Chapter 12: The Thief Cries “Stop Thief”

“Stop! Everyone, stop!”

Luo Jiawang had a dark expression, spitting as he spoke: “If you don’t stop, each family will lose ten points.”

This tactic proved effective, and the tension dissipated in an instant.

He let out a sigh of relief.

Why was it that the Jiang Er family was always causing trouble? The marriage exchange incident hadn’t even been resolved for two days, and now they had brought the police into it.

The small red flag for the advanced team was definitely out of the question this year!

Once the police left, he would make the Jiang family cry! In addition to shoveling dung, he would punish them all by cleaning the public toilets!!

“Mother, are you okay?” Jiang An’an stepped forward to help Lin Meiru up.

Lin Meiru’s hair was disheveled, but compared to Auntie Jiang’s battered face, Jiang An’an wished she could take back her previous words. Her mother was not only fine but also glowing with health, standing tall like a victorious rooster, ready to fight another hundred rounds.

After this battle, the two families had completely become enemies.

Jiang An’an narrowed her eyes and glanced at Zhou Kang, who was watching from the sidelines, feeling very clear about the situation. Besides work, Zhou Kang had surely promised Auntie Jiang quite a few benefits.

“Comrades of the police, I do not agree with Zhou Kang’s accusation of illegal imprisonment.” Jiang An’an calmly refuted the charges.

“Illegal detention refers to the act of intentionally and unlawfully detaining another person or using other methods to illegally deprive someone of their personal freedom. My father neither locked Zhou Kang in a small dark room nor used ropes or other tools to restrict his freedom.”

“If you don’t believe me, you can ask the members present. Before my mother and I returned home, the front door was wide open, and Zhou Kang had complete freedom to leave the Jiang family.”

Zhou Kang immediately seized on a loophole in her words to counter: “What I’m saying is during that time after you returned.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he noticed Jiang An’an raising her eyebrows slightly, pressing in: “Are you saying that in that short twenty minutes, we imprisoned you?”

Zhou Kang felt inexplicably flustered. He knew that Jiang An’an might be trying to set a trap for him, but after thinking it over, he couldn’t figure out the deeper meaning and stubbornly nodded, “Yes.”

Jiang An’an turned her head to look at Jiang Dezhuzhu: “Uncle, do you agree with Zhou Kang’s statement?”

The smoke from the pipe obscured Jiang Dezhuzhu’s expression, making it hard to read, with a hint of hidden resentment.

After a long pause, he slowly nodded.

Jiang An’an: “Comrades of the police, I want to accuse Zhou Kang of defamation, as well as my uncle’s family for perjury! We are willing to go to the police station together for an investigation!”

Zhou Kang: ???

Jiang Dabo’s family: ???

“Grandma, it’s pitiful that at your age, you still have to be dragged into the police station by Uncle.”

“Auntie, you manage the household and work like a horse, but when you got hit, Uncle didn’t even make a sound.”

“Uncle, you took Zhou Kang’s hush money to give false testimony. Lying at the police station could get you the electric chair; not only will you suffer, but it will also cause our three cousins to lose their jobs at the factory.”

Jiang An’an’s sighs echoed in Jiang Dabo’s family’s ears, like thunderclaps!

“What? It could cause Xiao Hai and the others to lose their jobs?” Auntie Jiang collapsed to the ground, crying out, “Head of the family, we won’t give false testimony anymore! Quickly return Zhou Kang’s one hundred yuan.”

Jiang Dezhuzhu shouted, “Fool! Shut up!”

But the truth had already been revealed by the foolish woman. Seeing the shocked and disdainful gazes of the members, he inhaled sharply, the acrid smoke filling his lungs, causing him to cough repeatedly.

“A bunch of useless fools who can’t get things done but can mess things up.” Zhou Kang ground his teeth in anger.

So what if the truth was exposed? The old Jiang family had already turned against each other. Jiang Dezhuzhu’s family wasn’t good people either; don’t think he didn’t know they were secretly calling him a son-in-law living off his wife.

“That’s one hundred yuan! We farmers can’t save that in a lifetime! No wonder Jiang Dezhuzhu dares to collude with outsiders to slander his own brother.”

“Isn’t this a capitalist behavior from Zhou Kang?”

“How much do you think Jiang Shulan will get from the divorce?”

…

What a case of the thief crying “stop thief,” and the two police officers were furious: “Jiang Degui is wronged; Zhou Kang and Jiang Dezhuzhu, you need to write a deep self-reflection and submit it to the team, which will then send it to the police station.”

Clatter!

Jiang Dezhuzhu’s pipe fell to the ground, completely flustered.

“Everything needs evidence; do you really believe a crazy woman’s words?” Zhou Kang remained calm. As long as he insisted there was no hundred yuan involved, the police couldn’t do anything to them.

Jiang Dezhuzhu raised his hand and slapped his wife to the ground, then turned to the two police officers with a flattering smile, his wrinkled old face showing a hint of honest simplicity: “My wife is crazy about money; Zhou Kang is a good comrade, and there’s no bribery involved. She’s just a warm-hearted person who couldn’t stand the second brother’s family bullying her son-in-law, which is why she called the police.”

All of his testimony was instantly overturned!

Jiang An’an was extremely impressed; her uncle was truly ruthless, calmly pushing the blame for the false report onto his wife!

“Apologize quickly!” Jiang Dezhuzhu kicked his wife hard.

“It’s my fault for being confused. Comrades of the police, I was wrong, and I am willing to accept criticism and education.” Auntie Jiang choked up, taking all the blame for the sake of the Jiang family’s reputation and her children.

What else could the police do?

After some back-and-forth, they ultimately punished Auntie Jiang with writing a self-criticism and subjected her to a week of labor reform—cleaning the public toilets!

At that time, there were no charges for false accusations; it would only be revised in the 1997 criminal law. Cleaning the public toilets was a serious and humiliating punishment for the members!

Jiang An’an felt quite regretful, thinking she hadn’t even shown one-tenth of her ability, but it was enough to deal with the arrogant Zhou Kang.

“Comrades of the police, the Jiang family has been poor farmers for three generations, and Comrade Zhou Kang has a bad character; he is not worthy of my sister.”

Zhou Kang: ??? Nonsense! What makes me unworthy of Jiang Shulan?

Damn! He almost got led astray by Jiang An’an; it was Jiang Shulan, a rural girl who graduated from elementary school, who was unworthy of him!!

“So my eldest sister not only wants to divorce this bad element but also wants to sue him.”

Jiang Shulan: ???

She picked up her handkerchief and wiped her tearful eyes in grievance.

The Jiang family, with such good status, was forced to marry a seemingly decent educated youth, and now she faced a divorce.

She truly was a pitiful young widow.

“Divorce! Zhou Kang, I want to sue you!!” Although she didn’t understand what her little sister meant by suing, seeing Zhou Kang’s face turn green and pale brought her immense satisfaction.

Lin Meiru chimed in, “That’s right! If Zhou Kang doesn’t give my eldest daughter an explanation and doesn’t provide alimony for his wife and children, we’ll take it to the county or the commune, and he will have to pay the price.”

“Are you planning to go all the way and completely extort me?” Zhou Kang clenched his fists tightly, his veins bulging.

Once a lawsuit was filed, the train would inevitably be delayed, and it might even affect his reporting to the factory… What kind of situation was this? The Jiang family, whom he originally looked down upon, had forced him to a dead end.