The County Magistrate's mansion wasn't large, and they quickly found the storeroom.
Tsk, what decent household leaves their storeroom unlocked? Isn't this like openly advertising "No silver here"? It's practically telling people they can wander around freely without worry.
As the father-daughter duo expected, the storeroom contained only items befitting a County Magistrate's standard use.
Chang'an didn't let it go; even a small fly is still meat.
To find the real storeroom, Chang'an and Old Gu Six searched the entire county mansion, nearly getting caught by the housekeeper who got up in the night.
They took anything of value from the places they explored, and finally found a cellar in a woodshed.
This cellar was more than twice the size of the small one they'd found in the Prefecture Governor's Mansion, proving that you can't judge by appearances, whether it's people or places.
A shabby exterior doesn't mean true poverty. Besides gold, silver, and jewels, there was even grain in the cellar?
Who stores things like this? Couldn't they dig a few more holes?
Without bothering to count the money, Chang'an waved her small hand, and all the gold, silver, and jewels were stored in her space, placed on the third floor of the villa along with what they'd taken from the Prefecture Governor's Mansion.
"Dad, should we take this grain too?"
Old Gu Six untied two sacks and grabbed a handful of rice to examine. "It's new rice, daughter. Let's take it all. It's not like any of this was honestly acquired anyway, so it doesn't matter who eats it."
Sixty to seventy sacks of rice, totaling six to seven thousand jin, were all stored in the warehouse of the space villa. Chang'an sighed in relief, feeling that the burden of supporting Old Gu Six had lightened considerably.
After collecting everything and leaving the cellar, Chang'an thought about how they'd need to build a house when they settled down. She hadn't considered it last time at the Prefecture Governor's Mansion.
Now that she'd thought of it, why not take some roof tiles into the space?
"Dad, let's go to the County Magistrate's courtyard."
Chang'an patted Old Gu Six's hand, and he picked her up, leaping towards the main courtyard where the County Magistrate lived.
The main courtyard was the best and largest in the entire County Magistrate's mansion, with even the roof tiles newer than those in other courtyards.
Then Old Gu Six watched as his daughter took all the roof tiles from the main courtyard.
"Dad, go knock out the County Magistrate. Let's tie him up and hang him on the city wall."
Old Gu Six did as told, while Chang'an entered the County Magistrate's room and took all his valuables.
She wanted to strip him of everything, but the space wouldn't allow it. The villa was only 600 square meters, so she couldn't take too much. She had to choose only useful and valuable items.
In the end, she also took more than ten flowerpots, throwing away the flowers and just keeping the pots and soil.
Chang'an thought the bluestone slabs in the courtyard were nice and could be used to pave their future home's courtyard, so the main courtyard's bluestone slabs were also pried up and taken.
Remembering that their big pot at home had a hole, Chang'an dragged Old Gu Six to the kitchen. There were two large pots and two small ones; she stored them all in her space.
The two chopping boards looked sturdy, and the kitchen knives were well-sharpened, clearly good blades. She took them all.
There weren't any ingredients, probably because they'd buy fresh ones the next day, but she could take the two grass carp kept in the water vat.
She might as well take the vat too. They could use it in their new home's kitchen to keep fish.
Thinking there was nothing else worth taking, Old Gu Six hoisted the unconscious old County Magistrate over one shoulder and picked up Chang'an with his other hand as they left the County Magistrate's mansion.
There were guards patrolling the city wall. Old Gu Six used the same trick as before, knocking out all the guards.
Then he instructed Chang'an, "Daughter, you wait here. I'll go tie him up."
Chang'an wanted to participate, but seeing Old Gu Six seemingly stripping the County Magistrate's clothes, leaving him with only a loincloth, she withdrew the foot she had stretched out.
In less than a quarter of an hour, Old Gu Six had the County Magistrate tied up. The father-daughter duo quickly left the scene, leaving the County Magistrate wearing only a loincloth, swinging like a pendulum in the cold wind outside the city tower.
Early the next morning, people entering and leaving the city saw the County Magistrate hanging in mid-air, frozen purple-blue, barely breathing.
The city guards frantically pulled up the County Magistrate, who kept slipping in and out of consciousness, untied him, and hurriedly sent him back to the County Magistrate's mansion to call for a doctor.
The commoners below were in an uproar.
Commoner A: "I think I just saw the County Magistrate hanging from the city tower."
Commoner B: "I think I saw it too. Could our eyes be playing tricks on us? It's high up there, we might have mistaken someone else for him."
Commoner C: "Impossible, that was definitely the County Magistrate. My eyesight is excellent."
...
By mid-morning, news of the County Magistrate's mansion being robbed and the County Magistrate being hung from the city tower had spread throughout the entire county, and was still expanding outward.
With the County Magistrate unconscious, the private advisor had no choice but to order people to catch the thieves.
But the thieves they were trying to catch had already left Hualan County. Chang'an had given Old Gu Six another disguise. Now he looked like a sickly father with a waxy yellow complexion, and Chang'an was a daughter with an otherworldly face.
Old Gu Six looked at his daughter's face and laughed all morning, shaking as if he had Parkinson's disease, which matched his sickly appearance quite well.
Thinking of the dozen or so large flowerpots they'd taken, Chang'an entered her space. She wanted to see if she could grow vegetables in the flowerpots within the space.
She didn't have many vegetable seeds, just some broccoli, Chinese cabbage, and cucumber seeds that her grandmother had bought when she was alive. They were several years old now, and she wasn't sure if they were still viable.
In their previous life, half of their villa's garden was vegetables grown by her grandmother, and half was flowers grown by her grandfather.
This space villa didn't bring the garden with it, which wasn't perfect.
She started seedlings for all three types of vegetables to see if they would grow. She also took out two sweet potatoes to start as seedlings. Whether they'd bear fruit or not was beside the point; sweet potato leaves could be eaten as vegetables.
Chang'an wasn't very good at growing vegetables. Although she had helped her grandmother before, she only started helping after the vegetables had already grown.
After finishing her work in the space, Chang'an came out.
At this time, they were passing through a bamboo forest. Chang'an called for Old Gu Six to stop. "Dad, let's not continue today. There's a lot of bamboo here. Let's cut some bamboo and make some things before we go."
"Alright, it is indeed rare to find such well-grown bamboo."
They put away the carriage and the father-daughter pair led the mule into the bamboo forest. From the other side of the bamboo forest, the sound of flowing water reached their ears. Following the sound, they came upon a clear small river.
"Let's set up a tent by this small river," Chang'an said, taking out two sickles to help clear the surrounding weeds and pebbles.
Using bamboo as support poles and oilcloth as tent material, they built a 20-square-meter tent, securing the edges with stones.
They first cut bamboo to make two single bamboo beds, then used bamboo to build a small shed outside the tent to serve as a kitchen. They made a simple bamboo fence, completing the basic living facilities.
The father-daughter pair began to cut bamboo and make things. First, they wove three backpacks and six pairs of baskets for carrying grain. You can't have baskets without carrying poles, right?
After finishing the baskets, they started making carrying poles. Old Gu Six did most of the weaving work, while Chang'an alternated between practicing her skills, cutting bamboo, and preparing three meals a day.
While they were living contentedly here, the Hualan County Magistrate was going mad trying to find the thieves. His life's savings had disappeared overnight.
This pained him even more than being hung from the city tower for a night. His usual amiable and cultured demeanor was long gone.
"Get out, you useless lot!"
An inkstone flew and hit the private advisor's forehead, knocking him out cold, showing just how forcefully it had been thrown.
Meanwhile, Chang'an and her Old Gu Six were thoroughly enjoying making bamboo crafts, feeling like they couldn't stop.
Bamboo chairs, rocking chairs, they made it all.
One day, as Chang'an was washing bamboo tubes in the river to use for making bamboo tube rice, a person wearing brocade robes floated down from upstream, face down and back up.
