Don't Go After Them

Li Daoxuan spent two seconds annoyed at his narrow field of view, then suddenly remembered that he had installed a surveillance camera beside the Scenery Box five days ago. It had been watching everything inside the box ever since. The camera recorded on a loop, so last night's footage would definitely still be available.

He hurriedly opened the surveillance camera app on his phone and pulled up the recording list.

He had only gone to bed sometime after two last night, so all he needed to do was watch the footage from then onward.

Before long, he discovered the truth behind the "water theft."

Under cover of darkness, a large group of impoverished little people in ragged clothes, dressed much like the villagers of Gao Family Village, had brought buckets and crept cautiously toward the village's large pond by moonlight. They lowered their buckets into the pond ever so quietly, filled two each, hoisted them onto carrying poles, then took to their heels and ran out of the village.

About two hours later, the group returned, filled another two buckets each, and ran off again.

They made three trips like this over six hours. Only when dawn drew near did they stop coming. Just like that, they had stolen enough water to lower the pond by two feet.

Watching this, Li Daoxuan had no idea what to say.

He put away his phone and heard the villagers still discussing it. "Who knows where those petty thieves came from? How dare they steal our village's water! This is outrageous! This precious water was bestowed upon us by the Heavenly Deity. How can we let anyone steal it?"

"Where's the village chief? Ask him to come out and tell us what to do. Should we follow these footprints, catch the water thieves, and give them a beating?"

"We absolutely have to beat them and take the water back. Otherwise, the Heavenly Deity will surely blame us for failing to protect the divine water he bestowed upon us."

Li Daoxuan spoke. "Gao Yiye, tell everyone there's no need to go after the water thieves."

Gao Yiye had been joining the villagers in indignantly denouncing whoever had stolen the water bestowed by the Heavenly Deity. Suddenly, she heard his voice ring out from the sky. With a startled "Ah!" she looked up and saw his young, handsome face faintly emerging among the clouds.

She hurriedly said, "Heavenly Deity, someone stole your gift. Aren't you angry?"

At her cry, all the villagers turned toward her. Seeing her speaking with her head tilted toward the sky, they guessed she was conversing with the Heavenly Deity. Everyone covered their mouths, not daring to make the slightest sound.

Li Daoxuan said, "Tell everyone these are villagers from another village. They have no water to drink and can't survive, so they came to steal water from Gao Family Village. The little bit they took is nothing. I'll just fill it up again for you. There's no need to chase after a group of people dying of thirst, shouting about beating and killing them."

Gao Yiye hurriedly relayed his words to the entire village.

The villagers immediately abandoned their ferocious readiness to go out and beat people up. Together, they kowtowed to the sky. "The Heavenly Deity is merciful!"

"His divine grace embraces the world."

"Boundless compassion and mercy."

"He delivers the suffering and saves the people."

A jumble of praises, impossible to tell whether Buddhist or Daoist, floated up toward the heavens.

Li Daoxuan let out a deep sigh and thought, Sure enough, saving just forty-two little people is nowhere near enough. I'll have to save more from now on. Let's start with these villagers stealing water. I hope my finances can hold out.

That night, darkness fell, and all forty-two little people in Gao Family Village went home to sleep. The entire Scenery Box returned to being a "non-static picture."

But Li Daoxuan was in no hurry to sleep. He remained at his computer, looking through historical materials concerning the late Ming period, while occasionally glancing toward the part of the Scenery Box from which last night's water thieves had come.

The night wore on!

It was three in the morning.

Yet Shuangqing City outside his window had not gone to bed. Modern people had quite a rich nightlife. Cars still sped along the road outside, while people eating barbecue and drinking late-night beers on the street beyond his residential complex were still shouting their finger-guessing chants: "Five losing hands! Six, six, six! Seven fairy maidens..."

Li Daoxuan picked up his phone and ordered some late-night barbecue delivery.

Just then, movement stirred inside the Scenery Box.

A little man in tattered clothes emerged from the northern edge of the box. He gazed toward Gao Family Village for a while, then beckoned behind him. A large group of little people appeared, each carrying buckets on a shoulder pole. Backs hunched, they crept quietly toward Gao Family Village...

Li Daoxuan closed the window, shutting out the noise outside and making the room utterly silent, then pressed his ear against the Scenery Box.

All was quiet inside. The little people's footsteps made no sound at all.

Before long, they reached the Lock & Lock Container.

Their leader glanced inside the container and couldn't help letting out a surprised "Huh?"

Another little man came up behind him and asked softly, "Brother Wang, what's wrong?"

The little man leading them was surnamed Wang. Pointing at the Lock & Lock Container before him, he said in astonishment, "Last night, we definitely stole enough water to lower the water level by two feet. And the people of Gao Family Village must have used more water during the day, so it should have dropped even further. But look—it's full again."

Li Daoxuan chuckled to himself. I poured another cup of water into it.

The little water thieves gathered around the Lock & Lock Container, all utterly bewildered. They looked at the full water level, then up at the sky. "It hasn't rained all day. How did the water get replenished?"

"I can't make sense of it!"

"Where on earth does the water in this pond come from?"

Brother Wang was equally baffled, but as their leader, he couldn't simply stand there bewildered without giving orders. He waved a hand and cursed under his breath. "Why worry about all that? Hurry up and fill your buckets. Stop chattering. If you alert the people of Gao Family Village and they catch us red-handed, we'll all die of shame right here."

That made sense!

Everyone hurried around the pond, lowered their buckets, and drew water. Some even plunged their entire heads into the water and gulped it down...

The sight made Li Daoxuan's heart ache. These poor disaster victims.

His gaze shifted toward his bag of rice, and he wanted to grab a handful and put it in. But on second thought, Once I put my rice inside, it'll become giant grains forty to sixty centimeters long. They won't even fit properly in their wooden buckets. I can't make them roll the rice along the ground like the people of Gao Family Village did when dividing it up, rolling it miles back to their own village, can I?

Better not torment them with such enormous rice. Giving people a fright in the dead of night could end up costing someone their life.

I'll give them something that's easy to carry in buckets.

He shifted his gaze from the rice bag to the bag of flour beside it.

Modern flour was ground into a powder finer than sand. Even after being enlarged two hundred times inside the box, it would still be a coarse powder, nothing too frightening. If he gave them that, they wouldn't get spooked and start imagining supernatural things.

Li Daoxuan reached out and took a small pinch of flour. While the little people were wholly absorbed in drawing water, he quietly, soundlessly placed it behind them, forming a small mound of flour.