The street office director was startled.
“Are you sure it’s the poorest place in the Northwest?”
Xu Ruyan nodded, her tone sincere and earnest, speaking with an air of righteousness.
“Director, my sister is a model youth with an impeccable background. She loves answering the nation’s call, supporting the construction of the Northwest, and being a star in the Northwest’s development!”
Slogans were all the rage in this era.
The director was an activist who had received Red ideological education. Hearing these words, she was instantly overjoyed.
She felt she had found a like-minded comrade and immediately stood up excitedly, tightly grasping Xu Ruyan’s hand.
“Good, then let’s sign your sister up for Xiao Zhuang Village, the poorest village in the Northwest!”
Xu Ruyan also excitedly grasped the director’s hand, nodding vigorously, while calculating in her mind.
In this era, whether one was supporting rural construction as an educated youth volunteering to go to the countryside, or being forcibly relocated due to a reviewed class status, the treatment was vastly different.
The former, though living a hard life in the countryside, was still treated as a person.
The latter was not treated as a human being at all—even worse than livestock. Every one of them was skinned alive, tortured beyond recognition, wishing they were dead!
Xu Yunhua currently fell under the category of educated youth going to the countryside, while Xu Ruyan, schemed against by Xu Weiguo, was forcibly pushed into the quota for relocation.
Xu Ruyan walked out of the street office, looked up at the sky, and calculated that she needed to legitimize her identity.
She absolutely could not go to the Northwest under the guise of being forcibly relocated!
Xu Ruyan weighed her army-green canvas bag, then turned around and asked the street office staff for paper and a pen.
A full two hours later.
Xu Ruyan had written a ten-thousand-character report in flowing script.
Her hand was nearly crippled from writing, and she shook her sore shoulder before standing up to stretch her numb legs, planning to go to the Public Security Bureau to report Xu Weiguo’s family!
Public Security Bureau.
Xu Ruyan brought her report and filed charges against Xu Weiguo’s family for embezzlement and bribery, extramarital affairs and promiscuous relationships, suspected murder of his former wife, and embezzlement of family property.
She also took the opportunity to report Zhou Shuang’s family as well, charging them with bribing office staff, forging a fake marriage certificate to deceive, and colluding with Xu Weiguo’s family to embezzle personal property!
Xu Ruyan filed too many charges, involving property amounts in the tens of thousands, which directly alarmed the Public Security Bureau chief.
Director Zhao wiped sweat from his brow and finally came personally to ask Xu Ruyan about the specifics.
“Comrade, is everything you said true? What evidence do you have?”
Xu Ruyan pushed the fake marriage certificate onto the table: “Absolutely true. If Director Zhao doesn’t believe me, you can send people to arrest them all for interrogation.”
“You can also send someone right now to search the Lin family ancestral home. Xu Weiguo plans to take all the Lin family assets and flee by boat to Hong Kong with my stepmother and stepsister.”
Xu Ruyan paused, then added: “My father has an underground warehouse in the ancestral home, with dozens of boxes of various sizes, all containing property he intends to transfer!”
Director Zhao frowned deeply upon hearing this and immediately turned serious.
He took the marriage certificate and handed it to the staff beside him: “Go check whether this certificate is real or fake.”
The staff member hurriedly contacted the relevant personnel, and after layers of verification—
About an hour later.
He returned with a grave expression and reported: “Director Zhao, we sent people to check at the office. This certificate is fake!”
“The person in charge of marriage registration at the office is timid. Our comrades at the bureau arrested him for interrogation, and he confessed everything within no time.”
“He not only confessed to taking money to arrange the fake certificate, but to save himself, he also reported Zhou Shuang’s family for using their factory connections to embezzle and bribe, and privately buying and selling jobs!”
Director Zhao’s face immediately turned ugly. He slammed the table hard and angrily said: “Outrageous! Do these people have any regard for laws and regulations!”
Director Zhao looked up at Xu Ruyan, his expression turning solemn: “Comrade Xu, rest assured, we’ll send people right away to arrest Xu Weiguo’s family and Zhou Shuang’s family for interrogation.”
“If your reports are all true, we will definitely seek justice for you!”
Xu Ruyan looked at him gratefully: “Thank you, Director Zhao. You’re truly a good director who serves the people!”
Xu Ruyan watched with her own eyes as the Public Security Bureau dispatched people, riding Liberation trucks toward the Zhou residence and the Lin family ancestral home.
The arrests quickly caused an uproar throughout the town.
When the police went to the Lin family ancestral home to make arrests, Xu Weiguo’s family of three was still sound asleep!
They were stripped completely naked, lying bare, and when they were forcibly woken up and handcuffed by the police, they looked bewildered, crying out that they were wronged.
Neighbors gathered around holding melon seeds to watch the show. Xu Ruyan mixed into the crowd, pinching her nose and speaking loudly.
“I heard the man of this house was messing around with other women, cheating on his wife with a mistress, and even had an illegitimate daughter!”
The curious onlookers immediately perked up their ears to listen carefully, their faces filled with gossipy excitement.
Xu Ruyan sneered, then pinched her nose and continued shouting: “I also heard that when the previous mistress of this house was sick in bed, the man fed her medicine to kill her—all to embezzle the family property and marry his mistress!”
“His illegitimate daughter with the mistress was called… oh, right, Xu Yunhua!”
At these words, the neighbors were all astonished.
Xu Yunhua was quite well-known in town as a talented young woman. She was usually gentle and sensible, and many promising young men lined up to court her.
“No way? Xu Yunhua usually seems so proper and respectable, and she’s actually an illegitimate daughter?”
“Pfft, what’s impossible about that? You can know someone’s face but not their heart. The bigger the household, the more unspeakable scandals they hide!”
“Ha, I always thought Xu Weiguo didn’t seem like a good man. I just never expected that Xu Yingying, who looks so gentle and virtuous, is actually a mistress!”
“These days, cheating on your spouse and messing around with improper relationships will get you shot…”
Xu Ruyan mingled among the crowd, using a wide straw hat to conceal her face.
She listened as the neighbors pointed fingers and gossiped about Xu Weiguo’s family of three, smiled with satisfaction, then quietly turned and slipped away.
The Lin family’s entire fortune had long since been emptied out by Xu Ruyan.
The public security officers searched for a long time, but aside from finding three boat tickets to Hong Kong in Xu Weiguo’s wallet, they found nothing.
However, quite a bit of evidence of his years of embezzlement and bribery was uncovered by the police by following the trail of clues.
The embezzled amounts didn’t match his assets, and in Xu Weiguo’s private underground warehouse, there were dozens of sealed boxes of various sizes—all filled with stones.
This made the police even more suspicious that Xu Weiguo had transferred his assets long ago and was just waiting to flee to Hong Kong!
While Xu Weiguo’s family of three was being taken to the public security bureau for questioning, Xu Ruyan wasn’t idle either.
She rushed to place a notice in the newspaper, declaring that she was severing her father-daughter relationship with Xu Weiguo.
She also took the opportunity to report him for his Capitalist ways, and had reporters write all his and Xu Yingying’s dirty secrets into articles for publication.
The Lin family was a prominent and distinguished household in the Jiangnan region, and the scandalous secrets of such a wealthy family were exactly what reporters loved most!
The newspaper office almost immediately wrote up the news article, printed it, and put it on sale!
Only after doing all this did Xu Ruyan feel at ease and return to the public security bureau to see Director Zhao.
Director Zhao was in a bind: “Comrade Xu, we’re trying to figure out how to interrogate Xu Weiguo’s family. We don’t have enough evidence right now—the assets he embezzled have all vanished without a trace, and there aren’t even any bankbooks.”
“Xu Weiguo is insisting that the house was robbed and the thieves took everything, and he wants us to investigate.”
Xu Ruyan stroked her chin and offered him an idea: “Then why not try telling Xu Weiguo that if he reports Xu Yingying and gets her to confess, he can receive a lighter sentence or be released without charge?”
“You can say the same thing to Xu Yingying as well.”
Director Zhao pondered for a moment, then said hesitantly, “You mean… a divide-and-conquer strategy?”
A meaningful smile curled at the corner of Xu Ruyan’s lips: “Director Zhao, for selfish people like Xu Weiguo and Xu Yingying, isn’t their specialty, when faced with their own interests…”
“Turning on each other, dogs biting dogs?”