Chapter 39 Prediction

Chapter 39: Foresight

When she was previously in the Ice Pop Team, Wu Guifen was primarily responsible for warehouse management. Even though she had been transferred out of the Ice Pop Team, she still found her way into the warehouse with practiced ease.

Just like last time, the warehouse layout hadn’t changed much. The wooden box containing the chocolate was still placed in the farthest corner, its lid wrapped in several layers of cheesecloth—though less secure than before—clearly indicating it had been opened during the day.

Its position remained unchanged, suggesting that the Ice Pop Team was still using what she had swapped. Yet, after so many days, two batches of goods had already been shipped out, but the anticipated trouble still hadn't materialized.

Not only had no disaster struck, but there wasn’t even a hint of trouble. No one had been punished for the swapped raw materials, and no one had come to the food factory complaining about spoiled ice cream. Instead, the Ice Pop Team was clocking out earlier each day, and their wages were climbing, becoming enviably high.

Wu Guifen seethed with anger, completely baffled as to what had gone wrong.

She had gone to great lengths to gather information about the new ice cream product, even contacting suppliers her husband had previously worked with. After much effort, she managed to obtain the chocolate and secretly swapped what the Ice Pop Team used, thinking it would deal a heavy blow to Xie Xinyi and the others. Yet, despite all her scheming, her targets remained completely unscathed.

When she first heard from the Boiler Team that Ms. Liu’s wages were almost matching those of a seventh-grade technical worker, she was skeptical. But as more people spread the news, she asked her good friend’s niece working in the finance department to check.

Sixty-six yuan a month—double the thirty-five yuan she had earned in the Ice Pop Team.

Wu Guifen already felt extremely resentful, and now, seeing that Ms. Liu, who was around her age, was earning so much more, she found it even harder to stomach her resentment.

She had clearly swapped the most critical raw material with ordinary chocolate. By all logic, the Ice Pop Team should have been in disarray. How could they possibly finish work on time and even get wage increases?

She couldn’t understand it. During the day, she slipped by to observe and saw that the Ice Pop Team was functioning just as before, with members at their stations, working in sync, even chatting and laughing—nothing seemed amiss. Suspicious, she suspected if the chocolate had been swapped back again, so she decided to investigate after dark.

She had surreptitiously had a copy of the key made when she was in charge of the warehouse, never imagining it would prove useful at a critical moment. By moonlight, she crept to the wooden box, gently opened the lid, and was about to reach for the chocolate inside when suddenly, a dog's furious barking broke out outside the door.

"Who’s in there?"

A dazzling flashlight beam swept across the room, and an alert challenge came from outside the door. The sound of rushing footsteps grew closer. Wu Guifen held her breath, not daring to move.

Had... had she been discovered?

Hiding behind the box, she peeked out, only her eyes showing.

"How come this door is open? I remember locking it when we left in the afternoon."

It was Big Chen’s voice.

"Maybe you're mistaken. Who would come here in the middle of the night?"

The security guard, Uncle Wang, waved his flashlight around nonchalantly while joking with Big Chen. Though his words sounded casual, the large dog beside him wouldn't stop barking.

"What’s all that racket? All you do is bark all day long."

Uncle Wang tugged on the dog’s leash, signaling Big Chen to hurry up and get whatever he'd left behind.

Workers often left things behind at the factory, but most would come back for them the next day. Big Chen was the first to knock on his window in the dead of night.

In the stillness of the night, the loud knocking startled Uncle Wang, who thought he was being robbed. He instinctively grabbed an iron rod nearby and took a swing with it.

Having served in the army in his youth, Uncle Wang’s reactions were quicker than most. If Big Chen hadn’t ducked just in time, his head might have been splattered.

"Youth these days have no manners," was Uncle Wang’s first impression of Big Chen. He impatiently listened to Big Chen’s explanation and was about to send him packing when he spotted the pack of Daqianmen cigarettes Big Chen handed him. His dismissive wave hesitated for a moment.

But only for a second.

Daqianmen cigarettes—something money couldn’t easily buy. What smoker could resist Daqianmen?

Uncle Wang had three sons and a strict wife who controlled the household finances. He had to hand over almost all his wages each month, leaving him with very little for cigarettes.

He was a heavy smoker but had little money, so he usually could only afford cheap tobacco. As for premium cigarettes like Daqianmen, he had only ever seen them in the mouth of the former procurement department head.

They were truly fragrant—even the lingering scent was unforgettable. Now, an entire pack of Daqianmen was right in front of him.

How could Uncle Wang resist? After hesitating for just a second, he did an about-face and accepted the cigarettes.

"You even want me to accompany you? You’re asking for a lot."

After pocketing the cigarettes, he agreed to Big Chen’s bold request. He went back inside to fetch a flashlight, then set out with Black Tiger and Big Chen toward the Frozen Products Workshop.

Under the moonlight, the workshop door was tightly locked. Big Chen took out his key and opened it. Just as they were about to enter, Black Tiger suddenly started barking aggressively toward the warehouse.

Big Chen immediately sensed trouble and rushed toward the warehouse. Uncle Wang, holding Black Tiger’s leash, followed closely behind.

When they reached the warehouse, Big Chen stared puzzled at the unlocked door. Uncle Wang scanned the interior with his flashlight but found nothing unusual. However, Black Tiger kept barking incessantly.

Having been dragged out in the middle of the night, Uncle Wang was already irritated. Now, with Black Tiger barking wildly, his patience was wearing thin.

He urged Big Chen to quickly retrieve his forgotten item. After Big Chen did so, they locked the warehouse door again and confirmed there was no one else in the workshop before heading back toward the main gate.

"Sorry for the trouble, Uncle Wang. I’ll bring you some of our new ice cream to try another day."

Doll head ice cream cost twenty cents each and were highly sought after. Uncle Wang’s grandson had been clamoring for some, but even after asking someone in the sales department, he hadn’t been able to get any. Now, Big Chen was offering to give him some for free.

Uncle Wang was delighted and happily saw Big Chen off, already looking forward to trying the doll head ice cream. However, the next day, instead of receiving the ice cream, he heard the shocking news that a thief had been caught in the Ice Pop Team’s warehouse.

The thief was caught early in the morning, inside the warehouse. Since the door had been locked from the outside, the thief couldn’t get out. It was only when Big Chen went to the warehouse to retrieve raw materials that he discovered her. Huddled in a corner, pale-faced after being trapped all night, she gave Big Chen such a fright that he immediately swung a carrying pole at her.

Fortunately, he didn’t strike too hard. The thief wasn’t killed—just a large bump on her head. Otherwise, she might have been severely injured. When people saw the thief’s face, they gasped in shock.

The thief was someone from the factory—and formerly from the Ice Pop Team.

The news reached the security office an hour after work started. Remembering Black Tiger’s fierce barking the night before and Big Chen’s puzzled look at the warehouse door, Uncle Wang turned off his radio and immediately went to Director Fang’s office.

The factory was abuzz with the news of a thief. A crowd had gathered, packing the office. Peering through the crowd, Uncle Wang saw a woman being restrained by Big Chen. Her hair was disheveled, her face dirty, but she held her head high and protested loudly.

"What right do you have to detain me? What have I done?"

She glared at Big Chen, then shouted at Director Fang, "Fang Mingan, you useless coward! You can’t stand to see me have a single good day! Accusing me of theft? I curse your ancestors! Theft? What theft...?"

Wu Guifen had been trapped for seven hours by the time she was discovered.

The team’s warehouse was typically used for storage—small and poorly ventilated. Locked inside by Big Chen for so long, if she hadn’t conserved her energy and breathed slowly, she might have suffocated.

And they had the nerve to accuse her of theft? Was it really theft? She had merely taken a wrong turn in the dark, passed by her former team’s workspace, noticed the warehouse door was unlocked, and went in to check.

If Big Chen hadn’t jumped to conclusions and locked her inside without even asking, would she have been mistaken for a thief? Would she have been struck with a carrying pole?

Wu Guifen, enduring the intense pain in her head, mustered all her strength to argue with Fang Mingan.

"I was just trying to help them check things, and they treat me like a thief? I’ve had the worst luck running into you fools."

Indeed, it was rotten luck. In the dead of night, Big Chen showed up with a man and a dog, claiming he had forgotten something. Then he locked the warehouse door from the outside.

If he was going to lock it, fine. But the next morning, he had to play the victim, shouting in alarm without giving her a chance to explain, and immediately swung a carrying pole at her.

That Big Chen—even when she was in the Ice Pop Team, he had always been against her. Now that she had been transferred out, he still wouldn’t leave her alone.

With one swing of the shoulder pole, so fierce and so accurate, it immediately made her see stars and scared her half to death.

Seven hours had already been torturous enough, and before she could even regain her senses, she suffered a heavy blow from the shoulder pole. The more Wu Guifen thought about it, the angrier she became, wishing she could slap Big Chen right back across the face.

"I told you, I'm not a thief, Big Chen. Let go of me, damn it!"

She tried hard to break free, but with Big Chen pinning her, no matter how much strength she used, those big hands didn't give an inch.

"Big Chen, you coward! A man hitting a woman—what kind of hero are you?"

Seething but immobilized, she had no choice but to take verbal shots, venting her anger with words.

Big Chen flushed red from her words, repeatedly trying to retort but being shut down every time. Xiao Jiang, standing behind him, was stomping her feet in frustration, and Ms. Liu couldn’t help but start cursing too.

The scene was quickly getting out of hand. Seeing Wu Guifen caught in the act yet still making excuses, Xie Xinyi furrowed her brow slightly, stepped forward, and sternly retorted, "You say we’re wronging you? Fine, then tell me, why were you in our team’s storeroom last night?"

"I just took a wrong turn," Wu Guifen insisted defensively. Though she knew the excuse was full of holes anyway, she still refused to admit to theft. "It was too dark last night; I got turned around."

"Misjudged?" Xie Xinyi said incredulously. "The moon was so bright last night, and you’re a veteran worker—how could you get turned around?"

Her words started people murmuring among the crowd.

"...I joined the factory the same year she did. It’s been fifteen years now."

"Exactly. Even I, who just started, don't get lost. She’s been here so long—how could she possibly take a wrong turn?"

"In my opinion, she did it on purpose. She just doesn’t want to admit she’s a thief."

"........"

"........"

People piped up one after another, quickly pinning Wu Guifen to the pillar of shame for theft, with no room for denial. Xie Xinyi added fuel to the fire, drilling her with questions.

"What were you doing at the factory so late at night?"

"Why didn’t Eldest Brother Chen and Uncle Wang see you when they went to the storeroom?"

"You don’t have a key to the storeroom—how did you get in?"

Each question was sharper and more pointed than the last, hitting right at the heart of the matter with unusually clear logic. No wonder Wu Guifen was left speechless, standing there gaping, unable to get a word out for a long time.

"See? She can’t answer. Clearly, she’s guilty."

The onlookers began murmuring again. Cornered and defensive, and with no valid argument, Wu Guifen could only raise her voice to a shout at Xie Xinyi, "I couldn’t sleep, so I came to the factory to work overtime. What’s wrong with that? Is there a rule against working overtime at night?"

Working overtime at the factory in the middle of the night?

Wu Guifen actually had the nerve to come up with that.

Xie Xinyi was equal parts angry and amused, while the crowd burst into laughter.

Who would have thought someone could be so shameless as to make up such an excuse? Big Chen’s grip tightening with personal anger.

"Dammit, Big Chen! Are you trying to crush me? Let go of me now, or I’ll go to the police about this!"

Wu Guifen ranted and cursed, but seeing that her words had no effect, she loudly protested, "You keep saying I’m a thief—where’s the evidence? Show me the evidence!"

As the saying goes, catch a thief with the goods. Since Wu Guifen hadn't taken anything, she refused to believe Xie Xinyi could do anything to her.

She raised her head high, a scornful smile on her lips, looking completely defiant, which only made Xie Xinyi even angrier.

Evidence?!

So she wanted evidence?

Xie Xinyi had been waiting for just that.

She took the prepared "evidence" from Ms. Liu, walked over calmly to Wu Guifen, and slowly held it up for everyone to see.

"You didn’t steal anything," she said, picking up the cheap chocolate from the bag. "But you embezzled state assets."

Embezzled state assets?

Wu Guifen’s eyes widened in shock.

She had merely swapped the chocolate—how could Xie Xinyi call it embezzling state assets?

Baffled, Wu Guifen stared wide-eyed at the girl holding the chocolate.

The other girl held up the chocolate Wu Guifen had someone buy, slowly bringing it before her. As she asked if it looked familiar, she pulled out another bar of chocolate from her pocket.

"The chocolate in my left hand was specially ordered by Master Liu, who had your husband get it from the chocolate factory in the east of the city. The purchase contract is in Director Fang’s drawer."

She waved the chocolate in her left hand in front of Wu Guifen, then slowly raised her right hand. "And this chocolate in my right hand was ordered by you, Wu Guifen, from the suburban snack factory we briefly collaborated with. That contract is also in Director Fang’s drawer."

She placed both chocolates on the desk, then leaned close to Wu Guifen and added calmly, "Master Liu spent half a month with us developing the Doll Head ice cream formula. Do you think we’d give our formula to outsiders?"

If her earlier words were a probe, this last statement was the final blow that broke through Wu Guifen’s defenses.

It was hard to tell the difference between good and bad chocolate, and the purchase contracts alone couldn’t prove much. But the ice cream’s formula was known only to those involved in its development.

Wu Guifen could never figure out where she’d slipped up. Now, with Xie Xinyi’s explanation, it suddenly made sense.

The ice cream had a specific recipe—no wonder Xie Xinyi had noticed the difference, even though the two chocolates seemed pretty similar.

When she’d chosen the substitute chocolate, she’d only considered the difference between the two types, completely overlooking the ice cream’s formula.

She’d assumed that making Doll Head ice cream was like making popsicles—just sugar and water. She thought cream and chocolate would be enough, never realizing there was a specific ratio.

Having never participated in product development, Wu Guifen naturally didn’t know that creating a food product involved more than just preparing the raw materials.

She stared at Xie Xinyi in disbelief, her earlier defiant denials now making her face burn with humiliation.

But she still refused to give up. Thinking of the charge Xie Xinyi had accused her of—embezzling state assets—she shot back, "Even if what you say is true, at most I’m guilty of attempted theft. How does that amount to embezzling state assets?"

The chocolate she’d switched out earlier had long been secretly sold to the chocolate factory, exchanged for the chocolate now in the wooden box. She hadn’t taken anything from the factory—she’d only swapped the kind. How could Xie Xinyi accuse her of embezzling state assets? She hadn’t taken kickbacks or gained any benefits—where was the embezzlement?

Baffled, Wu Guifen glared challengingly at Xie Xinyi, about to accuse her of false charges. But the next moment, she saw Xie Xinyi call over the finance and procurement people.

"Both contracts are here. Please calculate the difference between them and how much it’s worth."

Without even glancing at Wu Guifen, Xie Xinyi took the contracts from Director Fang and handed them to the finance and procurement staff. Her tone was clear and left no room for doubt. Seeing this, Wu Guifen’s heart sank.

Was there a price difference?

She hadn't even noticed.

She watched nervously as the finance and accounting departments carefully compared the two contracts. The onlookers also stopped their discussions, holding their breath as they watched the office workers rapidly calculating on their abacus calculations.

"Weren’t they just catching a thief?"

"How did it turn into misappropriation of state property?"

After all, misappropriating state property was no small matter—it could easily lead to being sent away for labor reform.

The crowd glanced incredulously at the person being restrained by Big Chen. Thinking of the consequences of what had happened to her husband, their expressions shifted from initial disbelief to undeniable conviction.

As the saying goes, "Birds of a feather flock together." Wu Guifen’s husband had previously been sent to labor reform for taking kickbacks. Since the two shared everything in their daily lives, it was entirely possible that Wu Guifen was capable of such a thing.

Just as the onlookers were exchanging speculative glances, the finance and procurement staff handed the calculated results to Director Fang.

The two contracts had been secured by Master Liu through connections after Xie Xinyi exposed the suspect. Fang Mingan had already reviewed them earlier. At the time, he thought Xie Xinyi was going to confront Wu Guifen about privately purchasing chocolate, never expecting her to level such a major charge.

The young woman usually appeared gentle and delicate, yet when it came to dealing with people, she was decisive and formidable. Not only had she made all the preparations in advance, but she had also accurately predicted the other party’s reactions.

That day, when she laid out her plan to catch the culprit to him, Fang Mingan had already been amazed by her composure and intelligence. He thought luring someone into a trap was surprising enough, but he never imagined she had yet another clever trick up her sleeve.

Although Fang Mingan had mentally prepared himself to be astonished, he was still taken aback by Xie Xinyi’s clever final move.

No wonder Old Liu said the young woman was full of clever schemes. Among the many theft cases every year, no one had ever connected theft with misappropriation of state property.

What astonished Fang Mingan even more was that Xie Xinyi not only linked the two but also found evidence corresponding to each charge.

When the young woman came to him earlier that morning asking for finance and procurement staff, he had been puzzled. Now, seeing it all fall into place, he finally understood.

She was going to capitalize on the price difference between the two types of chocolate to make the stubbornly denying Wu Guifen be unable to voice her suffering.

Fang Mingan gained a new understanding of the smiling young woman before him. He mentally prepared himself for a discrepancy in the numbers, yet he still gasped in shock at the figure before him.

A full four hundred yuan difference—for just one batch of goods!

Fang Mingan looked up at Xie Xinyi. Seeing her still as calm as before, he grew even more uncertain.

So... when did she figure it out?