Xiaocao swiftly pulled out the silver hairpin, took several strings of copper coins and three pieces of broken silver, and stuffed them into her bosom.
After thinking it over, she took out one piece of broken silver along with the hairpin and tucked them into the lining of her mother's seldom-worn jacket.
Stepping into the yard, she stared at the hen she had raised since it was a chick. Nimbly climbing into the coop, she grabbed the hen.
Suddenly, she noticed an egg left uncollected under the hen's rear. Lin Xiaocao picked up the egg—it was still warm, likely laid not long ago. She wiped it on her clothes and slipped it into her pocket.
The hen was familiar with her scent and, thinking it was feeding time, flapped its wings happily before being caught.
Before it could even crow, Lin Xiaocao knocked it unconscious with a stone and mercilessly rushed out of the Lin household.
Meanwhile, Mai Zi had stealthily made her way to the Village Head's house. The doors, both inside and out, were locked. She took a flat stone from her Space, stepped on it, and lightly vaulted over the courtyard wall.
She landed with a thud on her backside, but thankfully the height wasn't too great.
Having never been a locksmith in her previous life, she couldn't pick locks in this one.
Mai Zi stared bitterly at the copper lock. Given her current progress, she could smash at it all day and still not break it open.
After pondering for a moment, she stepped forward, touched the door, and with a thought, sent the sturdy door along with the lock into her Space.
Mai Zi tossed the door aside, used a stone to break the wooden latch on the inside, and boldly entered the house. Drawing from her experience searching her own home last time,
she first checked under the bedboards—nothing. She rummaged through the cabinets, finding only official documents and household registers… Moving to another room, still nothing…
Finally, under a clay statue in the study, she uncovered a fifty-tael silver note.
Mai Zi reluctantly put it back. Taking this fifty taels would harm the Village Head's innocent family of over a dozen.
Moreover, losing such a large sum, the Village Head would never take it lying down.
She and Xiaocao would only invite more trouble.
Mai Zi returned the silver note to its original spot and searched high and low again. In the end, she found twenty strings of coins and one piece of broken silver in a hidden compartment in the first room.
Twenty strings of coins amounted to 200 wen, while one tael was equivalent to 1,000 wen.
She was still short 800 wen. Back when the government had sent two taels of compensation to Mai Zi's family, the Village Head, seeing there were no men in the household, had brazenly pocketed it.
Grandma Chen had grumbled about those two taels from the moment Mai Zi was born until she fell ill and passed away. Grandma Chen clung so stubbornly to that money, thinking of her son's death.
But in this era, even a minor official held power over the common people.
Mai Zi intended to reclaim what the Village Head owed her family—the two taels of silver, plus the rest exchanged for goods.
From the kitchen, she took a kitchen knife, a brick of salt, a bag of coarse flour, and two bags of Shu-beans, storing them all in her Space along with three vats of water from outside.
From the room containing official documents, she took a copy of the Three Character Classic. Although it was in traditional characters, Mai Zi managed to recognize it through a mix of guessing and deduction.
Thinking of Xiaocao's straw sandals, Mai Zi found a pair of cloth shoes under the bed. The soles were thickly padded, but the shoes were sized for an adult man and looked nearly new, as if worn only a few times.
Mai Zi also found two sets of cotton-padded clothes in the house, which needed alterations before they could be worn. Mai Zi was certain that this famine escape would take more than just a few months if they relied on walking. It was perfect timing—once the winter cotton clothes were altered, they could be worn.
Then, wearing these cloth shoes, Mai Zi stomped around both inside and outside the yard, leaving the house in complete disarray, as if bandits had ransacked the village.
With the door broken and lying on the ground, covered in footprints, the Village Head would never imagine that this was the work of a ten-year-old child.
But since that nasty old man had bullied Mai Zi so badly, Mai Zi thought it over and decided not to let him off so easily.
So, before leaving, Mai Zi dismantled every door in his house and kicked over the nightsoil bucket, spilling its contents right at the entrance to the study.
The study held all those precious things, so the old man surely wouldn’t let anyone else handle it. Holding one hand over the nose, Mai Zi walked toward the wall.
Following the same method used to enter earlier, Mai Zi threw a stone, used it as a stepping stone to climb the wall, and then jumped out. A few cloth shoe prints were left on the wall for good measure—mission accomplished!
What a shame not to be able to witness the Village Head’s reaction when he returned and opened the door.
On the way back, Mai Zi suddenly spotted a large patch of ginger planted outside Zhang Shi’s yard in the Li family’s compound. This was a valuable find, so Mai Zi grabbed a handful and left without hesitation.
Mai Zi cautiously glanced around. It was nearly dusk by then, so Mai Zi quickened the pace toward the mountain pass. Just then, all the villagers were seen gathered at Old Man Chen’s house. After taking a wide detour around them, Mai Zi happened to pass by the own house.
From a distance, a figure could be seen moving inside—it was Xiaocao, cutting something in the house.