Chapter 2450: A-Gui's Troubles

Although Sister Qiao had been just a rough-work maidservant in the Zhong household, Master Zhong Aijiao had looked upon her with favor for a few years, and she had associated with Advisor Xun—so she held a high opinion of herself. Not long after starting work at the cooperative, she despised the job for being too busy and tiring, and other thoughts began to stir.

Somehow, Sister Qiao discovered that A-Gui was now a policeman, a person with face and status in the city. Taking advantage of a time when Zhao Gui was on duty outside, she came to find him again, saying she wanted to be "long-term husband and wife" with him, to "live lovingly together," and in the future "bear children and grow old together."

For A-Gui, Sister Qiao was his goddess. Now that the goddess deigned to be husband and wife with him, he was so happy he couldn't find north. In just a few days, he was completely bewitched. Not only did he happily start making preparations, but he also prepared to take out money to buy a house and purchase furniture for Sister Qiao so they could build a life together.

Li Ziyu was busy with work and couldn't attend to these matters. Fortunately, Li Ziyu's mother often chatted with Zhao Gui. Zhao Gui treated her as half a mother and even deposited his wages with her. Now that he wanted to get married, he told Li's mother the whole story of his "lifelong event."

Li's mother knew there was trouble here as soon as she heard it. After all, she was an experienced woman, seasoned in human hearts and worldly wisdom. With just a few words, she extinguished A-Gui's enthusiasm.

She knew that saying Sister Qiao intended to swindle money wouldn't work, so she said that Sister Qiao was first used by Master Zhong, then became Advisor Xun's plaything, and in between, who knew how many men had played with her? Her reputation had long been swept to the ground. He, A-Gui, was now a dignified policeman under the Senate. His status was not ordinary. Even if he wasn't afraid of losing face himself, the Senate couldn't afford to lose this face.

Hearing that it would "lose face for the Senate," A-Gui chickened out. Besides, regarding Sister Qiao's fragrant past—before, he was poor and helpless, and no woman would give him a second glance, so naturally he was overjoyed if Sister Qiao gave him a smile. But now he was serving under the Senate and counted as half a popular person at the station, so naturally he had to be particular.

As for Sister Qiao, she had originally thought taking down A-Gui would be as easy as catching a turtle in a jar. Unexpectedly, this A-Gui, who had originally been very warm, stopped mentioning marriage after a few days. When pressed, A-Gui hemmed and hawed, implying that he cared very much about her past.

She hadn't expected that A-Gui—a dog-licker whom she used to treat as nothing—would now look down on her. This dealt a heavy blow to Sister Qiao. When one plan failed, another was born. She pretended to be unfortunate and only begged A-Gui to look at their past affection and take care of her. Faced with the goddess's humility, A-Gui naturally agreed profusely.

So Sister Qiao often sighed about her bitterness in front of A-Gui, saying the work in the garment cooperative was too hard and she wanted to start a small business herself, but suffered from having no capital...

This Sister Qiao had always been the object of A-Gui's fantasies. As for her person, honestly speaking, she was quite good-looking, and as she aged she knew how to display her flirtatiousness. Before long, Li Ziyu's mother smelled danger again: A-Gui hadn't handed over his wages to her for safekeeping for two consecutive months. When asked, A-Gui claimed that wages were being issued late recently. She immediately asked her son and found out there was no such thing. She interrogated A-Gui, only to find out that A-Gui had given the wages and subsidies of these past few months to Sister Qiao, saying it was to help her open a small shop to make a living.

Li Ziyu learned of this from his mother and immediately called A-Gui over for careful questioning. This questioning revealed something terrible: A-Gui had not only given his own wages and subsidies to Sister Qiao but had also borrowed a lot of money from acquaintances at the station, including Gao Chongjiu. He owed a total of over twenty dollars to colleagues at the station.

"You muddle-headed fool!" Li Ziyu couldn't help scolding A-Gui after finding out. "You only earn two and a half dollars a month, yet you dare to borrow so much money! Everyone earns just a few dollars to feed their families! How will you pay it back?"

"Sister Qiao said once the shop opens... makes money... makes money she'll pay it back..." Seeing Li Ziyu agitated, A-Gui knew this was not good. "My money will eventually be..."

"You are confused! You still expect her to pay it back?!" Li Ziyu stomped his feet and beat his chest. "What shop did she open?"

"Tailor shop. Small business."

"Where is it?"

"Just said in the north of the city."

"Address?"

"Don't know..."

Li Ziyu almost fainted. He had seen muddle-headed eggs, but never one this muddle-headed: "Then didn't you think of going to the shop she opened?"

"Work is busy..."

Li Ziyu wished he could slap him. He forced himself to suppress the anger in his heart and said, "Did you ever think that she didn't open a shop at all?"

"Huh? No way. She said she was very tired working in the garment cooperative and wanted to open a tailor shop to work for herself."

"Does opening a tailor shop require that much money?" Li Ziyu smiled bitterly with resignation. "Renting a shop front on Grand Market Street that can open a decent small shop costs only one yuan a month. You gave her more than thirty dollars before and after; that's enough to buy a shop front!"

A-Gui murmured, "I trust her. Surely... no way."

"You really became a policeman for nothing!" Li Ziyu kicked him, hating iron for not becoming steel. "Go, let's find Sister Qiao."

Unexpectedly, having heard from A-Gui the day before about Li's mother questioning him about his income not being turned over, Sister Qiao had already slipped away. The supervisors and colleagues at the garment cooperative didn't know where she went. Asking about whether she'd opened a shop, no one had heard of it.

Now, A-Gui finally understood completely that Sister Qiao hadn't been borrowing money at all—she'd been swindling him.

Finding her was naturally impossible. With Sister Qiao's experience, she certainly knew the consequences of swindling someone in the public service. Li Ziyu, fearing that exposing this matter would be detrimental to A-Gui's future, did not report the case. He only quietly asked Gao Chongjiu to use informants to inquire secretly, only to find out that Sister Qiao had left the city on the day of the incident and slipped away.

Where Sister Qiao went was naturally unknown. However, Gao Chongjiu said Sister Qiao definitely had a lover.

"How dare she, a lone woman, run off to other places? Isn't she afraid of being robbed halfway? There must be someone directing and assisting her. In my opinion, Brother A-Gui should just take this as a lesson learned and make sure not to make a noise about it."

If he made a noise, not only might they not catch the person, but Zhao Gui's reputation would be swept to the ground, and Li Ziyu would also be implicated. Even if they caught the person, the money couldn't be recovered.

Li Ziyu knew this was the optimal solution. For the money owed to colleagues, Li Ziyu helped pay back part of it, and the rest could only be repaid monthly from A-Gui's wages. Unexpectedly, A-Gui couldn't let it go: first, he felt the pain of losing money; second, after listening to Gao Chongjiu, he felt Sister Qiao definitely didn't intend to trick him but must have been coerced. So he constantly asked Li Ziyu to help "rescue Sister Qiao from the fiery pit." This left Li Ziyu stuck between laughter and tears.

Hearing him bring this up again, Li Ziyu sighed helplessly: "A-Gui, are you possessed by a ghost or what! This Sister Qiao clearly acted as a 'white pigeon' to swindle money. It's just that you didn't fall for it at first; so later she said she wanted to open some tailor shop—didn't you think, how many women open shops alone?"

"Isn't Miss Dong one?"

Li Ziyu was speechless for a moment. He paused before saying, "She has Dong Xiang and his wife outside, and Elders helping her. Who does this Sister Qiao have?"

"She has me."

"You're crazy!" Li Ziyu almost lost his temper but thought again that although A-Gui was muddle-headed, he was pure-hearted. He was just deceived by bad people. Thinking of this, he sighed. His mother had told him to introduce a marriage to A-Gui as soon as possible; once he had a wife at home, he wouldn't have wild thoughts.

"A-Gui, don't mention this Sister Qiao business anymore. I will naturally look out for you. But don't mention it again!" Li Ziyu said in a low voice. "It's not good for either of us if this spreads, understand?"

"But there's still the debt. I feel bad about you helping me pay it back."

"Anyway, your wages are handed to my mother. As long as you work well, are you afraid you won't pay it back? Don't mention these things again!"

"Mm." A-Gui agreed, but it was visible he was unhappy. Li Ziyu also felt a bit of sympathy. A-Gui had lived in his house for a long time now, and the affection between the two was no less than with his childhood friends. His mother had also instructed him: A-Gui is a pure person; treat him well, and he will definitely be able to help the Li family in the future. So he said some irrelevant words to change the topic.

The two walked all the way back to Li Ziyu's home.

Li Ziyu still lived in the old residence—this used to be where military households of the Guangzhou Guard gathered. The military households here were mostly military officials of the rank of Experience or Proofreader and above from the various Guangzhou Guards. These people had either fled or been purged during the Hong Kong reorganization, and their families had moved to Taiwan, Kaohsiung, and other places. The rest were incorporated into the National Army and assigned to other garrisons.

Those who could remain were people who had secured a place in the new regime. Li Ziyu's family was one of them. The vacant courtyards were now occupied by cadres of the Northbound Detachment who had come from Hainan.

Next door to Li Ziyu's house was his uncle's residence. Since his uncle's family met with misfortune while fleeing, the uncle's large mansion had also been nationalized and was now one of the city government's collective dormitories. Li Ziyu knew his parents had complaints about this, feeling the mansion should belong to their family.

However, since the Australians had taken it, they dared not question it—after all, their son was now serving the Senate. Fortunately, the Li family had few members; apart from the three of them, there was the lodging A-Gui and two old servants. Originally, Li's mother had thought about whether to buy or hire robust women to serve, but Li Ziyu said using servants had a bad influence, and besides, there were already servants at home. The front and back courtyards were enough to live in.

It was the old family servant who answered the door. Li Ziyu asked, "Is there something happening at home? Mom called me back so urgently?"

"Relatives from the north have arrived." The old servant took the police saber he unbuckled. "Young Master, go in quickly."

Li Ziyu was stunned. His family had lived in Guangzhou for generations. Although they had relatives in the north, most were distant. They rarely interacted in the past, and now with the war, news had been cut off. Why had they suddenly come?

(End of Chapter)