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A police car pulled up at the Zhou residence. Four uniformed officers carrying sidearms got out, startling the crowd of onlookers gathered at the entrance, who quickly stepped aside to make way.
A loud voice shouted:
“Everyone inside, drop your weapons and surrender!”
The head of the enforcement team, who had been arrogantly shouting moments before, immediately swallowed his words when he saw the gun barrels pointed at them.
“This is all a misunderstanding!”
“We’re the Revolutionary Committee’s law enforcement unit. We came because we received a tip-off accusing Old Zhou of corruption. We were just here to investigate and search for evidence.”
“You don’t know—Old Zhou took a whole box of cash from someone!”
Grandma Zhou spat in his face.
“You liar!”
“My grandson and I just came back from the police station—we handed over that box of cash someone mysteriously left at our front door!”
“My husband is clean—he’s never taken a bribe in his life. Someone’s clearly setting us up, but thankfully we didn’t fall for it!”
The law enforcers on-site were stunned.
If the ‘evidence’ had already been turned in to the police, what were they even doing here?
Old Master Zhou spoke slowly, “I’d like the public security comrades to help us demand justice. Also, the damage done to our home must be assessed and compensated.”
Compensated?!
The law enforcement team exchanged nervous glances, mentally scrambling to recall what they had broken just now.
Those two antique vases alone… even if they sold everything they owned, they couldn’t afford to repay the loss!
Old Zhou’s voice rang out again, “Those two antique vases had already been submitted to the Cultural Relics Protection Bureau. The paperwork is complete—they’re coming to collect them soon. Everyone here saw you people deliberately destroy them.”
“So don’t blame me if you’re charged with deliberate destruction of cultural relics.”
Several members of the law enforcement team collapsed to their knees in fear, begging for mercy.
“We didn’t mean to! We didn’t know they were important relics—we were just in a hurry to find evidence!”
Old Zhou snorted.
“Oh, now you’re kneeling?”
“Weren’t you full of righteous fury just a moment ago?”
“Without a search warrant, what you’ve done here is nothing short of illegal entry, vandalism, and robbery.”
The leader trembled. “We really did receive a tip-off…”
He pulled out a report letter, but Zhou Tao snatched it first and began reading it carefully.
The handwriting was sloppy—it was an anonymous report.
Once he finished, he handed it to Old Zhou.
“Grandpa, take a look.”
Old Zhou merely glanced at it and his expression changed instantly. He silently read the rest of the letter and then handed it to the police.
“This is a malicious accusation, a slander,” he said.
“Please help us find out who is behind it.”
The police officer replied solemnly,
“We’ll investigate this thoroughly and make sure the Zhou family receives justice.”
Eventually, the law enforcement team members were handcuffed and taken away. Once only the Zhou family remained at home, Grandma Zhou collapsed onto the sofa, trembling.
“That nearly scared me to death.”
“Thank goodness Xiao Tao went with me to hand over that box to the police!”
Zhou Tao said honestly,
“Actually, the one we need to thank is Lin Ting. She warned me in advance that someone might accuse Grandpa of corruption. She even told us to clean up the account books.”
“I was rushing home to tell Grandpa when I ran into all this and handled it right away.”
Grandma Zhou was stunned.
“That girl Lin Ting is a true savior to our family.”
Old Zhou was still shaken and couldn’t help asking,
“How did she know about all this?”
“I’m not sure,” Zhou Tao replied, shaking his head.
Old Zhou took one look at the chaos inside the house and said,
“You all start cleaning up. I’m going out for a bit.”
Far away, Lin Ting only left after seeing the police take away the law enforcers from the Zhou residence.
Earlier, on her way home from shopping, she had spotted several law enforcement officers wearing the same uniforms as those who had ransacked her own home before—heading toward the Zhou house.
Something felt off, so she quietly followed them.
She personally witnessed them smashing the iron lock on the Zhou family’s front gate with a hammer. The noises from inside the house were eerily similar to when her own home had been searched.
She rushed into her space dimension, changed clothes, then rode an unlocked bicycle she found by the roadside and headed straight to the police station.
Her report was simple:
She had witnessed a group of thugs breaking into a government cadre’s house and vandalizing it.
The police didn’t hesitate—they dispatched a squad car right away!
Now that those law enforcers had been taken away, the Zhou family should be safe—at least for the time being.
Back at home, Lin Ting was lost in thought when her mother pulled her aside anxiously.
“Why are you back so late?”
“You were out the whole day!”
Lin Ting gave her mother a simplified version of what happened.
“I bought a lot of things and had them all shipped to my assigned rural location.”
“When I passed by the Zhou house, I saw enforcers going in and smashing things—it looked like someone had accused Old Zhou of corruption.”
“But in the end, they were all taken away by the police. The Zhou family should be fine.”
Lin’s mother took a deep breath.
“Even the Zhou family got caught up in this?”
“Could it be related to Old Zhou secretly trying to help our family?”
Lin Ting blinked.
“Old Zhou helped us?”
Her mother nodded.
“Yes. Your father told me just today. Old Zhou pulled some strings for us behind the scenes. Even though it didn’t change the outcome, our family owes him a great debt.”
Lin Ting was relieved to hear that—glad that she hadn’t stood by idly.
She had, in her own way, returned the favor.
Originally, the Lin and Zhou families didn’t have much connection.
But because she and Zhou Tao had been seatmates at school for years, both mothers often ended up sitting together during parent-teacher meetings. Over time, the two families naturally grew close.
Lin’s mother had even once considered marrying Lin Ting to Zhou Tao.
But now, with Old Zhou being a retired cadre and their family situation so unstable, she didn’t want to drag others down.
Late at night, a surprise visitor came to the Lin household.
It was Mr. Liang, Secretary to Old Zhou.
“Director Zhou heard that Comrade Lin Ting has signed up to be sent to the Northeast.”
“He happens to have a distant relative who’s a brigade leader there, so he made arrangements to have Lin Ting posted to that brigade.”
“That way, if anything comes up, his relative can help out.”
“In addition, these are national grain coupons—each worth 100 jin of grain.”
Old Zhou had thought it through carefully.
He knew the Lin family had money, so he converted it into national grain coupons instead, knowing that if Lin Ting couldn’t work in the countryside, she could still trade them for food.
“Comrade Lin, Director Zhou asked me to thank you for your life-saving grace.”
“He says your kindness will never be forgotten. If there’s ever anything the Zhou family can do for you, we won’t hesitate.”
One hundred jin of grain coupons was no small amount.
Sometimes, even with money and manpower, it was impossible to get that much.
But this wasn’t the time to be modest—Lin Ting needed those coupons.
She accepted them graciously:
“It’s Old Zhou who helped our family in a time of crisis—I should be the one saying thank you.”