“Comrade Officers, you must have arrested the wrong person!” Xia Dajun said anxiously.
He had spent half a month in Yunan trying to reapply for introduction letters for Xia Hongbing’s family of three. The Cheng Rong Group’s name carried no weight in Yunan. Hong Kong merchants were valuable only if they invested locally, and since Yunan saw no investment from Cheng Rong Group, who would care about someone like Xia Dajun who merely worked for a Hong Kong merchant?
Getting introduction letters wasn’t simple – they needed stamps from the village, township, and county police, but Guangzhou demanded a city-level stamp.
Even getting the village introduction letter wasn’t easy for Xia Dajun. When he mentioned reapplying for introduction letters, the village officials were suspicious – these people had been detained by the Guangzhou police station, hadn’t they committed crimes elsewhere?
“Dajun, they say you’ve made a fortune working for Hong Kong bosses, but you can’t get the village into trouble!”
No matter how much Xia Dajun explained, the village officials kept passing the buck.
Then Xia Changzheng returned.
Xia Changzheng was craftier than Xia Dajun, and Xia Dajun was used to following his elder brother’s lead. Plus, seeing Xia Changzheng’s broken hand made Xia Dajun feel guilty, so he naturally raised no objections.
Xia Changzheng regained his confidence in front of his brother:
“Dajun, you need to show the villagers that you’ve made an honest fortune outside, not done anything wrong.”
Following Xia Changzheng’s method, Xia Dajun spent several hundred yuan hosting a banquet for the village, earning everyone’s praise. Xia Changzheng then suggested Xia Dajun privately give substantial gifts to village officials, finally securing new introduction letters for Xia Hongbing’s family of three.
The same approach worked at the township level.
But the county police bureau became a roadblock, refusing to stamp the documents.
When Xia Dajun suggested they could call the Guangzhou police station to verify, the county police became angry:
“If they’re vagrants, they should be sent back. If not, let them come back personally to reapply. How can we issue introduction letters without the person present? Who knows what you’ll do with them!”
How could they come back to reapply?
They were locked up in Guangzhou’s detention center!
Xia Dajun had a headache – it was a complete deadlock.
Guangzhou demanded reapplied introduction letters to release them, while Anqing County Police required seeing them in person to reapply. Xia Changzheng’s tactics didn’t work at the county level – they wanted to give gifts but had no connections there and didn’t know how to build relationships. Who would dare accept gifts from them?
Xia Dajun thought of Principal Sun:
“Doesn’t Ziyu have a good relationship with the County No. 1 Middle School principal? Could we ask Principal Sun for help?”
The middle school principal would surely know more people than two farmers.
Xia Dajun hadn’t witnessed the scene outside County No. 1 Middle School when he was hospitalized after Liu Fen’s attack. Principal Sun had turned on them immediately, completely disregarding Xia Ziyu’s face. From that day on, Principal Sun stopped helping Xia Changzheng’s family, and “Zhang’s” business plummeted thereafter.
Xia Changzheng wouldn’t admit this, of course, and just blamed Xia Xiaolan:
“Principal Sun favors students with good grades. Do you think he’d help us?”
Xia Xiaolan had replaced his daughter Ziyu’s position. Just because of the college entrance exam, everyone had turned to Xia Xiaolan’s side. If she hadn’t gotten into Huaqing University, could she have found a partner from a good family?
One step ahead had led to steps that suffocated Xia Changzheng’s entire family. Now he regretted not taking action personally last year – why hire someone else? The goal wasn’t achieved, and he lost a hand instead!
While Xia Changzheng was wallowing in regret, police from the provincial capital arrested him at the Anqing County Guest House. These days, when police made arrests, they didn’t ask if you were so-and-so or what crimes you’d committed – they just swarmed in, secured the person first, then verified identity and questioned them back at the station.
This was why travel required introduction letters – the guest house just had to ask around to find “Xia Changzheng from Dahe Village.”
When Xia Changzheng was taken back to Shangdu, Xia Dajun naturally followed.
He had to ask the police what was going on, why they’d arbitrarily arrested his brother. When the police asked about his identity and Xia Dajun explained, they checked their files:
“Xia Xiaolan is your daughter?”
“…Yes.”
“Then do you know that Xia Changzheng hired thugs to injure your daughter’s hand, attempting to prevent her from taking the college entrance exam?”
Xia Dajun almost blurted out that it was Xiaolan who had broken his brother’s hand – how had the police reversed the facts?
In the end, Xia Dajun just asked if there was a mistake.
“Comrade Officers, this is a family matter, no need to involve the police station. Let me see her, we can clear up the misunderstanding.”
When Xia Dajun asked to see Xia Xiaolan, the police looked at him like he was an idiot:
“Student Xia Xiaolan didn’t report this case. Xia Changzheng hired thugs to commit violence, and after almost a year, the thug couldn’t bear his guilty conscience and turned himself in!”
Was this a father?
What father would defend the suspect first upon hearing someone had hurt his daughter?
Even if the suspect was his brother, how could he be closer than his daughter?
The police felt sorry for Xia Xiaolan – her uncle hired people to prevent her from taking the college entrance exam, and when the police made arrests, her father spoke up for the suspect. Despite such difficult circumstances, Student Xia still scored first in the province. Truly, a sword’s sharpness comes from grinding, and plum blossoms’ fragrance emerges from bitter cold!
Xia Dajun’s mind was in chaos.
One moment it was Xia Ziyu’s version, the next it was the police’s account.
Who was telling the truth?
If the police weren’t lying… Xia Dajun’s heart pounded as the police looked at him with contempt. Such confused people were rare – no wonder the file noted “parents divorced.”
How could they not divorce?
If she couldn’t take the college entrance exam, she might have remained in such a family’s hands.
The police showed no courtesy to Xia Dajun:
“This case has the attention of both the city police bureau and education department leaders. You, as a parent, treat it like child’s play. There’s no point in seeing Student Xia – this is a criminal case under investigation. Even if you force Student Xia to forgive Xia Changzheng, the case can’t be withdrawn. The sentence will be whatever it should be!”
Sigh, the nation’s legal education still needed strengthening. What did being family matter? Even if a father hired someone to harm his daughter, it was still a criminal case, different from domestic violence.
The police didn’t want to waste words with someone legally ignorant, politely but firmly asking Xia Dajun to leave the station.
After his arrest, Xia Changzheng naturally refused to confess.
He even claimed Xia Xiaolan had broken his hand.
The interrogators were furious:
“When your hand was broken, Student Xia was taking the college entrance exam. Do you think becoming the top scorer is so easy that she could spare attention to break your hand? What benefit would she get from breaking your hand!”
Xia Changzheng panicked inside. The thug had confessed everything – who had acted as a middleman, how 500 yuan was paid upfront, how the money was still untouched under the bed.
Hearing the police’s questioning, Xia Changzheng lost his composure and blurted out:
“She was getting revenge, she did it for revenge!”
He couldn’t withstand even simple interrogation techniques. Now he needed to explain where this talk of ‘revenge’ came from!
Xia Changzheng’s confession was quickly sent to the city bureau leaders handling the case.
With both witness testimony and physical evidence, Xia Changzheng couldn’t deny it. But in his confession, he also claimed Xia Xiaolan had taken revenge by breaking his hand.
The bureau leaders’ eyebrows twitched:
“For this case, we need to understand the situation from Student Xia Xiaolan herself.”