Chapter 15: Preparing for an Open Heist

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Fang Xiaoying’s words silenced everyone once more.

Su Qiao’s heart was a tangled mess of emotions as well. She raised a hand and gently stroked Fang Xiaoying’s hair, then told her in the most tender voice she could muster, “Our Xiaoying should get a good night’s sleep. Once it’s daylight, we’ll ride Uncle Ye’s car home.”

“Mm.” Fang Xiaoying slowly closed her eyes. She did not dare tell her mother that she was dizzy. She was afraid that if her dizziness delayed their journey home, they would have to stay even longer.

She wanted to go home. She did not want to remain here another moment, so she endured it in silence.

After finishing his noodles, Ye Ting went outside again.

Su Qiao took twenty yuan and two jin of national grain coupons from her pocket and handed them to Su Mu. “Take this money. Tomorrow, you’ll take Xiaofeng on the train. Use it for the tickets and whatever food you need.”

“Sis, I have money.”

“Take it.” With that, Su Qiao firmly shoved the money and grain coupons into his hands.

It was deep into the night. For some reason, Ye Ting felt restless, so he used his craving for a cigarette as an excuse to pull Su Mu out of the ward.

“Commander Ye?”

“Let’s go outside for a smoke.”

Su Mu was about to say that he did not smoke, but then he thought that Commander Ye had asked him along because he thought highly of him. He obediently followed.

The young soldier who had driven the car silently followed behind them.

As soon as Ye Ting stepped out of the clinic, he saw a large locust tree nearby. He led the way and leaned against its trunk.

Without giving it any thought, Su Mu squatted down beside him. The young driver cooperatively squatted on the other side.

The surroundings were pitch-black. Only the small lamp at the clinic entrance cast a dim, yellowish glow.

All was silent, as though the entire world had fallen asleep.

From his higher position in the darkness, Ye Ting looked down at the tops of the other two men’s heads. The sight was oddly amusing.

Little by little, the turmoil in his heart subsided.

Just as Ye Ting was about to say, “Let’s go back,” a disorderly series of footsteps came running toward them. Then the beam of a flashlight swept in their direction.

“Commander!”

“Commander Ye?”

“Don’t move.”

Su Mu and the young soldier obediently remained still.

Before long, the group reached the area outside the clinic. Judging by her voice, the person leading them was a young woman. Gritting her teeth, she said to a young man, “Liang Wu, that slut Fang Xiaoying and her mother are inside the clinic. You have to help me get revenge tonight.”

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“How?”

“I heard my father say that Fang Xiaoying’s mother brought two men with her. Once you get inside, beat them up first, without asking any questions. Then accuse them of immoral conduct and search them.”

“The brothers are more than willing.”

“That slut Fang Xiaoying’s mother extorted a whole thousand yuan from my family.”

“Damn, your family is really rich.”

“That was every penny our family had. My sister’s and my dowries were all in it. My father even borrowed money from the village head and the brigade leader.” The more Chen Damei thought about it, the more unwilling she became. “Why should that slut get our family’s money? What makes her worthy of it?”

Su Mu was furious enough to spit fire. He wanted nothing more than to rush out immediately, but Ye Ting pressed down on his shoulder.

Ye Ting shook his head, signaling him to wait a little longer and see whether they had anything else to say.

Liang Wu’s mind was occupied entirely by that thousand yuan. Nothing else mattered anymore.

When Chen Damei saw that Liang Wu was not responding, she shoved him hard. “Liang Wu, are you listening to me?”

“I am. How much are you giving us when this is done?”

“You’re my man, and you still want a reward from me? Are you stupid?”

Hearing Chen Damei call him stupid put Liang Wu in a foul mood. But when he thought of the thousand yuan, he decided to put up with her for now. He could deal with her after he had the money in hand.

“Chen Damei, I may be your man, but my brothers can’t work for nothing.”

“What do you mean, work for nothing? I’ve never seen you ask for a reward when you go looting other people’s homes.”

Liang Wu thought to himself that they had always taken whatever benefits they wanted during those raids, but he could not say that aloud.

When Chen Damei saw him fall silent again, she nearly stamped her feet. She had a fiery temper. If she had not needed Liang Wu to help her seize back that thousand yuan, she would have lost her temper long ago.

Afraid that she might say something even more inappropriate, Liang Wu hastily came up with an excuse. “It’s pitch-black outside, and we brothers came all this way. You should at least treat everyone to a meal.”

“Then, once you get the money back, I’ll give you five yuan. Will that do?”

“Five yuan…”

The several young men who followed Liang Wu all thought his girl was unbelievably stingy.

They were helping her recover a thousand yuan. No one expected her to split it down the middle, but she should at least give them a hundred or so. Yet Chen Damei had opened her mouth so wide only to offer them five yuan, as if she took them for beggars.

Chen Damei still did not think she had done anything wrong. She continued haggling with Liang Wu. “Spend that five yuan carefully. It’ll be enough to last you a month.”

Liang Wu wondered how he had never realized before that Chen Damei was so hopelessly vulgar.

The other brothers thought that one glance at Chen Damei’s face was enough to tell she would only drag them down. And with a greedy, insatiable mother like hers, they could not understand what Brother Liang saw in her.

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Liang Wu thought that if her brother had not been promoted to officer in the army, would he ever have looked twice at her? She was dark and coarse, without a trace of a young woman’s delicacy, and she had learned a whole mouthful of filthy language from her mother.

Sometimes he even wanted to ask Chen Damei’s ancestors how all the dregs accumulated by the Chen family over several hundred years had managed to converge in one person.

And the most revolting part was that, ugly as she was, she was also unbearably affected and fussy.

Liang Wu could no longer help secretly asking himself what exactly he was getting out of being with Chen Damei.

When one of the younger men beside him saw Liang Wu drift off again, he jabbed him with an elbow. “Brother Liang?”

“Ah!”

“Brother Liang?”

Liang Wu suddenly thought of a good plan. He pulled the underling he trusted most aside, moving closer to where Ye Ting and Su Mu were hiding.

“Li Chao, once we go in, you have only one task: find the money.”

“Yes, Brother Liang.”

“After you find it, put it in your pocket first. Don’t say a word.”

“Understood, Brother Liang.”

Liang Wu gave Li Chao two more instructions, then prepared to return and lead everyone in a charge into the clinic.

But just as he was about to turn around, three figures emerged from the shadows of the large locust tree nearby.

“Damn!”

The sudden appearance of the shadows frightened Liang Wu so badly that he nearly wet himself. If he had not clamped his thighs tightly together, he would already have lost control. “Who… who are you?”

Ye Ting said nothing. He walked to the clinic entrance and stood expressionlessly in the dim yellow light.

The sudden appearance of Ye Ting and the other two men startled the young men wearing red armbands.

After a long moment, someone cried out, “They’re soldiers!”

“Brother Liang, his uniform has four pockets.”

In those days, anyone with even a little common sense knew that a four-pocket military uniform meant the wearer was an officer.

These young men might usually strut around like crabs, as arrogant as they pleased, but…