Tang Xin’er curled her lip and said nothing. The family had already laid out the dishes. She took a couple of random bites, finished the rice in her bowl, and announced, “Enjoy your meal!”
The family exchanged glances with one another, but in the end, they just finished their dinner and cleared the table.
That night, Tang Xin’er lay in bed listening to the movements outside. Once she heard that they had all fallen asleep, she slipped into the space for a little while.
When she came back out, she left her room and wandered around outside, deliberately making some fairly loud noises—yet not a single person stirred or woke up.
Certain that everyone was out cold like dead pigs, Tang Xin’er quietly pushed open Zhou Zhigang and Zhao Meifang’s bedroom door. She first raided Zhou Zhigang’s jacket pockets and dug out a tidy stash of private savings.
Next, she found the bride price money sent over by the Qin family tucked away at the very bottom of the wardrobe.
There had originally been 2,880 yuan, though Zhao Meifang and the others had already spent a portion of it. Without stopping to count every single bill, Tang Xin’er swept up all the cash she found, alongside the three-piece gold set stashed in a small box at the corner of the large trunk, as well as Zhao Meifang’s miscellaneous trinkets and jewelry.
Aside from these, Tang Xin’er also paid a visit to Zhou Youyou’s room.
A quick search uncovered what Zhou Youyou called her “dowry,” which included plenty of good items from this era, over 200 yuan in cash, and the dowry left behind by Zhou Youyou’s biological mother that had now been passed down to her.
Tang Xin’er grinned broadly, sweeping every last item into her spatial dimension.
By the way, she also grabbed all of Zhou Youyou’s best-tailored dresses, coordinated outfits, and favorite pairs of shoes, tucking them neatly away into the space as well.
Of course she didn’t want things other people had already worn, but she purely wanted to watch Zhou Youyou squirm in humiliation!
Just imagining the things Zhou Youyou treasured piled up in the corner of her space like a heap of garbage brought a wave of pure satisfaction to Tang Xin’er!
After that, she raided the kitchen for raw eggs and a few slabs of cured pork.
Continuing her sweep around the house, she scooped up anything and everything useful, and even gave Zhou Yaozu’s room a thorough cleaning out.
Only then did Tang Xin’er return to her own room with a profound sense of satisfaction and drift off to a peaceful sleep.
She slept soundly all the way until dawn the next morning.
“Ahhh!”
Tang Xin’er had enjoyed a wonderful sleep, only to be jerked awake early in the morning by a blood-curdling scream.
It looked like they had finally discovered that their belongings were gone.
She took a moment to compose herself, deliberately stepping out of her room with her shoes half-unbuttoned, wearing a look of panicked confusion. “What’s wrong?”
The person who had screamed first was Zhou Youyou.
Since she had both a job and her own social circle, she had planned to go shopping with a colleague that day, intending to bring along a nice dress to change into right after work.
Who could have known that the moment she pulled open her wardrobe door this morning, all of her clothes had vanished completely?
Before she even had time to fully register the missing clothes, she frantically yanked open her other drawer, only to find that all the cash inside was gone too.
In an instant, she began spinning around like a headless fly, tearing open several more of her cabinets and trunks. All of her dowry items were gone.
Even the things prepared jointly by Zhou Zhigang and her late biological mother had vanished without a trace.
After a frantic round of checks, the realization hit her, eliciting that blood-curdling scream. Clutching her head, she crouched on the floor of her room, an expression of sheer disbelief plastered across her face.
How could this be?
Her scream drew the rest of the household running. The moment Zhou Zhigang stepped into the room and saw the place tossed into complete chaos, his heart skipped a beat.
Could something terrible have happened?
He hurried forward, asking, “Youyou, what’s wrong?”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Zhou Youyou grabbed onto his arm like a drowning person clutching a lifeline. “Dad, our house got robbed! All my things are gone!”
Hearing this, Zhou Zhigang froze in utter shock.
“What’s gone?”
Before he could even process that, Zhao Meifang felt that something was amiss in their own quarters. She rushed out in a panic, barreling right into Tang Xin’er, who had been standing by the doorway watching the spectacle.
Tang Xin’er tumbled to the floor, rubbing her aching arm with a wince. “Mom, what on earth is going on?”
Zhao Meifang had no spare energy to care about that now. She bolted into her bedroom, threw open the large trunk where they kept their valuables, and collapsed backward onto the floor with a heavy thud.
“Old Zhou! Old Zhou, get in here right now!” Zhao Meifang shrieked in despair. Rushing back into the room, Zhou Zhigang discovered that everything inside the cabinet was gone.
A single glance went straight to the bottom; the hiding spots where they kept their jewelry, the three-piece gold set, and the bride price money were completely empty.
Panic seized Zhou Zhigang. He scrambled to check the pockets of the coats hanging on the rack—they were utterly cleaned out, too.
The entire family was thrown into a frantic panic. Tang Xin’er stood among the crowd watching the show, careful not to betray any emotion as she quickly retreated to her own room.
“M… my money was stolen too!”
Tang Xin’er wailed, squeezing out a couple of fake tears for good measure. “The five yuan I worked so hard to save up—it’s all gone!”
She put on a stellar performance, smacking her thighs in theatrical grief as she wailed to high heaven.
While playing the part on the outside, she was secretly thrilled on the inside. Thank goodness she had binged plenty of television dramas in her past life and witnessed all sorts of pitiful female leads in action.
She figured her acting skills were top-notch—she practically deserved an award for this!
With the whole family running around like headless chickens, Zhou Yaozu was furious to find that his own belongings had been snatched away as well.
Watching them scramble around in circles, Zhou Youyou felt so dizzy with rage she nearly passed out. She grabbed Zhou Zhigang’s arm and shook it. “Dad, hurry up and call the police! If all our belongings are gone, how are we supposed to live?”
Prompted by those words, Zhou Zhigang hastily ran off to report the theft.
The police arrived promptly. The moment they stepped through the front door, Zhao Meifang rushed forward, pouring out a dramatic tale of woe about how their home had been cleaned out.
The others sat nearby, sniffing and wiping away tears.
“Officer comrades, you simply must catch the thief for us!”
“Rest assured, comrade.” Seeing how miserably they were crying, the police officer furrowed his brows slightly before stepping forward to inspect the crime scene.
The arrival of the police naturally drew the attention of the surrounding neighbors, who stretched their necks out to peer inside, eager to catch the juicy gossip first-hand.
With some gossip to chew on, they’d have plenty of table-talk for later—how fun was that?
Unfortunately, because their unit sat at the very far right end with only a single narrow passageway, the doorway was already blocked off tightly by the police, leaving the onlookers unable to catch a single word.
The police officers walked around inside, registering the list of stolen items.
“By the time we arrived, you had already searched through your belongings yourselves, so the original crime scene has been compromised. The theft happened last night, am I correct?” The officer asked, notebook in hand as he logged every detail.
Zhao Meifang nodded, crying a river of snot and tears. “When I woke up this morning, my daughter said her things were missing. I had a bad feeling, so I ran back to check our room, and all our valuables were gone too!”
“That’s right, that’s right,” Tang Xin’er chimed in from the corner, weeping like a fragile cabbage. “My five yuan in private savings was stolen too.”
Forcefully inserting herself into the narrative to maintain presence, she earned a fleeting glance from the officer, who remained silent.
In the end, they could only offer a regretful conclusion. “Because the scene has been disturbed, and considering you’ve only lost financial assets with a lack of physical evidence, investigating this case will take some time, and recovery isn’t guaranteed. You should mentally prepare yourselves.”
Hearing the officer’s verdict felt to the family like a sudden thunderbolt cracking overhead.
“Officer, is there really nothing you can do?” The mere thought of their immediate future made Zhao Meifang’s legs turn to jelly.
The officer shook his head.
It was essentially a cold case. There weren’t even any signs of forced entry on the door locks—the property had simply vanished overnight. By all accounts, it hardly looked like a standard solved case.
As soon as the police left, Zhao Meifang glared at the gloating neighbors gathered outside, slammed the door shut with a heavy bang, and collapsed onto the floor in absolute despair.
She burst into wailing laments. “Why are these police officers so irresponsible?! Every single cent we had is gone! What are we supposed to do now?!”
“Yaozu still has his wedding coming up, and the banquet hall is already booked! We still have to pay the remaining balance, plus what we owe on Xiaomei’s end…”
While Zhao Meifang sat there crying, Tang Xin’er squeezed out a few more fake tears on the side while celebrating inwardly with figurative firecrackers.
As the family wallowed in utter misery, Zhou Youyou sat tightly on the sofa with clenched fists, her eyes filled with bewildered frustration.
With no one paying her any attention, Zhao Meifang wept for a long while.
Suddenly, Zhou Yaozu bounced up from the sofa. “Then you guys need to figure something out! My wedding with Xiaomei is already scheduled! Are you saying we have to call it off? If we do, Xiaomei is definitely going to call off the engagement and refuse to marry me!”
He was applying heavy pressure. Zhou Zhigang sat nearby, silently smoking a cigarette. After a moment of heavy thought, Zhao Meifang’s gaze suddenly landed on Tang Xin’er standing quietly in the corner, and she sprang to her feet.
She lunged forward toward Tang Xin’er so abruptly that she startled the girl.
What on earth is she trying to do now?
Their money was gone—at a time like this, shouldn’t they be out looking for funds to finance Zhou Yaozu’s wedding? Knowing how doting Zhao Meifang was toward him, she’d probably sell her own blood if it came to it!
While Tang Xin’er was thinking this, Zhao Meifang grabbed her hands, pinning all her remaining hopes squarely on her.
“Xin’er, why don’t you go find Qin Shiyao?”
“Go talk to him about our family’s predicament. Who knows, maybe he’ll give you another sum of money! That way, Yaozu’s wedding can still go on as planned, right?”
“Xin’er, be a good girl and help your younger brother out!”