No one answered.
The entire courtyard was empty. Apart from the four members of the Lin family and their three beds, there was absolutely nothing left.
“It was Lin Wanqiu…”
Wang Guihua muttered under her breath, her eyes gradually widening.
“It must have been her! She’s the one who did this! She’s the thief!”
She suddenly spun around and grabbed Lin Daqiang by the arm.
“Old man! It was Lin Wanqiu! She emptied our entire house! She’s the one who stole our money!”
Lin Daqiang still hadn’t recovered from the shock. He stared at his wife in disbelief.
“What nonsense are you talking about? How could she possibly steal all this by herself?”
“Why couldn’t she?” Wang Guihua shrieked. “Our house was perfectly fine before she came back! Then she returned last night, and this morning everything was gone! Who else could it be?”
Her voice grew increasingly frantic.
“It had to be her! It must have been! She waited until we were asleep and carried everything away!”
The neighbors exchanged bewildered glances.
None of them could make sense of what she was saying.
Auntie Liu finally spoke up.
“Guihua, are you seriously saying your house was stolen? And that Lin Wanqiu stole it?”
“Of course it was her! Who else could have done it?”
Wang Guihua burst into tears again.
“All the money I spent my entire life saving is gone! Every last cent! And the grain, the cured meat, the eggs… Everything! It’s all gone!”
An elderly neighbor frowned.
“Guihua, I’m not trying to upset you, but think about what you’re saying. Your house was built from mud bricks. Even if several strong men worked all night, they couldn’t carry away the entire building, let alone a young woman doing it by herself.”
She glanced at the empty plot of land, then lowered her voice.
“Could it be that your family did something terrible and heaven is punishing you for it?”
Those words pierced Wang Guihua’s heart like a needle.
She froze.
For a brief moment, all the color drained from her face.
Then she suddenly sprang to her feet and pointed furiously at the woman.
“What nonsense are you spouting? If heaven wants to strike someone down with lightning, it’ll strike you first!”
Her face twisted with anger.
“It’s easy for you to stand there and talk when it isn’t your house that’s gone! What has our family ever done to deserve something like this?”
Yet beneath her furious outburst, a small voice whispered in her mind.
Could it really be punishment from heaven?
But what had she done wrong?
Was it because she had forced her daughter into marriage?
Because she had tried to take her daughter’s factory job and give it to her son?
Or because she had favored her son over her daughter all these years?
No!
Impossible!
Wang Guihua shook her head violently, refusing to entertain the thought.
Everything she had done was for the good of the family!
For her son!
What was wrong with that?
Besides, Lin Wanqiu had grown up eating her food and living under her roof. Wasn’t it only natural that the girl should repay the Lin family by working herself to the bone for them?
She owed them everything!
“Call the police!”
Lin Baogen suddenly shouted.
“Mom! We need to report this to the police! Let the officers investigate! Tell them to arrest Lin Wanqiu!”
His words snapped Wang Guihua out of her thoughts.
“That’s right! The police!”
She immediately straightened.
“We’ll report it! We’ll have that damned girl arrested!”
With that, she turned and prepared to rush off.
“Guihua, shouldn’t you put on some shoes first?” Auntie Liu reminded her.
Wang Guihua stopped.
Only then did she realize that she was still barefoot.
Worse, she was wearing nothing but her thin sleeping clothes.
The morning air was bitterly cold, and she was already shivering uncontrollably.
But where were her shoes?
Her clothes?
Everything was gone.
In the end, she had no choice but to wrap herself in a bedsheet.
Under the strange looks of her neighbors, she stumbled toward the village committee office, the sheet clutched tightly around her body.
Along the way, anyone who passed the Lin family’s property stopped to stare.
The news spread through the village like wildfire.
“Have you heard? The Lin family’s house disappeared overnight!”
“Disappeared? What do you mean?”
“I’m telling you, it’s true! I saw it with my own eyes! There’s nothing left but three beds sitting on the ground!”
“Good heavens! Could it be ghosts?”
“Who knows? But you have to admit, the Lin family hasn’t treated that girl Wanqiu very well over the years.”
“Do you think Wanqiu might have had something to do with it?”
“How could she? She’s just one young woman!”
As Wang Guihua listened to the villagers gossiping, her anger grew.
Yet beneath that anger lurked a fear she couldn’t quite suppress.
What if something truly unnatural had happened?
By the time she reached the village committee office, her nerves were stretched to the breaking point.
The village Party secretary, Zhao Jianguo, was on duty that morning.
He nearly jumped out of his chair when Wang Guihua burst through the door, her hair disheveled and a bedsheet wrapped around her body.
“Wang Guihua? What on earth happened to you?”
“Secretary Zhao! I need to report a theft!”
Wang Guihua wailed.
“Our house has been robbed! Everything’s been stolen! Everything!”
Zhao Jianguo listened as she poured out the entire story.
The more he heard, the more unbelievable it sounded.
An entire house disappearing overnight?
Even the walls and roof?
He had never heard of anything like it.
Unable to make sense of her account, he decided to accompany her back to the Lin family property.
But when he arrived and saw the bare plot of land, he stopped in his tracks.
For several moments, he could only stare.
“This… Are you telling me someone actually stole all of this?”
Even after seeing it with his own eyes, he found it difficult to believe.
“Yes! It was stolen!”
Wang Guihua began sobbing again.
“It must have been Lin Wanqiu! Secretary Zhao, you have to arrest her! You have to get our things back!”
Zhao Jianguo frowned.
“Lin Wanqiu? Did she come home last night?”
“Yes! She came back!”
Wang Guihua wiped her tears with the corner of her bedsheet.
“She said the factory was doing equipment maintenance, so she’d gotten off work early. But when we woke up this morning, she was gone, and so was the house!”
By now, the scene at the Lin family’s property had become quite a spectacle.
Wang Guihua sat on the bare ground, wrapped in her bedsheet and crying as though her heart would break.
Lin Daqiang crouched nearby, looking utterly defeated.
He instinctively reached for his tobacco pipe, only to remember that both his pipe and tobacco pouch had vanished along with everything else.
He could do nothing but squat there in silence.
Lin Baogen and Lin Zhaodi were in equally miserable states.
Both had wrapped themselves in bedding, looking thoroughly disheveled and embarrassed.
Meanwhile, a growing crowd of villagers had gathered around the property.
Everyone wanted to see the astonishing sight for themselves.
“Secretary Zhao! You have to stand up for us!”
Wang Guihua suddenly lunged forward and wrapped both arms around Zhao Jianguo’s leg.
“Our family has been robbed of everything! It was that damned girl Lin Wanqiu! I’m certain of it! You have to arrest her!”
Zhao Jianguo tried to pull his leg free.
It wouldn’t budge.
He looked down at the woman clinging to him, then back at the empty plot of land.
His brows drew together.
He had served as the village Party secretary for more than ten years.
During that time, he had dealt with countless disputes, strange incidents, and family quarrels.
But an entire house vanishing without a trace overnight?
That was something he had never encountered before.
“Wang Guihua, get up first.”
He bent down and attempted to help her to her feet.
“We need to investigate this properly. You keep saying Lin Wanqiu did it, but do you have any evidence?”
“Evidence?”
Wang Guihua sprang upright.
“What more evidence do you need?”
She thrust her finger toward the empty courtyard.
“She came home last night! This morning, she’s disappeared, and so has everything we own! If it wasn’t her, then who else could it possibly be?”
Zhao Jianguo felt a headache coming on.
A young woman carrying away an entire household in a single night?
Not just furniture and valuables, but the roof beams, walls, and even the courtyard enclosure?
How could anyone believe such a thing?
He certainly didn’t.
Even if the police came to investigate, they would never accept that explanation without solid evidence.
But looking at Wang Guihua, who seemed ready to throw herself at his feet again, Zhao Jianguo decided it would be wiser not to argue with her.
After thinking for a moment, he said, “How about this? I’ll go to the factory and ask about Lin Wanqiu. We’ll see what’s going on.”
“I’m coming with you!”
Wang Guihua responded immediately.
“That damned girl promised to transfer her job to Baogen! Now she’s disappeared first thing in the morning!”
Her eyes burned with fury.
“I’m going with you to find her! We can’t let her get away!”
Lin Baogen quickly stood up.
“Mom, I’m coming too!”
Zhao Jianguo looked at the miserable state of the family and sighed.
“All right. Get yourselves cleaned up, and we’ll head into the county town.”
Get cleaned up?
With what?
They didn’t even have clothes to change into!
In the end, Wang Guihua had to borrow an old outfit from one of her neighbors.
Lin Baogen and Lin Zhaodi each managed to borrow some clothes as well.
Once they were dressed, the three of them followed Zhao Jianguo to the village’s only ox cart.
The journey to the county town was slow and uncomfortable.
The wooden cart rattled and bounced along the uneven dirt road, jostling its passengers with every bump.
After two exhausting hours, they finally arrived at the county textile factory.
The security guard at the factory entrance recognized Lin Wanqiu’s name.
When Zhao Jianguo explained that they were looking for her, the guard glanced at Wang Guihua.
Her disheveled appearance and agitated expression made him hesitate.
But after a moment, he decided to let them through and escorted the group to the personnel department.
Inside the office, Zhou Yun was busy sorting through a stack of documents.
She looked up when the door opened.
The moment she saw Wang Guihua storming inside, her brows knitted together.
Lin Wanqiu had already told her about the situation at home.
Zhou Yun knew exactly how this mother favored her son over her daughter, treating Lin Wanqiu as little more than a source of money.
She had no sympathy whatsoever for such a woman.
Wang Guihua didn’t bother with greetings.
The instant she stepped into the office, she began shouting.
“Where’s Lin Wanqiu? Tell her to come out!”
She slammed a hand against the nearest desk.
“She stole everything from our house! Every last thing!”
Then, as though suddenly remembering something even more important, she demanded, “And what about her job? Has she transferred it to my son yet?”
Zhou Yun slowly set down the documents in her hands.
She looked at Wang Guihua with an icy expression.
“Lin Wanqiu resigned yesterday. She no longer works here.”
Her voice was calm and firm.
“As for where she’s gone, we don’t know.”
“What a load of rubbish!”
Wang Guihua’s eyes turned red with fury.
“She promised to give her job to Baogen! How could she possibly resign?”
Zhou Yun didn’t bother arguing.
Instead, she opened a drawer and took out a document.
It was Lin Wanqiu’s official resignation certificate.
She handed it directly to Zhao Jianguo.
“Please take a look.”
She continued evenly, “Lin Wanqiu submitted her resignation voluntarily. All the necessary procedures have been completed.”
Then she added, “The position she vacated has already been filled.”
Zhao Jianguo accepted the document and examined it carefully.
Lin Wanqiu’s signature was clearly written on the form.
The factory’s official seal was stamped in the appropriate place.
Every required procedure had been properly completed.
There was no mistake.
Lin Wanqiu had truly resigned.
After confirming the details, Zhao Jianguo turned toward Wang Guihua and handed her the document.
“Guihua,” he said gravely, “Wanqiu really has resigned.”