Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Urging Xiao Ying Chun to Cut Ties

Xiao Ying Chun stood slowly. “Aunt, why are you here at this hour? Did you come alone?”

Ge Chun Yu gave a cold laugh. “Alone? Who needs company for this?” Her eyes swept the shop like she owned it. “I heard you’ve been doing big business. Moving goods all over the city. Tens of thousands of boxes of compressed biscuits, right? One order and you made tens—no, hundreds of thousands.”

Her voice sharpened, each word a stab. “You’ve made that much money, but you won’t pay off that tiny bit of goods money? You’re really something.”

Xiao Ying Chun stared at her.

Ge Chun Yu pressed on, warmed by her own outrage. “I don’t have skills. Back then I got tricked into thinking this shop could make money. After I took over your convenience store, I didn’t earn anything—I lost money.”

She slapped a hand on the counter like a judge’s gavel. “You said you wanted it back. I didn’t take a single cent from you. I returned it to you. Now you’re doing well, and you still want your aunt to keep filling the hole with money?”

Xiao Ying Chun’s mind went blank for a moment.

The situation was so clear. And yet coming out of Ge Chun Yu’s mouth, it sounded like everything was Xiao Ying Chun’s fault.

What had she done to make this woman think she could trample her?

Was it because back then she hadn’t demanded money when Ge Chun Yu wanted the store—so Ge Chun Yu decided she was easy to bully?

Ge Chun Yu was still going, voice dripping with grievance. “I’m not asking you to give me money. I’ll just treat the past year as working for free. But you can’t keep making me lose money—”

“Aunt.” Xiao Ying Chun cut her off, her voice steady in a way she didn’t feel. “Since you’re so confident you’re right, let’s do this.”

Ge Chun Yu paused.

“Tomorrow,” Xiao Ying Chun continued, “I’ll invite grandmother’s family, my uncle’s family, and your family. We’ll sit down and eat together. We’ll sort everything out and decide on a solution. Okay?”

That was what Ge Chun Yu wanted—submission dressed up as “fairness.” Her mouth curled in satisfaction.

“Fine. Pick the place and post it in the family group chat.”

Then she turned and left, hips swaying like she’d just won.

Xiao Ying Chun sank onto the stool behind the counter, anger vibrating under her skin. Her vision blurred before she realized her eyes had filled.

Her mother had three siblings. Ge Chun Yu was the eldest sister. Her uncle was second. Her mother was the youngest.

Growing up, the uncle was spoiled because he was a boy. The aunt had a sharp tongue and got favored too.

Only her mother—quiet, clumsy with words—was the one they forgot.

When the grandparents’ house was demolished and compensated, six apartments were divided up. Three went to the uncle. Two to the aunt. The grandparents kept one for themselves.

Her mother got none.

Her mother only got this plot of land—back when there wasn’t even a house on it.

Back then Ge Chun Yu had said, all lofty generosity, “This land might get demolished later too. Maybe you’ll get even more money. Lucky you, little sister.”

No one knew if this place would ever be cleared.

Her mother said nothing. Her father borrowed money. They built a two-story house.

They settled here. Xiao Ying Chun was born that same year. They lived here for more than twenty years.

The neighborhood was already on the city’s edge. After the first wave of demolitions passed, most people assumed that anything not cleared by then would never be cleared.

But Ge Chun Yu had been able to sell that empty promise with such righteous confidence.

“Xiao Girl,” a voice said, startling her. “Why are you sitting here crying?”

Ye Yu Bin was passing by, keys in hand, the smell of alcohol already clinging to him like habit. He’d closed up and was headed out for a drink when he spotted Xiao Ying Chun wiping at her face behind the counter.

Xiao Ying Chun rubbed her eyes quickly. “It’s nothing, Uncle Ye. Where are you going?”

“Don’t change the subject.” Uncle Ye’s expression turned serious, the carefree mask slipping. “Are you in trouble? Tell your uncle. I’ll help you think of a way.”

Xiao Ying Chun hesitated. Then she told him the truth—what Ge Chun Yu had said, what she demanded, the debt, the threats by proxy.

When she finished, Ye Yu Bin frowned, scratching his head like he was choosing his words.

“If you can use a small amount of money to send her away, that’s best,” he said at last. “Better yet—cut off the relationship. The faster, the better.”

Xiao Ying Chun stared at him. “Who tells someone to cut ties with their relatives?”

Ye Yu Bin looked away. “There are things I can’t tell you right now.” He met her eyes again, unusually firm. “If you trust your uncle, listen to me this once. It’ll save you a lot of trouble later.”

That didn’t sound like empty advice.

Xiao Ying Chun thought about Uncle Ye—how he usually drifted through life with a drink and a shrug. If he was saying this, he might truly know something.

Maybe there was more going on than she could see.

She nodded. “Uncle, I understand. I’ll handle it as soon as possible.”

Ye Yu Bin started to leave. Xiao Ying Chun remembered something and called out, “Uncle—wait. Let me pay you for the medicine.”

He waved it off without even turning back. “Wait until everything’s prepared. We’ll settle it all together.”

Then he was gone.

Xiao Ying Chun sat for a long time, the shop air thick and stale. In the end she didn’t have the heart to do business. She closed the door.

She booked a large private room at Yu Wei Restaurant for the next night and posted it in the family group chat with a brief explanation.

Then she went upstairs and slept.

By early morning, the group chat was already on fire.

Her uncle and aunt demanded to know why she was suddenly treating everyone—had she gotten rich?

Her grandparents sent a voice message asking how she’d been lately.

Only Ge Chun Yu sounded smug and wronged at the same time: “I watched her convenience store for a whole year. Ying Chun is going to give me an explanation in front of everyone.”

Xiao Ying Chun read it, then simply quoted Ge Chun Yu’s message and replied: “Yes.”

The chat went dead silent.

A moment later, Ge Chun Yu sent: “See you tonight. Rose.”

Xiao Ying Chun shoved her phone into her pocket, went out for a bowl of noodles, then headed to Uncle Wu’s distillery.

Uncle Wu said he’d deliver later—one thousand Guang Xi briefcase-style liquor jugs, ten thousand yuan.

As he spoke, he called the supplier. The answer came back so fast Xiao Ying Chun almost choked.

Already loaded. Already on the road.

Xiao Ying Chun didn’t waste another second. She hurried home.

Not long after she arrived, the plastic buckets were delivered—ten-liter ones, stacked and smelling faintly of new plastic. Xiao Ying Chun directed them into the storeroom and paid the boss on the spot.

Then she shut the front door.

And opened the back door.

Spacetime Supermarket started business.

Almost the moment it did, Fu Chen An walked in.

Today he wore a deep crimson robe, his hair bound beneath a white-jade crown. The color made his features look even sharper—clean lines, calm eyes, the kind of handsome that didn’t feel gentle until he smiled.

Xiao Ying Chun blinked. “Did you wait a long time?”

Otherwise, how could the timing be this perfect?

Fu Chen An nodded. “I followed your method and walked into the fog. The door didn’t open, so I stood there and waited.”

“How long?”

“Not long.” He clearly didn’t want to dwell on it. His gaze shifted. “Did the plastic buckets arrive?”

“They did.”

But he didn’t pay and leave. Instead, he pointed at the empty snack shelves, brows lifting slightly. “My soldiers all liked those. Can you get more?”

Xiao Ying Chun nodded. “No problem. They should be delivered soon.”

“Good.” Fu Chen An’s eyes drifted to the colorful packaging still hanging along one side. “What else is good? Tell me.”

That was her favorite kind of question.

Xiao Ying Chun brightened and pulled down an entire row of snacks, lining them up like a display.