Chapter 19 I didn’t expect Lao Xu to be such a good embroidery needle

Because the Xu family’s yard looked even worse than a village ransacked by bandits. At least when bandits raided a village, each household could usually hide a few things the bandits didn’t want. But now, in the Xu household, not even a single vegetable in the garden was left. The entire yard was completely empty! Well… not entirely—where the chicken coop had been, there was still a pile of chicken and duck droppings.

Zhang Chunhua gaped in shock and stammered, “O-Old Bai… did your house get robbed?”

“I don’t know which damn bastard did it, but overnight they cleared everything out!” Bai Xiuying sat on the ground wrapped in a thin quilt, crying miserably. “Everything is gone except the bed and quilt where I sleep with old Xu. These blasted things—don’t they want to leave us any way to live?”

Zhang Chunhua had thought that just seeing the yard emptied would be shocking enough—but she hadn’t expected the house itself to be emptied too. According to Bai Xiuying, even the bedroom where she and old Xu slept had been raided. That couldn’t be possible—old Xu and Bai weren’t dead, and even if the yard’s belongings were taken without them hearing, how could they not notice their bedroom being emptied?

Zhang Chunhua looked skeptically at Bai Xiuying. “Old Bai, you must be joking. I could believe that the yard was emptied, but your bedroom? How could you two not hear anything? Did the wardrobe and furniture just disappear into thin air? Any movement would make noise!”

Seeing Zhang Chunhua’s disbelief, Bai Xiuying wasn’t surprised—if she hadn’t experienced it herself, she probably wouldn’t have believed it either. “Go inside and see for yourself. Not only is the furniture gone, even the money I’ve painstakingly saved over the years has vanished.”

Seeing Bai Xiuying looking as helpless as if she had lost her own father, Zhang Chunhua, despite thinking the story was hard to believe, accepted about eighty percent of it. For the remaining twenty percent, she decided to check the house herself—and the more she looked, the more shocked she became. Bai Xiuying had been telling the truth.

Inside the Xu house, apart from the immovable stove in the kitchen, only the bed and quilt where old Xu and his wife slept remained. Whoever had done this had completely emptied the Xu family.

As Zhang Chunhua stepped out of the house, she suddenly noticed a dark-skinned leg sticking out from behind the door. At first she was confused, then she became excited. Could this be Bai Xiuying’s lover hiding there? She grabbed the person hiding behind the door and pulled them out.

It was Xu Dingbang, caught off guard by Zhang Chunhua’s sudden action. Just then, Li Ailian and other villagers arrived, and seeing the scene, they were stunned.

Only when Zhang Chunhua shouted, “Ah~ pervert!” did everyone snap back to reality. Xu Dingbang was so embarrassed he wished he could disappear entirely. That cheeky little thief—if he was going to steal, couldn’t he have left at least some clothes?

In the yard, some of the bolder women began commenting directly in front of Xu Dingbang.

“Who knew old Xu was such a… handful?”
“Hahaha, that description fits perfectly.”
“Didn’t expect this elderly couple to be so… playful. They even sleep without underwear.”
“Don’t underestimate them. Even at their age, they have fun, and their son passed away. Maybe they hope to have another child.”

Hearing this, Xu Dingbang wished he could stitch their mouths shut. It was all that wretched woman’s fault—why did she have to bring Zhang Chunhua in? Didn’t she know he wasn’t dressed? She even took the only blanket. A complete mess!

Seeing Xu Dingbang retreat behind the door again, Zhang Chunhua awkwardly said, “Uh… I’ll go home and grab some of my husband’s clothes for you.” With that, she ran home, returned, and threw him a full set of clothes. Seeing Bai Xiuying glare at her, she reluctantly gave her a set of her own unused clothes as well. What a mess—trying to catch an affair, she ended up losing two sets of clothes.

Once the Xu couple had their clothes on, the crowd stopped discussing that topic. A little joking was fine, but if they kept going, it would be inappropriate. Now, they were far more curious about how the Xu family had been completely emptied overnight.

At first, no one believed Bai Xiuying, but seeing the empty house themselves, they had no choice. Li Ailian looked at Bai Xiuying in shock. “Old Bai, did you offend someone recently?”

Zhang Chunhua chimed in, “Yeah, otherwise, who would do this? They even pulled all the vegetables from the field.”

Li Ailian, speaking mysteriously, added, “I don’t think that’s the most important part. The key is… how did they move all these things without anyone noticing?”

Hearing this, Zhang Chunhua pondered. “Yeah… my house is right next to the Xu family. If they moved furniture, I should have heard some noise. But I didn’t hear a thing. Sister Wei, did you hear anything last night?”

Sister Wei lived on the right side of the Xu family. Zhang Chunhua lived on the left. Sister Wei thought for a while before replying, “No, I didn’t hear a thing all night.”

With both women’s testimonies, everyone present was stunned. One of the older women shivered. “Could… could this be haunted?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. This is broad daylight—no ghosts!”
“No ghosts in broad daylight, maybe at night?” Another woman insisted, “Even if old Xu and his wife were drugged and didn’t hear a thing, how could the neighbors on both sides not hear anything? And that huge wooden cabinet—at least two strong men would be needed to move it. Some noise had to happen. This is impossible, unless…”

Hearing this analysis, some of the timid villagers shivered. Although it sounded improbable, there was no better explanation. This made the incident even scarier—they didn’t know what curse or karma the Xu family had incurred to attract such a disaster.

“Tell me, do you think the Xu family did something heinous or against the heavens? Otherwise, why would this ‘unclean’ thing happen to them?”