Chapter 67: Moral Blackmail?

Right after that, while tidying up his belongings, Li Yancheng recounted the whole story: a month ago, the Qian family had asked to borrow his house and he refused, and then, just a few days later, he noticed members of the Qian family frequently lurking around this alley.

"When they came over today, stealing things was probably just incidental. Their real purpose should have been to search my place for contraband books or other forbidden items so they could report me and ruin my life," he concluded. "Of course, Director Lei, this is just my guess. Whether it's the case or not is entirely up to your investigation results."

Deputy Director Lei did not express an opinion immediately after listening, but inwardly, he quite agreed with Li Yancheng's hypothesis.

This would explain the disastrous state of the scene.

It was more than an hour later by the time the room was mostly cleaned up.

The onlookers outside not only did not disperse, but grew even more numerous, and Auntie Zhang even called over other neighborhood committee workers to help maintain order.

Jin Wenning had gone to a classmate's place in the morning and hadn't been around, and she had just returned at noon after having lunch at Xing Lihua and the others' department store. After coming in to take a look around and hearing that the Qian brothers had burglarized Older Brother Dacheng's home, she pursed her little face tightly and ran off without a word.

"I had just over twenty yuan in my bedside drawer. I didn't keep track of the smaller change, but the notes of one yuan and above should total twenty-six or seven yuan. In addition, there were seven chi of fabric coupons, a pound and a half of cotton coupons, and some industrial tickets—I don't remember the exact number. There should be three or four cigarette coupons too, and several pieces of clothing were torn.

"Over in the study, only one Hero fountain pen seems to be missing, but Director Lei, Auntie Zhang, look—several of my books here have been torn beyond recognition. I have no idea how these books ever offended them."

The books that had been torn up were his Western medicine textbooks from his technical secondary school years, as well as a few propaganda and educational books issued since the year before last. The contents of these books were completely fine; there was nothing to fear from others seeing them.

After detailing the losses in the bedroom and study, Li Yancheng walked over to the living room. "The flour and rice spilled on the ground total about six or seven pounds, along with three or four pounds of cornmeal, and five pounds of dried noodles. As for that cellophane noodle, I bought it before the New Year—a total of three pounds, and we'd only eaten it once.

"These are all food grains! I simply cannot fathom why they would go out of their way to ruin food. So many people don't even have enough to eat—tell me, why on earth must they make an enemy of grain?"

Looking at the food that was completely ruined and beyond consumption, apart from the rice that had already been gathered up, Auntie Zhang couldn't help bursting into a torrent of angry curses, and Deputy Director Lei's expression also turned grim.

Having come through the old society and lived through the three difficult years, people of their generation detested the wasting of food above all else.

Just when they thought the losses ended there, Li Yancheng's next words left the police officers from the station and Auntie Zhang from the neighborhood committee completely dumbfounded.

"Director Lei, Auntie Zhang, all of that is the minor stuff. The real heavy loss is right over here."

Li Yancheng walked directly to his former bedroom, now a workshop, on the right side of the main house. He approached the desk and pulled open a drawer whose padlock had clearly been pried off.

"This room was requisitioned by the Municipal Inspection Section One, and the major loss is in here. Last night, Section Chief Luo of the Inspection Section came by. Before leaving, he placed one hundred catties of grain coupons and twenty catties of edible oil coupons in this drawer, saying they belonged to their section. Now, they're gone."

As soon as these words were spoken, Xiao Mao, the security officer who was taking notes, suffered a tremor in his hand and accidentally tore right through his notebook.

Director Lei, Auntie Zhang, and the other security officer, Xiao Liu, dropped their jaws so wide that one could practically see straight into their stomachs.

It took quite a while for Director Lei to recover his wits.

"Yancheng, you... are you telling the truth?"

"Of course it's the truth, Director Lei. You can contact Inspection Section One and ask Section Chief Luo."

To be honest, seeing that these coupons really had been stolen, Li Yancheng's first reaction was one of joy.

Last night, after Luo Yang gave him the coupons, the reason he didn't store them away in his dimensional warehouse was due to a sudden, spontaneous whim.

Ever since he discovered members of the Qian family lingering around here for no good reason, he had already been on his guard against them.

Being on guard was one thing, but figuring out how to set a proper trap for them was the real business. Therefore, last night after getting those coupons, he had casually tossed them into the drawer.

He simply wanted to see if someone really sneaked into his house to search for so-called banned books, would they also take some things on the side while they were at it.

Without these coupons, the earlier losses combined with the vandalism would at most result in forcing those two brothers to pay compensation and locking them up for ten days to half a month, certainly no more than a month at most.

Li Yancheng felt that such a sentence was far too short; it left him feeling uncomfortable and unsatisfied.

However, adding these coupons made all the difference.

Yet, these coupons could not be claimed as his own, because he could not possibly possess so many.

On his grain ration booklet, every month's grain was bought directly from the grain and oil retail store, and whether it had been converted into grain coupons was crystal clear.

If he dared to claim they were his, well, then he would first have to explain their origin very clearly.

Fees paid by patients for medical treatments?

If he dared to say that, whether the Qian brothers would be in trouble or not was uncertain, but he himself would definitely be in deep trouble.

Therefore, these coupons could only belong to the state. As for whether Luo Yang might accidentally spill the beans, he wasn't worried in the least; that fellow was a sharp cookie.

And the most important point was that the value of one hundred catties of grain coupons and twenty catties of oil coupons was already enough to warrant a prison sentence—starting at three years. Coupled with the other things he had lost, it was more than enough for those two brothers to suffer severely.

If he could achieve this outcome, Li Yancheng would feel quite satisfied.

Director Lei sighed inwardly; those two little scoundrels were really going to be in deep trouble this time.

Auntie Zhang's expression nearby was particularly ugly. Just as she parted her lips to say something, a fit of howling ghosts and wolf-like wails suddenly erupted from the courtyard.

The few people inside froze, momentarily failing to understand why anyone would run over here to wail as if mourning at a grave. Exchanging glances, they walked outside together.

The ones stirring up such a huge commotion outside were none other than the Qian family—seven or eight people, both adults and children, had arrived.

Seeing Li Yancheng step out of the room, Qian Ruishan's father, Qian Dehan, and his mother began to cry so miserably that it broke one's heart. His mother even threw herself flat onto the ground, slapping the dirt while bawling.

Tsk, tsk... it was truly enough to bring tears to the eyes of anyone who witnessed it!

After letting out a couple of howls, Qian Dehan rushed over to Li Yancheng in three strides as two.

"Dacheng... Dacheng, considering that Ruishan used to be your classmate and we've all been neighbors for years, please spare Ruishan this once! He and Ruixiang just acted foolishly."

Li Yancheng merely glanced at him sideways without saying a word, pulled a cigarette out of his pocket, and handed one each to Deputy Director Lei and the other security team members.

After lighting them, he turned his head toward Deputy Director Lei and asked, "Director Lei, does the station still need me to go over?"

Deputy Director Lei glanced at Qian Dehan, who had been howling for a long time yet didn't have a single tear on his face, and then looked at Qian's mother, who was still sitting on the ground slapping the dirt and kicking her legs. After pondering for a moment, he leaned close to Li Yancheng's ear and lowered his voice.

"Yancheng, let me be honest with you. We're all neighbors. If you refuse to give any face at all and insist on punishing those two brothers, the onlookers outside won't feel that you're in the right. They'll only think you're unforgiving and relentless, and you still have to live here in the future."