Chapter 4: Emptying the In-Laws’ House

This angered Lu Zhengning even more. He burst into Zhao Si’s house, only to find everything in order, no sign of a hasty escape.

“What the hell?! Took the money but didn’t do the job! And the guy’s disappeared!” Lu Zhengning was furious.

If the man hadn’t run, where was he? If Zhao Si had slept with Su Yuanyuan, then no matter how much allowance his younger brother sent, it would all be theirs!

If Zhao Si dared to run, he’d break his legs if he caught him!

Lu Zhengning, frantic and agitated, had no idea that Zhao Si was unconscious, dumped in a wheat field by Su Yuanyuan.

With no one at Zhao Si’s house, and after all his shouting and cursing, Lu Zhengning, fearing accusations of theft, scurried home.

Upon his return, he saw Su Yuanyuan lighting mosquito coils in each room. He glared at her and went to his own room.

Su Yuanyuan ignored him, finishing the last room and preparing to leave.

Wang Xiujuan leaned against the door, watching her with disdain. “Don’t think you can slack off during the day just because you do this little thing. The autumn harvest is coming, and there’s a lot of work in the fields. Even if you can’t work in the fields, you should do something. You’re also carrying two burdens. Don’t think you can get away with eating and drinking for free!”

The entire Lu family depended on the allowance sent by Su Yuanyuan’s husband.  It was unbelievable that they considered Su Yuanyuan and her two children burdens.

Su Yuanyuan was speechless, rolling her eyes inwardly while feigning weakness, bowing her head and silently coughing twice.

Wang Xiujuan pinched her nose in disgust and urged her away. “Go, go, go. Don’t infect the children.”

In the original book, Su Yuanyuan never retaliated against her sister-in-law’s harsh words.

She had things to do tonight and didn’t want to arouse suspicion, so she silently returned to her room.

Seeing Su Yuanyuan’s still full figure despite her poor health, Wang Xiujuan gritted her teeth and spat on the ground. “Debt collector!”

The volume was neither too loud nor too soft, deliberately for Su Yuanyuan to hear.

Su Yuanyuan closed the door, her back to Wang Xiujuan, a cold smile playing on her lips.

Curse away. There’s more to come tomorrow!

By eight o’clock in this era, the village streets were deserted.

The sounds of crickets and dogs barking came from outside the window. It was quiet.

Lu Siyuan and Lu Mingzhu were fast asleep. Su Yuanyuan sat up from the kang and listened carefully to the sounds from the next room.

She trusted the mosquito coils she had made herself.

The mosquito coils she lit in everyone’s rooms tonight were made from herbs she had ground from her spatial inventory.  She had originally intended to make a sleep-inducing incense, but the effect was too potent, capable of knocking people out cold.

She thought she wouldn’t have a chance to use this batch of incense, but it turned out to be useful tonight.

Unless something unexpected happened, everyone else in the house should be asleep.

Su Yuanyuan glanced at her sleeping children. Yes, she had also lit mosquito coils in her room, but she had taken an antidote beforehand.

The incense was harmless to the body and also had a mosquito-repelling effect.  She was being cautious.

“Time to work,” Su Yuanyuan stretched, ate a steamed bun from her spatial inventory, and began to work diligently.

Anything of value in the house was immediately put into her spatial inventory.

The chickens and ducks in the coop taken! The cow in the shed led away!

The wheat flour, coarse flour, rice, millet, and several jars of pickled meat from the kitchen all taken.

Upon seeing the ten or so smoked cured meats hanging in the kitchen, Su Yuanyuan’s eyes flashed with astonishment, and she gritted her teeth and cursed.

These heartless people!  They had plenty of food, yet they were always cruel to the original owner and her two children.

The original owner’s poor health was due to her previous frailty and the fact that she hadn’t properly recovered after childbirth.

During her postpartum confinement, she hadn’t eaten a single piece of meat.  Even boiling an egg in porridge would bring about a torrent of abuse.

Due to malnutrition and lack of milk, it was the neighbors who pitied her and secretly gave her leftovers.

Lu Zhengan’s monthly allowance of eighty yuan was a considerable sum at the time.  Combined with their own earnings, the old Lu family was considered wealthy in the village, with no shortage of food and clothing.

How could they live off her husband’s salary while mistreating her and her two children?

Su Yuanyuan took several deep breaths to calm herself, a smile on her face.

It’s okay. Starting tomorrow, no, tonight, the Lu family will be stripped bare, nothing left.

Su Yuanyuan went to Lu Zhengning and his wife’s room. As soon as she entered, she saw the sewing machine.

It was one of the three major appliances Lu Zhengan had given her when they married.

In Lu Zhenggang and his wife’s room, she saw the wardrobe she had gotten when she married.

This family’s shamelessness continually surprised Su Yuanyuan.

Take it all. Take everything.

And the bicycle in the yard also into the spatial inventory.

In her in-laws’ room, Su Yuanyuan scanned the area. In the original book, Li Hua was a miser. She kept her money in a small hidden compartment carved into the back of the wardrobe. If she hadn’t read the original book, she wouldn’t have found it.

Opening the wardrobe and reaching inside, she fumbled around before finding a cloth bundle.

Su Yuanyuan opened it and looked inside.  It was a thick stack.

…

One thousand yuan…

All of it was Lu Zhengan’s remitted allowance, annual subsidies, and holiday bonuses.

As a soldier, the government sent rice and flour to his family every year, so the Lu family had lived comfortably since their son joined the army.

Combined with good harvests in recent years, they had saved this much money.

Su Yuanyuan glared at her in-laws, who were sleeping soundly on the kang, and muttered, “So greedy!”

Apart from the meager amount Li Hua had given her, most of it had been spent by them.

That wouldn’t do!

Her two precious children were so thin, and the original owner had died because of their cruelty.  Not seeking revenge was one thing, but she had to get every cent back!

If she remembered correctly, in the original book, Li Hua had a dowry that she treasured and kept hidden, even from her two sons.

Later, during a flood, the crops were destroyed, and half of the house collapsed, forcing Li Hua to retrieve her dowry.

Where would it be?

Besides the wardrobe, there were several large suitcases in the room.

Su Yuanyuan stared at the suitcases for a while, moved them, and found a small wooden board underneath.

“Hidden quite well,” Su Yuanyuan narrowed her eyes.

After removing the board, she found a square hole dug in the ground beneath.

Inside was a shell inlay box.

Su Yuanyuan’s eyes widened in surprise. She hadn’t expected Old Mrs. Li to hide such a treasure.

Su Yuanyuan took out the shell inlay box and examined it. The wood was ordinary, but the shell inlay work was quite good. It looked like an antique and was worth something.

Imagining Li Hua’s wailing and gnashing of teeth when she discovered her missing dowry tomorrow, Su Yuanyuan wanted to laugh.

After putting the box into her spatial inventory, Su Yuanyuan remembered something else.

When her eldest and second brother’s wives had given birth, they wanted to buy longevity lockets for their children.  No one was willing to pay, but after the New Year, Lu Zhengan sent a sum of money, and with the holiday bonus, they had over three hundred yuan.

They used it to buy two gold lockets for their children.

That month, Su Yuanyuan and her children had no living expenses.  Because they were so hungry, Su Yuanyuan had to dig wild vegetables to feed her children.

The two meals provided by the family weren’t enough.

The angrier Su Yuanyuan got, the more she went to her eldest and second brother’s rooms to take off the gold lockets from the children’s necks.

She didn’t even spare the remaining oil, salt, and rice in the kitchen, taking everything, no matter how little.

She didn’t need them, and she wouldn’t leave them anything.  She would make them suffer!

If anyone in the Lu family had shown any compassion towards her and her children, she wouldn’t have been so ruthless.

Since they were so cruel, she wouldn’t feel any guilt.

After looting everything of value from the house, Su Yuanyuan returned to her room, satisfied, and went to sleep.

Thanks to the mosquito coils and the release of her anger, Su Yuanyuan slept soundly that night.

The next morning, before dawn, the door to her room was pounded relentlessly.

“Third daughter-in-law! Get up and cook! We need to go to the fields later. The whole family is waiting for you to be comfortable before you get up to cook! Hurry up!”

It was Li Hua, shouting and pounding on the door.

Su Yuanyuan opened her eyes and replied, “Okay.”

She had just repaired the door latch last night; she didn’t want it broken again.

“Sickly all day, showing off to who? Get up! If I have to do it, no one will eat!”

Li Hua grumbled and went back to sleep, intending to rest a little longer.

It would take some time to prepare the meal.

Su Yuanyuan yawned and slowly began to change clothes.

She had only responded to prevent her poor door from being broken. Besides, there was nothing in the kitchen; what was there to eat?

Just as she finished changing, she heard a scream.

It was her eldest sister-in-law, Wang Chunhua.

“Oh no! The children’s gold lockets are gone!”

Before Wang Chunhua’s scream subsided, Wang Xiujuan’s scream drowned her out.

“Oh my god! We’ve been robbed! Everything in the kitchen is gone! Our cured meat we smoked before the New Year! It’s all gone! Who is the heartless thief?!”

Wang Xiujuan cried, slapping her thighs.

The disappearance of the lockets hadn’t registered with others yet, but when they heard the kitchen was empty, they rushed to check.

Food was essential. The missing lockets were painful, but without food, they would starve!

Old Lu, holding his pipe, went to check. Seeing the empty kitchen, he nearly fainted from anger. He pointed and shouted, “What thief!  Heartless wretch! Don’t let me find out who did this!”