CHAPTER 406: CHAPTER 406: THE SCREEN WAS GONE

He Juan finally laughed, "Doesn’t your family have a phone?"

He Juan was just looking for the phone, but where had it gone?

Thinking you’d get to make a call for free, huh? Qin Xiangmei scoffed at He Juan’s words. Making phone calls doesn’t cost anything, right?

"Got rid of it," Although she was still upset about the phone incident, she felt it her own property shouldn’t be used by others for free. Yet she seemed to have forgotten that everything here had nothing to do with her. The Qin surname here belonged to Qin Xiangnuan, not her Qin Xiangmei Qin.

"Why did you get rid of the phone??" He Juan sounded displeased. Now without a phone, how could she notify her family members to come and pick up things?

"There’s a public one outside," Qin Xiangmei thought again, without a phone, she wouldn’t have lost her money either.

However, she somewhat underestimated He Juan’s urgency. After all, they are young girls. Their scheming is not yet as deep as time would suggest. In a rush, they really didn’t grasp the craftiness involved. Worried that opportunities wait for no one, He Juan quickly found a public phone outside and called her family, not saying much, just asking her parents to get a vehicle to come pick up items.

Before long, a vehicle had already pulled up outside the Siheyuan. A few adults went inside, and without a word, they took the Qingming River Painting screen away and even gave He Juan 1000 yuan.

He Juan didn’t even blink before handing the money to Qin Xiangmei.

Chun Xiangmei, holding the money, was so happy that she failed to notice the evident calculation and triumph in He Juan’s eyes.

This should mean both families got what they wanted.

Clear of both money and goods, neither family had any real capital anyway.

Qin Xiangmei got 1000 yuan and generously took her classmates out to eat, spending only a few dozen yuan. She now had over one thousand yuan in hand, so why worry about spending that much? However, she harbored some resentment towards Granny Lu for not coming back to cook for her, forcing her to spend so much money. Why was it that when Qin Xiangnuan brought classmates over, Granny Lu would bustle about, that dead old hag. One day, she’ll see how they grovel at her feet, but no matter, she now had money in her hands.

By the time Granny Lu returned, it was already evening, and Qin Xiangmei was displeased with a long face.

"I had classmates over today, why didn’t you make us food?" She used to call Granny Lu a dead old hag behind her back, Granny Lu was not oblivious to it.

Granny Lu didn’t have much affection for Qin Xiangmei, but being good-natured, she didn’t quarrel with her.

Granny Lu also didn’t want to argue with Qin Xiangmei. It was beneath her dignity as an elder to engage in back-and-forth bickering with a young girl.

"Weren’t you the one who told me not to come back?" After Granny Lu said that, she picked up a broom and started sweeping the courtyard, leaving Qin Xiangmei speechless as indeed, she had specifically told Granny Lu not to come back and disturb her with her classmates in the morning.

Now it really was like lifting a rock only to drop it on one’s own feet.

Granny Lu swept the courtyard, truly disliking the manners of Qin Xiangmei’s classmates. Birds of a feather flock together, indeed. The classmates of Qin Xiangyang and Qin Xiangnuan who had come over were all quite polite kids, even the elementary school students brought over by Jian Zhiqin were better than Qin Xiangmei’s classmates.

Why is there trash strewn everywhere? Sweeping the yard was still manageable, but once she got into the living room, she couldn’t stand the filth and chaos anymore. Melon seed shells and fruit peels were all over the floor, and the trash can on the side had become just for show.

On the table, on the sofa, trash was everywhere. Granny Lu’s belly ached from so much sweeping, but she managed to clean everything up. Yet, she always felt something was off as if something was missing, but she couldn’t figure out what it was and didn’t think too much about it.

As she cleaned, she thought about what delicious meal to prepare for the children today. Qin Xiangyang was still busy in the fields. The vegetables had grown quite a bit, and he and a few classmates were helping out. With such an abundance, they organized the vegetables to sell to the military school’s kitchen. They sold them cheap, and the military school was happy to buy them, especially since these were scarce items grown in a greenhouse. Others could not offer such a low price, so every weekend, the military school’s kitchen would urge them to deliver the vegetables; otherwise, there would be no fresh vegetables to eat the following week.

The harvest from the three greenhouses was fairly good, just enough to cover the kitchen’s needs for a week. However, the military school had many people, and it was feared that they wouldn’t be able to keep up after a few more times; then they would have to buy vegetables from outside, which are more expensive and not as good.

Considering it, there would be quite a number of people for dinner tonight. What would be good to make?

Maybe dumplings, everyone likes the dumplings she makes. The only issue was that she hadn’t bought any meat on her way back.

She put down the rag in her hand, thinking she would go buy some meat later.

After she had taken the money and bought the meat, just as she got home, she suddenly felt a start, finally realizing what was wrong.

She hurried into the living room, still holding a piece of meat in her hand, and upon entering, she panicked,

It was gone, truly gone.

The Qingming River Painting was missing.

What to do, what to do, Granny Lu was truly anxious now. She quickly tossed the meat into the kitchen and went to find someone.

Not long after, Qin Xiangyang and a few students returned covered in dirt. They hadn’t even washed their hands before heading to the living room. Upon entering and taking one look, it was true; the screen was gone. The screen was small, but the painting inside was not something trivial. They all knew that the Qingming River Painting, even though it was placed in the living room, was absolutely not an ordinary item. Mr. Song had long been eyeing this painting, even now thinking about how to get it back for himself.

For the painting, he had offered one hundred thousand yuan, but Qin Xiangnuan had not sold it.

A screen worth 100,000 yuan could be compared to a whole house. Everyone knew how much Qin Xiangnuan valued that screen. Every day, Granny Lu carefully cleaned it, afraid of any dust settling on it. This item worth 100,000 yuan disappearing just like that was truly strange.

The screen had been here for several years, and no one would touch it. Moreover, only they knew about this screen; other people had never seen it. How could it be that everything else was there, but only the screen was missing?

"Granny, don’t panic."

Qin Xiangyang hurried to comfort Granny Lu, "Think carefully, when did the screen go missing?"

"When?" Granny Lu truly had no idea. "This morning when I got up, it was still there when I was cleaning the living room. I remember wiping it several times, but when I came back, it was gone."

It couldn’t be possible; the doors were all locked, and Conghua was here too.