Chapter 40: Nothing More Than Ordinary Standards

"You're right," Tang Jinnan said, a reminder on his lips, though he hadn't expected Qin Hongfei to bring it up first. He was a little surprised.

Qin Yun and Qin Fei, too, had calmed from their initial excitement.

So their brother was a government-trained prodigy, but they couldn't tell anyone about it—what use was that?

"Is my brother really that amazing?" Qin Fei asked the person across from her.

"Not particularly..." the other replied coolly. "His talent and intelligence are just average among our group."

Average, then.

Hearing this, Qin Yun and Qin Fei suddenly felt a lot less enthusiastic.

So, being selected by the government was nothing special after all.

Qin Hongfei looked at the naive pair, but didn't tell them that what a genius considered "average" might be vastly different from their own standard of average. After finishing her ginger tea, she told her guest to wash the dishes. Since Tang Xiaojin had made the tea, she felt it wasn't right to bully someone so honest.

The guest gave her a murderous look. "Why should I?"

Qin Hongfei was unafraid. "Because you’re living in a house I provide, Tang Xiaojin made the ginger tea, and so you should do the dishes."

It sounded reasonable enough, but the guest gave her a cold stare. "And what are you going to do?"

Qin Hongfei told him she was going to sleep. After rushing back in the rain, she was utterly exhausted.

Before he could explode, she rapped on the table and reminded him to stay humble. "Did you really think I brought you all back just because you’re good-looking, and that I’d let you stay in my house rent-free, without doing any chores? What are you thinking? Do I really look that charitable?"

"We can leave," he sneered. Who was this woman trying to threaten?

Qin Hongfei quietly raised her left hand to cover her right shoulder, where she’d been injured—by him. "It hurts."

Hearing this, Tang Jinnan quickly interjected, "We’re the reason she’s hurt. We can’t just walk away. If you don’t want to wash, I’ll do it..."

The guest strongly suspected Qin Hongfei was faking it, but had no proof. This shameless woman!

Letting Tang Xiaojin do it was out of the question. Scowling, he took the dishes into the kitchen and began to wash them.

Qin Fei and Qin Yun thought he looked murderous.

But Qin Hongfei wasn’t the least bit intimidated. Good looks and charm earned no special treatment in her world. She went straight to her room and fell asleep.

The next day.

Qin Hongfei was awakened by noise. To her shock, she saw that Qin Yun and Qin Fei had been up for a while, gathered in the living room, and that another group of people was there as well. The glass top of the dining table, which had been in good condition before, was now shattered, shards scattered everywhere.

The leader of the group was a short man, a cigarette clenched between his teeth, his impatience obvious. "Listen, Mrs. Qin, that five hundred and thirty thousand you owe me is about due, isn’t it?"

Qin’s mother was stunned. "I only borrowed a hundred and twenty thousand from you! How did it become five hundred and thirty thousand?"

The short man stubbed out his cigarette on the glass, grinning roguishly. "A hundred and twenty thousand is principal. The rest is interest. You don’t have to pay all the principal right away, but you’d better cough up at least part of it, or I won’t be able to explain myself when I go back."

The neighbors all around began to whisper and point.

To save her repair shop, Mrs. Qin had clearly gone mad.

She paid them no mind, and after a moment’s thought, said to the man, "I’m a bit strapped right now. How about you lend me a little more, and I’ll use it to pay you back?"

The short man’s face darkened, and he shouted, "Enough, Mrs. Qin! When you first came to me for that ten thousand, I asked you to repay it, and you said you couldn’t, so you told me to lend you another twenty to make it thirty, and you’d pay it all at once. Then it was a hundred and thirty thousand! Three years have passed, and I haven’t seen a cent of the principal! You always have an excuse. You’re more like a loan shark than I am! But I’ve got elders and kids to look after too—I have to live!

If you can’t pay up today, I’ll smash up your house!"