Speaking of which, Mo Sanniang was quite bold. Any other woman who saw a man lying on the ground, uncertain whether he was alive or dead, would probably have been scared off long ago.
But Mo Sanniang let out a loud shout and rushed over. Not knowing where Meng Liangdong was injured, she didn’t dare to move him recklessly. She extended her long nails and pinched Meng Liangdong’s philtrum. When pinching him for quite a while yielded no response, she gritted her teeth, pulled a silver hairpin out of her hair, and stabbed it into Meng Liangdong’s philtrum.
This time, Meng Liangdong finally showed a reaction.
Da Niu and Liang Zi, who had arrived early for work, had also reached the shop by this point and helped Mo Sanniang carry Meng Liangdong to a chair to check his injuries.
Luckily, apart from a big lump on his head from being hit, Meng Liangdong had no other injuries. However, his arm was grazed and bleeding. Fortunately, Mo Sanniang was quick and had already bandaged him up by this time.
There were too many people gathered outside the door, and seeing the mess inside, Lin Yuan knew that they wouldn’t be able to do any business today. She gave Liuzi and Liang Zi a look, and the two, very cleverly, dispersed the onlookers and even closed the shop door.
Fifth Sister Bai and Aunt Chen had already brought a doctor. After examining Meng Liangdong’s head and asking about the basic situation, the doctor prescribed only a few symbolic herbal remedies. It seemed there was nothing seriously wrong.
Mo Sanniang had been busy dressing his wounds this whole time and hadn’t asked about the incident yet. After the doctor left, Lin Yuan finally sat down and had a chance to ask Meng Liangdong about what happened last night.
Meng Liangdong was clearly still shaken, and it wasn’t until Lin Yuan asked twice that he lifted his bewildered eyes and said with a bitten lip, "Ah, I am really useless! Boss, you entrusted me to look after the shop, and I, I just..."
In his agitation, Meng Liangdong even used the formal term "student" to refer to himself.
Xia Zheng, who always disliked these bookish types of address, cleared his ears and moved to one side.
"Mr. Meng, don’t blame yourself," Lin Yuan said, having experienced Meng Liangdong’s torrential speech before. Fearing he might go on indefinitely, she quickly prompted him to talk about last night’s events.
Meng Liangdong then nodded and began, "After you all left last night, I made some food since I had nothing else to do. Unable to sleep, I just sat in the courtyard, lost in thought. I don’t know how much time passed, but it must have been a long while because there was barely a sound around. So I got up to return to my room to sleep."
"I have been living alone for so long I don’t have the habit of lighting lamps, so the courtyard was pitch-black, as if uninhabited. Just as I reached the door, I heard two voices talking in the front hall. I thought it was you, Boss, returning to fetch something you had forgotten, so I quickly made my way to the front hall."
Pausing here, Meng Liangdong fell silent for a long time, clearly troubled by the memory of the incident and unsure how to continue.
Lin Yuan and the others understood his feelings and waited patiently for him to resume.
Finally, Meng Liangdong spoke again, "To my surprise, as soon as I reached the front hall, I realized that something was amiss. One of the men said, ’Big brother, there’s nothing in this shop, not a bit of silver—so poor!’ The other replied angrily, ’Damn it! It looked so impressive, but it’s just an empty shell! They’ve really put one over on us!’"
As Meng Liangdong recounted, he even mimicked the tone of the two men, particularly the phrase "Damn it!" Coming from such a reserved person like him, it was completely out of place, and even Mo Sanniang couldn’t help but laugh.
Meng Liangdong himself seemed completely unaware of anything amiss and continued with the events of the previous night.