Chapter 73: The Daughter-in-law Arrives

In the chairman’s office, Lin Xiaosu and Chang Ye leaned against the window, gazing at the crowd below.

Lin Xiaosu smiled quietly. “Captain Zhang is in the limelight today, waving your banner like a tiger’s skin. He’s completely disregarding the deputy county mayor’s rank.”

“If it weren’t for your green ledger, even if he used the entire Qianlong as his shield, it would be useless,” Chang Ye replied. “I still don’t understand—how did you discover the hidden compartment in that safe?”

Indeed, the way Lin Xiaosu opened the safe had overturned her expectations.

They had asked the secretary to open it, and she cooperated, revealing nothing but cash and high-end jade artifacts.

But Lin Xiaosu closed the safe again, entered a different password, and when it opened, it revealed a green ledger.

One safe, different passwords, different spaces. Who would have thought?

Yet Lin Xiaosu did.

Of course, she couldn’t tell Chang Ye that she’d seen Du Lifeng use this method once, thanks to her ability to trace through time. She could only play it off.

“That’s why I say I’m a born detective.”

Chang Ye’s eyes flickered. “So, genius detective, what have you discovered?”

Lin Xiaosu said, “Two things. Both are quite interesting… First, the partnership between Longevity Group and Dale Corporation doesn’t appear in any ledger—neither the regular nor the secret one.”

“You analyzed this last time. You only saw Du Lifeng meeting with the Longevity Group’s representative. That doesn’t mean they actually struck a deal.”

“Yes, that’s possible,” Lin Xiaosu agreed. “Second, Du Lifeng has changed his secretary.”

“Changed secretary?”

“Yes. Last time I met Xiaojuan, she was beautiful, well-built, poised—a first-rate secretary for both work and hospitality. Why would he replace her?”

Chang Ye gave him a sour look. “Hospitality? Did she ever host you?”

The door opened and Zhou Mei entered. “Chang, I’ve found something!”

The three immediately headed out to a workshop. The floor was lifted to reveal another workshop beneath.

It was small but exceptionally clean, with finished pharmaceuticals on the shelves.

Chang Ye brushed her finger over a bit of powder, touched it to her tongue, and her expression shifted. “P39!”

Zhou Mei’s heart raced.

On the other side, yellow powder. Chang Ye tried it as well. “The antidote to P39!”

Now, the case was truly complete.

Dale Corporation was the mastermind behind Wang Changfa’s case.

Their motives matched Lin Xiaosu’s judgment exactly.

With this ironclad evidence, Dale Corporation was finished. As Lin Xiaosu and Chang Ye left the factory in Zhou Mei’s car, seals were already placed on every workshop.

“Chang, where to?” Zhou Mei asked.

“Just find any shopping mall,” Chang Ye replied.

Lin Xiaosu stretched lazily. “Now’s a good time to stroll around and eat something tasty. My life—so much toil, I have no idea what I’m after…”

“You’re still complaining!” Zhou Mei shot him a glare. “What did you actually do? Just came up with an idea, then sat there drinking tea cup after cup. While you were idling, I was busy, and when you finished, I got even busier! With Dale Corporation’s case, I don’t even know how long I’ll be working overtime.”

“At least you’ve got results. Your police star must be flashing by now, right?”

“Enough already. Captain Zhang tricks me, and you trick me too. Police star flashing, police star flashing… Hey, Chang, can you give me a straight answer? When will my police star actually flash?” Zhou Mei, now familiar with Chang Ye, dared to joke.

“Soon!” Chang Ye replied with a smile.

Zhou Mei seemed invigorated, as if she’d downed a bowlful of chicken soup.

Lin Xiaosu glanced at her. “Fast and slow are relative. Compared to a lifetime’s winding career, three or five years is quick. Compared to an ancient tree that takes a thousand years to mature, thirty years is but a fleeting moment…”

“Get lost!” Zhou Mei interrupted him without ceremony.

At the entrance of Fengcheng’s commercial tower, Zhou Mei dropped off Lin Xiaosu and Chang Ye, drove back to the criminal investigation team without turning off her engine. As she said, the Dale Corporation case was solved, and she was suffering but happy.

Happy because she played a part in this major case—her direct confrontation with Du Lifeng counted, and the credit Lin Xiaosu earned seemed to naturally fall under her name as well. In fact, it wasn’t just her; the entire criminal investigation team operated under this illusion. Why did this odd way of tallying merit exist? It probably stemmed from Lin Xiaosu’s partnership with the police, for which Zhou Mei was the original matchmaker.

But where lay the pain?

In a word: the coming days would be a blur of inverted hours, endless paperwork, and meetings—anyone who’s worked through it knows, it’s not a task for mere mortals.

Lin Xiaosu, meanwhile, was much more relaxed.

With the case solved, his work was done.

Chang Ye also seemed to let everything go, diving into the mall for a spree.

When she emerged, Lin Xiaosu was surprised.

Two large bags—one filled with assorted food, the other with clothes: coats, underwear, autumn wear, even a down jacket.

“What’s all this?” Lin Xiaosu took the bag of food, puzzled.

Chang Ye said, “Don’t sneak snacks. These aren’t for you.”

“Then who are they for?”

“For your mother.”

Lin Xiaosu’s perceptive eye scanned the bag, noting the clothes were for a middle-aged woman. “You plan to see my mother?”

Chang Ye rolled her eyes. “Yes. She heard rumors I might run off with a rich man. I’ll show her with my actions that I’m not that kind of person—I haven’t run away.”

Lin Xiaosu scratched his head gently. “That excuse was a well-intentioned lie, so she’d stop pressuring me to take the civil service exam. Now she’s almost forgotten about ‘Little Ye,’ and aren’t you just poking her most sensitive nerves again?”

“You really think she’s forgotten? You underestimate a rural mother’s obsession with finding a daughter-in-law. If I don’t ease her mind, she’ll come to the detective agency tomorrow to talk exams again. You don’t want trouble when the agency’s business is thriving, right?”

Lin Xiaosu pondered, then accepted her plan. “Even if you want to comfort her, you didn’t have to spend so much.”

Chang Ye said, “No worries. Just over two thousand. If she gives me a red envelope, I’ll make eight thousand clear profit…”

“In your dreams…”

Each carrying a big bag, they hailed a taxi and headed straight for Old Pagoda Hill Village.

Old Pagoda Hill Village, on the far side of the county, lived a life worlds apart from the town.

The county was ever-changing, bustling with traffic.

Old Pagoda Hill Village was ruled by the rhythm of sunrise and sunset, a hundred plots of farmland, three hills, yellow cattle grazing freely on the slopes, roosters strutting proudly in the courtyards.

Lin’s mother was planting vegetables in the field, black earth turning under her feet, and waves stirring in her heart.

In the past, sons were prized above daughters, and everyone tried every trick to have a boy.

Now, the bitter fruit of that era was being tasted by the new generation.

When children reached marriageable age, the difference between having sons or daughters was profound.

Families with only daughters enjoyed a comfortable life—no worries about housing or jobs for their girls, just waiting for the son-in-law’s filial piety.

Take Old Six from the lowland, for example. He spent half his life feeling downtrodden, raising three daughters, but now?

During festivals, daughters and sons-in-law bring bags and gifts, making the villagers' eyes green with envy.

A step below that were families with one son and one daughter—another way of living. Rural parents had little ability, so the daughter asked her husband for things, the daughter-in-law asked for things, balancing income and expenses.

The truly miserable ones were families with only sons.

No way to balance income and expenses, so parents had to wear themselves out.

Even worse were families with two sons…

Lin’s family was unlucky enough to have two sons; thus, Lin Xiaosu’s father still worked away from home, and his mother was still scraping by in the fields.

To make matters sadder, no matter how much the couple struggled, facing exorbitant dowries and the hidden and overt costs of marriage, their efforts were a drop in the ocean.

Only if the son proved himself could things be different.

In Lin’s mother’s heart, the elder son was respectable—he’d entered military school, joined the army, and would have a stable job after retirement.

But the younger son—he was too restless, gave up the civil service exam, and opened a detective agency in Fengcheng.

The old lady had even asked around while selling vegetables—what do detective agencies do?

Someone told her, they help people find lost cats and dogs, sometimes spy on marital disputes, tsk tsk… No decent family would do that…

That verdict, delivered with a tone of contempt, chilled her heart.

She had wanted to go to the detective agency and talk about “family honor” with her son.

But she held back.

Why?

Because the agency was run by her son and his future wife…

She could scold her son all she wanted, but if she upset her daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law ran off with a rich man, what then? Wouldn’t both sides collapse?

Perhaps distracted by her thoughts, her hand faltered, and she accidentally ruined half the newly sprouted purple vegetable seedlings with her hoe. Heart aching, she threw down the hoe, gathered the soil, and tried to salvage what she could.

Suddenly, a voice called out, “Mom!”

Her heart skipped and she looked up sharply. At the edge of the field stood Lin Xiaosu, her son who hadn’t come home in a whole month.

A month had passed, and he finally returned.

“You rascal, you still know how to come home…”

Before she could finish scolding, she fell silent, staring in surprise at the pretty young woman coming around the big tree, Chang Ye smiling gently.

“Little Ye came to see you,” Lin Xiaosu said.

“Oh… you… you could have called ahead!” Her face brightened from cloudy to sunny. “I’ll head home right away!”

“Auntie, let me help you!” Chang Ye jumped into the field, grabbing the picked vegetables.

Lin’s mother hurried to stop her. “Little Ye, don’t get your clothes dirty, let me.”

“It’s fine, I like doing a bit of farm work…”

When Lin’s mother first met Lin Xiaosu, her heart was full of complaints, wondering why she’d given birth to such a rascal. But as Lin Xiaosu carried the hoe and Chang Ye followed with the vegetables, her thoughts changed as she looked around: Look, I have a daughter-in-law too, and such a good one at that…