Across the room Su Fu's husband watched the little programmer bent over his screen, and wondered whether the boy was hacking into the surveillance system.
Su Fu's phone buzzed. It was a message telling her that whatever else happened, she would have to get that house cleaned for them.
She took the man by the front of his shirt.
"So this is what you do," she said. She asked him what would have happened if she had been at home that night — would he have killed her? — and she held up the photograph of the chicken blood somebody had left on the door where her little ones slept.
He told her that it was none of her business, and that he hadn't done it, because they didn't have any proof.
Then the little programmer smiled and said that they didn't have it yet.
He turned his laptop towards the officer. That, he told the police uncle, was the surveillance video from the community area, and that bad man was downstairs at his house that night, and his older brother had even drawn him. He had also found out that the man had cheated on a great many older sisters, which the bad uncle had done on a dating app.
The man said that it was impossible, because that woman had told him quite clearly that the surveillance recordings had been destroyed, and this was impossible. He said he had known he shouldn't have believed those women, and that it was that woman who had put him in this predicament, and he began to curse.
Su Fu looked at him very seriously.
He was already trembling with fear. He said that he hadn't wanted to do it, that somebody had ordered him to do it — somebody had asked him to pick the lock and go into the rented house and intimidate the people inside, and told him that the surveillance footage would be hacked and deleted by somebody else.
Su Fu became very thoughtful. It was exactly as she had assumed. It must have been Su Li.
The little detective blurted out that there was no system in the world that his brother Su Gu couldn't hack, and no case that he, Su An, couldn't solve.
Su Fu turned round and looked straight at Ji Yansi. She went over to him and asked whether she could borrow his car; she would give it back to him as soon as she returned.
He handed her the key, and she made her exit like a scene out of a film.
Elsewhere, Su Li stood surrounded by a small crowd. One of them said that they had heard recently that her sister Su Fu had returned to the country, and asked what she thought about that.
Su Li said that there was nothing she could say about a dog that had been expelled from the family.
A luxury car pulled up. The people standing there wondered which popular star that car belonged to. Another asked whether there were any other big names coming that day.
Then a woman stepped down out of that beautiful vehicle, and it was Su Fu.
Su Li was a little surprised, and said that to be able to drive a car like that, she was afraid some rich man must be backing her. Then she told her that she had been wondering who it was, and so it was her; and she said that with a person as humble as her, the sponsor behind her must be shameless too — or maybe she had simply picked up some old man.
Su Fu slapped her.
"That's the slap you've owed me for six years," she said. "Today I'm returning it."
Su Li said that she was a — and asked her how she dared to hit her on her own territory.
Su Fu told her that when Su Fu was standing on this territory, Su Li did not even have the qualifications to be her assistant. And she warned her: if she touched her friends or her family, she would find out exactly what karma was.
Then she slapped her again and walked away.
Su Li stood there shrieking that she was a — and how dare she leave when she hadn't finished with her yet. Su Fu simply turned her gaze away, started the car and drove off.
The press people who were standing there said their goodbyes and said that this was great news. One of them said to hurry up, because they had to get photographs of what had just happened, since that Su Fu was pretty daring.
The story was already on the real-time search list: she had slapped her arch enemy.
Manman looked at her phone and was quite astonished, and said that that was Sister Su Fu, and that she had truly taken her revenge; and that compared with her bravery, she herself was too cowardly.
Su Fu was already coming back in. She told her husband Ji Yansi that the key was there. He took it, and when he took her hand he asked whether she had hurt herself, and told her that next time she didn't have to do things like that herself, that she shouldn't go and dirty her own hands.
Very much in love, Su Fu said that she understood — but then how did he want her to deal with garbage like that?
The child detective Su An told his mom that the scoundrel had been put in prison and the law would punish him.
Manman arrived as well. She told Su Fu that she had thought about it, and that she would go on being her assistant; and that only when she was stronger would she stop being looked down on by other people, and stop having to run away.
Su Fu said that she agreed. But she was going to Star Entertainment — was she afraid?
Manman said no, she was not afraid.
And Su Fu said, very seriously, that the war had started, and that Su Li would not let her go easily, and neither would she; and whatever came, she would return it twice over.