Sun Wenbin immediately squeezed out of the crowd, his expression earnest and sincere. He hadn’t expected Xiao Mandong to pull something like this. That woman was full of schemes. This time, he was determined to make her suffer a crushing defeat.
Xiao Mandong rolled her eyes so hard in her heart they nearly reached the sky. Did Sun Wenbin really take her for a fool?
Dong Huimin stepped forward as well, putting on an air of impartiality. “Captain, I’m the person in charge of the educated youth residence. I’ve always been fair and just—you know that. I’m willing to go inside and supervise the search.”
Dong Huimin was feeling much better from her illness today. The moment she heard that the Revolutionary Committee had arrived, she hurried over. She thought that as long as Xiao Mandong’s charges were confirmed, she would become the strongest candidate for the worker-peasant-soldier university recommendation. And if she went inside to join the search, she could help the Revolutionary Committee look properly—what if they missed something?
Secretary Liu looked at Xiao Mandong, the meaning in his gaze obvious: choose people she trusted.
Xiao Mandong’s eyes brimmed with mockery. “Huimin, you should take a rest. Your eyesight isn’t all that good either. You might not even spot a person, much less an object.”
Dong Huimin’s face flushed red at the humiliation. She knew Xiao Mandong held grudges, but she hadn’t expected her to still be unable to let it go after so long.
Xiao Mandong continued, “I don’t trust the educated youths. I only trust people from the village.”
“Shunzi, Zhou Qichuan, Wang Dazhuang, Uncle Zhao, and Song Xiangjun.” When it came to something like this, Xiao Mandong naturally had to choose reliable people.
The entrance to the courtyard was packed tight with onlookers. The Revolutionary Committee members searched the rooms without pause. Xiao Mandong had not been living there long, and she did not own much, but they searched with the determination of people who would not stop until they found something. They spent nearly forty minutes combing through the three rooms. They pried up every loose brick from the floor, searched even the stove pit, and came close to tearing apart the heated brick bed.
Once they had confirmed there was nothing inside, they began searching the courtyard. They even moved the woodpile. On his way over, Director Huang had used a bathroom break as an excuse to inspect the markings on the tree and determine the approximate location of the evidence. But he could hardly walk in and find it immediately. His original plan had been to secretly plant one item inside, then find another outside. That way, Xiao Mandong would never be able to clear her name, even if she jumped into the Yellow River.
But wherever he went, Zhou Qichuan followed. Several times, he reached toward his pocket, intending to find an opportunity to pull out the spare evidence he had brought with him. Yet Zhou Qichuan’s sharp, soldier-like gaze watched him like a hawk, and in the end, he did not dare make a move.
Twenty minutes later, the front courtyard had been turned upside down, yet they had still found nothing. Director Huang pasted on a smile and waved a hand, as though ready to wrap things up. “See? We would never wrong an innocent person. Since there’s nothing here, we can report back and close the matter…”
“Wait, Director. The back courtyard and the latrine haven’t been searched yet,” one of the Revolutionary Committee officers called out loudly after catching Director Huang’s look.
Director Huang cooperated smoothly, his face darkening as he urged, “Then what are you waiting for? Hurry up. We can’t delay everyone’s work any longer.”
With that, several officers headed together toward the latrine in the back courtyard. The latrine was so small that they finished searching it in less than five minutes.
At that moment, the cadre walked straight to the base of the wall and began digging into the soil. Even Secretary Liu was utterly baffled. What was he trying to do, dig three feet down?
The villagers exchanged uneasy looks. “Did you notice? That cadre seems to know there’s something buried here.”
“Could he really be working with whoever wrote that denunciation letter? ...”
Wang Yuanyuan gripped the hem of her clothes so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She bit down hard on her lower lip, staring fixedly at the pit, barely daring to breathe.
Sun Wenbin stood with his back rigid, unable to hide the anticipation in the set of his mouth.
“Director Huang, there’s something here!” the cadre suddenly shouted, startling everyone. He pulled a handkerchief-wrapped bundle from the earth and held it high overhead. The instant Sun Wenbin saw the handkerchief, he thought to himself, It worked.
“Everyone saw it. This was dug out of the ground. No one put it there just now.”
The young cadre had not forgotten what Xiao Mandong had said earlier.
Wang Yuanyuan could no longer contain her excitement. She pushed through the crowd. “Sister Mandong, the Xiao family has been sent down. Everything should have been handed over. How dare you hide things away? You’re openly defying collectivism. The nature of this is extremely serious!”
“Wang Yuanyuan, is your mother’s belt loose again? Why are you jumping out again? Why are you everywhere? How do you know this thing belongs to me? Why are you so worked up?”
“Xiao Mandong, let’s see how much longer you can keep acting so arrogant! Soon you’ll be in the cowshed keeping the Xiao family company!”
Sun Wenbin yanked Wang Yuanyuan back. That idiot. Why did she have to step forward at a time like this?
“No wonder Educated Youth Xiao has so much money. She secretly kept hold of her family’s assets. There must be more than just this. There has to be other stuff buried in the yard.”
“We need to cut off the tail of capitalism!”
The crowd began talking over one another. Everyone assumed that anything wrapped in a handkerchief and buried in the dirt had to be valuable.
Xiao Manxue, her eyes red, rushed forward. “What are you doing? You’re framing us! What have my sister and I ever done to offend you, that you’d set us up like this?”
Xiao Mandong held Xiao Manxue back tightly. “Director Huang, that doesn’t belong to me.”
Secretary Liu had not expected them to actually dig something up. “Director Huang, this yard is a semi-public area. Anyone can climb over the wall and get in. How can you prove that this belongs to Xiao Mandong?”
Only then did the others begin to come to their senses. “That’s right. If someone has it in for another person, all they have to do is climb into the yard, dig a hole, bury something, and write a denunciation letter. It would be far too easy to send someone away like that.”
“Look at that cadre. He didn’t dig anywhere else in the backyard. He went straight for the base of the wall and found something on the first try. Could he be an accomplice of the person who reported her?”
At those words, Sun Wenbin finally took a careful look at the cadre. So this was their contact. But the man really did not seem very bright. Why would the higher-ups choose someone like him? At the very least, he could have pretended to dig in a few other places.
The cadre’s face turned pale, then flushed. How had he become an accomplice to the informant? Director Huang had told him the approximate location when they arrived.
Then the young cadre suddenly had a realization. Could it be that Director Huang wanted to send Xiao Mandong away?
Hearing that the crowd’s murmurs were turning against his side, Director Huang hurried out to smooth things over. “Everyone, please stop arguing. Rest assured, we will not wrong anyone. Even if the items were found in the courtyard, we will not consider the case closed. We need Comrade Xiao Mandong to come with us to the Revolutionary Committee and assist with the investigation. We will certainly find the person who framed Comrade Xiao Mandong. Only then can we completely clear Comrade Xiao Mandong of suspicion.”
Director Huang’s words were polished indeed.
“Come on, Comrade Xiao Mandong. Once the investigation is over, you can come back.”
Xiao Mandong lifted her eyes, sweeping her gaze over Sun Wenbin and Wang Yuanyuan, who could barely conceal their wild delight, before turning to Director Huang. The corners of her lips curved faintly. “Director Huang, shouldn’t we open this bundle and let everyone see what’s inside?”
“That’s right—open it!”
“You keep saying you found something, but who knows what it is? It only counts if you open it!”
