The System Wanted Me to Be a Landlady (GL) - Chapter 29: Shock

Chapter 29: Shock

The incident of catching the vegetable thief was so unexpected that many people were confused, not understanding why Tang Zhi and Song Yuyan were so certain that Chen Erming was the thief.

Chen Erming defended himself, saying, “Everyone in Xingxian Ward knows that you, Tang Zhi, go to the Song family every few days to catch a thief! That’s because Song Yuyan steals vegetables from your garden all the time, and you had solid evidence to act like that!”

Hearing this, the two minor officials had a worse impression of Song Yuyan.

Tang Zhi lowered her eyes and was silent for a moment before saying, “No, you’re wrong. Before, I shouted and scolded because of my own guesses, but I had no proof that she stole anything.”

Chen Erming’s eyes widened, unable to believe that Tang Zhi would defend Song Yuyan so much, even denying the things Song Yuyan had done before.

Song Yuyan was also slightly surprised. She stared at Tang Zhi, only to see Tang Zhi looking back at her. Their gazes met briefly, and then Tang Zhi looked away first.

“You—” Chen Erming realized he couldn’t shift the blame to Song Yuyan anymore and questioned, “Then what evidence do you have to prove I stole those vegetables?”

Tang Zhi’s eyes turned cold. “It’s simple. Just look at the soles of your shoes.”

Everyone followed her words and looked at Chen Erming’s feet. Chen Erming did the same, lowering his head to see his slightly blackened feet. Since he didn’t like washing his feet and never bothered to scrub off the dirt, his feet were far darker than the rest of his skin.

But Tang Zhi wasn’t pointing at his feet; she meant the soles of his shoes. He wore straw sandals, the same as most common people, and nothing seemed special about them.

Until a watching child shouted, “White mud!”

“What white mud? There’s no such thing as white mud in the world!” someone laughed. “Kids—”

He couldn’t finish because someone interrupted, “That’s not white mud, that’s lime ash!”

“Lime ash? What’s wrong with lime ash?”

Eager for answers, the crowd turned to Tang Zhi. “Tang family girl, tell us what’s going on! Don’t keep us guessing!”

“It’s simple. I sprinkled lime ash in our vegetable garden,” Tang Zhi said.

Chen Erming’s pupils shrank, his mind went blank, and panic started to rise in his heart.

The crowd looked at each other. “Why would you sprinkle lime ash in your garden? Aren’t you afraid it’ll ruin the vegetables?”

Tang Zhi didn’t explain, only stated her evidence against Chen Erming as the thief. “Our garden was sprinkled with lime ash in the evening when most people had gone home, so not many saw it. At first, I only sprinkled some during crop rotation, but last night, I spread it around the garden again. If Chen Erming hadn’t been in our garden, he couldn’t have gotten lime ash on his shoes.”

Everyone knew the Tang family’s garden was fenced with bamboo, so saying he just passed by wouldn’t hold up. Plus, she deliberately sprinkled it last night when there was no moonlight, so the thief couldn’t see the lime ash on the soil and stepped on it, getting it mixed with dirt on their shoes.

Chen Erming wasn’t careful and didn’t wash his feet. While stealing, his focus was on watching his surroundings, so he didn’t notice anything different underfoot.

When Tang Zhi noticed more vegetables were stolen last night, she knew the thief had taken the bait. The thief knew Tang Haogen was drunk last night and couldn’t patrol, so they got bolder, stealing more and trying to mimic Song Dalang’s behavior to pin the blame on Song Yuyan.

But he didn’t know this trap was Song Yuyan’s idea. After learning the Tang family’s vegetables were being stolen, she thought of using the lime ash they spread in the fields to identify the thief.

After the Tang family sprinkled lime ash in the garden, they watered it, turning quicklime into slaked lime. Straw sandals, being woven, would pick up a lot of it when stepped on.

Since so many vegetables were stolen last night, the thief must have made multiple trips, unable to finish in one go. In that case, the lime paste on the sandals wouldn’t completely wear off even after walking some distance.

The thief knew the Tang family’s patrol schedule, so it was likely someone nearby who could watch their movements. This narrowed the search, and the lime paste on their shoes would help catch the thief.

“The lime ash on my shoes didn’t come from your garden!” Chen Erming quickly argued. “Lots of places have lime ash, not just your garden!”

At that moment, Tang Haogen’s voice came from the back of the crowd. “But haven’t you been staying at home these past few days? You haven’t gone anywhere, so how could you have gotten lime ash on you?”

Chen Erming gritted his teeth. “I wandered around the county at night!”

Song Yuyan sighed. “Why keep struggling? Let me tell you where lime ash is found. Besides the Tang family’s garden, only wealthy households use it to whitewash walls, or it’s used in tomb construction or alchemy. Are you saying you went to a rich family’s house to scrape their walls or visited a tomb?”

At this time, quicklime wasn’t widely used. Besides the places Song Yuyan mentioned, it was only used in warfare, papermaking, dyeing, or medicine. She deliberately left those out to see if Chen Erming could name them.

Chen Erming said, “There must be other places with lime ash! The lime kiln, yes, I went to the lime kiln!”

Panicked, Chen Erming couldn’t think of other places where quicklime might be. Since common people rarely dealt with quicklime, he hadn’t studied it and was now flustered.

“Do you know where the lime kiln is?” Tang Haogen asked.

“At… at Sun Lake,” Chen Erming’s voice weakened.

“Sun Lake is fifteen miles away. You didn’t leave home during the day, so you went to Sun Lake at night for what? To steal lime from the kiln?” The minor official was now convinced Chen Erming was the thief.

“No, I… I went a few days ago!” Chen Erming was sweating.

“A few days ago? How did you go?”

“Seven days ago! I walked, of course!” Chen Erming said confidently, as if this gave him courage. He straightened up and looked at Tang Haogen.

“If I remember right, it rained for several days before and after seven days ago. If you came back from so far, wouldn’t the rain have washed the lime ash off your shoes? It only stopped raining these past two days, so the lime ash stuck in the gaps of your shoes hasn’t been washed away.”

Chen Erming was speechless. Then someone shouted, “Search the Chen family’s house, and you’ll know if he stole the vegetables!”

Chen Erming’s face turned pale. He thought the Tang family would first suspect Song Yuyan, so he hadn’t bothered to move the stolen vegetables, which were still in his room. If they were found, he was done for!

With that thought, he dropped to his knees before Tang Haogen, crying, “I was wrong, Officer Tang, I know I was wrong. I only did this because I had no choice!”

The evidence already pointed to him, and since he couldn’t defend himself clearly, people vaguely believed he was the thief. But since he had no reputation for stealing before, some were still unsure.

Now that he admitted it himself, everyone was shocked: It really wasn’t Song Yuyan who stole the vegetables?!

“What ‘no choice’ do you have?” Tang Haogen’s face darkened, clearly angry.

Just as Chen Erming was about to mention his poverty, someone pointed out that his brother earned a thousand wen a month, and his parents worked for others, meaning he wasn’t so poor as to need to steal from the Tang family.

Chen Erming turned his hopes to Tang Haogen and Tang Zhi. “I know you’re kind-hearted. You forgave Song Yuyan for stealing your vegetables before, so please let me go this time. I swear I won’t do it again!”

Chen Erming’s parents also pleaded, “Yes, you forgave Song Dalang, so why not forgive our Erlang?”

Tang Haogen frowned deeply. “Whether we forgive someone is our business. This isn’t your first time stealing our vegetables, is it? I noticed before but kept quiet to let you lower your guard. Then you got bolder and tried to frame Song Dalang! Your arrogance exposed you, and your attempt to frame her disgusts me.”

The Chen family kept begging Tang Haogen, and when that didn’t work, they angrily started cursing. In their minds, the Tang siblings were still the weak children from two years ago who lost their parents.

Tang Zhi, who had been quiet since Tang Haogen appeared, suddenly said, “You’ve been wrong about one thing. Song Dalang didn’t steal our vegetables. For the past two years, she’s often guarded our garden, so no one has stolen our vegetables in that time.”

The crowd: “?!”

Song Yuyan: “!!!”

System: “Didn’t you know this from the original owner’s memories? Why are you shocked?”

Song Yuyan: “I just didn’t expect Tang Zhi to know.”

The original owner kept causing trouble but was repeatedly tolerated by the Tang family. Besides the Tang siblings’ kindness and pity for the three Song siblings, part of the reason was that the original owner had been secretly guarding the Tang family’s garden for two years.

Song Yuyan always felt the original owner was bad at expressing herself and very contradictory. The first time she stole from the Tang family was because Wu Shi took all their money, leaving her with no livelihood and no choice but to steal.

By then, Tang Mother had been gone for over three months, and the garden was neglected, with all the vegetables stolen. Tang Haogen had just quit his studies, and with no income, he and his sister started tending the garden again.

Both sisters were young, and Tang Haogen was only sixteen. The garden wasn’t near their home, so they couldn’t always watch it, leading to frequent thefts. Even when Tang Haogen caught someone, they’d deny it, bullying his weakness.

The original owner was one of the thieves, but she only took one or two vegetables, enough to keep her and her siblings from starving.

Until she saw Tang Zhi crying loudly because their vegetables were stolen. She remembered when her own mother died, and her uncles and aunts fought over her family’s property in front of her mother’s memorial, leaving her crying helplessly. No one cared about her pain, and by the time she stopped crying, the fight over her family’s property was settled.

She recalled how kind Tang Mother had been to her. How could she watch Tang Mother’s children be bullied?

So, the original owner started guarding the Tang family’s garden at night, jumping out to scare off anyone who approached. Even if some weren’t scared, she’d fight them, often ending up bruised herself. But the thieves, fearing she’d make a scene, stopped coming.

Her actions offended those looking to take advantage, so they turned the tables, claiming she was the thief, and the Tang family believed it.

The original owner thought, since she was already labeled a thief, why guard the garden for free and get a bad name? So, after guarding, she’d take some vegetables as payment.

Later, when Tang Haogen joined the yamen, people feared he’d retaliate, so they stopped stealing. The original owner went from guarding frequently to only a few times a month.

Though her stealing caused some losses, it was less severe than before, so Tang Haogen and Tang Zhi turned a blind eye.

But Tang Zhi never thought the original owner’s actions were right. She worried the owner might get addicted to stealing and target others. So, whenever she caught her, Tang Zhi would scold her at the Song family’s door, partly to vent her frustration and partly to wake her up from petty theft.

—

Except for neighbors who never stole from the Tang family and felt at ease, many who had stolen early on and were caught or chased off by the original owner looked embarrassed and uneasy.

They thought the matter was forgotten after two years, assuming the Tang siblings didn’t know and wouldn’t pursue it. But the Tang siblings knew everything, just held back until now, giving everyone a wake-up call.

People glanced at Song Yuyan, their minds filled with guilt, doubt, or relief. The deep-rooted bias against her seemed to shift slightly in this thief-catching drama.

At the same time, those who thought the Tang siblings were kind and weak, unlikely to pursue thieves, saw their hopes vanish with Chen Erming’s capture. No one would dare assume the Tang family wouldn’t get serious.

“You troublemaker, it’s you, you ruined our Erlang!” Chen Erming’s parents rushed toward Song Yuyan, wanting to scratch her.

Tang Zhi stepped in front of Song Yuyan, blocking them.

She regained her old fire, hands on hips, scolding, “If you do wrong, you’ll pay for it. You two aren’t dead yet, and it’s not like no one taught him right! If you don’t teach him, others will make him learn! Instead of cursing here, go home, check the laws, and think about how to defend him at the yamen!”

Chen Erming’s parents were furious. If Tang Haogen hadn’t been there, they might have attacked Tang Zhi too.

Someone advised, “Go pay for the vegetables. Maybe the Tang family will let it go if there’s no loss!”

Hearing this, Chen Erming’s parents stopped bothering Song Yuyan and hurried home to get money for Tang Haogen, hoping he’d release Chen Erming.

The crowd, seeing how the matter ended, went home in a daze. When the onlookers dispersed, only the three Song siblings and the Tang sisters remained at the Song family’s gate.

Compared to Song Yuban and Song Yuzhuan, who didn’t fully understand Tang Zhi’s words, Tang Ye reacted like the crowd, as her brother and sister never told her the full story of Song Yuyan’s vegetable stealing.

Even now, knowing it, she couldn’t grasp how her brother and sister felt about Song Yuyan. “Sister…”

Tang Zhi picked up her pole and bucket and headed home. “The matter’s settled. No one should be bold enough to steal again for now. Let’s go home!”

“Miss Tang,” Song Yuyan called to stop her. “Thank you!”

“Thank what? You came up with this plan,” Tang Zhi said.

Song Yuyan smiled helplessly. “Miss Tang knows why I’m thanking you.”

If Tang Zhi hadn’t mentioned the past, Song Yuyan wouldn’t have known that Tang Zhi saw everything the original owner did.

Song Yuyan wasn’t sure if the original owner was truly gone, but if she was still around, she should see this and know that while everyone remembered her bad side, someone saw her good side too.