Chapter 25: A Petty Thief – Daily Life of the Frail Sister-in-Law in the Courtyard

Chapter 25: A Petty Thief - Daily Life of the Frail Sister-in-Law in the Courtyard

Tsk, who would've thought I'd catch a thief on this trip back? And it looks like the people in this house aren't unaware of it either.

What kind of place did they move into?

Looks like there's no one in this front yard worth dealing with!

Cen Xi shook his head at the thought and turned to go inside.

Mother Su and Qin Xiulian from the Su family quickly hid behind the wall when Cen Xi glanced over.

Unbeknownst to them, with the lights on, their shadows were visible through the windows, giving Cen Xi a clear view of their actions.

"Mom, we weren't spotted, right?" Qin Xiulian asked worriedly.

"No big deal, even if he saw us. We can always say we heard something outside and went to check."

"Yes, that's right. We just heard some noise outside, so we wanted to take a look." Soon, Qin Xiulian calmed down under Mother Su’s reassurance.

"But Dazhuang should have waited until everyone was asleep before going," Mother Su complained with a gentle tone.

Qin Xiulian didn't want to blame her son; she didn't think it was his fault. "This is all Cen Xi's fault for coming back suddenly."

"Yes, it's all his fault!" Mother Su quickly shifted the blame.

Cen Xi had no idea that this mother-in-law and daughter-in-law duo didn’t think Su Dazhuang’s theft was wrong, but instead blamed him for coming back suddenly.

Mother Su glanced at her attractive daughter-in-law, whose appearance and figure caught her eye. "You know, Cen Xi must be making around a hundred yuan a month. Can they even spend all that?"

When Qin Xiulian heard Aunt Su’s reminder, it seemed she thought of something. "Mom, you’re right. There are only two of them; how could they spend all their salary in a month? I wonder if we can borrow some money from him to use?"

Of course, the "borrow" in Qin Xiulian's mouth was not just a simple "borrow"!

But Qin Xiulian soon thought again, "Didn’t they say his wife is a sickly person? It’s likely that they spend quite a bit on medical bills every month!"

Thinking about this, she became a bit worried. How could such a good man end up with a sickly wife? The monthly expenses for her illness must be considerable! Would there even be any savings left?

Aunt Su thought about it and realized she had forgotten about this. "But, I don’t think her condition is that serious! She just seems a bit weak, and I didn’t see any other problems today. Besides, I think they deliberately wanted to teach Gu Dama and Aunt Jiang a lesson this afternoon."

"Mom, are you sure?" Qin Xiulian hadn’t considered the possibility of such an underlying plot.

Aunt Su looked smug. "Of course! Who am I? How could I not see it? I saw it clearly. Little Wife Chen suddenly collapsed into his arms, but she was fine all day. How could she suddenly collapse like that?

And it wasn’t the first time Gu Dama and Aunt Jiang said something to her. They mentioned it once in the morning, but she just warned them."

"But... couldn’t it be that she was already upset in the morning, so when she heard it again in the afternoon, she fainted from anger?"

"Impossible." Aunt Su was confident in her judgment.

"But, isn’t she already in the hospital? The doctor examined her, and she is indeed hospitalized!" Qin Xiulian thought about the person who hadn’t returned.

"That’s because she has a pre-existing condition!" Aunt Su firmly believed her own judgment.

"If she has a pre-existing condition, wouldn’t she need to spend money on treatment? Chen Xi probably doesn’t save much money," Qin Xiulian said with a hint of regret.

At this point, Aunt Su also thought about this and couldn’t help but sigh again. "Sigh! How could such a good man end up marrying a sickly woman?"

Cen Xi had no idea that the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were gossiping about him. After picking out the book he wanted to read, he absolutely had to lock the windows and doors of the two rooms.

He had to lock them, alright. After all, there had been a small thief in the yard. If he didn’t take precautions, how could that work?

It was true that this could prevent small thieves. Su Dazhuang, who had rolled back home in fear, felt more and more upset the longer he thought about it.

If you won't let me steal, I'll just steal even more. So, he decided that after Cen Xi left, he would find another opportunity to sneak over.

He waited and waited, and sure enough, after a little while, Cen Xi left the house.

Peering out the window, he saw that the guy had left. He waited a bit longer and, seeing that no one came out of the yard, he quietly opened the door, hunched over, and tiptoed past Zhou Qin’s place.

He made his way to the Cen family’s gate, reached out, and to his dissatisfaction, felt a lock. He tried another door, only to find it locked as well.

Frustrated, he checked both windows of the Cen family’s house by pushing on them, only to find them locked from the inside.

Angrily, he kicked the wall. He didn’t dare kick the door. Unfortunately, his shoes weren’t sturdy enough, and he ended up stubbing his toe.

“Ow~” The pain caused him to let out a small cry.

In the end, he had to return empty-handed and angrily ran back home.

As he ran back, he wasn’t very careful and rushed back noisily, which immediately alerted Zhou Qin.

But even if he was discovered, Su Dazhuang wouldn’t admit to anything. After all, he hadn’t stolen anything.

To make matters worse, he had hurt his foot in the process, which left him feeling even more frustrated.

Back home, he grumbled to himself, "Locking doors? Locking windows? Who do they think they’re fooling?"

If Cen Xi were there, he might have said, "Obviously, it’s to keep you, the little thief, out! Who else would it be?"

Although Cen Xi had locked the doors and windows, he didn’t expect that the little thief would try again after being caught once.

By this time, Cen Xi had already returned to the hospital.

Cen Xi glanced at Lin Qing, still asleep, then turned to the older woman from before.

“Don’t worry, your wife hasn’t woken up!”

“Thanks a lot for watching her for me," Cen Xi said, casually pulling out some leftover wedding candies from his pocket and handing them to the older woman.

“You’re welcome, you’re welcome,” the older woman said with a smile as she accepted the candies.

Cen Xi returned to the side of the bed, picking up the book he had brought with him.

The books he read were all sorts of research materials, though not foreign language materials. They were research documents from the factory, some of which could be taken home for reading. Others were strictly controlled and could only be viewed in the factory’s research lab. Of course, those were confidential materials.

Cen Xi read for a while, and when he got tired, he would glance at his wife’s sleeping face. When the time felt right, he planned to rest his head on the side of the bed for a nap.

The ward happened to be full, with no empty beds available for him to rest on. He could only manage to sleep by leaning on the bed for a bit.