Chapter 10

"Have them come and check whether it's the steel they lost."

"As for Song Jianshe, you'll have to come with us!"

The faces of Song Jianshe and the others changed instantly.

Song Jianshe was frantic, his hands trembling. "Officers, I'm innocent. Think about it. I'm a mail carrier. I make over sixty yuan a month. Why would I steal this steel?"

"Comrade, trust that the state won't wrong a good person or let a bad one go."

The officer's answer was calm and firm.

Seeing her son like this, Huang Xirong went pale with fright. Then she spotted a familiar face in the crowd and blurted out, "Officers, it was him! He stole it! It has nothing to do with our family!"

The man she pointed at was Zhang Dabiao!

Zhang Dabiao's mind went blank. He turned to run, but the crowd watching the spectacle blocked his way. The officers saw his reaction, and several rushed forward to pin him down.

"Let me go! I've got nothing to do with this!" Zhang Dabiao shouted from the ground. His cotton hat rolled through the dirty snow.

"If you've got nothing to do with it, why did you run?" An officer smacked the back of his head. "You're Zhang Dabiao, aren't you? You don't live here. Tell us what you're doing here."

"Officers, he stole it all. The rest of our family knew nothing about it."

Huang Xirong shouted at the top of her lungs. Zhang Dabiao glared at her through clenched teeth, his jaw tight.

The officers held him fast. "Whether your family knew or not, you're coming with us."

The officers weren't easy to fool.

From what Huang Xirong had just said, she clearly knew plenty. If the officers let her family go, they might as well quit their jobs.

As the officers led the Song Family adults and Zhang Dabiao away, the people in the compound kept talking.

"Who'd have thought the Song Family would be involved? Do you think what Huang Xirong said was true?"

"True, my ass. She couldn't keep her own story straight. Even the officers didn't believe her."

"Then how did Zhang Dabiao get mixed up with the Song Family?"

At that, Widow An coughed. "You haven't heard? A while back, I saw their daughter Song Mei and Dabiao pawing at each other. They looked pretty close."

Song Mei?

With Zhang Dabiao?

Everyone looked eager for gossip.

The courtyard manager frowned. "Song Mei's a perfectly decent girl. Why would she choose someone like him?"

Zhang Dabiao might swagger around outside as though he were somebody, but no respectable family would want him for a son-in-law.

"Who knows?" Auntie Sun sighed. "If Widow An's telling the truth, Song Mei's taste is awful. Any of the men she met on blind dates before would've been better!"

Exactly!

That got everyone talking about how picky the Song Family had been over Song Mei's prospects. Whenever someone introduced a man to her, she had found fault with one thing or another.

Of course, they understood that a young city woman with a job could afford to be choosy. But who would have guessed she would end up choosing him?

"Let's go home."

He Chunlian called her family inside.

Gu Yinxing was reluctant to leave. Only after He Chunlian glared at her did she pout, go in, and shut the door.

"Mom, what's wrong with letting me listen a little longer?" Gu Yinxing asked regretfully.

He Chunlian shot her a look. "Have you no sense? What good comes from listening to people gossip?"

"It makes me feel good!" Gu Yinxing said with a grin. She was pretty, and even when she openly laughed at someone else, it was hard not to like her.

He Chunlian felt a headache coming on.

"Don't get so carried away," she said. "They gossip about Song Mei behind her back, and they gossip about you too. What are your plans this year? What kind of man are you looking for?"

Gu Yinxing had never expected the conversation to turn on her. Looking awkward, she traced circles on the table with one finger. "What's the rush? Whoever I end up with will be wonderful, better than anyone else's. After all, I'm as pretty as my mom."

"I'll hold you to that."

He Chunlian couldn't help laughing.

Liang Ying laughed too. "Our Yin Xing is so pretty and sweet-tongued. She won't have any trouble finding a husband."

After sleeping through the night, Gu Yousi woke the next morning to find her father there and not in jail. She was thoroughly astonished.

"Ah, ah, ah." She reached her little hands toward Gu Jinshui.

Gu Jinshui picked her up. "Second Girl, did you miss Daddy? You little sleepyhead, you slept all last night."

"If she hadn't, you'd be the one suffering later," Liang Ying said as she combed her hair. She watched the father and daughter in the mirror, smiling.

While they were talking, they heard a commotion outside. It sounded as though Song Jianshe's family had returned.

Gu Jinshui carried the child to the doorway. From the threshold, he saw Song Jianshe's family enter the back courtyard, their faces haggard.

After a night at the police station, the whole family looked exhausted.

"Well, look at that. They didn't lock you up?"

Gu Jinshui gave a teasing whistle.

Song Jianshe's face turned livid. Without a word, he went straight inside.

Gu Jinshui met the hateful stares of Huang Xirong and her daughter and whistled again.

The Twelfth Day of Being Overheard

Gu Jinshui only had to ask around to find out what had happened the night before.

The Song Family had blamed everything on Zhang Dabiao, and Song Jianshe and the others had no opportunity to commit the theft. Zhang Dabiao tried to deny it, but the officers knew their business. They compared his footprints with those left at the steel factory and found a perfect match.

So Zhang Dabiao was arrested. The officers took several of his underlings in for questioning too.

Sun Yaozu, though, had run fast. He had vanished without a trace.

"That bastard got off easy!" Douzi was still grinding his teeth over it.

Gu Jinshui wasn't particularly upset. "What's there to be angry about? I had people spread the word that he ran off with seven or eight hundred yuan. If he gets a good night's sleep after that, I'll take his surname!"

"Brilliant, brother! You're the clever one!"

Douzi was full of admiration.

"Enough flattery," Gu Jinshui said with a laugh. "Dabiao's locked up, so his turf is ours. Over the next few days, see if you can find someone capable to watch over it. We'll split the take fifty-fifty. That'll save us trouble."

Zhang Dabiao's turf was sizable, spanning seven or eight alleys, and plenty of people coveted it. Gu Jinshui had no desire to take his men out fighting every other day. He would rather take a smaller cut and lend someone else his name.

Friendship Hospital.

Gu Yinxing, dressed in her white nurse's uniform, had checked on several patients and reported back to the doctor. At last, she had a moment to rest.

She had barely taken a sip of water in the office when someone tapped her shoulder.

Gu Yinxing jumped. She turned around and snapped, "Chen Deng Deng, are you trying to scare me to death first thing in the morning?"

Chen Deng Deng and several other nurses giggled.

"Yin Xing, got something to hide?" Chen Deng Deng asked.

Gu Yinxing snorted. "If you're so brave, don't squeal like a pig at slaughter when I scare you back."

Chen Deng Deng blushed. "All right, sorry. But Yin Xing, I wanted to ask you something."

"What is it?" Gu Yinxing asked.

"Everyone says Song Mei is seeing some big-time thug. You live in the same compound as her. Do you know anything about it?" Chen Deng Deng and the other nurses were plainly hungry for gossip.

Gu Yinxing was surprised. "You've heard about that already?"

"So it's true?!"

Chen Deng Deng had a grudge against Song Mei. Someone had once set her up with a young doctor from another hospital. She had gone to a state-run restaurant with him, only to run into Song Mei by chance.

Chen Deng Deng had politely invited her to join them, and Song Mei had sat right down. Throughout the meal, she peppered the doctor with questions and praise.

The doctor had never received such direct flattery from a woman. By the end of the meal, he couldn't remember a word Chen Deng Deng had said, but Song Mei had left quite an impression.

Chen Deng Deng came from a well-off family; both her parents worked at the Health Bureau. Afterward, she told them the doctor was no good. He regretted what had happened, but Chen Deng Deng had a temper. She wasn't about to take him back.

She wanted nothing more to do with the doctor, but she had hated Song Mei's flirtatious tricks ever since.

"Someone in our compound said they'd seen the two of them together, but as for what's really going on, I don't—"

Before Gu Yinxing could finish, someone grabbed her and yanked her out of the office.

When she recovered, she found herself face-to-face with Song Mei.

"So you're the one spreading these rumors around the hospital!" Song Mei's eyes were red with anger, and she looked ready to devour Gu Yinxing. "Gu Yinxing, how can you be so nasty? What did I ever do to you?"

The accusation came out of nowhere. Gu Yinxing wasn't one to be pushed around, either. She sneered. "You've got it wrong. I didn't start the rumors. Our hospital is so close to the compound, and your family made such a scene yesterday. Plenty of people are talking."

"If it wasn't you, what did I just hear?"

Song Mei clenched her fists. "Don't try to deny it, Gu Yinxing. You can't find a decent man, so you're trying to ruin my reputation and stop me from finding one. Isn't that it?"

What? Who couldn't find a decent man?

Gu Yinxing was so angry she almost laughed. "Song Mei, don't you have a mirror at home? Not even a chamber pot to see your reflection in? Who do you think you are, comparing yourself to me? Frankly, I couldn't be bothered talking about your sordid business. If you don't want people talking, don't let them catch you at it. Go ask around yourself. Everyone in the compound knows you've been pawing at Zhang Dabiao, and I'm not the one who told them!"

Gu Yinxing shook off Song Mei's hand and strode away.

She rounded a corner. A few steps later, she spotted a man in a military overcoat sitting on a corridor bench. He sat ramrod straight, wearing military boots, with a bearing that set him apart. Those sharp brows, that straight nose...

Gu Yinxing slowed as she walked.

Didn't he look like the soldier who'd helped her before?

Yan Ren covered his mouth and coughed. "Hello, Comrade Gu."

Gu Yinxing greeted him without thinking. "Hello. Wait, how do you know my surname?"

Yan Ren pointed to the name badge on her chest. Gu Yinxing looked down and realized. Her ears reddened with embarrassment. "What should I call you, comrade soldier?"

"My surname is Yan. Yan Ren. Yan as in strict, Ren as in resilience."

A faint smile crossed Yan Ren's lips as he looked at her embarrassed face.

"Oh. What brings you to the hospital, Comrade Yan?" Gu Yinxing wanted to turn and flee. He had been sitting there for who knew how long. Had he heard her argument with Song Mei?

She wanted to hit Song Mei with a brick.

I'm such a refined, polite lady, and Song Mei has ruined my image!

"An older relative is ill. I came to visit." Yan Ren glanced at his watch. "But I arrived early. He isn't awake yet."

"Oh." Gu Yinxing nodded, unsure what to say.

Chen Deng Deng came over just then. Seeing her talking with Yan Ren, she looked intrigued, but merely beckoned. "Yin Xing, the head nurse wants you."

"Got it."

Gu Yinxing answered, unsure whether she felt relieved or disappointed. She turned back to Yan Ren, pressing her fingers into her palm. "Then I should go—"

"You should get back to work," Yan Ren said.

They had spoken almost at the same time.

Gu Yinxing and Yan Ren exchanged a look, and both laughed.

Only after Chen Deng Deng had led Gu Yinxing some distance away did she ask, "What's going on? Are you two dating?"

"What nonsense. Nothing's happened," Gu Yinxing said as they walked. "Didn't you say the head nurse wanted me?"

"Oh, she does," Chen Deng Deng said. "You'd better hurry, or Song Mei will snatch the job."

They hurried to find the head nurse. When they caught up with her, she was coming out of a private patient room with Song Mei.

"Head nurse, were you looking for me?" Gu Yinxing asked first.

The head nurse glanced at her. "There's no need now. I've given the job to Song Mei. Get back to work."

Song Mei flashed Gu Yinxing a smug smile.

Gu Yinxing cursed inwardly.