh t!”*

Zhang Lu’s confident boast echoed in their ears. Everyone immediately looked at Zhang Lu.

Zhang Lu: “…………”

Her face stung with the metaphorical slap. She had called Shu Shu a “pauper.” Now it turned out that compared to Shu Shu, she was the pauper.

No, wait—it was all of them. Chu Lian had never seen Shu Shu in the building because the 16th-floor penthouse had only recently started renovations.

Shu Lingchen, who had rushed over, found the Chu mother and daughter on a street corner near Imperial Garden.

The pair could only be described as “pathetic.” They stood by the road with two suitcases that had been packed so sloppily that clothes were bulging out of the seams.

It was obvious they had been swept out the door.

Upon seeing Shu Lingchen, Chu Mother’s eyes filled with resentment and accusation:

“Lingchen, if you didn’t want Xiao Lian and me living in your house, you could have just said so! We would have left! Why did you have to hire people to put on an act and kick us out like this?!”

Sansukini: Playing victim. Tsk! The nerve. Well, Shu Lingchen hasn’t “woke up” yet. He has been brainwashed for years. Fortunately, his mom is still his ultimate boss.

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