“Qin Wenbang, consider these supplies I’ve taken as compensation for tricking me into buying that house.”
At the doorway, Qin Wenqiang stood with his hands on his hips, laughing wildly.
Qin Wenbang was so furious that he threw a punch and charged at him. Second Uncle Qin and Second Aunt Qin weren’t about to let Qin Wenqiang off either. One grabbed a broom, the other a dustpan, and they joined the fray.
The scene, which had been calm for less than a minute, erupted once again.
This time, the onlookers were filled with envy, jealousy, and resentment. When they had arrived, they had said that even if Qin Wenqiang got his revenge, it wouldn’t matter—the money had already been spent by Qin Wenbang’s family. Who would have thought the kid had a space and had used it to snatch all the supplies Qin Wenbang had prepared?
“The heavens really have no eyes!” Second Aunt’s voice sounded from the side. Qin Sang turned to see her muttering with a few other elderly women. “Someone as unfilial as Qin Wenqiang gets a space, while so many good people in our village don’t.”
As she said this, Second Aunt’s expression was very conflicted.
Qin Sang’s heart skipped a beat. Second Aunt wasn’t thinking of revealing the secret of jade spaces, was she?
Besides, Qin Wenqiang didn’t actually have a space. The space belonged to the young woman cowering in the corner—the one who was said to be Qin Wenqiang’s girlfriend.
Qin Sang was baffled by Qin Wenqiang’s actions. What was this guy trying to do?
Meanwhile, Qin Wenqiang, having secured the supplies, grabbed his girlfriend and ran home, leaving his parents and the relatives who had come to help him behind.
The scene fell silent again.
Brother Fa then quipped, “See? See? This is exactly how Qin Wenqiang is. When we were kids, he’d get us to fight his battles, and then if things went south, he’d run off. This kind of rat isn’t worth helping.”
Qin Sang wasn’t from the same age group as Qin Wenqiang, but she had heard about his character. She just felt sorry for Fourth Uncle and Fourth Aunt Qin. To have such a son.
The onlookers scorned his behavior, and the relatives who had come to help were furious, cursing him out. Fourth Uncle and Fourth Aunt Qin could only apologize with kind words.
Seeing this, Second Aunt Qin wanted to charge at them again, but the village chief stopped her. Any more fighting, and someone might get killed.
“Village chief! Qin Wenqiang just robbed us! We need to call the police. Yes, yes—son, go call the police right now.”
The village chief didn’t stop them. “Go ahead, call them.” This behavior of stealing things and stashing them in a space had to be curbed. Otherwise, the village would become unstable.
After spending the afternoon with the community workers, the village chief had learned a lot. He heard that on average, seven or eight out of every hundred people had a space. The probability was too high.
Knowing this made him uneasy. He realized he needed not only to turn his home into a fortress but also to equip it with all kinds of locks.
Fortunately, these people with spaces couldn’t teleport objects from a distance.
The police arrived quickly. Hearing that a space had been used to steal supplies, the Natural Disaster Response Management Bureau sent two team members to follow up.
Now things had really escalated!
——
Qin Wenqiang was quickly arrested by the police. The onlookers, including Qin Sang, were all questioned one by one. When they mentioned that Qin Wenqiang had stolen an entire houseful of supplies, many people’s eyes turned red.
But the two team members from the bureau took out a device that looked like a compass and aimed it at Qin Wenqiang.
Seeing this, Qin Sang focused intently on the compass. She noticed that it, too, carried a faint energy field. She didn’t know what it was made of, but it was probably like the security checkpoint—capable of detecting whether a person had a space.
Then, the taller of the two team members, holding the compass, said to Qin Wenqiang, “You don’t have a space.”
“How is that possible?” The onlookers were shocked.
Second Aunt Qin shrieked, “Impossible! I saw with my own eyes that good-for-nothing Qin Wenqiang come into my house, and then all the supplies on the first floor disappeared.”
The taller team member nodded at Second Aunt Qin, then looked directly at Qin Wenqiang. “Tell us, who actually took the supplies?”
Qin Wenqiang turned pale when questioned.
Just then, Fourth Aunt Qin spoke up loudly, “It must be on Manman!”
Everyone was stunned. Just ten minutes ago, they had witnessed Qin Wenqiang charging through like a conqueror. Now, it suddenly came to light that the space wasn’t his. The more they thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.
Some police officers had already gone to Qin Wenqiang’s house to find this “Manman.” But then an even more dramatic turn occurred.
Manman, who had run back with Qin Wenqiang, had actually fled.
“Where could she be running off to in the middle of the night?” Qin Sang wondered aloud.
She was genuinely curious. Manman had left Second Uncle’s house around the same time they did. How had she vanished so quickly? It was late at night, and the village roads were packed with parked cars. Qin Wenqiang’s small car wouldn’t be easy to drive out.
“She probably escaped on an e-bike!” Mom Qin said with the air of experience.
By this point, half an hour had passed since Manman’s escape was discovered. Qin Sang and her mother had already returned home and were telling Dad Qin all about the night’s drama.
“I heard the police have issued a wanted notice. Manman can run, but she can’t hide. Qin Wenqiang, though—he’s the one really suffering. He got scammed out of all those supplies and now he’s been arrested for robbery.”
Mom Qin sighed at the absurdity of the night’s events.
Qin Sang felt the same. Manman probably hadn’t planned to run at first. But with so many supplies—supplies that could tempt anyone—she must have decided that taking them home would be far more comfortable than staying in this unfamiliar village.
The village group chat was flooded with people mocking Qin Wenqiang. Served him right for always looking down on the villagers. But there were also those concerned about the compass-like device the bureau team members had used, impressed that it could detect who had a space.
Some had even filmed the incident and posted the video online.
——
The next morning, Qin Sang was up at seven.
She pulled open the curtains and looked at the sun, which seemed to have grown a bit larger. She sighed silently. First, she checked the day’s temperature on her phone. Good grief. It was already 43 degrees. The forecast predicted the temperature would soar to 50 degrees around 2 p.m., with ground temperatures possibly exceeding 60 degrees. A deep-red heat warning had been issued, along with a notice advising people to stay indoors in the afternoon.
Qin Sang wondered: with ground temperatures that high, could car tires even withstand it?
Just as she was about to put down her phone and wash up, she noticed that the video the villagers had uploaded the day before had gone viral.
Under the video, many people were tagging the management bureau, asking if the compass-like device could detect who had a space. If so, they demanded a public list of space holders.
Even more people expressed fear of space holders, worried that they might follow Manman’s example—breaking into people’s homes, stealing their supplies, and running off, thereby cutting off an entire family’s lifeline.
Others begged to know how to get a space. So many people had spaces—why not them?
In any case, the video had brought out all kinds of people.
By the time Qin Sang left for work, the management bureau had yet to respond.
Yes, Qin Sang had found a part-time job: helping the village verify all household registration information.
The day before, Director He from the community office had gone around with the village chief before heading off to other villages. The village chief wanted the patrol team to continue the work, but the team also had to maintain order in the village—many shops were still open.
So Brother Fa suggested hiring a few people to help, and he had pushed Qin Sang onto the team.
The work would be tiring and unpaid in cash, but it paid in points. The points were allocated by the community office. Qin Sang heard that similar arrangements existed in other urban villages and residential areas.
She was very satisfied with this. It would not only allow her to stay informed about the village’s situation but also earn her these points—which, for now, had no clear use.
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