Later, things got increasingly crazy. Zhou Huilan and Bao Liu and several others were tied up with ropes and locked up in the mutual aid society.
They don't give them food or water, they don't care about their bodily functions, and they force them to hand over money.
The poor relatives of Bao Liu's family had just arrived in Beijing and hadn't received a single penny when they were locked up and tortured. They complained incessantly and were verbally abused by Bao Liu's family.
Old Ding and Old Zhao were dumbfounded; this meant they could no longer expect to go hungry.
"Old Ding, I've invested everything I have, even my ancestral home. If I can't get this money back, what will become of my family?"
“You’re just risking your life and fortune. I’ve even swindled my wife. I’ve embezzled public funds from her workplace. If the mutual aid society collapses, my wife and I won’t be able to survive.”
"It's all Zhou Jian'an's fault..." At this point, Old Ding remembered that they had been to Zhou Jian'an's place. The two exchanged a glance, then rushed into Zhou Jian'an's house with hopeful anger. The house was empty. They climbed in through the window, took a television, some pots and pans, and then hired someone to move the wardrobe and blankets.
But these things are worthless.
Go to the wholesale market, buy as much as you want for 100 yuan, they've invested hundreds of thousands!
Old Ding alone has 170,000!
The police originally sent Zhou Huilan back to investigate the mutual aid society's accounts, and they did manage to find out quite a bit about the society. However, Zhou Huilan and Zhou Jian'an escaped, and the money disappeared without a trace.
“They transferred the money to an account in Guangdong Province, and from there they transferred it to Hong Kong. Hong Kong hasn’t been returned to China yet, and the police there aren’t very cooperative, so we can’t find out whose account the money went into,” Cheng Lanjun said.
These days, without computers and with underdeveloped technology, auditing accounts requires going to the site to see the ledgers. Auditing accounts across cities is difficult enough, let alone across borders.
The situation in Hong Kong is special; it will be more than ten years before the handover. The Hong Kong police are not cooperating, and there's nothing they can do.
At noon, bad news came: someone from the mutual aid society had died!
The deceased was a crazed member who originally intended to kill Zhou Huilan and her group. However, when he set the fire, he lost control of the flames, and the gasoline drum exploded, killing him.
The death of someone changes the nature of the situation. In a place like Beijing, such a thing cannot happen. Cheng Lanjun led her people to the mutual aid association, arrested Zhou Huilan and her group, and took away the rioting members, finally calming down the riot.
Old Ding grabbed Cheng Lanjun's arm and asked in a low voice, "Comrade, is the mutual aid society out of money?"
Cheng Lanjun looked at him with sympathy. Old Ding was about the same age as her father. These people worked hard all their lives, reluctant to eat or dress well, and were stingy with their children. They saved up some money to support themselves in their old age, but they gave it all to swindlers.
"As far as we know, all the accounts have been transferred. The mutual aid society has no money in its accounts. Zhou Huilan and the others are scapegoats. Right now, the only way to compensate you is to bring Zhou Fangchun and Zhou Jian'an back and recover the money from overseas."
This was the first time Old Ding had learned that the two were siblings.
Recovering the money overseas? His heart sank completely. That was no easy task, and it seemed like an endless wait. He was almost sixty years old. Even if he could wait, his wife's workplace wouldn't. How would they explain it to the government?
Back home, Lao Ding remained silent, while his wife hesitated to speak. After a long while, the couple exchanged a glance and said nothing, silently picking vegetables and cooking. They cooked the only meat they had at home, opened a bottle of Moutai that they were reluctant to drink, and ate canned oranges that they usually couldn't afford.
That evening, Ding Da heard about the incident at the mutual aid association. Fearing that the elderly couple might do something rash, he brought over two pounds of meat to comfort them. But as soon as he reached the door, he sensed something was wrong.
The doors were locked, the windows were tightly shut, and even in broad daylight, the curtains were drawn.
"Uncle, Aunt... Uncle, Uncle, open the door!" Ding Da frantically pulled on the door. A neighbor poked his head out and said, "Old Ding often keeps his spare key under that short pine tree by the door."
When Dingda found the key and opened the door, his uncle and aunt had already passed away.
The elderly couple, having eaten and drunk their fill, committed suicide by burning charcoal.
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