The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure-Chapter 163 Encounter with a Thief

And isn’t it Old Granny Zhang and her little aunt that Lady Lin doesn’t get along with?

They are her and Jinshao’s lifesavers, emotionally and rationally, she should give them a heads up.

In front of Old Granny Zhang, Lady Jiang didn’t dare to go, after thinking it through, she walked into the kitchen where Wang Yongzhu was busy at the stove.

In peasant households, the stove usually has two pots in the front and back. Between the two pots, some people leave a small stove hole for a tile pot, used to cook porridge or heat water.

Normally in winter, after cooking, they would smolder a small piece of firewood underneath this small stove hole, allowing it to burn slowly, ensuring that the tile pot always has hot water or warm porridge.

Wang Yongzhu was at that moment pouring out the water from the tile pot, which was still warm, just right for drinking.

Seeing Lady Jiang enter, thinking she was there to help: "I can handle it by myself, sister-in-law, go keep Jinshao company!"

Lady Jiang didn’t say a word, stepped forward to help Wang Yongzhu pour out the water, and then put it back.

In passing, she whispered, "I think something seems off with eldest sister-in-law."

After saying that, she put back the tile pot and left the kitchen.

Wang Yongzhu was momentarily stunned, disbelieving as she watched Lady Jiang’s retreating figure. Was she giving herself and Old Granny Zhang a warning?

That really was——

Shaking her head, Wang Yongzhu carried the warm water back into the room.

Familiar with the layout, she found some brown sugar in Old Granny Zhang’s cupboard, added a spoonful to a bowl, stirred it well, and handed it to Old Granny Zhang, "Mother, drink this! The water’s not too hot, not too cold, just right!"

Old Granny Zhang, having just washed her face and currently rummaging through something on the kang bed at the time, took the bowl on hearing her daughter’s words, and first offered it to Wang Yongzhu’s lips, "My Zhuzhu’s worried about her mom, and mom worries about you too, take a few sips quickly."

Wang Yongzhu took a sip with a smile, then handed the bowl back to Old Granny Zhang.

Seeing her daughter was indeed not going to drink more, Old Granny Zhang downed the contents in one go, then set down the bowl.

Wang Yongzhu then whispered, "Just now in the kitchen when I was pouring the water, sister-in-law came to help, saying that eldest sister-in-law is acting a bit strange today?"

Old Granny Zhang also paused but immediately snorted coldly, "Hmph, it’s about time we didn’t rescue a couple of ungrateful wretches!"

Then she scoffed, "What do you think Lady Lin that wench came back for? Claims she spent days at the medical hall without washing and couldn’t stand her own smell, needed to come back to bathe and change clothes! Pah! She’s old enough to be a grandmother and still thinks she’s a young maiden? Her own man lies in bed, and she doesn’t care for him but thinks of coming home to bathe and change? With that old scallion face of hers, does she think she can wash herself into a fresh cabbage? I bet she wanted to dig out her private savings—"

Before she could finish, they heard Lady Lin’s shrill scream from the main room: "Thief! There’s been a thief in the house!"

A thief?

Wang Yongzhu stood up abruptly, how could there be a thief in the house?

In a rush, she was about to go out when Old Granny Zhang, completely composed, grabbed her, "What’s the hurry, where are you running off to?"

Of course, Wang Yongzhu was anxious, "Didn’t eldest sister-in-law say there’s been a thief? I need to go see if my room is missing anything. Mother, I still have—"

Her words trailed off as she saw Old Granny Zhang’s unflappable demeanor and suddenly realized.

Oh my!

Wasn’t Lady Lin’s private savings dug up by her own mother and already turned in?

The thief was sitting right in front of her, as steady as a rock.

Her tension immediately eased, and she sat down with a flop: "Did eldest sister-in-law really come back this time to dig for private savings?"

She just entered the room, and suddenly there’s a cry about a thief. Isn’t that just an admission of digging for her private savings the moment she got home?

Why was Lady Lin so anxious to get her hands on her private savings?

As Wang Yongzhu’s eyes turned, she saw Old Granny Zhang looking as if everything was under her control. She leaned in and pleaded, "Mother, tell me what’s going on, will you?"

Old Granny Zhang sneered, "You don’t need to worry about it, let her deal with it! I want to see what kind of trouble she can brew!"

While the mother and daughter sat steadily in the room, the yard had erupted into chaos.

Lady Lin tumbled out of the house like a whirlwind, standing in the yard and shouting, "Someone help! We’ve been robbed——"

Lady Jiang and Little Bean from the third house were startled and hurried out only to see Lady Lin with disheveled hair and her clothes dusted with ashes, her face smeared as if not just burglarized but robbed.

Seeing Lady Jiang emerge, Lady Lin grabbed her. Lady Jiang staggered and struggled to keep her balance.

Lady Lin frantically asked, "Sister-in-law, did you see a thief enter our house?"

Lady Jiang, utterly confused and sensing something odd about Lady Lin, felt scared. While trying to subtly back away, she replied, "Eldest sister-in-law, what are you talking about? There are always people around the house, how could a thief get in? Moreover, what did you lose?"

Lady Lin anxiously said, "I lost——" But as the words reached her lips, she realized something was wrong and hurriedly swallowed the rest of her sentence.

She offered an awkward smile, "It’s nothing, I just lost something——"

"You ’lost something’? You’re making such a racket in the courtyard, are you afraid others won’t hear you’ve been robbed? Your son is about to be betrothed, and you’re still making a fuss like a headless chicken. So tell me, what did you lose?" Old Granny Zhang stood firmly at the doorway, watching Lady Lin. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

Lady Lin avoided Old Granny Zhang’s gaze, bit her lip, and offered a strained smile, "Mother, I really didn’t lose anything——"

"Cut the crap! You’ve shouted so loud the whole village knows, and those who don’t know might think we really had a burglary! With our household in this state, who would covet our stuff? Or could it be that you hid something valuable and now it’s gone?" Old Granny Zhang spat contemptuously.

At this point, Lady Jiang immediately understood. Perhaps it was Lady Lin’s private savings that had gone missing, which panicked her into making a scene.

Now being confronted by her mother-in-law, she dared not admit it.

Thinking this, Lady Jiang felt a chill. The last time she had relied on her young sister-in-law to go to town, she had made and saved a dozen Large Coins from her embroidery work.

Should she move it elsewhere tonight? She must not let the mother-in-law find out.

Given Lady Lin’s nature, surely her private savings were well hidden. How could they be stolen?

Could it be an inside job?

Lady Jiang dared not think further.

The commotion did not attract the neighbors, but it did bring Jinguan back home.

From a distance, he heard his mother’s voice and immediately ran home. As he entered the yard and saw Lady Lin in the center, he rushed toward her, "Mother? You’re back——"

Lady Lin caressed Jinguan’s head, avoiding Old Granny Zhang’s gaze, "Mother came back to check on you. Look at you, all sweaty. Come, let’s go inside and change your clothes so you don’t catch a cold."

With that, she pulled Jinguan into the house.

Once inside, she closed the door, then pulled Jinguan in front of her and whispered urgently, "Jinguan, I need to ask you, did you see anyone enter our house?"

It wasn’t just Lady Jiang who thought of the possibility of an inside thief; Lady Lin quickly realized as well. The place where she kept her private money was very secretive, and she changed its location every month—the floors and walls of the house were almost hollowed out by her.

Sometimes, in her busyness, she even confused herself.

How could an outsider know where she hid her money?

After much consideration, there was only one possibility: someone in the house had been observing her closely. That’s how, in her absence, the money could have been taken.

With this thought, when Lady Lin saw Jinguan had returned, her first instinct was to question him.

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