In the afternoon, the sound of a horn came from outside the door—the renovation team had arrived.
They drove a farm tractor, hauling a full load of bricks, cement, and various building materials, parking right at the entrance of the courtyard. The commotion was so loud that it drew the attention of the neighbors, and soon a crowd of enthusiastic onlookers gathered at the doorstep.
"Qiqi, are you planning to move out early?" someone asked curiously.
"No, no!"
"Didn't we agree that no one would move until the demolition compensation was settled?" someone asked angrily.
"Of course, I would never be a traitor!" She thumped her chest loudly.
"Then what's this all about?" someone shouted.
"The roof of my house collapsed!" Gu Qiqi, unable to explain herself, urgently pulled the respected Uncle Li and Aunt Wang into her living room, pointing at the gaping hole in the ceiling. "It's been raining a lot lately. If I don't fix the roof, my things will be ruined!"
Aunt Zhao chimed in from the side, "That's right, that's right! Qiqi isn't lying to you."
Just then, Rong Yi came out after his afternoon nap, shirtless and bleary-eyed. "It's so noisy out here. What's going on?"
The crowd looked from the handsome man to Qiqi, and suddenly a mix of ambiguous, admiring, envious, and disdainful gazes were cast at the girl—a dazzling, ever-shifting array.
Aunt Wang, quick to react, asked with a chuckle, "Qiqi, is this your boyfriend?"
Gu Qiqi's hair stood on end in shock, and she shook her head frantically. "No, no, no!"
No way! After all these years of painstakingly maintaining her pure image, how could she let it be ruined in an instant?
"Then who is he..."
"He's my distant cousin!"
"Cousin?" Aunt Wang's eyes flickered with a probing tone. "I've been neighbors with your parents for decades. How come I never knew they had such a relative?"
Sweat began to form on Qiqi's forehead—oh no, oh no—she hadn't lived in this neighborhood as long as these aunties and uncles! Aunt Wang probably knew more about her adoptive parents' relatives than she did.
So she quickly changed her story. "Not a relative on my parents' side—he's my own biological cousin! Everyone knows I was adopted. He's a long-lost family member I just found..."
With that, she gazed affectionately at Rong Yi, putting on a look of sibling reunion.
Aunt Zhao again chimed in at the right moment, "That's right, that's right! We saw him this morning."
As the saying goes, three people can create a rumor. With Aunt Zhao's help, the crowd quickly believed Qiqi; after a round of sighs, their looks at the Wolf King became much friendlier.
Rong Yi found these people a bit baffling, but seeing Qiqi frantically signaling him, he casually greeted a few and returned to his room.
With their curiosity satisfied, the crowd's attention shifted back to Qiqi's house. After all, the demolition team's recent actions had been quite dramatic, and those trivial gossip topics no longer held anyone's interest.
Seeing that most of the neighbors were present, Uncle Li seized the moment to jump onto the stone table under Qiqi's old locust tree. With great emotion, he launched into a speech—expressing his strong condemnation of the demolition team's barbaric tactics and declaring his determination to learn from the country's toughest holdout property owners.
The neighbors applauded and echoed his sentiments, united in their resolve to fight against illegal demolition to the end.
Just as the crowd was getting heated, suddenly, the rumble of a bulldozer came from outside the door.
"The invaders are coming! The invaders are coming!" Several neighborhood children ran over, shouting.
Everyone was startled—this was the code they had agreed upon earlier. It seemed the demolition team had really arrived!
"Qiqi, don't be afraid! With Uncle Li here, there's no way they'll tear down your house!"