Chapter 77: Detention

After dinner, Old Master Lin brought Father Zhang and several cadres over to sit by the kang (heated brick bed). Meanwhile, the two sisters-in-law finished tidying up, and the two brothers, along with Xiao Zhou and the others, cleared away the big table and left with their group.

Zhang Guoqing returned to the west wing bedroom to tell Zhou Jiao about the visitors and his thoughts. After the couple discussed it, he took out his treasured tea leaves and went to the main room, where he brewed tea and placed it on the small kang table in front of everyone.

Li Aiguo watched him finish bustling about, then called him over to sit down. Zhang glanced at Old Master Lin, and seeing him nod, he sat down to listen to what they had to say.

In the room sat Old Master Lin, Father Zhang, Lin Lishan, Zhang Guoqing, and five members of the leadership team. Everyone knew it was time to discuss serious matters, so the Lin father and daughter spoke up, and everyone waited.

Li Aiguo and his colleagues exchanged uneasy glances, unsure whether Old Master Lin would be angry once the whole story was told.

Finally, Li Aiguo cleared his throat, straightened his posture, and said, “General, Comrade Lin, I am here on behalf of the leadership team to apologize to you. We failed to properly manage the relevant staff and some village cadres, which resulted in harm to Comrade Zhou Jiao.

After today’s incident of gathering a crowd to cause trouble, Township Chief Zhang Zhifeng immediately detained Zhou Xue and began investigating the incident. Comrade Li Dawei from the township police station led a team to interview the villagers and gather evidence, and the results confirmed that the situation described by Comrade Zhou Jiao was indeed true.

Before the age of ten, the recipient of Zhou Jiao’s parcels was the elder Zhou Jiaren, so it’s impossible to confirm whether the items were Zhou Jiao’s personal property. After Zhou Jiao turned twelve, that is, after 1949, the recipient’s name was changed to Zhou Jiao, but all the signatures for receiving the parcels were made by her uncle Zhou Xiaocun. From 1949 to the present, over the past six years, Zhou Jiao has received a total of 119 parcels from various places—113 via military mail and 6 via civilian mail.

The amount of money involved is difficult to estimate. If further investigation is needed, you’ll have to provide solid evidence. However, the detainee Zhou Xue has already admitted that some items in the Zhou, Huang, and her two sisters-in-law’s families, as well as some in the Wang family, all belonged to Comrade Zhou Jiao.

In this case, Zhou Xiaoshan, the production team leader from Zhoujia Village, and Zhou Xiaocun’s wife, Huang Zhaodi, colluded to deliberately conceal Zhou Jiao’s property and have been found guilty of misappropriating others’ assets. Team leader Zhou Xiaoshan received a large number of items and has been detained. Based on Huang Zhaodi’s testimony, the evidence has been returned.

Huang Zhaodi has also confessed and is being held. Her husband, Zhou Xiaocun, claims in his statement that he didn’t know the details—he just took the village-issued slips to collect the parcels and handed them over to his father Zhou Jiaren and his wife Huang Zhaodi, and claims he doesn’t know what happened to them. However, since Zhou Xiaocun concealed and claimed others’ property without Zhou Jiao’s consent, he has also been detained.

Based on villagers’ testimony and Zhou Xue’s confession, most of the evidence from the Huang family has been returned. Huang Damao has also been detained. Zhou Xue’s husband’s family, the Wang family, had Wang Shifu removed from his position as production team leader for embezzling village funds, and the Wang family has voluntarily returned Zhou Xue’s personal belongings. The postal bureau staff are being dealt with for lax management.

Except for the Zhou family, most of the illegally obtained items have been confiscated based on villagers’ reports and are now all stored in the township government compound. This is the current status of the case.

Elder Zhou Jiaren from the Zhou family has come to the township office several times, insisting that Comrade Zhou Jiao’s opinion be sought before handling the case. We’re here today to hear Comrade Zhou Jiao’s requests and suggestions, and to see if she wants to retrieve her belongings from the township compound.”

Lin Xinsheng sneered and said, “No need to investigate the amount of money involved any further. Over the years, besides the parcels, the monthly support payments we agreed on were also a significant sum—how much of that was actually spent on Zhou Jiao? We don’t care about the money or the goods. There’s a lot you don’t know. That child, Jiaojiao, always insisted that family scandals shouldn’t be aired in public.

But I want to ask Zhou Jiaren—why does he keep forcing our Jiaojiao to state her position? What right does he have to go to the township office and demand her opinion?

He found every excuse to stop me from taking Jiaojiao back, promising me she was the only child of the second wife and he couldn’t bear to let her go. But how could he stand by and watch the main branch of the family abuse my Jiaojiao? He claimed she got along well with her siblings, but she was bullied and insulted at home. He watched as his eldest daughter-in-law schemed to marry Jiaojiao off to the Huang family—why didn’t he stop it?

That old man even wrote to me last year, lying that after Jiaojiao graduated from junior high this year, he’d ask her opinion and send her back to Beijing. But she already graduated last summer! No wonder the old bastard is hiding from me.

Luckily, Jiaojiao had Zhang Guoqing, who grew up with her, to rely on. Otherwise, if his daughter-in-law’s scheme had succeeded, I’d have shot them myself.”

Seeing Old Master Lin getting more and more agitated, Zhang Guoqing hurriedly handed him some tea to calm him down. After drinking, it wouldn’t do to get worked up.

“Xiao Wu, don’t fuss, Grandpa’s fine. As for you comrades, there’s no need to discuss this with Zhou Jiao anymore. She hasn’t even had a proper confinement after childbirth this month, and with her soft temperament, if Zhou Xue hadn’t brought a crowd to the door to curse her out, she would have just endured it again. She always says her grandmother raised her and it wasn’t easy. Besides me, she really has no one else. She has classmates and girlfriends, but all these years, she’s never mentioned any of this.”

Zhao Dashan added, “I’ve never heard anything from my daughter Yuanyuan either. If she knew, she would’ve said something long ago. Jiaojiao just endured it for her grandmother’s sake. Every time I saw her, she was quiet and steady, never talked much.”

“As for this case, Xiao Wu, you tell the uncles what you think. As for Old Zhou, just let him come to me. Tell him I said so. He can recall all those letters he wrote over the years before asking Jiaojiao’s opinion. Otherwise, I’ll have someone deliver the letters to him and see if he still has the face to live in this world.” Old Master Lin made the decision directly.

Zhang Guoqing blinked at Old Master Lin and mouthed “Dad.” Old Master Lin understood he was considering his father-in-law’s feelings and nodded slightly.

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Guoqing smiled and scratched his head. “Uncles, you’ve all been dragged into this mess and troubled by it. As the younger generation, we’ll absolutely follow your lead and handle things as you see fit.

I just have a few small suggestions. First, deal with the village cadres as you see fit, but as for the post office, let’s leave it—those staff were just following procedures.

Second, could you please handle the confiscated items in the township compound and donate them to the local elderly who have no family? We won’t get involved, and Jiaojiao and I won’t be reclaiming those things.

Finally, as for the main branch of the Zhou family, please keep her uncle and aunt detained for now. As for the property and money they received, please don’t touch it yet. At the end of this month, someone will accompany me to discuss with you how to handle the Zhou family’s main branch. I can’t say who this person is for now, but you’ll find out soon enough.”

Li Aiguo and the others all nodded. For now, this was the best they could do. Although they didn’t know who that person was, it was fine to keep the detainees for now—after a month, things would have calmed down."