The woman hesitated, glanced at Wang He, then lowered her head and whispered, "It was . I’m the one who reported the clothes that were bought before the New Year!"
Wang He held up the piece of clothing and looked at her. "I’ve already inspected this. It’s perfectly fine, not damaged in the slightest. Why did you report that there was a problem with it?"
The woman looked up at Wang He. "Officer, these clothes are no good. They shrink. I only washed it twice, and this is what happened."
Wang He looked at her. "You didn’t know wool sweaters shrink?"
The woman flinched. "I’ve never worn clothes this nice before. How was I supposed to know?"
’Huanhuan only wore it twice before I washed it with boiling water. How could I have known it would turn out like this?’
Wang He’s voice grew stern. "Since the shrinking was caused by you washing it improperly, why would you report the shop owner for poor quality? That’s a false accusation, and you can be punished for that. Do you understand?"
The woman looked up in a panic. "I didn’t report it! Huanhuan’s out right now. It was Shen Hao who told to co. He’s Huanhuan’s classmate. He was the one who said the clothes were poor quality and that we could get the shop owner to pay compensation."
Shen Hao was the skinny, dark-complexioned man, and he was also a squad leader in the city’s joint defense team.
SLAM! Wang He slamd his palm on the table. "So, who reported it? You or Shen Hao? He is right next door. I suggest you think carefully before you answer."
The woman stared blankly at Wang He, her lips trembling as tears stread down her face. She looked utterly pitiful. "Officer, Huanhuan never wanted to report the shop owner. Shen Hao was the one who told her to do it."
"He even said he could get the shop owner to pay us a sum of money... SOB... SOB... We’re just a widow and her child, life is so hard. We finally managed to buy one nice piece of clothing, and it breaks my heart that I ruined it in the wash. We were wrong. I’m willing to apologize! SOB... SOB..."
Wang He asked her again, and the woman stuck to her story. He had the officer taking notes read the statent back to her, then had her sign it and add her thumbprint before he went to interrogate Shen Hao.
Shen Hao insisted that it was the woman who had co to the joint defense team to file the report. He claid he only brought his n to find Lin Lan after seeing that the "interests of the people" had been hard.
Wang He tossed the woman’s written statent down in front of him. "Shen Hao, Xue Qin says you’re the one who told Xu Huan to report the shop owner. She also said you claid you could get the owner to pay her compensation. Is that true?"
Shen Hao looked up at Wang He, his face a mask of shock as if he’d seen a ghost. A mont later, he lowered his head and fell silent.
Wang He looked at him. "Shen Hao, if you’re not going to talk, I’ll just call your superior to handle this."
Shen Hao nodded dejectedly. "It was . I told her to report it!" ’I was blind,’ he thought. ’It’s fine if I get punished alone, but I can’t drag my teammates down with .’
Wang He glanced at him, had him sign the statent, and then made a call to the city’s joint defense team.
He went back, gave Xue Qin a stern lecture, and then let her go.
Then he went over to where Lin Lan and the others were and explained what had happened. Seeing the shocked expressions on the two joint defense team mbers’ faces, he figured the situation probably wasn’t as simple as Xue Qin had made it out to be. He suspected it was that girl, Xu Huan, who was specifically targeting Lin Lan.
Lin Lan pointed to Woodworker Li and the others. "Officer, they’re supposed to be law enforcent, not a bunch of thugs! Are our masters supposed to just take a beating from them for no reason?"
Wang He looked at the n, who were all bruised and scraped. "The joint defense team’s captain will be here shortly. I’ll inform him of what happened to these gentlen."
Lin Lan knew that if Officer Wang and his n hadn’t been the ones to respond to the call, this matter wouldn’t have been resolved so quickly. "Alright," she said gratefully. "Thank you, Officer Wang."
Wang He smiled. "It’s my duty."
Old Li looked at the two joint defense team mbers with a sneer. "So people get a tiny bit of power and imdiately think they can walk all over everyone. You’ve got to have a conscience, or you’ll get what’s coming to you."
The two joint defense team mbers’ faces burned with sha, but they didn’t dare say a word.
Half an hour later, a joint defense team motorcycle with a sidecar pulled up in front of the police station, and the team’s captain walked in.
After reading the interrogation records Wang He handed him, he promised to handle the matter with the utmost seriousness.
Wang He took him to see the injured Woodworker Li and his n. The captain apologized to Lin Lan, offered a few platitudes, and said he would compensate Woodworker Li and the others for their dical expenses. He then ordered his n to take them to the hospital to have their injuries looked at.
Woodworker Li and his n figured they might as well get checked out since soone else was paying, so they went to the hospital with the joint defense team mbers.
Old Li stood up and faced the joint defense team’s captain. "Captain Wang, today my daughter-in-law was nearly arrested by your team and branded a criminal speculator.
"Once she’s branded with that label, you know as well as I do how serious the consequences would be. I demand that you handle this matter with the severity it deserves."
Captain Wang looked at Old Li and Lin Lan guiltily. "Allowing an innocent citizen to be wronged like this is a failure of our team’s diligence. We will absolutely handle this matter with the utmost seriousness!"
Old Li said gratefully, "Thank you, Captain Wang. Having fair and just law enforcent officers like you is a blessing for us ordinary folk."
As Lin Lan and Old Li left the police station, she said to him, "Dad, Master Li and the others really helped out. Let’s treat them to a al at the restaurant across the street this afternoon to thank them."
Old Li nodded. "Alright. I’ll go to the hospital to check on them. You head back to the shop first."
"I’ll go let the restaurant know," Lin Lan said.
"No need. I’ll talk to them when we get there," Old Li said, then headed toward the city hospital nearby.
Lin Lan watched him walk through the main entrance of the city hospital before turning toward Limin Street. As she walked, she mulled over the day’s events. The whole thing felt off. ’Could soone be trying to get revenge on and Xiangyang?’
She returned to the departnt store on Yucai Road, where He Li handed her the car keys and the key to the roll-up door. "Sis, how did things go?"
"Soone did this on purpose..." Lin Lan quickly recounted the story to her.
He Li was furious. "But that’s just hurting soone for the sake of it! Who would do sothing so vicious?"
Lin Lan shook her head. "You’re wrong. If I had gone with them today, I wouldn’t have just had to pay them a fine. I would have been forced to admit to being a criminal speculator. Best case I’m out so money, worst case I could have ended up in jail."
He Li stared at Lin Lan, shocked. "Sis, that’s so malicious! We can’t just let this go!"
Lin Lan shrugged. "There’s a saying: ’The poor don’t fight the rich, and the rich don’t fight the officials.’ The matter was resolved at the police station. We should just be glad we didn’t end up on the losing end."
"It’s a good thing we have connections, otherwise..." He Li shuddered at the thought.
Lin Lan patted her shoulder and smiled. "It’s over now, silly. Just be extra careful when you’re selling things. Make sure to repeat any important instructions to the custors a couple of tis..."
She trailed off. "You know what? Forget it. For products that don’t co with instructions, we should just have so printed up ourselves."
"Exactly! With an instruction manual, they can’t try to pin the bla on us," He Li said. "Sis, you go ahead to the south side for your al. When Little Xue gets here, we’ll write up the instructions. We can give it to Big Bro to get printed when he gets back."
Lin Lan nodded. "Alright, I’ll head over now."
By the ti she got to the south side, Qiaohui and Tong Xinglan had already finished their al.
Tong Xinglan served her the food she’d been keeping warm in a pot. After Lin Lan finished eating, the three of them got busy again.
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