His Home Was Stolen

A servant rushed in, saying, "It's terrible, young master! Our courtyard has been moved!"

Xie Cheng'en rushed straight into his small courtyard, which was quiet except for the muddy ground.

The entire house was gone. He rubbed his eyes and said, "Where's my little yard? Where's my room? How did it become like this? Ouch... Grandpa..."

Xie Cheng'en ran out crying; after all, he was just a child of about ten years old.

Old Master Xie was drinking tea when he heard Xie Cheng'en crying. He sighed and said:

Why are you so agitated, child?

What on earth happened? Why are you yelling like that?

Xie Cheng'en cried his heart out, "Grandpa, my house is gone!"

Old Master Xie frowned and said, "What? What house is missing? I don't understand."

Xie Cheng'en grabbed his hand and said, "My courtyard is gone, everything in it is gone, even the storeroom is gone."

Steward Xie also rushed out and said, "Master, our storeroom is missing."

Old Master Xie was completely dumbfounded. He had never heard of such a thing before—more than a dozen houses had disappeared overnight.

He shouted:

"Bring the second son back to me. What kind of county magistrate is he?"

His home was robbed; can he still hold his position as county magistrate?

The second son of the Xie Family rushed back, only to be slapped by the old patriarch of the Xie Family.

The second son of the Xie Family looked at him and asked, "Father, what exactly happened?"

The old master of the Xie Family looked at him and said:

"Look at the county you're in charge of, what's going on?"

They even stole from our house! Stealing is one thing, but look what happened, they've moved the whole house out of here!

Why aren't you sending people to search right away? Do you know how much grain we've lost?

Hundreds of bags of grain were lost, as well as a lot of medicinal herbs.

"Hello, my nephew's house has been taken away, and now he doesn't even have a place to live."

Xie Lao Er stared at the bare ground, blinking repeatedly. "This... how is this possible? How could it be moved so cleanly overnight? I was here yesterday! Isn't this a ghost?"

Even if an army were deployed, it's impossible for it to happen without any commotion, right?

Old Master Xie roared, "Go find it now! Don't come back if you can't find it!"

Xie Lao Er led a group of people and rushed out, but after searching for a whole day, they couldn't find a single person.

Xie Lao Er slumped in the courtroom. "Who did this? Who has such power to take away so many houses? This is utterly ridiculous!"

He still had several capable constables under his command, and one of them suddenly spoke up:

"I did know about this a while ago; it's quite similar to what's happening here."

The same thing happened in Qingshui County; the Qingshui County was completely destroyed overnight.

Xie Lao Er burst into laughter. "Are you serious or joking?"

The constable quickly replied, "One of my brothers works over there."

Xie Lao Er was laughing so hard he couldn't stand up straight, "There's actually such a thing? This is hilarious!"

He suddenly remembered the troubles at home, and his smile vanished, "My family isn't much better off! If we can't find those thieves, how am I supposed to explain this back home?"

They searched for half a month but found no clues.

The grain that Zhou Wanwan exchanged for 100,000 taels of silver has arrived. Zhou Wanwan stroked the pigeon in front of her and said, "We can go and collect the grain tonight. I wonder how much grain 100,000 taels of silver can buy."

In the past, when there were no disasters or hardships, 100,000 taels of silver could fill several large granaries, enough to feed thousands of households for several years, and they lived a comfortable life.

But now there's a locust plague. Locusts fly over Shrouding the Heavens, devouring all the crops in the fields, leaving food scarce.

Grain prices skyrocketed, becoming more than ten times more expensive than before. Rice that used to cost one tael of silver now costs more than ten taels.

While 100,000 taels of silver may seem like a huge sum, the actual amount of grain it can be exchanged for is significantly reduced.

Zhou Wanwan took her people directly to Feng Jiao's place. Feng Jiao smiled when she saw her:

"I was just thinking about how to let you know! I didn't expect you to actually come. My brother has brought two boatloads of grain this time."

I'll give you a boatload then. Grain prices are high in the Upper Capital right now, so my brother has started stockpiling grain Upper Capital.

"100,000 taels of silver only bought one shipload of grain; don't complain that it's too little."

Zhou Wanwan shook her head and said, "It's alright, I'm already very satisfied with having so much food."

With so much food, Zhou Wanwan won't have to worry for at least a year.

Feng Jiao said:

Cheng Xiao is frantic lately; his county government post is gone, isn't it?

They're trying to raise money to rebuild the county government office! If what you said is true, there will be a drought in the future.

He's doomed, unless a miracle happens.

Cheng Xiao was also very upset. He sat in the newly built courtroom and sighed, "I've encountered so much bad luck. What am I supposed to do now?"

Jiang Wu coughed and said, "Let's take it slow! Things will get better day by day."

Suddenly, the accountant Zhou Fuyu came out and said, "Actually, making money is very simple. It just depends on whether you believe it, Magistrate."

Cheng Xiao's eyes lit up as she looked at him and asked, "What's your name again?"

"My name is Zhou Fuyu, and I'm from Zhou Family Village."

Cheng Xiao frowned and said, "I don't really remember Zhou Family Village."

Jiang Wu chuckled and said:

"You may not remember Zhou Family Village Zhou Family Village, but the shaman there is quite interesting."

It's said that this fortune teller is incredibly powerful, and people from all around love to have their fortunes told by her.

She's incredibly accurate with her calculations; you could ask her to do it for you too.

Upon hearing this, Cheng Xiao became interested. "Are you sure her calculations are exceptionally accurate?"

Jiang Wu nodded and said:

"Accurate, incredibly accurate. I even had my fortune told once, and she said my daughter would have a son this year, and sure enough, she did."

Some people said my son would pass the imperial examination this year and become a Xiucai (a scholar who passed the lowest level of the imperial examinations), and he did indeed pass.

Cheng Xiao got even more excited. "Let's go find that sorceress right now!"

Zhou Fuyu nodded and said, "My mother should be home now."

Cheng Xiao looked at him and said, "The sorceress is actually your mother?"

Zhou Fuyu quickly nodded and said, "It is indeed my mother. She is famous throughout the surrounding area."

Cheng Xiao looked at him with interest and asked, "Is your mother's prediction very accurate?"

Zhou Fuyu replied calmly:

"My mother can't predict everything, but whatever she does predict, it always comes true."

My mother said that a locust plague was coming soon, so she sold all the land in our village. At the time, people from other villages laughed at my mother for being foolish, and they laughed at our village for being pitifully foolish.

But it turned out that what my mother said was true, and those people regretted it immensely.