The cold wind howled, and the night was as dark as ink.
Yu Qinghuan stood in the chilly courtyard, her ears twitching slightly.
From inside the main house came faint sounds of people tossing and turning, along with the barely audible curses of Miao Cuihua and her daughter.
Clearly, after the destructive rampage she had unleashed earlier, no one in the Li family could fall asleep.
Yu Qinghuan raised an eyebrow.
If they weren’t going to sleep, how was she supposed to perform her miraculous zero-yuan shopping?
She moved her consciousness slightly and connected directly to the system in her mind.
“System, do you have anything in the store that can make people fall asleep?”
[Ding! The system store has selected the most suitable item for the host.]
[Powerful Sleep Incense: Colorless and odorless. Once lit, it induces deep sleep in everyone within a ten-meter radius for twelve hours.]
[Price: 50 Rampage Points.]
Yu Qinghuan glanced at her newly earned balance of 100 points and made her decision without hesitation.
“Exchange!”
[Ding! 50 Rampage Points deducted. Powerful Sleep Incense has been stored in your dimensional space.]
The next second, a thin, pale-gray incense stick, no thicker than a toothpick, appeared out of thin air in Yu Qinghuan’s hand.
She walked to the door of the main house.
The wooden door was tightly shut, but houses built from earth and timber in this era had plenty of gaps around their doors and windows.
Yu Qinghuan took out a match and lit the incense.
A wisp of nearly invisible blue smoke slipped silently through the cracks beneath the door and drifted into the main house.
Standing outside, Yu Qinghuan silently counted to thirty.
Before long, the tense, panicked breathing inside gradually grew heavier.
A moment later, Miao Cuihua’s thunderous snores, sounding like a broken bellows, erupted through the house.
Li Chunhua and Old Man Li soon joined in, their snores rising and falling in succession.
What a lively chorus!
“Done.”
Yu Qinghuan dusted off her hands, turned around, and swaggered toward the backyard.
The Li family’s backyard was piled high with dried grass and rotten firewood.
Beneath a heap of dried grass in the farthest corner lay a thick stone slab.
Yu Qinghuan walked over, swept away the dried grass, and revealed the bluestone slab underneath.
A large, rusty iron padlock hung from it.
In her previous life, Miao Cuihua had treasured the key to this lock more than her own life. She kept it tied to a red string and hung it from her waistband every single day.
Yu Qinghuan had absolutely no interest in searching Miao Cuihua’s body for the key.
That was disgusting.
She moved her thoughts slightly.
A heavy crowbar made from modern high-carbon steel appeared out of thin air in her hand.
She had casually picked it up from the miscellaneous storage section of her dimensional space.
Yu Qinghuan gripped the crowbar with both hands, positioned it against the lock, and forced it sideways.
CRACK!
With a sharp snap, the heavy iron padlock proved as fragile as a piece of tofu against modern industrial alloy steel.
It shattered under the force.
Yu Qinghuan tossed aside the broken lock and exerted strength with one hand, flipping the heavy bluestone slab open.
A pitch-black opening, reeking of damp and mold, immediately came into view.
She took a powerful flashlight from her dimensional space and climbed lightly down the wooden ladder.
The flashlight’s brilliant white beam illuminated the interior, revealing everything below.
The moment she saw the stockpile, Yu Qinghuan sneered repeatedly.
The cellar was roughly ten or so square meters in size, packed tightly with all kinds of goods.
Large vats against the walls were filled with gleaming white polished rice and fine flour.
In an era when most people survived on coarse grains and cornmeal, such a large quantity of refined food was an absolute luxury.
Strings of cured pork and sausages, glistening with oil from the salt-curing process, hung from the ceiling beams.
In the corner, three enormous jars of solidified, snow-white pork lard were neatly arranged.
Looking at all this, Yu Qinghuan couldn’t help finding it deeply ironic.
In her previous life, the old Li family ate steamed white-flour buns and braised cured pork every day.
Meanwhile, the original Yu Qinghuan had been forced to drink watery wild-vegetable porridge so thin she could practically see her reflection in it. Miao Cuihua had even cursed her as a useless freeloader who brought bad luck.
So that was how it was!
The money and ration coupons Li Zhengting sent home had all been used by Miao Cuihua to fatten herself and Li Chunhua.
“Since you love hoarding things so much, I’ll put them in my pocket instead.”
Yu Qinghuan walked deeper into the cellar.
Beneath a pile of worn-out burlap sacks, she uncovered an old metal biscuit tin.
Several layers of plastic tape had been wrapped around it.
Yu Qinghuan used a pair of scissors to cut through the tape and opened the lid.
The flashlight shone inside, immediately reflecting a brilliant silver-white gleam.
Twenty neatly arranged silver dollars bearing the portrait of Yuan Shikai.
Beside them lay a thick stack of large-denomination renminbi banknotes, commonly known as Da Tuanjie. At a rough glance, there had to be at least five or six hundred yuan.
In an era when an ordinary worker earned only thirty yuan a month, this was an absolutely staggering fortune.
Beneath the money lay various fabric coupons, grain ration tickets, and industrial coupons stamped with official red seals.
Yu Qinghuan didn’t hesitate. She directly stored the entire metal tin in her dimensional space.
“System, start collecting!”
With a casual wave of her hand, Yu Qinghuan connected her consciousness to the space.
In an instant, an invisible whirlwind seemed to sweep through the cellar.
Whoosh!
The fine flour and polished rice inside the large vats vanished instantly, containers and all.
Dozens of pounds of cured pork and sausages hanging from the beams disappeared into thin air.
The three heavy jars of pork lard were also sucked into her space in the blink of an eye.
Even a basket of sweet potatoes and half a sack of dried shiitake mushrooms in the corner didn’t escape her attention.
She even took the rat poison stored in the cellar.
In less than the blink of an eye, the cellar, which had originally been crammed full of supplies, became cleaner than a place a dog had licked spotless.
Only a few dangling strands of spiderwebs remained, swaying in the cold draft.
Yu Qinghuan surveyed the completely empty cellar with satisfaction and brushed the dust from her hands.
In her previous life, these household assets had been what Miao Cuihua valued most.
Every night before going to bed, she would secretly sneak down to the cellar for a look before she could finally rest easy.
Yu Qinghuan was already looking forward to seeing Miao Cuihua’s expression when she woke up the next morning and discovered that the cellar had been emptied.
It would be enough to make Miao Cuihua experience what it truly meant to have her entire world turned upside down!
Yu Qinghuan put away the crowbar and climbed back out of the cellar.
She replaced the bluestone slab, then carelessly piled the dried grass back on top to make it look as though nothing had been disturbed.
Once she had finished, Yu Qinghuan stood in the freezing backyard and took a deep breath of the icy air.
She felt completely refreshed.
Emptying the household assets that these despicable people treasured most was an incredibly satisfying experience.
However, when Yu Qinghuan looked at her empty hands, she still felt that she hadn’t vented enough of her anger.
How could merely emptying a cellar possibly do justice to Miao Cuihua’s declaration that she needed to “teach her the rules”?
And what about her sister-in-law Li Chunhua’s claim that she was as soft and pliable as dough?
Yu Qinghuan’s gaze pierced through the darkness.
It slowly settled on the kitchen nearby, then shifted toward the chicken coop on the other side of the courtyard, where faint clucking could be heard.
There was still a massive, eight-yin cast-iron cooking pot in the kitchen.
And in the chicken coop were the three precious laying hens Miao Cuihua treasured most.
A dangerously bright glint flashed through Yu Qinghuan’s eyes, and the corners of her mouth slowly curled upward.
If she was going to move house—
She might as well take absolutely everything.