The Missing Silver Ingot

Mrs. Tang was furious, clutching her head and shouting, "Yuanbao, you clearly climbed over the wall into my yard, so why won’t you admit it? You're blatantly lying with your eyes wide open!"

Xiao Zitian kept chuckling foolishly, "Wife, someone is blatantly lying with their eyes wide open!"

Su Li looked at Mrs. Tang and said, "Exactly, I don’t know who’s lying with their eyes wide open, but they even have the nerve to slander my Yuanbao."

Mrs. Tang looked at the whole village watching her make a fool of herself, each person defending Yuanbao. She stomped angrily, pointing at everyone and shouting, "You all, not a single one of you has any sympathy! You’re all just waiting for me to die! All from the same village, you heartless, black-hearted scoundrels!"

As she spoke, Mrs. Tang stormed angrily back into her house, shouting curses as she walked and jumped, "You bunch of lowlifes, you deserve to live your whole lives in this poor, backward place! When I move to Qingmiao City, I won’t be neighbors with any of you hillbillies!"

Right outside, someone immediately laughed, "Oh Mrs. Tang, you can barely afford to live in the village, where do you think you’ll get the money to live in Qingmiao City!?"

Mrs. Tang spat and said, "I do have the money, none of your business!"

As she spoke, Mrs. Tang thought of her big silver ingots.

The five hundred wen she had just tricked someone out of had been snatched by Xiongzi, and she even got a beating for nothing. Mrs. Tang muttered, "You bunch of poor scumbags, just wait and see how rich I get, then you’ll regret it!"

She went into the house, slammed the door, and started feeling around the half-brick by the bed.

"Humph, I’m going to take the silver and buy a house in Qingmiao City. I won’t associate with this bunch of bumpkins!" Mrs. Tang thought of her silver and got smug again, kneeling on the floor, sticking out her butt as she reached inside to grab the silver.

But when she reached in, it was completely empty!

"Huh? Where’s my silver!?" Mrs. Tang froze, lying on the ground and looking inside the hole. It was empty, not a trace of silver anywhere!

"Mother, my silver’s gone! Someone must have stolen it!" Mrs. Tang panicked all of a sudden. She had been so arrogant and reckless lately because she had the silver. Now that the silver was gone, her business was ruined, and she had offended several households. How was she going to survive in the village now?

"Zhaocai, Zhaocai!" Mrs. Tang shouted at the top of her lungs.

Zhang Zhaocai ran in from outside the yard, entering the house with a grumpy tone, "Mother, are you scamming someone again?"

Mrs. Tang didn’t care about that and anxiously asked, "Zhaocai, did you touch the silver?"

Zhang Zhaocai rolled his eyes, "Why would I touch the silver?"

"If it wasn’t you, then where did the silver go!?" Mrs. Tang plopped down on the ground, face full of despair, covering her face and shouting loudly, "My silver, my lifeline, where did it go!? Which damned thief stole my silver!?"

Zhang Zhaocai was frantic when he heard the silver was gone, "What’s going on? I need that silver to marry my wife. How could you lose it!"

Mrs. Tang cried, "How should I know! The silver was there when I left, but after being out half the day, I came back and it was gone."

As Mrs. Tang cried and wiped her tears, suddenly she remembered something. She got up quickly and rushed outside, "I know who took it! Yuanbao, stop right there, you thief, stop right there!"

Over there, Su Li, Yuanbao, and the village chief were just about to leave, but were stopped by Mrs. Tang, who came rushing like a madwoman.

Mrs. Tang, with disheveled hair and bloodshot eyes, looked like she’d taken some strong medicine as she yelled, "Yuanbao, how could you be so bad! You took advantage of the scuffle to climb over the wall and steal my silver!"