The sun was gradually sinking in the west, painting the horizon with magnificent crimson clouds.
As Ye Qingyun and Wang Tiezhu walked, they settled the profits from their latest encounter.
The bald man had contributed 20 yuan.
The rebellious teenager had contributed 12.78 yuan.
Wu Tiedao had contributed 7.22 yuan.
Altogether, it came to exactly 40 yuan.
There were also ten one-jin grain coupons.
Master and disciple looked at each other.
Neither could hold back their laughter.
“We’re rich! If we could run into luck like this every day, we’d become thousand-yuan households sooner or later!”
Overjoyed, Wang Tiezhu took the money and coupons out again and counted them one more time.
Ye Qingyun laughed as well.
“We earned a month’s salary in just half an hour. Master, maybe we should just wait around on the roads for people to rob us.”
It was practically the perfect road to wealth with guaranteed profits.
Looking at it positively…
It could even be considered robbing the rich to help the poor.
Wang Tiezhu lifted the money to his nose and took a deep sniff.
He absolutely loved the smell of money.
“Don’t talk nonsense. How many people do you think are wandering around outside like us these days? We’d be lucky if something like this happened once a month, let alone every day.”
After admiring the money to his heart’s content, the old man obediently handed the cash and coupons to his disciple for safekeeping.
Right now, not even a bank was as secure as her pocket dimension.
Afraid she might keep everything for herself, Wang Tiezhu warned,
“I’m keeping accounts, you know. If you dare covet my share, I’ll…”
“You’ll what?”
Ye Qingyun asked curiously.
Wang Tiezhu choked on his words.
He couldn’t beat her.
He didn’t even have the energy to scold her anymore.
Now that his disciple had grown up, this master of hers seemed to have no way of dealing with her at all.
Ye Qingyun didn’t enjoy bullying old men.
Seeing him speechless for so long, she patted him comfortingly on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry. Your disciple is keeping your money safe for you.”
“You can withdraw it anytime.”
After saying that, she picked out two pieces of clothing from the pile he had collected and returned the rest to him.
“What do you want with men’s clothes?”
Wang Tiezhu asked reluctantly.
Although they had stripped the clothes off Wu Tiedao and the others, they still looked fairly new.
They were far better than the patch-over-patch clothing the villagers wore.
If he took them home and asked Amei to alter them…
He’d look quite dashing wearing them.
Ye Qingyun replied,
“If you can alter them, why can’t I?”
“These T-shirts are pure cotton.”
“They’ll make perfect shorts for the four children.”
“Fine, fine.”
Wang Tiezhu had nothing left to say.
After all, his Sixth Girl had been the main force behind today’s successful counter-robbery.
But thinking about how they had once been mighty cultivators within their sect…
And now treasured clothes stripped from bandits…
The smiles on both master and disciple gradually turned bitter.
Only sadness remained.
Ye Qingyun stored everything inside her pocket dimension, took a deep breath, forced another smile onto her face, and said,
“Come on.”
“Keep looking forward.”
“Don’t look back.”
Wang Tiezhu nodded.
The two quickened their pace toward the village.
Strangely enough…
It was almost time for everyone to finish work.
So why was the team’s gathering place completely empty?
Where was everyone?
Just as they were wondering, someone hurriedly ran past them.
Judging by the direction…
They were heading toward the river on the western side of the village.
Standing on tiptoe, Ye Qingyun looked into the distance.
The riverbank was packed with people.
Why had practically the entire village gathered there?
Another villager carrying a hoe ran toward the river.
As he passed the pair, he looked surprised for a moment before shouting,
“A child fell into the river!”
Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, he was already running off again.
Judging by how anxious he looked…
He probably had children of his own.
Ye Qingyun’s heart skipped a beat.
She suddenly thought of the four children at home.
No… it couldn’t be…
Just then, loud commotion erupted from the riverbank, mixed with the cries of children.
Suddenly—
Ye Qingyun spotted Fu Min.
Leaving Wang Tiezhu behind, she sprinted toward the river.
“Move!”
“Please move!”
“Fu Min!”
“Fu Min!”
She pushed through the crowd while shouting her daughter’s name.
Standing among the villagers, Fu Min vaguely heard her mother’s voice.
Turning around and seeing her, she cried out anxiously,
“Mom!”
The little girl’s hair was soaking wet.
Her pant legs were rolled high.
Both sleeves were drenched.
The moment she saw her mother, she frantically pointed toward the river.
She wanted to explain.
But panic made the words stick in her throat.
She stamped her feet anxiously instead.
Ye Qingyun hurriedly looked into the river.
In the raging current, a small dark head bobbed up and down inside a whirlpool formed by several massive rocks.
For a brief instant…
Half of a child’s deathly pale face broke through the surface.
The women on the shore screamed shrilly.
No one could tell whose child it was.
To every parent present…
It looked like it could be their own.
Fu Min seemed to know who had fallen into the water.
The adults surrounding her kept demanding answers, but all she did was desperately urge them to hurry into the river and save the child.
The middle of the river was deep.
This was the fastest-moving stretch of water near Qiling Village.
Someone nearby explained that Fu Min and the other children had chased after the current.
The child had actually fallen into the river much farther upstream, where the water was calmer.
The current had swept the child all the way here before the whirlpool around the giant rocks trapped them.
If not for those rocks…
Who knew how much farther the child would have been carried downstream?
“Mom!”
At last, Fu Min managed to force a sound from her nearly hoarse throat.
Ye Qingyun’s heart tightened.
She quickly scanned the crowd.
The twins…
And Fu Xiangdong…
Were nowhere to be seen.
The best swimmer in Qiling Village was He Jie, the scorekeeper of Team One.
Someone had already gone to fetch him.
But by the time he arrived…
The child trapped in the whirlpool would probably already be beyond saving.
Several villagers attempted to swim out.
None could make it more than a third of the way before the fierce current forced them back.
Just as everyone was consumed with anxiety…
A figure leaped into the river without the slightest hesitation.
Splash!
“Mom!!!”
Fu Min screamed.
She stood frozen in shock.
She had never imagined that her mother would actually jump into the river.
“Who jumped in?”
asked Sun Lan, the production captain’s daughter-in-law in astonishment.
Chunhua, who had just arrived, looked carefully before gasping,
“Oh heavens!”
“It’s Xiaoyun!”
Unlike the parents around her, Chunhua remained relatively calm since she didn’t have children of her own.
She quickly explained to the puzzled villagers.
“It’s Comrade Ye Qingyun!”
“Our Team Two leader’s younger sister who came back from the city!”
“My goodness…”
“She has four children.”
“The child in the river… could it be one of hers?”
Only then did Fu Min recover from the shock of seeing her mother jump into the river.
She hurriedly waved both hands.
“N-No!”
Everyone looked confused.
If it wasn’t Ye Qingyun’s child…
Why had she jumped in?
Wait…
Then whose child was in the water?
Taking a deep breath, Fu Min shouted,
“It’s Little Stone!”
“The one who fell into the river is Little Stone!”
“What?”
Sun Lan stared at her in disbelief.
“Who did you say fell into the river?”
Without adults crowding around and bombarding her with questions anymore, Fu Min had finally calmed down.
She shouted at the top of her lungs,
“It’s Little Stone!”
“The child in the river is Little Stone!”
She had only wanted to tell her mother that Little Stone had fallen into the river.
But in her panic, she couldn’t get the words out.
Instead…
Her mother had jumped in.
Now, Fu Min was even more terrified than when she’d first seen Little Stone fall into the water.
Tears streamed uncontrollably down her face.
“Someone save my mom…”
“Waaah…”
“My Little Stone!!!”
Sun Lan’s heartbroken scream instantly drowned out Fu Min’s cries for help.
Little Stone…
Was her son.
Hadn’t her mother-in-law been watching him?
How…
How had he fallen into the river?