In this era, reputation was of the utmost importance. With Fu Yurou making such a scene, Fu Aiguo would not come out of this looking good.
"Yurou, you can't do this," Huang Meifeng said, her face full of disapproval.
"Fine. Then have Zhang Pan hand her job over to me and take my place going to the countryside."
Zhang Pan had not uttered a single word throughout this entire situation, remaining as inconspicuous as a ghost whenever she was brought up. But this time she could not hold back, casting a sharp glance at Fu Yurou.
Her eyes were edged with hostility.
Fu Yurou ignored her, turning instead to Fu Aiguo. "If you aren't going to give me my mother's belongings, I won't leave them for you either."
"What do you think you're doing?" Fu Aiguo asked, his face dark and grim.
Fu Yurou replied with a single sentence.
"If I can't have them, no one else will either. Besides, the authorities are cracking down pretty hard these days."
This was a direct threat.
Fu Aiguo turned pale.
If people found out about those things hidden in the house, regardless of whether they could be uncovered or not, total ruin was staring them right in the face.
As for why Fu Yurou dared to blurt it out so brazenly in front of so many people—if a scandal like this broke, the whole family would go down together.
"Second Sister, we're all family. Do you really have to be this ruthless?"
Though Fu Jianye had no idea what the items Fu Yurou was talking about actually were, he could guess they were nothing good. He looked at her with disapproval.
In the past, he had hated Fu Yurou for making scenes at home, but this time it seemed serious—otherwise, Dad's face wouldn't look so terrifyingly dark.
Fu Yurou gave Fu Jianye a sidelong glance and raised an eyebrow in surprise.
This one knew how to keep a cool head, too.
Come to think of it, the only useless ones in this whole family were the original owner and Fu Yuqing.
While the original owner loved to throw tantrums, she only ever made minor nuisances of herself without dealing any real damage. Fu Yuqing was loud and blustery, but all sound and fury signifying nothing.
On the other hand, looking at Zhang Pan and Fu Jianye, they did nothing at all yet reaped all the benefits. Truly, it was the barking dogs that didn't bite.
"Alright then, how about you go to the countryside in my place?"
"If you really want me to go to the countryside..."
"No, you can't go to the countryside!" Before Fu Jianye could finish, Huang Meifeng hastily interrupted, terrified that he might actually be entertaining the thought.
Fu Yurou raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Stop playing the doting stepmother now? Looks like you know the countryside isn't such a wonderful place after all. Look at your own kids—not a single one of them has to go."
Huang Meifeng fell silent at that, her expression turning sullen.
Fu Yurou swept her gaze across the lot of them one by one, then raised a hand and delicately covered a yawn.
"It's getting late. You all can discuss it some more, but I'm going to sleep. I want my answer by tomorrow morning, or else I'm going to report this tomorrow afternoon."
With that, paying no heed to their expressions, Fu Yurou turned, walked back to her room, and bolted the door behind her.
With the bold move she had just pulled, there was a chance these ruthless people might even murder her in the middle of the night. After all, given how much the original owner had screamed and carried on, they could easily pass it off as suicide.
When money was on the line, Fu Yurou had no intention of testing human nature.
As for the locked door and how the other two would manage their sleeping arrangements, that was none of her concern.
Fu Yurou slept exceptionally well that night.
Neither Zhang Pan nor Fu Yuqing came hammering on her door.
Waking up the next day, she stretched lazily, got out of bed, and opened the bedside wardrobe. Consulting her memories, she found the original owner's secret stash: two yuan and thirty cents.
Although it was a paltry sum, she didn't turn her nose up at it, tossing it straight into the spatial storage before changing into a white blouse and black trousers.
The room was small, and the three sisters shared a single wardrobe.
Inspecting the contents, Fu Yurou discovered that while the original owner's clothes were decent enough, she only had two outfits to her name. Zhang Pan and Fu Yuqing, on the other hand, had more than twice as many clothes as she did.
Zhang Pan in particular even owned three dresses, while the original owner didn't have a single one.
The original owner hadn't been stupid, which was why she hadn't let Huang Meifeng fool her completely; she had simply lacked life experience and fighting spirit.
She just didn't possess Huang Meifeng's patience and talent for putting on an act.
With a gleam in her eye, Fu Yurou swept all of Zhang Pan's nice clothes into her spatial storage. In this era, getting your hands on new clothes took more than just money—you needed ration coupons, too.
She had no princess syndrome and wasn't picky.
She left Zhang Pan two down-at-heel outfits she wouldn't be caught dead in, and did the exact same thing to Fu Yuqing's wardrobe.
Even though Fu Yuqing's clothes were a bit too small and she was too tall to wear them, if Fu Yuqing hadn't stalled for time, the original owner might not have died.
The original owner's death was a combination of her own self-destruction and her family's desire to be rid of her; Fu Yuqing was far from innocent.
While rummaging through the clothes, she also dug up Fu Yuqing's five yuan in pocket money and pocketed it with zero hesitation.
As for Zhang Pan, she hadn't left any cash in the wardrobe.
The room wasn't large; after clearing the wardrobe, all that was left was the bedding, which she would pack up when she left.
Refreshing and invigorated, she opened the door to find Huang Meifeng and Fu Aiguo both sitting in the living room, while the other three were nowhere to be seen.
"Good morning," Fu Yurou greeted them with a cheerful smile.
The two of them, however, looked far from happy.
Huang Meifeng instantly tried to resume her persona of the benevolent stepmother: "Yurou, making you go to the countryside really is a last resort. Panpan has a job, your younger siblings are still young, and the neighborhood committee has been breathing down our necks..."
"Hold it right there," Fu Yurou interrupted with a raised hand. "I'm a pragmatic person. I only judge people by what they do, not what they say. Anyway, I've already agreed to go to the countryside. You give me what I asked for, and we can all live in peace. If you don't, you know the consequences."
"Do you really have to be this ruthless?" Fu Aiguo finally spoke up.
Fu Yurou crossed her arms over her chest. "You were the one who started it."
If Fu Aiguo had truly cared about Fu Yurou as a daughter, he never would have made such a choice.
Since he cared more about his later-born children, there was no point in keeping up the facade of a good father.
"Fine. I'll give you your mother's things."
"Aiguo!" Huang Meifeng's expression almost cracked as she clenched her hands into tight fists.
Without looking at her, Fu Aiguo stared straight at Fu Yurou and said, "Even if you take those things out, you won't be able to keep them. Bringing this out into the open will only drag the Fu family down with you. So once you take those things, you are no longer a daughter of the Fu family."
"That's fine. Once I go to the countryside, I might as well not be your daughter anyway."
This wasn't the early days of the rustication movement anymore; how brutal life in the countryside was, and how many people perished there, was already common knowledge in the cities.
Why else would Huang Meifeng have opposed sending her own flesh and blood to the countryside despite so much money being on the line?
The year was 1973, four years away from the resumption of the college entrance examination. With no one knowing that exams would ever be brought back, going to the countryside was generally accepted to mean a one-way ticket for life.
That being the case, she might as well not be part of the Fu family, and honestly, she didn't want a family like this anyway.
"Fine. Tonight at midnight, come out with me."
"You got it!"
Fu Aiguo was a cautious man; naturally, he hadn't kept those items in the house.
When the original owner's mother died, the original owner had been too young to be entrusted with them, and whether Huang Meifeng knew about them or not was anyone's guess.
Fu Yurou had only learned of this from the memories the System had crammed into her head—the original owner's mother had entrusted them to Fu Aiguo on her deathbed while the little girl cried by the side of the bed.
If it had really been the original owner, such a distant memory would have long since faded.
Otherwise, the original owner wouldn't have been the type to hold things in.
By midnight, everyone in the residential building was fast asleep as Fu Aiguo led Fu Yurou quietly out the door.