The Heiress's Game

The day Li Xiaoxiao received the court's enforcement notice, she was queuing in front of a newly opened popular milk tea shop.

She waited in line for twenty minutes to buy the supposedly "soul-stirring" Strawberry Cheesecake. Just as she put the straw in and took a sip, her phone vibrated.

A short message, addressed to the Macau People's Court, followed by a bunch of legal terms she didn't quite understand, but she did recognize a few keywords—"freezing bank accounts," "restricting high-end consumption," and "inclusion in the list of dishonest judgment debtors."

She immediately opened her mobile banking app and tried it. Her salary card was indeed frozen. The balance was still showing, but she couldn't transfer a single penny out.

She tried Alipay and WeChat Pay, but both were locked.

Li Xiaoxiao panicked. Her first call was to her mother. After getting through, she cried and cursed. Zhou Xiulan on the other end of the phone was also anxious, repeatedly saying, "How could this happen? How could this happen?"

Then the two of them were silent for a full ten seconds on the phone, and at the same time they thought of the same name.

Li Chunjing.

"She's serious." Li Xiaoxiao bit her straw; she couldn't even taste the cheese in her milk tea anymore.

"Mom, she's really serious."

What happened next was even more devastating for Li Xiaoxiao.

That evening, Fei Yang's mother heard the news from somewhere and called him on her own initiative.

The tone on the other end of the phone was much better, even a little polite: "Xiaoxiao, your sister has already paid back more than 40,000 yuan. The rest can be paid slowly. We're not an unreasonable family."

Li Xiaoxiao hung up the phone and stared at the call log on her phone screen.

Li Chunjing paid back over 40,000 yuan? Where did she get the money? Wasn't she unemployed? Shouldn't she be destitute and desperate?

How much money does Li Chunjing actually earn now?

This thought swirled in Li Xiaoxiao's mind all night, stirring up her jealousy like a raging storm.

"Mom, Li Chunjing is making a lot of money now. She earns so much, yet she still pushes us to the brink. Why should she?"

Zhou Xiulan sat on the edge of the bed, clutching the hem of her clothes with both hands, her expression complex.

Court summons, frozen accounts, gossip from neighbors—she had never experienced anything like this in her life.

She felt embarrassed and wronged, but she also vaguely felt that she might have done something wrong.

This vague sense of guilt made her even more uncomfortable, because she was not used to feeling guilty towards Li Chunjing.

"How could she do this?" Zhou Xiulan said, her voice muffled.

"I'm her mother. A daughter suing her mother—this has never happened before, in all of history."

This is exactly what Li Xiaoxiao was waiting for.

She immediately sat down next to Zhou Xiulan, her voice softening, and her eyes reddening instantly:

"Mom, let's apologize to her."

Zhou Xiulan turned to look at her, a hint of surprise in her eyes. Could Li Xiaoxiao even say the word "apology"?

"Let's meet her and apologize properly. She's my sister, your daughter. We can't really go and destroy her, can we?"

Li Xiaoxiao linked arms with Zhou Xiulan, resting her face against her shoulder.

"Mom, just send her a video and say you're sick, you miss her, and you want to see her. She'll definitely come if she sees you're sick."

Zhou Xiulan hesitated for a moment. Pretending to be sick...that wouldn't be appropriate, would it?

Li Xiaoxiao added, "After we arrive, we should apologize to her properly and beg her to drop the charges."

If she softens her heart, my account will be unfrozen, the money issue with the Fei Yang family will be resolved, and she'll still be part of our family. Wouldn't that be better for everyone?

Zhou Xiulan remained silent for a while, then picked up her phone.

She sent the video to Li Chunjing and a voice message: "Chunjing, Mom is sick and is getting an IV drip at the hospital. Can you come and see Mom? Mom misses you."

Her tone was the kind Zhou Xiulan excelled at—three parts grievance, three parts concern, and four parts hesitation. It was a skill honed over decades, so natural that even she herself couldn't distinguish between truth and falsehood.

Li Xiaoxiao stood beside her, giving a thumbs-up and silently uttering two words: "Perfect."

When Li Chunjing received the video, she was in the study of Suiyuan, organizing Gu Yunjin's schedule for the following week.

She watched the video once, then watched it again, and then put her phone on the table and stared at the IV tube on the screen for a long time.

Her first reaction was: Really? Her second reaction was: It doesn't matter. Her third reaction was: Let's go see.

It wasn't because she softened her heart. It was because she understood her mother and her sister.

The two of them suddenly softening their stance wasn't a change of heart; they were hiding something. She wanted to know what it was.

Moreover, she has a trump card up her sleeve—she knows her advantages all too well.

She is now a person with evidence, income, a place to live, and legal protection; she is no longer Li Chunjing, who sat in the living room of the old house with cold sweat in her palms.

She replied with a message: "Send me the address, I'll come over."

The meeting place was the old house that Zhou Xiulan rented. The court froze Li Xiaoxiao's account, but Zhou Xiulan's pension card was not frozen, and the old house was still there.

When Li Chunjing pushed open the door, she saw that the living room was clean and tidy, with a plate of sliced ​​apples and a pot of brewed tea on the coffee table.

Zhou Xiulan sat on the sofa with tape on the back of her hand. Next to her stood an IV stand with an empty medicine bottle hanging on it, making it look quite convincing.

Li Xiaoxiao was standing to the side. When she saw her come in, she immediately went to greet her.

"Sister, you're here."

Li Xiaoxiao's voice was very low, "Mom has been waiting for you for a long time."

Li Chunjing glanced at her, then looked at Zhou Xiulan on the sofa.

She walked over and sat down opposite Zhou Xiulan, without touching the plate of apples or pouring tea.

"What's wrong with your health?" she asked, her tone neither warm nor cold.

Zhou Xiulan's eyes immediately reddened: "It's my old problem, high blood pressure, and I feel so choked up. Chunjing, I've been thinking a lot lately, and I feel so sorry for you—"

Li Xiaoxiao stood beside her, holding a teapot, poured a cup of water, and handed it over with both hands, her attitude unusually respectful.

"Sis, have some water. I know Mom and I were wrong before. If you can forgive us and drop this case, we'll never do it again—"

Before she could finish speaking, Li Chunjing had already taken the cup.

The water in the cup was warm, the tea was very light in color, and you could smell a faint sweetness if you brought it close.

It wasn't the sweetness of sugar, but a more subtle, more unnatural smell.

Li Chunjing's sense of smell wasn't particularly keen, but having spent so much time with Gu Yunjin lately, she had learned to pay attention to details.

Gu Yunjin always smelled anything before drinking it, then took a small sip and paused for three seconds. This habit was contagious to her.

She didn't drink it.

She brought the cup to her lips, made a drinking motion, touched the water with her lips, and then put the cup down.

After waiting for about three minutes, she began to let her eyelids droop, her body slumped softly against the back of the sofa, and her head tilted to one side.

Pretending to faint was a skill she learned from Gu Yunjin.

It wasn't Gu Yunjin who taught her; she figured it out herself—working in a wealthy family, you gradually discover that sometimes pretending not to know is more important than knowing, and pretending not to be a threat is more useful than being competitive.

There was a three-second silence in the living room.

Then Li Xiaoxiao's voice rang out, her tone completely changed, like a director finally yelling "Cut!"

"Alright, it should be working now."

Zhou Xiulan's voice followed, tinged with nervousness:

"Is there anything wrong with this medicine? Will anything go wrong?"

"Mom, don't worry, it's just crushed sleeping pills that I put in. The dosage is small, and you'll wake up after a few hours."

Li Xiaoxiao's tone was relaxed, so relaxed that it sent chills down one's spine.

"Once the deed is done, there's nothing she can do even if she wakes up."

Li Chunjing lay on the sofa with her eyes closed. When she heard these words, she kept her breathing even and her body limp, remaining completely still.

"Where is Xiao Sun?" Zhou Xiulan asked.

"He's downstairs. I told him to wait for the signal, and I'll make a call and he'll come up."

Li Xiaoxiao took out her phone and dialed a number, "Hey, Brother Sun, come on up, it's all done."

Less than two minutes later, the door opened.

A man's footsteps entered the living room, and Li Chunjing caught a glimpse of a short, stocky figure wearing a dark polo shirt through her slits.

He was probably in his early thirties, with an unsettling, appraising expression on his face as he stood in front of the sofa, looking down at her.

"So, are you satisfied with your future daughter-in-law?" Li Xiaoxiao's voice carried a smugness of having completed the transaction.

"Satisfied, satisfied." The man's laughter was muffled, as if it were squeezed out of his nose.

"Xiaoxiao, your older sister is really pretty, even better looking than in the photos. I can transfer the 100,000 yuan dowry to you right away; my parents have already prepared it."

"It's a deal, 100,000, not a penny less. My sister is a proper college student, more than a match for you."

Li Xiaoxiao said, "But she has a bad temper, so you'll have to keep a close eye on her after you take her home. Once the deed is done, where can she run off to?"

Zhou Xiulan remained silent for a long time before finally adding:

"Chunjing, don't blame your mother. I'm doing this for your own good. A girl should marry when she's of age. I don't know what you've been doing lately."

"You earn so much money and still complain to your sister. Mom is worried you'll go astray, so finding you a husband is for your own good."

Li Chunjing's eyes twitched under her eyelids.

Then she opened her eyes and sat up.

The three people in the living room froze at the same time, as if someone had pressed the pause button.

Li Xiaoxiao's smile froze on her lips before it faded. Zhou Xiulan's face was as white as the medical tape on the back of her hand. The man surnamed Sun took a step back and almost knocked over the apple plate on the coffee table.

Li Chunjing stood up, straightened the hem of her clothes, and looked at Li Xiaoxiao.

"One hundred thousand yuan," she said.

"You sold your own sister for 100,000 yuan."

She raised her hand and slapped Li Xiaoxiao across the face for the first time, the crisp sound echoing in the living room.

Li Xiaoxiao's face was turned to the side by the slap, and before she could react, the second slap landed, louder and harder.

"The first slap was because you spent all my money and tried to ruin my life." Li Chunjing's voice remained calm.

"The second slap is because you're not only bad, but also stupid. What era are we living in? You tried to drug me with sleeping pills?"

I came on an empty stomach and didn't drink any water. You didn't even notice that?

My phone has been recording for a full fifteen minutes from the moment you walked in until now. Every single word you said—"crushing sleeping pills," "a dowry of 100,000 yuan," "making it a fait accompli"—is recorded here.

She took her phone out of her pocket; the screen was lit up, and the waveform bar on the recording interface was still jumping.

Li Xiaoxiao covered her face, her eyes wide with disbelief: "You—you didn't drink that water—"

Do you think I'd drink anything you offer me?

Li Chunjing looked down at her. "Xiaoxiao, do you think I'm still the same Li Chunjing I was three months ago?"

She stepped back, took out her phone, and dialed three numbers.

"Hello, I need to call the police. Someone is suspected of human trafficking and has drugged and controlled the victim. The address is—"

Li Xiaoxiao screamed and lunged at her to snatch her phone, but Li Chunjing dodged to the side.

Zhou Xiulan finally came to her senses and collapsed to the ground with a thud, crying out, "Chunjing, you can't do this, she's your sister!"

The man surnamed Sun turned pale and walked towards the door, muttering curses, "Your family's affairs have nothing to do with me."

"Mr. Sun, you'd better not leave."

"The police will be here soon. If you run away, it means you are fleeing from justice. You were called here by Li Xiaoxiao. You can explain this to the police."

Of course, you can also take a gamble—bet that I don't understand what you meant by "100,000 yuan dowry," "the deed is done," and "keep a close eye on things."

The man abruptly stopped in his tracks, standing by the door, his expression shifting from ashen to grey.

Li Xiaoxiao stood in the middle of the living room, covering her face, a trace of blood seeping from the corner of her mouth—Li Chunjing hadn't held back when she hit her today.

She looked at Li Chunjing, and it seemed she finally realized that the person in front of her was not the same person as the older sister she had bullied since childhood.

The police arrived quickly. When the sirens sounded downstairs, Li Chunjing glanced down at Li Xiaoxiao, her eyes showing no anger, no sympathy, nothing at all.

"If you truly apologize, if you genuinely regret your actions, I might consider dropping the charges."

Her voice was so soft it was almost as if she were speaking to herself, "But you didn't. You couldn't even keep up the act."