“Achoo—achoo. You nasty old woman, did you steal my quilt again?”
Wang Daren was woken by the cold. Without even opening his eyes, he shoved the person beside him, thinking Zhou Lanxiang had once again rolled the quilt away.
Zhou Lanxiang yawned and opened her eyes. When she saw the round moon hanging in the sky, she cried out in disbelief, “Old Wang—where’s our roof?!”
Her shrill scream jolted Wang Daren, Wang Chaomei, and the two children awake as well.
They hurriedly got dressed and stared at the scene before them in utter disbelief.
“Slap! Slap!” Wang Daren viciously smacked himself twice. “Ouch—this hurts. I’m not dreaming! I just had that roof rebuilt this year!”
“Mom! All the stuff my sister-in-law bought for me is gone! My woolen coat!” Wang Chaomei screamed in despair.
Zhou Lanxiang rushed into the kitchen. Seeing that there was nothing left inside except a huge water vat, her legs gave out and she plopped onto the floor, wailing.
“Heavens above, who could be so heartless? What are we supposed to eat from now on?”
Wang Daren thought of the money he had hidden in the wardrobe—over the years, bribes and kickbacks from being the brigade leader, plus “thank-you fees” from higher-ups, totaling 2,835 yuan. His heart bled at the thought.
Zhou Lanxiang didn’t even know about that stash. Wang Daren had been planning to use it to buy an apartment as dowry for the daughter he had with Chen Hongxia.
After all, that daughter, Shen Lili, was far prettier than Wang Chaomei, obedient in front of him, and did well in school. She was bound to marry well.
Wang Daren believed that treating Shen Lili well now would pay off handsomely in the future once she married into a good family.
He had long since told Chen Hongxia and her daughter about the plan to buy a house. Now that the money was gone—what was he supposed to do?
Thinking of this, Wang Daren squatted down and started crying as well.
Seeing all three adults crying, Wang Caifeng began to wail loudly too. Cold and sobbing, her runny nose flowed into her mouth—she slurped and swallowed it back down.
“That woman is gone.” Wang Zhuo’er scanned the area and was the first to notice Shen Fuyao’s disappearance.
“That’s right—my former sister-in-law ran off!” Wang Chaomei’s eyes widened. “Could she have stolen everything?”
“How could a single woman move all this stuff by herself?” Wang Daren shot his foolish daughter a look. To him, her words were pure fantasy.
“Then where did she go?” Wang Chaomei had an inexplicable feeling that everything in their house had been taken by Shen Fuyao.
“Grandpa, come look—there are words on the stone table.” Standing on tiptoe, Wang Zhuo’er read aloud, “Those who commit endless evil will surely meet Heaven’s retribution.”
When Wang Daren and Zhou Lanxiang heard those words, all the color drained from their faces, leaving their old faces deathly pale with terror.
“Old Wang, I remember—ten years ago, there was that bride who’d only been married three days. The day she went back to her parents’ home, you all—”
“Enough!” Wang Daren roared, cutting Zhou Lanxiang off before she could finish.
“Impossible. There are no ghosts in this world. The state banned feudal superstition long ago—how could there still be such filthy things? This had to be done by a person.”
Trembling, Wang Daren walked over and ran his fingers along the carved words on the stone table. Feeling the depth of the grooves, his voice grew quieter and quieter.
He knew very clearly that such depth was not something an ordinary person could carve.
And yet the words had appeared out of nowhere, without anyone in the family hearing a sound.
Wang Daren fell silent.
Wang Zhuo’er frowned slightly. He felt this had everything to do with Shen Fuyao. After all, both of them had been reborn—who knew what extraordinary cheat she might have?
In his previous life, Wang Zhuo’er had died in 1996. Back then, novels hadn’t yet invented the concept of spatial storage, but he had read plenty of Jin Yong’s wuxia novels. He believed Shen Fuyao must have had a fortuitous encounter and obtained a martial arts manual, which was how she managed to empty the house without anyone noticing.
As for where the things went, Wang Zhuo’er guessed they had been dumped down the mountain.
Otherwise, how could one explain the words on the stone table?
“Grandpa, now isn’t the time to speculate,” Wang Zhuo’er said after some thought. “The most urgent thing is to deal with our current predicament.”
“Then tell me—what should we do?” Wang Daren didn’t find it strange at all that a four-year-old could speak like this. He had already learned that Wang Zhuo’er was his grandson, and simply attributed it to the Wang family’s good genes—producing a prodigy.
Wang Zhuo’er propped his chin with his right hand, brow furrowed. “We have no food, and the house isn’t fit to live in. If we stay here, even if we don’t starve, we’ll freeze to death. Even if the villagers help, it won’t last long. We need to go to the provincial capital and find my father. Also, that woman is missing—I’m worried she knows my true identity and will go to the army to cause trouble. We need to get there first.”
“If we go with the whole family in tow, won’t it cause trouble for Chaoying?” Wang Daren always put his son first. After all, the army wasn’t his home—bringing so many people along, where would they even stay?
“It won’t. My biological mother’s father is a commander. He’ll definitely help arrange everything.”
With memories of his previous life, Wang Zhuo’er knew that Xia Yulan’s biological father had been a comrade of the commander, named Xia Dadan. He had died saving the commander’s life. To repay that debt, the commander married Xia Dadan’s widow, who already had a son and was pregnant with Xia Yulan.
Because of the life-saving恩 and because Xia Yulan was genuinely good at winning over her stepfather, the commander had always granted her every request. As long as Xia Yulan spoke up, the commander would definitely arrange things properly for their whole family.
“But what if Shen Fuyao goes to the army and talks nonsense, reporting that my brother had an illegitimate child?” Wang Chaomei asked anxiously.
“That’s easy to handle. We get to the army first and seize control of public opinion. We’ll let all the military wives in the compound know that Shen Fuyao ran out in the dead of night to fool around with a lover and even brought her adulterer to clean out our house. My sister and I can both testify that she abused us at home. Once people form a first impression, no one will believe what she says. Besides, we’re old and young and weak—compared to her, we’re the victims.”
Wang Zhuo’er smiled slyly. No matter the era, people always side with and sympathize with the weak.
Listening to his grandson’s analysis, Wang Daren’s eyes grew brighter and brighter. He cupped Wang Zhuo’er’s little face and kissed it. “Good boy, Zhuo’er—Grandpa’s true grandson. This cleverness really takes after me.”
Imagining his son successfully marrying the commander’s daughter, Wang Daren felt that once his son rose, the whole family would ascend with him. Once they reached the provincial capital and the commander arranged a lucrative position for him, losing two or three thousand yuan would be nothing—two or three ten thousand could be pocketed within a year.
“Shen Fuyao must have gone back to her parents’ home to get a letter of introduction, then taken the train. Trains stop and go—it takes two days to reach the provincial capital. We’ll go find the Party secretary right now and tell him that Shen Fuyao ran off with a lover after emptying the house. Then we’ll have Li Gangpao drive us to the county seat by tractor, and I’ll get the director of the county Party committee office to arrange a vehicle to take us to the army,” Wang Daren said, grinning as he mapped out their route, seeing a bright future ahead.
“Grandpa, Aunt and I can take the train. If we can sell Shen Fuyao to human traffickers on the train, even better,” Wang Zhuo’er said sinisterly, raising his small hand.
“No!” Wang Daren rejected the idea without hesitation. “You’re too young—and you’re so cute and smart. Traffickers are vicious criminals. If you get on the train, you’d be targeted by them too.”
Now fully convinced that Wang Zhuo’er was his biological grandson, Wang Daren was naturally unwilling to let him take such a risk.