CHAPTER 128: CHAPTER 128: THE DESIGN DRAWING WAS STOLEN

As he said this, his eyes darted around. "Brother," he began, "do you have any good money-making ideas you could share with your little brother? You have no idea, my tavern business is completely gone. My whole family is about to starve."

Zhao Chun continued, his voice growing more pitiful with each word, his performance utterly convincing.

Zhao Dong watched Zhao Chun’s performance, sneering inwardly. This so-called third brother of mine, he thought, is a ’purebred’ opportunist. He only ever comes over when he wants to get something out of us.

Once Zhao Chun had finished his tale of woe, Zhao Dong finally spoke. "Little Brother, what are you saying? Are you trying to make me look bad? I’m just a simple man; how could I possibly come up with any schemes to get rich? We were starving, truly desperate. It was your sister-in-law who, driven by hunger, managed to create a few recipes. We sold those and scraped together enough money to build this house."

As he spoke, he shook his head and sighed, launching into his own tale of poverty. "Ah, you know this, Third Brother. When the family property was divided, the courtyard we received was ancient, already battered and worn by wind and rain.

"It offered no warmth in winter and leaked whenever it rained. We adults could manage, but it was too hard on the children. As the saying goes, you can suffer yourself, but you can’t let your children suffer. That’s why I decided to build a couple of extra rooms, just so the children could live a bit more comfortably.

"Now that the house is almost built, we’re completely out of money. Taxes are due soon, and your sister-in-law and I have been losing sleep, worrying about how we’ll make it through the winter. Say, Third Brother, is your tavern hiring? Maybe you could let me work there for a few days as a short-term hand?"

This barrage of words from Zhao Dong left Zhao Chun speechless.

He was trying to play poor, but Zhao Dong was even better at it!

He knew perfectly well that when the family property was divided, his own mother had deliberately given Zhao Dong the most dilapidated courtyard. Now that Zhao Dong had laid it all bare in front of everyone, Zhao Chun felt a pang of guilt.

And at this point, looking at Zhao Dong’s emotional acting, he even began to doubt. Could it be that the medicinal vegetables really have nothing to do with my brother?

But that’s impossible! he thought. The information from Landlord Qin’s house can’t be wrong!

Seeing Zhao Chun dazed, Zhao Dong clapped him on the shoulder. "Third Brother, what’s wrong? Did I scare you? Ah, well, never mind. I was just joking. I won’t go to your tavern for work. I’ll find some short-term work at Country Gentry Wei’s place. We’ll tighten our belts; we’ll manage to get through the winter somehow."

Zhao Chun was utterly speechless.

How had he never noticed before that his brother had such a silver tongue? Zhao Chun wondered.

The two brothers, their smiles not reaching their eyes, stood there exchanging a few more disingenuous pleasantries.

Zhao Chun couldn’t bear it any longer and was about to make his excuses to leave when Zhang Jinbao approached Zhao Dong to ask about some details in the house design.

Zhao Dong nodded to Zhao Chun with a smile. "Third Brother, I can’t chat any longer. As you can see, I’m really swamped right now."

With that, he stepped aside with Zhang Jinbao and began to explain the plans in detail.

Meanwhile, Zhao Chun’s gaze lingered on the design drawing for a long moment before he hastily bid Sun Mei farewell and departed.

The moment Zhao Chun was gone, Zhao Cheng hurried over to Zhao Dong. He recounted his suspicion that Zhao Chun might be targeting their vegetable garden.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Dong looked astonished.

He knew Zhao Chun wouldn’t be bringing any good news.

However, he was very surprised. How did Zhao Chun find out the medicinal vegetables were ours?

To protect the source, Boss Feng had kept Guang Ju Restaurant’s vegetable supplier a closely guarded secret. Besides Boss Feng and Wang Fuhai, no one else knew that Zhao Dong’s family was the provider.

Where did Zhao Chun get this information? Zhao Dong mused. It seems like he only came to test the waters today; he probably isn’t certain yet.

Still, he wasn’t worried about Zhao Chun trying to steal them. Even if he took the vegetable garden, he wouldn’t be able to grow the medicinal vegetables.

Those vegetables could only achieve their body-strengthening effects if irrigated with Spiritual Spring water from his daughter’s space.

So, he reassured Zhao Cheng, telling him not to worry, and then returned his attention to the house construction.

After this incident, Sun Mei began to worry that her mother-in-law, Mrs. Wang, would shamelessly show up again, trying to force them to hand over the vegetable plot.

However, much to her surprise, three days passed, and an unusual quiet persisted at the Zhao Family Old House.

This quiet is so unlike Mrs. Wang! Sun Mei thought. If this were before, and she found out we had such a valuable piece of land that could make so much money, she would have barged over here without a second thought.

As the saying goes, "abnormal events portend trouble." Consequently, the family remained extremely cautious during those few days.

Then, on the fifth day, the unexpected finally occurred!

However, the misfortune didn’t strike their family, but Zhang Jinbao’s. His house had been burglarized!

When they woke up in the morning, they discovered their rooms and courtyard had been ransacked. Fortunately, because his wife had hidden their money securely, the burglar hadn’t found their savings.

However, the thief had stolen the design drawings for Zhao Dong’s house, which Zhang Jinbao had left on his desk!

So, without even stopping for breakfast, Zhang Jinbao rushed to Zhao Dong’s house to report what had happened.

Zhao Dong was genuinely surprised to hear this. The design drawing he’d made wasn’t particularly novel. It was merely a slightly modernized version of a common traditional courtyard layout and wasn’t intrinsically valuable.

Why would a thief steal a design drawing?

Zhang Jinbao was overcome with guilt. "It’s all my fault," he lamented. "I should have put it away safely. Now our construction schedule will be delayed."

Zhao Dong didn’t truly blame Zhang Jinbao. His sixth sense told him the theft of the design drawing was aimed at their family. But what could their motive be?

Sun Mei clearly thought the same. They exchanged a glance but didn’t voice their suspicions.

Zhao Dong reassured Zhang Jinbao with a smile. "Master Zhang, please don’t worry about it. The house is nearly finished anyway, and I remember the design. I’ll just redraw it. It won’t delay us by more than a few days."

Hearing this, Zhang Jinbao was filled with gratitude and, as a result, dedicated himself even more diligently to working for Zhao Dong.

Consequently, due to the loss of the design drawings, construction was paused for a day. It resumed only after Zhao Dong had redrawn all the plans.

Five days passed peacefully after the design drawings were stolen. Just as they were beginning to think it was merely a simple case of theft, trouble arrived.

It was afternoon, and Zhao Zhitong had just been dismissed from school. She was chatting and laughing with her friends as she walked out of the school building when she saw Zhao Cheng running towards them from a distance, panting heavily.

Usually, Zhao Cheng would arrive to pick up Zhao Zhitong before school let out. Today, however, he had rushed over just as classes ended, which was highly unusual.

Lately, the four children had been engrossed in playing various detective games at school during their free time, so all of them were particularly observant.

Zhao Zhitong immediately sensed that something was amiss.

She hurried over to him and asked, "Brother Cheng, what’s wrong? Did something happen?"