Chapter 7 Ransacking the Xu Family

Xu Lin’s first punch landed squarely on her mother’s vocal cords, silencing the scream before it could pierce the air. Her second fist struck the crown of her mother’s head, making her mother’s pupils contract and then dilate in agony, as if she were about to ascend to the heavens. Without pause, Xu Lin delivered a third and a fourth blow, continuing until she had struck twenty-eight times in total, leaving her mother writhing on the floor before she finally ceased.

Xu Lin stood up and delivered a hard kick to her mother, her voice icy as she commanded, “I want braised pork. Go and cook.”

Her mother, curled up in a ball from pain, dared not make a sound, but could only glare with hatred as she watched Xu Lin walk into the main hall. The thought that neither the man nor the old woman inside had come to her aid chilled her heart. Those two cowards, content to watch her being beaten, were truly worthless.

Wiping her tears and sucking in cold breaths, Xu Lin’s mother struggled to her feet and limped into the kitchen. She stood there to catch her breath before hurriedly rummaging through the cupboard for meat. How did that wretched girl know they had bought pork belly? Did she have a bloodhound’s nose?

Inside the main hall, Xu Lin discovered that the old matriarch and her father had each retreated to their own rooms, the doors shut tight with not so much as a crack left open. She rolled her eyes in disdain—who would have thought one beating would frighten them so thoroughly? Xu Lin actually hoped they would provoke her a few more times. Tsk, how dull.

She returned to Xu Nuan’s room and began to search carefully. The room was perfectly ordinary—no holes dug in the walls, no hidden chambers beneath the floor. The cabinets and tables had no secret compartments. Xu Nuan’s private savings amounted to just over eight yuan, which Xu Lin unceremoniously pocketed in her own space—after all, eight yuan was still money, and in her last life she had never managed to save even that much before she died.

Throwing herself onto the bed, Xu Lin pondered the conversation she had overheard between the three in the courtyard. The old crone had mentioned preparing some medicine—what kind of medicine did she mean? In her previous life, her combat skills were weaker; when her father returned from work, he had simply broken her leg with a stick, but there had been no mention of medicine.

After lunch, the children went off to school, the adults to work, and the old matriarch tottered out of the house on her bound feet. When Xu Lin was certain she was alone, she began to act.

The Xu family house had three main rooms: the central hall flanked by the east and west bedrooms, slept in by the old matriarch and by her parents, respectively. The eastern wing contained two additional rooms for Xu Kun and Xu Nuan, the siblings.

On the western side, adjoining the wall, stood the kitchen and a storage room. The four bedrooms were jealously divided among the family’s four primary members. Xu Lin was usually forced to curl up in a corner of the central hall for rest, and to avoid disgrace, she had to roll up her bedding during the day so outsiders wouldn’t know. Why she wasn’t allowed to sleep in the kitchen or storeroom, Xu Lin couldn’t say herself.

She started at her parents’ door, which was locked, but that was no obstacle for Xu Lin; with a rusty embroidery needle, she had it open in moments. Inside, the room was furnished with rosewood—she knew such things would be worth a fortune in a few decades. But she had no time to admire them; she set to work searching with practiced efficiency.

Soon her eyes lit up—she had found a hidden entrance beneath the bed, leading to a secret chamber containing five large trunks and a small chest. She didn’t check the contents immediately, but with a wave of her hand, stored them all away in her warehouse, then continued searching.

In a hidden compartment in the wardrobe, she found a neat stack of large-denomination ten-yuan bills. A quick count revealed five hundred yuan, which she swiftly placed in her space without a second thought—it was all hers, hers! On top of the wardrobe was a small iron box stuffed with over three hundred yuan and a roll of ration tickets. Then she found two hundred in a shoebox, eight hundred in a coat pocket, and several letters stashed in a hole in the wall.

Curious, Xu Lin opened the letters and her face darkened—she never would have imagined her father was colluding with foreign agents. And not just ordinary dealings—he was selling secrets. If this came to light, Xu Lin broke out in a cold sweat. In any era, spies and traitors came to no good end, and a single person’s crime could doom three generations. Xu Lin shuddered at the thought of being implicated.

She had never expected that her dignified father would be engaged in such vile acts. It seemed the Xu family’s wealth had little to do with the false daughter, and the matter of switching children might not be so simple after all. Yet this discovery brought her no comfort—only greater anger. No, she had to sever ties with this family as soon as possible—she could not let herself be dragged down by the Xus.

After finishing with her father’s room, Xu Lin rifled through the old matriarch’s chambers. The old woman had a venomous tongue and a sharp appearance, but her room was filthy, resembling a pigsty. Careful in her search, Xu Lin found over a hundred yuan inside a pillow, a gold ring and a pair of gold earrings in a hole in the bed leg.

Beneath the wardrobe, she discovered a square hole containing a biscuit tin, inside which were a fine pair of jade bracelets, two jade pendants, five small gold bars, and over a dozen silver dollars. Xu Lin gleefully swept all these into her space. As for whether the family would notice the theft—she didn’t worry at all. What could they do, report it to the police?

By late afternoon, Xu Lin had searched every inch of the house and yard, even digging up ten large trunks from beneath the wall. She found nothing else, but even so, she was thoroughly pleased. She had planned to sell some food on the black market for extra money, but now, what was the point? She’d keep it all for herself.

While the family was still out, Xu Lin returned to her room and slipped into her warehouse space, eager to open her “blind boxes.” She started with the fifteen large trunks: three were filled with books and calligraphy, five with porcelain—plates, bowls, teapots, vases, the oldest from the Tang Dynasty, the newest from the Qing. One trunk was filled with gold bars, one with silver ingots, one with silver dollars, and two with precious gems and jewelry, all in matched sets, clearly worth a fortune. Where had the Xu family come by such treasures?

Just these alone would let Xu Lin live in comfort for life. Remembering there was still a small chest left, she hurried to open it—and found it stuffed full of US dollars. She counted: $23,200.

Good heavens! Xu Lin clutched her chest, breathless. She had underestimated the depths of the Xu family’s stash—no wonder they never ran out of rice or flour. Who would, with such a hoard?

Taking a deep breath, she was just about to celebrate with a good meal when the sound of the courtyard gate opening caught her attention. She immediately exited her space.

The old matriarch, clutching her pocket, crept cautiously to Xu Lin’s window, craning her neck for a peek inside—only to be met by a pair of pitch-black eyes staring back at her, making the old woman shriek and collapse to the ground. Overhead, Xu Lin narrowed her almond eyes, staring coldly down at the old woman, who instantly broke out in a cold sweat.

“You, you—” the old matriarch clutched her chest, cursing inwardly. Was this little monster trying to scare her to death?