Mi Duoduo drifted off to sleep, not even noticing when Xiao Sheng left.
“Second Sister! Second Sister! Wake up! Hurry and come see—there are so many police officers!” Xiao Sheng’s frantic voice was like a small stone, “thudding” into her dream and startling her awake.
Rubbing her eyes, Mi Duoduo sat up and asked while putting on her shoes, “What happened? Why are you so worked up?”
“It’s Deputy Factory Director Chen’s house! It was robbed!” Xiao Sheng’s face flushed with urgency as he gestured wildly. “I heard the whole house was emptied out—not even the tables and chairs were left!”
Mi Duoduo’s heart skipped a beat. She grabbed the scarf from her head and tied it on. “When did this happen?”
“Just this afternoon! They just discovered it!” Seeing her about to head out, Xiao Sheng quickly steadied her. “Second Sister, take it slow. Your head hasn’t fully healed yet.”
“I’ll walk slowly.” Mi Duoduo shuffled her steps outward, then turned back to remind him, “Lock the door before you catch up.”
She had only taken a few steps out of the courtyard gate when Xiao Sheng caught up like a gust of wind, clutching the house key in his hand, with a bit of dust on his pant leg—clearly having run back.
The two followed the small path in the staff residential compound toward Deputy Factory Director Chen’s house. The closer they got, the more people gathered.
Neighbors clustered in twos and threes along the roadside, whispering to each other with expressions of shock and curiosity. Some even stood on tiptoe, peering into the Chen family’s courtyard gate.
“My goodness, how bold must they be to dare rob the deputy factory director’s house…” an old man clicked his tongue, his face full of disbelief.
“Exactly! I heard Deputy Factory Director Chen’s family just bought a television and a Butterfly brand sewing machine. Probably all taken…” a nearby aunt chimed in, her voice hushed but brimming with endless gossip.
Amidst the chatter, Mi Duoduo followed Xiao Sheng as they squeezed to the front. Looking through the open gate of Deputy Factory Director Chen’s house—the first-floor living room was indeed empty. The Rosewood large standing cabinet, Eight Immortals square table, and rattan woven lounge chair that usually stood there were all gone without a trace. Even the wooden shelf by the wall for miscellaneous items had vanished, leaving only faint marks of varying depths on the floor, making the room appear starkly bare.
A woman carrying a vegetable basket nearby was murmuring to someone, “I was picking vegetables in the yard across the street this afternoon and didn’t hear a thing! How could so many large items be moved out so quietly? It’s downright eerie!”
Several police officers in navy-blue uniforms were conducting an investigation in the yard. Among them, a young officer wearing a round cap was questioning the surrounding neighbors: “From this morning until now, did anyone see strangers coming or going? Or hear any strange noises? Like cart sounds, footsteps?”
The neighbors all shook their heads, chattering that they hadn’t seen or heard anything. The staff residential compound was usually quiet during the day, with even children’s cries being rare.
Xiao Sheng pulled Mi Duoduo, edging forward through gaps in the crowd, just in time to hear an older police officer questioning Deputy Factory Director Chen’s wife, Lu Xiaocao.
Lu Xiaocao was wearing a moon-white dacron shirt, her hair slightly disheveled, her eyes red-rimmed. She clutched a floral handkerchief in her hand, sobbing as she spoke: “I… I just couldn’t rest easy knowing my Yaoyao is going to the countryside in a few days, so I took a short leave to come check on her. Who would’ve thought that as soon as I stepped inside… it would be like this…”
The young police officer held a small notebook, his pen tip scratching softly across the paper as he asked, "Did you lock the door when you left home? When was the last time you saw all the household items intact?"
"Everything was perfectly fine at home before I went to work this morning!" Lu Xiaocao raised her voice anxiously, her finger suddenly pointing at a girl who had just pushed a bicycle over. "Su Qingyao was still at home when I left. It's her, it must be her who stole the things from our house!"
That girl was indeed Su Qingyao. She wore a faded blue cloth jacket with patches, pushing a bicycle in her hands, clearly having just returned.
Hearing this, she looked bewilderedly at the police officer, then at the surrounding crowd, and timidly asked, "Comrade officer, what's going on? I finished the housework this morning, borrowed a bicycle from Aunt Liu, went out to take care of some errands, and just got back…"
After speaking, she turned to Lu Xiaocao, her eyes instantly reddening with grievance. "Mom, I was only out for a day. Are we moving? If I hadn't come back now, I wouldn't even know where we're moving to."
"Su Qingyao, you little wretch!" Lu Xiaocao trembled with rage at these words. "Tell me quickly, where did you move all the household things? Did you want to secretly sell them for money so you wouldn't have to go to the countryside?"
As she spoke, she raised her hand to strike, but was immediately stopped by a police officer beside her.
"Comrade, speak properly. Don't resort to violence," the older police officer said sternly.
At that moment, Chen was also called over from the factory.
He wore a brand-new gray Zhongshan suit, his hair meticulously combed, but his face was now filled with anxiety. As soon as he entered the courtyard and heard Lu Xiaocao's words, he quickly turned to Su Qingyao. "Yaoyao, tell the truth. Did you move the things? If you're in trouble, talk to the family. Don't do anything foolish!"
Su Qingyao had just returned the bicycle to Aunt Liu, who had come out upon hearing the commotion. Turning back, she heard her father's accusation, and tears instantly streamed down her face, her expression full of grievance. "Dad, even you don't believe me? Look at all the things in the house—tables, chairs, the television. How could I move them all by myself? I've been out all day and haven't even been home. How could I have stolen anything?"
Mi Duoduo stood in the crowd, listening to the exchange and thinking to herself—this thief is truly formidable. To empty someone's house in broad daylight without leaving a single trace, no wonder everyone in the courtyard found it eerie.
She quietly asked Xiao Fu in her mind, "Xiao Fu, what valuable things do you think the thief could have stolen?"
Xiao Fu's virtual avatar flickered before her eyes, its lines brimming with curiosity. "Just now, I heard the neighbors mention a television and a sewing machine. These are highly sought-after items nowadays, really valuable! There might even be cash and ration tickets! From what they're saying, Chen's family might truly be left with nothing but an empty shell."
"Will the police be able to catch the culprit?"
"Hard to say," Xiao Fu's lines drooped like a deflated balloon. "In this era, there's no surveillance footage. It all depends on witnesses and physical evidence. If no clues were left behind, it'll probably be difficult…"
Just as they were speaking, Mi Jianye squeezed through the crowd, his expression grim, sweat beading on his forehead, clearly having rushed back from the factory.
He spotted Mi Duoduo and Xiao Sheng at once and hurried over. "What are you two doing here? Go home now! With so many people around, don't let your wounds get bumped."
"Dad, we're just watching…" Xiao Sheng muttered softly, his eyes still fixed on the Chen family's courtyard.
"What's there to see?" Mi Jianye frowned, glancing toward Chen's yard, his voice lowered. "The factory just notified everyone to lock their doors and windows and stay indoors at night. What's the point of joining the commotion now? Hurry, come home with me."
Mi Duoduo understood this was out of concern and didn’t say more, obediently following Mi Jianye back.
She glanced back in the direction of Chen’s house, where a crowd still gathered. The police’s questioning, Lu Xiaocao’s tearful shouts, and Su Qingyao’s defensive explanations tangled together like a messy ball of thread, casting a tense shadow over the once-peaceful staff residential compound.