Volume 1, Chapter 49: The Old Hen Was Stolen

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After hearing this, everyone felt that Li Sheng had a point. Even Yi Zhonghai nodded in agreement.

“Li Sheng is right. Let’s go find Su Jianshe. If he really did it, the chicken must be in his house! Then we’ll catch him red-handed and see what he has to say!”

“Take him straight to the police station and let him have a taste of prison!”

Jia Zhangshi, who had been silent until then, suddenly joined in. The eyes of several people immediately lit up.

“Come on. We’ll know the truth once we search Su Jianshe’s house.”

The crowd surged toward the central courtyard. Quite a few people rubbed their hands, apparently intending to make a scene at Su Jianshe’s home. Only Xu Damao looked utterly dejected.

“It was my old hen… my eggs…”

In this era, only people of factory-director rank or higher were entitled to eat one egg every day. From this day onward, Xu Damao would lose that privilege.

Bang, bang, bang…

Xu Damao did not dare pound on the door as forcefully as Silly Zhu had. Everyone in the courtyard knew that Su Jianshe was no ordinary fighter.

“What do you people want?”

Su Jianshe had been simmering chicken soup when he suddenly saw a crowd swarming toward his door. His brows drew together at once.

Xu Damao was at the front, and at a glance he spotted half a chicken claw protruding from the pot. He secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well, well, Su Jianshe. So it really was you who stole our chicken!”

Seeing the evidence, Xu Damao found his courage and accused Su Jianshe in front of everyone.

“Su Jianshe, answer me. Is that an old hen cooking in your pot?”

“What meat my family cooks is none of your business! Say what you came to say, and leave if you have nothing else!”

Looking at the crowd before him, Su Jianshe felt an inexplicable anger rising in his chest.

He had been about to spend a warm, intimate evening with Xiao Yan, only to have these ill-omened people interrupt him again and again.

Su Jianshe’s temper flared.

“I’m telling you, the old hen we raised has been stolen!”

“There’s a chicken cooking on your stove right now. I have every reason to suspect that it’s ours!”

After seeing the chicken, Xu Damao had regained much of his composure. Though he was somewhat intimidated by Su Jianshe’s fury, he forced himself to continue.

“You brat! I knew you were no good. You actually dared to steal someone else’s chicken—and that was the hen Xu Damao was keeping for eggs!”

“Su Jianshe, you’re truly heartless. That was such a fine hen, one meant to lay eggs, and you slaughtered it!”

“Pay up! Pay us immediately! Because you stole that chicken, we may not even be able to win the Red Flag Unit award this year. You’ll have to compensate Xu Damao, and you’ll have to compensate all of us too!”

Silly Zhu shouted the loudest.

“Su Jianshe, you animal! You stole the old lady’s photo album, and now you’ve stolen Xu Damao’s chicken too. It’s a disgrace to have someone like you living in our courtyard!”

Looking at the people condemning him, Su Jianshe was furious.

If he had not been eager to return to his soup and his wife, he would have shown these fools exactly how formidable Eight Extremes boxing could be.

“What are you all shouting about? This hen was bought somewhere else. Who says the only hen anyone can eat is Xu Damao’s?”

“Leave. If you knock on this door again, I swear I’ll break your arms and hang them from the locust tree outside. Do you believe me?”

The crowd hastily retreated several steps.

The fist mark on the locust tree at the entrance to the courtyard was still engraved in everyone’s mind.

That punch had been powerful enough to break bones at the very least. It might even have taken a man’s life.

“Don’t get so cocky, Su Jianshe. Someone will deal with you!”

Although Xu Damao had already backed away a considerable distance, he still answered defiantly.

“Do whatever you like. I didn’t steal your chicken! But if you come knocking again, you can forget about keeping that arm!”

Bang!

With the sound of the door slamming shut, everyone in the courtyard was left outside.

“Well… First Uncle, what do you think we should do now?”

The residents turned to Yi Zhonghai for help.

Yi Zhonghai’s face was dark.

He had thought that, as the courtyard’s First Uncle, he would be able to make Su Jianshe bow his head, admit his guilt, and pay compensation.

Instead, he had been driven out before he could even speak.

“I say we report him to the police. He’s acting this brazen today. Who knows? Tomorrow he may steal from someone else’s home!”

“That’s right. Call the police now! I refuse to believe that no one in the capital can deal with Su Jianshe!”

“Exactly! Let’s find the police. My chicken cannot have died for nothing. I haven’t even had a mouthful of chicken soup!”

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Xu Damao was swept up in the general outrage and became furious as well.

He had suffered the most. Not only had he failed to eat any meat, but he had lost his hen too.

If justice was not done, he might truly cry himself to death.

“Fine! Damao, take two men and report it. The rest of you, come with me to the chicken coop and see whether we can find any clues!”

Yi Zhonghai immediately began issuing orders.

Liu Haizhong swayed along behind him as they headed together toward the chicken coop in the rear courtyard.

“The newspaper says we have to preserve the scene, so the police can find the important evidence when they arrive!”

“Let’s go home for now and keep watch from nearby.”

Liu Haizhong lived in the eastern side room of the rear courtyard and hurried back to his own home.

The others were stunned at first, then nodded, deciding that there was no point in remaining outside.

The Deaf Granny, however, clung tightly to Silly Zhu and insisted that he return home with her, saying that it was warm indoors.

Silly Zhu felt guilty, afraid that the old woman would discover that he was the one who had stolen the photo album. Once inside, he realized that his fears had been unfounded.

Yi Zhonghai went with them as well. As the courtyard’s First Uncle, he could not simply leave.

Watching events unfold from the old woman’s home was comfortable enough.

The bitter wind howled as dusk fell. It whipped the leaves of the surrounding trees into a rustling frenzy.

Several busybodies had originally intended to wait in the courtyard, but the wind soon drove them scurrying back indoors.

By the time the police arrived, night had fallen.

The bad weather and the cases already at hand had delayed them, but they nevertheless attached great importance to the matter.

With prices soaring, an old hen was no trivial thing. It might even be a family’s food to keep them alive.

“Comrade Officer, this is what happened…”

On the way, Xu Damao briefly described the theft of the hen.

The officers did not simply take his word for it. Instead, they sought out Yi Zhonghai, the First Uncle of the courtyard.

Everyone in the courtyard who hoped to profit from the affair had gathered at the old woman’s home.

First, it was warm there.

Second, everyone was hoping to make Su Jianshe pay, then take advantage of the opportunity to squeeze something else out of him.

“Comrade Officers, before the chicken was stolen, we held a meeting and asked everyone to help the families in difficulty within the courtyard!”

“But that boy Su Jianshe is heartless. His family has money, yet he refuses to help anyone!”

“Comrade Officers, Su Jianshe has always been at odds with everyone here. I suspect he stole the chicken out of revenge. He has also had a grudge against Xu Damao for some time!”

“As for the opportunity to commit the crime, he was the only one who left the courtyard meeting half an hour early. He had the time to do it.”

Silly Zhu seemed unusually clearheaded that day and kept offering what he considered evidence.

He even leaned closer and lowered his voice.

“Comrade Officers, Su Jianshe is no decent man. He’s greedy and selfish, with no sense of solidarity whatsoever. This stolen hen may simply be another sign of his rotten character. If he isn’t dealt with, there may be more trouble in the future.”

The two officers frowned slightly.

This courtyard was notorious, and its previous police officer had not thought highly of the residents either.

Just then, the trembling Deaf Granny began to wail from the kang.

“That wretch Su Jianshe not only stole the chicken, he stole my photo album too! If I hadn’t discovered it in time, he might have burned it to ashes!”

As she spoke, she raised the photo album Su Jianshe had discarded. Its wooden frame was battered and nearly falling apart.

Although the two officers had little liking for the people in the courtyard, they knew that this old woman, a state-supported person with no family, possessed considerable standing in the neighborhood.

“Please rest assured, Granny. We will enforce the law impartially. We will neither wrong an innocent person nor let a guilty one escape. Once we find evidence proving that Su Jianshe did it, we will bring him to justice!”

The Deaf Granny nodded in satisfaction and gripped one officer’s hand without letting go.

“Comrade, thank you so much. I used to make shoes for the police station. You officers were so young back then!”

“Granny, please let go for now. Once the case is finished, we can listen to everything you have to say.”

The officer whose hand she was holding looked somewhat embarrassed. After all, no one was standing near the old woman. The reason was that the air around her carried an overpowering odor.

If the room had not been as warm as spring, everyone would probably have crowded into Liu Haizhong’s home long ago.

The Deaf Granny seemed entirely removed from the matter at hand. She continued clutching both officers’ hands as she spoke.

“You must treat that boy Su Qiang kindly. He really is a cursed wretch. Not only did he steal my photo album, he has never shown me the slightest respect!”

After a lengthy speech, the Deaf Granny finally released their hands.

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At that moment, Jia Zhangshi seized the opportunity to add fuel to the fire. She knew very well how powerful the police were. With solid evidence, Su Qingyang would never escape the law.

“Officers, what they said just now isn’t the important part. When we went to that boy’s house to confront him, we happened to find a chicken cooking inside. Who can afford to eat chicken in times like these?”

“It must have been Xu Damao’s stolen hen. If you go there now, they may not have finished eating it yet. You’ll catch him red-handed!”

Xu Damao suddenly slapped his forehead, as though enlightenment had struck him, and eagerly chimed in.

“That’s right, Officer! When I went to his house, I saw the fire burning brightly beneath a pot of chicken. I told him it was mine, but he refused to admit it. He stubbornly claimed he had bought it at the Pigeon Market! Once you go there, he won’t dare defy you no matter how arrogant he is. He’ll confess for sure!”

The two officers nodded. They had gathered enough eyewitness testimony.

As long as Su Jianshe could not prove that the chicken had come from the Pigeon Market, there was a good chance it was the one he had stolen.

Thus, the two officers and the residents of the courtyard once again surged toward Su Jianshe’s home.

This time, Xu Damao pounded on the door with thunderous force. The two officers behind him gave him all the confidence he needed.

He thought smugly that, in front of the police, what could Su Jianshe possibly do to him?

“Su Jianshe, come out! We’ve found evidence proving that you stole my chicken!”

The two officers behind Xu Damao frowned faintly.

At present, they had only reason to suspect Su Jianshe. Xu Damao’s aggressive declaration was clearly inappropriate.

Before long, Su Jianshe opened the door and appeared.

The two officers stepped forward and interrupted Xu Damao and the others in an official tone.

“Su Jianshe, according to reports from the residents, a chicken has been stolen from this courtyard, and you are the principal suspect.”

“We also have a witness who saw you eating chicken after Xu Damao’s hen disappeared. How do you explain that?”

Su Jianshe remained expressionless, though he laughed inwardly.

The chicken had indeed been provided by the system, but he had prepared for this long ago. The evidence was conclusive.

At that very moment, Banggeng had just returned from the front courtyard. He wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, not realizing that he had smeared it all over his clothes.

He had no time to care. The cold wind was so fierce that it nearly knocked him down. Fortunately, he had run quickly and avoided catching a chill.

After devouring the soy-sauce chicken, he had hurried back. Before reaching his own home, he saw a crowd gathered outside Su Jianshe’s house, including both his mother and grandmother.

Curious, he quietly edged closer.

“I remember Yi Zhonghai saying that Su Jianshe was supposed to help our family. Does that mean he’s going to share his meat with us?”

Banggeng squeezed into the crowd. Since he was young and Jia Zhangshi’s grandson, few people paid any attention to him.

Everyone in the courtyard loved watching a spectacle. If the weather had not been so bitterly cold, even Jia Dongxu would probably have come rolling over in his wheelchair to watch.

Almost the entire courtyard had gathered there. Wedged in the middle of the crowd, Banggeng felt not the slightest chill. Instead, he felt a trace of warmth.

The two officers began presenting the evidence they had gathered.

“We swear that we will never wrong an innocent person, and we will never let a guilty person go free!”

“Su Jianshe, several residents of this courtyard have identified you. During the courtyard meeting, you left half an hour early!”

Faced with this false accusation, Su Jianshe answered without the slightest politeness.

“That’s true, Officer. I did leave early. These people were trying to morally blackmail me, demanding that I subsidize others simply because my family is somewhat better off. I didn’t want to argue with them, so I left ahead of time. But I came straight home. My wife can testify to that.”

The two officers nodded and continued questioning him.

“Where did the chicken in your home come from?”

Their suspicions were not entirely unreasonable. At a time when many people could barely afford coarse mixed-grain flour, the fact that Su Jianshe’s family had chicken to eat was indeed suspicious.

Su Jianshe explained, “Some time ago, Yi Zhonghai gave my wife and me money as compensation for the emotional distress he caused us. With winter approaching, I used it to buy some meat, flour, and vegetables. The chicken you saw is merely part of the food I purchased.”

With that, Su Jianshe turned and went into the kitchen. He took two dressed chickens and several pounds of pork from the cupboard.

“During a difficult period like this, surely I’m allowed to stock up on some provisions?”

Everyone who saw the food—officers and courtyard residents alike—could not help swallowing.

Two chickens, and so much pork! How much money had that cost?

Su Jianshe placed the chicken and pork back on a high shelf, then returned to the doorway.

“Officer, this proves that I’m innocent, doesn’t it? My family already has so much food. Why would I steal Xu Damao’s chicken?”

But Silly Zhu, standing among the crowd, was unwilling to let the matter end there.

“Officer, don’t listen to his excuses! He not only stole Xu Damao’s chicken, he didn’t even spare the old lady’s photo album!”

At this, Su Jianshe let out a cold laugh.