Qin Wang was originally still thinking that Su Qinghe was just trying to stand out and brag.
But now, seeing her actually reassemble the sweet potatoes, he was completely shocked.
It really… could be done!
Su Qinghe didn’t care about the reactions of the people around her. She was completely immersed in the act of putting the sweet potatoes back together.
As time slowly passed, one sweet potato after another was fully restored.
In total, twelve sweet potatoes of various sizes were lined up neatly against the wall—perfectly aligned, not a single piece missing or extra.
Xu Changjiang praised her with a glance before turning coldly to Wang Dahua.
“Aren’t you saying you lost two pieces of dried sweet potato?”
Wang Dahua’s face turned pale, but she was old and thick-skinned enough that she quickly forced herself to calm down.
“I… I saw two missing prints and that little brat just happened to be outside, so I assumed he stole them… It was just a misunderstanding! Now that it’s cleared up, let’s drop it.”
“Drop it?”
Su Qinghe sneered and walked step by step toward Wang Dahua.
“You say drop it and it’s over?”
“Do you even understand what your casual accusation does to a child?”
“Children are the flowers of the nation, the hope of the country. They need our care and protection. Yet you falsely accused a child of being a thief in front of everyone and verbally abused him, causing severe psychological harm!”
“Can such harm be erased with just a casual ‘let’s drop it’?”
Her expression was stern, her voice rising with every sentence, each word striking like a hammer.
Wang Dahua had never encountered such forceful questioning before and was completely overwhelmed.
“Then… then what do you want?”
“An apology, of course!” Su Qinghe rolled her eyes.
“When you do something wrong, shouldn’t you apologize?”
“Apologize?” Wang Dahua’s voice sharpened. “To whom?”
“Of course to my son!”
“You want me to apologize to that little brat?” Wang Dahua screamed. “Impossible!”
Su Qinghe didn’t argue further and instead turned to Xu Changjiang with a pitiful expression.
“Comrade police officer, you saw it too. She falsely accused my son of being a thief and even demanded compensation. The child is terrified and can’t even speak properly now.”
“Now that I’ve proven his innocence in front of you, I only want her to apologize so the child won’t be hurt emotionally—but she still refuses and keeps insulting him.”
“If you leave, I don’t know how she’ll continue to bully us…”
Her voice trembled and her eyes reddened as she spoke.
Xu Changjiang sighed again in his heart. The mother and child really had it hard.
Since he was already here, he had to settle the matter properly.
“Comrade, this is clearly your fault. Apologize to the child.”
“Officer, I—”
“If you refuse, we’ll have to escalate this to the station. Then you’ll need to come with us, and the dried sweet potatoes will also be taken as evidence for now.”
“They’ll only be returned after the case is resolved in ten days or half a month.”
Wang Dahua’s mouth twitched.
If those dried sweet potatoes were taken away for that long, they’d go bad.
And she didn’t want to go to the police station either.
No normal person went there willingly.
Reluctantly, she muttered, “Sorry, okay?”
Su Qinghe shook her head. “No. You should say: ‘Qin Wang, I’m sorry. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have called you a thief.’”
“You!”
Wang Dahua glared at her fiercely.
But seeing that Officer Xu clearly agreed, she could only swallow her anger.
“Qin Wang, I’m sorry. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have called you a thief. Is that enough now?”
Only then did Su Qinghe nod in satisfaction.
“Alright. Thank you for your hard work, officers.”
Xu Changjiang shook his head. “No trouble. Serving the people is what we should do.”
After the police left, Wang Dahua immediately changed her tone.
“Don’t get too smug! That brat isn’t anything good—sooner or later you’ll suffer for it!”
Su Qinghe smiled faintly.
“That’s none of your concern. Maybe you should go check your eyes instead—don’t go around calling everyone a thief.”
“You accused my son today. Luckily the police cleared his name.”
“Next time someone passes by your house and you accuse them too, what if they can’t clear their name? Then what?”
Her tone sounded like concern—but she was clearly sowing doubt.
As expected, the surrounding people began looking at Wang Dahua with caution.
Wang Dahua nearly fainted from anger.
This young woman’s mouth was just too sharp.
Su Qinghe didn’t care. She sighed and said to the crowd:
“In the future, everyone should stay away from this house. Otherwise you might get accused of being a thief and be forced to pay compensation.”
“I won’t even dare pass by anymore. What if she says her dried meat was stolen and insists it’s me?”
She waved at Qin Wang.
“Son, come on, let’s go. We can’t afford to mess with people like this—but we can avoid them.”
Qin Wang looked at her with complicated eyes, then slowly walked over.
They returned to their own house, locked the door, and went to a state-run restaurant for dinner.
A bowl of braised pork with potatoes, stir-fried cabbage with vinegar, and two large bowls of rice.
Su Qinghe picked up her chopsticks.
“What are you standing there for? Eat.”
Qin Wang pursed his lips.
“Why did you help me?”