A Play in Two Acts

Bai Yao was already waiting in an alley across the street from the bank.

He had hurried over so he wouldn't miss any of the big show.

He really had arrived a little too early. Never mind Li Dongxu and Li Bailian—the bank hadn't even opened for business yet.

"Then I'll wait. I can't miss a moment of what comes next."

As time passed, the midsummer sun raised the temperature bit by bit. Even though Bai Yao was hiding in an alley out of the sun's reach, the heat still brought a light sheen of sweat to his skin.

At last, the bank staff opened the doors for business, but there was still no sign of Li Dongxu or Li Bailian.

"Why aren't those two old beasts here yet?"

As he was wondering, Bai Yao spotted the pair approaching the very next second, chatting and laughing as they took their time.

The key point was that the two old beasts were each eating a mung bean ice pop!

Look at that. They had no money to leave him for food, but they had spare cash to eat ice pops themselves—and mung bean ice pops at five fen apiece, too. The two of them had spent a whole mao.

"No, I need to find a chance to squeeze every last bit of money out of them."

With that thought, Bai Yao decided to feed them the poisonous mushrooms he had prepared. They happened to be eating ice pops, which made things easier for him.

Of course, these weren't the deadly kind of poisonous mushrooms. Eating them raw would just make people likely to see little people. They were only mildly poisonous, and a few minutes in boiling water would get rid of the poison.

Using the system space together with his mental power, he quickly and deftly got it done. Then he retreated farther into the alley. He couldn't let himself be seen now.

Once they had finished their ice pops, Li Dongxu and Li Bailian entered the bank, and Bai Yao settled down to wait for the result.

That was right. Bai Yao wanted those two to cause some trouble inside the bank.

In this era, starting a fight in a bank would be treated as a bank robbery. Even if their actions didn't look much like one, who cared? There was always someone who needed the credit, wasn't there?

And the inevitable outcome of such behavior was being fed a peanut.

Oh, it seemed he also had to prepare some money. During this special period, the criminal's family apparently had to pay for the peanut.

He wasn't counting on the three useless people in the hospital for this, either. He would use the opportunity to sever ties with the Li Family.

Just as Bai Yao was thinking about what he needed to do over the next few days, a sudden commotion erupted across the street.

He looked over and saw Li Dongxu being restrained and taken away, a look of terror and fury on his face.

Li Bailian, on the other hand, only left after the others had gone. Her face was streaked with tears, yet she wore a shy expression.

"Huh? That's strange. Why did they only take Li Dongxu away? How come Li Bailian's fine? And why does she look like a young girl in love?"

As Bai Yao was puzzling over it, he noticed a middle-aged man emerge from the bank. The man was looking at Li Bailian as she walked ahead, a lewd smile on his face.

Bai Yao: !!!

Could it really be what he thought?

As he speculated, he hurried to follow them on the sly.

He had nothing else to do today anyway, so he had to see what was going on.

And he had to completely crush that woman, Li Bailian!

After following them for a while, Bai Yao saw that the middle-aged man who had come out later had caught up with Li Bailian. The two walked side by side, occasionally touching each other along the way.

One glance was enough for him to understand that the result was more or less what he had thought.

It looked like that woman Li Bailian had found herself a new man.

As for why Bai Yao said that, it was naturally because he saw Li Bailian shyly respond to the man's advances, without the slightest sign of refusal.

But who was this man? He just had to meddle in Bai Yao's revenge, even though Bai Yao had done his best not to involve anyone else.

Just as Bai Yao was wondering what to do next, he saw the pair ahead turn into an alley.

By the time he caught up, the two had already entered a small courtyard.

After they went in, a simple-looking man came out and shut the gate securely. Instead of leaving, he stayed on guard at the entrance.

Bai Yao: ???

Why did this situation look so strange?

They had gone out of their way to set up a small courtyard and station a guard, who wouldn't even leave when they were doing that sort of thing.

"Could those two be enemy agents?"

At the thought, Bai Yao's eyes nearly lit up.

Reporting enemy agents was everyone's duty! In this era, that was a very precious protective talisman.

But to avoid startling the snake by beating the grass, he decided to take a closer look first and see if it was true.

After gauging the distance, he used the system space to flash three times, arriving on the back side of the courtyard house's roof.

When he spread his mental power over the place, Bai Yao was stunned.

This little courtyard, with only three main rooms, was truly wealthy.

There was a cellar beneath the main hall, and in it was a chest of large gold bars, roughly fifty of them. There was also a small box of jewelry. Though the box wasn't large, every piece was a treasure.

Besides those, there were two tin boxes, one large and one small. The large one was stuffed full of cash, half of it in ten-yuan notes. The small box contained coupons, mostly national grain coupons, with the rest being hard-to-get coupons for things like bicycles and sewing machines.

The key point!

He also found two handguns and a hundred rounds of ammunition.

These weren't things an ordinary family could possess.

Rubbing his chin, Bai Yao took everything. He was already certain that the middle-aged man was no good.

With his mental power spread over the place, he had already heard Li Bailian and the man flirting as they discussed her switching households.

In the middle-aged man's words, Li Bailian would marry the man guarding the gate, but would actually be his mistress.

Looking at it that way, Li Bailian really did have an affinity for being a mistress.

Li Bailian didn't refuse, either. She shyly agreed, and then they began putting their hands on each other.

As for Li Dongxu and her three biological children, Li Bailian had probably already cast them to the back of her mind.

But how could Bai Yao possibly allow Li Bailian to continue living well? He had said he would leave this family broken and dead, living lives worse than death, and he would do exactly as he had said. Not one of them could be left out.

Seeing the two about to go further, Bai Yao gave a cold chuckle, his eyes turning icy.

"System, customize a batch of water-activated glue, then use it on Li Bailian."

Water-activated glue would stick firmly once it came into contact with water. Especially since it came from the system, both its quality and quantity were guaranteed.

Bai Yao then went to summon a crowd.

He refused to believe that Li Bailian could come out unscathed after being caught in adultery before everyone.

As for the man at the gate, Bai Yao flashed over and touched him, collecting him into the system space. Then he stripped the man and threw him into the pit of a distant public latrine.

Once that was done, Bai Yao customized a human-skin mask for himself before going to the mouth of the alley to call for people.

"Everyone, come catch the adulterers! An adulterous couple is cheating behind their spouses' backs!"

Even in later generations, if someone shouted that, plenty of people would come to watch the spectacle, let alone in this era with so little entertainment to pass the time.

So before Bai Yao had even finished speaking, aunts, grannies, and young men had already gathered around.

Bai Yao didn't waste any time. He turned, swept an arm forward, and said, "Follow me!"

With him leading the way, the crowd soon reached the courtyard gate.

Once they got there, someone couldn't wait for him to speak and rushed past Bai Yao, pushing the gate open and charging inside.

One person led to another, and soon the crowd rushed in and saw the two people, stark naked.

The key point was that even now, those two still couldn't bear to separate.

"How shameless! They're still lying there without moving. What's the matter? Should we all wait a while for you?"

At those words, the crowd burst out laughing.

Some watched with smiles, while others were furious at the adulterous couple.

"Everyone, since they have no shame, let's haul them to the police station just like this. Then we'll see which families they belong to, to be so shameless."

Quite a few men eagerly set about doing just that.

But...

"Hey, I see it now. The woman's the fierce one!"

In the end, the two were hauled away just like that, without even being allowed to get dressed.

As for what happened afterward, Bai Yao didn't stay to watch.

After the crowd went inside, he had slipped away amid the confusion.

Now that something like this had happened to the Li couple, he figured the police would probably come to notify them next, so he had to hurry back to the hospital.

And while he was at it, prepare to sever ties.