Chapter 16: Follow-up Events

After tidying up, Su Yue grabbed her thermos, slung her bag over her shoulder, and left.

She didn’t plan to go to the Third Canteen but chose the First Canteen, which was closer to the dormitory, to have breakfast. She bought a bowl of porridge, an egg, and a plate of pickles, found an empty seat, and sat down to eat.

After finishing breakfast, she checked the time—it was already 7:40 a.m. Su Yue filled a pot with boiling water and headed toward the archive room. Along the way, a faint smile played on her lips as she listened to the factory workers heatedly discussing the Vice Director Qin’s family affairs.

Before long, she arrived at the archive room and saw Ling Shufang opening the door. Su Yue quickened her pace and greeted warmly, “Sister Ling, good morning!”

Ling Shufang turned around at the voice and smiled back, “Good morning, little Su!”

They exchanged smiles and entered the archive room.

While setting down her bag, Su Yue said, “Sister Ling, I already prepared the hot water this morning.” Then she went to the basin, soaked a cloth, and started wiping the desk and cabinets.

Ling Shufang praised, “Little Su, you’re really diligent.” She picked up a broom and started sweeping the floor.

As they were busy, Wang Qiuya walked into the archive room, “Supervisor Ling, good morning!”

Ling Shufang looked up, “Good morning, Comrade Wang.”

Wang Qiuya came over beside Su Yue and whispered mysteriously, “Su Yue, last night something happened at Vice Director Qin’s house.”

Su Yue smiled, “I heard about that all the way here just now, but what exactly happened? It seems like the whole factory knows.”

“You think they know as much as I do? My aunt lives right next door to Vice Director Qin’s family. You wouldn’t believe it—in the early morning around seven o’clock, there were sudden screams from their house, with people shouting…” Wang Qiuya lowered her voice, “They said there was a ghost.”

Su Yue raised an eyebrow, “Vice Director Qin’s family is really reckless, spreading superstitions like that. Aren’t they afraid the Revolutionary Committee will come and arrest them?”

Wang Qiuya hurriedly explained, “You don’t know the inside story. Even if the Revolutionary Committee came, they would probably think something suspicious was going on. Overnight, the Qin family’s house was completely cleared out. Not even their beds were left. The entire house was empty except for the bathroom—they didn’t touch anything there.”

At that moment, Wu Yuxia suddenly piped up, “Oh my, could this be a gang crime?”

Wang Qiuya was startled and quickly covered her chest, scolding, “Sister Wu, you didn’t make a sound, you nearly scared me to death.”

Wu Yuxia smiled awkwardly, “Little Wang, you go ahead and continue.”

Wang Qiuya composed herself and continued, “The police came to check but found no tire tracks or footprints nearby. So many things—gone without a trace or sound.”

Wu Yuxia muttered, “Such a big commotion, how could there be no clues? Could it really be like they say…?”

She shivered involuntarily.

Wang Qiuya sneered, “I don’t believe in ghosts. It’s definitely that Vice Director Qin offended someone. But this matter is so strange—even the police can’t figure it out, and we certainly have no idea.”

Wu Yuxia asked, “The Qin family members must have been terrified.”

Wang Qiuya seemed to find something amusing and chuckled twice before saying, “Their distant niece—well, ‘niece’ is just a title; she’s actually their nanny. She came to work at the Qin house this morning, heard the noise, and opened the door. The neighbors were worried something happened to the Qin family, so they went inside, and I followed. I saw Qin Mingyue so scared she had wet her pants.”

“She was still shouting that she wanted to go home. Oh, and this morning she even asked to borrow some pants from me. But I’m taller and thinner than her, so you’ll see how ridiculous it looked.”

As the few chatted, there was a knock on the archive room door. The three looked over and saw Director Wang standing at the door.

“Xiaoya, the logistics department still has some things to handle. Hurry up and go deal with them,” Director Wang said. After nodding to Li Shufang, he left.

Wang Qiuya shrugged at Su Yue and Wu Yuxia, then quickly left the archive room.

“I’m going to get a fresh basin of water,” Su Yue said and went to the washroom.

Work in the archive room was fairly quiet. Su Yue registered two batches of delivered documents, and the morning passed by quickly.

At noon, Su Yue and Wang Qiuya went to the First Canteen together. After getting their food, they headed back to the dormitory.

Wang Qiuya smiled and said, “Today Qin Mingyue took the day off. But Vice Director Qin did come, wearing his pajamas. I guess he’s too fat to borrow any clothes.”

Wang Qiuya took a bite of her food and continued, “But he came and left in a hurry.”

Su Yue thought about the safe—maybe the safe’s key was kept in the office, which is why Vice Director Qin still came to the factory in such a messy state.

Zhang Cuihua had the early shift today and left work after lunch. On her way, she kept wondering if Su Yue’s choice to get food at the Third Canteen meant she hadn’t reconciled with her youngest son yet.

The thought of the marriage possibly falling through made Zhang Cuihua’s heart feel scratched by a cat. Just as she reached the alley entrance, she was stopped by Aunt Liu.

“Cuihua, we’ve been neighbors for so many years and should understand each other. But your family can’t keep making noise before bed at night, tossing and turning until late. My family has three people working and two going to school, and even my little grandson was badly scared last night,” Aunt Liu said with a frown and helpless look.

Zhang Cuihua looked apologetic and quickly replied, “I’m really sorry, Aunt Liu. I’ll go talk to the kids and tell them to be more careful.”

Nearby, Ge Dani interrupted, “Aunt Zhang, your future youngest daughter-in-law is really something. Yesterday, on her first visit, she got your youngest son to take her to the state-run restaurant. All because your little grandson was curious and wanted to see what your youngest son would feed the future daughter-in-law. Then at night, your youngest son kicked open the brother and sister-in-law’s bedroom door, splashed water inside, and smashed the room to pieces.”

Ge Dani pursed her lips, “Not to be rude, but you’re too biased towards your youngest son.”

Hearing this, Zhang Cuihua was furious, not expecting Liu Lanxiang to twist the facts and slander her youngest son like that.

“That’s not true at all!” At that moment, Liu Baoqiang, Aunt Liu’s eldest grandson, who was about to leave for school, overheard the conversation. He immediately stepped forward and loudly defended, “The young sister-in-law is a great person. She graduated from high school and got a formal position at our steel factory. She’s really impressive! Yesterday was her first visit and she even brought a dish of braised pork.”

Mentioning braised pork made Liu Baoqiang swallow hard before continuing, “It’s Xiang Bei’s elder sister-in-law who was scheming. She desperately wanted to buy a temporary quota, so she intentionally caused trouble, not wanting their family to pay for Xiang Bei’s wedding.”

“Yesterday, when Xiang Bei led the young sister-in-law into the main room, his elder sister-in-law saw Aunt Zhang giving the young sister-in-law some soda to drink. Xiang Bei had no choice but to make her a cup of malted milk powder. Then Xiang Bei’s elder sister-in-law told her son to steal the malted milk powder from the young sister-in-law. Finally, Xiang Bei’s elder sister-in-law and Aunt Zhang argued, and Xiang Bei took the young sister-in-law out to eat,” Liu Baoqiang revealed the whole story in one breath.

Aunt Liu saw Zhang Cuihua’s face turning pale and quickly glared at her grandson, “What time is it already? Hurry up and go to school!”

Liu Baoqiang responded and rushed off toward the school.
Hmph, even if he was late, he wouldn’t stand by and watch Xiang Bei be wronged.

This morning on the way to school, he saw Xiang Bei’s eyes red and asked him several times before Xiang Bei finally confided in him about the grievances he felt.