The daughter cried and said, "If he hadn't abandoned his mother with cancer, this day wouldn't have come." "If the school was built, there would be a great upheaval in our family. Wealth is something that ordinary families want as much as possible, but it's definitely not like that in my family," the daughter said. A few days ago, a post on a forum titled "Deputy Director of Yongxing Finance Bureau in Chenzhou holds a celebration banquet for his daughter's college entrance and collects 200,000 yuan" caused a huge stir online and was reprinted by major websites across the country. Our joint reporter investigation team rushed to Yongxing, Chenzhou for an investigation. The preliminary results of the exposed "gift money scandal" soon came out: the gift list was indeed written by the deputy director and involved an amount of more than 70,000 yuan.
But the matter was far from over. In the follow-up posts online, besides anger at officials accepting gifts, there was also curiosity and doubt about how such private gift lists were leaked. Subsequently, a self-proclaimed autobiographical reply from Tang Jinlin directly accused his wife Cao Shufang of revenge, aiming to exclusively possess the couple's jointly owned property.
"Report"
All for saving mom
In her home on the fifth floor of Xufang Cultural Art Center Kindergarten in Chenzhou Yongxing, Cao Shufang took out the "four gift lists" mentioned in the post and tearfully spoke of the harm her husband had done to her. 23-year-old daughter Xiao Jie sat beside her, occasionally checking the angry or doubtful comments of netizens following the post on her mobile phone, and sometimes correcting some of her mother's radical statements.
This girl who just graduated from university has been constantly accusing relevant departments of her father's contesting the property she used to save her mother over the past year.
The reason for taking such action, Xiao Jie said, was because she could not understand why her father abandoned her mother after she got cancer? Even disregarding their father-daughter kinship and contested the property used to save her mother?
It turned out that Cao Shufang suffered from stomach cancer. However, in April 2008, Tang Jinlin sued for divorce from Cao Shufang and proposed to divide the property of "Xufang Cultural Art Center Kindergarten" registered under Xiao Jie's name.
"Dispute"
Kindergarten property ownership becomes the "trigger"
Tang Jinlin revealed to the reporter that his relationship with his wife had actually broken down as early as 2004, and they lived separately. The trigger was precisely the later focus of contention between both sides - "Yongxing Xufang Cultural Art Center Kindergarten."
According to Tang Jinlin's description to the reporter, at the time, his wife Cao Shufang only paid a deposit of 50,000 yuan for the kindergarten land, while the remaining 400,000 yuan was borrowed from friends and family along with his own savings.
During the construction of the school, the couple discussed borrowing 300,000 yuan from the bank. Later, when the loan ran out, he raised more than 200,000 yuan to complete the construction of the kindergarten.
However, later, Cao Shufang sold the house upstairs without his knowledge and registered the kindergarten property under her daughter's name without discussing it with him, which made him very angry.
Tang Jinlin also tried to explain that in the two years after his wife fell ill, he had taken good care of her. It wasn't because his wife had cancer that he abandoned her, but rather that he couldn't maintain this marital relationship anymore.
"Evolution"
Property conflict between couples turns into a father-daughter dispute
However, in Cao Shufang's view, her husband Tang Jinlin's claims were purely "lies." The funds for building the kindergarten were accumulated over ten years from running music and dance classes, totaling 310,000 yuan, plus 140,000 yuan borrowed to buy the land, and then mortgaged the land to the bank for a loan to build the school, with a total cost of more than 900,000 yuan all paid through personal loans and bank loans.
Her husband didn't contribute a single penny, instead worrying that her school loans would affect his reputation and constantly obstructed her.
As for registering the kindergarten property under Xiao Jie's name, it was something she had discussed with her husband and had obtained a property certificate from the real estate bureau. "Parents everywhere think for their children. Xiao Jie is their only biological daughter. Considering her own illness, to ensure her future life and work, transferring the property certificate to her daughter is reasonable, lawful, and justified."
Why did Tang Jinlin want to contest the kindergarten property with his daughter? He explained that the kindergarten was originally jointly created by the couple, and property registration must be done after the initial registration of the property rights, before the transfer registration can be processed. His wife secretly registered the property under her daughter's name, which he considered illegal.
"Actually, from the start of building the kindergarten, I felt that if the school was completed, it would cause a huge uproar in our family. For ordinary families, wealth is always the better the more you have, but in my family, it's definitely not the case." During the interview, Xiao Jie said this one sentence. In this reporting incident, the pain and torment endured by this girl are unimaginable for ordinary people. Because behind this property dispute, every side she faces is blood-related affection.
And the reflection behind this incident, besides the contradiction and conflict between emotion and law, perhaps more clearly shows the game between traditional family values and monetary interests.
"Fragmentation"
From "Five Good Family" to broken apart
On the table frame, there were only smiles from Xiao Jie and her mother Cao Shufang. In this home on the fifth floor of Yongxing Xufang Cultural Art Center Kindergarten in Chenzhou, except for a piano, there was no trace left by her father Tang Jinlin.
In the living room, various plaques for "Five Good Family" and "Double Civilized Households" were displayed. From a family once wearing a halo to now being shattered, what kind of love and hatred lies behind this family?
In December 1985, despite her family's opposition, Cao Shufang walked together with Tang Jinlin. In Cao Shufang's memory back then, her husband was honest and hardworking.
After marriage, two years later, when their daughter Xiao Jie was born, life gradually changed. "As my husband rose to the position of Deputy Director of the Finance Bureau, he often didn't come home at night, and his relationship with the family became increasingly distant." Cao Shufang silently endured all this to preserve a complete family. In February 2004, they were still awarded the title of "Five Good Civilized Family", and this trophy is still prominently placed in the living room.
Until 2008, the tranquility of this family was finally completely shattered. Around March of that year, her father, who had never specially gone to the school to see her, suddenly found her and said right away, "I want to divorce your mother."
"Past"
The warm memories of a family of three have been inadvertently deleted
In her conversation with the reporter, Xiao Jie broke down in tears several times. It can be seen that she was suffering immense pain and torment in this report.
In her memory, her father was always strict. The most heartwarming scene in her memory was when the family of three lived in Chengguan Town, and her father would take her to the rooftop for morning exercises. She also tried to communicate with her father, but each time, he either simply replied with "go tell your mom" or scolded her with "it's adults' business, why do kids need to meddle?"
Despite this, as long as it was related to her and her father, she cherished everything.
When she was in junior high school, her father rarely took her and her mother on a trip to Hong Kong, where he bought a DV camera. It recorded scenes of the family of three eating and playing. Unexpectedly, during her senior year, she accidentally messed up the tape, and the only memory of the family's trip was accidentally erased by a classmate. Although she hated her father, she cried bitterly when she returned.
The reporter also tried to let them have an open-hearted exchange, but it ended fruitlessly. When Xiao Jie talked about her father, she mostly used "Mr. Tang" or "he" as substitutes.
"Affection"
Both father and daughter worry about each other
When Mr. Tang Jinlin gave an interview to the reporter, he said that he received a letter from Xiao Jie that day. In the letter, his daughter said, "I'd rather have a beggar mother than an official father." In his eyes, this was a threat from his daughter.
But in fact, both father and daughter were worried about each other in their hearts. What troubled Mr. Tang Jinlin the most was that this matter would greatly affect Xiao Jie's future relationships and marriage. At this moment, his identity was not the Deputy Director of the Finance Bureau, but a father. His concerns were not groundless. The reporter could clearly feel that Xiao Jie had a strong sense of self-protection in her conversations with others, with a fragile and sensitive soul.
During the interview, Xiao Jie burst into tears several times. She said, "If he (my father) hadn't cruelly abandoned my cancer-stricken mother and contested the house I would use to save her, whatever he did, this day wouldn't have come!"
A day later, less than a kilometer away at the Yongxing Finance Bureau, this 51-year-old man who kept patting his chest and guaranteeing to the reporter that "there were fewer than 20 tables, and the gifts from the unit were returned the same year" shed tears instantly upon hearing these words from his daughter, "My daughter must have been bewitched by her mother!"
Reporter's Notes
A Contest Without Winners
The overwhelming public opinion online caught them off guard. Now, Xiao Jie, Cao Shufang, and Tang Jinlin are all enduring unimaginable pressure from all sides. Xiao Jie said, "I wish none of this on the internet had ever happened." For this family, perhaps this was a triple defeat.
But perhaps it's exactly like what Xiao Jie said during the interview: everyone must take responsibility for what they've done. She, her mother, and her father are no exception. And now the only thing they can do is wait for the fair result from the Yongxing County Joint Investigation Team.
Six court battles over property disputes
Due to the property dispute over "Xufang Cultural Art Center Kindergarten," Tang Jinlin and his biological daughter Xiao Jie have faced each other in court six times, including two civil lawsuits and four administrative lawsuits. A simple divorce case evolved into a prolonged tug-of-war over property.
Xiao Jie stated that the property registration under her name was a decision agreed upon by her parents, and her father knew from the beginning that the property was registered under her name. This was something her father admitted orally during the first civil trial, and she retained the audio recording of the court session at that time. Another piece of corroborating evidence was that on July 23, 2006, her parents mortgaged the first, second, and third floors of the kindergarten, and the name written in the mortgagor column was hers. Furthermore, the contract attachment explicitly recorded her as the owner of the property, and her father signed in agreement.
In response to why he was contesting the kindergarten property with his daughter, Tang Jinlin provided another unexpected explanation, saying, "Only with assets comes dignity. I can give the property to my daughter; I even wrote a note to her, stating that I would gift her the portion of the property that belonged to me, but the condition was that the daughter must acknowledge me as her father."
Xiao Jie, however, said that the "writing note" incident her father mentioned was never fulfilled. Moreover, until the divorce case went to court, she called out "Dad" when she met him outside the courtroom. How could there be any talk of disowning her father? If her father truly wanted to gift her the kindergarten property, why would he go through so much trouble to contest it with her?
■ Reporter Zhou Hongquan
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