Yangshu Village isn’t that big, and everyone in the village is tightly-knit. As soon as they heard a thief was around, those close to the sound hurriedly grabbed their tools and rushed out.
However, the thief seemed to be quite skilled. Despite his injured arm, he endured the pain and could still run surprisingly fast.
As a result, even though many people from the village tried to catch the thief, only Yang Chuxia and Yang Dayong, who came following the sound, could match the thief’s speed. The others were left behind.
As they chased the thief and approached the reed marsh, Yang Chuxia’s heart sank.
That’s because the reed marsh was vast, and beyond it lay a small river flowing downstream. If the thief entered the marsh and slipped down the river, it was almost certain that they would be impossible to catch.
As she expected, their position in the field wasn’t strong enough. By the time they reached the edge of the reed marsh, the thief had already entered it.
Yang Chuxia silently cursed her small stature - even if her martial arts skills were excellent, they couldn’t make up for her short legs. If she could be just a little bit faster, the thief wouldn’t stand a chance.
"Xiaxia, what should we do?" Yang Dayong asked.
"Let’s just give up, Uncle Dayong. We definitely won’t catch up to him." She was sure that, as long as the thief wasn’t an idiot, he would go downstream along the river, hold his breath for a while, and then swim back to the surface, making it impossible for them to catch him.
"Damn, I didn’t expect him to get away ." Everyone in the village despised thieves, and Yang Dayong was no exception.
"Uncle Dayong, did the thief’s figure look like someone from our village?"
Yang Dayong thought for a moment, "Now that you mention it, it did look familiar. I just can’t remember who it might be." Luckily, the moon was bright tonight, making it easier for him to see the figure.
"I thought the thief’s voice sounded familiar too." The thief had uttered a soft shout earlier on the road, and as she thought about it carefully, Yang Chuxia realized that she had indeed heard this voice somewhere before.
"It must be someone from our village then," Yang Dayong concluded, "This bastard dares to steal from his own village, he’s courting death."
However, Yang Chuxia shook her head, "Not necessarily, Uncle Dayong. He used some kind of knockout gas."
Yang Dayong was startled, "Could it be the thief who’s been stealing young girls around town?"
The rumors in the town had become more and more outrageous lately, and Yang Dayong naturally heard about it because of Auntie Li’s gossip.
"Maybe. Anyway, if he’s from our village, we’ll be able to catch him eventually, since his arm was stabbed by my mom, and there will definitely be a scar that won’t heal anytime soon. I’ll just keep an eye on people in the village from now on."
"You’re right, we’ll just be more vigilant."
As uncle and niece walked back, they met more people from the village and returned together.
When they arrived at the Yang Family’s home, the third branch’s house was lit up. New bride Yang Dachuan and others, like Ye Zi’an, Land Officer Yang, and Uncle Old Gen, had all arrived upon hearing the commotion. However, because there were knockout drugs inside the house, they all stood in the courtyard.
Seeing them return empty-handed, the rest of the people knew they hadn’t caught the thief.
"Dad, the guy is..." Yang Dayong was about to tell his dad that the thief was from their village, asking him and the others to be on the lookout.
However, Yang Chuxia managed to stop him in time, "Grandpa, the thief got away, we couldn’t catch him."
"Were you able to see who he was?"
Yang Chuxia shook her head, "I couldn’t tell." Yang Dayong didn’t understand but said nothing.
"Have we lost anything in the house?" Land Officer Yang asked Ms. Wang.