Chapter 318: Chapter 318: A Stick First, Then a Sweet

When dealing with shameless people, you need someone even more shameless than they are.

Gu Qinghuan thought of Niu Zhuang, whom she’d met at the black market a couple of years ago—a big, burly guy who looked intimidating enough.

So, holding a “let’s give it a try” attitude, she went to the black market to look for Niu Zhuang, and sure enough, she found him.

Niu Zhuang didn’t recognize her, and Gu Qinghuan didn’t bother introducing herself. She simply said she wanted to discuss a business deal.

When Niu Zhuang heard she wanted to hire him as muscle, he couldn’t help but laugh.

“Do you know how much it costs to hire me for a job? At least this much!” He held up a finger.

He’d done plenty of these intimidation gigs before.

“One hundred yuan? Deal!” Gu Qinghuan agreed on the spot, but she still wanted to test Niu Zhuang’s skills—she didn’t want to end up with a poser and get embarrassed.

Niu Zhuang did have some real ability; otherwise, he wouldn’t have survived in the black market.

Honestly, the best muscle was right at home—Yun Jiuzhou could take on ten or twenty guys by himself, no problem.

But she cherished his reputation and didn’t want him to get a stain on his record for “hurting the people.”

So she deliberately picked a day when Yun Jiuzhou wasn’t around to handle this matter.

The rest of her family wouldn’t stoop to this either—they were either teachers or soldiers. So, it was up to her.

Niu Zhuang was straightforward. He took Gu Qinghuan’s money and showed up on time—not just by himself, but with a few buddies in tow, making for a pretty intimidating crew.

Gu Qinghuan led Niu Zhuang and his men straight to the house.

They’d agreed beforehand: as soon as they went in, no talking, just start smashing and tossing things.

They threw whatever they could get their hands on—of course, only cheap stuff; they didn’t dare touch anything valuable.

Several households had their kitchens outside, which was perfect—nothing expensive there, so Gu Qinghuan smashed things to her heart’s content.

Niu Zhuang and his crew were a force to be reckoned with, sweeping through the place without resistance.

Gu Qinghuan followed behind, getting a taste of what it felt like to be the local bully. Honestly, sometimes letting loose like this felt incredibly cathartic.

She turned into a wild woman and had a blast.

“Who are you people? What are you doing?!”

“Hey! My wooden basin!”

“My pot!”

“What are you doing? Is there no law anymore?”

…

Cries of shock rang out all along the way.

Some strong men tried to step up and fight back, but no matter who it was, Niu Zhuang knocked them down with a single move. His men kept Gu Qinghuan well protected behind them.

One auntie tried to take advantage of the chaos to grab Gu Qinghuan by the hair.

But Gu Qinghuan wasn’t a pushover—she’d just been too lazy to fight before.

She spun around and slapped the woman silly.

A few more aunties rushed over, but Gu Qinghuan wasn’t scared—she fought back with gusto.

In the end, Niu Zhuang and his crew knocked down all the men present.

The place was filled with crying and cursing.

The scene was utter chaos.

Someone went to call the police.

Gu Qinghuan immediately pulled out her property deed, explaining that she was the owner and these people were squatting in her house and refusing to leave.

Turns out, it was another case of “public rental housing” disputes—something the police didn’t want to touch these days.

The officers just shrugged, gave everyone a token scolding, and left—just like that.

The tenants were furious.

But there was nothing they could do.

After all, they’d taken advantage of the situation, thinking the original owner was an intellectual and easy to talk to, so they’d managed to get away with it until now.

But now that someone tough had shown up, they could only accept their bad luck.

After making a scene and beating them into submission, Gu Qinghuan finally sat down to talk business.

Niu Zhuang found her a stool, and his men stood behind her, giving off a real gangster vibe.

“Send out a representative. Let’s talk.”

Soon, the families picked a middle-aged man to negotiate.

“What do you want?” the man asked quietly, glancing at Niu Zhuang.

“You saw what happened just now. I have a bad temper.

I’m giving you two days to move out. This is your first warning. Next time, I won’t be so nice.

If I have to send people to move you, don’t blame me if your things get broken or lost,” Gu Qinghuan threatened.

“You smashed so much of our stuff today—what about that?” the man protested.

Gu Qinghuan thought for a moment, then countered, “I heard there are seven households here, right?”

“So what if there are?”

“I’m not paying for your broken junk—it’s not worth much anyway. But I do have two hundred jin of premium flour, which I’ll offer as compensation.

But you won’t all get the same.

Whoever moves out first can come to me for thirty jin of flour. The last family to leave—sorry, you only get twenty jin. The rest of you, figure it out among yourselves.”

Nothing is more unpredictable than human nature.

It wasn’t that Gu Qinghuan couldn’t spare an extra ten jin of flour—she was deliberately creating competition among them to achieve her goal.

Don’t be fooled by their grumbling about not moving or not trusting her. When faced with real benefits, she believed everyone would make the smartest choice.

Niu Zhuang didn’t get her strategy. He thought she should just give each family thirty jin of flour and tell them to get lost.

He was a good enforcer, but still had a ways to go before he could be a true leader.

If Gu Qinghuan had started by compromising and offering flour to get them to move, she’d probably be facing endless demands and bargaining.

Instead, she chose to hit them with a stick first, then offer a sweet. This way, she showed her strength and made them wary, while also avoiding any desperate backlash.

The sweet was necessary—otherwise, there would be endless trouble. If a problem can be solved with money, it’s not really a problem. But how you give the money is key.

By offering only two hundred jin of flour, Gu Qinghuan wanted them to turn on each other and break apart from within, achieving her goal.

The tenants all wore different expressions, each calculating in their own minds.

Gu Qinghuan’s aggressive approach, and the fact that even the police wouldn’t help, had really scared them. If she came back a few more times, they wouldn’t be able to take it.

In the end, they’d have to move anyway. Better to move quickly and get an extra ten jin of flour—think of all the big white steamed buns they could make!

Of course, that’s not what they said out loud.

“We’re not moving! None of us are! You can’t bribe us with flour!”

“That’s right! We have to stick together and not let her corrupt us!”

“We’re not moving, and that’s final!”

Gu Qinghuan just smiled.

She understood human nature all too well.

“I’ve got the flour ready, and I’m sincere about it. It’s up to you.

Within the next two days, after you move out, you can come to No. 30, Youjing Alley to collect your flour. Miss the deadline, and you miss out.”

With that, she left with Niu Zhuang.

Niu Zhuang looked at her uncertainly. “Will this really work?” He wasn’t convinced—the tenants were still shouting slogans about not moving.

“I’ve already given you the flour, haven’t I? You’ll see soon enough.”

Since Gu Qinghuan lived in a Western-style house and it wasn’t convenient for her to deal with these people directly, she left the flour distribution to Niu Zhuang.

He was curious to see if the tenants would actually move, so he agreed to help.

Gu Qinghuan was confident they’d move out—it was just a matter of time."

"Chapter 319: The House Is Back