Wei Cuiying quickly hurried over and asked, “What’s going on? Wasn’t everything fine just a moment ago?”
Su Jiyong’s eyes burned with rage, yet he didn’t loosen his grip on Su Jianye’s collar. “Speak! Did you steal the things from my house?”
Su Jianye was completely bewildered. Ever since he arrived, he had been sitting in the living room the whole time and hadn’t entered a single bedroom. How could he possibly have stolen anything?
Besides, this wasn’t his first time visiting his aunt and uncle’s home—when had he ever stolen a thing?
His face flushing red, Su Jianye stiffened his neck and barked, “What does Uncle mean by that? You think I’d steal? So this is who I am in Uncle’s eyes! Even if I’m an unemployed loafer and usually a bit of a bastard, I’ve never stolen things from my own relatives!”
Wei Cuiying panicked internally, a terrible foreboding gripping her heart. “Father of my children, what happened?”
Su Jiyong had no energy left to speak, merely using his eyes to signal Wei Cuiying to go check for herself.
Immediately, Wei Cuiying returned to her bedroom to check the places where she stored her money, food coupons, and jewelry.
Empty. Everything was empty.
Except for the few food coupons and cash set aside for Jiang Tang in her room, everything else had vanished.
Wei Cuiying’s mind fell into utter chaos. Disregarding the presence of an outsider in the house, she panicked and rushed frantically to the secret room to check.
When she arrived at the secret room behind the study and saw its bare, hollow interior, her heart instantly plunged into an abyss of ice.
It was over. Everything was completely over.
The fine treasures in their household—the very assets that could guarantee a worry-free, luxurious life for the whole family for a lifetime—were all gone.
Tears streamed down Wei Cuiying’s face uncontrollably. She felt utterly helpless and terrified. Without this money, how was she supposed to maintain her previous wealthy lifestyle?
Seeing no response from her side, Su Jiyong chased after her to check, only to behold the empty secret room.
The fire of rage in Su Jiyong’s chest flared up instantly. He marched back into the living room and slammed a fist straight into Su Jianye’s face.
“You bastard! Where did you move all our family’s belongings? Hand them over right now!”
Su Jianye was completely incensed by this punch. He had already stated he hadn’t stolen anything, yet his uncle insisted on falsely accusing him.
Since it had come to this, he was going to fight back.
Without delay, Su Jianye swung his fist, and with a heavy thud, landed a blow squarely on Su Jiyong’s face.
The two began brawling right then and there.
Watching this gave Wei Cuiying a splitting headache. She wanted to pull them apart, but couldn’t separate the two men and even took a few accidental hits herself.
Just as the household was in utter chaos, Jiang Tang walked back in holding a grocery basket.
The moment Jiang Tang stepped through the door, what met her eyes were three people with bruised and battered faces.
Suppressing her laughter with all her might, she asked anxiously, “Dad, Mom, what happened here? Why are you fighting?”
Seeing Jiang Tang return, Su Jianye felt as if he had found an alibi witness. He shoved Su Jiyong away in a hurry and turned to ask Jiang Tang:
“Cousin, testify for me! It was you who had me wait in the living room, wasn’t it?”
Jiang Tang intentionally shrank her neck and nodded timidly. “Yes… I had to go buy groceries to cook. Since Cousin was here, I couldn’t just leave him waiting outside.”
Wei Cuiying’s face was filled with fury, which, paired with the dark bruises on her face, looked thoroughly ridiculous. “The house was robbed, do you know that? This is the result of you casually letting outsiders inside!”
In truth, Wei Cuiying still couldn’t fathom it even now. It was one thing for the items in the house to be stolen, but how could even crate after crate of valuables inside the secret room be stolen?
To haul all those things away would take a tremendous amount of effort and time, wouldn’t it?
Wei Cuiying had already concluded that Jiang Tang didn’t have the courage for such a scheme, yet she still wanted to probe a little.
Jiang Tang’s eyes instantly turned red, tears welling up and rolling in her eyes: “It’s my fault for not doing better. I thought Cousin wasn’t an outsider, and I didn’t expect that letting him sit inside would bring him such trouble. Since things were lost from the house, why don’t we report it to the public security bureau? That way, we can also prove Cousin’s innocence.”
In an instant, Su Jianye’s heart tipped completely toward this newly returned cousin.
This new cousin was truly great! Even though it was only their first time meeting, she was willing to trust him.
Unlike Su Yinyin, who didn’t care at all whether he got beaten up, refused to even leave her room, and just stayed inside sobbing and wailing.
Su Jiyong and Wei Cuiying exchanged a glance. As things stood, reporting it to the public security bureau was the only option left.
Su Jiyong was convinced that Su Jianye had taken the items; after all, he was the only one with both motive and opportunity. Earlier, Su Jiyong had thought that since he was his nephew, as long as he returned the items, he would pretend nothing had happened.
However, since Su Jianye was still being stubborn now, he had no choice but to let him suffer a bit.
Even so, Su Jiyong issued one last warning: “Jianye, if you return the things right now, I can let bygones be bygones and pretend this never happened. But if we report it to the public security and it’s proven you stole them, that’s a serious crime—you’ll rot in prison!”
Su Jianye felt deeply hurt. Why would his uncle talk about him like this when he clearly hadn’t stolen a thing?
Noticing Su Jianye’s distress, Jiang Tang spoke up to defend him at this crucial moment: “I believe Cousin isn’t that kind of person. Reporting it to the public security will clear Cousin’s name.”
Su Jianye looked at Jiang Tang with gratitude, nodding vigorously. “Right! I didn’t steal a thing!”
Su Jiyong didn’t believe it. He let out a sigh, putting on a front of “I gave you a chance,” and instructed Wei Cuiying to call the public security.
Before long, two public security officers arrived to inquire about the situation.
They first inspected the scene but failed to find any fingerprints or signs of forced entry.
They then questioned the neighbors to check if any suspicious individuals had appeared.
Only the neighbor auntie next door knew that Jiang Tang had returned half an hour prior, and seeing no one home, she had left with her basket to buy groceries.
Jiang Tang hadn’t expected that her return home had been witnessed by the neighbor auntie, which served as an alibi for her.
After all, from a logical standpoint, it was virtually impossible for Jiang Tang to steal so many things in such a short window of time.
Even if someone wanted to transport everything away, they would need a vehicle, yet neither the rooms nor the courtyard bore any marks or tracks.
The officers then questioned Su Jianye, who had been left alone at the Su residence. He maintained firmly that he had stayed sitting in the living room the whole time after arriving and was even able to clearly recite what radio programs had aired during that timeframe.
Su Jianye’s suspicion was ruled out as well.
The public security investigation hit a dead end. Furthermore, because neither Su Jiyong nor Wei Cuiying could clearly state the exact total of what was missing or describe the features of those items, the officers could only write down a basic report for now.
By the end of the investigation, Su Jiyong and Wei Cuiying’s hearts had gone completely cold.
How could there be zero traces left behind? Could it be that the valuables in their home were taken away by a deity?
Jiang Tang had to exert every ounce of willpower to prevent her true emotions from showing.
Seeing the public security officers depart, Jiang Tang walked up to Wei Cuiying, wiping away her tears as she said, “I didn’t expect something like this to happen at home. How about this—didn’t Mom tell the public security just now that except for the money and food coupons prepared for me to go to the countryside, all other valuable items are gone? I can take less when I go to the countryside, so the family can pull through this tough spot first.”
Wei Cuiying’s expression turned extraordinarily ugly. What could she possibly say? She certainly couldn’t admit out loud that she had only prepared twenty yuan and a few meager food coupons for Jiang Tang!
With just that tiny scrap of stuff, how on earth could it help the family pull through a tough spot?