Telling Zhou Cheng about the situation didn’t mean Xia Xiaolan would do nothing herself.

During the day, she had learned about Fan Zhenchuan from Liang Huan, and the long afternoon wasn’t spent just sharpening a knife. She had sent a telegram to Yang City, asking Li Dongliang and Ge Jian to come to Shangdu immediately. Having them around for protection would give her much more peace of mind.

Originally, they were supposed to come before the exam, but this moved up their arrival by about ten days.

Xia Xiaolan didn’t mind spending money – she found 10,000 yuan in Liang Bingan’s briefcase.

Would she return this money to Liang Bingan?

She wasn’t some virtuous student who returned found items. The Liang family, for their own benefit, had nearly sold her to Fan Zhenchuan. After the swill water incident and intimidation, Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t let them off easily.

She deserved emotional compensation – compared to the trouble the Liang family had caused her, 10,000 yuan wasn’t much. Xia Xiaolan didn’t lack this money, but she had no guilt about spending it. Just bringing Li Dongliang and Ge Jian from Yang City early would require daily wages – that would come from this 10,000 yuan!

Xia Xiaolan didn’t care if Liang Bingan would come demanding the money back.

Today she had played her part well, fooling both Li Fengmei and Liu Fen.

When Xia Xiaolan went to do something else, no one would object. After her phone call with Zhou Cheng, she returned to find Grandmother Yu living up to her reputation for wisdom. Despite her diabetes, the old woman’s hands and feet, trained from street sweeping, were nimble – in just a short while, she had cleaned up the entire courtyard scene.

What was covered in chicken blood moments ago now showed no trace.

With 1984’s forensic methods, it would be very difficult to reconstruct the scene.

The destruction was thorough – even the swill water traces Liu Fang had brought to the courtyard had been washed away by Grandmother Yu.

Grandmother Yu had picked up Liang Bingan’s briefcase and placed it on the table.

Xia Xiaolan gave Grandmother Yu a thumbs up:

“You’re amazing!”

Grandmother Yu accepted the compliment calmly. Using chicken blood to fake human blood was her idea. After all, Xia Xiaolan just wanted revenge – Liang Bingan and Liu Fang couldn’t have a complete epiphany after seeing Liang Huan “stabbed.” Xia Xiaolan just wanted them to taste the pain.

Whether they would change or not, Xia Xiaolan didn’t care.

She wasn’t Mother Teresa, responsible for reforming others.

Xia Xiaolan took the money from the briefcase, which also contained Liang Bingan’s work ID. This must have been his daily-use briefcase, no wonder the leather was of decent quality. Xia Xiaolan stoked the fire and threw the briefcase in.

No one felt sorry for the item – who would want to use Liang Bingan’s briefcase?

The bag had an owner, but the money didn’t.

Xia Xiaolan gave the 10,000 yuan to Li Fengmei, “Aunt, tomorrow find two banks to deposit this, and withdraw 5,000 yuan from your account for me.”

The current banking system wasn’t networked and had no surveillance – there was no way to trace who deposited money. They only recognized passbooks and passwords for withdrawals, not even requiring real-name registration… Real-name registration wasn’t possible as national ID cards wouldn’t be issued across the country until after 1986. Without ID cards, how could there be real-name bank accounts?

This meant that even if Liang Bingan’s money had markings and he had recorded all the serial numbers, it wouldn’t matter.

The simple deposit-and-withdraw was the most basic form of “money laundering” – Xia Xiaolan could deny everything even if Liang Bingan brought the police. You say I took your money? You need evidence to catch a thief – find the money first, then prove it’s yours!

As a private business owner, finding over 10,000 yuan at Xia Xiaolan’s home meant nothing. As long as the serial numbers didn’t match, Liang Bingan couldn’t prove the money was his.

Xia Xiaolan wanted to make Liang Bingan’s heart ache.

The money felt great to spend – it was free anyway. She casually gave Li Fengmei 5,000 yuan. Of the remaining 5,000, she planned to split it with Grandmother Yu – windfall money should be shared with those present. Keeping 2,500 yuan for herself would be enough to pay for Li Dongliang and Ge Jian’s early arrival in Shangdu.

Li Fengmei asked why only withdrew 5,000.

“It’s for you!”

“I won’t take it!”

Li Fengmei wanted no financial entanglements with Liu Fang’s family. She was particularly sensitive around Liu Fang, fearing that using Liu Fang’s money would weaken her position in future arguments.

Ultimately, Li Fengmei was too honest, unlike the thick-skinned and calculating Xia Xiaolan.

When Xia Xiaolan couldn’t convince her, she asked Grandmother Yu, “Then shall we split it between us? Do you dare take it?”

Grandmother Yu directly took the 5,000 from the table, “Why wouldn’t I dare? Since you’re so generous, I’ll take it. No need for your aunt to deposit and withdraw – at my age, I dare spend this money.”

Grandmother Yu felt she had contributed, so why shouldn’t she take the money Liang Bingan left behind? Thinking about her savings increasing by 5,000 yuan, her wrinkled, serious face softened momentarily. Why not take it – she was saving money for her family anyway.

Liu Fen and Li Fengmei were dumbfounded.

They felt that tonight, the old and young pair had developed quite an understanding!

Xia Xiaolan happily reported to her boyfriend and joyfully divided Liang Bingan’s 10,000 yuan.

Liang Bingan drove back to Hedong County, and all three family members exhausted half to death. Liang Huan was physically and mentally drained, while Liu Fang and Liang Bingan were mentally exhausted. In such a sorry state, they couldn’t possibly go to the grandparents’ house to pick up Liang Yu – Liu Fang wouldn’t let her in-laws see them like this.

The three snuck home, afraid of waking neighbors who might see their pathetic state.

Liu Fang first tended to Liang Huan, who was covered in various odors – the swill water smell from her mother, the urine smell from when Xia Xiaolan scared her into wetting herself, and the sweat from crying and struggling. The mixture of smells was indescribably unpleasant.

“Go shower quickly, Mom will get your pajamas.”

Liu Fang was also covered in the swill water smell but let Liang Huan use the bathroom first.

Liang Huan washed herself over and over, using most of a bar of soap, but still felt dirty. Finally, Liu Fang, worried she’d catch a cold, forbade her from washing more. As Liu Fang handed Liang Huan clothes, with Liang Huan wrapped in a towel, Liu Fang’s sharp eyes noticed a bruise on Liang Huan’s waist.

“Did that little wretch hit you?!”

Liang Huan touched her waist, “She locked me in the clothing store’s storage room earlier. Later when she opened the door, I thought she was letting me out, but suddenly my waist felt numb and painful, and I passed out!”

When she woke up, she was in Grandmother Yu’s courtyard, tied up tightly, watching Xia Xiaolan sharpen a knife, scared enough to wet herself.

Liang Huan felt the mark on her waist didn’t seem like a hit. How could a hit to her lower back make her lose consciousness?

Neither Liang Huan nor Liu Fang could understand – the electric shocker Zhou Cheng had given Xia Xiaolan, which hadn’t even been used on the Yang City thugs, was first tested on Liang Huan. Xia Xiaolan hadn’t shocked her neck, fearing she might not control the intensity and kill Liang Huan. This was a shortcoming of electric shocks – while they could instantly incapacitate someone, there was a tiny chance of causing cardiac arrest. Foreign law enforcement carried stun guns, but they were banned domestically.

Liang Huan had received quite a shock today. Liu Fang quickly showered before going to sleep with her daughter.

Liang Huan fell asleep quickly, her physical exhaustion undeniable, but her sleep was restless, frequently startling awake. Liu Fang hadn’t closed her eyes either. Around four in the morning, when Liang Huan finally fell into deep sleep, Liu Fang left her room.

Liang Bingan hadn’t slept either.

He couldn’t sleep at all, sitting in the living room chain-smoking – the ashtray couldn’t hold all his cigarette butts.

Seeing Liu Fang come out, Liang Bingan said darkly:

“We can’t let Xia Xiaolan marry him anymore. The more I think about it, she’s an ungrateful wolf cub. Once she becomes Fan Zhenchuan’s wife, she might turn around and bite us.”