Chapter 118: Chapter 118: Robbery Encounter
After paying for the cart, the fool carried the basket, and the family happily headed home.
Since it was already dark, there were hardly any people on the road.
Before long, they arrived at the old residence and shockingly found the locked main gate violently smashed open…
“Oh my, what happened?” Madam Xie, upon seeing this, hurriedly rushed in to check.
Fortunately, her family was as poor as they come, having even eaten up their most valuable rice, and except for two bags of partly good, partly bad sweet potatoes, there was nothing of value left.
They had just recently divided their family property, and the house was this poor, yet to be robbed? Xuexue was very skeptical.
Turning around, she took a lamp out of the fool’s carried basket, lit it, and then, stepping back into the rooms, she wanted to check if the packet of gold and silver jewelry had been found by anyone.
“Wifey, wifey, where are you going?” the fool followed closely behind.
“You go stay with Chuner; I’ll come to the kitchen shortly to cook something for you to eat.”
“No, I fear for your safety, wifey, I must protect you.”
“This is my home, what danger could there be here?”
As they spoke, they reached the door of a room, and Xuexue pushed the door open…
The light from the lamp revealed a scene of disarray — clearly, the room had been searched. A cold look in Xuexue’s eyes suggested the mess could have been the doing of the Mo family.
Indeed, when they divided the family property, they got just a few bags of sweet potatoes, and the house was so poor that it echoed, a fact known throughout Mo Family Village. What thief would target such a home? Only Madam Ruan and Xiuzhi, who had seen that packet of Copper Coin, might have come over, taking advantage of their absence to smash the door and rummage around.
Xuexue walked to the bed, crouched down, and shone the lamp under it, finding no signs of disturbance; she finally felt relieved.
Fortunately, she had the forethought to bury the valuable money under the bed, or it would have been stolen long ago.
“Wifey, what are you looking at?”
Seeing Xuexue staring blankly at the empty space under the bed, the fool became curious and also lay down on the floor, intensely trying to look under the bed like her.
Xuexue saw the fool laying on the floor like a little dog, intensely staring under the bed with his butt sticking up high, and couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Wifey, what are you laughing at?”
“It’s nothing, hurry up and get up; let’s go out and cook something to eat,” she said, taking the lamp and turning to leave.
“Hey! Hey! Wait for me, wifey, I’m afraid of the dark.” Seeing Xuexue leaving, and finding himself alone in the pitch-dark room, the fool quickly scrambled up and ran after her.
Catching up to Xuexue, the fool looked pitifully aggrieved, “It was so dark just now, I was scared to death, wifey, why didn’t you wait for me?”
“Who asked you to come? I told you not to, but you wouldn’t listen,” Xuexue spoke as she walked ahead with the lamp.
Back in the kitchen, Madam Xie was washing rice.
“Mother, did you find anything missing?” Xuexue asked while placing the lamp on the stove.
“Nothing’s missing, just everything tossed all over the place.” Madam Xie was also extremely perplexed, what kind of burglar doesn’t steal anything but leaves everything in a mess?
“Next time you go to the town, I’ll stay at home. If someone is home, thieves won’t dare come,” Chuner wisely said.
“Let’s discuss it later; let’s cook now, I’m nearly starving,” Xuexue said, pulling out the packet of pork from the basket, a whole five pounds of it.
“Oh dear! Xuexue, you bought pork as well? Such a large piece, how much was it?” Xuexue pulled out a big chunk of pork, startling Madam Xie.
“Not much, just a few Copper Coins. We’re out of oil at home, so I thought the fat could be rendered into oil, and the lean used for frying. Besides, it’s been so long since we had any meat, it’s time we really nourished ourselves.”