To make up for the debt owed to Lin Qingping and Gu Juncheng

Lin Qingping sensed that something was wrong.

She didn't spend much time with her second sister, but in the few times she did meet her, she noticed that her second sister seemed a bit sullen.

When I asked, my second sister just said that she was too tired from studying lately.

Lin Qingyun genuinely believed that her mother and brother had already returned home and checked out of the guesthouse. There was no word from her eldest sister, so she tried to probe Yunqi, but Yunqi didn't say that she had seen them again.

And so, Wu Aixiu made a noisy trip and left quietly.

At least, that's what Lin Qingyun thought. Her sullenness mainly stemmed from the overwhelming and restrained emotions she felt because she was in the same class as Yunqi and had to see him every day.

However, she really underestimated her mother and brother's ability to cause trouble.

It was just an ordinary weekend, almost two weeks since Wu Axiu and Lin Jiagui had gone silent.

As the weather gets hotter, summer is gradually approaching in the north.

Lin Qingping's shop launched a summer dessert series, and business is booming.

That day was the busiest time for the store, with seats both inside and outside packed, and people even queuing up to buy and take away.

Suddenly, several burly men pushed aside the girls in line, rushed in, and started smashing things in the store.

Chaos broke out in the store as the girls screamed and left their seats.

Lin Qingping had encountered similar situations when she ran a shop in her previous life. However, her shop was located in a bustling area, where all sorts of people were inevitably mixed together. Now that she was running a shop near a school, she didn't know what these people wanted to do. But fearing that the girls might be harmed, she quickly protected her customers and led them away.

Those people didn't seem to have any intention of harming innocent customers. After smashing and looting, they swaggered into their seats and sat down.

Lin Qingping was experienced in handling such situations and wasn't afraid. She poured a few glasses of water, carried them on a tray, and brought them to their table, smiling as she asked, "Gentlemen, you are all guests. It's hot, please have some water first."

The group glanced at her sideways. "Are you the boss?"

"Yes," Lin Qingping replied with a smile. "Brothers, we've never met before, so we don't know what this grand gesture is for."

The men still didn't answer directly, only looking at her with suspicious eyes, "Surname Lin?"

"Yes." Lin Qingping sensed something was wrong. This was aimed at her, they were here to find her! Unlike those petty thugs in her previous life who wanted to freeload or extort some pocket money, those people in her previous life entered the store randomly. They only came to her because they saw that she was a weak woman and thought she was easy to bully.

The burly leader slammed a few papers on the table. "Debts must be repaid! Lin Jiagui owes us money. You're his sister, so it's your duty to pay your brother's debts!"

A sudden jolt went through Lin Qingping's mind.

She was quite familiar with this plot.

Her brother was a good-for-nothing who indulged in drinking, gambling, and whoring, and it was not uncommon for him to be in debt. In her past life, she kept making money and kept paying off her brother's debts.

But unexpectedly, this plot twist happened so quickly in this life.

She believed that these people were 70-80% sure they owed money because they could find this place. At first glance, the handwriting on the IOU looked like chicken claws, and it was her brother's handwriting. There was even a handprint at the bottom.

However, she couldn't accept it.

We can't let her hard-earned money be used to fill that bottomless pit like in her previous life.

She was still smiling. "Brothers, where is my brother? You can't just give me money because you say you owe him, can you? If a complete stranger came up to you and said someone owed you money and asked you to pay it back, you wouldn't believe them easily!"

The leader immediately flew into a rage, "Do you think I'd lie to you? Look for yourself! This is an IOU handwritten by Lin Jiagui! It's for 50,000 yuan! If you can't pay, you can take the shop as collateral!"

Fifty thousand yuan...

Lin Qingping had lost all her anger. Having been tormented by her mother and brother her whole life, hearing this number again only brought her a sigh.

This is an era where having 10,000 yuan is considered extremely wealthy, and 50,000 yuan...

She will absolutely not pay this money back!

"No matter what, I need to see my brother first to confirm the truth of this matter." Lin Qingping delayed for the time being. Facing such a group of burly men, she was not so intimidated as to think she could fight them head-on.

Upon hearing this, the burly man slammed his fist on the table. "You son of a bitch! If I could find your brother, would I be here? This bastard has disappeared! When he borrowed money, he said, 'My sister owns a shop at the Capital University and has plenty of money,' but when it came time to pay it back, he's just a coward hiding away!"

“Give me some time, I’ll find him.” Lin Qingping faced the burly man’s anger head-on. “Brother, you’re ultimately after money, not to smash up the shop, right? Even if you smash up my shop today, you won’t get any money! This is a society governed by law.”

“Yes, yes, brother, we’re just a small business, we can’t come up with 50,000 yuan.” Gu Youlian also came over and complained about being poor. “Look at what we have here, a cup of cold drink costs one cent. One cent at a time, how many years would it take to sell enough to make 50,000 yuan! Our shop has only been open for a few months!”

The menu was laid out on the table, and the burly men immediately noticed the prices. Indeed, the average price was about one cent per serving.

The burly man at the head of the group strode toward the cashier.

There's no cash register yet, just a table, and the money is all kept in a drawer.

The burly man yanked open the drawer and saw nothing but small change; his brows immediately furrowed deeply.

He pointed at Lin Qingping and said, "I'll give you three days. I don't care if you find Lin Jiagui or not, but I must see the 50,000 yuan! Otherwise, you might as well close your shop! We don't care about the law when we do this kind of business, young lady, don't try to fool me!"

The group arrived in a grand manner and left in a grand manner. Before leaving, they even picked up a beer bottle, smashed it hard against the door, and held up the broken bottle to show their power to Lin Qingping.

As soon as the person left, Gu Youlian collapsed to the ground.

She was already terrified, but she was only holding on to support Lin Qingping. Now that he was gone, she was completely exhausted.

Given the situation, the shop could no longer operate. Lin Qingping had Sister Zhao hang up a sign indicating that the shop was temporarily closed, and then helped Gu Youlian up.

“Bottle…” Gu Youlian worried about her, “What are we going to do? Let alone that we just bought a house, even if we hadn’t bought a house, we wouldn’t have been able to come up with that much money.”

Gu Youlian thought for a moment and then said, "I still have a few hundred yuan here. I'll ask Du Gen how much he has later, and we can pool our money together and see how much we're short before figuring out a solution."

Lin Qingping stared at Gu Youlian, her heart filled with mixed emotions.

In her past life, she didn't care about the Gu family and truly didn't understand Gu Youlian. In fact, even after several years of marriage, she had barely seen her sister-in-law a few times.

I've seen countless examples, both in this life and the past, of siblings falling out over unequal distribution of money, even resorting to violence. Gu Youlian is just her aunt, yet she's willing to help her raise this money. In contrast, look at her own mother and brother...

Even though she had lived a full life and seen the vicissitudes of life, her heart still felt damp with emotion.

"Big sister, we're not paying back this money." She grasped Gu Youlian's hand.