Reborn as a Rich Woman in the Eighties-Chapter 297 - 296: How Could It Be Him?

Lin Qiang made a hushing gesture to him, and after examining the door, he realized it had been secured from the inside; it would probably take some effort to force it open.

If they were to jump into the courtyard from the doorway, they might make a noise and alert Lin Xia and the others.

Lin Qiang then moved to the window and noticed that there was a lock beneath the shutter.

"Brute!" Lin Qiang gestured to him in a low voice, "Open it!"

The two had come prepared with tools and, after a lot of careful effort, finally managed to pry open the lock.

Once the shutter was removed, dealing with the tightly closed window was much simpler.

The two divided the labor: Brute kept watch outside while Lin Qiang went in to search for anything valuable.

Wielding a flashlight, Lin Qiang searched around the room; aside from a stack of finished clothes and two bolts of fabric, there were just sewing machines and edging machines.

He frowned; the sewing and edging machines were too heavy to carry away, and how much could these remaining items actually fetch?

Brute waited outside with bated breath. In the still of the night, even the slightest noise seemed to be amplified exponentially.

He peeked inside to see Lin Qiang had searched through two rooms, only taking out two bolts of fabric.

"This..." Brute felt that after all their effort, ending up with just some fabric seemed rather unprofitable, but having something was still better than nothing.

Lin Qiang climbed out the window and looked at the convenience store across the street, an idea forming in his mind.

The food, drinks, and cigarettes inside the convenience store seemed much more practical than the fabric.

If they took some, even if they didn’t sell it to others, it would still be good for their own consumption!

Brute watched as Lin Qiang motioned to him, and he, too, was tempted as he turned to look.

Still, he hesitated and stopped Lin Qiang with a low whisper, "Forget it! Don’t delay and cause more trouble!"

The night was so quiet; who knew if someone from a nearby house would come out? If they were spotted, running away would become really difficult!

At this moment, everyone in the old Sun Family across from Lin Xia’s house was also deep asleep, when Wang Lan suddenly felt a painful cramp in her stomach. She guessed she must have eaten something wrong, and squinted her eyes as she slipped on her shoes and left the room to use the toilet.

As soon as she pushed the door open, she heard some noises outside. At first, she didn’t take it seriously, assuming it was just passing pedestrians since their place was on the main road.

But when she went to the back garden to squat in the toilet, she heard suspicious noises... could it be a thief? Was someone stealing from their house?

Wang Lan was so frightened that she didn’t care about using the toilet anymore, she hurriedly slipped on her sandals and tiptoed back to the room, "Old Sun! Wake up, I think there’s a thief!"

Sun Nan, groggy from sleep, was roused by her and rushed out wearing only his underpants, grabbing a stick from the side of the bed along the way.

Wang Lan, shivering, fumbled with the keys to unlock the door. For safety, they always locked the back door of the convenience store when they slept in the back rooms at night.

Inside, Lin Qiang and Brute heard the commotion and, in a panic, tried to escape. Both men, desperate to get out, abandoned everything and scrambled for the window.

Wang Lan and her husband flung open the back door of their convenience store just in time to see people trying to flee through an opened window!

There really was a thief!

Wang Lan let out a terrified scream, "There’s a thief! Catch the thief!"

Sun Nan charged forward, swinging the stick, "Where do you think you’re going!"

Brute jumped out first, and as Lin Qiang tried to escape through the window in a flurry, Sun Nan’s stick struck him squarely in the back.

He cried out in pain almost reflexively, "Ah!" It really hurt.

But in such a dangerous moment, it was not the time to think about pain; getting away was the top priority. So, he, too, jumped out.

Sun Nan didn’t know how much they had stolen from his house, but he only had one thought in his mind: he couldn’t let them get away!

He picked up a stick, ran to the door, pulled it open, and chased out.

Wang Lan followed, yelling in fear and trepidation, "Someone help, quick, someone help! There’s a thief!"

Lin Qiang, disregarding everything else, was only thinking of escaping as fast as he could.

Mangzi was a step ahead, straddling his bicycle. At such a moment, he couldn’t care less about brotherly loyalty; he just pedaled away fiercely.

Lin Qiang was a bit too slow. He was caught up by Sun Nan from behind and struck with another blow on his back, "You thief, where do you think you’re running to!"

Seeing Mangzi take off and leave him behind, Lin Qiang was enraged, panicked, and in pain, yet unable to escape, so he suddenly mustered all his ferocity and turned to fight Sun Nan.

Lin Xia was shocked awake from her sleep. She heard a commotion outside. Due to the cool early hours and the fact that there were only two women at home, they always locked the windows and doors tightly while sleeping.

Moreover, with the windows being double-glazed for extra soundproofing, the noises from outside were quite muffled.

Lin Xia hurriedly got up from bed, straining her ears to listen to the sounds outside.

Lin Qiu also sat up in a daze, "Sis! What’s that noise?"

Lin Xia quickly got off the bed and put on her shoes. "Xiaoqiu! It sounds like someone outside is shouting about a thief! Let’s hurry out and take a look!" Although their clothing store didn’t have much inside, they could help out their neighbors if needed.

"Okay!" Lin Qiu hurriedly threw on a coat and followed Lin Xia out of the house in haste.

They could hear quite a number of people outside as soon as they left the house.

Lin Xia quickly undid the door latch. As she opened the door, they saw six or seven people standing outside, with one person lying on the ground.

"Lin Xia! Your clothing store has also been pried open!" Mrs. Wu hurriedly came up to say. "Luckily, Wang Lan discovered it early..."

It turned out that some neighbors who heard the noise had come out, just in time to see the scene where Sun Nan and Lin Qiang were entangled.

The people at that time were very enthusiastic and all wanted to help catch the culprit.

Lin Qiang desperately brandished his switchblade, and for a moment, no one dared to come close. But a shorter blade is a dangerous disadvantage, and they were so many against him alone. So, soon, Lin Qiang was overpowered and brought down to the ground by the collective force of the crowd.

At this time, a neighbor found gasoline beside the bicycle.

That really caused an uproar.

Wang Lan was furious. "These two scoundrels are too vicious. Are they trying to burn us all down? If it weren’t for my stomachache sending me to the toilet at midnight, the loss could have been huge!"

Mrs. Wu stood by and chimed in, "Exactly!"

Even though Wu Zhenghong’s hair salon wasn’t broken into, had there been a fire, they all would have been affected.

"These two weren’t only stealing, they planned on committing arson too!"

"Oh dear, this can’t go unpunished; if they started a fire, it would spread and burn down a large area!"

"Right! It’s a good thing we discovered it in time! Call the police quickly!"

Neighbors who came out later gathered together, vehemently discussing the situation.

At that moment, the person lying on the ground stared venomously at Lin Xia and the rest. Lin Qiu covered her mouth to stop an exclamation from escaping. She recognized him—it was Lin Qiang! How could it be him?

Under the night sky, Lin Xia also recognized the person as Lin Qiang!

This kid had actually sneaked over here without anyone noticing!

Now, one thing was for sure: Lin Qiang was definitely targeting their house, and the Sun Family must have been incidentally dragged into it.

But it was also fortunate that Wang Lan noticed it in time. Otherwise, once a fire had started and they only noticed then, where would they go to find out who was responsible?