“Maybe everyone has heard that the Shen family was recently robbed. The mastermind behind it was my younger sister.”
As soon as she said this, the entire crowd erupted in an uproar.
“That’s not true… She’s lying!” Pan Jiaxing hurriedly defended himself in a panic.
“I’m lying? Everyone, take a look at this.” Shen Xiaoyuan held up the marriage-exchange agreement. She had stolen it from Shen Hanning’s bedroom. “It has your signature and fingerprint on it. This scumbag colluded with the Shen family to force me into a marriage exchange.”
Someone moved closer to take a look and then read it aloud, word for word. Before long, the crowd was furious.
“Isn’t this exactly like that heartless Chen Shimei?”
“What a heartless bastard! A freeloader who married into a better family! Shameless! Down with him!”
“His workplace should know what kind of person he is!”
A bearded middle-aged man rushed forward and grabbed Pan Jiaxing by the arm. “How can a man like this deserve to wear Chairman Mao’s badge?”
Everyone was outraged, practically itching to drag him out for a public denunciation.
“I didn’t! I didn’t! She signed the marriage-exchange agreement herself too…” Pan Jiaxing tried feebly to defend himself, but his voice was drowned out by the surrounding accusations.
In this era, as soon as someone stood up and shouted slogans of condemnation, the people around them would somehow become fired up and join in.
Seeing more and more furious people stepping forward, Pan Jiaxing frantically broke free from the bearded man’s grip and tried to force his way through the crowd.
“Stop!” the breakfast shop owner suddenly shouted. “Pay your bill! Socialism doesn’t support scum like you!”
Pan Jiaxing awkwardly pulled out several grain coupons and placed them on the table. Just as he was about to rush out of the breakfast shop, someone blocked his way again.
He looked up and saw Shen Xiaoyuan.
She raised her chin. “Stop. Since you and I have nothing to do with each other anymore, then please return my belongings to me. The shirt you’re wearing, and that watch.”
She turned to the crowd. “I’m not being unreasonable, am I?”
“She’s just taking back her own belongings. What’s unreasonable about that?”
“Exactly! Does money just fall from the sky?”
“Take it off! Hurry up and take it off!”
With everyone supporting her, the bearded man stepped forward again. He grabbed Pan Jiaxing’s white shirt and said, “What are you waiting for? Take it off! Otherwise, I’ll take it off for you!”
“Let go! Let go! I’ll do it myself!” Pan Jiaxing angrily shook off the bearded man’s hand.
Meeting Shen Xiaoyuan’s mocking gaze, he snarled viciously, “Shen Xiaoyuan, just you wait!”
With that, he quickly stripped off his shirt and watch. His face flushed red as he ran out of the crowd bare-chested.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. Childlike physique, zero sex appeal.
Shen Xiaoyuan silently gave him her assessment in her heart.
Watching Pan Jiaxing flee in humiliation, a strange smile appeared on Shen Xiaoyuan’s face.
When it came to dealing with scumbags, of course she had to strike while the iron was hot!
She turned around, went to the supply and marketing cooperative to buy a silk banner, and then headed to the police station.
Once she arrived at the police station, she began asking around the entire office.
“Comrade, where is Comrade Li Zhenggang’s office?”
She had heard Shen Hanning say that the person overseeing the investigation into the Shen family robbery was a man named Li Zhenggang.
“Oh, Deputy Director Li? He’s on the second floor. Go upstairs, turn left, and it’s the second office. I’ll take you there!” a police officer said, getting ready to stand.
So Li Zhenggang was actually a deputy director. That was an unexpected bonus.
“No, no, it’s fine. I can go up myself. I won’t trouble you.”
Shen Xiaoyuan questioned everyone in the police station from top to bottom. She didn’t even spare the cleaning lady. Only then did she pretend to finally locate Deputy Director Li’s office.
Li Zhenggang naturally accepted the silk banner with great satisfaction.
“Deputy Director Li, thank you so much for your help last time. You solved our case so quickly. I’ll be going to the countryside next week, so before I leave, I wanted to come and see my younger sister, Shen Tiantian.”
Li Zhenggang smiled. “I thought it was something serious. Of course you can. I know something about your family’s situation. You’ve suffered quite a lot because of her.”
“Even after everything that happened, you can still put the past aside and come to see her. You have a broad-minded attitude. You’re a good young socialist!”
Shen Xiaoyuan smiled shyly. “Deputy Director Li, you’re flattering me. My sister isn’t a bad person. She was just momentarily confused. She’s been accustomed to living comfortably, and now that her standard of living has suddenly plummeted, she couldn’t adjust and ended up having some improper thoughts.”
She sighed softly. “The Shen family suffered such a sudden upheaval. It really is difficult to accept. Not just my sister, even my parents…”
Shen Xiaoyuan paused, looking as though she wanted to say something but couldn’t bring herself to.
“What happened to your parents?” Li Zhenggang asked.
Shen Xiaoyuan stood there with her lips tightly pressed together, both hands clenched into fists, as though she were going through an agonizing internal struggle.
“Comrade Shen Xiaoyuan, don’t be afraid. Speak boldly. Tell me the truth. We are servants of the people, and we will certainly help you.”
With his years of experience handling cases, Li Zhenggang immediately realized that she was hiding something and encouraged her to speak.
“Actually… actually, I’m not completely sure. I just overheard my parents mention it that day. They said… they said they were planning to sneak into Hong Kong. I don’t know whether they were joking.”
“If they’re serious, I hope you can stop them. Our Shen family cannot bear the stigma of ‘betraying the country and defecting to the enemy’ on top of everything else. When my grandfather passed away, what he cared about most was the Shen family’s reputation.”
“As a younger member of the family, I have no authority to stop them. They wouldn’t listen to me anyway, so I’m really worried. I haven’t been able to eat or sleep these past few days.”
As Shen Xiaoyuan spoke, her voice gradually choked with emotion, and her eyes filled with tears. She tilted her head up, desperately trying not to let them fall.
Li Zhenggang had a daughter about the same age as Shen Xiaoyuan, so seeing her helpless expression made his heart ache.
On one side were her own parents; on the other was the serious crime of illegally crossing into Hong Kong. Anyone with a conscience would feel torn apart by such a dilemma.
He frowned and said solemnly, “What you’ve told me is extremely serious. We will definitely take it seriously. Did your parents say exactly when they planned to sneak across?”
“This… Let me think. If I remember correctly, it should be within the next two days.”
“The information you’ve provided is extremely important. Don’t worry. I’ll deploy more people to guard the various ports over the next couple of days. You should also keep an eye on their movements. If anything happens, inform us immediately!”
Shen Xiaoyuan nodded heavily. After expressing her gratitude several times, she went to the detention center where Shen Tiantian was being held.
Through the bars, Shen Xiaoyuan saw that Shen Tiantian had lost all her former radiance. She was wearing a blue-green prison uniform, her hair was messy, and her face was pale. She looked like a wilted little cabbage.
The moment Shen Tiantian saw her, she abruptly stood up and rushed to the iron bars. The shackles around her ankles scraped loudly across the floor.
“Shen Xiaoyuan, was it you who framed me? I’ve thought about it for two days, and you’re the most suspicious one! And what happened to my brother being sent to the Northwest for reeducation? Was that your doing too?”
Her face was twisted with rage as she gripped the iron bars tightly, as though she wanted to bend them apart and burst out to devour Shen Xiaoyuan.