Chapter 316: Chapter 316: The Pocket Watch Is Lost 2
Zhang Guihua, heartache subsiding, put on a stern face and asked the crowd, “Has anyone found San Ya’s watch? If you have, hand it over to me immediately. That thing is worth several hundred yuan.”
“Mom, I didn’t find it. I went back to my room early last night and never came out,” Sun Lixia said first, the tone of her voice tinged with regret.
Zhao Xiaojuan quickly followed, “Mom, we didn’t go out either.”
The children also shook their heads one after another.
Seeing that no one admitted it, the old lady’s murky eyes fixed on Sun Lixia. After all, she had a history of thievery—she was the most suspicious one in the family!
“Only you have a history in this family. Tell me, did you take the watch?”
Zhang Guihua, the apex of the Jiang family hierarchy, never knew subtlety. When she suspected Sun Lixia, she asked her directly.
“Mom, you’re really wronging me here. I didn’t go out last night at all, so how could I have found the pocket watch?” Sun Lixia loudly protested her innocence.
Seeing that no one believed her after she spoke, and with the first room looking at her with suspicion, she grew so angry that her face turned red, and she yelled, “Why are you all staring at me like that?! I really didn’t take it this time. If you don’t believe me, go ahead and search me. I have nothing to hide if I’m innocent.”
She could be so indignant only because she truly hadn’t found it.
Yet inside, she was annoyed at why she hadn’t been the one to find it—it was a watch worth several hundred yuan!
If she had found it, she could have sold it for a small profit of a hundred or two hundred yuan!
Jiang Changhe, seeing that Sun Lixia was willing to let them search her room to prove her innocence, expressed his position in a low and muffled voice to clear his own family of suspicion, “Mom, big brother, you can search our house too.”
“Of course, we need to search, starting with a body search!” Jiang Changhai was never one to hold back.
The second room had no objections and Jiang Changhe even volunteered, “Start with Xiaojuan and me.”
Unexpectedly, Sun Lixia, who was the first to declare her stance, suddenly jumped in and said, “Wait!”
“What, do you have a problem?” Jiang Changhai’s sharp gaze was like a knife directed at her. Was she about to admit guilt out of a guilty conscience?
“Big brother, early in the morning, you’re falsely accusing us of stealing and even want to search our bodies and houses. If you don’t find anything after all this, shouldn’t you compensate us? You’re wrongly accusing us,” Sun Lixia began to negotiate.
Jiang Changhai replied very readily, “Fine, if I don’t find anything, I’ll buy an extra two kilograms of pork tonight as compensation. Are you happy now?”
He had always suspected Sun Lixia and Zhaodi, but now, seeing how confidently Sun Lixia demanded compensation, he began to doubt her guilt.
Meanwhile, Zhaodi, who had found the pocket watch, didn’t seem guilty at all. She was calm and composed, with a normal heartbeat.
She had found it, but didn’t plan to keep it—she couldn’t be blamed for their inability to find it!
Jiang Mianmian, however, felt this was somewhat improper. As someone brought up with new-century education, she knew that a body search violated a person’s right to personal liberty and was illegal.
So she quickly asked her system, “System, is there a way to find where the watch is without a body search?”
System: “Yes, I can use a scanner to check, but it will consume one intelligence point.”
Jiang Mianmian: “It takes intelligence points? I don’t have any right now. Can you extend me credit? Deduct it when I have some next time. I can’t run away anyway. Can you work something out?”