Lin Fen’s voice was loud and piercing, carrying through the entire courtyard.
“Thief! There’s a thief in the house!”
At her shout, the neighbors who had just dispersed immediately swarmed back over.
This time, besides curiosity, their eyes carried even more disdain and certainty.
“I told you Li Zhihuan wasn’t a decent person.”
“Tsk tsk, she even dares to steal her mother-in-law’s money. Shameless.”
“Captain Qi really has terrible luck.”
The gossip buzzed like a swarm of flies.
Li Zhihuan stood in the middle of the messy room, watching Lin Fen hold up the “stolen goods” with a smug expression while her mind raced.
She knew perfectly well the money did not belong to Lin Fen.
According to the original owner’s memories, this was secretly saved private money meant for running away from home.
A total of twelve yuan and fifty cents, along with several national grain coupons.
But now, the money had become the “irrefutable evidence” used to frame her.
Explain herself? No one would believe her.
Snatch it back? That would only make her look more guilty.
This situation was even more dangerous than the divorce crisis earlier.
Once branded as a thief, forget living peacefully as a salted fish—she would suffer complete social death in this military compound.
Li Zhihuan did not panic.
She looked at Lin Fen and suddenly asked an entirely unrelated question.
“Mother-in-law, how much money did you lose?”
Lin Fen froze, clearly not expecting that question.
Her eyes shifted before she greedily exaggerated.
“Fifty! Fifty yuan I painstakingly saved up! You stole it all!”
In this era, fifty yuan was an enormous sum for an ordinary family.
The surrounding neighbors all gasped.
But the corner of Li Zhihuan’s lips curved into an almost imperceptible smile.
Greed was often the greatest flaw.
“Fifty yuan?”
Li Zhihuan’s voice was soft, yet every person heard it clearly.
“Mother-in-law, are you certain it was fifty yuan?”
“Of course I’m certain!”
Lin Fen straightened her back.
“I counted it before going to bed last night!”
“Fine then.”
Li Zhihuan nodded and turned toward the neighbors at the doorway.
“Uncles, aunties, since my mother-in-law says I stole her money, there should at least be proof, right?”
She pointed at the money in Lin Fen’s hand.
“Everyone can take a look. Does the money she’s holding look like fifty yuan?”
Everyone stretched their necks to look.
There were only a few thin bills in Lin Fen’s hand. No matter how they looked at it, it clearly did not resemble fifty yuan.
Lin Fen’s face turned pale, and she immediately stuffed the money into her clothes.
“Th-This is just what was left after you stole the rest! You must have hidden the bigger portion somewhere!”
She forced herself to argue.
“Hidden it?”
Li Zhihuan smiled, but the smile was cold.
“Perfect. Then let’s search in front of everyone.”
She calmly spread her arms.
“Everyone can search me, and you can also turn this room upside down. If you can find the remaining thirty-seven yuan and fifty cents on me or anywhere in this room, I won’t say another word. I’ll immediately go with you to the security office.”
Her attitude was too open and honest.
So honest that everyone began hesitating.
Lin Fen also panicked.
Of course she knew there was no extra money in the room.
“Wh-Who wants to search you, you shameless woman!”
She shouted fiercely despite her guilty conscience.
Li Zhihuan ignored her and walked straight to the bed. She bent down and dragged out a dust-covered wooden chest from underneath.
It was the original owner’s dowry chest.
Opening it revealed only a few old clothes and miscellaneous items.
She took them out one by one and showed them to everyone.
“Nothing here.”
Then she walked to the wardrobe that Lin Fen had already rummaged through chaotically and turned out every pocket inside.
“Nothing here either.”
Like a calm detective, she steadily proved her innocence step by step.
Finally, she stopped in front of Lin Fen.
“Mother-in-law, now only you are left.”
“W-What do you mean only me?”
Lin Fen unconsciously stepped back.
Li Zhihuan’s gaze landed on the bulging pocket of Lin Fen’s blue coarse-cloth jacket.
“You said you lost money, but there were only the two of us in this room. If I didn’t take it, then where could it be?”
Her words carried a strong implication.
The neighbors’ gazes also became strange as they all looked toward Lin Fen’s pocket.
Lin Fen’s face instantly turned the color of pig liver.
How could she possibly allow others to search her body?
At that moment, a detail from the original novel flashed through Li Zhihuan’s mind.
【The book mentioned that Lin Fen was extremely stingy and absent-minded. She liked hiding money in unexpected places, such as inside shoe soles she made, or… inside pickle jars.】
The thought struck like lightning.
Her golden finger had arrived.
Li Zhihuan’s gaze abruptly shifted toward the half-human-height pickle jar in the corner of the wall.
Without revealing anything, she suddenly exclaimed, “Ah!”
Then she made a look of sudden realization.
“Mother-in-law, think carefully again. After counting your money last night, were you afraid it wasn’t safe, so… you hid it somewhere?”
Her voice was not loud, but it carried a strong sense of guidance.
“I remember you once told me that the safest place is the place people would least expect.”
Lin Fen was stunned by her words.
As Li Zhihuan spoke, she slowly walked toward the pickle jar.
“For example… that pickle jar you treasure the most? Were you worried the money would get damp, so you wrapped it in several layers of oil paper and stuffed it into the gap near the mouth of the jar?”
She spoke with such vivid detail that it sounded as though she had witnessed it herself.
Lin Fen’s pupils trembled violently.
She… she actually had… done exactly that!
It was the allowance she had just received a few days ago. Afraid Li Zhihuan might steal it, she had…
Before she could react, Li Zhihuan had already moved aside the stone slab covering the jar and reached inside to feel around.
When she pulled her hand back out, she was holding a neat square package wrapped in oil paper.
In front of everyone, Li Zhihuan slowly unwrapped the layers one by one.
Inside lay a neatly stacked bundle of cash.
There were large bills as well as smaller one- and two-yuan notes.
Li Zhihuan handed the money to one of the elderly neighbor women.
“Auntie, could you help count it and see if this is the money Mother lost?”
The woman took the bundle and began counting bill by bill.
“Ten, twenty, thirty, forty… fifty! Exactly fifty yuan! Not a single cent missing!”
The moment the result was announced, the crowd erupted.
Everyone’s attention shifted from Li Zhihuan to Lin Fen’s face.
Their gazes held realization, mockery, and disdain.
The truth was obvious without words.
This wasn’t a case of a daughter-in-law stealing money at all. The mother-in-law had simply become confused herself, forgotten where she hid the money, and falsely accused her daughter-in-law instead!
Lin Fen’s face alternated between red and pale before finally turning ashen.
She wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and disappear.
She had never lost this much face in her entire life combined!
Li Zhihuan looked at her without pressing the advantage. Instead, she walked over and affectionately linked arms with her.
“Oh my, Mother, look at your memory! I told you already—we’re family. How could I possibly take your money?”
She turned and smiled at the neighbors.
“Sorry for making everyone laugh. My mother-in-law is just getting older and becoming forgetful. It was all a misunderstanding. Everyone can go home now, go on.”
With that move, she not only gave Lin Fen a way out but also firmly established herself in everyone’s eyes as a reasonable and considerate daughter-in-law.
The neighbors exchanged meaningful glances between Lin Fen and Li Zhihuan before gradually dispersing.
A crisis that could have utterly ruined her reputation had been effortlessly resolved through her intelligence and knowledge of the plot.
And on top of that, she had delivered a beautiful counterattack.
After this incident, Lin Fen would not dare act arrogantly in front of her again anytime soon.
Soon, only the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law remained in the house.
Lin Fen violently shook off Li Zhihuan’s hand. Furious and humiliated, she could not force out a single insult.
All she could do was clutch the fifty yuan and slink back into her room.
At last, the world became peaceful again.
Li Zhihuan watched Lin Fen’s retreating figure before retrieving the twelve yuan and fifty cents along with several grain coupons that had been thrown onto the bed.
This was her own money—her first startup capital in this world.
Though it was not much, its significance was enormous.
That evening, Qi Weiguo returned home.
The moment he stepped inside, he sensed something strange about the atmosphere.
His mother had locked herself in her room and had not come out to cook.
Meanwhile, his new “wife” sat quietly at the small table, eating white rice in small bites alongside a plate of stir-fried vegetables.
Her table manners were refined and focused, as though the simple vegetables were some rare delicacy.
Qi Weiguo walked up to her, took out ten yuan and a stack of grain coupons from his pocket, and placed them on the table.
“This month’s living expenses.”
His voice remained cold and rigid.
“You handle the household matters from now on.”
It was both a test and a transfer of authority.
Li Zhihuan raised her head and looked at the money and coupons on the table.
She knew this was the first piece of trust she had earned.
She did not say thank you. She simply nodded.
“Alright.”