Chapter 119: A Pair of Eyes Peering Through the Crack of the Outer Door

Everyone stared at her in baffled silence.

Zhang Guihua had never felt so humiliated in her life.

Her scalp prickled. Her whole body went cold.

At that moment, she hated Aunt Wu to the bone. Useless coward—she had confessed so quickly.

Lin Xiaodou looked at her with icy contempt. “Zhang Guihua, so it really was you.”

No wonder her expression had seemed off earlier. Lin Xiaodou had suspected her then.

This woman was truly ridiculous. She could not keep a man, so she had come here to take revenge on her instead.

Did she think Lin Xiaodou was easy to bully?

Lin Xiaodou’s gaze was sharp and frightening.

Zhang Guihua was so terrified that she kept shaking her head. “No! It wasn’t me! I didn’t steal any money!”

She had only said a few extra words in front of Aunt Wu. She had never once opened Lin Xiaodou’s parcel.

Aunt Wu shouted at the top of her lungs, “It was you! When you were talking to me before, Old Wang and the others were right there too. They can prove it!”

Zhang Guihua said, “I admit I spoke with you about Comrade Lin, but what does that prove?”

She had not stolen the money. Of course she would never admit to something she had not done.

“You shameless little wretch! If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have been beaten. And now you still think you’re in the right?”

Aunt Wu was truly tough. Even after being kicked twice, she still had the energy to holler like that.

If she hadn’t been pinned on the ground and unable to move, she would have already lunged up to tear at someone.

Lin Xiaodou had no patience left to waste. She said directly, “I do not care which one of you took my money. I lost one hundred yuan, and you are going to pay it back. Otherwise, I’ll report this to the police.”

If they dared to provoke her, they would have to bear the consequences.

Zhang Guihua and Aunt Wu both panicked at once.

These days, the thing everyone feared most was being taken to the station. If anything went wrong, it could ruin a person for life.

But asking them to pay was even more impossible.

Leaving aside the fact that neither of them had stolen the money, neither of them could possibly produce such a sum of one hundred yuan!

Even if they had it, they would never hand it over. That much money felt like someone was cutting into their hearts.

The only way out was to shift the blame onto the other.

So Zhang Guihua and Aunt Wu began arguing fiercely, each accusing the other and hurling insults back and forth.

“You old hag, leaning on your age to bully people! Everybody knows you’re always sneaking around stealing and pilfering. The money must be yours!”

“Bah! You shameless slut! You’re always batting your eyes at the men, not because you’re after their money? This one hundred yuan was surely stolen by your greedy hands!”

“Your mother’s filthy mouth! I didn’t take it! It was obviously you—”

The two of them cursed each other more and more viciously, until even their genitalia were dragged into the abuse.

Everyone present listened with expressions of utter discomfort.

Aunt Wu’s character was well known to all.

But Zhang Guihua had once been widely regarded as the beauty of the veterinary station.

No one had expected her to be so vulgar and unseemly in private.

In an instant, the romantic illusions of several unmarried men shattered to pieces.

Especially Peng Yong, who was cursing his bad luck to himself.

Thankfully, he had awakened in time and shifted his target. Otherwise, he would have been sick with regret by now.

Watching the two women bite and tear at each other like dogs, Lin Xiaodou was thoroughly entertained.

If the situation had allowed it, she would have even taken out sunflower seeds and started cracking them on the spot.

She truly did not care who had taken the one hundred yuan.

After all, the money itself had been fabricated out of thin air. So long as someone paid it, that was enough.

Haha.

Zhang Guihua was still young after all, and no match for Aunt Wu in a verbal fight. In the end, she lost.

Lin Xiaodou walked up to her, slapped her twice, then said, “You have two days to return the one hundred yuan to me. Otherwise, not only will I report this to the police, I will also tell Director Hu exactly what happened.”

The moment those words fell, Zhang Guihua, who had still been unwilling to accept the slaps, immediately wilted.

Whether it was the public security comrades or Director Hu, she could not afford to offend either.

Director Hu would definitely side with Aunt Wu, and the one who would suffer in the end could only be her.

As a trainee at the veterinary station, she earned fifteen yuan a month, with meals and lodging included.

She had worked for a full year and scrimped and saved every day before finally managing to put away one hundred yuan. Yet in the blink of an eye, it was all going to be handed over.

Just thinking about losing that money made her heart ache terribly.

If she had known Lin Xiaodou would be so difficult to deal with, she never would have provoked her.

Ah, she regretted it to death.

The matter had caused quite a stir, and early the next morning Director Hu heard about it.

He publicly berated Zhang Guihua in front of everyone.

Zhang Guihua obediently handed over one hundred yuan to Lin Xiaodou and apologized.

As for Aunt Wu, she had been beaten by Lin Xiaodou and still wanted to make trouble.

But when Lin Xiaodou struck, she used skillful force. It looked severe, but after one night the pain was gone and a person could bounce right back.

Since Aunt Wu had no leverage, she had no choice but to let it rest.

Zhang Guihua was in a foul mood over the loss of her money, and Aunt Wu was equally unhappy that she had gained nothing.

The two of them had now taken a mutual dislike to heart, and there would likely be no end to their quarrels in the future.

Seeing that this girl had arrived only one day ago and had nearly turned the veterinary station upside down, Director Hu felt a headache coming on.

If he had been a little harsher yesterday and sent her straight back, perhaps none of this mess would have happened.

Alas, Old Liu, you really left me with a fine trouble indeed.

While Director Hu was complaining inwardly, the several consulting veterinarians nearby wore different expressions.

Doctor Hu was fine with it; after all, she was not one of his people, so he would not bother himself with her.

Doctor Zhang, with her big mouth, started gossiping again.

“This girl is obviously not someone who keeps herself in line. She’s only been here such a short time and already caused such an ugly scene.

Heh... Doctor He, you’re going to have your hands full from now on.”

Her tone was gleeful to the extreme. Doctor He frowned and said, “I’ll teach my own trainee. There’s no need for you to concern yourself. You’d better worry about the pig care in your own group.”

Several of Doctor Zhang’s trainees were all men. Sometimes they were careless at work and easily made mistakes in care.

This month, Doctor Zhang had already been criticized by Director Hu several times.

So when Doctor He said that, Doctor Zhang’s face immediately darkened.

“Hmph, how ungrateful. Like a dog biting the hand that feeds it. I say a couple of words and you get all worked up. How dull.”

Doctor He lifted her cup and took a sip, then replied coolly, “I’m not worked up at all. It’s actually a dog over there barking in a panic.”

“You!” Doctor Zhang ground her teeth and glared at her, then suddenly laughed. “Doctor He, since you’re so quick with your tongue, why don’t you use it on your mother-in-law? That old woman curses you every day. I can hear her from far away.”

She lived not far from Doctor He, on the same street, more or less.

Doctor He only knew how to show off outside; at home in front of her mother-in-law, she was as meek as a dog, never striking back no matter how much she was beaten or scolded.

Doctor Zhang had seen it with her own eyes once before, though she had not said anything out of consideration for their being colleagues.

Now that the mask had been torn off, she might as well say it outright.

At those words, Doctor He’s languid expression changed. She pressed her lips together and said nothing.

Seeing her reaction, Doctor Zhang felt even more smug, and sneered, “So what if you married well? Your husband never comes home, and you don’t even have a child. No wonder your mother-in-law picks at you...”

Bang!

With a cold face, Doctor He slammed the door shut and left.

Doctor Zhang tsked and shook her head. “Look at that. She’s broken already.”

Doctor Hu, who had been watching coldly from the side, took a sip of tea and said slowly, “Say less. Her skills are there. If she wants to deal with you, it’ll take her no time at all.”

“Aren’t you here, Brother Hu?”

Doctor Zhang curved her lips and walked behind him.

A boneless hand rested on his shoulder, and before it could move any further, he slapped it away.

“Watch yourself. This is the office. Don’t let anyone catch us!”

He adjusted his glasses and said sternly.

Doctor Zhang plastered on a smile and flattered him, “I know, I know.”

Neither of them noticed that outside, through the crack in the door, a pair of eyes had seen this entire scene clearly.