Xu Shengnan had never dealt with the police in either of her lives. Her previous tendency to yell at the police was simply because people in this era were instinctively afraid of them, and she was just trying to scare them. Now that she's been arrested and taken to the station, she's already terrified before the police have even done anything. She's really guilty!
The police had seen this kind of expression too many times; she was definitely guilty of a crime. The police continued to interrogate her, but Xu Shengnan refused to say anything, only saying that making money was her freedom and she wouldn't confess.
The source of the money was unclear, but the case couldn't be decided so carelessly. The police detained her and began an investigation starting from the fourth team, asking around to see if anyone had seen her and where she had been.
The county town wasn't big, and Xu Shengnan was beautiful, so almost everyone who saw her remembered her. Even later, when she learned to disguise herself by wearing hats and scarves, her features were still quite distinctive.
The main reason is that the police are currently investigating a major case, suspecting that a theft gang is stealing money and tickets in crowded places such as train stations, department stores, and supply and marketing cooperatives.
For several days in a row, different people came to the police station crying, saying how hard they had worked to get the tickets and how much money they had lost. Especially those who lost them at the train station, they usually carried a lot of money and tickets with them, and losing them would be a huge blow to their families. There was even a middle-aged woman who couldn't bear the shock and fell ill, and she is still in the hospital.
Police happened to arrest some ticket scalpers on the black market and detained several bicycle buyers at a bicycle sales point, making them reveal where their bicycle tickets came from. They discovered that eight out of ten people bought their tickets from a woman, and that she also sold watches, TV tickets, and other items.
In summary, the woman should be the same person. How could she have so many tickets? Based on their description, the woman wore a veil and refused to show her face, but it was vaguely discernible that she was quite pretty. The police immediately connected her with Xu Shengnan.
Xu Shengnan's dowry included quite a few nice things, all requiring ration coupons. Xu Shengnan clearly had neither money nor coupons. If she was the one who stole and resold the items, everything would make sense!
The police took a scarf and covered Xu Shengnan's head. Xu Shengnan was immediately terrified. Then she saw the police leading a group of people they had arrested to identify her. "Is it her?"
"Yes, yes, it's her!"
"It seems so. I didn't pay much attention, but it looks quite similar."
"It's her. I even dreamed about her last night. It must be her."
Xu Shengnan's face turned ashen, and her whole body trembled slightly. She desperately tried to recall if stealing in 1977 would result in execution. She couldn't remember! Wasn't the crackdown intensified in the 1980s? Was it less severe now? But she had stolen a lot; would she... would she be severely punished?
Xu Shengnan's reaction was quite obvious, and the police were overjoyed. This was the biggest case in the past two months that they had solved. If they hadn't found the person, they would definitely have been in trouble. They never expected that a case involving buying a job at the grain depot would give them such a big surprise.
Xu Shengnan's situation took a turn for the worse after that. She was taken into a small room and subjected to "strict" interrogation for less than five hours before she couldn't hold out any longer and confessed. However, she claimed she had no accomplices, which the police simply didn't believe. How could she have stolen so many times and so successfully without a gang? It seemed impossible.
Furthermore, their search of the two rooms belonging to Xu Shengnan and the leaky house she lived in after her marriage yielded nothing—no receipts or money. This was illogical; Xu Shengnan must have entrusted the items to her accomplices. Since she wouldn't reveal her accomplices, they naturally continued their interrogation.
But Xu Shengnan really did commit the crime herself. She has a spatial dimension, so she can sneak into crowded places and steal things without any fear. She can just throw things into her spatial dimension and no one will notice. She always wears clothes that obviously don't have pockets and can't hide anything, so even if someone loses something, they won't suspect her.
How could she possibly have accomplices? She really didn't! Stop interrogating her!
Xu Shengnan couldn't bear it any longer, so she secretly drank some spiritual spring water when no one was around. Only then did her body recover, and she couldn't help but burst into tears.
She didn't really intend to do this at first; she wanted to use the spiritual spring to hunt, but she was bitten by a poisonous snake and chased by a wild boar. She was traumatized and never dared to go into the mountains again.
She had considered growing flowers, but who in a small town would spend a lot of money to buy flowers? She didn't recognize any medicinal herbs either. Just when she was at her wit's end, the villagers pressured her to promise to pay back the money in a few days. She was so desperate that she resorted to this opportunistic trick, figuring that no one would know anyway.
Who would have thought that buying a job would land her in jail? The police even had to find so many people to identify her!
Xu Shengnan was truly terrified. She feared she would be executed. She had only been reborn not long ago, and she hadn't even had a good life yet. How could things have turned out like this? Heaven gave her a second chance at life, bestowed upon her a golden finger; shouldn't she be the lucky one in this world? Why had she been more and more unlucky since her rebirth?
The police interrogated Xu Shengnan for another three days, but still couldn't find out who her accomplices were, nor could they find her money and tickets. However, they found that she was in good health. Every time she looked like she was about to give up, she would recover after a short rest.
The police believed that she was unrepentant and refused to confess, which increased her crime. They also added up the number of all the lost tickets and calculated that the value of the stolen tickets was no less than 2,000 yuan, a huge amount that could not be let off lightly. She was sentenced to death by firing squad.
Meanwhile, the county police were also on high alert because Xu Shengnan refused to reveal her accomplices, indicating that they might be vicious criminals. Therefore, they needed to be extremely vigilant. Because of this, the police chief promised Xu Shengnan that if she revealed all her accomplices, they would consider commuting her sentence from execution to life imprisonment.
Xu Shengnan was suffering in silence, unable to express her bitterness because she had no accomplices! But how could she explain where her money and tickets were? They were all in her personal space!
In her moment of crisis, she thought of Xu Zifan. Wasn't Xu Zifan in the newspapers? Wasn't she a model citizen of the commune? She was Xu Zifan's granddaughter; shouldn't she receive some benefits, like a martyr's family member? At least her charges would be lighter, right?
Xu Shengnan thought about it more and more and it made sense. Didn't Xu Zifan save the life of some rich person? That person even repaid the favor. Maybe that person has some connections who can save her.
Xu Shengnan saw Xu Zifan as her only hope for saving her, and immediately clung to him as her lifeline. She hadn't even dealt with Xu Zifan yet; she'd only argued with him a few times. Surely he couldn't just watch his own granddaughter be executed?
Xu Shengnan urgently requested to see Xu Zifan from the police. Xu Zifan had just been reported and his presence throughout the county had become extremely prominent in the past few days; everyone knew his name. Originally, this connection might have been somewhat useful to Xu Shengnan, but Li Zhenhong had personally brought her in, and the police chief wasn't stupid. He could tell at a glance that Xu Zifan didn't like his granddaughter; he wasn't pretending, he genuinely didn't care.
So the police chief sent a policeman to talk to Xu Zifan and then interrogate Xu Shengnan the same way, determined to get her to talk and find out who her accomplices were.
Xu Shengnan suffered terribly in the detention center. Her cellmates, under orders from the police, constantly bullied her. Pulling her hair and slapping her were commonplace, and punching and kicking were the norm. When they finally had time to work and could stop bullying her, she was interrogated by the police again and forced to confess.
Xu Shengnan felt that she had never suffered so much in her previous life. It was like being in a living hell, worse than death. Her request to see Xu Zifan was like a stone sinking into the sea, without any response.
Xu Zifan certainly had no interest in seeing her. What did it matter to him whether she was well or not?
These past few days he's been learning to pickle garlic and eggplant, make sweet and sour garlic, sun-dry radish strips, and potato chips. He used to really dislike cooking, probably because he grew up in a slum and was used to being hungry as a child. For him, food was just something to fill his stomach; as long as he had something to eat, that was enough.
Back then, he didn't want to waste time cooking, especially those fancy dishes that required specific quantities and time limits, which he found too troublesome. He figured he'd rather spend that time negotiating a business deal. So he only ever knew how to cook simple dishes like tomato and egg, fried rice, and noodles, and even those weren't very tasty.
Now that he's started exploring these things, he's suddenly found them quite interesting. There are so many kinds of pickled vegetables alone. Carefully preparing them step by step, and then turning them into delicious food in a few days, gives him a real sense of accomplishment. He's having so much fun that he has no time to think about Xu Shengnan. When the police came over and explained their purpose, he immediately waved his hand and said he wouldn't go, adding that he had severed ties with all his relatives.
Now the police had even less to worry about and interrogated Xu Shengnan very frequently.
Xu Shengnan's face was bruised and swollen every day. She dared not drink the spiritual spring water. The prisoners who lived with her were ruthless and saw her every day. They were not as easy to fool as the villagers. If people found out that the bruises on her body had suddenly healed, she would have no way to explain herself.
However, because Xu Shengnan did not confess despite being injured, the police became increasingly suspicious and conducted another thorough investigation at the fourth and fifth teams. They also informed the Xu and Song families that Xu Shengnan would be sentenced to death by firing squad, so that the Xu and Song families could prepare themselves.
The villagers of Team 4 and Team 5 were shocked. They had thought about Xu Shengnan seducing rich people, or that she had found the treasure and sold it. They had thought of many, many possibilities, but they never thought that she had stolen it all!
In this era where many people like to recite quotations, theft is as serious as murder. Every household is poor, and it's not easy to save up anything. Theft is utterly shameful and should be condemned by everyone. Even Xu Dajun and Liu Xia are too ashamed to show their faces. It's too shameful!
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Song Xin proposed a divorce to Xu Shengnan. Even though divorce is generally frowned upon, no one said anything in this situation; on the contrary, everyone supported him.
The right thing to do is to distance yourself from bad elements. This isn't just the kind of bad element with a bad background; this is a shameless bad element who has committed crimes and is sentenced to death. We must get a divorce!
Song Xin went to see Xu Shengnan once. Xu Shengnan cried her eyes out and begged Song Xin to save her, "My grandfather must have a way. You and my grandfather are so close, please help me beg him. We've been husband and wife, please help me, I don't want to die..."
Song Xin said coldly, "If you don't want to die, you shouldn't have done that kind of thing. I won't plead for you. From today onwards, we have nothing to do with each other anymore." After he finished speaking, he turned around and left, feeling relieved. He was finally free.
"No! Song Xin, Song Xin, you can't abandon me, you can't do this to me..." Xu Shengnan looked at Song Xin's retreating figure, filled with despair. "What should I do? Someone save me, I don't want to die..."