Mistaken Identity in the Night

Su Daqi suddenly wondered if staying up late had made his mind fuzzy.

Su Daqi reached out again, feeling around up, down, left, and right. The skin at the edge of the man's beard was rough and coarse, nothing like the delicate, tender skin of a young girl’s hand.

Su Daqi was completely confused. What was going on?

Meanwhile, Sun Ning was sound asleep, dreaming of a beautiful girl smiling sweetly as she fed him big chunks of braised pork. That pretty girl touched his beard and said with a smile, "Come on, catch me and I'll give you more meat."

Sun Ning licked the corner of his mouth, half asleep, and absentmindedly wiped his face—only to actually feel a hand.

Wait, this hand... so rough, it wasn’t the hand of that beautiful girl!?

Sun Ning opened his eyes and, by the moonlight through the window, saw a man with his face covered by cloth squatting by his bed, staring off into space, while that man’s hand was groping his face.

Sun Ning jolted awake, remembering his sister Sun Shi had specially warned them when she left that the village wasn’t safe and there were thieves about. She had told his sister-in-law to lock the courtyard gate.

Sun Ning thought, could it be that a thief had come?

Sun Ning was a vigorous, strong man and immediately grabbed that hand, pinning the masked man down on the bed.

Su Daqi hadn’t come to his senses yet, only feeling a sharp pain in his wrist and suddenly being pressed onto the bed.

Sun Ning straddled the masked man’s back, threw a blanket over him, and started punching wildly into the blanket, cursing, "Damn thief! How dare you steal from me? I’ll beat you flat!"

Inside the blanket, Su Daqi never imagined that he came to steal from Su Lanxiang, but since Su Lanxiang wasn’t there, a burly man appeared instead!

Su Daqi screamed miserably as he twisted and turned inside the blanket.

Sun Ning shouted loudly while hitting, "Thief in the house! Someone come catch the thief!"

Hearing this, several brothers from the neighboring Sun family immediately put on their clothes and rushed in.

Sun Da-ge jumped onto the bed and kicked Su Daqi, blanket and all, to the floor. Sun Er-ge grabbed three sticks from outside and handed them to his brothers, spitting on his hands as he cursed, "Stealing in the middle of the New Year, you worthless bastard! Brothers, let’s teach him a good lesson!"

The three Sun brothers surrounded Su Daqi and beat him wildly with sticks on the blanket.

Su Daqi covered his head inside, rolling in pain, but after a few rolls, he felt a hard kick to his backside and was kicked back like a ball.

"Big brother, second brother, this bastard is having fun rolling around. Let’s use him as a ball!" Sun Ning happily said as he and his two brothers beat and kicked Su Daqi, who was wrapped up like a chicken roll.

"Brothers, make way! Your sister-in-law is here!" Outside the door, Zhang Shi entered carrying a basin of cold water.

The three Sun brothers quickly made way. Zhang Shi stormed in and poured a basin of cold water onto the blanket, then kicked it, shouting, "You damn thief! How dare you steal from my little sister-in-law’s house? You’re asking for trouble! Let me teach you a lesson!"

That basin of cold water in the middle of the New Year soaked Su Daqi and the blanket through and through, chilling him to the bone. He let out a howl and poked his head halfway out of the blanket.

But as soon as his head came out, Zhang Shi grabbed his ear.

Zhang Shi’s fierce spirit flared up. She grabbed Su Daqi’s ear hard and dragged him toward the courtyard, cursing, "Freeze to death, you bastard! I’ll turn you into an ice pop and tie you up to report to the authorities!"