At first, she only dared to underreport the cost of one item of clothing or one accessory each day. Gradually, seeing that Xia Liang wasn't coming to the store anymore, she became dissatisfied with those meager earnings and started underreporting two or three items each day. Her appetite grew larger and larger until yesterday, when she secretly pocketed nearly half of the sales revenue. She originally planned to quit after a while and use the money she'd saved to open her own shop. Like her sister-in-law said, working for someone else is nothing compared to being your own boss. How much can you earn working for someone else? How much can you earn as a boss? Especially after seeing Xia Liang arrive in a car today, she felt even more resentful. She wanted to live a life of privilege and never again be as humble as a dog.
Xia Liang said bluntly, "Just tell me how much money you've embezzled. I don't want to go through the details with you. You'd better be honest." Zhang Ting stammered, "One, one thousand yuan." She was hoping to get away with underreporting, thinking Xia Liang wouldn't check every single penny, right? Hearing her words, Xia Liang knew she wouldn't admit it until she was faced with a real problem. She grabbed Zhang Ting's arm that was clinging to her leg and twisted it behind her back. Zhang Ting instantly turned her back, and Xia Liang kicked her in the back of the knee, causing her to kneel down. Xia Liang grabbed a strip of cloth from the side, tied Zhang Ting's hands behind her back, and dragged her to the police station by her collar.
Xia Liang drove directly to the police station. The police officers, upon seeing the car, initially thought it was a superior coming to inspect and were quite startled. Just as they were getting ready to greet the leader, a woman got out of the driver's seat and pulled another woman out of the back door. The officers in the station were completely bewildered. What was going on? One of the middle-aged officers stepped forward and asked, "Ladies, what's going on here?" Xia Liang threw the sobbing Zhang Ting in front of the officers: "Officers, this person is an employee of my shop, but not only does she not work properly, she also embezzled my sales revenue. I went to check the accounts with her and discovered that she had hidden the sales revenue. Originally, I didn't intend to make things difficult for her if she confessed honestly, but she wouldn't admit it until she was forced to, so I had no choice but to bring her here to you."
The middle-aged policeman gestured to the young officer watching the commotion to take Zhang Ting to the interrogation room. He then turned to Xia Liang with a smile and said, "Comrade, please wait outside for a moment. We'll let you know when we have the interrogation results." Xia Liang could only politely thank him, "Thank you very much, officer." The middle-aged policeman smiled and said, "Serving the people is nothing to be polite about." After watching the young officer lead Zhang Ting into the interrogation room, Xia Liang sat down on the wooden bench outside to wait for the results.
When Zhang Ting saw that Xia Liang had actually taken her to the police station, she was terrified. Who the hell would go to a police station?! Only when she sat in the chair in the interrogation room did Zhang Ting feel a sense of relief, followed by endless fear. Would she be imprisoned? If she really was imprisoned, her life would be over! How could she find a good husband after that? Her family would never let her go back! Only at this moment did Zhang Ting realize how stupid she had been. If she had worked honestly as before, she could have earned two or three hundred yuan a month, more than some cadres. It was all her mother's fault, all her sister-in-law's fault.
At this moment, Zhang Ting was already in tears. Before the young policeman could even ask her any questions, she honestly confessed everything, including how much money she had taken.
Xia Liang had been waiting outside for the results, but she hadn't expected it to be so quick. She barely had time to sit down before the young policeman who had just gone in came out. Seeing his grave expression, Xia Liang assumed Zhang Ting had done something drastic, and a wave of unease washed over her. To her surprise, the young policeman told her directly, "She confessed to everything. She embezzled over 13,000 yuan from you." The young policeman was shocked. A small clothing store could generate so much revenue in a month, while he worked so hard and only earned a few dozen yuan a month. For a moment, he felt a pang of resentment, but thankfully, he was a clear-headed person. He knew he was a servant of the people; how could he be envious of how much money the people earned? He shouldn't forget his ideals and aspirations.
Xia Liang thanked her and left, saying she would come back on the day Zhang Ting's verdict was handed down. With that, Xia Liang thanked her again, drove home, and glanced at her watch. The two children must have already come home from school! She wondered if they would be worried about not seeing her! It was all that damned Zhang Ting's fault! Why did she have to cause me so much trouble?
When Xia Liang returned home, her two children greeted her as soon as she opened the door, asking with concern, "Mom, why are you only coming back now? Did something happen?" Xia Liang took one child in each hand and led them inside, explaining, "One of the shop assistants stole some of the day's cash, so I took her to the police station." She wanted her children to grow up happily, but people's hearts are so treacherous. If she didn't let them understand society early on, she feared they would be too naive to shoulder the responsibilities later, since she would eventually have to hand over her business to them.
The eldest daughter, Yunxi, asked, "Mom, what exactly happened?" Xia Liang patiently explained to her daughter, "It's that shop furthest from our house. The saleswoman there is named Zhang Ting. I don't know if you remember her. During the Spring Festival, she probably showed off her wealth when she went home, and her mother and sister-in-law egged her on, so she secretly embezzled the shop's sales revenue. When I checked the accounts that day, I immediately noticed something fishy. I was thinking that as long as she honestly admitted it and handed over the sales revenue, I would punish her. After all, she's a pitiful child who was abandoned by her own parents." "She was a woman, but who knew she'd try to outsmart me even when she was about to die? I had to take her to the police station, and she's still there. I reckon she'll get a few years in prison." Once inside, Xia Liang took a sip of water and continued, "So, whatever you do in the future, you need to be aware of what you're doing. If I hadn't been so familiar with the store's inventory and sales methods, she might have just run off with the profits. Then it would have been like searching for a needle in a haystack." Her younger daughter, Yuanzhi, was still quite young and didn't quite understand, while her older daughter, Yunxi, nodded thoughtfully without saying anything more.
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