Quan Ruifeng’s lips curved slightly, a flicker of a smile passing through before he quickly returned to a serious expression.
“Now, let’s take your statement.”
Since they were in the interrogation room, a statement was still required.
Because of Quan Ruifeng’s suggestion, the two came out a bit slower. Liu Jun had already finished his interrogation. Seeing Quan Ruifeng emerge, he immediately went up to him and complained.
“That mother and son pair are like stubborn pieces of meat—nothing gets through to them.”
“They refuse to cooperate no matter what. Ask too many questions and they start cursing. I got so angry I just locked them both up! Good thing I didn’t let you handle the interrogation, or you’d have been furious.”
With that, he turned to look at Xia Xian.
“Comrade Xia, your relationship with them is quite complicated, and without more evidence, even if they have ill intentions, there’s nothing we can do about it right now. We can only deal with them once something actually happens.”
“Your husband is already dead. Legally, you’re a free woman—you have no ties to the Chu family anymore. Why don’t you take this time to go back, pack your things, and return to your parents’ home? Don’t get tangled up with them. If they still come looking for you, then we’ll have proper grounds to detain them.”
“We can only hold them for one night at most. They’ll have to be released by tomorrow morning at the latest.”
He sounded somewhat apologetic, since they were after all Xia Xian’s mother-in-law and brother-in-law—family, in a sense. Family members committing hooliganism was much harder to define than strangers doing it.
Xia Xian understood. She didn’t expect them to be held for long anyway. One night was more than enough.
She nodded.
“Alright, thank you. I’ll go back and pack my things now. Please don’t release them until tomorrow, or I’m afraid that before I even get home and figure things out with my family, this mother and son pair will come chasing after me again.”
“Don’t you worry about that. I’ll make sure you have plenty of time!”
Liu Jun patted his chest in assurance.
“Alright then, no more delays. I’ll take you back now.”
Director Mei Yanxia was quite concerned, also afraid that Xia Xian wouldn’t dare walk the night roads alone. She hurriedly pulled Xia Xian along to go pack her things first.
Xia Xian glanced back at Quan Ruifeng, then quickly left.
Whether or not she would help Quan Ruifeng, whether or not she would leave this place, she was going to teach Chu Sheng and his mother a lesson. If she couldn’t manage it on her own, she would use that as a bargaining chip to trade with Quan Ruifeng. As for money, she could earn it herself!
Those five catties of gold bars had given Xia Xian tremendous confidence.
She returned to the Chu residence with Director Mei, picked up the torn bundle from the ground, and held it to her chest.
“Director Mei, thank you so much for today. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have known what to do.”
“Please go attend to your own matters—I’ve already taken up too much of your time. If I ever get the chance, I’ll definitely come back to visit you!”
Xia Xian said sincerely, her eyes looking at Director Mei Yanxia with gratitude.
In her previous life, she had married Second Brother Chu, and Director Mei Yanxia had often helped her seek justice. But once she had the marriage certificate and a child, that mother and son pair thought they had her completely under their thumb and feared no one.
She deeply regretted not heeding Director Mei’s advice to divorce earlier.
But Director Mei probably dealt with too many of these cases, getting angry every day, and had ended up with breast cancer. This time, she had to persuade her to get checked early!
“No need, what business could I possibly have? You are my business. Let me walk you home—where do you live again…”
Director Mei was enthusiastic and responsible, insisting on personally escorting Xia Xian home. But Xia Xian still needed to secretly stay behind and dig up the gold bars.
Fortunately, the neighborhood committee had plenty of matters to attend to. Before Director Mei could finish speaking, another committee member, Auntie Liu, came running over breathlessly.
“Director Mei, I finally found you! Wu Jianshe and his wife are fighting again—they even threw the kid aside! We can’t stop them. You need to come quick!”
“What! Those wretched people! How could they abandon their own child!”
“I’m going right away. You take Xia—”
Director Mei was furious at the news, gritting her teeth as she prepared to leave, but she still remembered to instruct Auntie Liu to escort Xia Xian. Xia Xian quickly declined.
“No need, no need, I’ll be fine. Director Mei, you all go ahead—that situation is more serious. They might even start swinging knives. Please be careful!”
“Alright then.”
Director Mei thought about it and found it reasonable, so she stopped fussing over Xia Xian and hurried off. All the neighborhood committee members went over to Wu Jianshe’s place.
Seeing the two of them leave, Xia Xian let out a sigh of relief. She carried her bundle on her back, stepped out to look around—no one was in sight. The timing was perfect!
She immediately retreated back into the Chu residence and shut the door!
She didn’t even have time to take off her bundle. She rushed to the kitchen to find a stick, then grabbed a knife. There was no shovel, but these two would have to do.
“Where was it buried again…”
Xia Xian remembered it was in the courtyard, but the courtyard wasn’t small, and she couldn’t dig up the whole thing—there wasn’t enough time.
She closed her eyes and recalled. Two minutes later, as if remembering something, she snapped her eyes open, her expression excited.
She first walked to the doorway, then began measuring with her own footsteps.
“One step, two steps, three steps…”
She took six steps, then forcefully thrust the stick into the ground, making a mark. She immediately walked to the kitchen door and used the same method of measurement, also taking six steps. Then, using these two points, she drew a circle, roughly enclosing an area.
“There shouldn’t be any mistake.”
Xia Xian rubbed her chin and muttered to herself. In her previous life, she had visually estimated the approximate location of the gold bars, and now this would be more accurate.
After determining the area, Xia Xian went to fetch a bucket of water, poured some out to wet the soil and loosen it up, and only then did she pick up the stick and knife and start digging with great effort.
Gold, gold, it’s hers!
Let Chu Sheng and his mother go eat shit!
The more Xia Xian thought about it, the more satisfying it felt, and the more motivated she became to dig, not feeling tired at all.
She didn’t know how long she had been digging when she felt the stick hit something hard. Her heart leaped with joy—this time it shouldn’t be a stone, right? She had dug this deep!
She simply threw the stick aside and dug with her bare hands, scraping away the soil on top. Sure enough, a dark purple wooden box was revealed!
This was the box! The gold bars were inside!
Xia Xian’s eyes burst with intense brilliance. She couldn’t help but curl up the corners of her lips, quickening her pace, and fiercely dug the wooden box out completely.
The wooden box was still in good condition, but the lock had already corroded.
Looking at it this way, could the wooden box itself also be a valuable item?
It was just that in her previous life, Chu Sheng didn’t understand and directly split the wooden box apart to use as firewood.
But that could be verified later.
Xia Xian immediately stuffed the heavy wooden box into her bundle, hastily filled the soil back in, and then pushed over the bucket and other things, creating the impression that she had made a mess out of anger rather than having dug something up in the yard.
After finishing all this, she hugged her bundle and was about to leave when she suddenly thought of something. She immediately ran back to Old Mrs. Chu’s room and accurately found their family’s meager savings in her wardrobe.
“It’s mine too!”
Xia Xian curled her lips, smiling brilliantly.
Money was the lifeline of this mother and son pair. In her previous life, she had worked so hard to earn money to support the whole family, yet this mother and son pair had looked on coldly, only caring about their own enjoyment. Now, just these few things were hardly enough to compensate her.
This was only the first step of her revenge!