Chapter 204: Qing Girl
The sudden turn of events left everyone present stunned.
The bodyguards immediately stepped in front of their employer.
“Mr. Lu, Miss Xu, please wait here for two minutes. We’ll go in and check first,” Lu Jingyao’s experienced bodyguard said.
After nearly being hit by a falling beam just moments ago, everyone became extra cautious. Four bodyguards moved forward carefully. Before long, they brought out a living person.
“There was a young girl hiding inside,” one of the bodyguards reported.
She was called a young girl because, although her long hair covered most of her face, the eyes that peeked through were clear and bright, unmistakably youthful.
“Who are you? Why are you hiding in this house?” Xu Youyou asked curiously.
Something about the girl felt strange to Xu Youyou. Even though she looked disheveled, Xu Youyou instinctively felt a sense of closeness to her and was sure she wasn’t a bad person.
Before the girl could respond, Cheng Chunhua suddenly shouted, “Qing Girl! I’ve been looking for you everywhere! So you were hiding here! You really made us search high and low! Come back with me now and stop causing trouble!”
Her relatives chimed in, “We’ve been searching all over in this freezing weather, and you just hid here in silence? You ungrateful girl!”
Xu Youyou vaguely recalled hearing these people mention a girl earlier. It seemed Cheng Chunhua had arranged a marriage for her, and the girl ran away with some money.
Given Cheng Chunhua’s personality, Xu Youyou naturally sided with the girl. Looking at her disheveled and miserable state, the idea that she had “run away with money” seemed highly questionable.
If she remembered correctly, this girl was actually the biological granddaughter of the house’s original owner. She had been raised by her aunt, Cheng Chunhua, which was why the house ended up under Cheng Chunhua’s name. By that logic, she was also one of the rightful owners of the property.
Qing Girl shook her head and said to Cheng Chunhua, “Auntie, I have no intention of going back with you, nor do I plan on marrying a fool.”
Xu Youyou found the girl’s demeanor strange. Even in this situation, she didn’t seem anxious at all—her attitude remained calm and unhurried.
“You disobedient brat! Watch how I deal with you!”
Cheng Chunhua lunged forward, raising her hand high, seemingly about to slap the girl.
Xu Youyou stepped in. “What do you think you’re doing?!”
The bodyguards moved swiftly. The moment Xu Youyou spoke, they grabbed Cheng Chunhua’s arm, restraining her before she could act.
Cheng Chunhua was usually good at making a scene, but when faced with real muscle, she was instantly subdued, unable to move at all.
“Wang Dayong, Dahu, Xiaohu! Are you all just standing there like idiots? Your mother is being bullied, and none of you are moving a muscle?” she scolded her husband and sons.
However, the three of them all looked like frightened quails.
Wang Xiaohu stammered, “M-Mom… d-don’t cause trouble… i-if it affects the bonus… it won’t be good…”
Xu Youyou raised an eyebrow, realizing that Assistant Liu’s added “satisfaction bonus” was a stroke of genius. With the promise of money hanging in front of them, even a shrew like Cheng Chunhua had to restrain herself.
Cheng Chunhua, both anxious and angry, snapped, “How does disciplining my own child affect the rental bonus?”
Xu Youyou replied, “The contract terms are subject to my interpretation.”
Cheng Chunhua rolled her eyes in frustration, cursing inwardly about how contracts always had hidden traps when dealing with the wealthy. But since the satisfaction bonus was essentially free money, she had no choice but to comply. With no other options, she grumbled, “Fine, I won’t hit her. Brat, come home with me, and we’ll deal with this later!”
Xu Youyou blocked her again. “Not so fast. A person appeared in my house—I need to figure out what’s going on first.”
Cheng Chunhua’s eyes widened as she quickly distanced herself from the situation. “Miss Xu, I didn’t tell her to hide here! You can’t blame me for this!”
Ignoring her, Xu Youyou turned to the girl. “How old are you?”
Qing Girl looked at Xu Youyou with certainty and answered, “Eighteen. I’m an adult now, Youyou Jie. I believe you’ll help me.”
Xu Youyou was startled. “You know me?”
Though the girl was asking for help, her tone wasn’t desperate. Instead, she spoke in a soft, melodious voice that gave her an ethereal, almost fairy-like presence.
If they weren’t meeting in a run-down old house, Xu Youyou might have thought she had encountered a forest spirit.
Qing Girl nodded. “Youyou Jie, when we were kids, we picked up trash together. You gave me a shaobing to eat. The kids at the orphanage said you’ve become very successful now, and I believe you’ll help me escape this situation.”
Xu Youyou vaguely remembered scavenging in Chengjia Village as a child. There was indeed a special little girl she had met back then. She had thought it was strange that a child with a family was living in worse conditions than the orphans.
“You were really good at finding wild fruits, right? You even shared some with me,” Xu Youyou recalled.
Qing Girl’s eyes shone with confidence. “I can find any wild fruit I set my mind to.”
Xu Youyou had admired her back then, thinking that mastering such a skill meant always having something to snack on during fruiting seasons.
“And you really believe I’ll help you?” Xu Youyou asked.
Qing Girl looked directly at her. “You’re a kind person. You smell nice. You do good things. So, yes, I know you’ll help me.”
Xu Youyou couldn’t help but find her words oddly mystical.
Meanwhile, Cheng Chunhua grew anxious seeing the two of them getting along. “Miss Xu, I rented my house to you, but I didn’t rent you my niece!”
Qing Girl remained unbothered, still looking at Xu Youyou.
Xu Youyou chuckled. “Your niece is eighteen. Her legs belong to her. Are you saying you can control her movements? Do you want the police to step in again?”
