Chapter 19: Do Not Pursue Them
Chapter 19 of "The Great Ming in the Box" starts with thrilling twists: Li Daoxuan was annoyed by his narrow field of vision for two seconds, then suddenly... Continue the story!
Li Daoxuan was annoyed by his narrow field of vision for two seconds, then suddenly remembered that five days ago, he had installed a Surveillance Camera beside the scenic box, which had been monitoring everything inside all along. Since this thing did loop recording, he could certainly retrieve the video from last night now.He quickly opened his phone, accessed the Surveillance Camera APP, and pulled up the video list.
Last night, he had not slept until after two oâclock, so he just needed to watch the videos from after that time.
In no time, he found the truth of the water theft.
In the night, a large group of poorly dressed villagers, similar in appearance to the villagers of Gaojia Village, appeared. Carrying buckets and using the moonlight, they cautiously approached the big pond at Gaojia Village, quietly placed the buckets into the pond, drew out two buckets of water, then picked them up and dashed toward outside the village.
After about an hour, the group returned, lifted two more buckets of water, and ran away again.
They did this three times over three hours, until dawn was approaching and the group stopped coming; by then, the water in the pond had been stolen, lowering by half a foot.
Seeing this, Li Daoxuan did not know what to say.
He put away his phone and heard the villagers discussing: âWe donât know where these thieves came from to steal our villageâs water. Itâs too much. This precious water was given to us by the Great deity. How can we let others steal it?â
âWhere is the Village Chief? Ask him to come out and decide what to do. Should we follow these footprints to catch the water thieves and beat them?â
âThatâs right! We must beat them and get the water back, otherwise the Great deity will blame us for not guarding the divine water he gave us.â
Li Daoxuan spoke: âGao Yiye, tell everyone not to pursue the water theft.â
Gao Yiye was with the villagers, indignantly condemning the theft of the Great deityâs gift, when suddenly she heard the Great deityâs voice from the sky. She gasped âAhâ and looked up, seeing the slightly visible, young and handsome face of the Great deity in the clouds.
She quickly said: âGreat deity, someone stole your blessing. Arenât you angry?â
Her shout made all the villagers look over. Seeing her speaking to the sky, they guessed she was conversing with the Great deity and covered their mouths, not daring to make a sound.
Li Daoxuan said: âTell them, these are villagers from another village. They had no water to drink and couldnât survive, so they came to steal Gaojia Villageâs water. This bit they stole means nothingâIâll refill it for you. No need to chase or shout threats at people who are almost dying of thirst.â
Gao Yiye quickly relayed that to the whole village.
The villagers immediately put away their fierce intent to go out and fight. They all kowtowed to the sky: âThe Great deity is merciful!â
âDivine grace enlightens the world.â
âWide compassion and great mercy.â
âSaving from suffering and rescuing the people.â
A chaotic jumble of praises, like from Buddhism or Daoism, flew up skyward.
Li Daoxuan sighed deeply, thinking: Indeed, saving just forty-two villagers was far from enough. Next, I have to save more, starting with these water thieves. I hope my funds can handle it.
That night, when darkness set in, the forty-two villagers of Gaojia Village returned to their houses to sleep, and the scenic box returned to a ânon-static scene.â
But Li Daoxuan didnât rush to sleep. He remained at his computer, reading historical records about late Ming, while occasionally glancing at the scenic box where the water thieves had come from last night.
The night grew deepâit was three in the morning.
Shuangqing City outside the window hadnât rested, though; modern people had lively nightlife. Cars sped on the roads outside, and people on the street beyond the housing complex ate barbecue and drank night beer, shouting things like âFive loss, oh Six six six, Seven fairiesâŚâ
Li Daoxuan picked up his phone and ordered a midnight barbecue delivery.
At that moment, activity stirred in the scenic box.
A poorly dressed villager emerged from the northern edge of the box. He peered toward Gaojia Village, waved back, and then a large group appeared, each carrying buckets, bent at the waist and tiptoeing toward Gaojia VillageâŚ
Li Daoxuan closed the window to block the noise outside, making the room absolutely quiet, then pressed his ear against the scenic box.
Inside, it was silent; the villagers made no footsteps at all.
Before long, they reached the Lock & Lock box.
The leader, Brother Wang, looked inside and said in surprise: âHuh?â
A villager behind him came up and asked softly: âBrother Wang, what is it?â
Brother Wang pointed at the Lock & Lock box and stammered: âLast night, we clearly stole a big chunk of the water level. Plus, Gaojia Village folks must have used more water today, so it should have dropped even more. But look, the water is full again now.â
Li Daoxuan chuckled to himself: I added another cup of water.
The water thieves gathered around the Lock & Lock box, all bewildered, staring at the full water level and then up at the sky: âIt didnât rain at all today. How was it refilled?â TĘe source of this á´ontent ÉŞs novelhall.com
âItâs incomprehensible!â
âWhere does this pond water even come from?â
Brother Wang was also totally confused. But as the leader, he couldnât just stand there. He waved his hand and cursed softly: âWhy worry about it? Get your buckets filled fast. Stop chatteringâif we wake someone from Gaojia Village and get caught, weâll all die of shame here.â
That made sense!
The group hurried to the pond, lowered the buckets in to fill them. Someone even plunged their whole head into the water, gulping eagerlyâŚ
Seeing this, Li Daoxuan felt deep pity. Poor disaster victims.
He turned his eyes to his rice bag, wanting to throw some rice down. But then he thought: If I do, the rice would grow to forty or sixty centimeters long. Their wooden buckets couldnât hold it, and they couldnât roll it miles back to their village like the Gaojia villagers shared rice. Better not to scare them at midnight and risk lives.
Give them something bucket-friendly instead.
He shifted his gaze from the rice bag to the flour bag nearby.
Modern flour was grinded finer than sand. Even enlarged two hundred times, it would still be coarse powder, not too alarming. This wouldnât startle them.
Li Daoxuan grabbed a tiny pinch of flour. While they focused on drawing water, he quietly, silently placed it behind them, forming a small mound.