Chapter 20

Juxiang’s voice dropped even lower. “Honestly, he had it coming. That guy’s no good either. You’re not an outsider, so I’ll just tell you straight. That punk bullies men and harasses women, always going after pretty girls and young married women. You’re good-looking, so make sure that bastard never sees your face.”

“The daughter of Old Yu, the boiler stoker in our factory—she wasn’t even married yet. She went out to the movies with her fiancé and came back a little late at night, and that bastard took advantage of her. The poor girl couldn’t take it and jumped into a river.”

“Is there no law anymore? Didn’t the girl or her family report him to the authorities?”

Juxiang looked at her like she was too naive. “Silly child, Xiao Bing’s father is the deputy factory director. Who in the steel factory would dare go against him? Report it to the authorities? Do they still want to keep working here? Old Yu’s family is a bunch of useless cowards. Their daughter was assaulted, and they didn’t even dare to let out a fart.”

“He’s awful. I’ll definitely stay far away from him in the future.”

Juxiang nodded in satisfaction. “Exactly. If you can’t afford to provoke him, then at least stay out of his way, right?”

She let out a sigh. “If you ask me, who knows what kind of people Xiao Bing bullied out there. This must be someone getting back at him.”

Then she cursed under her breath, “Serves him right,” and continued introducing, “That brat’s been throwing his weight around, raised a few little lackeys, and if he doesn’t like the look of someone, he’ll beat them up. My younger brother-in-law got beaten up by him—they were classmates too. Got hit so badly he needed five stitches on his head.”

Just then, a voice rang out from the neighboring courtyard. “Zhao Juxiang, come back and cook!” It was Juxiang’s husband, Miao Jinhui, calling her back for dinner.

Juxiang responded, “Hold on, I’m chatting here.”

Miao Jinhui knew his wife had a big mouth and was worried she might be out saying things she shouldn’t, so he rushed over trying to drag her away. “Stop talking about everything to outsiders!”

Miao Jinhui worked in the Security Section, and since this incident fell under his scope of work, he knew more details than most.

At that moment, Song Guanshu had just finished scrubbing the laundry and was hanging the clothes up to dry. He greeted Miao Jinhui, “Third Brother, just got off work?”

Almost every neighbor’s first words upon seeing Jiang Ling were, “So this is Xiao Song’s new wife—she really is beautiful.”

Miao Jinhui was no exception.

Jiang Ling smiled and greeted him politely, “Hello, Third Brother. I heard from Sister that there’s been some criminal activity near the factory. Have they caught the culprit yet?”

No one likes to scold a smiling face, and as a grown man, Miao Jinhui felt a bit embarrassed to brush her off. “Not yet,” he replied.

Jiang Ling asked the same question again, “What kind of person could be so vicious? Is there no rule of law in this world?”

Miao Jinhui knew his wife had a loose tongue, so he hadn’t dared to tell her anything after coming home. But Juxiang had kept pestering him, and with no other choice, he had let slip a small part of what he knew.

“According to Deputy Director Xiao’s son, it seems to be a brother and sister. The older brother has even done time before.”

And to think Miao Jinhui called his wife a blabbermouth—he wasn’t doing much better himself.

Jiang Ling looked surprised. “Then it makes sense. Only someone who’s been to prison could be that ruthless.”

Miao Jinhui replied, “Exactly. Deputy Director Xiao’s family has already reported it to the authorities. Anyone with a criminal record in our area is now a key target of investigation.”

Since the Security Section worked closely with the Public Security Bureau substation, Miao Jinhui was familiar with the suspect’s characteristics.

“But don’t worry. These days our Security Section is patrolling both the factory and the staff housing area day and night. We’ll make sure everyone stays safe.”

“All the big brothers in our Steel Factory Security Section are the best.” Jiang Ling gave a thumbs-up. “With you all out patrolling, we can sleep soundly at night.”

Then she lowered her voice and said, “Since this falls under Third Brother’s line of work, I know it should be kept confidential. The two of us definitely won’t mention it to outsiders.”

Hearing that, Miao Jinhui felt genuinely comforted. He glanced at his own wife. “Look at Xiao Jiang. Can’t you learn from her? When it comes to confidential matters related to my job, stop asking so many questions and don’t go around spreading things.”

Juxiang felt deeply wronged. “If you could actually keep it to yourself and not tell me, then even if I wanted to spread it around, I wouldn’t be able to!”

“Oh, so now you think you’re in the right.”

With their bickering echoing behind them, Miao Jinhui and Juxiang headed back home.

After Song Guanshu finished washing the clothes, Jiang Ling followed him back as well.

Once they closed the door behind them, Jiang Ling beamed with pride and asked for praise. “Well? I did great, didn’t I? Now we know the key suspects are a brother and sister who’ve done time.”

Song Guanshu nodded. “Very impressive. Like a seasoned investigator.”

The way he gave compliments always sounded like sarcasm.

From that day on, patrols by the Security Section became a daily sight outside the steel factory’s staff housing area. The Security Section and the Public Security Bureau substation went door to door investigating, but still couldn’t find any trace of the brother and sister who had been to prison.

In the steel plant’s staff housing area, life was especially miserable during this period for anyone with a prior criminal record. The Public Security Bureau substation came to their homes for questioning again and again.

Anyone who didn’t know better might have thought a murder had taken place.

But after asking around, people learned that it wasn’t some major or serious case—it was just that the precious son of Deputy Director Xiao had been beaten up near the staff housing area.

When it came to that precious son of Deputy Director Xiao, the workers and families at the steel plant had suffered under him for years.

So when they heard he had been beaten near grave, not a single person felt a twinge of sympathy. No one pitied him, and no one worried that they might be the next victim. Everyone simply felt a sense of satisfaction.

Many families who had once been bullied by Xiao Bing even felt a bit regretful—regretful that he hadn’t just been beaten to death.

Old Yu’s family, whose daughter had been assaulted, even bought a string of firecrackers during a non-holiday time, and set them off at their daughter’s grave.

Behind the staff housing area, there used to be a barren hill. After the political campaigns ended, for the sake of easier visits during tomb-sweeping, many workers and their families had relocated their ancestors’ graves to that hill. Over time, the hill naturally became known as the cemetery hill.

Old Yu and his wife setting off firecrackers at the cemetery hill was a kind of spiritual victory. Even though that bastard hadn’t gone to prison, it still counted as a bit of retribution. They didn’t know who had done such a great deed, but at least someone had.

Ordinary folks certainly had vivid imaginations. As the story was passed around, it turned into this: the ghost of Old Yu’s daughter had come back to avenge herself, and the old couple setting off firecrackers on the hill was to give their daughter more strength for her revenge.

The rumors became more and more outrageous as they spread.

The shocking part was that the Yu family never denied that it might have been the vengeful spirit of their daughter who did it.

And according to backdoor gossip, Xiao Bing had said that he was attacked by a man and a woman. He couldn’t remember what the man looked like, but he clearly remembered that the woman was very beautiful.

Back when she was alive, Old Yu’s daughter had been known as one of the great beauties of the steel factory. If she had looked average, she never would have caught Xiao Bing’s eye and ended up assaulted.

As for the man among the pair, there were all kinds of speculations about his identity. Some said he was a sworn brother that Yu’s daughter had made in the underworld.

But of all the theories, the one that gained the most traction was that the man was Yu’s daughter’s underworld brother.

Some particularly curious folks even went up to the cemetery hill to check it out. And sure enough, they found something unusual—right behind Yu’s daughter’s “house” was a small grave mound. Buried there was said to be a fierce man who had once done time in prison.

Well then, people started saying, maybe it wasn’t a brother and sister at all. The one who avenged Yu’s daughter wasn’t her brother, but her “neighbor.”

Yes, that very neighbor—he was a bit otherworldly.

And since there seemed to be a logical basis for it, everyone accepted this version of the story.

Even Jiang Ling hadn’t expected things to take such a turn.

What could she say? She really had to thank the boundless imagination of the people. It had helped her and Song Guanshu avoid quite a bit of trouble.

With all sorts of rumors swirling—some true, some false—even the investigators started to half-believe the tale of a vengeful female ghost, and their enthusiasm for the case noticeably waned.

To be honest, aside from a small number of people who had completely lost their sense of humanity, most still had a basic sense of decency and conscience.

Even among the public security officers, many quietly felt that the guy had gotten what he deserved.

Inside the steel factory, the story of the female ghost’s revenge spread like wildfire. Of course, the factory leadership didn’t believe it—especially not Deputy Director Xiao, Xiao Bing’s father. A staunch atheist, he pushed hard for the factory to clamp down on what he saw as dangerous superstitious nonsense.

But more importantly, he wanted to avenge his son.

If the enemy was truly a ghost, then he’d have no way to get revenge.

Most of the time, trying to block rumors only makes them spread faster. Suppression often backfires.

And so, with Deputy Director Xiao taking the lead in suppressing the talk of ghostly revenge, the rumors only spread even more wildly, like a flu virus carried on the wind.

If not every resident of Beicheng had heard the story, at least most had.

Xie Lang had heard it too. When he learned the timing of Xiao Bing’s incident, he quickly recalled the night he had been drunk.

That night, after Jiang Ling and Song Guanshu brought him back home, on their way back, there was a chance they might have crossed paths with the attackers.

A man and a woman. And the woman was notably beautiful.

His gut instinct told him they were highly suspicious.

But Xiao Bing had also said it was a pair of siblings who attacked him, and that detail didn’t match up with Song Guanshu and Jiang Ling, who were clearly husband and wife.

Xie Lang found himself torn—should he report this to the leadership or not?

Deputy Director Xiao was completely focused on getting revenge for his son. He kept pressing the Security Section and the Public Security Bureau substation to track down the culprits.

At the same time, the story of the vengeful female ghost was spreading like wildfire, becoming the talk of the entire city.

Stories involving scandal always spread the fastest—especially when they involve spirits and specters, abuse of power, and oppression of the weak. Without any behind-the-scenes push, the people of Beicheng already widely knew that the deputy director’s son from the steel factory had once driven a young woman to her death.

Even many high-ranking leaders had heard about it.

In the past, Xiao Bing had managed to walk free not because society was inherently dark, but because Deputy Director Xiao had used the power of money to bury the matter. As a result, many upright and honest leaders who truly served the people hadn’t even known it had happened.

Someone even suggested that instead of launching a massive investigation into who had beaten Xiao Bing, it would be better to investigate the incident of the female worker who had been driven to her death.

Xiao Bing was still sitting in a wheelchair when someone came into the hospital room to question him.

He didn’t realize they had come to investigate his past. He thought they had been sent by his father, Deputy Director Xiao, to help him hunt down the villain who had hurt him.

To be fair, Xiao Bing had been raised into a brainless good-for-nothing by both his father and his uncle. No matter what the investigation team asked, he answered without holding anything back.

Even when they asked about the Yu family’s daughter, he said bluntly, “I was just messing around with her. Who would’ve thought she was so narrow-minded that she’d jump into a river? Scared the hell out of me—I couldn’t sleep the whole night.”

He was the one who had destroyed that girl’s life, yet he saw himself as the victim.

The investigation team, though used to dealing with criminals, had never encountered such a smooth interrogation process.

Of course, this also made it clear that Xiao Bing had absolutely no remorse for his actions. He didn’t think he had done anything wrong.

The investigation team had been dispatched by higher authorities. Not even Xiao Bing’s uncle, who was a bureau chief at the Grain Bureau, could interfere.

However, since Xiao Bing was currently in a semi-disabled state, he couldn’t yet be taken into custody.

As for his father, Deputy Director Xiao, his son’s assault had inadvertently put him in the spotlight before the higher-ups.

Though there was no official policy of implicating family members, he was still affected.

After all, when Xiao Bing bullied others and threw his weight around, whose power was he relying on?

Was it not the authority of his father, the deputy director? In that sense, the father was also partly responsible.

Deputy Director Xiao was the youngest among the factory’s deputy directors—promising and well-connected, with many patrons behind him.

He had been considered a strong candidate to be promoted to factory director once the current one retired.

But now, with all kinds of negative rumors swirling, no matter how close the factory director and Party secretary^[1]Party refers to the Communist Party of China (CPC), the ruling political party of the People’s Republic of China. During the 1980s, the Party held centralized power over government … Continue reading were to him, they would have to take the political consequences into account.

If he were promoted to factory director, wouldn’t the higher-ups start questioning the steel factory’s internal decisions?

And wouldn’t the workers down below begin gossiping about the factory leadership behind their backs?

The factory leadership already didn’t have the cleanest reputation, and they were extremely sensitive about being talked about behind closed doors.

So, Deputy Director Xiao’s promotion plan was put on hold—“temporarily.”

The Xiao family was in complete turmoil. Just when Deputy Director Xiao seemed on the verge of promotion, all his prospects went straight down the drain.

Of course, when compared to the only male heir of the family, his own career didn’t matter anymore.

Xiao Bing was sentenced for the crime of sexually assaulting a woman. Fortunately for him, since his legs were broken, he was eligible to apply for medical parole, sparing him the suffering of prison life.

To make this happen, the entire family pulled every string they could, exhausting all their connections and energy.

As for continuing to have the Security Section investigate who had hurt his precious son—at this point, that was no longer a priority.

First, after losing all hope of becoming factory director, Deputy Director Xiao’s power within the factory sharply declined. He no longer had the authority to command the Security Section.

Second, whether it was a ghost taking revenge or thugs committing assault, both the Security Section and the Public Security Bureau substation believed that Xiao Bing had brought it upon himself. It wasn’t worth the effort to go all out hunting down the culprit.

In fact, the Xiao family ought to be thanking the attacker. If Xiao Bing’s legs hadn’t been broken, he would have already been sent to prison.

It was only because both of his legs had been broken that he didn’t jump up cursing. If it hadn’t been for that assault, how would his long-buried crime have come to light?

Given the special nature of the case, it was processed quickly.

Just as the willow branches on the street were beginning to sprout their first tender shoots, Xiao Bing was sentenced to five years in prison.

Compared to the Yu family’s daughter, who had lost her life, that punishment was still far too lenient.

But Old Yu and his wife knew very well—Xiao Bing was, after all, the privileged son of a deputy factory director. The fact that he ended up in prison was already the best offering they could make to comfort their daughter’s spirit.

When they heard that Xiao Bing had been officially convicted by the procuratorate, they bought even more firecrackers to set off at their daughter’s grave in celebration.

Many people from the staff housing who were close to the Yu family, as well as friends and classmates of the girl when she was alive, all went up the hill together.

Jiang Ling went along too. Song Guanshu, however, refused to go no matter what—he didn’t like the dust on the mountain. It was a rare weekend off, and he stayed home to clean.

He had a serious case of cleanliness obsession. As long as he had free time, he had to sweep, do laundry, and tidy up.

Jiang Ling liked cleanliness too, but she couldn’t compare to Song Guanshu.