The Bank Burglary Case (18)

Chapter 18

Xiao Mei counted again and again, finally confirming the total: 189 bills. 189 bills meant 18,900 yuan.

It was truly a fortune.

Her family had once borrowed 200 yuan from her maternal aunt, which had caused her aunt to be treated with cold disdain by her in-laws.

Xiao Mei stroked the stack of cash gleefully and, with a sudden burst of generosity, pulled out three hundred-yuan bills!

She would pay back three… no, four bills to her aunt. When the time came, her aunt would finally be able to hold her head high in that household! She would let them know that her aunt didn’t have “poor relatives” after all! She wanted to see if those people would dare give her aunt attitude then!

There were still 185 bills left! Clutching the money, Xiao Mei realized her tuition for junior high, high school, and even university was all right here! Her family would never have to borrow money again!

At this moment, Xiao Mei’s mind was entirely consumed by how to spend the money and the good life they were going to lead.

“Baa!” Beside her, the sheep didn’t understand the human’s joy. They bleated, urging her that it was time to go home.

Wait a second. A tiny question finally managed to squeeze into Xiao Mei’s money-filled brain.

Where did this money come from? Who put it here?

It couldn’t have just grown out of the ground like a mushroom, could it?

Once that small crack opened in her mind, other thoughts quickly rushed in, pushing aside all the happy fantasies that had occupied her thoughts.

• That’s right, tens of thousands of yuan had been stolen from the town bank.

• Uncle Wang Jiawang supposedly killed someone and ran off with the money.

• Aunt Yun Song was still looking for the person, and the money.

Now, she looked down. Could this be that money?

Then where was Uncle Wang Jiawang? Second Grandpa’s sheep were here; were Second Grandpa and Uncle Wang Jiawang in league together?

Xiao Mei looked left and right, but no one was there. Her heart instantly became a tangled mess.

She picked up the green-headed mushrooms she had tossed on the ground in her earlier excitement and hung them back on her body.

So much money… She had found it, but could she treat it the same as finding mushrooms?

Xiao Mei was educated; she was no longer a primary school student. She could be considered somewhat literate.

The joy faded from her face. Finally, she stuffed the money into her clothes and began walking toward home.

By the time the sun was nearing the horizon, she reached home, driving the nine sheep. Second Grandma and the others still hadn’t returned.

Xiao Mei’s older cousin was preparing dinner when she saw the sheep returning outside.

The cousin originally thought her grandparents had brought them back, but when she went out to look, she saw it was Xiao Mei.

Xiao Mei had actually managed to find the sheep.

“Xiao Mei! That’s amazing!”

But Xiao Mei didn’t seem happy at all. Two large strings of green-headed mushrooms hung around her neck, her eyes were red, and she looked as though she had been crying.

“Xiao Mei? What’s wrong? Did you fall?” Her cousin stepped forward to check on her.

“Cousin, put the sheep in the pen. I’m going home.”

“Xiao Mei? Xiao Mei!”

With her head hanging low, Xiao Mei walked toward her own house, her sadness almost overflowing.

As dusk fell, Second Grandma and the others finally returned.

They came back empty-handed.

Second Grandma was fuming. She had walked so far today, failed to find the sheep, and even taken a fall. The police had spent a tiring day following them and had now returned to town.

“Grandma, the sheep are back. Xiao Mei found them. I tell you, that girl is really clever; she put a harness on our family’s sheep and led it to find the sheep in the mountains.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the grandfather, who had been exhausted, suddenly stood up and asked, “Where did Xiao Mei find them?”

“I don’t know. She seemed a bit off when she got back. She didn’t really talk to me, just went home.”

Xiao Mei’s cousin didn’t say she looked unhappy, so Second Grandpa simply assumed the girl was overwhelmed with joy.

“Let’s go get Xiao Mei’s family to come over for dinner. After all, she helped us find the sheep,” the cousin said. When she came out, Grandma had gone to the sheep pen, and Grandpa was no longer in the courtyard.

After Mei Qiang went out, he didn’t go to Xiao Mei’s house. Instead, he headed for the mountain.

For this money, he had already killed a man and lived in fear for so long.

The money had to still be in the cave. He ran as fast as he could, his heart full of thoughts of the cash.

At his age, he would never have another chance like this in his life.

Under the cover of night, he returned to the cave.

The rapeseed stalks had been completely tossed aside. There wasn’t a single bill inside, only the remains of a few green-headed mushrooms nearby.

Second Grandpa stared blankly for a long time before turning back.

He soon passed by Mei Yue’s house.

Mei Yue was sitting under the eaves washing green-headed mushrooms. She saw him, but she didn’t seem prepared to give the money back to him.

He looked at the young girl. When she spoke to him, he didn’t seem to understand; the words didn’t enter his ears.

He felt as though she was laughing, gloating over having taken his money. That family of three must be laughing at him behind his back.

He looked at the child, but there was no anger in his heart. He watched the family of three with an eerie calmness.

He thought of Wang Jiawang. Back then, he had wanted Wang Jiawang to give him half. After all, Wang Jiawang had stolen the money; it hadn’t cost him any effort.

Wang Jiawang had refused.

So he took a stone and bludgeoned him to death. A few strikes, and the man was dead.

He went home, skipped dinner, and lay on his bed, waiting for the dead of night.

Outside, he first heard his wife talking incessantly about the sheep being found. Soon, there was only the sound of stirring pig feed. After a while longer, all sound outside ceased.

He stepped out of the house, took a machete, and walked toward Mei Yue’s home.

Mei Yue’s house was very quiet. The moonlight filtering in allowed Mei Qiang to see a lump on the bed. He raised the machete and hacked down at the bed.

Something was wrong.

He yanked back the quilt. Inside was a large pumpkin that had been hacked to pieces.

Before he could react to what was happening, he heard a sound behind him. Immediately after, a sharp pain shot through his wrist, and the machete hit the floor.

“Mei Qiang, you’re under arrest.”

The police, who were supposed to have returned to town, were standing right behind him.

Five hours earlier, Xiao Mei had gone home crying. Holding those 18,900 yuan in her arms, the more she thought about it, the more miserable she felt, and the more she wanted to cry.

Why couldn’t this money just belong to her?

The conflict between her love for the money and the fact that it wasn’t hers made her heart ache.

Xiao Mei was a lucky child. She hadn’t suffered much growing up. She was an only child, and although they were poor, she had never gone hungry. She was also very capable and had steadily earned her way into junior high school.

The only suffering she had ever known was related to money.

When there wasn’t enough for tuition and her mother had to go borrow money, her heart felt heavy.

When her mother had to beg the teachers and the principal for more time at school, she felt miserable.

The massive gap between her and her classmates when it came to money made her ache.

In short, money was the source of her pain, and she dreamed of being wealthy.

Now, suddenly, there was money. So much money, and she was the one who found it, yet it couldn’t belong to her.

It was absolute torture for her young heart.

When Ning Xiangxiu and her husband returned from the mountains, Xiao Mei was still slumped over the table, crying.

“What happened?” Ning Xiangxiu asked, feeling strange. Xiao Mei wasn’t a child who cried easily.

“Come here for a second.” Xiao Mei’s eyes were swollen from crying. She laid the clothes wrapped around the money on the table.

In the dim light, that large stack of cash was startling.

The couple was stunned at first, then they both stared at their daughter in unison.

“You… Xiao Mei, where did this money come from?”

Their daughter stroked the money, weeping inconsolably, her whole body shaking with sobs.

“I found it in a cave…” Xiao Mei sobbed as she recounted everything that had happened that day.

The couple had never seen so much money before. A ten-thousand-yuan household¹ was something they had only heard of a few years ago.

The couple couldn’t help but reach out to touch the money as well.

“This money… it must be the money lost from the town bank, right?” So much money. It felt so good to touch.

“It must be. But how did it end up in a cave?”

“Maybe Wang Jiawang was staying in the cave at night and hid the money there.” Wang Jiawang had already killed someone for this money.

“What do we do now? Xiao Mei said no one saw her take the money.”

The couple each picked up a stack of cash, unable to put it down, but soon they felt like crying too.

They couldn’t keep this money.

On one hand, someone had already died. If… just if…

On the other hand, even if they kept the money, they couldn’t spend it.

In and out of the village, everyone knew everyone else’s business. Everyone knew exactly how much those two acres of fields could earn. If you suddenly paid off all your debts and the smell of meat started wafting from your house, it would be obvious.

Wouldn’t that be telling everyone that your family had money from an unknown source?

If they used it secretly, would the three of them have to get up in the middle of the night just to sneak a bite of meat?

They would live their lives in constant fear.

Ning Xiangxiu thought about it and decided against it. She was an honest person by nature and couldn’t bring herself to do such a thing.

“Forget it, forget it. We just weren’t meant for this kind of fortune,” Ning Xiangxiu said.

Their two large fields of grain, from planting to the recent harvest, would only fetch a few hundred yuan in total.

And now, nearly twenty thousand yuan was piled right here, but it didn’t belong to them.

How could that not make someone feel miserable?

Ning Xiangxiu went to find Yun Song with red eyes. Yun Song had said she was going back to town, but in reality, it was just to make Mei Qiang lower his guard. She suspected Mei Qiang would go looking for the sheep at night. Ning Xiangxiu knew she hadn’t left, so she told Yun Song the whole story about Xiao Mei finding the money.

After some thought, Yun Song felt that the money didn’t seem like it was hidden by Wang Jiawang, but rather by Mei Qiang.

Regardless of who it was, everyone in the village now knew that Mei Yue had brought back the nine sheep belonging to Mei Qiang’s family. When the person returned to the hiding spot, they would definitely realize the money had been taken by Mei Yue.

Tonight, that person would very likely come looking for the money.

So, Yun Song went to Ning Xiangxiu’s house to wait for the target.

Sure enough, the person arrived.

Yun Song looked at the large cleaver in his hand.

This person had gone mad.

Translator’s Notes