It was an ordinary morning.
As dawn broke, an old man and his son, pulling an oxcart, were collecting chamber pot sap from house to house when they suddenly heard a panicked cry: "Thieves! Thieves! Everyone get up!"
The hunched old man was startled and quickly looked in the direction from which the sound came. Hmm, wasn't that the Qian family's granary?
"Father, judging from this noise, could it be that the Qian family's granary has been robbed?" The middle-aged man couldn't help but feel secretly pleased.
He spent his days collecting night soil with his father in town, and knew the town's residents very well. There wasn't a single good person in the Qian family, and he wondered which hero had done this. This time, there was going to be some fun to watch.
However, seeing his father glare at him, he immediately suppressed the gloating on his face.
The Qian family was a powerful and influential family in the town. Ordinary people like them dared not provoke them. Even if they were happy, they could only keep it to themselves or secretly enjoy it at home.
Just then, the granary gate burst open with a "bang," and a worker rushed out, dashing to the neighboring Qian residence as if his house were on fire, banging loudly on the gate.
"Open the door! Open the door! The grain has been stolen! Go and inform the master!"
*
Meanwhile, the courtyard where the Qian family's kitchen was located was also bustling with noise.
The old woman in charge of the kitchen got up early and came to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. She took the key from her waistband and skillfully unlocked the door. The moment she pushed the door open, she felt a chill run down her spine, her legs went weak and she collapsed to the ground.
"Broken! The kitchen has been robbed!"
The cooks behind her rushed to help her up, but halfway through, someone shouted and they all let go, causing the old woman to fall back to the ground, crying out in pain.
But no one cared about her now, and they all rushed into the kitchen. Some observant people even went to check the storage room next door, only to find that it was cleaner than the kitchen.
"What happened? Everything in the kitchen disappeared overnight. How are we supposed to cook now?"
"Everything in the warehouse next door is gone too!"
"Who is this? How dare they steal from the Qian family! They must have a death wish! Quick, go tell the master and mistress!"
"This time, something big is about to happen!" an old woman prophesied.
The Qian family has indeed encountered a major incident, but compared to the loss of rice and silver, this matter in the kitchen is nothing.
The Qian family's side courtyard.
"Master, the kitchen has been burgled! Please get up and go check it out!"
Mr. Qian, who was as fat as a pig, was snoring loudly with his beautiful concubine in his arms when he was suddenly awakened from his sweet dream by shouts from outside the door.
He was seething with anger as soon as he woke up, and he jumped out of bed, ready to take it out on the insolent servant. But when he heard what the servant shouted, he immediately came to his senses.
He pushed the door open with a "whoosh" and pointed at the old woman, angrily shouting, "What nonsense are you talking about? How could the kitchen be robbed?"
"It must be you cooks who stole the master's things, and now you're crying 'stop thief' here. Humph, do you think your master is so easy to fool? Once I catch that person, I'll definitely hand her over to the authorities."
The old woman was immediately terrified and burst into tears, hurriedly crying out that she was innocent.
At this point, Master Qian remained relatively calm. He figured it was just a few dishonest old women in his household; at worst, he could just give them a beating and send them to the authorities.
Up to this point, he still hadn't realized the seriousness of the situation.
This will be the first piece of bad news he hears this morning.
With a sullen face, Master Qian was about to go to the backyard to check the situation when he was stopped by a servant who came in.
The servant, pale-faced, rushed into the side courtyard and knelt down with a thud. He gasped for breath and stammered, "It's terrible, sir! People have come from the granary. They say the grain has been stolen."
"What? The grain, the grain has been stolen?" Master Qian almost fainted.
The main problem was that he had just heard about the theft in the kitchen, and then the granary was also robbed. All these bad things happened at once. Mr. Qian already had a heart palpitation problem due to his obesity, and it was easy for him to have a heart attack when he got excited.
After his concubine patted his chest to help him catch his breath, he glared angrily at the servant and demanded, "How much grain did you steal?"
The granary manager stole 300 jin last time. He just checked the accounts the day before yesterday. Even if he lost grain in just one day, it shouldn't be much.
Master Qian assumed it was the grain depot's doing again, but he was quickly proven wrong.
"All, all gone!" The servant blurted out, putting on an air of someone who had died young and been reborn.
Master Qian, supported by his steward who had come upon hearing the news, kicked the servant so hard he fell flat on his back, and then rushed to the neighboring granary at an unprecedented speed, forgetting all about taking a sedan chair.
Holding on to his last breath, it took Master Qian half an hour to finally reach the granary.
He looked at each room one by one, and the more he looked, the more terrified he became. His hands and feet trembled more and more. If the butler and the waiter hadn't been supporting him, he would have collapsed to the ground.
"Quickly, quickly send someone to the county to report to the authorities. Tell them that the Qian family's grain has been stolen without leaving a single grain, and ask the county magistrate to send people to search for grain from house to house in the town. There is so much grain, it is impossible for it all to have been transported out so quickly."
"By the way, quickly send someone to the city gate and bribe the guards to thoroughly check all the vehicles in the town."
After issuing several orders, Master Qian began to assign blame: "Manager He? Where is he?"
"Manager He, he went to the brothel last night and hasn't returned yet." At this point, the servants below no longer dared to cover for the manager.
Master Qian was so angry he almost vomited blood. He was about to punish the person who had been on night watch last night when he suddenly paused, as if he had thought of something. His face turned from black to white in an instant, and he hurriedly ordered the steward, "Quickly, carry me to the back garden!"
Losing food is certainly painful, but if he lost half a lifetime's savings, he would truly vomit blood and die.
At this moment, the Qian residence was in complete chaos, with everyone filled with fear and unease.
Losing things isn't unusual, but the Qian family's loss today is really too strange. Without a word, the kitchen was emptied overnight.
There was also the grain depot. It took half a month of continuous transport to fill it up, but it was all emptied overnight.
Considering that the Qian family has never known how to do good deeds and has often bullied the villagers, they must have angered Heaven long ago. This time, Heaven has finally opened its eyes and punished the Qian family.
In the small, incense-filled Buddhist shrine, Mrs. Qian, her fingers twirling prayer beads, knelt before the Bodhisattva with her eyes closed, whispering her repentance. With each utterance of repentance, she kowtowed, her attitude utterly devout.
The concubines all stayed quietly in their own courtyards today, as still as chickens, and didn't dare to fight each other as usual.
Even Young Master Qian, who was recuperating in bed, sensed something was off at home today and became much more well-behaved.
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