Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman

Chapter 513 Chapter 512 Entering the Police Station

Thursday, December 12, Christmas Eve.

Tang Zhitong is not sure when Christmas Eve became popular in China. He only remembers that it existed when he was in college, and eating apples was popular. A classmate waved his hand and said: Come on, you guys can have apples!

As a result, when I got to the store inside the school, I was surprised to see that an ordinary apple with a bow tied in it that usually only cost one dollar was priced at ten dollars today!
It seems that this is not a bow, but a gold-rimmed one, right?
It feels so good to pretend to be smart, and it feels so good to be slapped in the face. This classmate waved his hand again: Let’s go!
Many students followed the dynamic rhythm of the "Bunny Dance" in the school's small square, jumping around in a big circle with their hands on their shoulders for half the night, and this student only returned to the dormitory early the next morning, dragging his exhausted body...

Now, except for some religious believers, most people have no concept of celebrating festivals, and Xu Hui is busy until late at night.

Today is the day to replace the grain books for residents, and it is also the top priority in the remaining few days of this year. For this purpose, she has led the street staff to cooperate with the police station and grain store and has been busy for several days.

The decision to change grain books is not just up to the street level. The grain store is responsible for reviewing them to prevent someone from being partial and giving certain people more grain rations.

Some things cannot be concealed, and those who are well-informed in the grain store already know about it.

The police station has a household registration department, which is responsible for verifying the population of all citizens within its jurisdiction to prevent people from claiming the population falsely.

Since it involves quantitative information, residents in the area are very active in reporting newborns, because one day's early reporting means one day's food supply, but as for deaths, there is occasionally a delay.

Although cremation is advocated now, it is not mandatory. Besides, cremation costs money. As for burial, you can make do with a coffin if you don’t have money.

In order to minimize the occurrence of such situations, the police station, on the one hand, asked the joint security officers in the jurisdiction to pay more attention, and on the other hand, it also took necessary measures. Any resident whose family has died can take their food grain book to the household registration department of the police station to cancel their account. After reducing the population on the food grain book and re-determining the food ration, they can get a certificate from the police station.

With this certificate, one can go to the street to collect cloth coupons for funerals and meat coupons for funerals.

Early in the morning, the staff from the street and police station gathered early, divided into several groups, and then took the food coupons and filled-in food books and rushed to the areas they were responsible for.

Xu Hui also personally took action this time. What was different from other groups was that she brought a few more public security comrades with her.

Many residents whose families eat fast have been looking forward to it and have to get the food coupons as soon as possible as they are still waiting for the rice to be cooked at home.

Xu Hui led people to the Tielugu water station. Some people posted notices on the wall, and some people borrowed tables and stools from residents' homes. In less than ten minutes, the work of exchanging grain books officially began.

"What is this?" Although literacy campaigns have been carried out in the past two years, there are still many elderly residents who are not enthusiastic about it and their literacy is limited.

"The supply of white flour will decrease next month, and fine grain coupons will be issued at a rate of 30%." The street staff replied.

"Will the quantity be reduced?" some residents asked.

"No reduction. There is not enough fine grain. We will temporarily arrange more coarse grain." The street staff took out the replacement registration book and ink pad. Many people did not know how to sign their own names, so they would use seals instead of signatures. No matter whether it was stamping or signing, they had to press their fingerprints, so ink pad was indispensable.

"Comrade, New Year's Day is coming soon, can't you give us more food?" Most of those who came to exchange their food grain books were housewives. They could not recognize many words, but they paid special attention to these details. There was nothing they could do about it, as they had no food at home.

"The total quota remains unchanged, but Laba Festival is coming soon. After the efforts of the street leaders, Huashi Grain Store will supply each household in our street with a limited amount of glutinous rice, sorghum rice, and miscellaneous beans, 1 jin each. When the time comes, just take your grain book and coarse grain coupons to buy them." The street staff patiently replied in front of Xu Hui.

"After all this talk, it's still just a matter of following your own quota."

"Comrade, New Year's Day is a festival, and we have a day off. If we don't increase the grain supply, we should at least give them some meat coupons, right?"

The neighbors asked in unison.

"Sister, the north is asking for our money, and we need to use the pork to pay it back. We can't just consider our own small accounts, we also have to consider the big accounts for the country. Don't you think this makes sense?" After Xu Hui finished speaking, without waiting for the residents to respond, she knocked on the box containing the grain books on the table and said loudly, "Come on, those who want to exchange their grain books, line up. Those who don't have the old grain books, hurry back and get them. The grain store is not busy now, so exchange them early and buy grain early. There is no queue over there."

After hearing what Xu Hui said, the residents instantly split into several factions. Most of them didn't want to make any noise and just wanted to change the place as soon as possible. It was so cold outside, wouldn't it be nice to be warm at home?

Those who wanted to express their dissatisfaction were silenced. How could an arm twist a thigh? What's more, there were several big hats standing behind the street comrades!
The license renewal work was carried out in an orderly manner. Some people who didn't want to stand in the cold and queue went home to warm up first. They came out to take a look every 20 to 30 minutes, hoping to queue up when there were fewer people.

It was almost noon when Liu Zhang wrapped herself tightly and came out to exchange her certificate.

After Xu Hui got her old grain book, she looked at the purchase quantity for December and fiddled with the abacus next to her to add up the quantities of several purchases. Then she marked the total quantity at the back and went on to check the amount for November.

Liu Zhang had something to hide. Seeing Xu Hui like this, she panicked and urged, "What's the point of calculating? It's so cold. Change it for me quickly. You should go back and warm up as well."

Xu Hui ignored her and checked the purchases for November, October, and September before stopping. Then she waved to the police station comrade behind her and whispered, "The quantity is wrong. The purchases in December are obviously higher than in the previous months. It's a full 11 kilograms, and they are all coarse grains."

The comrades at the police station were waiting for this moment. They took the old and new grain books of the Liu Zhang family from Xu Hui, then walked from behind the table to the front of the table and said loudly in front of the neighbors in line, "Liu Zhang, right? You are suspected of falsely reporting the case. Come with us now."

"Hey! What are you doing? Oh my! The government is bullying honest people! If the food coupons are lost and cannot be found, they will arrest the person who reported the case! Is there any justice in the world?" Seeing this, Liu Zhang sat down on the ground and howled.

"Comrade, is there any misunderstanding here?" A woman who usually gets along well with Liu Zhang's daughter-in-law Chu Chunxue stood up and asked.

The comrades at the police station were not fooled by Liu Zhang's tricks. They came up and handcuffed her first. There was no need to explain this matter to irrelevant people. It was not a big deal to falsely report the loss of food coupons. They were just afraid that other residents would follow suit, which would bring more chaos to the already understaffed work. They also wanted to make an example of her, so they said, "We will not arrest anyone without real evidence. The specific case will be announced at the street level in two days. Please make way for now."

After saying this, without waiting for others to react, two people picked up Liu Zhang and dragged her forward.

How could Liu Zhang surrender so easily? She tried to cry and make a scene, but she was like a maggot twisting and turning in the hands of the police, and she refused to cooperate. "Liu Zhang! You know best what you did! Go to the police station and tell the truth. If you resist, you are a counter-revolutionary! You will not have a good end!" the police comrade warned righteously.

Although Liu Zhang was a rich peasant, he was, after all, just a small citizen with little knowledge. When he heard the word "counter-revolutionary", he panicked.

She had heard this crime many times, and it never ended well. She stopped crying immediately, but this time she really cried, tears streaming down her face. She was so scared that she trembled as she said, "I'll confess, I'll pay it back, I'll pay it back right away, can you let me go?"

"Do you think this is your home? Are you joking? Let's go, quickly!" The two comrades from the police station looked at each other. They had seen this kind of situation many times. Although the trial had not yet begun, since Liu Zhang said so, it was a foregone conclusion.

After hearing this, Liu Zhang was completely panicked. Not only could she not walk, but her urine was dripping down her legs.

"Hey! It's peed, it's peed!" Many people in this area suffered at the hands of this old hag, and those who were watching the fun were enjoying it.

"Hey, go back and tell her family to send a pair of pants to the police station." The public security comrade gave an order to the man who had just spoken for Liu Zhang, and dragged Liu Zhang away, leaving the man disheveled in the wind.

"Okay, continue changing the grain books." This scene was quite shocking to the law-abiding residents. Everyone gathered together and chattered, and they were too busy to change the grain books for a while, so Xu Hui gave a reminder.

Gossip is interesting, but it is not as important as filling your stomach. The neighbors lined up in the same order as before, but the people at the back still talked in low voices, and even exaggerated what happened to those who had just arrived and didn't know the inside story.

The man who had just spoken for Liu Zhang didn't bother to queue up at this time. He asked the neighbor behind him to help keep an eye on things for him, and then ran to tell Chu Chunxue the news.

Chu Chunxue panicked when she heard this. Both the food grain book and the family money had always been kept by her mother-in-law. She did feel that the family had more food this month than before. When she asked her mother-in-law about it, she told her not to manage it.

Now was not the time to dig into the matter, so Chu Chunxue thanked her neighbor, found a pair of Liu Zhang's cotton trousers from the closet, tucked it under her armpit, locked the door, and rushed to the police station with the two big guys.

When passing by a public telephone, Chu Chunxue, who had run too far, stepped back and called her husband Liu Chengzhi. Ordinary workers did not have independent telephone rights, so the call was made to the office of someone she was familiar with.

Chu Chunxue had some brains. She didn't mention Liu Chengzhi's name, but directly reported Lu Dexian's name and asked him to pass on the message: "Please tell Master Lu Dexian as soon as possible that something happened to our neighbor Jiaming's family and they are at the police station."

After hanging up the phone and paying the money, Chu Chunxue continued to rush to the police station holding her cotton pants. Along the way, she kept complaining about her mother-in-law in her heart.

It is said that the two policemen dragged Liu Zhang all the way to the police station, but did not interrogate her immediately. Instead, they locked her in the interrogation room and went to rest themselves. Liu Zhang was quite fat, and they worked her to a pulp.

"Comrade, comrade..." Chu Chunxue had been married for so many years and had never been to the police station a few times. She was still a little nervous at this moment.

"A relative of Liu Zhang, right?" The public security comrade asked after pushing open the door and seeing the cotton pants in Chu Chunxue's arms.

Chu Chunxue's face was slightly sweaty. She nodded and said "hmm".

"Here, go in and help change her." Thinking of Liu Zhang's miserable appearance, the public security comrade opened the door of the interrogation room and let Chu Chunxue in, while he stood at the door smoking and watching.

"Chunxue, Chunxue, please help me. I beg you, please help me. I don't want to die." At this moment, Liu Zhang was like a frightened bird that had found a life-saving straw. She did not even bother to change her pants. She grabbed her daughter-in-law's hand and said tremblingly.

"Mom, what's the point of dying or not? How can a capital crime be so easy? I've told Chengzhi that he and Uncle Lu will be there in a while. Please change your pants first." What kind of rescue method did Chu Chunxue have? Could it be a prison break? That would be a capital crime anyway. Besides, a weak woman like me couldn't do it. Even if I could do it, it wouldn't be worth it for such a mother-in-law...

"Chunxue, Mom begs you, please take responsibility for the food coupons. I'm old and don't want to go to jail." Liu Zhang said in a panic.

"Look at what you said, so I want to squat? Why?" Chu Chunxue was furious when she heard what her mother-in-law said. She didn't help her change her pants. She pointed at her mother-in-law with her cotton pants in her hand and questioned angrily.

"If it weren't for me, you would still be a country girl. Life in the countryside is so difficult now! You have to think about our family. You don't have a quota anyway. You go in to eat public food and don't take up our family's quota. If I go in, our family's quota will be gone." Liu Zhang followed her thoughts and her logic became clearer the more she spoke.

"No way!" Chu Chunxue got even angrier when she thought about this. She didn't have a fixed amount of food, so she had been bullied by her mother-in-law since she got married. It was fine for her to just swallow her anger, but now she wanted to let herself in? The more she thought about it, the angrier she got. She threw her cotton pants on the ground, covered her face and cried as she walked out.

"Wow, you really can't figure it out." The police officer who was smoking outside didn't expect to hear such a big drama. After Chu Chunxue came out crying, he called her and said, "Hey, comrade, wait a minute."

Afterwards, the public security comrade locked the door of the interrogation room again, took Chu Chunxue into the office, took out a pen and paper, calmed Chu Chunxue down, and began to record her statement, writing down the conversation between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and asked Chu Chunxue to sign it.

After completing the record, the public security comrade asked Chu Chunxue to wait on the side, and he called a female colleague to go to the interrogation room.

There are differences between men and women, and this needs to be taken into consideration even during interrogation.

The female comrade opened the door of the interrogation room first, and only let the male colleague in after confirming that there was nothing unusual.

After recording the customary information such as name and gender, the public security comrade pointed to the eight characters behind Liu Zhang and said, "Liu Zhang, do you know what the characters behind you are?"

Liu Zhang hunched over, didn't even look, just shook her head because she couldn't read.

"Leniency to those who confess; severity to those who resist! Tell the truth about the problem and refuse to cooperate, and you will spend the rest of your life in jail!" The public security comrade knocked on the table with his hand, warning.

"I'll confess, I'll confess." Liu Zhang nodded hurriedly.

(End of this chapter)