Chapter 20: The Thief

By the time Lin Yue returned to the village, it was already dark.

Before she reached the door of her house, she saw a person sneaking out of her house from a distance, running along the wall.

She quickly protected the two children and ran towards home.

The door of her house was wide open, the blanket on the kang, and the boxes on the floor were all turned upside down. The kang mat was also lifted up, as if it had been robbed.

Lin Yue was so angry that she wanted to curse. Although she was far away, she recognized the figure at a glance. It was her good mother-in-law, Sun Hong Mei.

Lin Yue had the habit of putting important things in her space. In the house, besides the heavy furniture and some grain that was used daily, there were only a few old clothes and quilts left by the original owner.

These things were not taken. Her mother-in-law had come to rummage through everything, not to find money, but to find her marriage certificate and household registration book with Zhang Yuandong.

Both of these were in her space. Sun Hong Mei didn’t find anything, so she threw all the bedding on the floor and smashed a few bowls before sneaking away.

Unexpectedly, she was caught by Lin Yue, who had just returned.

Lin Yue stood with her hands on her hips. Her house was in such a mess, there was no place to put her feet, and no place to put the children.

Just as she was getting angry, a voice came from outside the door: “Sister-in-law, are you back, sister-in-law?”

She pushed the door open and saw Zhang Shouliang, eight years old, walking into the yard with a basket. The basket was dripping water.

She quickly went to meet him, took the basket from the child’s hand, and a fishy smell hit her.

She asked, “What did you bring?”

Zhang Shouliang grinned, “Sister-in-law, today, Xianli and Xianle went to the beach with their uncle to pick up a lot of seafood. My sister-in-law asked me to bring some for you to try.” Xianli and Xianle were Wang Xiuxiang’s two sons.

Lin Yue let the child into the house. She lit the oil lamp and looked closer. The basket was full of seafood, big swimming crabs, small stone crabs, as well as gobies, clams, there must have been ten or twenty pounds in this basket. It was amazing that such a small child could carry it all the way.

She quickly said, “What is your sister-in-law doing? Your family has so many people, you don’t even have enough to eat yourselves, why are you sending this here? Take it back! No, I’ll go back with you. How did you carry it all the way here, you’re such a little kid!”

Zhang Shouliang grinned and refused to take it back, “Sister-in-law, please take it. There’s a lot more at home. My sister-in-law brought it back in a sack. My mother said it’s not good to keep these things, they go bad if you can’t finish them. She asked us to share it with a few families. My elder sister went to send some to my second uncle’s house, and after I send this to you, I need to send some to Aunt Zhang’s house.”

Only then did Lin Yue accept it. She poured the seafood from the basket into a basin and went back to the inner room to take out a bundle of sweet potato starch from her space. She handed it to Zhang Shouliang together with the basket, “This is something I made myself, it doesn’t cost much. Take it home and let your mother cook it for you.”

Zhang Shouliang didn’t dare to take it at first, but Lin Yue glared at him, and he obediently took the starch and skipped away.

After sending Zhang Shouliang away, Lin Yue took out a small bed from her space and temporarily settled the two children on it. She saw that the crabs and gobies were about to climb out of the basin, so she quickly washed them and put them in the pot, covering it with a lid.

This place wasn’t far from the beach. Wang Xiuxiang’s family lived by the sea, a famous fishing village in this area.

Lin Yue had heard Wang Xiuxiang say that there was a mudflat near their village. When she was young, she often went to the beach with her brothers and sisters to catch fish, catch crabs, dig clams, and pick sea purslane in the spring. Even in years of famine, they wouldn’t starve.

But eating crabs and gobies by the basinful was a luxury for Lin Yue. In the future, seafood would cost tens or hundreds of yuan per pound. Gobies, which were not very popular now, would become “shrimp” decades later, their price would increase by countless times.

After cleaning up the seafood, Lin Yue started cleaning up the messy house.

There were footprints all over the blanket, so she couldn’t use it directly. Luckily, it wasn’t a new blanket she had sewn.

Three or four people came into the messy yard.

She went out to see, it was Aunt Su and Wang Xiuxiang and her husband.

Seeing Lin Yue come out, Aunt Su grabbed her arm and pulled her towards the house, “My boy told me your house was a mess, the bowls were smashed all over the floor. What happened? Did you get robbed? Why didn’t you tell us?”

After saying that, she also saw the scene in the house. Although Lin Yue had cleaned up some, it was still messy. The things in the house were turned upside down, and there was no place to put her feet in the kitchen.

Zhang Shoutiang turned around and was about to go find the security team, but Lin Yue quickly stopped him. She didn’t intend to hide anything from anyone, and said, “Don’t go. It was my mother-in-law who did it. I saw her coming out when I came back, and she sneaked away.”

Aunt Su was even angrier when she heard this, “That woman Sun Hong Mei, what is she trying to do! What kind of mother-in-law sneaks into her son’s house to rummage through things and breaks so many things! If she wanted to ask you for something, she could just say it, why did she have to do such a dirty thing!”

Wang Xiuxiang snorted, “Even if she told you directly, you wouldn’t give it to her, right?” She always acted like a big sister, and as a senior sister-in-law, she had even more presence when she was angry. Lin Yue could only obey her.

She quickly waved her hands, “No, no, I’m hiding it well, I didn’t let her find it!”

Wang Xiuxiang nodded, “You better keep that in mind, don’t be like a quail again. You’ve only had a few good days, don’t go out of your way to suffer again.”

Although Aunt Su didn’t say anything, she still thought that a daughter-in-law shouldn’t speak ill of her mother-in-law. However, Sun Hong Mei had gone too far before, so she didn’t stop her eldest daughter-in-law.

Zhang Shoutiang didn’t think that much. He only realized something now, “Your mother-in-law wouldn’t be still thinking about the allowance, wanting to steal back your household registration book and marriage certificate, would she?”

Wang Xiuxiang said, “Look at her, with her poor house and yard, what else is there worth coveting? Besides those things.”

Lin Yue awkwardly scratched her nose again.

Big sister, you’re too blunt, you really don’t give anyone any face.

Zhang Shoutiang urged, “What if she doesn’t find it today, and comes again in the future? No, I’ll go tell the security team!”

Aunt Su quickly pulled back her reckless son and scolded him, “She’s your Lin sister-in-law’s mother-in-law after all, what’s the use of going to the security team? You can’t arrest her, can you? It’s the New Year, everyone wants peace and harmony. If you make a big fuss, one word ‘filial piety’ can suppress your sister-in-law!”

Lin Yue didn’t care about that. She had even thought about calling the police and having Sun Hong Mei arrested.

But she was alone here, with no one to back her up. She could only think about it, she didn’t dare to actually do it.

Don’t think that Aunt Su is scolding Sun Hong Mei harshly now. If Lin Yue really dared to call the police, I’m afraid no one in the village would stand by her.

So what Sun Hong Mei did was really disgusting.

She was relying on the fact that Lin Yue couldn’t do anything to her.

In the end, they didn’t come up with any solution, they just kept scolding Sun Hong Mei. Before leaving, Wang Xiuxiang winked at Lin Yue secretly, then followed her mother-in-law out.

Lin Yue made spicy stir-fried swimming crabs, deep-fried stone crabs, and clear-braised gobies that night. She had a good meal and finally suppressed her anger.

But she couldn’t let this go. The next day, before she could ask, Wang Xiuxiang came to her door with Liu Jianhua.

Lin Yue brought out the five-spice peanuts and sorghum candy she had prepared for the New Year. She took a stool and sat on the kang, letting the two of them sit on the kang. She talked while playing with the children.

A head with yellow hair poked out from outside. Lin Yue looked over and saw her sister-in-law, Zhang Xiaoxi, had come again.

Seeing that she had been discovered, Zhang Xiaoxi didn’t hide anymore and came into the house.

Her eyes rolled around, secretly observing Lin Yue.

Lin Yue didn’t want to pay attention to her. Zhang Xiaoxi didn’t call out to her or speak.

Seeing the peanuts and candy on the kang, she reached over Lin Yue and grabbed a handful before running away.

Lin Yue was amused.

Wang Xiuxiang nudged her lips, “Look, the spy has come.”

Without waiting for Liu Jianhua to ask, she told him what happened last night.

Then she said to Lin Yue, “When I went back last night, my mother-in-law said this wouldn’t do. You don’t even have a courtyard wall; you’ll have to find someone to build it after the first month.”

Liu Jianhua said angrily, “So we’re just going to let it go?”

Wang Xiuxiang said, “How is that possible? We can’t do anything to her openly, but we can do it secretly, right? Why should we swallow our anger? We’re not steamed buns!” She glared at Lin Yue.

Lin Yue quickly pleaded, “Good sister-in-law, I wanted to ask you to come and discuss this with me. I don’t want to let it go either. Give me some ideas.”

Liu Jianhua was timid and mumbled softly, “But she’s Xiao Yue’er’s mother-in-law after all, what can we do? A daughter-in-law talking about her mother-in-law will get people spitting at her.”

Wang Xiuxiang hated Liu Jianhua’s temperament the most. She had also been frustrated with Lin Yue before. Hearing Liu Jianhua say this, her temper was about to flare up again, “It’s a good thing your mother-in-law is a good-natured person. If you had met a mean mother-in-law, you would have been skinned alive! Lin Yue, tell me, what are you thinking?”

Lin Yue was originally afraid that both of them would think like Liu Jianhua. Now that she saw Wang Xiuxiang’s strong attitude, she told her plan, “I think we should spread the word. She came to steal from me, maybe she’s not clean with her hands at other people’s houses too! We need to warn others.

Also, we’ll just say that someone saw her stealing from other people’s houses. We don’t need to say who it was, let everyone guess!”

Liu Jianhua thought it was useless.

The village was the place where nothing could be kept secret. If a couple fought at night, everyone in the village would know about it the next day.

No one felt ashamed because their own business was known by others.

She asked, “Is it that simple? Will it work.