Chapter 13

After she said this, the older women in the Accounting Section all praised her words for being full of wisdom.

“That’s exactly right. Before we got married, my husband was pretty generous. He used to take me to the movies and out to eat. But after we tied the knot, he became a completely different person. His true colors showed. At least he used to pretend a little. That’s still better than Sister Li’s husband, who went to his in-laws’ place empty-handed.”

Having become the target of criticism, several male comrades wanted to defend themselves but were too afraid of becoming the focus of the women’s collective fire.

Wei Ming told the rest of the section that the news about the factory being robbed was just a rumor and told them not to spread it around.

But by the time Jiang Ling went to eat, the news had already spread like wildfire. The whole factory knew, and the canteen tables were filled with people discussing the incident.

Jiang Ling didn’t have any friends in the section. She was much younger than the older women in the Accounting Section. While they could chat about gossip during work hours, no one included her when it came to meals or after work. The older women had already formed their own little clique.

Jiang Ling always ate alone. Suddenly, someone sat down in the seat across from her.

Seats in the factory canteen were cramped. It wasn’t unusual for someone to sit across from her during meals, and Jiang Ling usually didn’t even look up, focusing solely on her food.

But then she heard a familiar female voice nervously apologizing. “Sorry, Jiang Ling. I talked behind your back in the dorm and probably caused you trouble. Your new roommates might think poorly of you now. I’ll go to your dorm tonight and explain everything to them.”

When she looked up, she was surprised to see it was Liu Xiaojie.

Having heard Jiang Ling’s apology before, Liu Xiaojie had already let go of most of her resentment. She’d been lying in bed unable to sleep, reflecting on how inappropriate her behavior had been. The more she thought about it, the more it bothered her, and she felt she owed Jiang Ling an apology for the trouble she had caused.

Even though she was competitive and prideful, and had never apologized to anyone—not even to her own family—she thought that if Jiang Ling could take responsibility and apologize for her own mistakes, then why couldn’t she do the same?

“I really was at fault first. You were just telling the truth. People should take responsibility for the mistakes they’ve made. If they have opinions about me, it’s because I did something wrong,” Jiang Ling said.

She truly couldn’t recall what kind of conflict she might have had with Liu Xiaojie, and the original novel didn’t explain it either.

“Actually, it wasn’t just your fault. I was wrong too.” Admitting her own mistakes took a lot of courage. Liu Xiaojie stammered a bit as she spoke. “Back then, I was young and liked to compete and show off.”

Jiang Ling reluctantly picked up a piece of meat from her lunch box and placed it into Liu Xiaojie’s. She only had three pieces of meat in total. “Let’s not talk about the past anymore. We should all look forward.”

Liu Xiaojie took that piece of meat as a sign that Jiang Ling was willing to be friends. “Thank you. I was interrogated by the Public Security officers and the Security Section today. I came to the canteen too late and the meat was all sold out.”

Liu Xiaojie worked in the Storage Section. As a warehouse manager, she had become a key target in the investigation by the Public Security Bureau.

She had paid the same amount of ration coupons and money, yet others at least had some minced meat, while hers was all vegetarian. Just talking about it made her angry. “I live in the dormitory. Didn’t those public security officers stop to think? How could I possibly jump out from a locked dorm room? And I’m a female worker. How could I move nearly a thousand jin (500 kg) of raw materials by myself?”

The theft case was a minor one, not a major criminal case. At the beginning of the original novel, the incident had already happened half a year earlier. Xie Lang was later commended by higher authorities for solving a particularly brutal murder case, which led to his transfer to the sub-bureau and his meeting with the female lead.

Jiang Ling had already heard quite a few details about the theft from both Wei Ming and Liu Xiaojie. Relying on her extensive experience watching crime dramas, she analyzed, “The stolen raw materials were very heavy. The thief must have had a vehicle. A bicycle would be too small. It had to be a small car, or maybe an ox cart, a horse-drawn cart, or a tricycle. Our factory has a main gate and a side gate. The main gate is always locked and Old Liu watches it. So he must have used the side gate.”

“And another strange thing is, stealing so many chemical materials takes a lot of effort, not to mention it’s hard to resell. If he had that kind of energy, why didn’t he go steal from the television factory? A TV can fetch more than five hundred yuan on the black market without needing ration coupons. Stealing three to five TVs would be a much easier job. Why would he go through all this trouble to steal raw materials from our factory instead of going after something more valuable like televisions?”

Listening to her analysis, Liu Xiaojie occasionally nodded, “Yeah.” She too was curious about who could have stolen the items.

Jiang Ling truly didn’t understand. The stuff wasn’t valuable. It would be hard to unload it on the black market. Why, then, steal chemical materials?

If a TV factory lost three to five televisions, it was unlikely they’d make a big fuss and call the public security officer. The thief could keep the stolen items at home for a year or so, wait for the heat to die down, then take the TVs to the black market and easily pocket several thousand yuan.

“He wasted the materials he didn’t steal. This person must either have an extreme personality or hold a grudge against the factory. He seems familiar with our factory, so it’s likely someone who either works here or is related to someone here.”

Liu Xiaojie, who had been eating, slowly lifted her head and listened seriously to Jiang Ling’s analysis.

“I feel like what you said makes a lot of sense. If I were to steal something from the factory, I wouldn’t throw away other materials. But if I had a grudge against the factory and was stealing out of revenge, I’d definitely destroy the factory’s property.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized she had misspoken and quickly added, “Of course, I wouldn’t steal anything. I’m not doing anything bad. I’m just thinking like a thief!”

Jiang Ling nodded. “I know.”

After the two of them finished eating, they went together to the water tap to rinse out their lunch boxes.

Jiang Ling couldn’t help but think to herself that having no meat or oil in the dishes wasn’t entirely a bad thing—washing the lunch box didn’t take any effort at all. Just a quick rinse and it was clean.

Liu Xiaojie trudged back to the Storage Section office with her head down. While other employees could take a nap during lunch break, her section was in trouble, and the public security officers hadn’t left yet. There was almost no chance she’d get to sleep this afternoon. The public security officer would surely continue their questioning.

She was a bit impulsive and spoke faster than she thought. When the officers resumed asking whether she had followed proper procedures in managing inventory over the past few days and began treating her like a suspect, Liu Xiaojie, furious, blurted out all the speculations Jiang Ling had made at lunch, rapid-fire like a machine gun.

The public security officer had their own procedures for handling cases, and since warehouse managers came into contact with materials daily, it was only natural that she became a suspect.

After listening to her rattle off her entire analysis, the officer conducting the interrogation felt that it actually made a lot of sense and casually praised her, “You’ve got quite the sharp mind for a young girl.”

The officer in charge of taking notes for Liu Xiaojie’s group was Xie Lang. An older public security officer glanced at the still-empty report form and reminded him, “Write it down. Even if it’s just the public’s speculation, we still need to keep a record. What if it ends up helping us solve the case?”

The senior officer looked at Liu Xiaojie and said, “Don’t worry, girl. If your guesses turn out to be useful, we’ll give you a reward.”

Liu Xiaojie wasn’t someone who sought credit. She quickly explained, “Everything I just said was actually Jiang Ling from the Accounting Section’s analysis. If there’s a reward, it should go to her. Don’t give it to the wrong person.”

Upon hearing that it was Jiang Ling’s analysis, Xie Lang suddenly looked up. “Comrade, please repeat that analysis you just mentioned.”

Liu Xiaojie scratched her head in confusion, not understanding why this officer had suddenly taken her analysis so seriously.

He turned to the veteran public security officer mentoring him and said, “Sir, Jiang Ling was my high school classmate. She’s really smart. I don’t think she’d be wrong about this.”

His mentor, Officer Hong, was so annoyed that he threw the empty cigarette box at him. This brat, always coming up with nonsense.

Still a bit dazed, Liu Xiaojie was about to repeat the analysis when Officer Hong stopped her. “Comrade, I remember everything you just said. There’s no need to repeat it.”

Xie Lang muttered under his breath, “But I didn’t remember any of it.”

Officer Hong ignored his disciple and continued with the questioning. “How many people in the factory knew that a new batch of chemical materials had just been purchased and stored in the warehouse?”

This wasn’t the first time she had been asked this question. She replied, “Oh, there are quite a lot. The workers in our Storage Section all know, and the staff and workers in the Purchasing Section who are responsible for procurement know as well. The factory leadership should be aware too. The batch of chemical materials currently used on the production line had quality issues. After the workers in the Quality Inspection Section reported it, the factory leadership approved the purchase of new chemical materials. The factory leaders knew, we in the Storage Section and the Purchasing Section knew, and there were plenty of people coming and going in the warehouse. As for exactly how many people knew, I really couldn’t say.”

Although the new batch of chemical materials had only arrived at the factory three days ago, judging by what this female comrade said, it seemed that over half the factory workers were aware that the warehouse had a pile of new materials.

That made things difficult. Not only the workers but also their family members were now suspects.

Just conducting the screening would take a very long time.

Even so, Officer Hong instructed his disciple to record the list of people Liu Xiaojie had mentioned as having knowledge of the materials. They would conduct follow-up interviews later.

Other workers from the Storage Section were also questioned, and Liu Xiaojie wasn’t the only one who gave a possible list of people who might have known about the materials.

Officer Hong followed up on the analysis Liu Xiaojie had just given and asked, “Since you said it could be a worker or a family member with a grudge against the factory, do you have any idea who it might be? I’m not familiar with your factory, but you should be. Tell us, which worker has a grudge against the factory?”

Liu Xiaojie gave an awkward laugh. “Comrade, I really don’t know who it could be. And we’re all colleagues in the factory—I can’t just go around speaking ill of others.”

Officer Hong slammed his thermos cup down on the table. “Do you understand how serious this theft at the Daily Chemicals Factory is? Even the municipal leaders are paying close attention. Do you think keeping quiet for your coworker’s sake is doing them a favor? You’re covering for them. That’s aiding and abetting, and even you could end up in prison!”

The officer’s stern and commanding presence was overwhelming, and Liu Xiaojie was clearly shaken by his imposing aura. She stammered a bit and said, “But I really don’t know. If I did, I would definitely tell you. If we’re being honest, it seems like everyone has had some kind of unpleasant experience with the factory. I don’t like how we have to start work at 7:30 every day—it’s too early. But I live in the staff dormitory. I didn’t have the opportunity to commit the crime.”

The corner of Officer Hong’s mouth twitched. It wasn’t just that she didn’t have the opportunity to commit the crime—he couldn’t believe anyone would go so far as to steal factory property just because they thought the workday started too early.

Liu Xiaojie began counting on her fingers. “Brother Sun in our section, his daughter didn’t get into the factory after graduating high school. He cursed the factory leaders in the office for two whole days, but he favors his son more, so there’s no way he’d risk doing something like this for his daughter. Sister Huang in our section has been wanting a promotion for a long time but hasn’t succeeded…”

Going down the list one by one, it turned out that everyone in the Storage Section had some minor conflict with the factory. But after analyzing each case, Liu Xiaojie systematically ruled out every possibility.

“Even though we all have our own complaints about the factory, the Daily Chemicals Factory has great benefits. Our monthly salary is five yuan higher than other similar work units. Plus, we get soap and laundry cream as extra perks. Isn’t that pretty good?”

Xie Lang, who was quick-tempered, was starting to get fed up with recording. This female comrade was talking non-stop, and most of it was irrelevant. But under Officer Hong’s warning glance, he had no choice but to unwillingly write everything down in the report.

Xie Lang had a lively and impulsive personality, and Officer Hong assigned him to take notes precisely to temper that nature.

“Sir, we should go take a look at the scene.”

Officer Hong originally wanted to hold off a bit longer to train this apprentice’s patience, but in the end, he gave in. He handed the interrogations over to other officers at the station and took Xie Lang to the scene of the theft.

Several forensic experts were already inspecting the site. The Daily Chemicals Factory had two warehouses in total. The eastern warehouse stored chemical raw materials, while the western warehouse was filled with finished products that had already been packaged and were ready to be distributed across the country.

Officer Hong said, “The thief went through all this trouble. Why didn’t he steal the finished products and instead chose to steal the raw materials?”

Xie Lang casually replied, “Maybe it’s because finished goods are harder to resell, and it’s easier for us in the public security officer to trace them.”

Quite a few employees at the Daily Chemicals Factory had heard about the warehouse theft and were gathered near the public security officer cordon to watch.

No footprints had been left at the scene. The floor was covered in a sticky mess of chemical materials. After observing for a while, Xie Lang rushed back outside.

In the crowd of onlookers, he immediately spotted Song Guanshu, who had a slender frame and a gentle demeanor.

“Brother Song, you came to join the excitement too?”