Chapter 1149 - 1146: Reunion Night

"I don't know, maybe someone set this up as a trap..."

"With that pile of criminal record stuffed in their pants, even if they begged a snakehead to smuggle them out, the snakehead wouldn't dare take their money."

Chen Nian looked completely lost, glanced around and said what she knew.

The gang that came at night to chop her up belonged to a Chinese financial-crime gang; their boss had been conveniently taken out when Chen Nian was clearing undercover agents in that gang.

Right now this is Xia Country; if it were in Ahmei, those assassins wouldn't even have been able to get close to Chen Nian.

The instant they stepped through the door, they'd have dropped dead on the spot from acute copper poisoning, and afterward the coroner's conclusion would only be: trace amounts of human tissue found inside the copper.

"Woof woof, woof!"

Before Ansheng could speak, Ah Bai, sitting in the driver's seat, rolled down the window, looked at Chen Nian in open displeasure, and let out a rapid string of barks, expression full of contempt.

Can you actually handle this, you idiot? If you can't, go to one of those hospitals and get your ethnic-blood-composition tested.

Even I know our ancestral craft is that when you cut the weeds, you pull up the roots too. Once you catch an enemy, you wipe out their whole clan no matter what!

Speak, are you an overseas spy!

"The fuck, who are you insulting here!" Hearing Ah Bai speak human, Chen Nian was instantly pissed into laughter.

"I already said they're in financial crime. Gang members are scattered all over the map. The only reason I could kill their head was because that dumbass bought the apartment next door to me..."

"If their tech level were even a bit lower, I could chop their house's earthworms lengthwise and shake the yolk right out of their eggs."

High-tech crime and financial crime don't need any fixed base at all—if you've got a computer you can go to work, at most you set up a little workstation.

Some of them aren't even in Ahmei. Being able to take down the organization's leader was still only because that guy had ties to the FBI and I traced him back along that vine.

"Woof..." Ah Bai curled his lip; he felt like Chen Nian made a bit of sense, but her ability was still lacking.

Don't you see, when overseas forces offended Brother Fuli, Brother Fuli hopped in a plane overnight and flew over to sit on their face.

"As long as nobody's hurt, we don't need to call the cops yet. Catch them, hang them at the ancestral hall gate to dry till New Year, then we talk."

Ansheng cut off Ah Bai and Chen Nian's bickering, his face pensive as he spoke.

People who absolutely shouldn't appear here somehow ran all the way to Changxi Town to chase and hack at Chen Nian.

Putting this together with Bulina and the Spirit Beast incident on the commercial street, it wasn't hard to see this was just the Mayflower Organization's tactic of stretching thin the enemy—used to disperse Security Bureau and public security forces, as one link in their prison-break plan.

But this was about the extent of their capabilities.

It's just a prison break to rescue people; they're not trying to rip all masks off yet.

Otherwise, national-level forces together with the Landlord of Longevity could sandwich them like a club sandwich and pound away.

"Hang them at the ancestral hall gate?"

"We might not have room for that." Old Chen looked embarrassed as he spoke to Master Fuli. "We've already got people hanging there..."

"Hm?" Ansheng froze when he heard that.

"Seven failed the exam, five got hung for tearing the tiles off the roof, two for being unfilial, and there are three empty spots that might be taken soon." Old Chen counted off on his fingers for Master Fuli to hear; the ancestral hall was kind of overloaded.

"Then why the hell are you still catching thieves—go to the next village and grab their Fengshui Master!" Ansheng's face went dark as he cursed:

"Pick an auspicious day, bring out the Chen Clan's Grand Ancestor's coffin, and kindly ask the old man to change to a different sleeping position."

"......"

Old Chen nodded awkwardly. The thought had crossed his mind; he'd just felt it wasn't necessary.

Ansheng sat back down in the car and guided Ah Bai, who was driving, back home.

"Be careful on the road. Once you're home, remember to drop a word on WeChat."

Ah Qing, having seen to the drunken Qiu Lingling, walked to the passenger side, lifted the little fox out, and reminded Ah Bai as she did.

"Woof!"

Ah Bai answered happily, and also wished Master Fuli and Ah Qing a good night.

The BMW X7 rolled forward, leaving Changxi Town via the road by the farmer's market.

Ah Qing carried the little fox home, first washed the little dirty fox who'd been playing outside all day till he was clean and white, then went to the bathroom to shower herself.

As Ah Qing had just finished showering and stepped out, she saw her mom sitting in the living room and her dad hefting several rebar fishing rods as he hurried out.

"Mom, what's Dad...?"

"Oh... there are thieves in the village. The village chief called the cops, and the security station told us to detain them for now. Every household—if you've got iron pipes, donate iron pipes; if you've got rebar, donate rebar. We're building a cage for those dog thieves. It's a law-based society now; we can't beat them into fish balls like before." Chen Peipei popped a piece of fish tofu in her mouth as she casually explained Ah Qing's confusion.

Back in the day, if someone made trouble in a same-surname clan village, then as long as you were caught, you'd get righteously mob-beaten.

Life and death were up to fate; wealth and honor were in heaven's hands.

Only now, in a law-based society, some of those former acts of righteousness count as illegal, so nobody does them anymore.

But the initial beating can't be skipped as part of the process, and after that you still have to notify the thieves' families across the river to come pay up.

"Oh... then you two remember to rest early. I've been playing with Xiaolan all day and I'm beat."

Ah Qing answered, preparing to head to her room. After sleeping in tomorrow, she still had to go back to the new house to grab some tea leaves.

Tomorrow was the reunion dinner; they'd be doing ancestor worship. In Changxi Town, ancestor worship was generally held in the ancestral hall.

The ancestor-worship window ran from noon till dusk.

Ah Qing didn't know what time her parents had picked this year for ancestor worship; she just figured she'd go home in the morning, prepare some things, then go visit the Fox Immortal Palace at night.

Ah Qing blew her hair dry and lay on the bed. Seeing the little fox still scrolling on his phone, she lifted her hand, grabbed his big fluffy fox tail, and started kneading it.

"Xiaolan..."

"Mm?"

"I heard from the livestream audience that a fox's tail is super sensitive—kind of like our human 'little bits.'"

"And then?" Ansheng looked at her, face full of confusion.

"You're not embarrassed at all!" Ah Qing's eyes lit up, and she started teasing the little fox with full confidence.

"You know that and you're still groping? Pft, filthy pervert..." Ansheng rolled his eyes and spat at Ah Qing for being a creep.

"Hey..." Ah Qing froze, then scratched her head in annoyed embarrassment.

Night deepened; Ah Qing forcibly hugged the little fox and dragged him under the covers to sleep.

The night passed quietly, no one disturbed them, until the morning firecrackers exploded outside, waking everyone in the house.

"Xiaolan, get up, we're going to raid Dad's treasured tea cabinet..."

Ah Qing, already awake and washed up, patted the little fox who was still sleeping in.

"Mm? We're gonna raid Old Deng's precious stash?" The little fox head of Ansheng poked out from under the quilt.

"We're going over to Sister Lin's tonight as guests, and later we're supposed to swing by the village chief's place to drop off gifts, remember?"

Ah Qing opened the wardrobe to pick clothes, then turned and reminded the little fox.

They were having the reunion dinner tonight. Even though she'd promised Sister Lin she'd bring the little fox over, the schedule was still pretty tight.

They had to make it back before midnight to keep vigil through the year; on the way back, they could sit awhile at the village chief's place.

"Got it! Let me go raid the tea cabinet. I guarantee I'll dig out Old Deng's most valuable tea leaves."

"Be polite and call him Dad today, it's a holiday..."