"Uncle, I'm hungry."
The two of them had been wandering around in the mountains since early morning. Lu Yang had cooked millet porridge for breakfast, but it had all turned into water in no time.
An'an clutched her belly pitifully. Liu Jiandong sighed. They hadn't caught anything this morning. If they had caught a rabbit, they could have roasted it on the mountain and eaten it.
"What's wrong with Tie Dan? He lost something and didn't come back to look for it."
They had to wait here for quite a while.
"Could you take this downstairs?"
An'an knew that her uncle thought the large stack of papers was too heavy and didn't want to carry it down the mountain. Otherwise, they could have simply handed the papers over to the sentry at the entrance of the family compound and wouldn't have had to wait for Tiedan.
Liu Jiandong saw her squatting on the ground with a frown on her face, guessing that she was starving, and her voice was weak and listless.
I looked up at the sun above the trees again. Although the chances of it raining were slim, all the papers on the mountain would be ruined if it rained.
He had already done something bad today, and if he left this paper on the mountain to get soaked in the rain, Liu Jiandong would feel a rare pang of conscience.
"Never mind, it's what I owe him."
Liu Jiandong planned to take the things home first, and then deliver them to the entrance of the family compound after they had filled their stomachs.
"Just say we found it on the mountain."
An'an was a little puzzled, "If we found it, how would we know it belonged to Tie Dan?"
"...Then say we saw him fall."
————
"Hello?" The teacher in charge at No. 1 High School thought that the matter was over after returning the test papers, but unexpectedly received another call from Director Shen.
"It was indeed an accident. We sorted the papers and left them there waiting for you to come, but we accidentally took the spare blank paper next to us."
Thinking that Director Shen was worried that the test papers had been tampered with, the person in charge repeatedly assured him that the seals were still intact and that no one had touched them.
"Wei Lan?" The teacher in charge thought for a while before finally realizing who this person was.
"Our teacher Liu's husband? Has she been transferred to the textile factory?"
Liu Cheng rarely mentioned his family at school. Apart from knowing that his father-in-law was very powerful and his wife was a leader in a machinery factory, no one knew anything else.
Shen Chunjiao paused for a few seconds on the other end of the phone, just as she had guessed.
Wei Lan.
"Mr. Liu was not among the teachers who graded the papers this time, but if he hadn't noticed this morning, we wouldn't have realized that we had mixed up the test papers."
After hanging up the phone, Shen Chunjiao looked up at Director Zhang; neither of them could figure it out.
"When the sealed exam papers were delivered, I checked them carefully. The official seals and seals on them were intact, and no one had ever tampered with them."
Aside from Wei Lan, who had always wanted to be in charge of the exam alone, Shen Chunjiao couldn't think of anyone else who would cause an accident with the exam papers.
She knew from the beginning that this couldn't have been an accident.
There's just no evidence.
Wei Lan's connection with the school was through her husband.
"What was his purpose in doing this? He actually helped us."
Director Zhang is right. Her husband is a colleague of a teacher at the No. 1 High School. If he wanted to, he might be able to interfere with the grading of the exam papers.
But they didn't tamper with the exam papers until they were sealed and ready to be delivered. Instead, they made a blunder by sending over a fake one, which Wei Lan was unaware of and even tried to get the fake exam papers out.
"It might just be an accident. The school made a mistake, but Wei Lan doesn't know it."
"So what should we do next?"
Shen Chunjiao tapped the table with her fingers. Wei Lan had stolen the exam papers, disrupting the factory's progress and greatly damaging the factory's interests. It was impossible to keep such a person in the factory as the deputy director.
But all of this is just their speculation; although the logic is correct, there is no evidence.
"The security guard on duty last night said that Wei Lan left a long time ago and never came back."
"She has helpers."
————
"Oh dear, why are you back so late? Were you roasting rabbit in the mountains again?"
Lu Ronghui also had lunch at Aunt Tian's house today. They waited for quite a while before An'an and Liu Jiandong returned.
Aunt Tian wasn't too worried that An'an would go hungry. Although Liu Jiandong's hunting skills were average, he could always catch rabbits and various tits, which would fill his stomach.
"Are you going to eat or not?"
She thought the two of them were grilling something on the mountain as usual, but to her surprise, An'an ran over, picked up her rice bowl, and gulped down a whole bowl of rice.
"What's going on? Slow down, slow down, don't choke."
Liu Jiandong threw the stack of white papers onto the kang (a heated brick bed), then braced himself on his knees and took a deep breath.
It would be great if I had a basket to carry on my back; it's too tiring to hold it like this.
"What have you been doing? You haven't eaten anything this morning?"
The two people were either panting or drinking porridge, and neither of them had time to answer her. Lu Ronghui walked to the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) and casually flipped through the torn cover.
"Where did you get all this blank paper?"
Generally speaking, only schools and organizations prepare this much at once.
An'an put down her rice bowl and started telling Aunt Tian what had happened that morning. Aunt Tian listened while glaring at Liu Jiandong.
"Liu Jiandong, I think you'll only lead An'an astray."
They're already in junior high, and they'll be working in a year or two, but they act like three-year-olds, arguing with little kids and even taking their things.
"That's in the mountains! What if you scare him and something bad happens? What will you do then?"
Aunt Tian got angrier and angrier as she spoke, and grabbed a fire poker and hit Liu Jiandong on the shin. He yelled and jumped to the side.
"...I planned to return it to him after I finished reading it, but who would have thought he would run away so quickly."
"Come on, if something in your bag gets stolen and you leave the bag there, I bet you'll run faster than it does."
Aunt Tian ordered the two of them to return the things after finishing their meal and to give the other party something as an apology.
"uncle?"
An'an, holding her rice bowl, moved closer to Liu Jiandong and glanced at his calves with concern.
Liu Jiandong was furious with this girl. They had agreed not to tell anyone about this, but she just slurred it out.
"Nobody asked you anything, but you blurted it all out like beans spilling out. You got away with it, but I got beaten up."
An'an quickly apologized and handed him a bowl of porridge in a concierge manner.
Just then, Aunt Tian came in from outside. "Are you clumsy? You have to have a child bring you tea and water. Do you want me to carry you to the kang (heated brick bed)?"
Liu Jiandong touched his nose and quickly sat up straight.
After Aunt Tian left, Lu Ronghui asked them in detail.
"Looking flustered?"
Liu Jiandong nodded. "That's right. That kid looked like he was carrying a bomb."
Otherwise, he wouldn't be so curious.
"It's during class time, why is he acting so flustered in the mountains?"
"He skipped class!" Aunt Tian came back from outside with a scallion and overheard Lu Ronghui's words.
After she finished speaking, she glared fiercely at another student who had skipped class.
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