Chapter 821 — The Xiao Family

"Fine! Just you remember this! All of you, just you wait!" There was nothing Gou Huli could do now. To stay any longer would only heap more ridicule upon herself—what if Wei Zhao and the others paid up in a moment and demanded she perform the head-pulling trick?

How could Gou Huli wait around for such a thing to happen? So she flung down one last vicious threat, turned on her heel, and made to leave.

"Hold on. We still haven't compensated you for the clothes," Wei Zhao called out, stopping her in her tracks.

"Forget the clothes! Consider it a gift to you! But you mark my words—I will not let this matter rest!" Gou Huli said through gritted teeth.

"Forget it? Forgetting it is fine. But you have seen for yourself that we are quite capable of buying the very same clothes as yours. Don't you still owe us something?" Wei Zhao said mildly.

"Oh! Oh! Go on, do the head-pulling trick! Everyone come and watch! This old lady is going to pull her own head off in public—better than the clowns in the zoo circus!" Shen Yushu shouted.

"I didn't take the clothes, so what would I perform for?" Gou Huli glared at Shen Yushu. "And I'll remember you too. You just wait! We'll settle accounts slowly next time!"

With that, Gou Huli ignored Wei Zhao and Shen Yushu alike and strode off toward the elevators.

"Just let her go?" Wei Zhao looked at Gu Mengyao.

"Let it be. A person like that isn't worth quarreling with," Gu Mengyao said, shaking her head. She plainly had no intention of pressing the matter.

Wei Zhao shrugged. Since the eldest daughter had spoken, he would say no more. In his eyes Gou Huli was nothing but a buffoon. Still, from what she had let slip, it seemed her man carried some weight. Whether that was boasting or the truth, he could not tell.

"How boring. Some old women are just shameless, throwing their weight around because of their age. She clearly agreed to do the head-pulling trick, and now she's going back on it," Shen Yushu grumbled, disappointed that she would not get to see the spectacle.

Gou Huli stumbled and nearly fell flat, and even so she twisted her ankle. She ground her teeth in fury. Originally she had meant to bide her time, but at this moment she could endure it no longer—she absolutely had to vent this foul temper!

Once inside the elevator, Gou Huli took out her phone and dialed her husband's number.

"Darling, I've only just arrived in Songshan City and I've already been bullied! They soaked me from head to toe with water guns, refused to pay for my clothes, and even humiliated me, demanding I pull my own head off for them to see!" Gou Huli complained, playing the victim first. "And one of them called me an old lady. Your wife is so young and pretty—how could I be an old lady?"

"What exactly happened? Who were they?" The man on the other end frowned. He knew well enough what sort of person his wife was, and did not take her words at face value. "If you hadn't provoked them, why would they bully you? What really happened? Tell me the truth! Don't twist your words—I know you."

"Hmph! Just two little housemaids and a gardener. They were fooling around with water guns in a villa, and since I'd just bought us a villa and was on my way to look at it, the moment I drove into the villa district they soaked me from head to face..." Seeing that her husband did not believe her, Gou Huli had no choice but to recount it truthfully, weeping as she complained. "I thought, doesn't our new house need some workers to clean it? So I meant to make them work as free cleaners for a month, and I frightened them into compensating me for the clothes—but they actually agreed..."

"Then why did you say they humiliated you?" the man snorted.

"How could a few servants possibly afford to pay for my clothes? You know I buy all my clothes from the boutiques at Pengzhan Plaza, and when I bought this one, apart from the display piece in the window, there was only the last one left!" Gou Huli explained. "I was sure they could never buy it. So I made a bet with them—if they could buy it, I'd pull my head off; if they couldn't, they'd have to do hard labor for our family for a month..."

"And in the end they bought it, didn't they?" The man was somewhat speechless. How could anyone say such things carelessly? And then offer to pull her head off for them to see?

"Yes! I never imagined a few servants would each have a diamond membership card to Pengzhan Plaza. Their master must treat them well enough!" Gou Huli said sourly. "But what good is a membership card? I thought, even if you had a hundred membership cards, with the goods sold out, they still couldn't buy the same clothes as mine! But who'd have thought—they went there, flashed their cards, and a Manager Wang actually turned up and offered to sell them the display piece from the window! I was furious. Who knows what got into that Manager Wang, siding with a few slaves!"

"Slaves? Servants?" The man was instantly infuriated by Gou Huli. "Do you have any brains at all? How could a few housemaids and a gardener have diamond membership cards? As far as I know, that diamond card of yours was given to us out of friendship only because our family is an old established house—and a few housemaids have diamond cards?"

"Because their master treats them well?" Gou Huli did not quite follow her husband's meaning.

"Master? Did you even look carefully? Those people are plainly no ordinary sort! Could you get a diamond card for your own housemaid? At most an ordinary membership card, and that's the limit!" the man stormed. "They all have diamond cards, and they even know the plaza's manager—it's obvious they are the owners of the villa! You've only just arrived and you're already in a conflict with the neighbors? Those three clearly wield real influence in that area—how could you not see even that?"

"Huh? Surely not?" Gou Huli was startled. "But their clothes were all shabby, and who ever heard of a villa owner cleaning up with his own hands?"

"Maybe she scrubs floors because she wants the exercise, or because she has nothing better to do! When my old man was alive, he still worked the fields and grew vegetables. Why don't you call him a servant too?" the man retorted angrily. "You idiot, you've barely arrived and you're already making enemies!"

"Hmph! So what if they are? At most they're just a few local rich kids, and judging by their ages, none of them are very old! Besides, even if their fathers showed up, they'd be nothing before our Xiao family of Yanjing! Xiao Ji, I've been bullied to this extent, and you won't stand up for me? Then I might as well be dead! I've been with you since I was eighteen, followed you all these years, and only after your wife died did you make me your proper wife. Haven't I suffered enough? And now that I've been bullied, all you can do is scold me. Boo-hoo, I don't want to live anymore!" Gou Huli began to cry with exaggerated drama.