In the afternoon, Wu Sicheng and An Moxue parted ways at the fork in the road between Hongqi Village and Anle Village.
When An Moxue arrived at the back of her house carrying half a roasted rabbit, she saw several people standing at her front gate. They were a bit far away, and she couldn't make out who they were. She put the rabbit into her spatial storage and quickened her pace down the mountain.
When they got to the gate, they could see clearly that it was a leader from the town's committee leading a few soldiers, and another person was Brother Wu from the militia.
Upon seeing An Moxue return, Wu San spoke first: "An Zhiqing, you're back. These are comrades from the town's committee; they say they want to ask you about the situation."
An Moxue, with a good-natured demeanor, said, "Thank you for your trouble, Brother Wu."
Then he said to the group of people, "Gentlemen, is there anything I can do for you?"
One of the leaders said, "Comrade An Moxue, hello. I am the deputy director of the town's committee. I am here today mainly to investigate the matter of the whistleblower letter from a few days ago."
An Moxue changed her gentle attitude towards Wu San and asked seriously, "What, are you all here to apologize to me for this matter?"
Apart from Wu San, the other members of the cabinet committee looked at each other, all with expressions that said, "What nonsense are you talking about? I don't understand."
An Moxue could tell what they were thinking just by looking at their expressions, and then asked suspiciously, "What? Isn't that right? Then what are you here for? Is this how you always are? If you don't like someone, you just raid their house like a ransacker. Beating, smashing, and looting are your standard operating procedures, and you don't even allow innocent comrades to defend themselves! My God! You—"
An Moxue was about to continue, but the deputy director felt something was off and quickly interrupted her, "An Zhiqing, I think you might have some misunderstanding about our work."
He thought to himself, even if we are like this, we can't let you say that. How can we carry out our work in the future if we keep fighting, smashing, and looting? Ugh! No, I mean, how can we conduct our work?
"Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding? Didn't your people come to my house to arrest me without any investigation, using some fabricated excuse? Come, come, all of you, come in." An Moxue said as she opened the door.
"Come in and take a look, the broken door is still here! Do you still want to deny it?" He led the deputy director and his group into the inside of the gate and pointed to the broken, irreparable door lying on the ground.
When they saw the door on the ground, they thought, "It's a broken door, so what if it's broken?" If the director hadn't told them beforehand to speak politely, who would want to listen to your nonsense?
An Moxue glanced at the group of people, then said angrily, "This gate is made of old elm wood. You all know what elm wood is, right? It's so sturdy. I've only used this gate for a few months, less than half a year. What kind of grudge could you possibly have to smash the gate like this!"
The deputy director awkwardly kept saying, "An Zhiqing, this is all a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding. A group of young people are bound to be impulsive, but it's all for the sake of work, so please be more tolerant."
"Deputy Director, right?" An Moxue asked with a wicked grin.
"Yes, An Zhiqing, we know we made a mistake, that's why we came to investigate today. Please understand." He appeared good-natured, but inwardly he was cursing; this woman was really good at talking.
"I understand, of course I understand. You're all a bunch of cowards who bully the weak and fear the strong. You only pick on people like me who lost their parents and have some assets to bully. After you've bullied me, you take the money and enjoy it. If you're bullied to death, no one will care."
“An Zhiqing, how could that be? We all serve the people, there is absolutely no way what you are saying is true.”
"Really?" An Moxue asked with great skepticism.
"Of course," the deputy director replied with absolute certainty.
"Then what about the fact that you wronged the people and maliciously damaged their property? Are the people just supposed to accept their bad luck and pay for it themselves?"
"No, I have to take responsibility." As soon as he said that, he regretted it. Was he setting a trap for him?
"That's good. The deputy director truly lives up to his reputation as a good public servant, he's so different from those lowly assistants. It's good that you acknowledge that. Now, about this gate—"
"Compensation, full compensation."
An Moxue stretched out her right hand towards him, palm up, the meaning was clear: Didn't you say you would compensate me?
Money, give it to me!
The deputy director gave an awkward laugh. "Young An, I came in a hurry and didn't bring any money. I'll definitely make it up next time." He thought to himself, "Just you wait and see."
"Is this just some nice talk to fool me?" An Moxue said worriedly.
"No, no."
"That's good." After saying that, she jogged into the house and took out paper, pen, and a box of inkpad.
He approached the deputy director and said, "It's okay if I don't have money. Just write me a note and I'll go to town to ask you for it when I have time." Then he handed the paper and pen to the deputy director.
The deputy director was caught in a dilemma and had no choice but to bite the bullet and write an IOU, pressing his fingerprint on it. It wasn't a lot of money, but he felt aggrieved. Who had ever seen the cabinet committee pay someone back?
An Moxue glanced at the IOU; it was enough money for the gate, and she didn't care about the compensation amount on it. Satisfied, she accepted the IOU.
What she said next left the deputy director and his group completely bewildered.
“Deputy Director, now that we’ve finished talking about the gate, let’s talk about something else. That night, because of your Red Guards’ arrival, I lost a thousand yuan. I don’t know if your people pocketed it. Who am I supposed to ask for this money? It’s all I have, my parents’ pension! Could it be a pre-arranged scheme, deliberately choosing a dark and stormy night to come to my house, taking the money afterward and then denying everything? Could it all have been divided up and disposed of by certain people?”
Wu San, who had been listening with exclamations of amazement, was now dumbfounded. This An Zhiqing was too daring!
This completely threw the cabinet committee into a frenzy, and they were no longer in a good mood.
They glared angrily and began to hurl insults at An Moxue.
"Who do you think you are? Trying to extort money from me. Don't you know who you are or what you're worth?"
"Brothers, this woman needs to be taught a lesson."
"She's already giving her too much credit today, damn it, let's beat her up."
...
An Moxue stood there coldly, letting them curse, looking at the deputy director with amusement, as if to say: "Look, this is the bunch of idiots you brought. They're good for nothing but causing trouble."
The deputy director was also furious, but he was more experienced than these impulsive, hot-blooded people. He suppressed his anger and shouted at the men he had brought, "Shut up! We're here to solve problems, not to escalate conflicts."
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