Old Madam Liao led the staff to the neighboring ward and spoke softly, trying to curry favor. “My son only just escaped death yesterday. Please show mercy and don’t send him to the farm.”
The staff replied righteously, “No. Liao Haiping violated discipline and must be punished severely. If we can’t uphold fairness, we’ll be letting the masses down. We can’t make principled mistakes.”
The old woman took out all the money she had on her and had her grandson give her his as well. She handed it all to the staff, asking them to make an exception. The staff didn’t want anyone to die either; once they received the benefits, their attitude softened. “Alright then. We’ll give them another week. After one week, they must report to the farm. Otherwise, we won’t be able to answer to the masses.”
The money Old Madam Liao gave was twice what Wang Aihua had offered. Hearing that her own son was also only granted a one‑week reprieve, she was displeased.
“Comrade leaders, we paid twice as much as their family. How is it still just one week? Since we paid double, you should extend it another week.”
“Hmph! Liao Haiping is the one who took bribes. His crime is far more serious than Lin Tianbao’s. One week means one week—there’s no room for bargaining,” a classic case of taking the money and then turning cold.
Old Madam Liao sneered. “Do you know who my son is? Do you know who my grandson is? I give you face and you think you can open a dye shop with it, hmph!”
“My nephew‑in‑law is your director, Li Jianmin, and my grandson is the head of the action team.”
The staff’s faces changed drastically at once. They exchanged looks, then smiled awkwardly. “So you’re Team Leader Liao’s grandmother? You should’ve told us earlier, Old Madam. If you say two weeks, then two weeks it is.”
Seeing they knew what was good for them, the old woman didn’t press further. “Mm.”
“And this money…” one of them ventured.
“Take it,” she said. “The Liao family isn’t short of this bit of money. I have only one request—take good care of the one in the ward next door.”
Both sides understood perfectly well that this “care” was no care at all—daily humiliation, beatings, and forcing him to do the heaviest, hardest labor. The men laughed slyly. “Rest assured. We’ll take very good care of him.”
…
Li Jiyue returned to the Lin house, took out a large burlap sack from her space, put on gloves, and prepared to strip the Lin family of everything valuable. She went first to Wang Aihua’s room. The moment she stepped inside, a wave of male stench rushed out, nearly making her retch. She hurried back out and took a mask from her space to put on.
She started with the bedside table closest to the door. In the bottom drawer she found a box with a small lock on it. Too lazy to look for the key, she smashed it open with a hammer. Inside were more than ten yuan in loose change and a small stack of grain and meat ration tickets.
Next she searched the wardrobe, feeling through every clothing pocket, but found nothing of value. Even the original owner hadn’t known where Wang Aihua hid things—she never treated the original owner as family, guarding against her more tightly than against a thief.
Finally, beneath some old clothes and worn socks, she found a roll of large bills—one hundred yuan in total—stuffed inside smelly, worn socks. If she hadn’t been wearing a mask, she would’ve thrown it away on the spot.
She searched the wardrobe thoroughly—only a hundred yuan. The room was small and sparsely furnished. If it wasn’t in the wardrobe, it had to be under the bed or in the bedframe.
She flipped over the quilt, pillow, and bedboards. In the bedframe she found another box. Opening it revealed a hundred‑year‑old lingzhi and a hundred‑year‑old ginseng. Good stuff. The Lin family had farmed for three generations. Lin Fugui had only lucked into a fifth‑grade worker position at the steel factory—there was no way he could’ve had such treasures. These were from the Li family.
Damn it. Afraid of being discovered and sent down, the original owner hadn’t dared touch even a single cent from the bank passbooks her parents left her, let alone go back to the Li home to retrieve anything. All of it ended up benefiting these Lin family beasts.
She’d originally looked down on the Lin family’s junk copper‑and‑iron furniture. Now she decided to take everything—donate it or throw it away—leaving them nothing.
With a thought, she swept all the tables, chairs, cabinets, and even the rice jar into her space.
Before leaving, she glanced around once more and noticed a wall tile near where the rice jar had been was loose. Jackpot. She pried off the tile and found a hollow behind it. Reaching in, she pulled out a cloth bundle. Damn—three small gold bars.
The Lin family survived entirely on Lin Fugui’s meager wages, supporting a family of four. They were dirt‑poor—where would they get money? If they’d had money, they wouldn’t have been crammed into a tiny room of less than twenty square meters for over a decade. It was all the Li family’s.
Lin Yuzhu really was an ungrateful wretch. The Li family gave her a privileged life and raised her to study, yet for the sake of the Li family’s money, she used the original owner’s name to report Professor Li and his wife for hiding English medical books in their basement. Truly vicious.
To make sure she hadn’t missed anything, Li Jiyue used her high‑tech “heavenly eye” to scan the entire place before feeling satisfied.
Lin Tianbao had only just started working this year and lived paycheck to paycheck. His salary barely covered his expenses; he still asked Wang Aihua for money every month. There was nothing to loot. She took everything from his room—the bedside table, wardrobe, bed—leaving him not even a bedboard.
Lin Yuzhu’s room still reeked of the disgusting smell, with “first blood” from Liao Haiping and Lin Tianbao on the floor. But she couldn’t skip it—she wouldn’t let them benefit for free.
Using a stick, she opened the window from outside to air the room, then stepped in, avoiding the bloodstains. She’d stayed in this room for one night and knew exactly where Lin Yuzhu hid her money—in a safe brought from the Li family. It was extremely heavy and hard to move; it required the correct password to open.
She’d tried hammers and shovels—no matter how she pried, it wouldn’t budge. Li Jiyue tossed the safe into her space, took out a power saw, connected it to the power, and started cutting. Sparks flew everywhere. The saw’s blade nearly overheated, but it kept cutting. The teeth were curling, and her arms ached from holding it up.
With a bang, she dropped onto the sofa, shaking out her hands. “I’m exhausted.”
“Doggy, hook me up to the spring water and give me a calorie boost. I refuse to believe I can’t cut this thing open.”
If the small tools didn’t work, she’d switch to higher‑tech ones.
The system steward in the neighboring laboratory was an AI robot. It helped connect the pipeline to the spiritual spring, removed the nozzle, and handed the tube over.
“Master,” the system steward said, “safes are generally cast from steel and concrete. Usually, a mobile chainsaw is needed—those have higher power and stronger cutting capability. You can start from the back of the safe, where it’s relatively weaker, then use a heavy hammer to smash the concrete layer in the middle.”
After drinking the spring water, Li Jiyue smacked her lips. “Why didn’t you say that earlier? You made me waste all that effort.”
The system immediately apologized. “Master, I’m sorry. I didn’t expect safes from this era to be so difficult to pry open.”
Li Jiyue put on a welding mask, plugged in the power, and started cutting from the back. Sparks flew as she sliced through the surrounding steel plate, revealing a thick layer of concrete inside. She smashed it open with a heavy hammer. The inner steel layer was relatively thin; she cut it open with a small chainsaw.
Inside were seven or eight boxes: five gold bars; stacks of da tuanjie bills—ten notes per bundle, fifteen bundles total, amounting to 1,500 yuan; and a small box of grain coupons, stamps, and cloth coupons. There was also a pair of gold bangles, a jade bangle, and a gemstone necklace.
The most valuable item was the emerald necklace—a whole set. Dozens of stones, all set in brass with open backs, clearly a priceless antique. The largest stone was as big as a toe; even the smallest was the size of a thumb. Just prying off one small gem would be enough to cover several years of expenses for an ordinary family.
No wonder Lin Yuzhu’s standard of living remained so high after returning to her natal home—fine clothes, good food, frequent meals at state‑run restaurants. She even claimed to be a factory director’s daughter, and all the nurses at the hospital believed her without question.
Her entire family had been sucking the original owner’s blood, yet still coveting the mere “two hundred yuan” in the original owner’s passbook—utter greed, a snake trying to swallow an elephant. Not only that, they lived off blood money: selling the original owner’s job, forcing her to marry that bald man surnamed Liao to pave the way for Lin Tianbao. Black‑hearted bastards.
Collect it all, collect it all. Everything useless and trash from the storage room went straight into the space’s garbage station.
She took Lin Yuzhu’s paperwork for registering to go to the countryside, did a quick disguise, and went to the educated‑youth office to sign her up.
As soon as she entered, she asked, “Are there still slots for tree‑planting in the northwest? I want to go to the most difficult places our country has, to contribute my share to national construction.”
The staff at the educated‑youth office stared at her in astonishment. The girl in front of them was young, fair‑skinned, and delicate—volunteering for the Great Northwest? Had they heard wrong?
Men with problematic class backgrounds cried like their parents had died when they learned they were being sent to the northwest to raise pigs or plant trees, using every connection possible to change destinations. No one volunteered for the northwest anymore.
The staff asked uncertainly, “Do you really want to go to the northwest?”
Li Jiyue nodded firmly. “Yes. When the youth are strong, the nation is strong. We young people should pour our youthful passion into the fields, carry our dreams into the countryside, and contribute even our modest strength to building a strong nation, so that our motherland grows better and better.”
The moment she finished speaking, thunderous applause erupted in the room.
“Good, good, good!!!”
“So young and already with such awareness—and a high‑school graduate, no less. Her family education must be excellent. The future of our nation depends on young people like you.”
An older minor leader spoke up. “Are there still slots in the northwest? Hurry and fill out a form for her.”
The other party, afraid she might change her mind, replied quickly, “Yes, yes, there are.”
Forms filled, documents submitted—one hundred yuan in resettlement funds in hand.
…
Back at the family compound, Wang Aihua returned home to fetch medical expenses, only to discover the house had been robbed.
The living room was completely empty. Burgled?
Her money—her gold.
The bed was gone. The cabinets were gone too. Then everything hidden inside must be gone as well.
She prayed frantically in her heart—the wall compartment had been sealed so tightly, surely it hadn’t been discovered.
She rushed over and reached inside—only to touch bare wall.
Her money. Her gold bars. The priceless hundred‑year‑old lingzhi and ginseng—gone. Everything was gone.
Thinking of her son still waiting in the hospital for life‑saving money, her vision went black, and she collapsed backward.