He was the Shen family’s only son—their only hope.
And now he was being sent off to the remote wilderness of the Northwest.
Once he left, no one knew when he would ever return.
He had never suffered a day of hardship in his life.
How was he supposed to survive out there?
In the span of a single day, their beloved daughter had emptied out the family home, and their beloved son had been sent to the Northwest.
Thinking of it all, Shen Hanning and Pang Dongling collapsed onto the ground, clutching their heads as they wept.
Director Li handed them a slip of paper.
“This is the address of the production team where he’ll be assigned. Send any supplies to him there.”
With that, she left.
Shen Hanning hurriedly told Pang Dongling to go home and prepare a care package for Shen Jiawei, while he himself headed to the Public Security Bureau to confront Shen Tiantian and get to the bottom of everything.
Meanwhile, after Wu Ma finished cooking lunch for the Shen family, she returned home to make lunch for her own family.
Since the Shen family was about to move to Hong Kong, she was no longer working as a live-in housekeeper and had switched to being an hourly worker.
With no one left at home, Shen Xiaoyuan began her second round of looting.
She first packed up some of the belongings from her own bedroom into her storage space—her desk lamp, chair, quilt, pillow, and other necessities.
She could sleep inside her storage space anyway.
The goal was to make it look as though her room had also been robbed.
Then she began sweeping through the rest of the house.
First stop: the living room.
There wasn’t much left in the living room.
Fearing accusations of having “bourgeois tastes,” Shen Hanning had long ago moved all the valuable furniture into the secret room.
Of course, all of those items were now safely inside Shen Xiaoyuan’s storage space.
By the window sat an old-fashioned sofa draped with a white fabric cover, revealing worn genuine leather underneath.
Though old, it had been imported from Britain before Liberation and purchased from a foreign trading company.
It could still fetch a decent price at a pawnshop.
In front of it stood a carved rosewood coffee table topped with a set of blue-and-white Jingdezhen porcelain tea ware.
Beside the sofa was a Huasheng-brand electric fan.
Shen Xiaoyuan stored all of them away.
Second stop: the kitchen.
The bottles and jars on the countertop were nearly empty and worthless.
She opened the cabinet below.
Inside were half a sack of rice, half a bag of premium flour, an unopened jar of sugar, a bottle of sesame oil, a bottle of malted milk powder, a basket of eggs, and some scallions, ginger, and garlic.
With a thought, everything disappeared into her storage space.
A refrigerator stood in the corner.
Since the family was preparing to move, there wasn’t much food inside.
There was only a bag of steamed buns, several sausages and ham, three cans of luncheon meat, and some fruits and vegetables.
In the freezer were about a pound of pork, two racks of spare ribs, and one cleaned chicken and one duck.
She focused her mind.
Everything vanished into her storage space.
Third stop: Shen Tiantian’s bedroom.
She started with the bedside cabinet.
Inside were a camera that Shen Hanning and Pang Dongling had given Shen Tiantian as a gift, along with a bank passbook containing ten thousand yuan.
Shen Xiaoyuan took both.
Next came the dressing table.
Shen Tiantian had always loved dressing up.
Since her natural looks weren’t outstanding, she relied heavily on makeup.
Only after the Shen family had come under political scrutiny had she been forced to keep a lower profile.
The large vanity was covered with skincare and cosmetics—Snow Cream, clam-shell oil balm, glycerin, hair pomade, face powder, rouge, and floral perfume.
Opening the drawer, Shen Xiaoyuan found imported Dior lipsticks, Estée Lauder face cream, two thick gold bangles, several gold necklaces, several jade thumb rings in different colors, a few pairs of gold earrings, and two pairs of sunglasses.
Recognizing their value, she collected everything inside the drawer but left the items sitting openly on the tabletop.
The wardrobe in the corner contained numerous designer handbags, fashionable clothes, and shoes.
To Shen Xiaoyuan’s surprise, Shen Tiantian had excellent taste.
The wardrobe was filled with the latest fashions—silk qipaos, high heels, brooches, silk scarves, and other accessories.
She took all the handbags and selected only the newer-looking clothes.
As for the shoes…
She left them behind.
What if Shen Tiantian had athlete’s foot?
Finally, she entered Shen Jiawei’s room.
Feeling that time was running short, Shen Xiaoyuan simply swept every single item in the room into her storage space.
She could always sort through everything later and throw away whatever she didn’t want.
By the time she finished, twenty minutes had passed.
She took several eggs and three jin (about 1.5 kilograms) of White Rabbit milk candies out of her storage space before heading outside.
The moment she stepped out the door, she spotted the tall, thin middle-aged man who had helped report the burglary to the Public Security Bureau the previous night.
She hurried after him.
“Hello, Comrade! Do you remember me?”
The lanky man narrowed his eyes.
“You are…?”
Since returning to the Shen family half a year earlier, Shen Xiaoyuan had rarely gone outside, so many neighbors didn’t recognize her.
“I’m the Shen family’s daughter. I came back to the family six months ago.”
She smiled brightly.
“Oh, it’s you,” the man said with a nod.
“I know who you are. What can I do for you?”
Shen Xiaoyuan took two eggs and a large handful of White Rabbit candies from her bag and stuffed them into his hands.
“Thank you so much for helping us report the burglary last night. Thanks to you, those thieves were caught in time. I’m truly grateful.”
The man’s name was Zhang Tiezhu.
Holding the eggs and candy, he smiled awkwardly.
“It was nothing. You don’t have to be so polite.”
Shen Xiaoyuan looked at him gratefully.
“Uncle, not everyone would be as brave and righteous as you.
If it hadn’t been for kind neighbors like you helping us yesterday, our entire house might have been emptied.”
“Could you take me to visit the other neighbors one by one?
I’d like to thank each of them personally.”
Zhang Tiezhu thought to himself that this young woman truly knew how to be grateful.
Warmly, he led her door to door throughout the neighborhood.
There weren’t many households around the Shen residence.
Fewer than ten in total.
Most of them were workers from the steel factory or the machinery factory.
The houses were spread fairly far apart, though.
Even after half an hour, they still hadn’t finished visiting everyone.
At every home, Shen Xiaoyuan sincerely expressed her gratitude, behaving like a polite and sensible young woman.
When they reached the last house, a piercing scream suddenly came from the Shen residence.
“Oh heavens! We’ve been robbed again!”
It was Pang Dongling.
The neighbors immediately rushed toward the Shen house.
Having just accepted Shen Xiaoyuan’s eggs and candy, they were even more eager to help.
Carrying two plastic bags, Shen Xiaoyuan jogged back as well.
She found Pang Dongling sitting on the living room floor, crying hysterically.
“The whole house has been emptied! Even the old sofa is gone! How are we supposed to live now?”
Shen Xiaoyuan quickly helped her to her feet.
“Mom, please don’t cry.”
Pang Dongling exploded in anger.
“Where the hell have you been?
The thieves came, and you didn’t notice a thing!
What use are you?
You useless girl!”
Then something seemed to occur to her.
She wiped away her tears and snot before glaring suspiciously at Shen Xiaoyuan.
“Why weren’t you home?
Did you steal everything while we were away?”
Looking pitiful, Shen Xiaoyuan shook her head.
“Mom, I didn’t.
How could it possibly have been me?”
The surrounding neighbors immediately spoke up in her defense.
Zhang Tiezhu said,
“Pang Dongling, why do you blame everything on your own daughter?
Not long after you followed the Educated Youth Office people to the train station, Xiaoyuan came looking for me with eggs and candy and asked me to take her around to thank every household.
She was trying to repay everyone’s kindness on behalf of your family, and this is how you treat her? You’re biting the hand that feeds you!”
“That’s right! We can all testify for her.”
“Besides, look how skinny she is.
How could she possibly move all that furniture by herself?
Use your brain!”
Shen Xiaoyuan lowered her head and quietly wiped away her tears.
Yet a faint, almost imperceptible smile curled at the corners of her lips.
That had been the entire purpose of visiting every household.
Now she had the support—and the testimony—of the entire neighborhood.
From this moment on…
No one would be able to point their suspicions at her.