Chapter 12: Paying the Price

Chu Xuan tossed aside the metal bucket in her hand and rushed forward to remove the rag stuffed in Xiao Feng’s mouth.

She quickly untied him.

Chu Feng was wracked with guilt. “Sis, I’m sorry! I didn’t watch the house well. About an hour ago, Chu Zhi climbed over the wall, tied me up, stuffed my mouth with a rag, and Feng Chunhua stole our rice, flour, fabric, new shoes, and a bunch of other things. Chu Zhi barred the courtyard gate and left over the wall…”

Chu Xuan forced down her anger and managed a comforting smile for her little brother. “You stay home! I’ll go get our things back!”

And she’d make sure Feng Chunhua’s family paid a price, so they’d never dare rob them again.

She headed straight for the village office and explained the situation to Wang Depin.

Without a word, Wang Depin helped her call the local security authorities.

At that moment, Feng Chunhua was in her bedroom admiring the fabric she’d stolen. Chu Zhi stood beside her, grinning. “Ma, you really know what you’re doing. This haul is way better than that hundred yuan we wanted. Those four pairs of shoes alone must be worth over a hundred, right?”

“Definitely!” Feng Chunhua said smugly. “If we’d just asked Chu Xuan for a hundred in compensation, she wouldn’t have given it to us, and she’d just use the village chief as a shield. Now we’ve taken these things as payment, even if she comes knocking, I’m not afraid. She says they’re hers, I say they’re mine!”

She’d already checked—none of the stolen items had any identifying marks.

Besides, whether going to the old house or coming back, Chu Zhi had carried a bulging burlap sack. No one knew what was inside.

In fact, on the way there, Feng Chunhua had hidden inside the sack.

Chu Zhi stepped forward to massage his mother’s back. “Ma, can you make me a new set of clothes?”

Feng Chunhua chuckled. “Of course I can!”

“And give me a pair of women’s leather sandals—I want to give them to someone.”

“No problem!” All of it had been looted from Chu Xuan’s house, so Feng Chunhua didn’t feel the least bit guilty. “Son, go pour the rice and flour into our storage jars.”

“Got it!”

Chu Zhi happily went to do as told.

Feng Chunhua muttered with a hint of regret, “Too bad we didn’t find any cash this time. That wretched girl wants to build a new house—could she be keeping her money on her?”

Half an hour later, three security officers arrived on bicycles.

Wang Depin and Chu Xuan led them to Chu Dashan’s house.

When Feng Chunhua saw them, she showed no fear at all. “Chu Xuan, didn’t we cut ties? What are you doing here?”

Chu Xuan ignored her and addressed the officers seriously. “Comrades, I want to report Feng Chunhua and Chu Zhi for breaking and entering and robbery! They stole several hundred yuan worth of goods from my home: forty jin each of rice and flour, twenty meters of fabric, four pairs of new shoes, two bamboo mats, a can of malted milk powder…”

Feng Chunhua felt something was off—the rice and flour didn’t seem to add up to that much.

Before Chu Xuan could finish, Feng Chunhua cut in impatiently, “Chu Xuan, you’re just trying to claim my family’s things as your own! Everything in my house belongs to me—none of it has your name on it.”

Everyone present could see Feng Chunhua was trying to play dirty.

If she and Chu Zhi refused to admit anything, and Chu Xuan couldn’t produce evidence or witnesses, it would be hard to settle the case.

After all, no one had passed by Chu Xuan’s house when it happened.

But Chu Xuan was prepared. “I have proof of which items are mine! I can describe all the features of the fabric, mats, and new shoes. Can you, Feng Chunhua? Plus, I have receipts from the department store, and the sales clerks can vouch that I bought these things! Oh, and I also marked the inside of the malted milk powder lid.”

Feng Chunhua’s heart began to pound. She hadn’t expected there to be receipts—she should’ve just taken the rice and flour.

The lead security officer looked at Chu Xuan. “Write down the features of the fabric, mats, and new shoes on paper. Use the stone table in the courtyard.”

He handed her paper and pen.

Chu Xuan took them and got to work immediately.

Meanwhile, another officer took Feng Chunhua and Chu Zhi into the main room to take their statements.

The remaining officer and Wang Depin gathered up the items Chu Xuan had mentioned and piled them in the courtyard.

Chu Dashan was out at sea and not home.

Aunt Hua from next door heard the commotion and soon half the village had gathered to watch the excitement.

Chu Xuan spotted her little brother in the crowd.

He’d always been traumatized by the Chu family, so the fact that he’d come over bravely this time was a big step forward.

Chu Xuan lowered her head and kept writing.

Chu Feng stepped out from the crowd and addressed the lead officer. “Uncle, I’m a victim! I want to report Chu Zhi and Feng Chunhua—they climbed over the wall, tied me up, and robbed our house!”

As he spoke, he showed the officer the marks on his arms and handed over the rough hemp rope and dirty rag used in the crime.

Chu Xuan deliberately raised her voice. “It doesn’t matter if Chu Zhi won’t admit it. They can always lift his fingerprints from the rope and rag—he’ll only get a harsher sentence!”

Inside, Chu Zhi was trembling as he gave his statement, but stubbornly refused to confess.

Half an hour later, the lead officer compared Feng Chunhua and Chu Zhi’s statements with the features of the mats, shoes, and fabric. Aside from the colors, nothing matched.

But everything Chu Xuan had written matched perfectly, down to the number of yards of each color of fabric, a chalk mark on one piece, a flaw on a certain spot on a mat, the shoe sizes for each color, and a scratch inside the malted milk powder lid…

Most importantly, Chu Xuan had purchase receipts and witnesses.

Feng Chunhua started shouting, “I’m being framed! I didn’t steal anything! Chu Xuan stole those receipts from me! You’re all siding with her! I’ll report you!”

But faced with such evidence, the officers ignored Feng Chunhua’s howls.

Feng Chunhua and Chu Zhi were both handcuffed.

All the items in the courtyard were returned to Chu Xuan and her brother.

When Feng Chunhua’s eyes landed on her own grain jars, she finally realized Chu Xuan had tricked her.

She stopped shouting her innocence and admitted, “I did steal Chu Xuan’s things, but I didn’t take that much rice and flour. Those are my jars!”

Chu Xuan picked up her own empty rice and flour sacks from the ground and smiled. “You’re right, the jars are yours! But the rice and flour inside came from my bags. Everyone can see, my sacks each hold fifty jin of grain. Don’t worry, I only filled forty jin each—didn’t take even half a liang extra from you.”

She had exaggerated the forty jin, but she wasn’t about to admit it.

As Feng Chunhua herself had said, the rice and flour didn’t have names on them.

Now, even if Feng Chunhua denied taking that much, no one would believe her.

Besides, that grain was originally the ration owed to Chu Xuan and Xiao Feng, which Feng Chunhua had withheld when the family split.

And Chu Xuan had kept the receipts—she’d really bought forty jin each of rice and flour in town, so she wasn’t afraid of being checked. The reason there wasn’t that much at home was because she and Xiao Feng had left most of it at Brother Long’s house.

Feng Chunhua calmed down and looked at the lead officer. “Please, go to the county and check how much rice and flour Chu Xuan really bought. I bet it wasn’t forty jin!”

Chu Xuan replied calmly, “I’m not afraid of being checked. I bought it at the county grain store—I’m sure the staff there remember how much I bought.”

Chu Zhi started shaking in fear. “My mom forced me to do it with a knife! I’m a victim too!”

At that, Feng Chunhua fainted from rage…"