Ren Chaomei was hot-tempered, but she certainly wasn’t stupid.
Back at the production team, she had cursed and threatened people with reckless arrogance. But the moment she got in front of the police, her tears immediately came streaming down.
“They bullied the daughter of a deceased soldier. They took advantage of the fact that my parents had died and bullied me because I was all alone…”
Ren Chaomei cried with genuine emotion, tears streaming down her face as she poured out her grievances. She was truly exhausted, hungry, and aggrieved. She had barely transmigrated when she ran into this whole mess. She was furious.
She had originally assumed that since the production-team cadres were escorting them to report the case, they would at least have a tractor or something. There were so many people, after all.
But there was no tractor, nor was there an ox cart or donkey cart. The entire group simply walked the whole way. It took them two hours to reach the commune, where they finally found the commune police officer.
After walking for two hours, it was already completely dark. Ren Chaomei had calmed down considerably by then. She no longer demanded to go all the way to the county police station and instead began making her complaint to the commune police officer.
At this time, many police officers were former soldiers who had been transferred into civilian positions. When Ren Chaomei mentioned that her father had once participated in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, she was immediately regarded as one of their own.
Who would want to see someone who had shed blood and risked his life for the country only to have his children bullied after his death?
Seeing how wronged Ren Chaomei looked as she cried, the police officer felt a deep sense of sympathy.
Besides, this case was hardly a mystery. The truth was practically laid bare before everyone. There was no need for much interrogation. A little intimidation was enough for someone to confess on their own.
The tall young man whose face had been slashed was the first to speak. The moment he opened his mouth, he began shifting the blame.
“This has nothing to do with me. It was all my aunt’s idea. Their family insisted that I help them. I really couldn’t refuse, so I went along with it.”
He hadn’t taken any money. He had only helped out of kindness because he didn’t want his two cousins to remain bachelors.
His aunt’s entire family had always fawned over him, praising his good looks, his abilities, and his promising future. They called him the savior of the entire Wang family.
Even though he knew deceiving someone was wrong, he had sighed and reluctantly agreed to help.
Who could have expected that his attempt to help out of kindness would result in Ren Chaomei slashing his face to pieces?
He knew he was good-looking. Originally, he had planned to take his time choosing a girl from a good family to marry. But now that his face looked like this, he might not even be able to find a wife.
His wounds throbbed painfully. Covering the bandages on his face, he regretted his decision so much that his guts nearly turned green.
“I told them from the beginning that Ren Chaomei clearly had a bad temper and wouldn’t be suitable. But Wang Ergou insisted because he thought she was pretty. And my aunt too—she said the Ren family had good financial circumstances and was thinking about the subsidies Ren Chaomei would receive in the future…”
Regardless of what the Ren family was actually like, their circumstances certainly looked good on the surface.
Ren Chaomei’s father, Ren Erhe, had served on the battlefield and received financial assistance after being discharged due to illness.
Before joining the military, Ren Erhe couldn’t even find a wife. After returning from the army, not only did he marry, he also built a new house and managed to save a considerable amount of money.
When he became critically ill, his wife had already died from complications during childbirth. With no one else to care for his daughter, he had to entrust her to his elder brother.
At the time, he had 1,500 yuan in savings—a huge sum of money. He divided it into three portions.
He gave 500 yuan to the old man as his retirement support, another 500 yuan to Ren Dahe as the child’s living and upbringing expenses. He had production-team cadres witness both transactions.
The remaining 500 yuan, he secretly gave to his daughter and told her to hide it for emergencies.
Ren Dahe had once been so poor that he couldn’t even properly support his children. Both of his sons had died from illness. Only after Ren Erhe returned home did his family’s situation begin improving. After Ren Erhe died, their circumstances became even better.
Not only did they move into a new house, but they also suddenly had a large sum of money in their hands.
A man who had once been honest and simple became addicted to smoking, drinking, and gambling within a single month. With money to spend freely, he also gained plenty of new friends.
The village idlers loved gathering outside the Ren family’s house, simply because Ren Dahe was generous and would hand out cigarettes to them.
Cigarettes were extremely expensive at the time and required ration coupons. When a group of men gathered together, they would look at one another. Even if someone had cigarettes, he wouldn’t dare take one out and smoke it in front of everyone.
Smoking by himself while everyone else watched felt awkward, but handing out one cigarette to each person was far too painful.
Ren Dahe, however, would actually do it. He even kept cigarettes at home that he had deliberately bought at a high price, as though he wanted everyone to know how generous and wealthy he was.
Once he had experienced the pleasure of spending money however he pleased, Ren Dahe naturally wanted more.
So Ren Chaomei’s 500-yuan secret stash soon disappeared without explanation.
How could a seven- or eight-year-old child outsmart an adult?
Even though young Ren Chaomei had hidden the money inside her pillow and touched it every night before going to sleep to make sure it was still there, one day the money inexplicably vanished.
She had clearly felt the money inside the pillow when she woke up that morning. Yet after she went to eat breakfast, it was gone.
She cried and said someone had stolen her money and demanded that the thief be caught. But her uncle simply cursed her for being crazy and accused her of using the whole thing as an excuse to beg for pocket money. He gave her five fen and sent her away.
Every time she cried and made a scene, her uncle would give her five fen as pocket money to shut her up.
Eventually, she earned the nickname “Ren Five-Fen” throughout the production team. The villagers would laughingly tease her, saying she was wild and shameless—that she could throw herself on the ground and throw a tantrum just to get pocket money, and that she could even raise a cleaver against her own uncle and aunt.
Many people could barely afford enough food to eat. What family’s child could possibly have as much pocket money as Ren Chaomei?
Some people even thought Ren Dahe spoiled his niece far too much and had indulged her until she became completely lawless.
But a child that young could neither get her money back nor leave the Ren family and grow up independently. All she could do was swallow her grievances while lashing out at everyone around her, trying to make sure people knew she was not someone to be messed with.
The original Ren Chaomei’s decision to marry and leave the Ren family could also be considered her way of letting go and preparing to begin a new life of her own.
Who would have thought that life wouldn’t let her off the hook at all?
After carefully going through all of the original owner’s memories, Ren Chaomei cried even harder. As she sobbed, she covered her chest with one hand.
It felt as though the resentment left behind by the original owner was still lingering there, making her chest feel unbearably heavy.
“Girl, stop crying. Don’t worry. Uncle will get justice for you.”
“Waaah… okay… waaah…”
Ren Chaomei obediently wiped her tears, only for even more tears to come pouring out.
The police officer was already feeling deeply sympathetic when he heard Ren Chaomei sobbing as she asked, “Can you have all of them executed?”
“Ah, about that… no, we can’t. We can only arrest them and send them to prison.”
Ren Chaomei knew they couldn’t possibly be executed. She had only asked.
She was already very satisfied with the outcome of imprisonment.
Going to prison didn’t just mean wasting several years of their lives. Even after they were released, their lives wouldn’t be easy. Their status as former convicts would make it difficult for them to get anywhere.
Wang Ergou’s mother wanted to take all the responsibility upon herself to protect her son, but the moment Ren Chaomei saw what she was trying to do, she immediately accused Wang Ergou of attempting to force himself on her, sending him to prison under another charge.
Ren Chaomei didn’t let a single one of the three scammers off the hook. Every one of them received a sentence of at least five years.
Even with disaster staring him in the face, Wang Ergou still refused to accept it. He shouted at the police officer, demanding to know why he was being detained.
“You broke the law. Who else should we arrest if not you?”
“What law did I break by marrying a wife? It’s only natural for a man to marry a wife!”
“You call that marrying? You deceived her! Other families manage to find wives even when they don’t have money. It’s your family that’s full of crooked schemes. No wonder no one is willing to marry into your family.”
If a man simply sweet-talked a woman by promising to buy her new clothes and build her a new house in the future, that could be considered nothing more than sweet-talking.
But when even the groom himself had been deliberately substituted with someone else, it was outright fraud.
The key was that Ren Chaomei was clever enough to directly accuse them of abducting and trafficking a person and attempting to rape her, pinning every possible charge on them.
Unlike her, Wang family’s eldest daughter-in-law simply stood there in a daze throughout the entire ordeal.
The police and production-team cadres thoroughly investigated the fraudulent marriage and naturally discovered that Wang family’s eldest daughter-in-law had also been deceived.
But everyone had different choices to make. Since the eldest daughter-in-law didn’t want to make a fuss, they couldn’t step in and make decisions on her behalf.
If she had also chosen to press charges, the Wang family’s crimes would have been even more serious.
But ultimately, very few people were willing to make such a scene.
In their eyes, Ren Chaomei hadn’t gained much by making such a fuss.
She had been deceived, her reputation was ruined, and when she went home, she would not only have to face her relatives’ scolding and punishment, but she would also have difficulty finding a husband in the future. Her prospects looked bleak.
The police officer looked at Ren Chaomei and couldn’t help sighing.
“It’s already so late. Go home with me tonight and sleep with my daughter. Don’t be afraid. You’ve gotten through this hurdle. Things will get better from here on out.”
“Thank you, Uncle.”
Ren Chaomei nodded firmly.
“They definitely will get better.”
“Tomorrow morning, I’ll send someone to notify your family and have them come pick you up. If your family scolds or hits you, don’t argue with them. Just talk things through with them calmly.”
Ren Chaomei smiled.
“They won’t. My uncle won’t hit or scold me.”
Ren Dahe couldn’t win an argument against her. If he tried to hit her, she would fight back, and the whole situation would become ugly.
Besides, everyone in the production team knew that he had taken the 500 yuan meant for raising her, so he didn’t have the confidence to be too harsh with his niece.
Ren Dahe simply wouldn’t come to pick her up.
Even though the house they were living in had originally been obtained by taking what rightfully belonged to her.