As the atmosphere in the house relaxed, most people found the nearest comfortable places to sit down.
Madam Xu patted her chest repeatedly, moving her hand up and down. "She is gone, the goddess of bad luck is gone. I thought that we would have to buy a new table and new windows and rebuild the house."
Shen Kaiwen looked at his brother. "Brother, we have not had a peaceful day since you married. You need to talk to Liwu and make her soften her anger."
Shen Yulan nodded.
Madam Xu sniffled, freshly arrived tears glistening in the corner of her eyes. "My necklace....old Deng, my necklace." She looked to her husband.
Shen Deng sighed. "We will buy a new one."
Madam Xu went off like an angry hedgehog. "That necklace is the only one of its kind in the world. It is the ’Heart of the Sun’ created by Master Chan. He died six years ago. How will he make another one?"
"Then you should not have given it out." Shen Deng told her.
Madam Xu snapped. "What do you know? I made an investnt. Our son is doing a terrible job at making Liwu fall in love with him. Last night, I dread that her dragon mother ca here and swallowed all of us for...." she stopped and looked at Butler Chen. "Anyway, the only way we can save ourselves from becoming dragon dinner is to make Liwu like us. If Wei wants to be eaten, that is on him."
Weijun gasped. "Mom!"
Madam Xu huffed. "Don’t mom . Go out and make your wife fall in love. If you visit Manman and her mother in the hospital one more ti, I will be the one to swallow you," she threatened.
Everyone was taken aback. Madam Xu was a doting mother, especially towards Weijun and Weifeng. Her willingness to threaten Weijun and shout at him showed just how rattled she was.
Yuening threw a pillow at Weijun. "Unfilial nephew, what did I say about that rotten fish? Kneel down."
Gasps followed.
"What?" Weijun laughed.
Yuening picked a cup from the table and crushed it with her bare hand. "Kneel down." she increased her voice and deepened the tone.
Weijun looked at his father but Shen Deng looked the other way, and so did his mother and all of his siblings. He could not believe that they were remaining silent. Since when was kneeling a rule in their family? He laughed, a hollow sound of disbelief. "Grand aunt, with all due respect, I refuse."
Yuening looked at the three assistants/bodyguards that Old madam Tai had sent over to assist her in establishing her authority better. They lunged at Weijun and forced him to his knees.
Yuening cleared her throat. "From now on, I am bringing back the old family rules."
Weijun struggled against the hold of the three n. Butler Chen stood by Yuening’s right side and unfurled a scroll.
"Rule one," he read. "Respect your elders--even if they are younger than you. The punishnt for breaking this rule is kneeling for an hour and writing a five hundred word essay titled "Why Grand Aunt Yuening is Always Right."
A mixture of stunned voices rose.
"That is not an old rule, you just made it up." Shen Deng argued.
Butler Chen continued, "Rule two: No descendant of the Shen family is allowed to keep a rotten fish." He raised his head. "A mistress. The punishnt is being removed from the genealogy and banished from the family. And only after a flogging while singing Baby Shark but all the words will be replaced with Grand Aunt Yuening is Always Right."
"Wait..what?" Shen Mingxuan was astonished.
Yuening raised her chin.
"Rule three: No dessert before vegetables." Butler Chen’s voice bood. "The punishnt is kneeling on the "sha rug" and eating ten plates of broccoli."
"Is this real?" Soone asked.
Weijun shook his head. It couldn’t be real, these were not the original rules of the family and he knew this because he had morized the original ones at the age of four. Why was butler Chen involved at all, he did not work for the Shen family.
Had Tai Liwu put Yuening up to this?
***
Liwu had no idea what was happening back at the Shen manor. Her, Majesty and Linlin were eating breakfast in the surveillence car outside Siyan’s office. Because of Weijun’s ddling, the organ trafficking couple had been released but the case was not closed.
"Where is your husband?" Linlin asked, sipping on Liwu’s coffee. "Did you kill him for silencing the witnesses?"
Liwu groaned. "You know!"
Linlin put the cup down in the cup holder, "Of course I know, I am your partner. Who else could have wiped everything so quickly while the couple was still in interrogation? And the press leak made it obvious."
They watched an ambulance stop in front of the office and a cooler was carried out by a woman in a doctor’s gown.
Linlin laughed. "Seriously, in broad day light! Does he think this is a movie and he is so kind of untouchable mob leader? How can he be operating his body-part pawn shop already?"
"Because that idiot Weifeng paid off the witnesses." Liwu muttered. She put down the pancake and wiped her hands with a tissue. "Anyway, we have confirmation that there is a heart in the box so we can move in."
Two won and one cat abandoned their breakfast temporarily. Officers in other cars, along with SWAT prepared to move in.
Inside, Siyan sat behind a desk piled with jars. Each jar contained sothing human--fingers, toes, even an ear.
Sisi was at another desk in the corner, counting piles of hard cash.
Liwu flashed her badge. "You’re under arrest morons and thank you for making this so easy for us. Now, instead of tenants as witnesses, you have cops."
Siyan sneered. "You can’t prove anything."
Linlin gestured to the jars and coolers. "We have body parts. Your partners who just left with the heart were stopped and they gave you up. We have your fingerprints all over this chop shop. Literally."
Liwu cuffed Siyan and handed him to another officer.
"There is more back here on ice." A voice called out from the room behind a door that was on the side of the table where Sisi had been sitting.
Siyan panicked. "Hey, don’t touch my inventory!"
A jar dropped and a thumb fell on Linlin’s boot. She groaned. "Worst sting operation ever. We should start a division for cases your bad luck blows our way."
Mu Xuanji walked by the ladies, carrying a box of rental contracts and he pitched in to their conversation. "Just like that show, the X-files, with the aliens. We could na the division The Bad Luck files."
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