Chapter 9: A Scene in Front of the Village General Store
Thoughts churned endlessly in Xiao Liang’s mind. Sleep never came. By the time he realized it, daylight had already flooded the sky outside the window.
In the end, he decided on a simple first step: obtain preliminary evidence proving that Xiao Yujun had embezzled collective assets.
Timing it carefully, Xiao Liang returned to the snack shop across from He Hong’s parents’ house. He bought a steamer basket of soup dumplings and sat inside, eating them slowly, savoring each bite.
When he saw He Hong’s mother come out of the courtyard with Lin Xi, the girl struggling under a heavy schoolbag, Xiao Liang quietly slipped out through another alley and walked briskly to the bus stop at the crossroads.
“Auntie, taking Xiao Xi to school?” he greeted warmly.
As Bus No. 9 rolled toward the stop, Xiao Liang stepped forward and took the heavy schoolbag from the old woman’s hands without waiting for permission. Then he squeezed onto the bus through the rear door and pulled out money for the conductor.
“Two tickets to Yun She Town. One to Xiwei Dun Village.”
Although Xiao Yujun and his cronies were casting a net throughout Yun She, waiting for him to fall into it, there was no way even Xiao Yujun’s lackeys could monitor every corner of the town.
The two tickets to Yun She were for He Hong’s mother and Lin Xi.
The ticket to the previous stop—Xiwei Dun Village—was for Xiao Liang himself.
Early morning buses into the countryside were nearly empty. Xiao Liang sat with them near the back, chatting casually as the bus rumbled along.
He had a naturally gentle, trustworthy face, the kind that easily disarmed people. And he knew how to talk. With the groundwork laid the night before, by the time the bus reached Xiwei Dun Village, He Hong’s mother had grown positively talkative.
She chatted freely, almost baring her heart to him—including where her son-in-law, Lin Xue Tong, was currently working in the county.
Still, when the subject turned to Lin Xue Tong, the old woman’s tone grew complicated.
“Next stop, Xiwei Dun Village! Passengers getting off, prepare!”
The conductor announced the stop in a voice as mechanical as a machine.
Looking out the window, Xiao Liang saw the bus stop sign ahead—a white board with blue lettering—standing alone beside the rural road in front of a row of self-built single-story houses.
There were seven or eight units in that row, each with a courtyard behind them. Above the doors hung hand-painted signs in red and white:
“Gu Xiong Wholesale Depot”
“Pinghou Barber Shop”
“Er Mazi Pork Head Meat”
“Xiaohong Cloth Samples”
Several villagers had spread out snakeskin sacks along the roadside, selling freshly picked vegetables and fish they had just caught.
The wholesale store had the largest storefront. A cement patch had been poured in front of it, and stacks of beer crates leaned against the wall.
Though it wasn’t even eight yet, someone had already set up a small table to play chess outside. A few idle passersby stood nearby watching.
In 1994, this row of houses was the commercial center, cultural hub, and information exchange point of Xiwei Dun Village.
Seeing nothing suspicious, Xiao Liang stood and said goodbye to He Hong’s mother. Out of habit, he reached over and tugged lightly at the girl’s thick black ponytail.
Lin Xi’s body stiffened instantly.
Xiao Liang smiled faintly.
Once the bus stopped, he stepped off quickly.
In his previous life, Lin Xi had never explained why she disliked it—but she had always hated when he touched her braid.
Now he suspected the reason.
Xiao Yujun’s inappropriate intentions toward her had likely begun with small gestures like that—or perhaps had never gone beyond them yet.
—
Xiao Liang walked toward the wholesale store and glanced inside.
Behind the counter, Gu Peijun’s father, Gu Xiong, reclined lazily in a lounge chair. A radio rested in his hand as he listened to storyteller Shan Tianfang’s dramatic narration.
Xiao Liang didn’t go in immediately. Instead, he stood outside the storefront patiently watching the chess game.
Around him, spectators chatted idly. The villagers selling vegetables nearby also joined the gossip.
The topic, unsurprisingly, was the “major case” that had shaken Yun She over the past two days.
Rumors inevitably grew exaggerated as they passed from mouth to mouth. But the wildest version claimed that while being escorted, Xiao Liang had tried to escape by grabbing the steering wheel—causing the terrible car accident.
In their retelling, he had become a vicious criminal.
According to the chatter, the town had already mobilized the militia to assist the police in searching for him. Villages were being ordered to strengthen patrols and report suspicious strangers.
But judging from the villagers’ relaxed attitudes, no one seemed to be taking the order very seriously.
Around nine o’clock, another bus arrived from Yun She Town and stopped at the sign across the road.
Even before the bus fully pulled in, Xiao Liang noticed vague figures inside peering toward the wholesale store through dusty windows.
Only then did he calmly step into the village wholesale shop.
Gu Peijun’s father, Gu Xiong, had once been the head of the town’s supply station before retiring. Though over sixty, he looked surprisingly young.
Xiao Liang had met him twice before.
Still, Gu Xiong merely glanced at him briefly from his recliner behind the counter, paying little attention as he continued listening to the radio.
Satisfied that the man hadn’t recognized him, Xiao Liang picked up a lighter from a cardboard box of small goods on the counter, clicked it twice, and tossed a coin over.
Outside, the bus slowly pulled away.
Across the road, standing beside the bus stop sign, was none other than Suijing—wearing her police uniform.
She was staring coldly at two young men who had gotten off the bus behind her and were now following close behind.
Xiao Liang glanced at Gu Xiong.
The old man had straightened in his chair, his brows deeply furrowed, clearly sensing trouble approaching.
Xiao Liang was genuinely surprised.
He hadn’t expected Suijing to trace the trail here so quickly after he had tricked her into going to Yun She just yesterday morning.
And judging by Gu Xiong’s reaction, this wasn’t the first time she had come asking questions about the Gu family.
Someone in town must be pointing her in the right direction.
Xiao Liang had his suspicions, but there was no chance of asking her directly.
Outside, Suijing had already begun arguing with the two young men trailing her.
“You’ve been following me all the way here,” she snapped sharply. “What exactly do you want?”
“What, you think being a cop makes you special?” sneered one of them—a young man with a middle-parted haircut and a flashy floral shirt.
His eyes slid openly over the curves of her chest beneath the loose police uniform before drifting up to her face.
“This road belong to your family or something? We can’t walk it?”
The other youth, with a buzz cut, went even further—reaching out to shove her shoulder.
“So what if you’re a cop? Doesn’t mean you get to block ordinary people like a damn dog!”
Suijing’s reaction was lightning fast.
She grabbed his wrist, twisted it sharply downward—
“Ahhh!”
The buzz-cut youth cried out as his body folded sideways like a shrimp.
In the next instant she kicked the outside of his knee with brutal precision.
He shrieked and collapsed to the ground before he’d even managed to touch a hair on her head.
The floral-shirt youth lunged forward, grabbing at her collar while shouting theatrically:
“Police brutality! The cop’s beating people!”
Suijing had been on the force less than a year. She had never faced a scene like this before.
Which also meant she showed absolutely no restraint.
Her hand shot out in a clawing motion, locking onto the youth’s throat.
Then she drove a punch straight into his armpit.
He collapsed to his knees instantly.
A moment later she planted her foot hard on his neck, pinning him to the ground so he couldn’t move.
To Xiao Liang, her techniques were nothing more than flashy moves—perfectly adequate against street thugs, but crude.
Still, he couldn’t help thinking:
This woman is something else.
On this side of the road, the chess game stopped. The vegetable vendors abandoned their stalls.
A crowd rushed across the street to watch the commotion, quickly surrounding Suijing and the two troublemakers.
Inside the store, Xiao Liang handed Gu Xiong a cigarette.
“What’s going on out there?” a voice asked.
Gu Peijun had come out from the courtyard behind the shop.
“Probably that Officer Sui from the county bureau,” Gu Xiong muttered. “She came looking for you, most likely. But who knows where Xiao Mazi found these two punks—they jumped her the moment she got off the bus.”
He grabbed his son’s arm.
“Don’t go out there. Those punks are Xiao Mazi’s dogs. He sent them just to stir up trouble.”
“If Officer Sui comes back looking for you later, don’t show your face. You don’t want to get dragged into this mess.”
“I’m afraid staying out of it isn’t an option anymore, Secretary Gu.”
Xiao Liang flicked half an inch of ash from his cigarette and looked at the father and son with a faint smile.
“Secretary Gu?”
Gu Peijun finally looked closely at the young man standing before the counter.
Recognition struck him like lightning.
“Xiao… Officer Xiao?”
The young man half the town was currently searching for stood calmly in front of him.
Gu Peijun opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Xiao Liang smiled faintly.
Then his gaze shifted to Gu Xiong—deep and steady.
“Station Chief Gu,” he said quietly, “I already know that the report about the juice factory… was secretly thrown into my dorm room by Secretary Gu here.”
“If Xiao Mazi catches me, I might not be able to keep that little detail to myself.”
Gu Peijun was the deputy Party secretary of Nanting Village, only four or five years older than Xiao Liang.
After leaving the army three years earlier, he had joined the Nanting Juice Factory as a salesman.
He was extremely capable. Within a year, his performance had surpassed most of his colleagues, earning him a promotion to deputy head of the sales department.
It was also during that time that he discovered Xiao Yujun had effectively taken control of the factory, with severe corruption in the finances and procurement.
Gu Peijun clashed with Xiao Yujun repeatedly.
Soon afterward he was pushed out of the factory and forced back to work at the Nanting Village committee.
Unable to tolerate Xiao Yujun’s blatant looting of village assets, Gu Peijun had waited half a year before anonymously reporting the corruption to the town government.
Later, when Xiao Liang was assigned to audit the village committee and the juice factory, Gu Peijun believed the town might finally be taking the issue seriously.
So he secretly delivered even more detailed evidence—slipping it into Xiao Liang’s dorm room.
Indeed, it was that evidence that allowed Xiao Liang to uncover even deeper financial irregularities during the audit.
Although Xiao Liang had only learned these details later in his previous life—after being acquitted and returning to Yun She—he knew one thing clearly:
When the false accusations were made against him, Gu Peijun had not distanced himself like everyone else in town.
Instead, Gu Peijun had stepped forward and publicly reported Xiao Yujun and He Hong for falsifying financial records and embezzling village assets.
He was also one of the few people who openly questioned the accusation that Xiao Liang had assaulted He Hong.
Unfortunately, Gu Peijun had ultimately failed to bring Xiao Yujun down.
He had suffered retaliation and eventually been forced to leave Dongzhou entirely.
If there was anyone in Yun She who would still believe in his innocence, Xiao Liang thought of Gu Peijun first.
And he believed that if he came here now, Gu Peijun wouldn’t turn his back on him.
But Gu Peijun’s father, Gu Xiong, had spent his whole life navigating grassroots politics. Caution had become second nature to him.
He feared nothing more than his son getting entangled in this dangerous conflict.
Xiao Liang locked eyes with him, his gaze calm and unwavering.
The message was clear:
Your son is already involved.
There’s no walking away now.
“Xiulan! Xiulan!”
Gu Xiong stared at Xiao Liang for a long moment. Something in the young man’s composure—so calm, so steady, nothing like a fugitive on the run—made him hesitate.
Then he shouted toward the back of the house.
“Don’t tell anyone Peijun is here! Just mind the front of the shop—don’t let anyone come into the back!”
He hurried into the courtyard, dragged his wife out to watch the storefront, and without answering her questions pulled Xiao Liang and Gu Peijun into the rear yard.
The door from the shop to the courtyard slammed shut.
And he locked it from the inside.
