1970s: My childhood sweetheart ran away, and I turned around and married the wildest chief.

The people behind him acknowledged and then dispersed to inspect each room.

He Zhihua also got up and carefully observed the house. The house was well-furnished. Judging from the furniture and some household items, it was clear that the family was very well-off. However, He Zhihua did not suspect that Lu Mingzhou's accounts were problematic because of this. After all, as Qiao Wanqing said, officers have high salaries, which are provided by the state. The appliances in the house should all have been issued by the military.

The triplets were too young to be scared, but the twins were older and could sense that something was wrong. They huddled together next to their mother, and Qiya and her aunt were so frightened that they didn't dare to breathe.

Auntie's heart was pounding, no matter how hard she tried to calm it down. She knew this family was extremely wealthy, so wealthy it shocked her. Could all of this... be a problem? Xiao Lu didn't seem like that kind of person! She had also visited the other neighbors around here, and none of them were poor!

The inspectors were very thorough, taking notes as they checked. Qiao Wanqing was right; the two people targeting her were indeed related to the Bai family. The woman was from the Bai family, and the man and another woman who hadn't spoken but was hostile were related to the Bai family, but not actually from it.

These three people were much more rough around the edges when they conducted the inspection.

"Bang!"

The vase on the low cabinet fell to the ground and shattered into pieces. The sudden sound in the previously quiet room startled Aunt San and Qi Ya, almost making them scream. The twins immediately burst into tears, and the three little ones were also frightened, crying loudly.

In an instant, the whole room was filled with the sound of children crying.

Qiao Wanqing hurriedly went to comfort the child, then glared angrily at He Zhihua, "Comrade He, are you going to pay for the broken things?"

Upon hearing the voice, He Zhihua looked at Bai Mei with anger in his eyes. As soon as Qiao Wanqing spoke, he immediately said, "You stand aside and don't touch anything in the house."

Bai Mei retorted, "Why should I? I didn't do it on purpose."

He Zhihua sneered, "You don't even have this much professionalism. Go back and find someone to marry, and stop causing trouble."

Bai Mei's face immediately turned red with anger.

The Bai family rose to power in the capital through nepotism, and to say such a thing to a Bai family girl would be a blatant insult.

However, Bai Mei didn't dare to offend He Zhihua, so she could only obediently stand aside and stop participating in the search. She stared at Qiao Wanqing with hatred in her eyes, wishing she could burn a hole through her.

"Be gentle, all of you. If you keep being so clumsy, you'll never be able to work again." He Zhihua's voice was tinged with impatience. The others were silenced by his reprimand and their movements became noticeably gentler.

Nothing unusual was found on the first floor; the most valuable items were the furniture and appliances. Bai Yu, who had been silent until now, spoke up: "These furniture and appliances aren't cheap. Where did you get them?"

"Provided by the military."

Bai Yu was taken aback. "Are they all military-equipped?"

Qiao Wanqing nodded, "Yes."

"Impossible!" White Eyebrows shouted. "Lu Mingzhou is only a regular officer. Living in such a big villa is already a special privilege. How could he possibly be equipped with so much furniture and appliances? Under normal circumstances, you wouldn't even be allocated a house this big."

Lin Zhengjun silently lowered his eyes.

Yes! Why does Lu Mingzhou deserve such treatment? Not only was he given a big house, but he was also provided with all the furniture and appliances. He didn't even get this treatment back then. The refrigerator in his house was only given to him several years later.

Qiao Wanqing replied, "It is indeed a military configuration. These are all recorded in the logistics department. You can check it yourselves."

Bai Mei was about to speak when He Zhihua gave her a look, and she immediately shut up.

The only place where they found a lot of things was the kitchen. Qiao Wanqing's kitchen had a lot of ingredients, including grains and various dried goods.

"And where did all of these come from? You don't have many people in your family, do you? Why do you need to eat so much?" It was Bai Yu who spoke again.

Seeing so much food, Bai Mei chimed in, "Yeah, so much for so many people, and you say this isn't extravagant?"

He Zhihua looked at Qiao Wanqing, waiting for her explanation. Qiao Wanqing could only patiently explain, "My mother-in-law and her family brought it from their hometown. I just gave birth to triplets and need to rest at home. There are also relatives here to help me take care of the children. There are many people to eat, and my mother-in-law was worried that we wouldn't have enough food coupons, so she brought them from her hometown."

"My mother-in-law prepared this in our hometown when I was pregnant. I heard that the land in our hometown was divided up that year and the grain yield was higher. It just so happened that the baby was born during the autumn harvest, so they had a lot of grain and brought it over."

The woman next to He Zhihua, who was around thirty years old, was taking notes in a notebook. She glanced at him and exchanged a look with He Zhihua. This seemed to make sense. They had all seen the triplets. Lu Mingzhou's family background was documented in the military, so they naturally already knew. His parents both had jobs, so it wasn't difficult for them to exchange some grain in the countryside.

Next, we went upstairs, and upstairs, it was completely different.

Especially Qiao Wanqing's bedroom; when everyone went in, even Bai Mei and Bai Yu, who came from wealthy families, were shocked.

The furniture and house were provided by the military, but the curtains, bedding, and the items in the wardrobe were not provided by the military. When the wardrobe was opened, there were more than a dozen autumn and summer dresses, five woolen coats of various styles, as well as many sweaters, trousers, leather shoes, cotton-padded jackets, and six sets of thick quilts and bedding, along with four sets of matching sheets and duvet covers.

The most valuable item was probably Qiao Wanqing's fur coat, which Bai Mei and Bai Yu looked at with envy that made their eyes red.

There were quite a few valuables in the house, so to avoid forgetting anything, everything was taken to the living room on the second floor and checked one by one. After the clothes in the closet were emptied, there were still a few suitcases and small boxes in the closet. When they were opened, Bai Yu exclaimed, "Look!"

She opened the box to show everyone; inside was Qiao Wanqing's watch.

Qiao Wanqing: "..."

Seriously? Your Bai family must be very rich. It's just a few watches. Why are you screaming like that?

Qiao Wanqing does indeed own quite a few watches. The ones she owned abroad are all stored in her spatial storage. The ones at home were all bought after she returned to China. Starting from when she got married, she has accumulated eight watches over the years. She has kept three of them hidden away, and the other five are still out in the open.

There were three imported watches and two domestic ones. Lu Mingzhou had two of them, but he wore one on his wrist when he left, leaving one behind.

I did consider hiding everything, but after thinking about it, I gave up. After all, my family is well-off, and we should leave some decent things out in the open; otherwise, it would be too deliberate.

There were also some fabrics, yarn, and other items in the box in the bedroom. Finally, even her skincare products were taken out.

Bai Yu stared intently at Qiao Wanqing, her voice laced with suppressed excitement, "Comrade Qiao, with so much stuff, isn't your living standard a bit too good? Five children at home, and your husband's salary alone isn't enough, is it?"

He Zhihua's eyes turned cold as he looked at them.

With so many skirts, coats, cotton-padded jackets, leather shoes, and watches, this style is anything but simple.

Everyone sat down, and He Zhihua waited for Qiao Wanqing's explanation, while someone took notes.

Qiao Wanqing said, "These are all things I've saved up over the years. I had some before I got married, as well as my dowry, the betrothal gifts from my parents-in-law, and things I've bought over the years since I got married. The quality is so good that I couldn't bear to throw them away, so I've kept them all this time."

"I've been married for several years, and I only buy one or two new items each year, which adds up to this many. Is that not allowed?"

He Zhihua said coldly, "As far as I know, you worked in a cultural troupe before you got married, but not for very long. You haven't worked since then, and your family has been living entirely on Comrade Lu's salary. With all that you have, plus daily expenses, and five children to support, are you sure Comrade Lu's salary is enough?"

The other woman, a woman in her thirties who hadn't said much until now, added, "The whistleblower letter said you bought two more properties. Adding those payments, your household finances don't add up. What about your bankbooks? It's impossible that you don't have a single penny at home, right?"

Her name is Chen Lin, and among this group, besides He Zhihua, she is the most capable.

Qiao Wanqing took out her bankbook, which contained two thousand yuan in savings and about two hundred yuan in cash.

When Chen Lin saw the money, although it was a lot, it wasn't too much either. She frowned. Although Qiao Wanqing's life was much richer, it wasn't to the point of being seriously extravagant.

The Lu family is quite well-off, and Lu Mingzhou's salary alone is definitely not enough. But did they not have any savings before they got married?

And what if the Lu family offered her support? The Lu family elders both have high salaries, and their successful son has fathered so many children; it's perfectly reasonable for the parents to offer some support. Chen Lin looked at the records in her hand and realized it wasn't nearly as serious as the whistleblower's letter had described.

"Is everything here? Is there anything else of value in the house?"

Qiao Wanqing shook her head and said, "There's nothing else. Everything is here. The rest is some books in the study and some bedding in a few other rooms. Those are for relatives who come to visit. There are many children in the family, so we have to ask people to help. When they come, they only bring their personal belongings. I provide all the daily necessities."

Chen Lin nodded, "That's normal, nothing particularly outstanding."

The group inspected the second-floor rooms again and found that apart from the master bedroom being somewhat luxurious, the other rooms were quite ordinary and contained nothing of value.

Bai Mei and Bai Yu were a little incredulous. When they saw that Qiao Wanqing had so many clothes, they thought they had finally caught her red-handed. If she had so many clothes, she must have even more other things. It's impossible for a family to spend the majority of their money on women's clothes.

But after all that fuss, apart from Qiao Wanqing's personal belongings in the master bedroom which were relatively valuable, what about the rest?

"Where are your other things? How come they're all here? These are just your personal belongings, what about your husband's?"

Qiao Wanqing said, "Aren't they all here? These are his clothes, and this watch is his too."

Bai Mei gritted her teeth, simply refusing to believe it, because Lu Mingzhou didn't have many valuables. Most of his clothes and shoes were military uniforms, issued by the army. His most valuable clothes were just two overcoats. What else did he have?

Bai Mei was a little dumbfounded. After a while, Bai Yu said anxiously, "Even so, these things are not something your family's income can cover. It's obviously much more than that. Looking at how fair and tender you are, I can tell how good your family's living conditions are. And you have five children. Your first two children are still drinking milk powder. That costs money."

"Plus those two shops, where did you get all this money from?"

Qiao Wanqing glanced at her, a hint of smugness in her eyes. You're still too green to investigate me.

She got up, took out a notebook from the drawer, opened it and showed it to He Zhihua. "My husband gives me his salary every month. He doesn't spend much on himself. Most of his money comes from the military. When we got married, he had been in the army for more than ten years and had even been to the battlefield. He received bonuses for various missions. At that time, he gave me more than 8,000 yuan."

"My in-laws felt sorry for him, working so hard at such a young age and even going to the battlefield, so they often subsidized him. This continued after we got married, especially after I became pregnant, and my in-laws gave him even more. Here is a record, but it's not complete. You can take a look. Anyway, in the years since I got married, my in-laws have subsidized me with at least a thousand to two thousand yuan, not including the supplies they sent over."

"My parents also earn salaries. My older brother has never gotten married, and my family doesn't have any burdens. I'm the only one who doesn't work and has a child. My parents still help me out. By the way, my eldest daughter has taken my surname. Not only my parents, but sometimes my grandparents and my uncle's side also send me some money and supplies. They said that since this daughter has taken our Qiao family surname, the Qiao family has to pay for her upbringing. We can't just not spend a penny, or my in-laws might have objections."

"I still have some dowry from when I got married, like the fabrics and yarn in the trunk. I had those before the wedding, and I'm still using them!"

"As for those two shops, since you've already found out I own property, you should also be able to find out how much I paid for them, right?"

He Zhihua: "You tell us yourself. It's in the complaint letter. We just went to look at the house, and we don't know exactly how much you spent."

Qiao Wanqing didn't know if he was telling the truth or not, whether he really hadn't found anything or was deliberately trying to trick her. She answered truthfully, "The smaller one is 1,500 and the larger one is 8,000. My husband rented the larger one to his comrade-in-arms. I received the first batch of rent. By the way, I bought that house two years ago, and I've been receiving rent for the past two years."

"The subsidies from both sets of parents, the rent for the house, the fact that I only had two children before but these three were born recently, and my husband's salary—all of this is enough for me to live on, in fact, I can't even spend it all."

Everyone: "..."

Chen Lin couldn't help but almost burst out laughing.

He Zhihua took a deep breath and carefully looked at Qiao Wanqing's notebook. He flipped through it and found that the records were indeed quite detailed. Although not every item was recorded, it was understandable. In real life, how could it be so detailed? It wasn't a specially made account book.