1990s: Spring Water Family

Chapter 132 An Uninvited Guest Arrives: Grandma's Here

When it was discovered that there were indeed underage girls under the age of sixteen working at Tiancheng Advertising Model Agency who had been coerced and lured into engaging in power-for-sex transactions by Ma Tiancheng, they handed over the evidence to the criminal police in charge of the case without any hesitation.

The subsequent developments in this case have had a severe impact.

Tiancheng Advertising Model Agency was shut down, and dozens of underage girls were rescued.

Ma Tiancheng, Zhang Ji, and other related individuals were apprehended and punished by law.

The closure of Tiancheng Model Agency did not affect the broadcast of the advertisements.

Dingsheng Decoration used this opportunity to launch a large-scale publicity campaign, successfully opening up the capital market and establishing a branch in Beijing.

Lin Xiyu has become a minor sensation again, sparking heated discussions among ordinary people.

As the saying goes, "People fear becoming famous, just as pigs fear growing fat," the ancients were right.

On the last day of August, the worst thing happened: the arrival of three uninvited guests disrupted their peaceful life.

-

After autumn arrived, the weather gradually became cooler. My cousin went to the construction company that Li Zhi had introduced to discuss business, but no clients came. The office was very quiet.

Lin Xiyu was bored and leaned back in her chair, yawning and feeling drowsy.

"bump."

The office door was suddenly pushed open forcefully from the outside, the jarring sound startling her and making her open her eyes abruptly.

"Mom, am I right? Xiyu works here and has earned a lot of money."

The three people who walked in from outside perked up when they saw her, their eyes filled with shrewd calculation.

"Xiyu, Grandma's here. What are you standing there for?"

One of them entered the room and, without saying a word, ordered her around as if it were her right: "It's so hot today, hurry up and pour your grandma a glass of water."

"What are you doing here?"

Lin Xiyu's pupils contracted when she saw the three people. Although they hadn't seen each other for ten years, she recognized them at a glance.

The elderly woman with a full head of white hair and a thin figure was her grandmother, and the two men and women who came with her were her aunt and uncle.

Looking at the three men's calculating, dark faces, past memories involuntarily flooded her mind, making her feel very uncomfortable.

"How do you talk as a kid?"

The aunt was unreasonable and domineering: "This is your grandmother. What reason does she need to come see you?"

“I don’t have a grandmother. My grandmother died ten years ago.”

Clearly, she underestimated the girl in front of her. Lin Xiyu was no longer the ignorant child she was ten years ago, who could only let them bully her.

Her back was ramrod straight as she coldly stared at them, the hatred in her eyes sending a chill down one's spine.

"You brat, what nonsense are you spouting?"

The aunt's voice suddenly rose several octaves, as if to cover up her guilty conscience: "How can you curse your own grandmother like that? Your grandmother is standing right here, and you still dare to talk nonsense in broad daylight? Aren't you afraid of being struck by lightning?"

"If God had any eyes, he should have struck you down instead."

Lin Xiyu retorted without hesitation: "How did you treat my mother and me the year my father sacrificed his life? Don't you know the truth? Put your hands on your conscience, doesn't it hurt?"

"My elder brother has been gone for ten years. Those things are long in the past."

The shameless aunt continued, "Why bring that up now? Your grandma isn't here to reminisce with you. Your second uncle is unwell and needs money for treatment. If you know what's good for you, hurry up and give her 20,000 yuan, or things will turn ugly and no one will look good."

"It's ridiculous."

Lin Xiyu scoffed, "What does my second uncle's illness have to do with me? He's not my biological father, why should I pay for his medical treatment?"

"Just because he's your second uncle."

Her aunt argued illogically, using kinship to blackmail her: "Even if we're family, we're still connected by blood. As long as you have the surname Lin, you can't escape your ties with the Lin family."

"I don't have to have the surname Lin."

Lin Xiyu scoffed, "You think a surname can trap me? I don't acknowledge him as my second uncle, so he's not my second uncle. You'd better leave now, or I'll chase you away with a broom."

"You unfilial daughter!"

The uncle's eyes widened, his anger surging: "You've gone too far! You dare to hit your grandma?"

"If you keep lingering and don't leave, see if I dare to do it?"

Lin Xiyu casually picked up a broom and stood up from the chair.

"Bastard thing!"

My uncle, relying on his brute strength honed from years of working in the fields, roared as he charged forward: "You dare chase your grandma? I'll beat you up!"

Lin Xiyu reacted quickly, swinging the broom forcefully and striking his knee.

"Pfft."

My uncle's knees buckled, and he fell face-down onto the ground.

"Ouch, that hurts so much!"

He was so dizzy from the fall that it took him a long time to recover.

"You brat, how dare you hit your uncle?"

When Grandma saw that her beloved youngest son had been beaten, her face instantly turned ferocious and terrifying.

"So what if I hit him?"

Lin Xiyu was not afraid at all: "Let him fight back if he dares. Wasn't he very capable ten years ago? He was so arrogant when he stole my dad's pension and pushed me to the ground."

"Oh, I won't live any longer."

Seeing that she couldn't win the argument, Grandma sat down on the ground and started throwing a tantrum: "My poor second son, he's so sick he's barely clinging to life. That heartless brat, she has money but won't let him get treatment."

"I have no money."

Lin Xiyu impatiently picked at her ear.

"You have no money?"

Grandma yelled at the top of her lungs, "You filmed an advertisement, how could you not have money?"

"That's right."

My aunt chimed in from the side: "That celebrity who did the commercial for Midea air conditioners, he can make a million dollars with just one smile. He can earn a million dollars from just one commercial."

"That's a celebrity."

Lin Xiyu didn't bother to explain.

In fact, she did not receive any payment for the advertisement she filmed this time.

After learning about Ma Tiancheng's misdeeds, she also wanted to do her part to redeem underage girls, so she offered to film the movie as a favor and not ask for any payment.

"Brother, you died too young."

Seeing that she was unmoved by her words, the younger sister-in-law sat down on the ground and shamelessly cried, "If you leave, no one will be able to support this family anymore. No one will care for my second brother when he is sick. Without you, this family will fall apart sooner or later."

"If you want to cry, go outside and cry!"

Lin Xiyu, having exhausted her patience, used a clever trick to pull the mother and daughter up from the ground and chase them away.

Her uncle, who shamelessly lay on the ground trying to extort money from her, was swept out of the house by her with a broom.

To avoid further commotion from the mother and her two daughters, she couldn't wait for her cousin to return. She locked the door, rode her bicycle, and rushed home in one go.

-

No. 9, Donghua Street.

"What? Your grandma's here?"

When Grandma heard the news, her face changed drastically: "That shameless old woman, how dare she show her face here?"

I'm so glad.

Lin Xiyu said with lingering fear, "Luckily, she didn't know my mother had bought a house, otherwise I don't know what kind of trouble it would have caused."

"You absolutely must not tell anyone that your mother bought a house."

Grandma clutched her chest, struggling to breathe: "No matter who asks, I insist that it's rented, that I signed a long-term lease, and that I have to pay rent every month."

"Grandma, let's go hide at Auntie's house for a while."

Lin Xiyu was worried that her grandmother would get sick from the anger, and said with concern, "Grandma and the others know the address here, they might come looking for us."

"Go and tell your aunt."

Grandma agreed inwardly: "Tell him to let her and your uncle go back to her parents' house to hide for a while. We'll leave now." "Okay."

Lin Xiyu didn't want to waste any more time, so she turned and ran.

When the aunt heard that Lin Xiyu's grandmother had arrived, she acted as if she had heard the boy who cried wolf. She hurriedly closed the phone booth, locked the door, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Their movements were so swift that Lin Xiyu was completely dumbfounded.

Not long after Lin Xiyu helped her grandmother leave Donghua Street, her grandmother and the other two women indeed came to the door.

They lingered outside their grandmother's house until the wee hours of the morning, but didn't see a single person.

Unable to find the person, the aunt was unwilling to give up and instigated the grandmother to cause trouble at the TV station.

The next morning, before dawn, Gu Bin was woken up by Li Yan's series of calls.

Since her maternal grandmother's family wasn't home and no one answered the phone at the phone booth, Li Yan had no choice but to call him.

"What? Xi Yu's grandma actually went to the TV station?"

After hearing the whole story, Gu Bin gained a new understanding of the old lady's shamelessness.

"Yes."

Li Yan said helplessly, "They sat at the entrance of the TV station all night last night, and rushed in as soon as the door opened this morning. They lay on the ground and made a scene, which even alarmed the station director."

"understood."

Gu Bin quickly calmed down and came up with an idea: "Use the interview to keep the person calm, and I'll be there soon."

"it is good."

Li Yan breathed a sigh of relief after receiving confirmation.

Gu Bin hung up the phone and, without a moment's delay, rode his mountain bike out of the house.

-

The TV station, first floor lobby.

Lin Xiyu's grandmother, with disheveled hair, patted her chest and wept bitterly.

My aunt tells everyone she meets about the family's grievances.

My uncle squatted on the ground, wiping away his tears with his hands.

The three men's affected behavior made them appear quite pitiful to those unaware of the true situation.

"Are they Lin Xiyu's family?"

"Is her grandma's family that poor? Her clothes are covered in patches, she looks like a beggar."

"Lin Xiyu must have made a lot of money from shooting commercials, right? Her grandmother's family is so poor, why doesn't she help them out?"

"She seemed like a very likable girl, I never expected her to be like this."

"Isn't she the image ambassador of Jinan? Doesn't she care about her image at all?"

"This incident happened right after filming a documentary. The station director must be having a headache."

Around 7 a.m., staff members going to their early shifts began to enter the gate.

Those who didn't know the inside story mostly showed sympathy when they saw the pitiful state of the mother and her two children.

Li Yan and the cameraman rushed over at the station director's behest to conduct an on-site interview.

“We are Lin Xiyu’s family. I am her aunt, and this is her grandmother.”

When my aunt saw that someone was interviewing her, she became even more animated as she spoke, spitting as she went.

"You just said you came to see her because her second uncle is sick?"

Li Yan, being a reporter, immediately grasped the key point: "So, in other words, she didn't know her second uncle was sick before this. I have a question: her second uncle has been sick for more than a year. Didn't you tell her before? Why didn't you contact her?"

"Uh."

The aunt choked, a little intimidated in front of the camera.

“She’s unfilial and makes me angry all the time.”

Seeing that things were going badly, Grandma chimed in, "I didn't want to be driven crazy by her, so I kicked her out of the house."

"Correct."

The uncle, still resentful that Lin Xiyu had hit him with a broom, went to great lengths to slander her: "She's been naughty and disobedient since she was little. She looked down on our family for being poor and didn't want to come to the countryside. Even when she did come during the New Year, she was always picky and never gave us a good look. My mother was so angry that she kicked her out and forbade her from coming back."

-

"Oh, are they talking about Lin Xiyu?"

"Why does it feel like it's not the same person?"

"This is what she looked like when she was a child."

"She's just from an ordinary family, yet she looks down on her relatives in the countryside."

"It's incredible."

The staff members who had gathered around him changed their expressions upon hearing his accusations.

"old lady."

Li Yan frowned deeply: "What are your demands? What brings you to the TV station?"

“I want her to pay for his second uncle’s medical treatment.”

Upon hearing this, Grandma's cloudy old eyes lit up instantly: "Her second uncle is her father's own brother, she can't just ignore him."

"How much do you want?"

Li Yan pretended to be discussing things with her, using the opportunity to stall for time.

"5, no, 10."

Grandma was secretly delighted and made an outrageous demand: "She must have made a lot of money from shooting commercials. 10 is just a drop in the bucket for her, but for us country folk, it's a life-saving sum of money."

"10? Isn't that too much?"

Li Yan silently complained in her heart.

That old woman is so cruel! She asked for 10 yuan right off the bat. She's a real-life version of Zhou Bapi!
She really has the nerve to say that.
"More what?"

Grandma stubbornly argued, "Celebrities earn a million for each advertisement they shoot. Even if she earns less, it can't be less than a tenth of that."

"Who did you listen to?"

Li Yan was a little confused: "Which celebrity shoots an advertisement for a million?"

"What was his name again? He's also from Jinan."

Grandma said confidently, "The Midea air conditioner commercial she filmed, everyone says that her smile brings millions of dollars, it's all over the country."

Rumors are not necessarily credible.

Li Yan's instinctive rebuttal.

"There's no smoke without fire."

Grandma was displeased with her attitude: "Don't underestimate us country folk and bully us just because we're not well-educated. We understand this basic principle."

"I would never dare to underestimate you."

Li Yan mentally muttered another complaint.

With your ability to throw tantrums and act shamelessly, I can't even catch up with you in my car. Who would dare to underestimate you?

"Reporter, we have already explained the situation clearly."

The aunt, fearing that her grandmother might say too much and give away her secret, secretly tugged at her sleeve: "When are you going to let her come over and give us the money?"

"Can you guarantee that everything you say is true?"

Li Yan was not easily fooled. She held up the microphone with a serious expression.

"Really, we're telling the truth."

My aunt had already thought it through before she came. It was true that my second brother was disabled. He went to work in Shanxi and encountered a collapse while mining coal, which broke his leg.

Although it wasn't as serious as they described, he still needed crutches and had lost his ability to work.

They are not afraid even if reporters go to their homes to investigate.

At worst, they can just put someone on the bed and say they're about to die. Are they going to drag them off the bed and take them to the hospital for a checkup?