A charming widow in her 70s married a factory manager and raised his children.

Chapter 170 also revealed that something important was lost.

Not only did Village Chief Qian hear it, but everyone else did.

But Cao Xiang was fearless and had nothing to fear.

"What's wrong with hitting your child? Who doesn't hit their child?"

"When I discipline my child, I discipline my own child. But you're disciplining someone else's child," someone outside suddenly shouted.

Cao Xiang choked, then stubbornly retorted, "What do you mean 'other people's'? They're my eldest son's children, family. If the kids misbehave, it's not illegal for me, as an elder, to discipline them, is it?"

It must be said that Cao Xiang was quick-witted; admitting to hitting the child was far less serious than the charge of child abuse or murder.

Qian Dayou immediately realized what was going on and said that the little girl was just being unreasonable, and his wife had only disciplined her a little. There was nothing wrong with her at all; the child was just temperamental and had left without a word. His whole family had gone to look for her, but they just couldn't find her.

Lu Congyue said calmly, "Whether it was a few slaps or child abuse, you should go to the police station to explain. The child was injured and sent to the police station, the injury was examined and the case was registered. We just haven't taken any action to catch the culprit yet. Now that you've admitted it, that's good."

Everyone was bewildered.

No, didn't we just say that the child was lost, sold, or tortured to death?

Why are you saying it's at the police station now?

Before anyone could react, Zhuang Qingxiang said, "Village Chief, Team Leader, my luggage is lost. The clothes from the luggage are now being worn by Qianhua and Qiancao. The luggage was originally in this room, and besides the clothes, there was also more than three hundred yuan in the bundle..."

"You're talking nonsense!"

Before Zhuang Qingxiang could finish speaking, Qian Haojiang jumped up and started cursing, "You clearly only had a little over a hundred in your bag!"

Everyone: "..."

Cao Xiang, who originally wanted to say that she hadn't seen any money at all, now wished she could slap her youngest son across the face.

Qian Dayou's expression kept changing, and he said through gritted teeth, "That's right, it's only a little over a hundred. I was afraid of losing it, so I'm keeping it for you."

After saying that, he told Cao Xiang to go inside and get the money and clothes to return to Zhuang Qingxiang, and told his two daughters to quickly go back inside and change their clothes.

"Wait a minute," Lu Congyue said coldly, "You say it's over a hundred, and it's just over a hundred? You just hid those two hundred yuan like that? Even robbers wouldn't be this ruthless!"

After saying that, Village Chief Qian nodded slightly: "Village Chief Qian, Comrade Zhuang Qingxiang did bring back more than three hundred yuan. Most of it was living expenses that I entrusted to her for safekeeping. After all, I am often away on business trips and I was afraid that the child would suffer."

Village Chief Qian stomped his feet in anger, cursing Qian Dayou's family for being shameless, even stealing money from orphans and widows, and even stealing the living expenses of Factory Director Lu's family, ordering them to return the money immediately.

"There really isn't more than three hundred..." Qian Dayou was extremely aggrieved. "Although Qingxiang is my stepdaughter, she grew up with me. I raised her like my own daughter. Would I cheat her?"

"There really are over three hundred," Zhuang Qingxiang said confidently. "If someone says there aren't any, then perhaps someone else has pocketed them."

After hearing this, Qian Dayou, Cao Xiang, and Qian Haojiang looked at each other...

Qian Haojiang rummaged through Zhuang Qingxiang's luggage first, then gave it to Cao Xiang. By the time Qian Dayou found out about this, everything had already been divided up.

Cao Xiang had a history of visiting her parents' home, and Qian Dayou immediately remembered that she had gone back to her parents' home a couple of days ago.

"Qian Dayou, hurry up and pay back the money! Your whole family has admitted to taking their money. If you don't pay it back, your family will be going to jail!"

This is not the same as hitting a child. Whether it's a hundred or three hundred, that's all of Lu Congyue's family's living expenses. This is theft, which is illegal.

Li Shufen was so angry she felt like vomiting blood.

From the moment she heard it was over three hundred, she was determined to fight Cao Xiang to the death and get that three hundred into her own hands.

Unexpectedly, the factory manager said it was his family's living expenses, which ruined her plans and made her want to vomit blood.

The joint defense team leader also told Qian Dayou and his men to pay back the money quickly, otherwise even the whole village couldn't be protected, and they might as well send them to the public security bureau to be sentenced to labor reform.

When Qian Haoqing heard that his biological father and stepmother had stolen more than three hundred yuan from Zhuang Qingxiang, his eyes practically blazed with fury.

Such a big deal, so much money, and they didn't even think of sharing a single penny with him.

So he was unwilling to speak up for them and instead urged them to pay back the money quickly.

Cao Xiang refused, making a scene and threatening to hang herself.

Amidst the chaos, Qian Dayou was still forced by the village chief and the joint defense team leader to hand over two hundred yuan.

More than one hundred of them belonged to Zhuang Qingxiang, and the remaining seventy or eighty were her own savings.

"We only have this much at home. Even if we were forced to our deaths, we wouldn't be able to come up with any more." Qian Dayou squatted down on the ground in despair and started smoking his pipe.

Zhuang Qingxiang raised an eyebrow slightly: "You can write an IOU for the rest and pay it back slowly. Director Lu is magnanimous and will definitely not force you to your death."

Lu Congyue nodded in agreement: "Yes, I'm not an unreasonable person either."

Amidst Cao Xiang's attempt to hang herself, Qian Dayou was forced to write another IOU.

At this moment, the two sisters, Qian Hua and Qian Cao, also changed their clothes, stuffed them haphazardly into Zhuang Qingxiang's bundle, and then took them out and threw them directly in front of her.

"These are your things, take them and get out of here, and don't ever come to our house again!" Qian Cao said angrily through gritted teeth.

Zhuang Qingxiang wasn't angry. She squatted down, opened the bundle, checked it, and then stood up with a cold laugh: "Village Chief Qian, Captain, don't leave yet. I've lost something important and haven't found it yet."

Qian Cao almost jumped up: "You've already got all your stuff here, what else do you want?"

Village Chief Qian also felt that Zhuang Qingxiang was going too far. Two hundred yuan, wasn't that enough?

Zhuang Qingxiang said with a serious expression, "Actually, the clothes aren't important. If Aunt Cao wanted to keep them, she could have just told me, and I would have given them to you! But you shouldn't have touched my embroidery!"

Zhuang Qingxiang recounted her experience making embroidery for the military factory, emphasizing that the embroidery was for foreign friends. She said that the materials and embroidery thread were the best that the military factory had bought through connections. Most importantly, she had already finished half of the embroidery, but now that it was gone, she would have to buy materials and needles and thread again and start from scratch, which would definitely take too long.

"If I can't deliver the embroidery by the deadline, that would be damaging Sino-foreign friendship and undermining stability and unity! Aunt Cao, how would you define your crime?"

Sino-foreign friendship? Foreign friends?

This was like a fairy tale to the villagers of Dongya Village, many of whom had lived most of their lives without ever seeing what a foreigner looked like.

It sounds really high-end, which is kind of scary.

Village Chief Qian involuntarily looked at Lu Congyue: "Factory Director Lu, this..."

"It's true." Lu Congyue sighed. "This matter is very important. The designs were specially selected by our foreign friend, who specifically requested Comrade Zhuang Qingxiang to embroider them. They are to be submitted to the provincial government within a month and delivered to that foreign friend..."

A collective gasp filled the air.

"Haruka is so amazing! She can even embroider?"

"I've never heard of this before. I never imagined that even foreigners would appreciate her cooking skills..."

"That's not all! Didn't you hear? The province wants her. She's already on the provincial leader's radar. Qingxiang is going to have a great future!"

Listening to the discussions around them, Qian Dayou and his family looked as if their father had died.