Just as Li Xiaoxiao closed her eyes and prepared to sleep, she heard someone prying at her window.
For a moment, she forgot about everything else. Keeping her eyes closed, she reached into her space and pulled out a kitchen cleaver.
This was something she had discovered by accident—she could retrieve items from the space using only her thoughts.
Moving silently, Li Xiaoxiao crept to the window and hid beside it. She watched as the wooden latch was slowly worked loose by a small knife. Behind it, someone whispered:
“How’s it going?”
“Almost done,” another voice replied quietly.
Li Xiaoxiao’s heart leaped into her throat as she tightened her grip on the cleaver.
“Second Brother, are you done yet? Hurry up!” someone outside urged in a low voice.
“Don’t rush. Almost there. Boss, are you sure this is the room?”
“No mistake. Qin Dacai said all the money is kept in the old woman’s room. Can’t be wrong. The manager of Hongyun Restaurant personally delivered it today,” the leader said impatiently.
Hearing this, Li Xiaoxiao immediately understood. These thieves had been hired by Qin Dacai to steal her family’s money.
With a soft click, the latch finally fell to the floor.
“Boss, it’s open!” the second thief whispered excitedly.
A masked head cautiously poked through the window.
Prepared in advance, Li Xiaoxiao swung her cleaver without hesitation.
The intruder reacted quickly and jerked his head back, but he was still a fraction too slow. The blade sliced off his topknot.
“Boss! This is bad! The old woman’s awake!”
“Thief! Thief! Catch the thieves!” Li Xiaoxiao’s shout exploded through the quiet night.
The two burglars immediately turned and fled toward the backyard.
Li Xiaoxiao chased after them while continuing to shout for help. Soon her three sons arrived carrying hoes and joined the pursuit.
But the thieves were clearly experienced. They sprinted through the backyard, raced across the pumpkin patch, and slipped through a hole in the bamboo fence.
Just as they were about to escape, Li Xiaoxiao bent down, grabbed a fist-sized stone, and hurled it at them with all her strength.
Although one of them was hit, neither stopped running. Instead, they ran even faster.
“Stop chasing!” Li Xiaoxiao called out, quickly stopping her sons. “There’s a bamboo forest ahead. It could be dangerous if we keep going!”
Looking at the damaged bamboo fence, she was furious and silently swore to uncover the culprit behind the theft.
“Second Brother, stay home and keep watch! Eldest and Third, come with me—we’re going to find those thieves!”
After speaking, Li Xiaoxiao picked up the severed topknot left beneath the window and clenched it tightly in her hand. Then she marched toward Qin Yougui’s house with her two sons.
By now, many villagers had been awakened by the commotion. Carrying hoes, cleavers, and other farm tools, they rushed over, looking around nervously for the thieves.
When they saw Li Xiaoxiao and her sons storming toward Qin Yougui’s house, curiosity got the better of them, and they followed behind.
Meanwhile, the two fleeing thieves crossed through the woods and arrived at Qin Yougui’s home.
Qin Dacai had been anxiously waiting in the main hall. The moment he saw them climb over the wall, he stepped forward to speak.
Before he could say a word, the second thief—the one whose topknot had been chopped off—grabbed him by the collar.
“Qin Dacai! You bastard! Were you playing me? Look at my hair!”
“Brother Su, let go! What happened? Let’s talk this through!” Qin Dacai pleaded.
At the same time, he looked toward the leader, hoping he would intervene.
“Qin Dacai,” the leader said coldly while idly running his thumb along the edge of a dagger, “my brother nearly had his head chopped off by that old woman. You never said she was that dangerous.”
“Oh, Boss Wan, how would I dare lie to you? Everything I told you was true!”
Like Qin Dacai, these two men were notorious local hooligans from town. They were known as Boss Wan and Su the Second. They spent their days loafing around and frequently engaged in petty theft and other shady activities.
The commotion woke Qin Yougui and Yang Xiaocao.
Seeing their son being grabbed, they hurried forward to help.
“Don’t come any closer!” Su the Second snarled, pressing a knife against Qin Dacai’s neck. “One more step and I’ll stab him!”
The couple immediately froze in fear.
“Brother Qin,” Boss Wan said leisurely, still playing with his dagger, “surely you can’t let my brother and me make this trip for nothing. Look at his hair. You owe us some compensation.”
“Heh… of course. Mother, quickly bring Boss Wan ten taels of silver!”
Qin Dacai hurriedly ordered.
Yang Xiaocao rushed to fetch the money and handed over ten taels.
“Just this little—”
Before Boss Wan could finish speaking, the sound of someone kicking the front gate echoed through the house.
Boss Wan and Su the Second exchanged a glance.
Without another word, Su the Second shoved Qin Dacai aside, and the two men immediately fled through the back door.
Watching them leave, Qin Dacai cursed,
“Two useless idiots! Such a simple job and they still messed it up!”
At that moment, the gate was kicked open.
Still shaken, Qin Yougui and Yang Xiaocao stared blankly as Li Xiaoxiao burst in with two of her sons. Behind them trailed a crowd of villagers carrying hoes and cleavers, eager to watch the drama unfold.
Qin Dacai quickly regained his composure.
“Auntie,” he said, “what does it mean for you to come visiting my house in the middle of the night carrying a cleaver?”
Li Xiaoxiao ignored him.
She first instructed Qin Sanmu to search the premises, but no trace of the thieves could be found.
Only then did she speak calmly.
“Two thieves broke into my house tonight. I came to see whether they happened to run into yours.”
“Did you find them?” Qin Dacai replied with a smug, insolent expression.
Li Xiaoxiao knew very well that she had no concrete evidence linking the thieves to Qin Dacai.
Even if she reported the incident to the authorities, it would only be treated as an ordinary burglary. If the thieves weren’t caught, there would be nothing to prove.
And if she insisted on pressing the matter without evidence, the Qin clan would likely smooth things over for the sake of family ties.
Holding up the severed topknot, she snorted.
“Qin Dacai, you’d better pray I never find those two men.”
With no choice but to swallow her anger, Li Xiaoxiao returned home.
After the incident, she directed her three sons to repair the damaged bamboo fence that very night.
She also told her sons and daughters-in-law everything she had overheard from the thieves.
Still, the bamboo fence felt far from secure. Proper repairs would have to wait until after the summer harvest, when laborers could be hired.
After much thought, Li Xiaoxiao came up with a solution.
Starting the next day, she had her sons dig up and transplant thorny trifoliate orange trees from the mountains, planting them along both sides of the bamboo fence.
Not only would the thorn bushes deter thieves, but the fruit could later be sold to herbal medicine shops.
Three days later, Qin Erlin returned from another villager’s home carrying a litter of five one-month-old puppies. The family had too many dogs and was happy to part with them for fifty copper coins.
After the burglary attempt, the villagers began copying Li Xiaoxiao’s example. They planted thorny orange trees around their own courtyards and started keeping watchdogs as well.
As a result, Qin Family Village eventually became a place that thieves avoided altogether.