The Water Thieves Came

"There's meat! The Heavenly Deity sent us meat!"

Gao Yiye's shout instantly brought the whole of Gao Family Village to life.

Everyone gathered around at once.

"It's chicken."

"This is chicken breast. It's enormous, but it's definitely chicken breast. There's no mistaking it."

"A chicken breast this big must have been cut from a divine chicken, right?"

"It must be a divine chicken from the heavens."

The villagers had no idea how long it had been since they last ate meat.

A few years ago, when the winds and rains came in their proper seasons, some people in the village had raised chickens. But as the drought grew worse year after year, people no longer had enough to eat themselves. Where would they find grain to feed poultry?

Not even a chicken or dog remained in Gao Family Village. Aside from a crowd of villagers howling with hunger, there wasn't a single living creature to be found.

Now that they saw a piece of meat, everyone was beside themselves with excitement.

Gao Chuwu immediately found a knife, ready to cut off a few pieces and take them home for a hearty feast.

Gao Yiye said solemnly, "The Heavenly Deity said we're used to plain food, so we can't eat too much meat at once. Our stomachs won't be able to take it. We have to go easy. Brother Chu Wu, you're the first person who needs to watch out."

Gao Chuwu scratched his head with a befuddled look. "Huh? There's a rule like that?"

The village chief stepped forward. "The Heavenly Deity must have meant simpletons like Chu Wu. An upset stomach can kill you. We can't give Chu Wu too much at once. He definitely won't be able to resist eating it all."

Gao Chuwu said, "Huh? Huh?"

The village chief instructed them, "Everyone gets just one tael of meat to take home, and children get half a tael. Cut the rest into strips and hang them up to dry so they don't rot."

A middle-aged villager stepped forward. "Chief, we don't have enough salt. If we don't salt the chicken before drying it, it'll spoil. Rather than let it go bad, we might as well eat it all. Even if I get diarrhea and shit myself to death, I don't want to watch meat this good rot away for nothing."

Gao Chuwu said, "Exactly, exactly! Chief, I'd rather shit myself to death than waste it."

Li Daoxuan couldn't help laughing when he heard that. Instead of taking back the extra meat and putting it in the refrigerator, he went into the kitchen and brought out a bag of salt. With a rustling rush, he poured a small pile down right in front of Gao Yiye.

The villagers looked up and saw salt streaming out of thin air in the sky. The snowy-white salt crystals clattered to the ground like enormous chunks of ice, piling into a small mountain in no time.

Gao Yiye didn't even need to relay anything. She merely spread her hands. "How could the Heavenly Deity not know those little thoughts of yours? Don't dream of eating yourself fat in a single bite. We have salt now. Get salting the meat."

"So much salt!"

"Salt is so expensive."

"He gave us this much? Heavens!"

"We won't have to buy salt for a long, long time."

Once again, the villagers dropped to their knees all over the ground and kowtowed furiously toward the sky.

And just like that, the villagers of Gao Family Village had something to do that day.

The men swung their knives, chopping away with dull thuds. They chopped up the enormous chicken breast and sliced it into thin strips, ground the huge salt crystals into powder, then rolled the chicken strips in the salt powder until each was plump and white. After that, they hung them up, letting the dry wind carry the moisture out of the chicken.

It was actually exhausting work!

But the villagers worked with smiles all over their faces.

That evening, cooking smoke rose through the village as every household prepared a meal.

Every pot in the village held the same chicken-and-vegetable congee. They minced their tael of chicken and cooked it with white rice until thick, adding cabbage leaves too, of course. The finished congee looked, smelled, and tasted wonderful, and it was gentle on the stomach.

Gao Chuwu wolfed down five huge bowls.

Even Gao Yiye, a delicate young girl, managed two bowls.

The sight made even Li Daoxuan, a modern man, swallow with longing. He hurriedly picked up his phone and ordered some chicken soup with rice to settle himself down.

As he shoveled down his chicken soup and rice, he opened his online banking and glanced at his balance. He still had a little over twenty thousand yuan in savings, but that didn't seem quite enough. Just ordering a custom Hakka Walled House that day had cost him two thousand yuan. If he wanted to help more little people in the future, the money would probably gush out like running water.

He gave it two seconds of serious thought, then opened QQ and found an avatar he hadn't contacted in ages. He clicked it and sent a message. "Hey, it's Li Daoxuan. You contacted me six months ago to ask if I wanted some freelance work. I turned you down then, but I was young and didn't know any better. If you have any design work available from now on, I'm willing to take it. We can talk about the price."

The avatar soon began flashing. "Ha, I've been waiting for you to say that. As it happens, I've got a job here: character designs for a game company. They need them urgently. Five days, four character design sheets, three thousand yuan! Interested?"

Li Daoxuan replied, "I'll take it."

Day broke!

Another new day dawned over Shuangqing City.

Li Daoxuan stretched long and hard, rubbing his temples as he climbed out of bed.

For five days straight, he had worked until two in the morning, pushing himself to the limit to finish the character designs the game company wanted. After reviewing them, the client picked out a few minor flaws. He made the requested changes, only for the client to decide that the first version had been better after all. With that, the job was finished, and three thousand yuan came in.

Only after confirming that the money had reached his bank account did he go to sleep with peace of mind.

He slept like the dead and didn't get out of bed until daylight.

Over those five days, he had been busy earning money to support his "family" and had neglected the little people in the box. He had only fed them a little food at regular times each day and topped up the water in the Lock&Lock container daily, without spending much time watching them closely.

Now, at last, he was free of work and light of heart. He decided to spend some proper time with his little pets that day.

The moment he sat down beside the Scenery Box, he sensed that something was wrong.

The little people in the village were all gathered around the pond, discussing something in low voices.

Li Daoxuan hurriedly closed the window to quiet the room, then pressed his ear against the box. Only then could he make out their mosquito-like murmurs.

"Someone stole water. Look, the water level in the pond dropped a lot overnight."

"Yes, look over here. There are footprints all over the place. Quite a few people came to steal water last night."

Li Daoxuan looked closely. Sure enough, the water level in the Lock&Lock container had dropped by a considerable amount. The container was twenty centimeters long in the real world. Once placed in the little people's world, it became two hundred times larger-a huge pond ten zhang long.

In a pond that large, the water level had actually dropped two chi overnight.

These water thieves were something else!

Or rather, there were quite a lot of them.

Li Daoxuan's gaze followed the water thieves' scattered footprints out of the village, but before long, the footprints reached the edge of the Scenery Box, passed outside it, and vanished...

His brows drew into a deep frown. The greatest inconvenience of this box was its narrow field of view. There was far too little he could see. He could only look at this patch of Gao Family Village. As for the world outside, he was completely in the dark, with no idea what was happening.

He had to think of a way to extend his view inside the box.