At first, Wang Cheng did not notice anything unusual. The doors and windows were all properly shut. It was only when he went upstairs that he realized someone had been there, because the door to his parents’ bedroom stood open.
Papa and Mama Wang were in the habit of closing the bedroom door behind them. Occasionally they forgot when in a hurry, but it rarely happened, and there had been nothing urgent today. Wang Cheng felt something was wrong. When he went inside, he discovered that someone had disturbed the contents of the room.
He checked carefully. The cash hidden in the room was still there, and none of the valuables were missing. A burglar looking for money would never have left those things untouched.
That evening, Wang Cheng told Wang Ning’an what had happened.
“Big Brother, someone sneaked into the house today looking for something. I suspect they came for the jade pendant.”
“What happened?” Wang Ning’an asked in surprise.
“They searched Mom and Dad’s room. No money or valuables were taken, but someone moved the box and went through the agreement inside it. Things elsewhere in the room had been disturbed too. I checked everything. Nothing is missing.” Their family had not made any enemies in Guanjia Village who would be likely to retaliate by breaking into the house.
“Don’t tell Mom and Dad yet. If the pendant was their target, they won’t give up so easily,” Wang Ning’an warned.
“But we’re going back to the capital tomorrow. If someone really is after the pendant, what if they break in again?” Wang Cheng worried his parents might get hurt.
Wang Ning’an shook his head. “Don’t worry. If they can’t find it, they’ll most likely suspect one of us has it. Hardly anyone knows the pendant exists, so this can’t be an ordinary thief drawn by its value. The only plausible explanation is that relatives from Grandmother’s past have found their way here. The pendant must be very important to them, important enough that they would sneak into our house to steal it.”
“Then they’re enemies, not friends.” If they meant well, they would have approached Papa Wang openly and acknowledged him rather than creeping around looking for the jade.
“That’s why it’s better to leave the pendant with you.” Wang Cheng understood what his brother meant. If the intruders could not find the jade on Papa Wang, they might assume he had given it to his eldest son. Unable to locate it, they would probably come after Wang Ning’an. Keeping it with him would not be safe either.
“I understand, Big Brother. You can rest assured it’ll be safe with me.” The next day, Mama Wang came back from the market and told the family she had seen Madam Li and Wang Xiaoyan there.
Since becoming pregnant, Wang Xiaoyan had behaved much more meekly. Her belly was beginning to show, and she was about five or six months along. But she did not look well. Since the money disappeared from the safe, everyone had suspected her of stealing it, and they were far from kind to her.
Madam Li did not treat her like a pregnant woman at all. At the market, she made Wang Xiaoyan carry everything as though she were a hired laborer. Onlookers muttered disapprovingly. Madam Li snapped back at them. Now that there was money in her pocket, she could hold her head high again.
“Wang Xiaoyan really wasn’t a very good person before, but it looks like she’s changed. Yet Li Shu still treats a pregnant woman that way. After all, she’s carrying Ningkai’s child,” Mama Wang sighed. She had seen Wang Xiaoyan at the market several times. The young woman had kept her head down, and her tone was no longer as abrasive as before. She truly seemed different.
At that, Wang Cheng said meaningfully, “What goes around comes around.”
He had not forgotten how Wang Xiaoyan and her family had behaved in the past. And could someone’s true nature change that easily? He doubted it. His suspicions were borne out not long after he and Wang Ning’an left.
The support payment Wang Cheng had given the Wang family’s eldest branch was stolen.
It was not merely the two hundred thousand yuan. There was also money left over from Wang Ningkai’s sale of the house. Together the sum exceeded three hundred thousand yuan, and every last bit was taken.
This time, Wang Cheng had nothing to do with it. Nor was it some stranger who had broken in. The thief was the heavily pregnant Wang Xiaoyan.
She acted while Wang Ningkai and his father were away. Madam Li had also gone shopping, leaving only Wang De, Old Madam Wang, and Wang Xiaoyan at home. Wang Xiaoyan claimed she felt unwell and wanted to go upstairs to rest, thereby escaping the elderly couple’s watchful eyes. As luck would have it, someone then came to see Wang De, leaving Old Madam Wang alone downstairs watching television. Wang Xiaoyan seized that opportunity.
After the previous two hundred thousand yuan disappeared from the safe, Wang Ningkai and his father no longer trusted it. They hid their money elsewhere, intending to deposit it in the bank when they had time. Somehow Wang Xiaoyan discovered where it was hidden. After stealing the cash, she made an excuse that the house was nearly out of salt and she needed to buy some. Old Madam Wang suspected nothing and let her go.
When Madam Li returned with the groceries, she asked where Wang Xiaoyan was. Old Madam Wang said she had gone to buy salt. Madam Li was not suspicious at first. She merely cursed Wang Xiaoyan for deliberately leaving just before she got back to avoid doing chores. But when she went into the kitchen and saw that the salt jar was still nearly full, she started to wonder. Because Wang Xiaoyan had been behaving obediently lately, neither Madam Li nor Old Madam Wang immediately suspected her of stealing the money. By the time they realized something was wrong, Madam Li had discovered that several valuables were missing from her own bedroom too. The two women panicked, found the cash gone, and hurriedly summoned Wang Ningkai and his father. The family had lost everything they possessed, more than three hundred thousand yuan. Never mind starting another business: they would scarcely have enough to survive. The blow devastated them. Old Madam Wang fell ill from the shock.
They reported the theft promptly, but Wang Xiaoyan had plainly prepared for it.
She had not returned to her parents’ house after taking the money. Instead, she had fled Shanhai City altogether, and she was not alone. Such a plan would have been difficult for her to carry out by herself; someone must have been waiting to help her. The police promised to investigate as quickly as possible, but that answer did not satisfy Madam Li’s family. How quickly was quickly? At this rate Wang Xiaoyan might escape to another province, making her even harder to find. Besides, the earlier stolen two hundred thousand yuan had never been recovered. They did not have much confidence in the police anymore.
The family finally decided to search for her themselves. Their first stop was the Wang Xiaoyan family home, where they caused an enormous scene. Though the Wang family on her side had fallen on hard times too, none of them was easy to deal with. When two equally unreasonable families collided, it made for a spectacular annual drama, or so the gossip went.
Her parents really did not know where Wang Xiaoyan had gone. They had long since lost interest in looking after their married daughter. Even when she was beaten or bullied, her parents had simply told her to endure it.
Wang Ningkai’s family refused to believe them, and a fight erupted. In the chaos, Wang Ningkai pushed Wang Xiaoyan’s mother down the stairs. She struck her forehead on the floor, bleeding heavily and barely breathing.
Everyone was horrified. Wang Xiaoyan’s father rushed his wife to the hospital. Wang Ningkai and his parents fled in a panic back to Guanjia Village. It was not long before police came to take Wang Ningkai away. His father-in-law had accused him of deliberately injuring someone, and reportedly his mother-in-law had still not regained consciousness.
Old Madam Wang had barely recovered when she learned that her grandson had been arrested. With a wail she fainted again. After waking up, she and Madam Li reportedly went to the detention center to see Wang Ningkai. They argued with the police there and were themselves detained for obstructing official duties. They were only released after Wang De and Wang Hongwei hurried over to plead with the officers and pay a fine.
Wang Ningkai’s case was serious, though not beyond resolution, according to the family. If Wang Xiaoyan’s father withdrew his complaint, they believed the matter might end there. But he was furious with the Wangs and refused.
Madam Li told Wang Xiaoyan’s father that if he withdrew the complaint, they would still accept Wang Xiaoyan as the Wang family’s daughter-in-law whenever she returned.
To her surprise, he did not care. A married daughter was like water thrown out of the house. Wang Xiaoyan had worked with outsiders to take all that money without even telling her own family, keeping it for herself. He saw no reason to acknowledge her as his daughter. Finally, he stated his terms: one hundred thousand yuan as a private settlement, plus all of his wife’s hospital expenses. Only then would he withdraw the accusation.
But where would the eldest branch of the Wang family find that kind of money? They could not even produce fifty thousand yuan, let alone a hundred thousand. Their only consolation was that they had left ten thousand yuan in the safe as a decoy. Wang Xiaoyan did not know the combination, so that small sum had escaped the theft. Otherwise, they would not even have had the means to go cause trouble at her parents’ house.
The crises in the Wang family’s eldest branch came one after another, leaving the villagers of Guanjia Village dizzy from watching them unfold. Everyone shook their heads and murmured that retribution never failed.
Wang Cheng and Wang Ning’an flew back to the capital that afternoon. Their flight departed at two o’clock. To avoid missing it, they left immediately after lunch.
Papa and Mama Wang watched them leave with great reluctance.
There was no direct bus to the airport, so the brothers would have to transfer along the way. Fortunately, they had little luggage. By the time they reached the airport, it was almost half past one.
They hurried inside. A man wearing a trench coat and dark glasses, his features almost completely obscured, approached them from the opposite direction. Such a person would not normally attract attention in a crowded airport. But Wang Cheng noticed the man was moving deliberately toward them. He immediately switched places with Wang Ning’an. The stranger visibly faltered, confirming Wang Cheng’s suspicion that he might be targeting his older brother. Perhaps realizing his plan had been disrupted, the man lowered his head, pretended nothing was wrong and passed them without doing anything.
After watching the brothers go through security and enter the departure lounge, the trench-coated man took out his phone and dialed a number.
“The first attempt failed. Proceed with Plan B.”