A few days later.
One night, the landlord heard someone knocking on the door outside.
Who the hell was staying up instead of sleeping at this hour?
What were they knocking for?
The small landlord's household did not have many servants. Fortunately, families still all lived together back then. Several sons lived on the estate, and two or three long-term laborers stayed in the little storehouse beside the livestock shed.
They had no need to fear running into bandits.
But when the main gate opened—
Hey! Guess what? There was no one there!
The roadside was pitch-black, and the lantern hanging by the gate had gone out long ago. After all, even a landlord's household had to save money on candles, and the candles replaced each day were tiny.
They would not last even an hour.
Then they would flame out.
In those days, everyone was busy making babies at home late at night. Who the hell would wander around the village for no reason?
Even if the lamps were lit, no one would see them.
Of course—
Benefactor Wang's household in the neighboring village was always brightly lit. From far away, one could see more than a dozen large lanterns hanging on the walls, while light shone from the estate all night long.
Bah!
The people's lifeblood!
Whenever the landlord passed by and saw the Wang family's grand residence, he felt both envy and jealousy.
But there was nothing he could do.
After all, Benefactor Wang's grandfather had been a scholar-official.
Although he had already passed away, the lingering warmth of his family's incense remained. Besides, one of his blood brothers served as the Great Lord's strategist in the county seat... Bah! A dog-headed military adviser!
Whenever the landlord thought of Strategist Wang, his heart ached.
Two years earlier,