Green Lotus Peasant Girl

77

Li Qinghe was woken up by a series of fierce barks. After waking up, she found out that even fifth sister Zhou was startled awake and asked her in confusion, "What's happening?"

Li Qinghe got up and put on an outer robe, and the fifth sister Zhou was also dressing appropriately, to see what was happening, "Fourth sister-in-law, what if a thief broke in?? You stay here, I’ll go check instead."

Li Qinghe was reluctant to stay alone, so the two of them went to open the door together. Under the moonlight, they found the entire courtyard empty while Little Rhubarb was howling from the outside of the courtyard gate. Li Qinghe vaguely saw someone’s silhouette near the pond, situated on the outside of her courtyard wall. This was the person Little Rhubarb was barking at. Afraid that this person would steal the fish from her pond , Li Qinghe picked up a metal pole from the side. Fifth sister Zhou quickly stopped her and gave her a firewood stick instead, "This is lighter."

As the door opened, the person standing next to the pond heard the sound and quickly ran away; while Little Rhubarb ran out of the door and chased after him.

Li Qinghe decided not to chase after him. She was pregnant now so she couldn’t run too fast. Not to mention, even if the person really stole something, she would not stop him.. Nothing was more important than her body right now.

When she reached the pond, she found a fish net soaked in water and the surroundings a little wet from the pond’s water. The net also had more than a dozen fishes!

While Li Qinghe picked up the fishing net, fifth sister Zhou had already inspected the area around the pond and didn't find anything useful . Li Qinghe disposed of the fishing net and turned to enter the house.

The two girls couldn't sleep for the next half of the night. The next day, after having breakfast, fifth sister Zhou hurriedly went to the Zhou house to fetch Mrs. Zhou with her.

Mrs. Zhou asked worriedly , "Did a thief break-in last night?"

Looking at her sincere concern, Li Qinghe's heart warmed slightly. She smiled and answered , "There is no need to worry though. Once Little Rhubarb starts barking, the thief will run away. "

"How can it be okay? You are pregnant!" Mrs. Zhou turned around and said, "Go back to Zhou house to sleep tonight, ."

Li Qinghe didn't wish to go back to the Zhou house to sleep, and said, "I'm used to sleeping in my bed, I can't sleep in a different bed."

Mrs. Zhou was dumbfounded by her reply and suggested, "Then I'll stay here tonight."

That was okay, as there were many rooms in the house.

After that day, Mrs. Zhou and fifth sister Zhou stayed over at Li Qinghe's house for the night time. The water in the pond right now was much less than it was in the previous years. During the day, Mrs. Zhou looked at the pond and sighed, "Yesterday, I heard the eldest child say that from all the wells in our village only one has water still remaining and the rest have all dried."

"Our village is still considered to be in good condition; at least there is water left to drink! I heard that in other villages, there is no water to drink, nor do the laundry.. Because of the drought this year , the price of the beans has risen and so has the price of tofu. Since people in the town are not purchasing tofu, he can't sell them. So I told him not to go tomorrow."

Living in the small village, they usually didn't know what was going on in the outside world, but they didn't know it had become so worse.

It took five days for Zhou Chengkang to travel and come back. After hearing that his home was burgled on the first night he went on the trip, he became more alert. He sent Mrs. Zhou and fifth sister Zhou home and after returning from the trip, he hugged her in his arms, "i shouldn’t have left you all alone. If something were to happen to you, I…"