Chapter 490: The Yan Family's Schemes

The door was suddenly pushed open, but it was not Yan Jiefang who emerged, but two burly men, Wang Qiang and Li Lin.

Without a word, the two men lunged forward and pinned Ma Shouyi to the ground.

Ma Shouyi tried to struggle, but his legs were immediately pinned down by Ershuan and Zou Jiadong, who had rushed over.

In no time at all, Ma Shouyi was tied up tightly with hemp rope and could not move.

"Comrades! It's a misunderstanding! A huge misunderstanding!" Ma Shouyi shouted in a panic, his neck stiffening. "I'm a doctor from Ganlutang in Dian'anmen, specializing in infertility! Yi Zhonghai from your courtyard has even come to me for treatment; he can vouch for me!"

"Cut the crap!" Wang Qiang barked, cutting him off. "Save your words for the Police station!"

As they were speaking, rapid footsteps echoed through the alley, and Li Xiangxiu arrived with her men.

Seeing the chaos in the courtyard, she stepped forward, scanned the scene with sharp eyes, and asked, "Uncle Wang, what happened here?"

"Xiangxiu, you've come just in time!" Wang Qiang pointed at the man on the ground. "This kid was lurking at the entrance asking about Yan Jiefang. We found him suspicious, so we took him down. He claims to be a doctor from Ganlutang..."

Li Xiangxiu's eyes lit up. She stepped forward and gripped Wang Qiang's hand tightly: "Uncle Wang, you've performed a great service! We came here specifically to catch him—this person is very likely a lurking spy!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Qiang's face immediately broke into a smile. "Did you all hear that? We've performed a service!"

Li Xiangxiu turned to Yang Ruihua, who was standing to the side, her tone serious: "Where is Yan Jiefang? We need to take him back for questioning."

Yang Ruihua panicked and rushed over, pleading: "Police comrade, I was the one who called everyone to catch this dog of a spy... Can you not take my son away? He's still young and doesn't know any better!"

"No." Li Xiangxiu's tone was firm and decisive. "We have already investigated clearly. Although Yan Jiefang is young, he has committed many bad deeds—bribing the Xu Xinghai brothers to intercept He Yushui and the other young girls, stealing a pocket watch, and most infuriatingly, lying to mislead our investigation, which caused us to miss the best opportunity to capture the spy... He must be taken back for a serious interrogation."

Yang Ruihua opened her mouth, looking as if her soul had been sucked out, and froze in place.

After Yan Jiefang was taken away, Yang Ruihua collapsed onto the threshold, slapping her thighs and wailing loudly: "Oh, Heavens! You are bullying us too much! Why pick on our family to bully? How is one supposed to live like this..."

Yan Bugui shuffled out of the room leaning on his cane, his face dark as he hissed: "Yang Ruihua, get back here right now! What good does wailing in the courtyard do? Do you want the whole neighborhood to know Yan Jiefang is a thief?"

"There isn't even rice left in the house to cook, how are we supposed to live?" Yang Ruihua sobbed, tears smearing her face.

Yan Bugui pushed up his glasses, a mysterious smile suddenly curling at the corners of his mouth: "Come, I'll show you something."

"Show me what?" Yang Ruihua raised her teary eyes and asked, confused.

Yan Bugui lowered his voice: "Pry up the smoothest brick under Jiefang's bed."

Yang Ruihua gave a start, and not caring about the dirt, she crawled directly onto the floor.

Yan Bugui handed her a flashlight, and a beam of yellow light shone into the dark corner under the bed.

She widened her eyes and felt around carefully, eventually finding a brick with edges worn smooth.

Before long, Yang Ruihua pried that brick open.

A small hole in the wall was revealed underneath, and a small, rusted iron box lay quietly inside.

Yang Ruihua pulled the iron box out with trembling hands.

Just then, Yan Jiecheng poked his head out from the inner room, rubbing his eyes as he asked: "Dad, Mom, it's the middle of the night, why aren't you sleeping? What are you fussing about?"

Yang Ruihua didn't speak; she tremblingly opened the iron box and dumped everything inside onto the kang.

It was a large amount of cash rolled into bundles. Yan Jiecheng's eyes instantly widened, and his voice changed pitch: "Wh-where did all this money come from?"

"Where else could it come from? It's our family's! Would an outsider hide money under our bed?" Yan Bugui lived up to his reputation as a teacher; his words were airtight. Although this money was obtained by Yan Jiefang, since he was still a minor, no one could argue against it being called family money.

Yang Ruihua hugged the money tightly to her chest, trembling with excitement: "Our family... our family is saved!"

Yan Bugui, however, immediately darkened his face and lowered his voice to warn them: "No one is to speak a word of this money. Even if your brother comes back, don't mention it."

"But if he asks, what should we say?" Yan Jiecheng scratched his head.

"You silly boy! Just say the Police confiscated it!" Yan Bugui said with a smile.

"But what if my brother says it himself?"

"Your brother's temperament—he'd risk his life before he'd part with his wealth." Yan Bugui narrowed his eyes, smiling like an old fox. "He won't say anything."

No one knows a son like his father; that saying is absolutely true.

In the interrogation room, Li Xiangxiu had been confronting Yan Jiefang for an hour.

Although Yan Jiefang was young, he was very slippery, pushing everything onto others—stealing the watch? That was Xu Xinghai's instigation! Evidence? Xu Xinghai dared to blackmail him for 150,000, so what else wouldn't he dare to do?

When asked about the whereabouts of the stolen money, he put on a mournful face, snot and tears running down: "Police Auntie, the money my Siqiang gave me was all used to pay off the debt for the General Jar, and the rest was all spent treating Xu Xinghai to food and drink... otherwise he would have beaten me! I really don't have a cent left now, if you don't believe me, search me!"

When Xu Xingfu testified on the side, he also had to stammer and admit that he had indeed eaten quite a bit of Yan Jiefang's food, and on the last day, he had even swindled over 100,000 from him.

Li Xiangxiu watched the performance of this half-grown boy. Even though she knew his story was full of holes, the chain of evidence was self-consistent, and she was truly impressed by him.

She closed her notebook and rubbed her throbbing temples.

There was no help for it; Yan Jiefang was young and had been coerced, so it was legally difficult to hold him heavily accountable.

But what she hated most was that there wasn't a single word of truth in the boy's mouth.

He was always shifting blame, always playing the victim.

Li Xiangxiu could have released him directly, but seeing his shameless face, a fire flared up inside her, and she immediately decided to lock him up for a while to give him a good education.

When Xu Damao heard the news at the Rolling Mill that Wang Baosheng had been arrested, the teacup in his hand fell to the ground with a "clatter" and shattered into pieces.

That same night, he secretly transferred his assets overnight, wrapping all the gold, silver, and valuables he had saved over the years in layer after layer of oilcloth, and in the middle of the night, he loaded them onto a tricycle and buried them in the wilderness.

The next day, clutching a thick stack of money, he entered the office of Section Chief Zhao of the Propaganda Department: "Section Chief Zhao, let me go to the poorest and most remote countryside to train! I promise to follow my Siqiang and learn how to show movies properly!"

Section Chief Zhao looked at the money on the table, then at Xu Damao's sincere expression, and praised: "Damao, your awareness has really grown recently! You've volunteered for a tough job that no one else wants to do; that's worth commending! Work hard, and once you've mastered the skills, you won't have to follow your Siqiang all the time and will be able to stand on your own!"

Hearing this praise, Xu Damao felt bitter, but he put on a grateful smile.

In fact, those three, including Wang Baosheng, were actually quite loyal and never gave up Xu Xinghai.

They pushed all the channels for fencing the stolen goods onto the "black market."

The wind from the south, laden with the scent of damp earth, rushed toward them.

He Yuzhu's convoy bumped along as it drove into a piece of newly cleared wasteland.

Before them were rows of newly built gray-tiled bungalows, and further ahead lay an endless stretch of wild land waiting to be reclaimed, overgrown with weeds.

Secretary Liu had been waiting by that simple wooden gate; as soon as the convoy stopped, he stepped forward to greet them and shook He Yuzhu's hand tightly: "Zhuzi, we've finally been waiting for you! You've had a hard journey; have a good meal tonight to shake off the fatigue. Tomorrow we can discuss the details of building the factory."

He Yuzhu nodded with a smile: "Fine, I'll leave it to your arrangements."