RGL – Chapter 134

County Magistrate Zhao listened but didn’t say anything for a while.

Xue Nian said, “I don’t think this is a small matter. We should send someone over to take a look. If everything is fine, that’s great. But if something’s wrong, we need to take immediate action. We can’t wait until something actually happens—by then it’ll be too late.”

Magistrate Zhao stroked his chin and smiled, “It’s not that I don’t want to go. I was just reminded of something I heard during the meeting this afternoon.”

“Does it have something to do with what Su Min said?”

Xue Nian looked at him curiously.

“Mhm.” Magistrate Zhao nodded, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepening. He lit a cigarette and said, “Usually, the city’s projects are supervised internally by the government, so nothing problematic appears on the surface. This time, the farmers’ market project was somewhat of a precedent. A lot of people brought up the idea that our county’s projects should also be outsourced. That way we could save a lot on manpower. I didn’t agree at the time, precisely because of one thing—quality and safety.”

Hearing this, Xue Nian understood. The worry was that without proper supervision, something could go wrong. In other words, what Su Min brought up today wasn’t a coincidence—it was something done intentionally.

She asked, “Do you have jurisdiction over what’s happening in the city?”

“I do. This is a serious matter—of course I have to intervene. These things can’t be delayed. I’m just amazed a young girl could think of so much. No wonder the old man always says Mianmian will be hard to rein in one day. I think he’s got a point.”

Xue Nian laughed. “I heard Mianmian is planning to graduate early again. That girl is really racing against time.”

Magistrate Zhao knew full well what was going on in the Su family’s little niece’s mind. He just didn’t feel it was appropriate to joke about a junior’s business.

The next day, while heading to a meeting in the city, Magistrate Zhao took along two veteran construction workers from the county.

“Minzi, have you heard? That farmers’ market in the city is going to be torn down.”

At noon, when Su Min arrived at the supermarket for lunch, Sun Qiufang looked at her excitedly.

Su Min’s heart skipped a beat, but she kept a calm face and feigned surprise, “Why is it being torn down? Wasn’t it just built? And didn’t Wang Mingsong get involved too?”

“That’s exactly it! Wang Mingsong totally brought this upon himself. I’ve always said—do too many bad things and karma will catch up with you. Look, how long has it even been? He’s already getting what he deserves. A lady I know came shopping here today. Her family just got a stall at the market, and now it’s gone.”

Su Changrong, seeing that Sun Qiufang still hadn’t gotten to the point, anxiously added, “I heard someone from the government came to inspect the market, and then someone in charge went to check it out. Turns out there were quality issues. All the contractors involved have been arrested. Even some government officials were implicated. This has blown up big time. No matter how capable Wang Mingsong is, he can’t get out of this one. Hah! We were worried he’d get away with it before, but now, it’s just right.”

Sun Qiufang nodded, “Exactly—karma.”

Su Min understood immediately. This must have been Magistrate Zhao’s doing. Otherwise, the city government wouldn’t have reopened the investigation. After all, the original inspectors had already been bribed by the contractors.

This time, the impact was severe. Everyone had heard about it, and given how strict upper-level policies were now, these people definitely wouldn’t get off easy.

The heavy weight pressing on Su Min’s heart finally lifted.

Wang Mingsong had finally gotten what he deserved—and thankfully, no innocent people were hurt in the process.

“Uncle got arrested? How is that possible?!”

Su Wenwen had just come home from school and was eating dinner when she heard Mother Wang talking about the incident. She instantly shouted in disbelief.

The Wang family was already in chaos, like ants on a hot pan. Mother Wang was already irritated, and upon hearing Wenwen scream, snapped, “Don’t make things worse. Isn’t our family miserable enough?”

After she spoke, she recalled the time they had asked a fortune teller to match the birth charts of Gao Hong and Wang Mingsong. The fortune teller had clearly said their charts didn’t align—that Gao Hong’s fate was too strong. If they married, the household would be in turmoil. But her son hadn’t believed it and called her superstitious. Well, now it had all come true.

Seeing Gao Hong silently lowering her head, Mother Wang said angrily, “Mingsong has been arrested, and you’re not even worried?”

Gao Hong was already stressing over what to do next. Being scolded made her flare up. “Mom, what’s the use of me worrying? What’s important now is figuring out how to get Mingsong out.”

“Oh, so now you’re talking back! Don’t think just because Mingsong isn’t home that you can start acting up. Let me tell you—Mingsong put the house and all the money in our name. If anything happens to him, you’ll be kicked out with nothing. Don’t even think about taking a dime!”

Hearing that, Gao Hong’s heart sank. She had secretly thought that if Mingsong got arrested, she’d be the head of the household. She didn’t expect the old woman to see right through her.

But then, what Mother Wang said made her even more upset. She was the one married to Wang Mingsong, and yet all the money was in the hands of his parents. Clearly, Mingsong never truly treated her like his wife.

She looked up at Mother Wang. “Mom, what do you mean by this? I gave birth to a son for this family. And this is how you treat me?”

Mother Wang sneered, “So what if you gave birth to Tianci? He’s still young. If I don’t keep an eye on things and you run off with the money and remarry, what happens to our Tianci? Gao Hong, it’s not like this is your first time remarrying. Why should I trust you?”

Su Wenwen also gave her mother a reproachful look. “Mom, how can you be so heartless? Why are you arguing about this now? What matters is getting uncle out!”

Gao Hong turned sharply to look at her daughter, stunned. “You’re blaming me too?”

“I’m just telling the truth,” Su Wenwen said with a pout.

Mother Wang sneered, “Hmph. Even your own daughter can’t stand what you’re doing, and you still won’t admit your bad intentions.”

The ridicule stung. Gao Hong felt as if she’d just been slapped across the face.

“I’m going back to my room,” she said, forcing herself to stay calm as she stood up and walked into her room, holding in her anger.

After returning to her room, Gao Hong suddenly thought of the days she used to live with Su Changgui.

Back in those years, she had also completely looked down on Su Changgui, thinking that his family was poor and that he was living off hers. So she felt everything he did for her was only natural. If there was even the slightest thing that didn’t go her way, she would lash out at him.

Throughout their thirteen years of marriage, most of the time, it was her talking while Su Changgui stayed silent.

Now thinking back, Su Changgui must have felt the same way she did now.

No wonder he no longer had any feelings for her.

Outside the door, Mother Wang was still nagging and scolding Gao Hong, accompanied by Su Wenwen adding fuel to the fire.

Wang Mingsong’s case was decided quickly. During this time, some police officers came to the supermarket to question Su Changrong.

As it turned out, Wang Mingsong had shifted all the blame onto Su Changrong while in custody. He claimed that it was Su Changrong who had asked him to join the project, and that he knew nothing about it.

Fortunately, Su Changrong didn’t know that Wang Mingsong had indeed been framed by Su Min, so he felt no guilt at all. “Pah! I told him to go into construction, but I didn’t tell him to do something so immoral. Back then, I helped him out of kindness. He did something bad on his own and now wants to dump it on me? That heartless, ungrateful scum! Officers, go ahead and ask around. I, Su Changrong, would never do such despicable things.”

Sun Qiufang was also furious. “That bastard is a backstabbing traitor. Don’t let him out again, or I’ll beat his face in.”

The police visit was just a routine inquiry anyway, since all the evidence pointed to Wang Mingsong. Other people involved in the case also said that it was Su Changrong who had introduced Wang Mingsong, but Su Changrong hadn’t participated in anything else. Seeing how agitated Su Changrong and Sun Qiufang were, the officers quickly said, “Comrades, don’t worry. We’re just asking a few questions. That’s all. We understand the situation now, so we’ll be heading out. We won’t disturb your business any further.”

Hearing that, Su Changrong’s face eased a little. As he got up to see them out, he muttered, “Officers, I’m not someone with a bad temper, but I just can’t stand being falsely accused.”

“Totally understandable,” the two officers said quickly before taking their documents and leaving.

Once they were gone, Su Changrong’s face turned dark again. “Wang Mingsong, that scumbag, truly shameless.”

Sun Qiufang said, “I really wanted to tell the police about the supermarket incident.”

“Didn’t Minzi tell us not to say anything?”

“I know. That’s why I didn’t. Sigh, Minzi is smart. She said we can’t say anything right now. If we do, without evidence to back us up, the police might believe Wang Mingsong and think we framed him.”

Thinking of that, Sun Qiufang still felt angry. Clearly, they were the ones who were framed by Wang Mingsong, yet in the end, they had to swallow their anger.

Su Changrong sighed, “No matter what, as long as Wang Mingsong is in jail, we won’t have to worry about him trying to harm us anymore. He got what he deserved.”

But to their surprise, two days later, the police returned.

This time, it was about the supermarket poisoning incident.

“Someone saw Wang Mingsong’s photo in the newspaper and reported that he once asked their mother to poison your supermarket. That woman was your former employee Zhang Lihong.”

Hearing this, Su Changrong became excited. “Yes, that’s her! Officer, is someone really accusing him?”

“Yes. But we haven’t found any evidence yet, so we’re here to ask you about the situation.”

Sun Qiufang said anxiously, “How would we know anything? If we did, we would’ve told you already.” She thought to herself—could the police be suspecting that they were retaliating against Wang Mingsong and had set him up?

Just as she was thinking how to explain, one officer said, “We’re just trying to understand the specifics of what happened in the supermarket. Also, do you know if there’s anyone else around here who was close to Wang Mingsong? The informant said that the reason Wang Mingsong poisoned the supermarket was because he originally wanted the location, but you took it instead. So he held a grudge.”

“There’s such a thing?” Sun Qiufang looked at Su Changrong in confusion. She wasn’t surprised by the motive but was puzzled about how Zhang Lihong’s son knew about it. After all, back then they only found out through Manager Song, and Zhang Lihong’s son, Li Liang, had only met them briefly. How could he know?

Seeing their confusion, the officer said, “You probably didn’t know. It’s fine, we’ll go talk to the mall management. If we have more questions, we’ll come back.”

“Oh, okay.” Su Changrong quickly got up to see them out and asked, “Officer, is this investigation to find the culprit behind the supermarket incident? There’s nothing else, right?”

“That’s right. Don’t worry. We’ll do our best to get to the bottom of it.”

“Ah, thank you. We really appreciate it.” Su Changrong finally relaxed and smiled in gratitude.

No matter what, the fact that the police were willing to look into the case again made both Su Changrong and Sun Qiufang happy. Especially since the investigation now pointed toward Wang Mingsong and might uncover the truth. The couple was quite excited.

That evening, the two returned home early, and as soon as Su Min got back, they suggested going out as a family to celebrate.

That night, when Su Min came home from school, Sun Qiufang had already cleaned up. Seeing her daughter return, she quickly urged her to drop her backpack and come out to eat.

“Why are you two so happy today?” Su Min asked with a smile as she changed her shoes.

Sun Qiufang beamed. “You don’t know yet—today the police came and said that Zhang Lihong’s son went to report the case, saying Wang Mingsong had framed our supermarket. Whether or not anything comes of it, at least there’s some movement. Your dad and I thought we should go celebrate.”

Su Min put her backpack on the couch, grabbed a piece of fruit, and took a couple of bites. “I know about it. I’m the one who told Li Liang about it.”

“What? You were the one who got Li Liang to report it?” Sun Qiufang looked at her daughter in shock.

Su Changrong was also puzzled. “What made you think to go to him?”

Su Min grinned. “Why wouldn’t I? If we had reported it ourselves, it wouldn’t have been good for us. Only Li Liang was in the position to do it, and it would seem more credible. I wasn’t going to let Wang Mingsong off the hook for framing our family.”

Sun Qiufang suddenly realized, “No wonder Li Liang knew that Wang Mingsong targeted our supermarket because of the location—so you told him. Really, you child, why didn’t you discuss this with us first?”

Even though she thought her daughter was smart, she still wasn’t happy about being kept in the dark.

Seeing her mother’s displeased expression, Su Min realized she had acted out of line. She quickly got up, took her mom’s arm, and said, “Mom, I only thought of it suddenly and went to talk to Li Liang. I didn’t plan it in advance. I was going to tell you both as soon as I got back.”

Su Changrong, not wanting to see his daughter get scolded, also tried to comfort Sun Qiufang. “As long as she handled it well, don’t get upset. We’re still going out for dinner, remember?”

“Hmph, you two are always on each other’s side,” Sun Qiufang said sourly.

“Mom, I’m on your side too,” Su Min said with a laugh, knowing she had indeed overstepped this time. When they had set Wang Mingsong up before, she hadn’t told them because she couldn’t explain it. And this time, she also didn’t communicate about asking Li Liang to report him. No wonder her mom was upset.

After being coaxed like that, Sun Qiufang couldn’t help but laugh. She sighed and patted Su Min’s arm. “Fine, I’ll let it go this time. But don’t do this again. I’m not trying to control what you do, but for things like this, even if the idea comes from you, at least let your family know. Don’t carry everything on your own, okay?”

“Got it, got it,” Su Min quickly promised.

Now that Wang Mingsong was being dragged back into the spotlight, the police started taking it more seriously. Especially since Li Liang had gone to the newspaper to report it as well. At this time, newspapers still had wide readership, so once the story hit the press, it quickly drew a lot of public attention.