Chapter 822 — Gu Mengyao's Identity

"So I'm just supposed to swallow my pride and say nothing? I've barely set foot in this villa district and I'm already being bullied! What are people going to think of me?" Gou Huli had no intention of waiting. She was about to explode with rage, and she itched to teach Wei Zhao and his lot a lesson right this instant!

"Then what do you propose to do?" Xiao Ji said, somewhat helplessly.

"I won't stand for it. Do you know anyone in Songshan City? If not, hire some thugs or ruffians to take them down a peg!" Gou Huli said.

"And you want to 'take them down' without even knowing who they are?" Xiao Ji frowned.

"What connections could they possibly have? They're just a bunch of kids!" Gou Huli said with a dismissive sniff. "Even if their families have some standing, could they hold a candle to the Xiao family? We are a great house of Yanjing — who in a backwater like this would dare slight us?"

"Let's not talk that way. We're doing business in the provinces, and we'll need the goodwill of the local gentry. If we offend everyone, then even though the Xiao family is a great house, we're strangers here — if they refuse to show us face, what then?" Xiao Ji said gravely.

"Hmph! They wouldn't dare! Let Uncle Pi wipe them out! Our Xiao family has a Mystic-rank retainer at our back — why should we fear these provincial upstarts?" Gou Huli sneered, her tone haughty.

"You also know Uncle Pi is our family's retainer. If Father were still here, there'd be no problem having Uncle Pi act. But now the two of us and Xiao Ben are one degree further removed from him. With Father gone, his feelings for our household have cooled somewhat — he's here purely on the strength of Father's standing. Otherwise, do you really think that pittance each month could hire a Mystic-rank expert? You're dreaming!" Xiao Ji said.

"Then... then what am I supposed to do? Just bear it? Your wife's about to turn into a ninja turtle of endurance! Sooner or later people will be saying the Xiao family fell to pieces the moment the old master died — we can't even best some little provincial upstart!" Gou Huli was relentless.

"Enough! First look into their background — find out exactly who they are before anything else! In any case, I'm not doing anything until I've paid my respects to the old master of the Kang family!" Xiao Ji said with a hint of impatience. "You know the state of our Xiao family as well as I do. To outsiders we're one of the Four Great Houses and Five Lesser Houses, shining bright — but today we can't even match the Kang family! Look at our holdings in Yanjing: after selling them off this time, how much money is left? You might say our venture into the provinces is the Xiao family starting over from nothing! We're in a very hard position now. Without the Kang family's support, we could face an even greater crisis! Do you understand, you spendthrift woman?"

"I..." Gou Huli fell silent under Xiao Ji's words. It wasn't that she didn't know these things — she simply didn't want to accept them! Barely two years had passed since she became the Xiao family's daughter-in-law; she had only just begun to relish the thrill of marrying into wealth and living as a lady of means, and then the Xiao family had tumbled from grace, a turn she could not take in all at once. So the more it happened, the more she wanted to make a show of the Xiao family's prestige, borrowing the lingering name she still had to win herself some face and put on airs — otherwise she truly could not bear the fall.

Before Gou Huli could finish, Xiao Ji hung up.

Gou Huli wanted nothing more than to hurl the phone from her hand in fury, but the thought that it was the newest Apple model and had cost her several thousand yuan made her hesitate — and she put it away. The Xiao family had declined, and her monthly allowance was now less than what she had pocketed in the old days as a mistress! But there was no help for it; she knew the Xiao family was sinking day by day, and even if she complained, there was no one to complain to.

Gou Huli made up her mind: once she got back, she would go to the estate management office and ask around about the owner of that villa. A woman as imperious as she was — if she didn't teach them a lesson, how could she live up to her standing as the Xiao family's daughter-in-law?

So, at that thought, Gou Huli hurried downstairs, went to the parking lot, got into her car and sped back to the villa district, found the property management company and swaggered in.

The management office kept files on every owner in the district; barring any explicit confidentiality instruction, they could all be looked up directly.

So it took Gou Huli little effort to find the owner's name registered for the villa: Gu Mengyao!

Gu Mengyao? Gou Huli was briefly taken aback — then it struck her: the little maid who had shown the membership card earlier seemed to be surnamed Chu, and the other maid beside her had called her "Sister Yaoyao." Could she really be Gu Mengyao? Surely not! She was the owner of this villa?

Gou Huli was astonished, and small wonder — Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had both been plainly dressed in ordinary tracksuits, and that Wei Zhao had been wearing a coarse cloth tunic so countrified and so identical to a laborer's that it looked like a gardener's uniform. That was why she had mistaken them for servants. But now it seemed these people were the owners of the villa?

No wonder they had a diamond membership card — they were a trio of rich kids! But the more she thought about it, the more it infuriated Gou Huli! If you people are the owners here, then why didn't you speak up when I called you servants? Were you playing the pig to eat the tiger, deliberately making a fool of me?

"Hey, you — tell me, what's this Gu Mengyao's background?" Gou Huli beckoned over a security guard and demanded.

Though Gou Huli had only come to the management office the day before to transfer the villa's title, nearly everyone on the staff already knew this domineering woman — she had loudly proclaimed herself a wealthy lady from a great house in Yanjing, and went about pointing fingers at everyone, lording it over them like a crab gone sideways!

When she had come to do the paperwork the day before, it had happened to fall during the midday break, and Gou Huli had simply thrown a staff member's boxed lunch in the bin and ordered him to process her documents on the spot!

Against such a high-handed owner with connections, the management staff were utterly helpless. They couldn't afford to offend her, so they could only swallow their grievances.

"Gu Mengyao is the eldest daughter of the Gu Group..." This was common knowledge throughout the district, and the guard did not conceal it, telling Gou Huli straight out.

"What? She's the heiress of the Gu Group?" Gou Huli's eyes went wide the moment she heard the guard's words. "Are you telling me the truth?"

"It's true. Plenty of the homeowners in this complex know about it..." The guard had no idea why Gou Huli was reacting so strongly, but he did not dare ask.