Chapter 18: The Water Theft Thief Comes
In Chapter 18 of "The Great Ming in the Box": âThereâs meat! The Great deity has sent us meat.âGao Yiye shouted loudly, instantly waking up... Discover the next events!
âThereâs meat! The Great deity has sent us meat.âGao Yiye shouted loudly, instantly waking up Gaojia Village.
Everyone immediately crowded around.
âItâs chicken meat.â
âThis is chicken breast meat; although itâs huge, itâs definitely chicken breast. I canât be wrong.â
âSuch large chicken breast meatâwas it cut from a divine chicken?â
âIt must be a divine chicken from the heavenly realm.â
The villagers had no idea how long it had been since they last ate meat.
Several years ago, in good harvest seasons, some people in the village had raised chickens. But as the drought grew fiercer year after year in recent times, they didnât even have enough food themselvesâwhere could they find grain to feed poultry?
In Gaojia Village, it had long been like ânot even a chicken or dog leftââapart from a bunch of starving villagers crying out in hunger, not half a living creature could be found.
Now, seeing a piece of meat, everyone was incredibly excited.
Gao Chuwu found a knife right away and prepared to cut off a few pieces to go home and feast.
Gao Yiye said with a serious face: âThe Great deity said, weâre used to eating plain food, so we canât have too much meat all at once; our stomachs wonât handle it. We must eat slowly. Brother Gao Chuwu, youâre the first to need caution.â
Gao Chuwu scratched his head foolishly: âHuh? Thereâs a rule like that?â
The Village Chief stepped forward: âThe Great deity must be talking about fools like Gao Chuwu. A bad stomach can kill someone. We canât give Gao Chuwu too much at once; heâll surely gobble it all up uncontrollably.â
Gao Chuwu: âWha-what?â
The Village Chief ordered: âEach person takes only one liang of meat home; half a liang for children. Cut the remaining meat into strips and hang them to air-dry, to avoid rotting.â
A middle-aged villager stepped out: âVillage Chief, we donât have enough salt. If we dry chicken meat without salting it first, itâll spoil. Rather than risk it rotting away, letâs just eat it all instead. Iâd rather die from diarrhea than watch such good meat go to waste for nothing.â
Gao Chuwu: âYes, yes, Village Chief, Iâd rather die from diarrhea than waste it.â
Li Daoxuan was amused to hear this; rather than take back the extra meat into a fridge, he entered the kitchen, grabbed a packet of salt, and poured it down like swish, swish, swishâright in front of Gao Yiye, creating a small mound.
The villagers looked up to see salt flowing mysteriously from the sky; the pure white crystal salt crashed down like giant ice blocks, forming a little hill in no time.
Gao Yiye didnât even need to relay anything; she just waved her hands: âYou and your little thoughtsâdid any escape the Great deity? Donât dream of getting fat overnight. With salt now, go salt the meat.â
âSo much salt!â
âSalt is so expensive.â
âOh my, he gave us so much.â
âWe wonât need to buy salt for ages.â
Once again, the villagers knelt all over, knocking their heads frantically toward the sky.
Thus, for today, the Gaojia villagers had something to do.
The men swung knives, chopping chop, chop, chop on the meat, splitting the massive chicken breast into thin strips, crushing the huge crystal salt into powder, then rolled each chicken strip in the salt powder to coat it white and plump, before hanging it up. They let the dry wind suck the moisture from the chicken strips.
This working was actually quite tiring!
But while working, the villagersâ faces were all beaming with smiles.
That evening, smoke rose from chimneys in the village as every household was cooking.
Everyone in the whole village had chicken congee in their pots. They diced one liang of chicken into fine pieces and cooked it with giant rice until it thickened. Yes, they also added cabbage leaves. The finished congee was visually appealing, aromatic, and tasty, and it was gentle on the stomach.
Gao Chuwu eagerly gobbled down five large bowls.
Even Gao Yiye, the delicate girl, unexpectedly downed two bowls.
This made Li Daoxuan, a modern person, involuntarily swallow his saliva. He quickly grabbed his phone and ordered some âchicken soup riceâ to soothe himself.
While he was slurping the chicken soup rice, he opened online banking and glanced at his balance. His savings were a little over twenty thousand yuan. That amount didnât seem sufficient anymore. Today, he used two thousand yuan to order a Hakka roundhouse. If he wanted to help more dwarves in the future, the money would surely flow out like water.
He thought seriously for two seconds, then opened QQ and found a long-uncontacted avatar. He clicked on it and sent a message: âBro, Iâm Li Daoxuan. Half a year ago, you approached me asking if I wanted freelance work. I refused thenâthat was my ignorance due to youth. If you have any design jobs available from now on, Iâm willing to take them, and we can discuss the price.â
That avatar soon flashed: âHa, Iâve waited for you to say that! Coincidentally, I have a jobâcharacter designs for a game company. Itâs urgent: five days, four character sketches, for three thousand yuan! Will you take it?â
Li Daoxuan replied: âIâll take it.â
âŚ
Day broke! Shuangqing City welcomed a new day.
Li Daoxuan stretched lazily while rubbing his temples and getting out of bed.
For five consecutive days, he worked until 2 a.m., desperately completing the character designs the game company wanted. After the client inspected them, they pointed out a few minor flaws. He revised as per their request, but they then preferred the first version. So he finished, and three thousand yuan was deposited.
He confirmed the money had hit his card, then slept peacefully.
He slept so deeply he was unconscious, only waking and climbing out of bed when daylight returned.
Those five days, he was busy earning money to support the âfamilyâ and neglected caring for the dwarves in the box. He only fed them a little daily, refilled the Lock & Lock box with water each day, and didnât scrutinize them closely.
Finally free of duties, he decided to spend the day properly with his small pets today.
As soon as he sat by the scenic box, he felt something was amiss.
All the dwarves in the village were gathered around the big pond now, murmuring softly about something.
Li Daoxuan swiftly closed the window to quiet the room, pressed his ear against the box, and could finally hear their faint buzzing sounds.
âWater theft occurred. Look, the water level in the pond dropped a lot overnight.â
âYes, see here, many messy footprints. Plenty of people came for the water theft last night.â
Li Daoxuan peered closely. Indeed, the water level in the Lock & Lock box had sunk substantially. In reality, that box was 20 centimeters long, but it enlarged 200 times inside the dwarf world, becoming a huge pond ten zhang long.
Such a big pond, and overnight, the water level had descended by half a chi. For more chapters visÄąt N0veI.FiÉže.net
The water theft perpetrators must be quite something!
Or rather, there were many thieves involved.
Li Daoxuanâs gaze tracked the messy footprints of the water thieves toward the village outskirts. But soon, those footprints reached the edge of the scenic box, extended beyond it, and vanishedâŚ
He couldnât help but frown deeply. The biggest flaw of this box was its narrow viewpoint; he could see too little. He only observed the Gaojia Village area; the world outside was pitch-black, and he knew nothing about what was happening.
He must devise a way to extend the viewing distance inside this box.