30: A Night of Arson, Plunder, and Murder

A Night of Arson, Plunder, and Murder

Qiao Zhongbang was immensely dismayed. The endless arguments between him and his wife over the past two days had sucked all the energy out of his body and mind. Added to his daughter's increasing distance from him, he could not help but reflect deep inside his mind, had he truly done something wrong?1

The mother and daughters trio did not care what Qiao Zhongbang fiddled with outside and after cleaning up, they proceeded to go to sleep.

However, when it was the still of the night, Qiao Mu's pitch-black eyes quietly opened. She looked to the side and saw her mother and sister deeply asleep.

She lightly lifted up a corner of the covers, and her nimble body flashed out the window.

The shadows of the trees wavered under the moon, but the window remained completely still. A faint streak of moonlight scattered onto the embracing mother and daughter's sleeping figures.

Wu Yanzhen's house was located on the east side of the village, and it was surrounded by a brick wall as tall as an adult and had several towering trees planted inside.

Qiao Mu's ghost-like figure silently stood at the base of the wall. She slightly narrowed her eyes, mustered up the energy needed, and shot up, easily leaping up and securely landing on the wall.

Wu Yanzhen's main court was four or five times the size of their house. A few stone tables and chairs were placed on the empty ground, and sunflowers were abundantly planted on the two sides of the path.

Qiao Mu gently flitted to the ground before directly heading for the rear court.

Today, she did not come with the sole purpose of causing trouble for Madam Wu. She also wanted to borrow a large sum of funds from her, and she was visiting her while she was at it.

She remembered that after the zombie outbreak in her previous life, Madam Wu dug out a plot of gold and peddled around everywhere to exchange it for food. Unfortunately, at that time, 10 liters of rice was already worth 10 million gold. If a family possessed any spare grain, they would guard it tighter than jewelry and gold.

Qiao Mu lightly sighed. In other words, no matter how much gold and silver you had after the apocalypse, it was all useless if you couldn't find anything to buy.

When she remembered the mountains of gold and jewelry in her inner world, depression rose on her face.

If she could not withdraw it soon, it would be of no use later on!

Forget it, what must be must be, and she could not avoid it even if it was misfortunate. Gold and silver and gems might be useless in the apocalypse, but looking at such exquisite and gorgeous objects still warmed her heart and delighted her eyes.

Qiao Mu's agile figure leaped into Madam Wu's rear court and looped around the courtyard. She walked about 40 steps south from the wall before taking a few steps back and finally standing still. She drew a rectangle around the place she stood, and an icy smile surfaced on her face.

Not even in her wildest imagination would Madam Wu realize that the gold buried in her house's rear court would disappear overnight without a trace.

An entire 900 taels of gold! This speed of wealth accumulation was considered quite shocking for a village woman. Qiao Mu stuffed the 900 taels of gold into her sack and flung it over her shoulders. Carrying the large and heavy sack, her tiny figure suddenly jumped onto the wall.

She looked back, a light arc turning up on her lips.

Several minutes later, Wu Yanzhen and her husband were choked awake by the fire outside their door. They fearfully hopped down the bed and swung the door open. They were shocked out of their mind by the sight of the raging fire that greeted them.

"Qiaoqiao!" When the child jumped out of Wu Yanzhen's house while carrying the large sack, she saw a white-clothed, ink-haired youth with a smile in his eyes standing under an ancient tree nearby. He waved at her in greeting.

Qiao Mu nearly slipped and fell onto the ground. Inwardly, she cursed, "What a pest!" Then, she walked past the youth, her eyes focused in front of her without a tint of red on her face or a skip of beat in her heart.

Yu Xiu truly turned speechless. If he and His Highness the Crown Prince had not personally witnessed this little guy committing murder, arson, and burglary, perhaps he would have really believed that this child was merely going on a field trip with a sack over her shoulder.

Was it really fine for a child this young to be this black-bellied and remain this indifferent after committing murder and arson?

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