Chapter 41.3

“Well then, I’m going to go to the outhouse. You guys talk.”

After the previous conversation, he had a very good impression of Lin Shiheng. Additionally, this beautiful girl was obviously the object of his affections, so the public security officer didn’t mind freeing up some time for this girl to comfort her boyfriend who almost had the calamity of going to jail.

Of course, more importantly, as a young man who hasn’t started his own family, seeing other people’s young love, it was quite embarrassing to just sit there pestering them.

As soon as the officer went out, Mother Lin also followed, while looking at the two young people in front of her with a loving smile. “I’ll go out to boil water as well. You two, feel free to talk.”

Good looks, good character, and was a student with good grades who will be going to college in the future.

When her family’s Shiheng encountered trouble, she would still rush over so quickly, regardless of how late it was or that it would arouse suspicion.

At the thought that such a good child might become her daughter-in-law in the future, Mother Lin couldn’t stop smiling even if she tried.

The two people went out, leaving just Lin Shiheng and Ke Jialing in the room.

***

Without the onlookers, Ke Jialing’s hand also stopped struggling, but her white face was still flushed. Her voice was usually crisp and pleasant but at this moment, unconsciously, she spoke a little more sweetly to her boyfriend. “Don’t do this next time. Others will see it as a joke.”

“What is there to joke about? We’re seriously a couple. It’s not like how it was a few years ago. What’s there to be afraid of if we held hands?”

Lin Shiheng took her to sit down with a smile, “Are your feet cold? Stomp a few times to get warmer.”

“It’s not cold.”

After the shyness passed a bit, Ke Jialing also remembered the purpose of her visit. The blush on her face faded a little and she lifted her pretty eyes to look worriedly at her boyfriend, “I heard that you were reported, will it be okay?”

“Don’t worry, my money came from a legitimate source. The public security will know as soon as they check, I’ll be fine in the morning.”

Lin Shiheng said it lightly, but Ke Jialing still couldn’t relax. She worried, “What if something goes wrong? I heard that it’s a direct order from the highest echelons now, it won’t be as simple as before.”

“How about this? If the source of your money isn’t clear, you can say I gave it to you. I’ve helped tutor middle school students before.”

She was serious offering this idea, but the handsome young man sitting across from her only smiled and stretched out his hand. His slender fingertips landed on Ke Jialing’s smooth cheek and gently pinched it, full of indulgence.

“It’s fine, I’ll take care of it. You just have to wait for me to become successful and come back to marry you.”

Ke Jialing was still talking then she suddenly froze as she heard this sentence, looking at the person in front of her in surprise. The place touched by his fingertips was a little red, as if it had been tinted.

The education she received and the environment she grew up in had made her shy and bewildered by what lovers say.

“Why do you always say such things without shame?”

“If I can’t say such a thing towards you, I don’t know who else I can say it to.”

Lin Shiheng directly took her shy words as flirting, wiggled his eyebrows at her, and grabbed the fair hands that had fallen to the girl’s sides again. Ignoring the fact that she tried to pull back in shock, he kept a firm grasp and advised in a slow tone.

“Be good, I’ll help you warm your hands and you can go home afterward. I will definitely be fine in the morning.”

“After the public security makes their announcement tomorrow, I’ll have to pack up and go to Shanghai. I had been prepared to leave for a while but I kept on getting delayed by things. I’ll write to you when I’m gone, remember to study and write back to me, okay?”

Ke Jialing, who was still trying to pull her hand back, was redirected by his words and opened her eyes slightly wider. “You have to leave so soon?”

Although she knew from before that her boyfriend was going to Shanghai, she didn’t realize how much she would miss him until he really needed to leave.

“It’s not considered soon. I had been preparing a lot during this time. You’re about to take the college entrance examination and will definitely be going to college. Of course, I will have to work harder to become a big boss to be worthy of you ah.”

Ke Jialing bit her lip and whispered something.

Lin Shiheng leaned over, “What?”

“Whether or not you are a big boss, I would still follow you.”

This time, her voice was slightly louder.

Saying such ‘scandalous’ words obviously had a great impact on the girl. After saying them, she hung her head and refused to raise her head again despite the coaxing from her sweetheart.

“But I want to be as outstanding as you.”

Seeing she refused to look up, Lin Shiheng reached out and patted her head, “It can’t be that after we get married and have children, we will also rely on you alone to support the family, right?”

The young officer heard these words as soon as he came in and couldn’t help but choke out a series of coughs.

As soon as Ke Jialing, who was still being patted, heard the voice of another person, she stood up as if she was scalded, bowed her head, and walked out with a red face in panic.

“I’ll first… I’ll go back first. It’s already late, my mom will be worried.”

Mother Lin was working the fire outside. Seeing her future daughter-in-law go out in a panic, she hurriedly shouted, “Jialing, it’s dark outside. I’ll send you.”

“No need, Aunt. I’ll be fine on my own, you don’t need to send me.”

Ke Jialing hurriedly declined and trotted out the door, trotting all until she was far away before she slowed down to calm her heart that was beating wildly with shyness and excitement.

Shiheng… Unexpectedly, you’ve already thought so far into the future?

Marriage… Children…

First, she imagined what a child born between the two of them would look like, and when she realized she was actually thinking about a future child, she immediately shyly covered her face.

It’s better to hurry home. Go back and read a book… Then she wouldn’t think about it anymore.

***

Unlike Ke Jialing, who read until she fell asleep, Lin Shiheng and the young officer chatted the whole night. The more they discussed, the more excited they became. All until they finished breakfast when the officer who went to the city to investigate also came back.

“I’ve asked the owner of the bakery, and he did once hire Lin Shiheng to sell cakes for him at a 1% commission. However, Lin Shiheng also sold his own watermelon juice at the same time, something he had also agreed to.”

“The cake shop owner took out the account book, which can prove that the amount was exactly the same as the sum of money. He also expressed his willingness to be a witness.”

When hearing the results, Lin Shiheng looked indifferent, obviously, it was as he expected. Widow Zhang’s face turned ashen and her whole person directly collapsed to the ground.

If she hadn’t known what the prison was like, maybe she would only be afraid and angry. But after Lin Shiheng had ‘kindly’ described prison life yesterday, her mind was filled with those hard-to-accept images. Even while sleeping last night, she dreamed of being beaten in prison.

Although the public security officer kindly told her after she woke up that even if she was put in prison, there would be guards in charge of supervision, and no one would really dare to beat her, Widow Zhang was still extremely scared.

And now, what worried her most has actually happened.

Lin Shiheng’s money was really earned, not stolen.

She, as a reporter who framed another person, would have to go to jail.

“Shiheng! Shiheng! Please, I beg of you! Please tell them, tell them to let me go. I won’t dare to do it again, I really wouldn’t dare. Let me go, I’ll good to your Aunt! I won’t ever hit her again!”

On the side, the public security officer with two big black panda-eyes, from being kept awake by the noisy Widow Zhang the whole night after she had woken from her nightmare, sternly asked: “You also have a prior history of beating people?”

“No, no, no! That’s my daughter-in-law! Not other people!”

“A daughter-in-law is also a citizen. It is wrong for you to hit someone. If your daughter-in-law reports it to the public security bureau, it’s completely possible to treat it as a case of intentional assault, with a sentence of imprisonment.”

Widow Zhang, who was trying to defend herself, was stunned. She had wanted to exonerate herself. This, however, increased her crime.

She wanted to beg Lin Shiheng again, but she saw the look in his eyes when he glanced over with his eyes slightly drooping.

Cold, with a hint of pity.

What did he feel pity about?

Widow Zhang’s mind, filled with fear and terror, once again thought about the words Lin Shiheng had used yesterday to describe prison life.

She can’t go to jail!

No way!

Widow Zhang trembled and her face ashen. As if she had given up struggling, she slowly crawled up from the dusty ground, asking hoarsely, “Before you take me away, can you let me go inside and speak a few words to my granddaughter?”

“She’s still so young, I want to see her one last time before I go.”

The public security officers also didn’t think too much about it, “Fine, you can go in.”

They were guarding the door anyway, this person wouldn’t be able to escape.

Widow Zhang entered the door but even after so long, she still hasn’t come back out.

Only then did the three public security officers find it odd. They ran in through the door and found that there was indeed a girl sleeping on the bed, but the window above the rice jar was opened and a shoe was left on the floor.

It was obvious that Widow Zhang had climbed onto the rice jar and through the window to escape.

“Hurry up and go after her. She’s got to be around here somewhere.”

Lin Shiheng stood in the doorway, watching the three public security officers frown and scatter in pursuit of the fleeing Widow Zhang. He looked down at the shoe that had fallen to the ground and raised his eyebrows slightly.

For the public security bureau, it was difficult to find a fugitive nowadays when the flow of information was outdated. However, for Lin Shiheng, it was easy to find Widow Zhang’s whereabouts.

Just contact the brothers in town and ask if there are any new faces in the neighborhood or if there was an extra beggar in the local group of beggars.

***

He quickly found Widow Zhang in tattered clothes and shoes, obviously a size larger, on her feet.

After recognizing Lin Shiheng’s face, her eyes widened nervously and jumped up as if she was going to run away.

“No need to be nervous, I’m not here to arrest you.”

The young man smiled at her, “Just wanted to let you know that you successfully managed to make yourself an escapee.”

“If you didn’t run, you would have only been sentenced to three years, after which you could still come out and move on with your life… But you ran.”

“Now that the country is vigorously cracking down on crime, fugitives are being targetted even more severely. For those like your case, ten years, twenty years, it might even be an execution.”

Once she heard ‘execution,’, Widow Zhang’s body shook violently.

Execution by gunshot!

She just didn’t want to go to jail. How did it become an execution?

“I want to go back! I need to go back!”

“It’s too late to go back now, your status has been changed to ‘fugitive,’ and your name is already on the warrant. So, if you get caught, it will only be a dead end.”

Widow Zhang was paralyzed and dumbfounded, weakly raised her head up to blankly look up at Lin Shiheng in front of her.

He was also looking right at her, it’s just that his eyes only had indifference. “You can only continue to run for this lifetime, never to tell anyone your name, and never to return to the village to see your son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter.”

“Or… I can call the public security right now and you can go back to the station. Maybe, they would still be lenient…”

Before Lin Shiheng had even finished speaking, Widow Zhang had stumbled and crawled to her feet, stumbling and fleeing the place as if she was avoiding some fierce beast.

He quirked an eyebrow, it seems like Aunt Lin no longer has to worry about her mother-in-law’s presence.

***

The next day, Lin Shiheng got on a bus to Shanghai.

He closed his eyes and his facial features, which had recently been whitened a bit, appeared a little delicate.

A big man got onto the bus, looked around, and found no open seat. Staring at Lin Shiheng for a moment, he went up and patted him on the shoulder, “Eh, kid.”

Lin Shiheng opened his eyes and had yet to respond.

Behind the two of them, half the bus of people stood up.

“What did you call our Shi-ge for?”

The big man stiffly withdrew his hand and slowly pulled a dime out of his pocket.

“Did you drop some money?”