"Oh, Huan'er," Xue's mother suddenly remembered something, "Didn't the Chen family ask for a betrothal gift from us?"
Xue Huan snorted, "Of course we do. But the Chen family is the one at fault. Why should our family return the betrothal gifts?"
Xue's mother disagreed a little, "They are unkind, we can't be unjust, we should return the betrothal gifts another day."
As she spoke, Xue's mother took out the key from the drawer of the dressing table and went to open the box.
"The betrothal gifts the Chen family offered were sixty taels of betrothal gold, a load of betrothal cakes, a pair of chickens, ducks, and geese, sixteen pieces of cloth, a pair of gold and silver jewelry, and some fruit and cakes.
"I've been keeping all the betrothal gifts, cloth, and jewelry for you. I was planning to add them to your dowry when you get married, but... the livestock and fruits have already been eaten. I can only convert them into cash and return them."
When Xue's mother opened the box, her face changed.
Xue Huan sensed something was wrong and walked over to take a look. The box was in a mess. The valuable clothes and jewelry inside, as well as the purse at the bottom, were all gone!
Xue's mother felt dizzy and was about to fall down. Xue Huan hurriedly supported her, "Mom!"
Mother Xue stood up, holding the box, and gave her a weak smile. "Mom is fine, don't worry."
After a while, she had already guessed what the thief was, but she just couldn't believe it.
And Xue Huan also thought of it.
As expected, the money in the house was stolen yesterday, or to be more precise, last night.
Before this, Dahei had been guarding the house all the time. With its alertness, it was impossible for the thieves to take advantage of it.
Only yesterday, Dahei led the villagers into the mountains to look for Xue's father. In the evening, the villagers carried back Xue's father's "corpse", and the Xue family fell into chaos and grief.
At this time, Old Mrs. Xue ran over and insulted Xue's mother, saying that she was an unlucky person, a vixen, and had killed her son.
While cursing, she actually fainted. The eldest aunt from the first room and the third aunt from the third room hurriedly helped Old Mrs. Xue into the master bedroom, and she did not come out for a long time.
At that time, Xue's mother was filled with grief, and Xue Jun fainted due to the great shock. Only "Xue Huan" and Xue Yao were still conscious, but they did not care about those people of Old Lady Xue.
Therefore, the biggest suspect is Old Lady Xue. As for the people from the first and third wives, they are very likely her accomplices!
Xue Huan didn't suspect her out of thin air, but because Old Lady Xue had a bad record in the past. She often came to the Xue family to "steal things". Food, daily necessities, and even the money in the cabinet could not escape her search.
Whenever she came, the house was like a place where bandits had passed through.
Although Xue's father is filial, he is not a foolishly filial person. If my mother always does this, how can their family survive?
Moreover, when the family was divided, he was kicked out without even a bed or quilt. If the old hunter who taught him how to hunt had not taken him in, he wouldn't know where he would be now.
He always harbored a resentment towards his mother, but even though he resented her, his mother was not kind, and he could not be completely unfilial. He never failed to show his filial respect to her during the holidays, and he also gave her a sum of money every year as her support.
But there is no more.
After all, he has a wife and children to support.
Later, the family got a dog, replaced the fence outside the yard with a wall, and installed a sturdy wooden door. In this way, it would not be so easy for Old Mrs. Xue to break in.
Xue's father felt more at ease when he went out hunting.
For this, Old Mrs. Xue jumped up and down and cursed in the village, spreading the news of Xue's father's unfilial behavior and Xue's mother's viciousness, but the villagers had eyes and naturally understood what was going on.
Later, Old Mrs. Xue never came again, or rather, she didn't dare to come. After all, when Dahei stood there majestically, her legs went weak and she didn't dare to force her way in.
The news of Xue's father's "death" yesterday made Xue's mother and several children panic. Didn't it give Mrs. Xue an opportunity to take advantage of it?
Therefore, Xue Huan had every reason to doubt her.
As for whether it is true or not, we will know after confirming it tonight.
Late at night, when everyone was asleep, Xue Huan, who had rested enough, opened her eyes, put the pillow in the quilt, creating the illusion that she was lying in the quilt, and she herself got off the bed.
A faint light flashed in the five elements bead in the palm of her hand, and her whole body sank into the ground like a fish into water.
It was her first time using the function of the Five Elements Bead, and she was a little unsure. She tried moving back and forth and encountered no obstruction at all. She felt relieved and sank completely into the ground.
It was very dark underground, but there was no feeling of being stuffy. She could go up, down, left and right. She couldn't help but have the illusion that she was walking in an endless universe.
Xue Huan spread out her palms, letting the Five Elements Bead float in front of her, and walked forward under the milky white light it emitted.
The journey was smooth.
But there is also a problem, that is, there are no reference points underground, and it is easy to get lost.
It was a short distance from her home to Uncle Xue's house, but she got lost three times.
But the advantages of walking underground are also obvious, that is, it is extremely secretive and will not make any noise.
All the way to Uncle Xue's house, Xue Huan didn't disturb even a chicken.
The original owner had only been here a few times in his life. One reason was that Old Lady Xue disliked Mother Xue and also disliked the children she gave birth to. The other reason was that the old lady was extremely patriarchal and never had a good face towards the original owner.
The original owner naturally noticed it, so he would not come here easily, and even if he did, he would not enter the house.
This resulted in Xue Huan being unfamiliar with the terrain here and being completely clueless.
However, this did not cause much trouble to her movements, after all, she was someone who could move underground.
She quickly found the room where Old Mrs. Xue lived, emerged from the ground, and first put all the boxes, cabinets and other things in the room into the space, and then searched through them with the light in the space.
But the stolen money and property were not found.
Could it be hidden somewhere else?
Xue Huan put the box back. As for the clothes that were messed up, she did not put them back in order. She was not afraid even if Old Mrs. Xue found out. She would not know it was her who did it anyway. She would probably think there was a thief in the house.
If it's not on the ground, then it might be underground.
She sank into the ground, turned around, and sure enough, she found a pottery jar somewhere.
Hiding money and belongings underground seems to be the ideal way to hide money in many people's minds. Unfortunately, it was her that Old Mrs. Xue met.
Xue Huan brought the pottery jar into the space and poured out the contents. There was a pile of money strings, gold and silver jewelry, and silver ingots mixed in.
The strings of coins come in different sizes. The largest ones contain 1,000 coins, which is a string of coins, equal to one tael of silver. Based on the prices in my memory, the purchasing power of one tael of silver is basically equivalent to 2,000 yuan in later generations.
The small strings of money include 100-yuan, 200-yuan, and some non-integer denominations.
There were ten silver ingots, each weighing 10 taels, and they looked very new. Xue Huan could tell at a glance that these were the 60 taels of betrothal money that the Chen family had paid!
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