Chapter 267: Mercy to the Enemy Is Cruelty to Yourself

After a brief silence, the three men scrambled to speak over each other.

"Let me talk! Let me talk!"

"Don’t you two fight me for it! I’ll go first!"

"It was Liu Yaozu who sent us!" Ermao beat them to the punch. "He told us to teach you a lesson!"

Brother Tao quickly jumped in. "That’s right. Liu Yaozu said you were disobedient and unfilial."

Xiao Shun added the last part. "He also said you were rich, that we should take more from you after we beat you up, and... and also take some ’photos’ to make it easier to get money from you later..."

Xue Can’s pupils constricted dangerously, and he slapped the three men, sending them sprawling.

"You really have a death wish!"

Xue Can glanced at Shen Lu. "Should I take care of the three of them?"

Shen Lu: "They’re just three pieces of trash. What’s the point of dealing with them? Besides, they were just following Liu Yaozu’s orders. They’re just tools."

The one who really needed to be dealt with was Liu Yaozu.

The trio huddled together, trembling. They didn’t dare make a sound, terrified of provoking Shen Lu and Xue Can and getting themselves killed.

But while they might escape death, they wouldn’t escape punishment. Shen Lu had already taught them a lesson once, but that didn’t stop her from doing it again.

Xue Can was the one to do it. He broke one leg and one arm of each man before throwing them out of the rental house.

Whether they survived or not was purely a matter of luck.

Shen Lu gathered the Liu Family’s luggage and had Xue Can carry it back to the store.

Shen Lu stormed into the staff dormitory, her face cold. Liu Yaozu, who had been sleeping comfortably in bed, was startled awake. He instinctively started to shout, but when he saw it was Shen Lu, he sheepishly changed his tone.

"Sister, what are you doing here?"

Liu Yaozu had figured it out. There was no need to oppose Shen Lu.

’She has money and a superpower,’ he thought. ’If I just stay on her good side, whatever she lets slip through her fingers will be more than enough for me to live a good life.’

’Take right now, for example.’

’This staff dormitory is so comfortable. It’s the best and most comfortable room I’ve ever stayed in.’

’It’s clean, tidy, and warm, and there’s delicious food. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this the life of an immortal.’

’I had a small misunderstanding with my sister, a little friction, but that’s all in the past now.’

’Besides, I got dragged into this because of her. I was kidnapped and almost lost my life.’

’For that reason alone, Shen Lu has to treat me well, right?’

"Liu Yaozu, do you really not want to acknowledge me as your sister?" Shen Lu asked coldly.

"No, of course not! Having a sister like you is my good fortune!" Liu Yaozu vehemently denied.

Yang Jing came out of the restroom just in time to hear their conversation. "Little Deer, we genuinely want to be a family with you."

Although Liu Qiang and Yang Jing favored their son over their daughter, it wasn’t so severe that they only wanted a son and not a daughter at all.

Shen Lu looked at Liu Yaozu. "Fine. In that case, you certainly wouldn’t want to make things difficult for me. You’d even want to help me, right?"

Liu Yaozu nodded repeatedly. "Of course. We’re family. We should help each other."

"Good." Shen Lu pointed to the wasteland outside the window. "You know the store sells food, and ingredients are tight. I’m planning to clear that patch of wasteland in the backyard to grow some vegetables. If you and Mom and Dad are willing, you can be in charge of it."

Growing vegetables?

That wasn’t exactly something they knew how to do.

"Little Deer, about that..." Yang Jing said, troubled. "We don’t know how to grow vegetables."

"Everyone has to learn sometime. If you’re not willing, then you can leave in a bit. I’ve already brought your luggage."

"Luggage?" Liu Yaozu’s heart skipped a beat. "You went to the rental house?"

"Yes. You didn’t follow the rules, so Granny Jin won’t rent to you anymore."

"Did you... see Xiao Shun and the others?"

"Xiao Shun? Who’s that?" Shen Lu feigned confusion.

Liu Yaozu breathed a sigh of relief. ’It’s good she didn’t see them.’ If she had, the fact that he’d sent them to teach her a lesson would be exposed.

The Liu Family didn’t put up much of a struggle. They followed Shen Lu’s arrangement and became the store’s vegetable growers.

"So... we can keep living here, right?" Liu Yaozu asked.

"Of course not." Shen Lu shook her head. "You aren’t official store employees, so you can’t live in the staff dormitory."

"Then where will we live?"

Shen Lu: "You’ll find out tomorrow."

After they left the staff dormitory, Xue Can asked, puzzled, "You’re just letting him off that easily?"

A piece of scum who incited others to beat up his sister and even told them to take ’those kinds of photos’ for blackmail... As far as Xue Can was concerned, it wouldn’t be going too far to just kill him.

"Wouldn’t killing him be letting him off too easy?" Shen Lu smiled faintly. "I’ll keep him around and deal with him slowly."

If she kicked them out, Shen Lu worried someone would just grab the Liu Family again to use as leverage against her. It was better to keep them under her nose, where she could both ensure their safety and properly deal with Liu Yaozu.

Liu Yaozu was the type of person who wasn’t evil to the core, but was definitely a bad seed.

Liu Qiang and Yang Jing’s bottomless indulgence had nurtured him. Shen Lu had no intention of changing the Liu Family, but she felt perfectly justified in making them learn a few lessons and suffer a little.

Entering the shop module’s editing interface, Shen Lu planned to build a small cabin in the most remote corner of the backyard wasteland.

Shen Lu: "System, this counts as part of the shop, right?"

[Yes, Host. Any land belonging to this unfinished building is considered part of the shop. The Host may build any structure at will, as long as the cost is paid.]

Shen Lu checked the cost to build the small cabin. It was 2,000 popularity value for the most basic, simple sheet metal hut. Furthermore, furniture had to be purchased separately.

Spending 2,000 popularity value on the Liu Family pained her, but then she had another thought. ’It’s not like the three of them can take the house with them. When it’s empty later, I can use it as a storage room or something. That’s not bad.’

This kind of sheet metal hut could be built very quickly—in just one minute. Having a house suddenly appear during the day would be too conspicuous, so Shen Lu planned to wait until dark to do it secretly.

After dinner, Xue Can left with Mo Bei and a few others. Shen Lu guessed they were probably going to cut the weeds and pull up the roots.

Shen Lu clutched her chest. Who would have thought that she, a law-abiding citizen of modern society, would become so proficient at hiring assassins after less than three months in this Otherworld?

And she didn’t feel a shred of guilt.

After all, this world was like that: the weak were prey for the strong. To be merciful to your enemies was to be cruel to yourself.

"I have to keep this up in the future," Shen Lu murmured to herself. ’It’s best to harden my heart over the next few years. That way, I won’t do anything irrational out of soft-heartedness when the cataclysm arrives.’

「Elsewhere」

Following the intelligence provided by his subordinates, Xue Can found Boss Jin hiding in a dilapidated hut.

Boss Jin only had his assistant and two recently hired mercenaries with him. He was slumped in a chair, blood slowly seeping from his abdomen, looking utterly wretched.

Boss Jin recognized Xue Can and gave a mocking sneer. "Mr. Xue isn’t here to kill me, is he?"

He had heard Jin San mention more than once that Xue Can and Shen Lu were having an affair. People are like that; when recounting an event, they can’t help but spin it in a way that favors them.

In Jin San’s telling, he was kicked out of the Mercenary Corps because Xue Can wanted to act the hero and show off for Shen Lu, using him as an example.

Boss Jin didn’t completely believe it, but he didn’t completely disbelieve it either.

But now, with Xue Can showing up at a time like this, he certainly wasn’t here to reminisce about old times.