Chapter 270: Chapter 113: Severing Ties (Part 1)

Jing returned quickly. Hearing his footsteps, Chen Wanqing’s heart skipped a beat as she threw back the covers and got out of bed.

She had just put on her shoes and picked up a lined jacket to put on when Jing entered the room.

Seeing her anxious expression, Zhao Jing did his best to soothe her. "Don’t panic, Wanqing... It’s no use panicking now."

Chen Wanqing shot him a glare. "What exactly is going on? Tell me everything, in detail."

Zhao Jing sat on the edge of the bed, handing her clothes as he recounted what had just happened.

After giving the spice powder to Mr. Zhao’s wife, he had called Mr. Zhao outside to talk. In reality, he was asking Mr. Zhao to go with him to the neighboring courtyard.

When he told Mr. Zhao that someone had broken into the house next door, the older man didn’t believe him at first. After all, there were always people at his house, especially in the last two days. Because they were making incense for Chen Wanqing, there had been more than ten people at the house every day.

If someone had really snuck in next door, it was impossible they wouldn’t have heard something.

But Zhao Jing had a counterpoint. "Perhaps it’s precisely because there were so many people that someone dared to take the opportunity to sneak in."

They were all aunts and ladies from the same clan. When they got together, they could chat about anything under the sun. They talked endlessly and loudly, so the thief must have seen this as the perfect opportunity to sneak in.

Zhao Jing’s words left Mr. Zhao speechless. Half-convinced, he went with him to Chen Song’s house.

Chen Wanqing had her own key to the house, so Zhao Jing and Mr. Zhao naturally unlocked the door and walked right in.

As he unlocked the door, Zhao Jing also carefully inspected the lock.

The lock was perfectly intact, with no signs of having been picked.

Picking the lock would have been impossible. The noise would have been too great and would have certainly alerted the neighbors.

Since they didn’t pick the lock, the only other way in was to climb the wall.

Chen Song’s house had neighbors on both sides and faced the street in front. Those three sides were impossible entry points. The only place a perpetrator could have gotten in was over the back courtyard wall.

Zhao Jing led Mr. Zhao into the courtyard and headed straight for the back. Sure enough, near the rear wall, they found several fresh footprints, some faint and some deep.

Normally, since it hadn’t rained for the past two days, the ground in the backyard was dry and shouldn’t have held any prints. But as luck would have it, the spot where the intruder had landed had soil that was loosened, perhaps by earthworms or mole crickets. One step was enough to leave a solid impression.

The intruder must have realized this wasn’t good, so he tried to flatten the soil with his foot. He even pulled up some grass and used the stalks to sweep over the area in an attempt to cover his tracks. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

But his efforts were worse than doing nothing, only creating more obvious signs of a cover-up.

"Mr. Zhao and I then checked all the rooms. Nothing was missing, but everything had been completely ransacked... I’m afraid it’s all unusable now."

Zhao Jing downplayed the severity, and Chen Wanqing didn’t press for details right away.

She put on her skirt, quickly tied her hair up, and pulled Zhao Jing along with her toward her family home.

The commotion had already alerted everyone. The clan members working at Mr. Zhao’s house, as well as the neighbors on either side, all came running out.

When the crowd saw Chen Wanqing arrive, they all started talking to her. "Hurry inside and see if anything valuable is missing! If so, go to the county town first thing tomorrow and get your father to come investigate."

"Stealing from a government officer’s house? They must have a death wish."

"Who could be so bold? It’s probably not someone from our village. Could it be some ruffians from another village?"

Chen Wanqing had no time to pay them any mind and rushed into her house.

Two torches had been placed in the courtyard, and lamps were lit in every room, illuminating the entire house.

When her family had moved, they had taken all their valuables. But some essential items had been left behind for when they returned to stay, such as quilts, clothes, combs, and chests.

These items were all still there and hadn’t been stolen. But it made no difference, because every single one had been maliciously destroyed.

The quilts and clothes were cut to shreds, the teeth of the combs were deliberately broken off, filth had been smeared on the chests, and the whole house was a foul mess.

Her face cold, Chen Wanqing inspected each room. When she got to the kitchen, she saw that the two perfectly good pots had been smashed with a sharp object, leaving two large holes in them!

The bowls and chopsticks from the shelves had been thrown all over the floor and were also covered in filth, a sight that made one want to retch.

A clansman who had followed her in saw the scene, his voice trembling with anger. "This is too much! What kind of bastard would do this!"

"It would have been better if they’d just stolen everything! To smear this stuff everywhere just to humiliate someone... what a filthy heart they must have!"

"No wonder I kept smelling a foul odor while I was working today. I thought someone was just fertilizing their private plot, but it turns out someone was deliberately making trouble at Chen Song’s house!"

"Wanqing, don’t be angry. The culprit left a lot of tracks. Have your father investigate when he can. He’ll surely catch them in no time."