Chapter 31: Hair, Gone

Lying on the bed, Wang Man couldn’t fall asleep.

She began to reflect on her past and present lives, and soon her thoughts drifted to that infuriating storage room. While she was thinking about it, she suddenly found herself inside the storage room.

Wang Man was stunned for a few seconds before quickly hugging two gold bars to her chest. After a moment’s thought, she grabbed another one, along with a crossbow and a dagger. She didn’t forget the tael and a half of silver she had left here last time either.

Clutching everything tightly to her chest, she searched around once more but couldn’t think of anything else she needed for now. Afraid something might go wrong, she quickly exited the storage room.

In the dim light, she looked at the items she was still holding and broke into a silly smile. She set the gold bars aside and began fiddling with the crossbow. This would be her lifeline when she went into the mountains.

Turning her head, she caught sight of Wang San’s peacefully sleeping face and pouted.

“You have your own bed but insist on squeezing in with me. Aren’t you afraid of passing lice to me?”

Wait—lice? Damn it, how did she forget about that?

Wang Man scratched her neck, feeling like something was crawling there. She groped around but didn’t find anything. She gave Wang San a few hard shoves, but he was sleeping like the dead—snoring away, completely unbothered.

Furious, Wang Man almost kicked him off the bed.

But then she remembered how he’d gone to get help when the giant snake appeared earlier today. Forget it.

With that in mind, she went back to tinkering with her crossbow and dagger. Just as she picked up the dagger, a sudden idea struck her.

So…

Wang Man’s hands moved fast. Before long, she had shaved off all of Wang San’s hair.

No hair meant no place for lice to nest!

While she still had enough light, she took the shaved-off hair outside and burned it. Hearing the crackling sound as the hair went up in flames gave her a strange sense of satisfaction—this was probably the most drastic thing she had ever done.

After all that, she still couldn’t sleep.

She pushed and pinched Wang San until she finally managed to wake him up.

Half-squinting, Wang San grumbled, “What are you doing, messing around this late at night?”

Wang Man waved a gold bar in front of his face.

“Look! Know what this is? A gold bar. Ever seen one before?”

Her dark, skinny face was full of smugness.

Thankfully, she’d been smart enough to grab the gold bar first. Even if she never got back into the storage room again, she wouldn’t starve. And now that she had weapons, she felt much more confident.

Wang San forced his eyes open and asked drowsily, “Gold bar? Where did that come from?”

Grinning, Wang Man replied, “It’s mine now. With this gold bar, we can fix up this house, maybe even buy two acres of land. That way, we won’t have to go hungry again.”

The days of hunger, when her stomach twisted in knots, had left her with a bit of trauma. She had made up her mind: once she had money, she’d buy land to farm—even if it was just two acres of wasteland, that’d do.

Wang San reached out with his cold hand and touched Wang Man’s forehead, muttering, “No fever… Then why are you talking nonsense? Don’t tell me you’re even more scared than I am?”

Wang Man snorted. “This is you scared? No wonder you ran to my bed. What a coward!”

When she got no response from him, she turned to look. The guy had fallen asleep again.

“Hey, wake up. I still have something to ask you.”

Wang San, eyes closed, asked, “What is it?”

Seeing that he could still talk, Wang Man pondered for a moment, then asked, “Do you think I need to trade the gold bar for silver or smaller pieces of gold to use it? It’s such a big chunk—no one could give change for it, right?”

Even in modern times, she wouldn’t dare flash something like this around in public. It’d be the same in ancient times.

Wang San, still with his eyes closed, replied, “Of course. If you pull something like that out, people will definitely drag you off to interrogate you about where it came from.”

“Then what should I do? Should I find someone to cut it into smaller pieces?”

Wang Man really didn’t know what to do here—she needed to rely on this local rascal for advice.

“Doesn’t matter. Just don’t take it out at all,” Wang San said with surprising certainty.

“What’s that supposed to mean? You’re saying I can’t even use it? Are you afraid people will get ideas?”

Wang Man was a little worried too.

Isn’t there a saying? It’s not the thief you fear, but the thief who keeps thinking about stealing from you.

Sure, she had some skills—but she was still just one person. What if she was outnumbered?

This time, Wang San didn’t respond. Clearly, he’d fallen asleep again.

After mulling it over, Wang Man decided to put the gold bar back into the storage room.

Better to keep it hidden than attract attention. Right now, she still needed to nurse this body back to health. Besides, they still had over a hundred taels of silver at home. They’d be fine for the winter.

As for fixing up the house—that could wait. At least until after winter. She didn’t want to be sleeping out in the cold in a thatched shack.

The next morning, Wang Man was jolted awake by Wang San’s startled shout.

She sat up, rubbing her eyes, annoyed. “What is it? Screaming like that, disturbing my sleep.”

Wang San touched his bald head, then looked at Wang Man’s hay-like hair, his voice trembling, “Manniang, look at my hair!”

Wang Man glanced at him. Hmm. Not bad. For a job done in the dark, she hadn’t missed any spots, and there weren’t any cuts either. It was a passable job.

Seeing no change in her expression, Wang San asked in confusion, “Manniang, didn’t you see my hair’s gone? I just went to sleep—I didn’t do anything—and now it’s gone. You think I saw a ghost?”

Wang Man rolled her eyes. “Ghost, my foot. It’s just gone. Your head was crawling with lice—what’s there to be sentimental about?”

Wang San…

Well, what she said actually made sense.

He was a grown man. Who cared if he was bald?

Besides, hair would grow back. Maybe it would even grow in thicker and darker, and keep the lice away.

While trying to comfort himself, he suddenly recalled a blurry memory from last night.

“Manniang, I think I had a dream. In it, you were holding a huge gold bar, asking me how to use it. You also said you wanted to build a new house and buy land.”

As he spoke, he looked increasingly confused. Clearly, his mind was still trying to catch up.

Wang Man rolled her eyes and got out of bed.

She needed to go train.

She was in a good mood today—might as well do an extra round.

Who wouldn’t be happy? The storage room had been there again last night.

Did that mean it would keep showing up in the future?

Wang San, seeing Wang Man ignoring him, thought it was because he had slept in her bed and made her mad.

But what could he do? He’d been so scared by that giant snake, he didn’t dare sleep alone. Sleeping next to Manniang made him feel safer.

Still, the idea that a grown man needed a young girl to protect him was pretty humiliating.

He instinctively reached up to scratch his head, only to realize it was completely bald.

How did his hair vanish while he was sleeping?

And how did it happen without him noticing?

They had slept in the same bed—why was her hair still there while his was gone?

The more he thought about it, the more it didn’t sit right.

Suddenly, he remembered the look Wang Man gave him when he mentioned the hair. A thought struck him like lightning.

Could it be… that Wang Man did this to him?