Chapter 157: Chapter 156: Slapping the Fake Heiress 57
The Liu Family was exceptionally happy after they got the money from selling their house.
They took this lump sum of money and headed home.
On the train, Mr. Liu and Mrs. Liu started to dream about the future together.
They planned to use the money to buy several shops, and then a few apartments. The shops had to be located in prime areas and the apartments near good schools.
With these properties, even if Liu Qing did nothing in the future, he would have no worries about food and drink.
They thought it all through splendidly, becoming more excited as they talked, happier with each word.
After returning home, Mr. Liu and Mrs. Liu started looking for properties to buy, and at the same time indulged Liu Qing by buying him many branded clothes and lots of delicious foods.
In just a few short days, Liu Qing had gained quite a few pounds.
When it was time to sign contracts after finding the right houses, Mr. Liu and Mrs. Liu went to make the payment. However, when they handed over their bank card to the sales staff, the staff looked at them as if they were fools after swiping the card.
"Sorry, there’s no money in this card."
The staff member returned the card to Mr. Liu: "Sir, could you have brought the wrong card by mistake?"
Mr. Liu was stunned for a moment, and then hurriedly took the card to check it carefully: "Right, this is the card. I even used it to buy clothes for Liu Qing yesterday, how could it have no money? Are you sure there isn’t a mistake?"
The staff could only politely suggest to Mr. Liu: "There’s a bank not far from here, why don’t you go and confirm it?"
Mr. Liu, visibly annoyed, went with the card to check at the bank, and was informed that the balance was zero.
Mr. Liu immediately became worried: "That’s not right. We sold an apartment in Beijing, and all the money was deposited in here. How could it possibly be gone? I used this card just yesterday to make payments, can you check again to see what exactly happened?"
The bank personnel checked again, and of course, the balance was still zero.
"Did someone steal my money?"
Mr. Liu was both anxious and angry, breaking out in a sweat in just a short while.
The bank staff examined Mr. Liu’s transaction history, and while there was indeed a large sum of money before, it had now vanished without a trace. They hurriedly investigated and eventually found out that the money had been donated to Project Hope by Mr. Liu.
"Sir, the money in your card has already been donated to Project Hope. We thank you for your contribution to the children in the mountainous areas."
"What, that’s impossible."
Mr. Liu exclaimed loudly, "I didn’t donate, how could I possibly donate, what do the mountainous area’s children have to do with me?... Who stole my money, where is it?"
He was near frantic, shouting and yelling, turning the bank into a scene of chaos.
Many customers who were withdrawing money turned to look at him, and some who were waiting for their number to be called also gathered around to watch.
A few bank staff took Mr. Liu to the side: "Sir, the money has indeed been donated. If it wasn’t you who made the donation, you should go back and ask, perhaps it was one of your family members..."
Mr. Liu wiped off the sweat, "I... I’ll go back and ask."
Although he said this, Mr. Liu knew that Mrs. Liu would not have donated the money.
He thought of Liu Mingzhu.
Upon leaving the bank, Mr. Liu called Liu Mingzhu.
However, the mobile number Liu Mingzhu had left before had become invalid, indicating that Liu Mingzhu had changed her number.
He and Mrs. Liu discussed the matter and both were nearly furious.
They immediately booked plane tickets to rush to the Capital to catch Liu Mingzhu.
They had to figure out what happened, how could the money just disappear all of a sudden, could it be that Liu Mingzhu had arranged for someone to steal it?
But once they arrived in the Capital, they couldn’t find Liu Mingzhu anywhere.
Mr. Liu and Mrs. Liu were frantically searching all over the city, even going to the Foreign Language School to ask her former classmates, but after all the questions, no one knew where Liu Mingzhu had gone.
They thought that if they couldn’t find Liu Mingzhu, finding Anning would do just the same.
They didn’t know the address of the Zhao Family and didn’t dare to go to their home to look for someone, so they wanted to catch Anning outside the school.
Anning had anticipated this move; she had asked for leave during these days and hadn’t gone to school at all.
Mr. and Mrs. Liu had stayed in the Capital for about ten days, unable to find Liu Mingzhu and unable to catch Anning. The couple was frustrated, anxious, and unwilling to give up, which resulted in both of them falling ill.
Getting medical treatment in the Capital is very expensive, and there’s also the trouble of having to queue.
With no other options, Mr. and Mrs. Liu had to return home to recuperate.
But after returning home, they still felt extraordinarily distressed.
If they hadn’t had money before, they would have merely fantasized about a windfall from heaven, and life would have continued as usual.
But now that they had handled so much money and once lived such a good life, the sudden loss of money and everything they longed for was a disparity they could not accept.
Moreover, Liu Qing’s daily demands for new clothes and tasty food made Mr. and Mrs. Liu’s headaches even worse.
Life was a mess for the Liu Family.
Meanwhile, Anning was busy building another robot these days.
This time, the robot she was making was much simpler.
Anning was aware that Zhao Han wanted to produce domestic robots.
This time, she was building a bodyguard robot.
Of course, compared to the bodyguard function of her previous robots, this one would be more simplified.
Anning spent about ten days finishing the robot, then brought it home for further testing.
During this time when Anning was building the robot, Xiao Yuan and Zhang Ke often came to watch.
Xiao Yuan actually wanted to come by himself; he did not want Zhang Ke to get close to Anning.
But Zhang Ke was shameless in his curiosity, Xiao Yuan could neither drive him away nor scold him off, and ultimately had to let Zhang Ke be.
Not just the two of them, but Zhao Mingrui would also come to have a look whenever he had the time.
Zhao Mingrui now showed signs of being overly admiring of his sister, and he was a total fan of Anning.
In his heart and eyes, there was nothing bad about Anning. She was beautiful, studied well, had high intelligence, and was understanding and filial; in short, perfect in every way.
Often, while Anning was assembling the robot, Zhao Mingrui and Xiao Yuan would watch and praise Anning to each other.
One would say: "Ningning is so amazing, how did you install this part? Your hands are so skilled, I could never fit it myself."
The other would say: "Ningning looks so beautiful when she’s focused on her work, how are you so smart?"
Then...
Zhao Mingrui began to be wary of Xiao Yuan.
He felt that Xiao Yuan was up to no good.
In Zhao Mingrui’s mind, Anning was a rare and precious flower that needed to be properly cherished.
And Xiao Yuan wanted to take this flower away, even steal the pot along with it.
Naturally, he had to be vigilant.
He began to subtly keep Xiao Yuan away from Anning, preventing too much interaction between the two.
Zhang Ke watched from the side and found it amusing.
He thought about how Xiao Yuan had kept him away from Anning before and wanted to say it served him right, that retribution came quickly.
It was also because Xiao Yuan was too self-satisfied, bragging about Anning in front of Zhao Mingrui, which was bound to arouse suspicion.
But Zhang Ke chose to turn a blind eye and kept his thoughts to himself, letting Xiao Yuan stew in his own troubles.
Anning was focused on the robot and paid no mind to the subtle relationships among the three of them.