Chapter 21

As expected, Ji Wanqing had only walked a short distance into the alley, filled with a dangerous aura, when she felt several pairs of eyes on her back.

This group was used to doing this kind of thing. A rich girl like Ji Wanqing, alone, was practically a walking treasure trove!

But when it came to rich people, the robbers had to weigh their identity first. They didn’t want to end up messing with some big shot and lose more than they gained.

Ji Wanqing held her handkerchief and her eyes were almost sore from wiping them, but she couldn’t see anyone behind her making a move.

She stood there, looking up at the sky, then stomped her foot as if she had suddenly realized something, and turned to run out of the alley.

If the mountain won’t come to me, I’ll go to the mountain.

She didn’t believe that they would let such a fat sheep go.

“Hey, little girl, where are you going in such a hurry?”

Sure enough, she had only run ten meters or so when seven or eight hooligans suddenly jumped out in front of her.

Ji Wanqing put on a panicked expression, but calmly assessed the situation inside.

They were organized and disciplined, with the others implicitly respecting the leader, a pimply-faced guy, who seemed to be a seasoned professional in this line of work.

She tilted her head and smiled slightly, “To collect your corpses.”

She casually picked up a chair leg from the pile of junk, and soon, only Ji Wanqing was left standing.

The pimply-faced guy, covered in bruises, lay on the ground, completely dumbfounded.

He wanted to call for help, but the alley was secluded, and it was like crying to the heavens and the earth wouldn’t respond!

Ji Wanqing looked around at everyone present and pointed at the one wearing a long gown, “You, collect all the money and tickets from these people.”

“Huh? Oh! Yes, yes, yes!” The lackey was very quick-witted, and he emptied everyone’s pockets, including his own, and handed Ji Wanqing forty-two yuan and eighty-four cents.

In this simple era, there were no terms like “extortion,” “honey trap,” or “fishing law enforcement.” People simply expressed deep condemnation for Ji Wanqing’s act of pretending to be weak and then robbing them.

“Next time you see a girl alone, you should ring a bell in your head. Maybe she’s a sister from the same school as me.”

Ji Wanqing saw the fear in their eyes and showed a satisfied expression. She pocketed the money and tickets and left the alley confidently.

In just one afternoon, Ji Wanqing wandered through the various secluded alleys of Yunhe City, facing wave after wave of hooligans who came to meet their demise, and extorted eight hundred yuan!

She also severely beat up every social scum who dared to attack her, as a warning to others.

After this incident, because the hooligans were bedridden with injuries, the streets and alleys of Yunhe City became much quieter, and there was an unspoken taboo in the circle.

—Don’t mess with a beautiful girl who is alone!

After a busy afternoon, Ji Wanqing returned to the guest house and had dinner before she finally remembered.

This wasn’t the apocalypse. When she encountered someone with ill intentions, she couldn’t just beat them up and take their supplies.

It seemed like… she should have gone to the police station first.

Ji Wanqing felt guilty for the first time about her actions that were on the edge of the law.

She secretly warned herself that next time, she would first send the people to the police station, and then make them pay compensation. That way, her source of income would be legitimate!

Fortunately, she was leaving Yunhe City tomorrow, and each hooligan had only lost ten yuan or so, so this incident shouldn’t cause a big fuss.

In the evening, Ji Wanqing put on makeup, changing her almond-shaped eyes to sharp ones and her cheeks to sunken ones, and went to a nondescript alley to find a prostitute who worked there.

“I want you to seduce a man named Li Zhiqiang and become his lover.”

“If you can get him hooked and have his wife catch you in bed, I’ll give you fifty yuan.”

She took out a brand new ten yuan bill, “This is a deposit.”

The shiny money was very tempting to Wenfang, but…

“With my status, who would let me get close to them?”

Ji Wanqing put the big package at her feet on the table. It was full of second-hand clothes, shoes, hairbands, and Vanishing cream that she had looted from the Ji family.

“In the outside world, your status is given by yourself. As long as you don’t say anything, you can temporarily maintain your facade with these.”

In the era of food shortages, even second-hand goods were in high demand.

Before leaving, she also specifically instructed, “Li Zhiqiang is the brother-in-law of Chen, the captain of the Revolutionary Committee. If you can capture his heart, won’t you have no worries about money and tickets?”

Seeing Wenfang’s eager eyes, she knew that this girl definitely had ambitions.

But even if Wenfang took the money and didn’t do the job, it didn’t matter. In the afternoon, she had bribed the lackey who was very observant.

She paid him to keep an eye on Ji Jianguo and to constantly remind Wenfang.

The Ji family.

Su Xiu and Ji Xiaorou had cooked a table full of good food. Ji Jianguo was looking out the door, waiting anxiously for her to come back.

“Old Ji, what are you looking at? Your neck is about to grow longer.”

Ji Jianguo put on a fatherly face, “Isn’t Wanqing going to join the army in Anhui Province? I made some good food to give her a farewell dinner.”

Aunt Li was surprised, “What? Wanqing girl left at 1:30 this afternoon? She didn’t tell you?”

“What!” Ji Jianguo panicked, “She left? Left?”

“Yes, she just took a small suitcase! Oh, I’m not saying this, you’re so stingy to your daughter. She’s going to join her husband’s family with so little stuff, she’s going to be talked about.”

Ji Jianguo was now very desperate, as if his soul had been sucked out. He couldn’t help but curse the little beast, thinking about the five thousand yuan and the gold bars that had slipped through his fingers!

What bad luck!

Looking at the table full of good food and wine, the Ji family had been eating chaff and swallowing vegetables for a month, they really couldn’t bear to waste it.

Ji Jianguo clenched his chopsticks, wasn’t it just about falling unconscious after eating?

No problem, just consider it a sleeping pill!

Eat!

The next day.

Ji Wanqing packed her things, took her suitcase, and went to the train station to catch the train.

From afar, she saw Ji Jianguo looking around in the waiting room in a panic.

She hid behind an old lady for a while, then followed the flow of people and got on the train.

Someone like Chen Dapeng, who wouldn’t do anything without profit, wouldn’t just pay for his brother-in-law and sister-in-law to come back. He wouldn’t have gone to the steel mill to explain that they had arrested the wrong person.

Ji Jianguo was the deputy director of the third production workshop of the steel mill. This position wasn’t high-ranking, but his power was considerable.

If he wanted to use his power for personal gain, as long as his methods were clever enough, it would be hard for anyone to notice.

Outside the window, the shadows on the platform gradually receded. Ji Wanqing withdrew her thoughts and looked at the passengers who would be on the train for three days and two nights.

It was strange, they were all young people in their teens and twenties, not even a single old person or child.

The boy sitting opposite her saw the beautiful woman come to her senses and quickly introduced himself, “Comrade, I’m a young intellectual going to the Qingshan Brigade of Jinyang County, Huaihua City, Anhui Province. My name is Wang Guoyang. Where are you going to the countryside?”

Young intellectual?

Ji Wanqing’s eyelashes fluttered slightly.

She guessed that she had used the introduction letter from the Young Intellectual Office to buy the train ticket, and the ticket seller had directly given her a ticket for the Young Intellectuals’ special train.

“I’m also going to Anhui Province.” Ji Wanqing said lightly, turned her head, closed her eyes, and pretended to sleep against the window.