After nightfall, Li Jiyue went to the Liao family home. It was a two-story house that looked plain and unremarkable, no different from an ordinary household. During the day, she had already figured out that the Liao family kept dogs in both the front and back yards. At the slightest disturbance, they would bark loudly, alerting the xoзяins to thieves.
She put on a man’s wig and changed into patched men’s clothing, dressed in black from head to toe. She darkened her fair face and thickened her eyebrows, fully armed, instantly transforming into a young man. In just a few swift moves, she climbed up a big tree outside the backyard wall. As soon as she got up there, the dog in the yard looked over. Before it could bark wildly, she took a tranquilizer gun out of her space, aimed at the dog’s rear, and fired. “Swoosh!” The dog felt a sharp pain in its backside. When it turned its head and saw the needle stuck there, it tried to howl, but could only let out a weak, strained whimper, “Mm-wu~,” before collapsing to the ground.
After taking down the backyard dog, she went to the front yard and repeated the process, knocking that dog out as well. She flipped over the wall and jumped in. The courtyard was quiet and empty. Liao Haiping had been sent down to a farm, and the entire family was in chaos. One person stayed at the hospital to take care of him, while the rest were running around pulling strings. Only a few elderly women and children were left at home, sleeping deeply, completely unaware.
Li Jiyue moved soundlessly and slipped into the study. The lock posed no challenge. She took out a master key, inserted it into the keyhole, twisted it a few times, and with a faint click, the lock opened. She pushed the door open. Just as she turned on her flashlight, she suddenly remembered the night-vision goggles in her space. She put them on, and the night instantly became as clear as day—she could even see the dust on the floor.
Behind the desk stood a 1.5-meter-tall safe. There was definitely good stuff inside—she put it straight into her space. The desk drawers were filled with documents. The ones on top were all normal materials; she flipped through them casually. Underneath were densely packed files. There was no time to read them, so she took the entire cabinet and stuffed it into her space, not leaving behind even a scrap of paper.
The desk, chairs, sofa, coffee table, tea set, tea leaves, fish tank—everything on the floor was swept into her space. After clearing the floor, she looked up at the ceiling. Was there something up there? She took out a ladder from her space, climbed up, and used tools to cut open the ceiling. A bundle of money fell to the ground—Da Tuanjie bills. Just the Da Tuanjie alone amounted to dozens of bundles, at least tens of thousands of yuan. There were also stacks of meat coupons and grain coupons, and several boxes containing antique porcelain.
Liao Haiping, a lecherous steel factory director, went around lusting after and assaulting women, paying off many cases. No matter how greedy one person was, he couldn’t have hoarded this much. The Liao family’s eldest son, Liao Yong, was a work-team leader; the second son was with the Red Armband; the youngest worked in the steel factory’s security department. All were positions ripe for skimming oil and water. Several daughters-in-law were also small leaders or team heads in the steel factory. The whole family must have been involved in corruption. Birds of a feather flock together. Every day they talked about investigating this and struggling against that, but all of it went straight into their own pockets—so much that even the ceiling was about to collapse.
She remembered clearly that it was Liao Yong who led people to investigate the Li family. Well, the wheel of fortune had turned. It was time for revenge.
After taking everything from the ceiling, she began checking the walls. On the wall hung a large calendar and a portrait of the Great Leader. She removed the portrait and tapped the wall behind it. Hollow—there was something inside. Too lazy to search for a mechanism, she smashed the wall directly with a hammer, caving it in and creating a hole. Inside were several large boxes containing antique calligraphy and paintings, from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. They were probably confiscated from some prominent family and never turned over to the state, instead being privately embezzled.
After checking the walls, she checked the floor. The area near the safe felt loose—more goods. Good grief, this was pure bliss. What were you in your past life, a rat? So good at hiding things. After clearing everything out, only a waist-high money tree in the corner remained. Another large potted money tree had wilted leaves—probably no one watered it after Liao Haiping got into trouble. After doing so many immoral deeds, Liao Haiping deserved nothing but a bullet. Still dreaming of getting rich? Dream on!
She pulled the money tree out by the roots and stomped it flat, cutting off his fortune. When she yanked out the large potted tree, she discovered a hidden layer beneath the pot. She pried it open with a shovel and found a big box inside. Opening it, she saw century-old lingzhi and ginseng. They were similar in type and age to what she had found under Wang Aihua’s bed. She remembered now—Lin Fugui had given Liao Haiping this generous gift, which was how that useless Lin Tianbao secured a Level-5 worker position. It was only right to return it to its rightful owner. She would give it back to the original owners’ parents when they returned.
After finishing the study, she went to search the bedroom. Silk quilts, a Simmons mattress, a bed frame made of rosewood… this bastard really knew how to enjoy life. She also found several hundred yuan in Da Tuanjie bills in the bedside cabinet. All taken. Beneath the bed, inside the floor tiles, was a small safe, probably containing important documents. She tossed it into her space as well.
She searched the living room too—TV, washing machine, radio, sewing machine, rosewood sofa… all taken, taken, taken. She didn’t even spare the bowls and dishes in the kitchen. The only thing she didn’t take was the floor tiles—too much trouble. She let the bastard have that much.
After leaving the Liao house, she walked down the street, preparing to return to the Lin home. On one road, two shifty, sneaky figures suddenly approached her, looking around nervously as if afraid of being followed. She slipped into a nearby alley to hide. It turned out to be Wang Aihua and Lin Fugui. They weren’t staying at the hospital to watch over Yaozu—what were they doing out here? Up to no good? She followed them.
After half an hour, they arrived at a residence—it was the Li family home. Li Jiyue could already guess what they were here for. They had come to steal the Li family’s valuables, planning to rob Peter to pay Paul. Luckily she ran into them. Otherwise, if she’d been late, the Li family’s belongings would have been ruined again by these black-hearted wretches.
Lin Fugui had come to the Li family home several times to take things. Each time, he went straight to the study on the first floor, moved aside the large bookshelf that covered an entire wall, turned the money tree, and then slammed his whole body hard against the wall. The stone wall rotated.
“Boom!”
Behind the stone wall was the door to the hidden treasure chamber. He took out a key and unlocked it.
He didn’t know whether it was an illusion or just the cold night wind, but suddenly his scalp tingled, as if someone were staring at the back of his head. His hand trembled several times, unable to insert the key into the keyhole.
“Agui, why are your hands shaking?” Wang Aihua urged. “That bitch already cleaned out our home. We’re taking things from the Li family—perfectly justified. Our son is still waiting for money to save his life.”
Lin Fugui casually wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and said impatiently, “I—I don’t know either. I just feel like something big is about to happen. Stop rushing me, it’ll be done soon.”
He took a deep breath, steadied himself, finally inserted the key, unlocked the wooden door, and entered the treasure chamber.
Inside, ancient huanghuali wooden shelves were filled with all kinds of medicinal materials—lingzhi, ginseng, gastrodia, and more. Wang Aihua pulled out a burlap sack from her clothes. “I’ll take the money, you take the medicine. Hurry up. Don’t let anyone see us.”
Just as her hand reached forward, she sensed someone behind her. Before she could turn around—
“Bang! Bang!!”
A sharp pain exploded in her head, and she quickly lost consciousness.
Li Jiyue checked the shelves. There were only a few medicinal items left. Half the money and gold bars in the boxes were gone, along with several empty crates. The Lin family must have taken quite a lot.
“You two pieces of trash—perfectly good people who insisted on becoming thieves. If you were going to steal, you could’ve stolen from anyone, yet you had to steal from my family. I’ll kick you to death,” Li Jiyue cursed.
She considered how to deal with them. Dismembering and destroying the bodies would be too troublesome. How about borrowing someone else’s knife to kill? First, she transferred all the remaining items from the Li family’s treasure chamber into her space. This place was no longer safe—only the space was truly secure.
Then she stuffed both of them into burlap sacks, tied them up, and threw them into her space. She doubled back to the Liao family home and dumped the two of them at the front gate and in the backyard, right next to the dogs lying there.