Ren Chaomei disappeared for the entire day. She didn’t even come home for lunch and only returned near evening. In an ordinary family, her parents would have already given her a good scolding.
But when she came back, Ren Dahe didn’t even bother acknowledging her.
Her aunt, Wang Xiaoqin, did speak up.
“I thought you weren’t coming home for dinner, so I didn’t save any food for you.”
“Good. I already ate outside.”
As if she cared about eating the watery, bland food at home.
After being exhausted all day, how could Ren Chaomei possibly mistreat herself?
Guessing that dinner would most likely be multigrain porridge with pickles, or boiled vegetables with very little oil and salt, she had found an empty spot by the river before coming home and taken some rice and cured meat out of her space to cook.
The smoke from the fire even attracted the attention of militia patrolmen from another brigade, frightening her into quickly moving the pot and relocating.
After scrambling around and working for quite a while, she finally got to eat dinner, leaving herself a pile of rice balls that she could eat again later.
Starting a fire and cooking outside was far too inconvenient. Ren Chaomei’s eyes landed wistfully on the stove in the kitchen.
If only she could freely cook delicious food at home.
Unfortunately, although the house belonged to her family, she didn’t have the right to use that stove.
“Didn’t you say you didn’t save me any food? What are you cooking in the pot?”
Wang Xiaoqin answered with an unpleasant expression, “My medicine.”
She had noticed that Wang Xiaoqin’s face looked bad and initially thought it was because the blind date had gone badly. She hadn’t expected that Wang Xiaoqin was actually sick.
Thinking of that, Ren Chaomei hurriedly looked at Ren Ganying’s expression.
The mother and daughter had deliberately hidden the blind date from her, so they certainly wouldn’t tell her how it had gone.
Ren Chaomei could only guess from their expressions.
Fortunately, Ren Ganying didn’t look very happy either.
The blind date had indeed gone badly.
As long as the enemy was having a bad time, Ren Chaomei was delighted. She happily went to wash the clothes and scrub the shoes.
When she returned from the river carrying the clean clothes and shoes, she saw Ren Dahe and his son Ren Guodong walking out with cigarettes dangling from their mouths.
As soon as she entered, she heard Wang Xiaoqin complaining to her daughter.
“Your father won’t stop making excuses when I ask him to fetch water. But when someone asks him to go play cards, he runs faster than a rabbit.”
“All he knows how to do is gamble all day. He’s almost gambled away everything we have.”
“I’m even reluctant to spend money on medicine, but your father takes our money and loses it to other people.”
“Your father doesn’t care about anyone at all. My head already hurt, and after he made me angry, it hurts even more.”
The medicine being boiled in the kitchen contained no expensive medicinal ingredients. They were all common herbs found in the countryside that could be gathered themselves and had been prepared by the local barefoot doctor. They weren’t particularly effective, but they were cheap.
Wang Xiaoqin’s illness was an old problem she had suffered from for years. Whenever she took medicine, she had to keep taking it for several days.
Fortunately, the brigade’s farm work wasn’t particularly heavy these days, so every night Ren Dahe and his son went out and stayed until midnight.
If they won money playing cards, everything was fine. But if they lost, the father and son would take out their frustrations on the entire family during the day.
Ren Chaomei was so irritated by their attitude that she nearly got into another fight with them. Fortunately, at the last moment, she remembered that she needed to keep a low profile recently to reduce suspicion that she had been responsible for the fire, and managed to suppress her temper.
Otherwise, if she had gotten into a fight during the day and the house caught fire that same night, even if no one had originally suspected her, people would inevitably take their anger out on her.
On the previous two nights, Ren Dahe had gone out to play cards. Ren Chaomei had deliberately stayed awake until late, waiting for them to come home before secretly taking out her watch to check the time.
Both times, they had returned at one in the morning.
So on the third night, at midnight, Ren Chaomei went into the kitchen and placed a short piece of lit candle beside the pile of firewood.
As long as the fire appeared to have started in the kitchen, it could look like an accidental fire.
After all, once the flames grew large enough, they would burn away all the evidence.
It took time for a spark to become a small flame, and then for the small flame to grow into a raging fire.
Ten minutes later, Ren Chaomei finally heard the increasingly loud crackling of the flames.
She didn’t rush to escape. She opened her eyes and lay quietly in bed without moving.
At this hour, everyone was sleeping most deeply. The fire had already been burning for quite a while, yet no one in the Ren household had woken up.
Only after something collapsed and the fire suddenly became fierce did Ren Ganying finally wake up from the commotion.
She sat bolt upright in panic.
“What’s that noise?!”
“What happened?”
Ren Chaomei also sat up in bed.
Ren Ganying stared at the glow of the flames outside, her face turning deathly pale and her eyes vacant with terror.
“Fire! Our house is on fire!”
“Such a huge fire.”
Ren Chaomei’s voice sounded somewhat distant and sorrowful.
“My house… It’s being burned down just like that.”
Although she had started it herself, she had had no choice.
If she could have kept the house, if the house could have truly belonged entirely to her, who would willingly destroy their own property?
At a time like this, Ren Ganying had no interest in arguing with Ren Chaomei over whose house it was.
She hurriedly got up and urged her, “Stop standing there! Get up and help put out the fire! Little Brother’s room is already on fire.”
The family had always kept a stockpile of firewood, and it was piled against the walls. Once the firewood caught fire, the flames quickly became enormous.
“Coming. Let me change my clothes first.”
At this point, Ren Chaomei didn’t deliberately waste time. She quickly buttoned up her clothes.
Once the two of them came outside, they didn’t immediately fetch buckets of water to fight the fire. Instead, they ran to the entrance and shouted for help.
“Fire! Fire! Someone come help put it out!”
Ren Ganying screamed desperately.
There was strength in numbers. The two of them alone were completely powerless against such a fire. Besides, there was barely any water left in their family’s water tank. They would have to use water from neighboring homes or go to the nearby river to fetch it.
After shouting for help and hearing the neighbors’ cries of alarm, they still didn’t hear anything from Wang Xiaoqin.
Ren Ganying hurried back to her parents’ room to look for her.
Ren Chaomei followed close behind.
There was no blood feud between her and her uncle’s family. She only wanted them to return her money and her house. She had never intended to take anyone’s life.
When she entered the room and saw that Wang Xiaoqin was still lying in bed, Ren Chaomei was shocked too.
“Oh my goodness, Auntie! What are you doing? The fire is almost reaching your room! How are you still sleeping?”
“Mom, wake up! Mom! Our house is on fire! Wake up!”
Ren Ganying grabbed Wang Xiaoqin by the shoulders and shook her frantically.
After being shaken for more than ten seconds, Wang Xiaoqin finally slowly woke up.
“Stop shaking me. I’m so dizzy.”
Cold sweat almost broke out all over Ren Chaomei.
“Auntie, I don’t think you’re just dizzy. You actually passed out! Hurry up, stop wasting time. Let’s get out of here.”
The herbal medicine had a sedative effect, causing Wang Xiaoqin to fall into a deep sleep that night. When she woke up, she discovered that her house was on fire.
Already weak, her legs immediately went limp.
Wang Xiaoqin was a grown woman, and Ren Ganying couldn’t carry her by herself.
“Auntie, you’re really something. You’re so domineering normally, but now your legs go weak. I really have to hand it to you.”
Ren Chaomei grumbled as she rolled up her sleeves and, together with Ren Ganying, dragged Wang Xiaoqin outside.
By the time they helped Wang Xiaoqin to an open area outside, the neighbors living nearby had also arrived with buckets of water to help.
Some people worked on putting out the fire, while others helped rescue whatever belongings they could from the rooms.
Ren Chaomei had dragged Wang Xiaoqin out of the room, which counted as doing a good deed, but that didn’t affect her original plan.
While rescuing belongings, she casually hid several of the locked chests she had previously taken an interest in inside her space.
Once she had done what needed to be done, she pretended to be exhausted and sat beside Wang Xiaoqin, whose legs were still weak, watching the helpful neighbors fight the fire.
The flames were too intense. Even after everyone used up all the water available from their homes, they still couldn’t contain the fire. The efficiency of repeatedly running to the river to fetch water was practically hopeless.
To prevent the fire from spreading to the neighboring houses and burning down an entire stretch of homes, everyone discussed it briefly before taking the initiative to knock down sections of the walls, creating a firebreak.
Watching the walls of her house being pushed down, Wang Xiaoqin cried out in anguish,
“My house!”