Chapter 579 - 578: The Troublemaker Gets a Fright (Part 2)

At that moment, Mrs. Tang was scared out of her wits. All she wanted was to faint on the spot, but she just couldn’t.

Mrs. Tang watched, wide-eyed, as Lin Huanzhu lunged forward like a cheetah, knocking the vicious criminal to the ground and swiftly subduing him.

"Let me go! Let me go..." the criminal shouted, but he was completely unable to break free.

Struggling, he grabbed Mrs. Tang’s foot.

Mrs. Tang glanced at the hand on her foot, then back at Lin Huanzhu, and promptly passed out.

She fainted from fright—fright from the criminal, and fright from Lin Huanzhu.

With Mrs. Tang unconscious, it was finally quiet. She was slumped limply in her wheelchair, and urine trickled down from the seat cushion, DRIP, DRIP, DRIP, onto the ground. Besides the stench of urine, there was another foul odor.

A few police officers who had been in pursuit finally caught up, feeling like their lungs were about to burst. They stood to the side, gasping for air, and thanked Lin Huanzhu.

"Thank you, thank you so much!"

Lin Huanzhu shook her head. "You’re welcome."

One of them handcuffed the criminal. "You still need to be careful. That gun..." He shook his head.

"It might be fake, but it’s great for bluffing when it counts." Lin Huanzhu smirked, looking at the toy gun.

When the captured fugitive heard it was a toy gun, he almost spat out a mouthful of blood in frustration.

As it turned out, after the convict escaped, he had headed for the nursing home area, a place he was familiar with.

He originally planned to hide in a secluded area, but he never expected to run straight into Lin Huanzhu and get caught.

It was just Mrs. Tang’s bad luck to get dragged into it.

Once they’d caught their breath and their sense of smell returned, the officers turned to check on Mrs. Tang, only to be hit by an unspeakable odor.

"What... what’s that smell? What’s going on?"

Lin Huanzhu glanced at Mrs. Tang, then scratched her head with the toy gun, unsure how to explain.

"She’s an old woman, you know..." she explained vaguely before putting the toy gun away.

"We should get going." Seeing that a crowd was starting to gather, the officers quickly hauled the man away.

This was a nursing home, after all, and it wouldn’t do to frighten the other residents.

Fortunately, the other seniors were some distance away, and most were a bit hard of hearing, so they hadn’t heard the commotion clearly.

The people who approached were younger doctors and orderlies, their faces a mixture of curiosity and alarm.

Not everyone was familiar with the sound of a gunshot.

"It’s nothing, it’s nothing. I was just playing with a toy gun," Lin Huanzhu explained.

"What’s wrong with her?"

Liao Jin, who had arrived with the others, glanced at Lin Huanzhu but didn’t say anything, their attention fixed on Mrs. Tang.

"Er... she got a scare, but she’s not injured," Lin Huanzhu explained, rubbing her nose awkwardly.

’I didn’t realize Mrs. Tang was such a coward.’

Liao Jin checked Mrs. Tang’s pulse. Her breathing was normal, too. It seemed she had simply fainted from the shock. Sighing in relief, Liao Jin ignored the smell and, with help from the others, quickly carried her back.

After a full examination confirmed Mrs. Tang had merely been frightened, Liao Jin breathed another sigh of relief but shot Lin Huanzhu more than a few dirty looks.

Lin Huanzhu was quick to accept the blame. "I will apologize to her. I’ll be completely sincere."

And so, when Mrs. Tang finally came to, the very first person she saw was Lin Huanzhu.

Mrs. Tang woke up in a daze, disoriented at first. The moment she saw Lin Huanzhu, however, the terrifying memories from before she fainted came rushing back.

"AHHHHH!" she shrieked. "Stay away! Stay away from me!"

Mrs. Tang was trembling uncontrollably, absolutely terrified. She vividly remembered the sight of Lin Huanzhu firing the gun and her ferocious expression.

’She just fired a gun without a second thought! She actually carries a gun!’

Unaware that it was a toy gun, Mrs. Tang was terrified just thinking about it. The image of Lin Huanzhu pointing the gun at her was even more horrifying.

Mrs. Tang wanted to get away from Lin Huanzhu, far away, but she was frozen in place. She was a complete wreck, unable to think of anything else but begging for mercy.

"I was wrong, I was wrong! I shouldn’t have deliberately dragged things out to torment you, and I was even thinking of teaching you a lesson. Oh, Huanzhu, please spare me! I’ll never do it again! I’ll never dare to say another bad word about you..."

"I’m sorry," Lin Huanzhu began sincerely, but her apology was completely drowned out by Mrs. Tang’s frantic confession.

Lin Huanzhu listened to Mrs. Tang’s confession. "..."

She raised an eyebrow, an involuntary, mischievous glint in her eye.

’Okay, this is a little cruel,’ she thought, ’but Mrs. Tang really was planning to torment me. Seeing her like this... I can’t help but feel a little bit satisfied.’

Lin Huanzhu said nothing. When Mrs. Tang finished her trembling confession, she peeked at Lin Huanzhu, and the terror immediately flooded back into her eyes.

’Harmless? Nothing to her? How is she harmless in any way? She’s a demoness, a true demoness!’

Lin Huanzhu smiled faintly. "I’m sorry, Auntie, for getting you involved in all that."

Lin Huanzhu’s smile was actually quite lovely, but to Mrs. Tang, it now looked like the smile of a demon. She glanced cautiously at Lin Huanzhu, trying to guess where she might be hiding her gun...

A shiver ran down her spine, and Mrs. Tang stammered.

"I-I’m the one who’s sorry. As... as long as you don’t hold it against me, that’s all that matters. In the future..."

’In the future, just please don’t let her bully me!’

Thinking back on how she had lorded her authority over Lin Huanzhu and bullied her, Mrs. Tang could have kicked herself.

Only after Lin Huanzhu had left did Mrs. Tang finally let out a true sigh of relief.

That night, however, she had a nightmare. She dreamed that Lin Huanzhu raised her gun and, with a loud BANG, shot her dead.

Mrs. Tang woke up screaming, on the verge of a complete breakdown.

The nightmares plagued her for several days. Just when they finally subsided, Lin Huanzhu happened to stroll by in front of her again.

As soon as she saw Lin Huanzhu, the nightmares would start all over again. The torment was unbearable.

From that day forward, Mrs. Tang was thoroughly, completely terrified of Lin Huanzhu. It was a fear that settled deep in her bones.

Even if she couldn’t resist muttering behind her back about Lin Huanzhu being an unladylike tomboy, chattering on and on, the moment she laid eyes on her, she would instantly shrink back, becoming as meek as a mouse.

And every time she saw Tang Yuanxiao with Lin Huanzhu, Mrs. Tang would be beside herself with anguish, pounding her chest in despair.

She would rather die than have Lin Huanzhu as a daughter-in-law, yet she was too afraid to even voice her disapproval—not even to Tang Yuanxiao, for fear he would immediately turn around and tell Lin Huanzhu.

Mrs. Tang had truly met her match. Forget about critiquing or "disciplining" her future daughter-in-law; she didn’t even dare to oppose the match.

No one could possibly understand the agony Mrs. Tang was going through. To make matters worse, every time she saw Lin Huanzhu, the girl would be grinning from ear to ear, looking completely harmless.

But Mrs. Tang no longer dared to believe she was harmless.

Mrs. Tang somehow managed to endure these days of difficulty and terror all the way until December.

The weather grew colder. Upon hearing that Su Li had made the news again, Mrs. Tang had a sudden, uncontrollable thought.

She used to despise Su Li, but compared to Lin Huanzhu, Su Li seemed... so much more adorable and kind.

After all, back then she could at least slap Su Li around. Now... now she could only pray that Lin Huanzhu wouldn’t slap *her*.

Mrs. Tang never, ever imagined that she would one day find herself fondly reminiscing about Su Li. A wave of sorrow washed over her.

First Su Li, then Qin Shanshan, and now Lin Huanzhu...

Each one was worse than the last, more unacceptable than the one before!