After night fell, Qin Ziqi took advantage of the fact that no one was at the guesthouse front desk and slipped out. She placed the denunciation letters separately at the candy factory, the steel factory, and the Revolutionary Committee. Tao Juxiang worked at the supply and marketing cooperative, and Qin Ziqi didn’t know where she should report her, so she included her in the letter to the Revolutionary Committee.
Qin Ziqi didn’t have concrete evidence of their crimes. She had only inferred them from the original owner’s memories. But tonight, she should be able to find the evidence.
After delivering the denunciation letters, she quietly returned to the guesthouse. To create an alibi for herself, she deliberately went downstairs around ten o’clock and chatted with the front desk staff about breakfast the next morning.
Then, right in front of them, she yawned and said she was going upstairs to sleep.
Around midnight, Qin Ziqi went to the side entrance of the guesthouse. She had already asked around during the day and learned that the side door was supposed to be locked at night. However, the lock had been broken these past few days, so the door was merely closed but couldn’t actually be locked.
She slipped out through the side entrance with a flashlight and made her way to the small Western-style house.
She still had the key to the house on her.
She opened the courtyard gate and then the front door before heading straight to the study.
Yao Zheng and the others all thought the original owner was the type who didn’t care about anything happening in the household.
In reality, she knew the family’s situation like the back of her hand.
After all, this Western-style house belonged to the Qin family. A few years ago, Auntie Qin had still been working there. She had been a maid in the Qin household for nearly thirty years.
Even when the original owner was away at school, she knew everything that happened at home.
Once inside the study, Qin Ziqi opened a hidden compartment.
Sure enough, Yao Zheng had stored something there.
Yao Zheng thought only he and Qin Xueman knew about this hidden compartment and that Qin Ziqi was unaware of it.
There was a box inside.
When Qin Ziqi opened it, she saw bundles of large-denomination banknotes along with quite a few nationwide ration coupons.
This was probably Yao Zheng’s private stash that even Zhao Xinhua didn’t know about.
At the very bottom of the box was a thin notebook.
Qin Ziqi held the flashlight between her teeth and flipped through it.
Excellent.
Yao Zheng had preserved his evidence of corruption and bribery quite well.
She stored the box and the account book in her space.
She didn’t bother searching upstairs.
The original owner had already estimated that Zhao Xinhua had at most a thousand yuan in her possession.
It wasn’t worth risking waking them up just for a thousand yuan.
Qin Ziqi’s small house contained anesthetic, but not much. She had developed it herself, so every bit used meant one less bit available.
She’d better save it for the Lu family.
After leaving the Qin family’s Western-style house, Qin Ziqi headed straight for the Lu family’s home.
The Lu family lived nearby. Following the original owner’s memories, Qin Ziqi quickly found the place.
She took a master key out of her space.
This was something Qin Yu had bought online back then because she thought it was fun, then casually tossed it at Qin Ziqi’s house.
It had been useless in the modern world. Most locks there were fingerprint locks, combination locks, or sophisticated security locks. They weren’t so easy to open.
But locks from this era were much simpler.
Qin Ziqi easily unlocked the courtyard gate and then the main room.
The Lu family lived in the steel factory’s workers’ residential compound. Their home was a detached single-story courtyard house with three rooms in the main building and two rooms in each of the east and west wings.
The middle room of the main building was the central hall.
The room on the east side belonged to Lu Dingbang and his wife, while the west room belonged to Lu Chenghua.
Their daughter, Lu Chengxiu, lived in the room of the east wing closest to the main building.
When Qin Ziqi entered the central hall, the door to Lu Dingbang and Tao Juxiang’s bedroom was ajar.
Qin Ziqi was wearing a pair of sneakers from her space today, so her footsteps were completely silent.
She took out the anesthetic and dripped several drops beneath Lu Dingbang’s and Tao Juxiang’s noses.
Then she counted down ten seconds.
Qin Ziqi nudged Tao Juxiang.
The only response from the couple was their heavy breathing. They were completely unconscious.
She did the same to Lu Chenghua and Lu Chengxiu, knocking both of them unconscious as well.
Only then did Qin Ziqi begin searching without restraint.
After all, the original owner didn’t know where the Lu family hid their valuables.
But Qin Ziqi had grown up in an orphanage and had considerable experience when it came to hiding things.
Before long, she found a bundle of large-denomination banknotes hidden in a compartment inside the wardrobe.
She didn’t bother counting them.
There had to be several thousand, perhaps even more than ten thousand yuan.
There were also dozens of assorted ration coupons.
Those were exactly what Qin Ziqi desperately needed.
Under the desk, she discovered another hidden compartment.
Inside were separate account books belonging to Lu Dingbang and Tao Juxiang.
These people really had no sense of caution.
Why did they all seem so fond of keeping records of their own crimes?
After moving aside a brick beneath the bed, Qin Ziqi found a hole containing another large stack of banknotes, ration coupons, and a box of small gold bars.
She accepted them all without hesitation.
As for Lu Chenghua and Lu Chengxiu’s rooms, Qin Ziqi wasn’t interested.
At most, there would be a few hundred yuan.
She had to leave them something to survive on.
With the account books in hand, Qin Ziqi immediately went to put them into the mailboxes of the candy factory and the steel factory.
As for the anesthetic she had given the Lu family, it would naturally break down in their bodies after six hours.
With the technology available in this era, there was no way to detect it.
After completing the most important tasks, Qin Ziqi slipped back into the guesthouse through the side entrance.
Finally, she could sleep peacefully.
The next morning, Qin Ziqi was awakened by knocking at the door.
Once she was fully awake, she opened the door.
A guesthouse employee was standing outside.
“Comrade Qin, these two gentlemen are cadres from the Revolutionary Committee. They said they need to speak with you.”
The employee’s voice was clearly trembling.
Qin Ziqi looked at the two men.
“Please wait for me a moment. I’ll change my clothes.”
After quickly washing up and changing, she walked outside.
Just as she reached the entrance of the guesthouse, she ran into Shen Chunyue, who had hurried over to find her.
“Ziqi.”
“Auntie Shen, it’s fine. I’m just cooperating with the Revolutionary Committee comrades in their investigation. Nothing will happen.”
Shen Chunyue was still worried.
“Comrades, I’d like to accompany her.”
The two Revolutionary Committee cadres exchanged glances.
“And you are?”
“I’m a relative from Qin Ziqi’s mother’s side. My husband is a brigade commander in the XX military unit.”
Shen Chunyue was only a housewife, so she had no choice but to use her husband’s position to intimidate the two men.
However, Qin Ziqi had already prepared everything.
With the severance-of-family-relations document and her notice to go to the countryside, along with Zheng Zhongyao’s contact number provided by Shen Chunyue, she soon managed to leave the Revolutionary Committee.
After leaving, Qin Ziqi immediately went to a newspaper office and had the severance document published in the newspaper, formally cutting ties with Yao Zheng.
After all, the date on the severance document couldn’t be falsified.
She certainly wasn’t declaring her separation from him only after he had been arrested.
On the very day the verdicts for the Yao family and the Lu family were announced, Qin Ziqi boarded the train heading to the countryside.
Yao Zheng was convicted of having an illicit affair as well as embezzlement and bribery. He was sent to the Northwest for twenty years.
Zhao Xinhua was convicted of having an illicit affair and was sent down for ten years.
Lu Dingbang was convicted of embezzlement, bribery, and secretly reselling public property from the factory. He was likewise sent to the countryside for twenty years.
Tao Juxiang had abused her position at the supply and marketing cooperative to secure her son a position as an accountant there. Mother and son had then worked together to resell supplies and accept bribes.
She was sentenced to ten years.
Yao Zhenzhen and Lu Chenghua had already registered their marriage, making her part of the Lu family. Combined with her status as an illegitimate daughter, she was sent down to the countryside with the Lu family for ten years.
The only exception was the underage Lu Chengxiu, who was sent to the countryside.
As for the Yao family’s Yao An’an and Yao Jinyao, their household registrations were transferred back to Yao Zheng’s rural hometown, so they did not have to be sent down with the others.