Before Old Man Shen could say anything, Fourth Uncle Shen jumped out to stop it.
“Call the police? Who reports things to the police for every little issue these days? You’re a girl who’s already married out—there’s no place for you to butt in on matters of the Shen family!”
Shen Baizhi’s eyes flickered slightly. She replied indifferently,
“Since you say I’m an outsider, then I’ll just sit here and listen. But later on, whatever happens, don’t come looking for me.”
“But we’ve lost so many things— even our grain rations. If this keeps up, we won’t be able to survive. I don’t think that counts as a small matter, does it?”
When Shen Baizhi mentioned calling the police, Old Man Shen had actually been tempted. After all, losing this much was no trivial matter. If the police could help recover what was stolen, that would be ideal.
But seeing Fourth Uncle Shen’s attitude, he narrowed his eyes. He knew very well what kind of person his fourth son was. With a darkened face, he asked,
“Fourth, does this have anything to do with you?”
Fourth Uncle Shen froze for a moment, then hurriedly pointed to the sky and swore,
“Dad, I swear that what was stolen last night has nothing to do with me!”
“Today is the day Yumei and I are getting married. How could I possibly steal the things meant for my own wedding?”
“Today our family made Yumei suffer such a grievance. We must make it up to her in the future! Aren’t there still some laying hens at home? I think from now on, the family should give her one egg every day as a supplement!”
Tang Yumei lowered her head, looking wronged, but inwardly she felt quite satisfied with Fourth Uncle Shen. At least he knew to fight for something on her behalf. One egg might not seem like much, but over time it would add up.
Besides, Fourth Uncle Shen had said he would compensate her in other ways too.
Old Man Shen felt his words made sense. His gaze swept over everyone before he spoke again in a deep voice,
“I’ll ask one more time—does what happened to our family have anything to do with any of you?”
“If it wasn’t done by one of our own, then I’ll report it to the police…”
Fourth Uncle Shen’s expression stiffened, but he quickly came up with an argument.
“Dad, I really don’t think we should report this to the police.”
Old Man Shen looked at him suspiciously. Fourth Uncle Shen hurriedly lowered his voice.
“I think what happened to our family isn’t normal…”
“Look—everything in Weiwei’s room, even the wardrobe and the desk, is gone. You and Mom were sleeping right next door, yet you didn’t hear a single sound. And the main room’s door was locked from the inside…”
“And if I remember correctly, that wardrobe in Weiwei’s room was custom-made, bigger than ordinary ones. It was even assembled inside the room. How could someone possibly move it away without making a sound?”
The room fell silent again. This time, except for Shen Baizhi, everyone suddenly felt a chill run down their backs. Shen Baisu even edged closer to Shen Baizhi.
Fourth Uncle Shen’s words reminded everyone—this really was the most illogical part. If they reported it to the police, would people think they were making a false report, or dabbling in feudal superstition?
In these times, anything related to feudal superstition was absolutely untouchable! Even though they believed Shen Baiwei was the family’s lucky star, they only ever hinted at it privately, never daring to say it out loud.
Old Man Shen sighed helplessly and said unwillingly,
“So we just… let it go like this?”
Fourth Uncle Shen nodded.
“We can only chalk it up to bad luck. Even I—the one who lost the most—am not pursuing it.”
“Isn’t there a saying about losing a horse? Let’s just consider it spending money to ward off disaster.”
The family was used to Old Man Shen and Old Madam Shen making decisions. No one else voiced an opinion, and the matter was settled just like that.
At this point, Shen Baizhi could basically be certain that the missing grain rations had everything to do with her fourth uncle. Since the Shen family didn’t seem to care about the grain anyway, it wouldn’t be too much for her to help them “collect” it later, would it?
Old Man Shen moved on to the next topic.
“Since the things can’t be recovered, let’s talk about how the family is supposed to live from now on.”
“Our grain rations are down by more than half. There are still two months until the year-end distribution—we won’t last that long.”
As he spoke, he looked up at everyone sitting below him and finally revealed his plan.
“Our family is in trouble right now. Everyone should work together to get through this.”
“Your mother’s and my savings for our coffins were mostly stolen too. We only have sixty yuan left in hand. We’ll take out thirty yuan to buy grain.”
“For what’s still not enough, we’ll need the daughters-in-law to go back to their natal families to borrow some…”
Before he could finish, Eldest Aunt Zhang Guihua jumped up in opposition.
“Dad, as a married daughter-in-law, I’ve never taken even half a benefit back to my natal family. Now you want me to go back and borrow money and grain? I can’t do that. Anyway, I’m not going!”
Old Madam Shen finally found her chance to step in. She had lost so much money and so many things today, yet still had to force a smile in front of others. She was already seething with anger. Pointing at Eldest Aunt across the room, she cursed,
“You won’t go? What right do you have not to go? Saying you never took anything back to your natal family—who do you think you’re fooling? How many times have you taken the things Weiwei brought home back to your parents’ house? You think no one knows?”
Eldest Aunt was not to be outdone.
“Weiwei is my daughter. What’s wrong with her giving some of the things she found to her maternal relatives?”
The two were about to continue shouting at each other when Old Man Shen slammed the table and roared,
“I’m not dead yet, and you already don’t listen to me anymore?”
His heavy gaze fixed on Zhang Guihua, and she immediately lost some of her momentum. But Old Man Shen also knew that getting her to go back to her natal family for help would be difficult.
Now that the eldest daughter-in-law refused, the third daughter-in-law’s family would be lucky if they didn’t come freeloading instead. The fourth daughter-in-law had just married in today, so he couldn’t bring himself to ask her. As for the second daughter-in-law, her natal family did have some resources, but relationships had been damaged in recent years—there was no guarantee they’d be willing to help.
Suddenly, his gaze shifted to Shen Baizhi.
That’s right—this granddaughter had married into no ordinary family. Just the bride price alone had been a full three hundred yuan!
So he forced a benevolent smile and said to Shen Baizhi,
“Second girl, you’ve seen the family’s situation. We really have no other choice. Could you see if you can borrow a bit from your husband’s family? Don’t worry—once things improve, we’ll definitely pay it back.”
“Grandpa, Fourth Uncle just said it himself—I’m an outsider who has no say in family matters. You’d better ask someone else.”
“I think the new Fourth Aunt’s family should be quite well-off.”
Shen Baizhi sneered inwardly. They talked about paying it back once things improved—hadn’t she borrowed before in her previous life? In the end, even when the family’s dogs were eating meat, the answer she always got was that the family was still struggling and she should wait.
Besides, she didn’t believe for a second that these two old people only had sixty yuan left. They were clearly planning to fleece the daughters-in-law’s natal families!
Old Man Shen glanced at the fourth daughter-in-law and saw her pretending not to hear. A trace of disappointment flashed in his eyes, but he still spoke up for her,
“Your Fourth Aunt just married in. Asking her to go back to her natal family to borrow money—how would her family look at her? How would they look at our Shen family?”
“Oh, so Grandpa understands that logic too? Then what about me? I just married into the Lin family and you want me to take money from my in-laws to support my own family. How would they look at me? How would they look at the Shen family?”
“Besides, the three hundred yuan bride price the Lin family gave— you didn’t let me take back a single cent. I can’t even hold my head up in the Lin family anymore!”
Old Man Shen was left speechless. Eldest Aunt muttered softly,
“If you ask me, this is something Fourth Son’s wife should help the family with. Didn’t she used to have a job? Don’t tell me she didn’t save any money. Let her lend some to the family first—it’s not like we won’t pay it back!”
“And besides, our family’s always been peaceful and smooth with Weiwei around. But the moment she’s about to marry in, something this bizarre happens. My Weiwei is sick and can’t even get out of bed—how could there be such a coincidence?”