Chapter 87: Nighttime Thieves

The next day, while Sang Luo was shopping in the county, Li saw a few kids by the riverbank from a distance. They looked like her three kids.

Because they were too far away, she couldn’t see them clearly. When the kids came back home around noon, she called them over.

“Did you go to Shen An and Shen Ning’s house today?”

Shen Jin didn’t even blink, “Yes, we did.”

Li stared at him for a while and asked, “You still didn’t get into the courtyard today?”

Shen Jin pursed his lips, “It’s not easy. Shen An and Shen Ning are keeping a close eye on it, and there are many children there. It’s not easy to hide from anyone’s eyes.”

So you and your father shouldn’t plan on it either.

Li laughed and then asked Shen Yin, “What about you? Where were you this morning?”

Shen Yin suddenly felt nervous being called out and tried not to look at Shen Jin. He said, “I… I went… went to Second Brother’s house.”

Li looked at Shen Tie, and Shen Tie just lowered his head.

During the afternoon break, Li told Shen San about this. She snorted, “We have three good sons, but I don’t know how to make the best use of them.”

Shen San glanced at her, “They are still young. Are you really counting on them to bring back something useful for you? Even if they manage to sneak into the courtyard, what can they figure out?”

Li glared at him, “Can’t rely on the sons, are you expecting yourself to do it?”

Shen San chuckled.

Seeing his expression, Li got enthusiastic, “Do you have a way?”

Shen San laughed, “I didn’t think of it yesterday, but today I actually came up with something.”

He motioned for Li to come closer and whispered something in her ear. Li’s face immediately lit up, and she pushed Shen San’s shoulder, “You’re amazing!”

Shen San laughed, “Just wait and see. Those families always move things early in the morning. Those things must be prepared by night. Let’s sneak in and see what they are, and we’ll grab some for ourselves. No one family should monopolize all the profits.”

He said this with a proud smile on his face, evidently very satisfied with himself for coming up with such an idea.

The couple speculated about what Sang Luo might be making and selling for the three families, and they also fantasized about the future, feeling extremely pleased.

In the county, at this time, Sang Luo had already bought four large locks, four jars, a stone of grains, two catties of cotton, and five liters of salt. As for the spices she needed to buy from the pharmacy, they were all stored in the jars. She also bought a bag of flour, and all of these were piled up on Qin Fangniang’s cart.

Because it was past noon, she decided to eat at a wonton shop by herself.

Nowadays, they had earned quite a bit of money, so they weren’t as reluctant as before to buy something to eat at noon. They weren’t like the villagers who only ate breakfast at mid-morning and then didn’t eat until they were done with their work at night. That kind of schedule was too much for them to handle.

By the time they finished eating wontons and rested a bit in the shop, it was time to head back. Passing by Sanli Village, Sang Luo asked Qin Fangniang and the others to wait for her for a moment.

Qin Fangniang and the others didn’t say anything and parked the cart outside a villager’s house, borrowing a stool from them and resting their feet. The villager was polite and even brought them a few bowls of water.

Meanwhile, Sang Luo went into the village to inquire with the butcher.

Qin Fangniang and the others had been waiting outside for about two quarters of an hour and were starting to get anxious. As they looked towards the village frequently, they saw Sang Luo leading two people out of the village, each carrying a large bamboo cage.

Everyone stretched their necks, and it wasn’t until Sang Luo and the others approached that they heard the loud honking coming from the bamboo cage. Then they realized what Sang Luo had gone to do.

“Are you buying geese?” Qin Fangniang asked, surprised.

Sang Luo nodded, and Qin Fangniang quickly straightened up the cart to make room for the large bamboo cage. Peering inside, she saw three large male geese.

She looked at Sang Luo, “Why did you buy all big ge

ese? And they’re all males.”

Sang Luo smiled, “They’re for guarding the house.”

She deliberately chose the fiercest and most aggressive ones.

Qin Fangniang shrank back and said, “Be careful with the ones that haven’t been tamed yet. They’re easy to bite.”

It wasn’t fun to be bitten by a big male goose. When they caught hold of your flesh, they would twist it around in circles. It could really draw blood.

Sang Luo nodded with a smile, “I’ll close the cage when we get back. I’ll borrow your saw and machete to build a fence around the wall for them to move around. I’ll release them once they get used to it.”

Qin Fangniang, upon hearing this, said, “Alright, I’ll give you a hand in the afternoon.”

Gan Familyand Feng Liuniang also expressed their willingness to help.

Using big male geese to guard the house was indeed a good idea. Not to mention anything else, living in the mountains, they wouldn’t have to worry about snakes and such. The geese wouldn’t be afraid of anything and would even dare to fight a tiger if it came down to it.

For someone like Sang Luo, living in the mountains with two small children, it couldn’t be more suitable.

In the afternoon, with Qin Fangniang’s help, along with the men from the house, they all brought their tools. With more people, everything was much easier to handle. They fenced off an area for the geese to move around outside the walls of Sang Luo’s house. It could be said that except for the area in front of the gate that wasn’t connected, the geese could run around outside the house.

Shen An and Shen Ning were thrilled. They fed and watered the geese themselves, determined to establish a good relationship with them so that they would recognize them as their masters sooner.

Of course, because Sang Luo had bought quite a lot of things today, whether it was the grains, salt, flour, or the jars and geese, everything was brought up the mountain path. So the fact that Sang Luo’s family had acquired three fierce white geese, in addition to the family itself, was only known to the three families of Chen, Shi, and Lu.

…

Late at night, as the village slept soundly, even Sang Luo, who usually made dried sauce and vegetarian tripe before bed, was fast asleep with her two children, cuddled up under new blankets.

On the path into the mountains, two figures were sneaking up the hillside, each carrying something in the darkness.

They had to be sneaky; they were afraid of being discovered. They didn’t dare to light a torch either. It was pitch black, and today was the 25th of the lunar month. The sky was mostly cloudy, and the moon, crescent-shaped, was hardly visible. Walking outside was barely any better than walking with your eyes closed; they were afraid of stumbling and falling.

Carefully, they made their way halfway up the mountain, stepping on a stone path and finally reaching the wall of a courtyard, where they found a bamboo fence blocking the way.

Shen San: ???

He whispered to Li, “What’s this fence for?”

Li sneered, whispering back, “Who knows what Sang is up to. She’s always full of surprises. She even paved the grass with stones and turned the stream into a big pool.”

Bah, pretending to be refined, showing off her skills.

She said, “Let’s go in, step over it.”

Both of them had ulterior motives, thinking about how to break into the courtyard and find a way to make money. They didn’t think much about it.

The bamboo fence was about half a person tall, and Shen San struggled to step over it, bringing the ladder inside and leaning it against the wall. For safety’s sake, he used his hands to support it while Li lent him some strength to help her climb the ladder.

The couple tiptoed without making a sound, their hearts set on thievery. Not far away, the three originally sleeping white geese were now stretching their necks, their eyes shining brightly as they stared dangerously in the direction of the couple.

A wind rose in the dark night, and several white shadows rushed over, accompanied by the almost night-shattering cries of the three geese as they launched a fierce attack.

When Sang Luo was awakened by the sudden noise, it was not just the honking of geese outside anymore. The sound of people screaming was much more terrible, like wailing ghosts and howling wolves, akin to the cries of pigs being slaughtered!

Shen San’s butt was caught, and he ran around screaming, knocking over the ladder. However, the bamboo fence was tall and sturdy. Caught between two geese, he couldn’t get out for a while. He could only run straight in the path of the geese, wailing and howling!

Li also suffered. Although she only had one goose to deal with, it was really fierce. Even through her clothes, it bit her so hard that she cried out in pain, fearing that her flesh would fall off!

“Sang Luo! Sang Luo! Control your geese!!! Ah!”

“Help! Ah! Help! Someone! Ahh!”

Slightly startled from their deep sleep, Shen An and Shen Ning sat up, confused by the screams in their slumber. They didn’t even realize where they were.

But Sang Luo, listening carefully, recognized the voices of Shen San and Li. She lay back on the bed, covering her mouth, laughing heartily.

It was hilarious.

She couldn’t be bothered to deal with it.

Besides, they couldn’t really bite them to death. In order to ensure the happiness of the geese, cough, actually, to ensure the effectiveness of their guard duty, the bamboo fence was quite long. After the eight adults had been struggling for a long time, the entire perimeter of the house’s courtyard was enclosed. Shen San and Li couldn’t even cross over it at midnight, let alone what they would look like when they ran. The villagers wouldn’t be able to blame Sang Luo for letting the geese run amok.

Moreover, with Li and Shen San screaming so terribly outside, those sharp voices, even though Sang Luo lived far from the village, separated by two or three hills, with this commotion, someone should be coming soon. Indeed, as Sang Luo had expected, Shen San and Li were screaming so terribly that the villagers were awakened in the middle of the night. They thought bandits had entered the village. Whose family was going to be wiped out? Only after hearing the geese honking did they realize it couldn’t be that bad. The men from each family put on their clothes, grabbed their clubs, and went out, following the sound toward the mountains.

Chen Youtian and a few others were among them, and as soon as they heard the screams coming from Sang Luo’s direction in the mountains, they quickened their pace.

Sang Luo checked the time and had just finished putting on her clothes. She lit an oil lamp and heard the faint voices of people, so she began to unlock the door and, with the villagers who had rushed over, arrived outside the courtyard.

The oil lamp wasn’t very bright, and they had to shield it with their hands to keep it from being blown out by the mountain wind. However, it was enough for everyone to see the scene clearly amidst the flickering light.

Shen San and Aunt Li, with their hair and clothes in disarray, were being chased around the courtyard by three large ganders from the goose nest that they had set up against the bamboo fence in the main room of Shen’s house. The ganders were crying and howling like ghosts and wolves, and the courtyard was in chaos. There was even a ladder lying on the ground next to the goose nest.

Well, well, they had turned into thieves in the middle of the night and ended up at their nephew’s house.

Zhou Cunzheng’s face was stern as he addressed everyone, “Drag them out first.”

Seeing the sticks in everyone’s hands, Sang Luo quickly said, “Uncles, let’s not use the sticks. I borrowed these geese specifically for guarding the house. If we really injure them, I can’t afford to compensate.”

Guarding the house, yes, it was legitimate defense.

Taking a look at the size of those geese, each one weighed at least ten kilograms, and there were three…

Everyone’s grip on their sticks loosened. This wasn’t a fight they could afford. Injuring or killing one goose would cost more than three hundred cents, so they immediately threw their sticks to the ground and helped drive away the geese from outside the fence, attempting to catch the couple with their bare hands.

Shen San was howling and pushing Aunt Li away, trying to reach out to the hands of the men from the village. “Drag me out, drag me out!”

Aunt Li was not to be outdone either. Ignoring the fact that the hands reaching out were all men’s, she grabbed Shen San and pulled him back, while crying and lunging forward herself.

Sang Luo held a lantern steadily in her hand, watching calmly.

Just these two troublemakers.

Sang Luo didn’t know if souls existed in this world. If they did, she really wanted to ask the original owner and the parents and siblings of Shen An and Shen Ning, in the afterlife, would they feel a little relieved to see this scene?