Footsteps came from the hallway.

Liam’s mother came up, leaning against the wall.

She wasn't crying this time.

She also lacked her usual arrogance.

"Chloe."

Julia poked her head out from the room.

"Are you here to cause trouble again?"

Liam’s mother waved her hand.

"I’m not here to cause trouble. I’m here to beg you."

I stood at the door and didn't let her in.

She looked at my newly installed locks, and her face showed embarrassment.

"Liam’s workplace is going to discipline him. The Henderson family is also demanding compensation. Our family really can't handle this."

I asked: "And so?"

She handed over a red envelope.

"There’s five thousand here. Please take it first. Sign the letter of forgiveness, will you?"

Julia laughed outright.

"Five thousand to buy off someone’s house being occupied, their signature being forged, and their mother’s keepsakes being stolen? Ma'am, you are quite the ruthless negotiator."

Liam’s mother’s face flushed red.

"This is all our family can scrape together right now."

I said: "Then wait until you have enough to cover the damages before talking about compensation. There’s no need to discuss a letter of forgiveness."

Liam’s mother suddenly knelt down.

Several neighbors in the hallway peeked out.

She grabbed the hem of my pants.

"Chloe, your aunt is kneeling for you. Liam can’t have a criminal record; he’s still young."

I stepped back.

"Please get up."

She didn't.

"If you don't agree, I won't get up."

Julia was so angry she wanted to pull her up.

I stopped Julia and took out my phone to record.

"Ms. Liam, I’ll say this one more time. Please stand up and leave. You are currently blocking the entrance to my home, using kneeling to force me to sign a letter of forgiveness—I will call the police."

Liam’s mother’s crying halted.

She hadn't expected me to record.

The neighbors were watching, too.

She couldn't stay on her knees.

She leaned on the wall to stand up, her face filled with hatred.

"Chloe, your heart is truly hard."

I said: "Anyone whose heart isn't hard would have already been chewed up by you lot."

She turned and went downstairs.

Halfway down, she suddenly turned back.

"You think that just because Director Gu helped you, you’re special? There is someone behind Mr. Henderson. He won't let you have an easy time."

I looked at her.

"Tell him to come."

After the locks were installed, the worker asked me to record my fingerprint.

I only recorded my own.

Julia asked: "Not going to record one for me?"

I said: "If you want to enter, ring the doorbell."

She rolled her eyes.

"Fine, the door is hard, and so is your heart."

I smiled.

The smile was faint.

There were still many parts of the house that hadn't been restored.

The sofa needed cleaning, the walls needed patching, and my mother’s photo frame needed to be moved back to its original place.

But the sound of the door lock clicking shut was lovely.

Click.

It was like passing a death sentence on the past.

Mr. Henderson’s final counterattack came faster than Liam’s mother had suggested.

Chapter 22

Three days later, the neighborhood homeowners' committee held an emergency meeting.

The agenda was to remove Uncle Zhou from his position as a homeowner representative and demand that I publicly apologize to the Henderson family.

The reasoning was absurd.

They claimed I had blown a personal dispute out of proportion and damaged the neighborhood's reputation.

When I arrived at the conference room, it was full of people.

Mr. Henderson was wearing a white shirt, looking like a different person.

Sitting next to him was a middle-aged man.

The man’s surname was Liu, the director of the homeowners' committee, who rarely appeared in public.

Director Liu tapped the table.

"Chloe, it’s good you’re here. Let’s get everything out in the open today. Your decision to call the police has had a very bad impact on the neighborhood."

Julia was about to lash out.

I held her back.

"Who caused the bad impact?"

Director Liu frowned.

"Don't start by being combative. Among neighbors, isn't it normal to have some friction? The Henderson family has already moved out; why are you still clinging to this? It affects property prices and disturbs harmony."

I asked: "Invading someone’s home, forging a signature, and taking away keepsakes—you call that 'friction'?"

Mr. Henderson immediately interjected: "The matter hasn't been legally settled yet, don't talk nonsense."

I looked at him.

"The jewelry box retrieved from your trunk—isn't it mine?"

He was thick-skinned.

"I was keeping it safe for you."

Someone in the conference room chuckled.

Director Liu slapped the table.

"Be serious!"

He turned to me.

"Chloe, you work for the government; you should be even more mindful of your influence. How about this: you withdraw the charges against the Henderson family, and they will pay you two thousand for cleaning fees. The property management has already suspended Martha. Let’s end it here."

I asked: "By what right do you get to decide this ends here for me?"

Director Liu’s face darkened.

"I am the director of the homeowners' committee."

Julia couldn't take it anymore.

"The director of the homeowners' committee manages public sanitation, not an amnesty office for thieves."

Director Liu glared at her.

"You are not a resident of this neighborhood, get out."

I said: "She is my representative."

Director Liu sneered.

"A representative has no right to disrupt the meeting either."

I placed a set of materials on the table.

"Then does this material have the right?"

Director Liu took a look, and his expression changed.

It was the detailed ledger for public maintenance fund usage over the past two years.

I hadn't used anything sophisticated.

I simply organized the expenditures posted on the neighborhood bulletin board, payment records from the homeowners' group chat, and photos published by the property management, arranging them chronologically.

Among them, three charges for hallway renovations were paid to Mr. Henderson’s renovation crew.

The prices were absurdly high.

There was also a charge for public security door repairs signed off by Martha.

Director Liu reached out to grab it.

I pressed my hand down on it.

"You can look, but you cannot take it."

Julia smiled.

"Does that line sound familiar?"

Mr. Henderson’s face changed.

"Chloe, why are you investigating these things?"

I said: "Didn't you say I was damaging the neighborhood’s reputation? Then let’s see who has been using the neighborhood as their personal wallet all along."

Director Liu stood up abruptly.

"Don't you dare spout malicious slander!"

I asked: "These three hallway renovation payments—did you sign off on them?"

He didn't speak.

"Did Mr. Henderson’s renovation crew participate?"

Mr. Henderson slammed the table.

"So what if they participated? I did the work!"

A homeowner in the back spoke up.

"The wall plaster in my building hallway fell off after just half a year, and you said it cost eighty thousand back then."

Another homeowner added.

"Our building's security door has been repaired three times and is still broken. Where did the money actually go?"

Director Liu’s forehead began to sweat.

He had intended to place me on a moral pedestal to shame me.

He hadn't expected me to lay the accounts out on the table.

I looked at Mr. Henderson.

"Why were you so confident about occupying my home? Because you were used to taking others' things in this neighborhood, and you were used to no one daring to ask."

Mr. Henderson’s mask had been torn away.

"You’re just a low-level clerk—who gave you the guts to investigate me?"

A voice came from the doorway.

"I did."

Chapter 23

He walked in with two people.

One was a lawyer.

The other was a homeowner from another building, also a retired accountant.

Director Gu placed the materials on the table.

"Chloe entrusted us to assist in verifying public data. All information comes from the homeowners' group, bulletin boards, contract copies, and bills provided by homeowners. It’s not an investigation; it’s an audit."

Director Liu’s chair slid back a bit.

"Director Gu, this is an internal neighborhood matter."

Director Gu said: "I am a homeowner here, too."

Some in the room were surprised.

Director Gu looked at me.

"I have an old property here, registered under my wife's name. I usually couldn't be bothered with it, but I came to listen today."

Director Liu’s face turned completely white.

This was the second time the doorplate was polished.

It wasn't an exaggeration.

It wasn't absurd.

It was just that they hadn't expected that a "low-level clerk" they were ganging up on would have people willing to stand up for her.

Director Gu said to the homeowners present: "If everyone is willing, we can legally apply to audit the homeowners' committee’s accounts and re-elect representatives."

Uncle Zhou was the first to raise his hand.

"I agree."

An auntie followed by raising her hand.

"I agree, too. That money for the hallway renovations should have been questioned long ago."