Director Zhang furrowed his brows. Although state-owned units weren’t supposed to care too much about revenue, a sudden drop like the one in Xipo Town would definitely draw close scrutiny from the higher-ups.
The concern wasn’t about low earnings, but rather the fear that there were “moths” eating away inside.
Director Zhang looked down at the restaurant accounts he had copied. Starting from last year, the sudden drop in income was abnormal. Xipo Town hadn’t changed cooks, so why would business suddenly decline so much?
There had to be something fishy going on inside.
Without resting for long, Director Zhang went out again. When he reached the restaurant, he discovered that it still hadn’t opened.
His brows furrowed so tightly they could crush a mosquito:
“It’s already twelve o’clock, and they’re not opening for lunch service?”
That was simply outrageous!
At that moment, the two who had gone around town to make inquiries also came back.
“Leader, we didn’t ask that many people, but we did pick up a few things. Everyone says the Xipo Town restaurant has barely been open since last winter.”
“I asked one woman—she said that last year she wanted to buy pig trotters, but for most of the first month after the New Year, the restaurant was closed.”
“Their closures don’t follow any pattern. Many people even said they thought the restaurant’s business was so good that it kept selling out early and closing.”
Good business? Having just gone over the accounts, Director Zhang didn’t believe that for a second.
“Mm. Pull yourselves together. Keep watch here for the next while, until they open their doors. I’ll head back to the county to check the personnel records for this restaurant’s workers.”
The more Director Zhang thought about it, the more uneasy he felt. A guess had begun to form in his mind, but it seemed too outrageous. How could a little town’s state-run restaurant dare to operate like this? In other places, never mind not opening at all—even if they opened late, there would be plenty of eyes watching them.
This was an audacity that was truly shocking.
So Director Zhang ran back and forth between the county and the town, while the inspection team stayed put in town, digging around and asking questions.
Finally, after seven or eight days of inquiries, the inspectors managed to get hold of a few waitresses.
The moment the officials showed up, those waitresses were scared half to death. Not one of them dared to deny anything—they each spilled whatever they knew.
Although they didn’t know exactly what Xie Yuejin had done, they knew enough to understand it wasn’t anything good.
By then, Director Zhang had pieced together most of the picture. And at last, on the very day that the restaurant finally reopened, he arrived with a group of men at its doors.
That morning, Xie Yuejin woke up to his eyelids twitching violently. He felt an ominous dread in his heart, but still forced himself to get up and head to the restaurant.
It had been shut for quite a few days already—time to open up again.
On the floor, his old mother turned over in her sleep, snoring soundly. His brothers too were sprawled all over the ground in awkward positions, still asleep. By now it was already eight or nine in the morning. In these times, everyone got up early; it was rare to find anyone still sleeping at this hour.
But his mother could sleep through anything.
Although Xie Yuejin was angry, there was nothing he could do about it.
He thought to himself, since this winter he’d had control of the purchasing, he had managed to pocket more money. Once spring came, he would send his parents and brothers back to the commune.
And then settle the Li family’s three hundred yuan once and for all.
While brushing his teeth, Xie Yuejin muttered to himself—otherwise, should he try to find work in the county town early next year?
Now that his old mother had tracked down where he lived, she would definitely keep coming to him in the future. In the past she never came because she didn’t dare to leave the house, always afraid something might happen on the road. They had lived in the countryside for so many years that not only did they never go to the county, they didn’t even dare come to the town, fearing others would bully them.
But this time, with the family starving, his mother had actually forced herself to come. And once she arrived, she refused to leave.
The key thing was that Xie Yuejin’s mother was the sort of person who, as long as there was food and drink in front of her, wouldn’t budge until it was completely gone.
Even Xie Yuejin himself had to admit defeat to her. He didn’t keep much food in his rented room—after all, he ate and drank at the restaurant. At home, he only left some dry noodles in case he got hungry at night.
But once his mother arrived, she zeroed in on the food at home and ate it up.
She only ate without lifting a finger. The house went completely unkept, she ate and then went right back to sleep, and even when she went out to wander about she wouldn’t wash a single piece of his clothing.
Whenever Xie Yuejin brought it up, she acted all aggrieved, saying his clothes weren’t dirty, so why wash them? Back in the countryside, she said, winter clothes weren’t washed until springtime anyway.
Xie Yuejin was too angry to even bother arguing. His mother didn’t ask him for things, didn’t demand clothes—her one and only concern was food and drink.
His father was the same. As long as there was food near his mouth, that was enough. He wouldn’t even get out of bed, staying motionless for as long as he could.
How could Xie Yuejin not know by now? These people had long since become utterly lazy.
It was the same back in their commune. Very few households had grain stored. If they did, they wouldn’t lift a finger. They’d rather sit and eat up the stored grain, then starve and wait for relief.
In these past years, if not for the production team cadres forcing them into the fields, they probably wouldn’t even have bothered to earn their rations.
With a gloomy face, Xie Yuejin left the house.
When he arrived at the restaurant, he immediately noticed several grim-faced men sitting there.
Before he could step forward to greet them, two of them had already moved in and restrained him.
Director Zhang didn’t hesitate either—Wan Guodong was also seized in the kitchen and pressed into submission. The two were questioned separately, and the questions came sharper and sharper.
Of course, Xie Yuejin had arranged everything seamlessly. His books were perfectly clean, leaving nothing for people to find. Even if they got him for not opening the restaurant or for cooking the books, anything beyond that would be hard to pin down. So he stiffly insisted that he had only taken a little from the restaurant, nothing more.
He was stubborn—but Wan Guodong was his weak link.
Wan Guodong had been basking in the joy of making money all this time, never once imagining that the scheme might be exposed!
When the inspectors had him pinned to the floor, Wan Guodong seemed to wake from a dream, so terrified that he couldn’t even stand upright.
All the excuses that Xie Yuejin had previously fed him flew clean out of his head. All he could do was cry and beg the inspectors for mercy.
Seeing this, Director Zhang quickly shifted the focus to Wan Guodong.
Wan Guodong spilled everything like beans pouring from a bamboo tube—one breath, all of it.
What he confessed made the entire inspection team suck in a breath of cold air.
“You people are far too bold!”
They had actually dared to embezzle state property like this!
Wan Guodong’s face was covered in snot and tears:
“Leader! I was wrong, leader! It was all Xie Yuejin, it was all him! He dragged me down with him!”
The moment Xie Yuejin heard Wan Guodong wailing, he knew everything was over.
He gave a bitter, self-mocking smile. Hearing Wan Guodong push all the blame onto him, for the first time he didn’t bother to put on a friendly face for him:
“Yes, it’s all my fault. Wasn’t it you grinning ear to ear every time you heard the news? Wasn’t it you who happily let me keep the place shut the entire winter? Wasn’t it you who came every few days to take things home to eat?”
Wan Guodong cursed out loud. At this point, he was truly terrified.
He hated Xie Yuejin for dragging him onto this road of no return.
Director Zhang flipped through the papers in his hand:
“You also have a cook in your restaurant named Xu Shuang?”
Wan Guodong quickly responded:
“Yes, yes, yes! There’s also him!”
Director Zhang lifted his eyelids slightly:
“Does he know about this matter?”
Wan Guodong couldn’t wait to drag Xu Shuang down with him. Right now, he was hoping that the more people involved, the lighter his own crime might be.
But after Wan Guodong’s upside-down account, Xie Yuejin finally spoke:
“He doesn’t.”
Wan Guodong looked incredulous, but Xie Yuejin remained very calm:
“He got married last year and had to return to his village for the New Year, so he didn’t know. Of course, it was also because he took leave that I was able to do this. If he had been here, I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off.”
Director Zhang was half convinced, half doubtful, and ordered someone to bring Xu Shuang over.
When Xu Shuang and Wang Ying arrived, this was the scene they saw—
Wan Guodong and Xie Yuejin pale as earth, with several men wearing armbands standing beside them. Clearly, the Revolutionary Committee had already been called in. A few waitresses stood off to the side, heads hanging in dejection, while someone questioned them and took notes.
The moment Xu Shuang and Wang Ying appeared, even though their legs were still caked in black mud from trudging through the fields, when the two stood together they looked just like a golden boy and jade maiden.
In the midst of such a troublesome official matter, the appearance of two attractive young people even softened Director Zhang’s tone.
“Comrade Xu, I’d like to ask—did you know about the little tricks Xie Yuejin and Wan Guodong were pulling inside the restaurant?”
Xu Shuang was silent for a moment:
“I did.”
“But I only found out after the beginning of last spring. I don’t know much about the details.”
Director Zhang nodded. That matched up with what Xie Yuejin had said—things started last year.
“Then why didn’t you report it to the higher-ups?”
Xu Shuang replied:
“First, there was the issue of evidence. Second… were you expecting me to report it to Wan Guodong?”
Before Director Zhang could say anything, a young inspector on the side spoke up:
“Then why didn’t you report it even further up the chain?”
Wang Ying wasn’t having it. She stepped forward and said:
“Comrade, you should think carefully before you speak. Our Xu Shuang is a cook. Isn’t a cook’s duty to simply make good meals? The restaurant’s internal management issues aren’t his responsibility at all. Yes, before, he had to handle everything inside and out by himself. But doesn’t the greater responsibility lie with Wan Guodong?”
“As for what you said about reporting—without evidence, were we supposed to just use our mouths to accuse someone? If the report didn’t succeed, how would Xu Shuang be able to keep working in the restaurant? Besides, Xu Shuang only noticed something after the beginning of last spring, and by the time it was late last year, heading into winter, Wan Guodong had already told him to take several days off ahead of time. How can you still believe he could have gotten any evidence?”
“This here is the proof of inventory Xu Shuang did every year at the turn of winter and spring. It has both Xie Yuejin’s and Wan Guodong’s signatures. Since he was already on leave, how could the problems in the restaurant be blamed on him?”
Wang Ying shoved the proof into Director Zhang’s hands, and the young man who had spoken earlier fell silent.
Director Zhang checked the document, then cross-referenced it with the accounts after last spring. Finally, he nodded:
“Indeed, this checks out.”
Since the relevant personnel had already been identified, Director Zhang didn’t waste further words. He took away the restaurant’s account books and some evidence, preparing to continue the investigation later.
The inspectors and the Revolutionary Committee members took Wan Guodong and Xie Yuejin away. The waitresses weren’t taken, but the ones left behind all looked ashen, fully aware that their jobs wouldn’t last much longer.
Xu Shuang kept his head down, tidied the place up once, but couldn’t decide what to do. In the end, he simply closed the doors and told the waitresses to go home.
On the way back, Wang Ying gently tugged Xu Shuang’s hand.
Xu Shuang turned his hand over and clasped hers, softly saying:
“Xie Yuejin…”
Wang Ying understood what he meant:
“When the sentence comes down, you should go see him. When I watched him leave just now, it looked like he had something he wanted to say to you.”
Xu Shuang gave a quiet nod of acknowledgment.
He had thought such days would drag on for a while longer, but within just two days, Chen Dong actually appeared outside the Seventh Brigade.
Chen Dong was wearing a pair of rubber shoes. Though they had been beaten up by the road, he still looked much better than Xu Shuang and Wang Ying had that day.
Wang Ying happily served him a bowl of corn-silk and apple tea.
Chen Dong gulped a few mouthfuls, finally caught his breath, and complained:
“The road to your brigade is too hard to walk!”
On the way over, he had nearly ruined his rubber shoes.
Xu Shuang asked:
“What are you doing here at this time? The fields aren’t even thawed yet.”
Chen Dong rolled his eyes at his apprentice:
“Obviously, it’s because of you.”
“The leadership decided—you’re being appointed as the director of the state-owned restaurant in town. You’ve been promoted. Happy or not?”
