Chapter 112: Chapter 109: Capsized in the Gutter

Lin Lan’s mind raced as her strength slowly returned. She gently opened her bedroom door and tiptoed to the kitchen. Once behind the kitchen door, she immediately saw a thin, gleaming blade sticking through the crack. It was constantly fiddling with the door latch, trying hard to push it open.

Recalling the words Liu Jinbao had thrown at her after he was ambushed and stuffed in a sack, she was sure the thief outside had to be that bastard Liu Jinbao. He must have found out Lin Yuezhen had gone back home for the Ghost Festival and snuck into the yard to get his revenge.

’What should I do?’ During the Ghost Festival, every household honors their ancestors. After the rituals, they all drink and chat together. It was now past two in the morning, the dead of night when everyone was sound asleep.

’If I scream my lungs out in here, no one will probably hear me. I could go out the back door! But what if someone’s waiting there too? Wouldn’t that be walking right into a trap?’

’If only I had a cell phone!’

Lin Lan gritted her teeth at the thought. ’It’s better to rely on myself than on others,’ she thought. ’I’ve placed a door bar under the crossbeam behind both doors. Even if that son of a bitch manages to slide the latch open…’

’…the door bar will hold. He’ll only be able to push it open enough to squeeze one hand through. When he reaches in to remove the bar…’

Having made up her mind, Lin Lan gently propped a wooden club under the crossbeam and pulled the knife from her pocket.

Perhaps because it was a critical moment, Lin Lan, standing behind the door with the knife in hand, felt both nervous and excited. A cold light glinted in her dark eyes.

She watched the thin blade fiddling with the latch, running through the plan in her mind over and over. ’How should I strike?’

Her hand, gripping the knife tightly, began to feel cold.

The man outside worked the latch with caution and immense patience. He could feel it slowly sliding outward with each flick of the thin blade.

With a CLICK, the latch fell from its groove. Lin Lan heard the man outside let out a soft, pleased sigh.

A triumphant joy spread across the man’s face outside. He grabbed the handle and gave a light push, but the door didn’t swing wide open as he’d expected. Something was blocking it from the inside.

He figured it must be a door bar and cursed under his breath. He stuck the blade into the back of his waistband and, bracing both hands on the door, pushed hard, forcing it open by about half a foot.

He turned sideways, squatted down, and squeezed his right hand through the gap, reaching for where the door bar would be.

The moment his entire hand was through the gap, Lin Lan clamped down on it, pinning it against the door panel. In the blink of an eye, she summoned all her strength and plunged the knife down, nailing the intruder’s palm to the wooden crossbeam.

The man outside was suddenly grabbed by a cold hand. Thinking it was Old Yang’s ghost, he was scared out of his wits. He tried to pull his hand back, but a piercing pain shot through him. He realized his palm had been pinned to the door by a sharp object.

“AHH— AHH—” A bloodcurdling scream tore through the silent night sky. Then, remembering what he was doing, he quickly bit his lip, his body trembling in agony.

Using his uninjured hand to support the wounded one, he slowly sat down to rest for a moment. He planned to endure the pain, break down the door, and then deal with that bitch. He had thought Lin Lan was just a bit feistier than the average woman; he never dreamed she would actually dare to use a knife, let alone have one ready in the house.

He cursed himself for misjudging her, for capsizing his boat in a gutter.

A moment later, the thief slammed his body against the door. The movement tugged on his pinned hand, and a cold sweat broke out on his brow as he screamed in agony again.

He didn’t dare to ram the door again. He stayed half-squatting, not daring to move, and began to beg for mercy in a pleading voice, “Ma’am, spare me! I just came to get something to eat. I didn’t have any other ideas.”

’It’s not Liu Jinbao?’ Lin Lan thought.

She secured the door bar again and picked up the wooden club she used for self-defense.

The bloodcurdling screams had woken Little Douzi. Feeling that no one was beside him, he cried out in a panic, “Mama! Mama!”

Lin Lan took a deep breath. “Don’t be scared, sweetie. Mama’s here. Be a good boy while Mama deals with the bad guy.”

Little Douzi scrambled up and pulled the string for the electric light. A dim, soft yellow glow spilled out from the bedroom doorway. “Mama, where are you?”

“Mama’s in the kitchen!” Hearing him get out of bed and put on his shoes, Lin Lan quickly said, “Don’t come over here! Mama’s okay.”

Little Douzi ran barefoot to the bedroom doorway. Seeing Lin Lan standing perfectly fine behind the door, he started to step over the threshold to go to her.

“Don’t move!” Lin Lan glanced at the bloody hand pinned to the door. Not wanting him to see such a gory scene, she quickly shouted, “Be good and go back to sleep, or Mama’s going to get angry.”

The man outside heard this and threatened weakly, “You bitch, let me go right now, or I won’t spare your little brat.”

“Son of a bitch!” Furious, Lin Lan raised the wooden club and slammed it down hard on the knife’s handle. A piercing scream came from outside, followed by silence.

Little Douzi’s eyes went wide. “There’s a bad guy! I’ll help you fight the bad guy!”

“Listen to me!” Lin Lan snapped.

“I won’t!” Tears streamed down Little Douzi’s face, but he stood there stubbornly, refusing to move.

Seeing that no one had come to help after all this time, Lin Lan figured the thief probably didn’t have any accomplices. She turned her head to Little Douzi. “Little Douzi, turn on the light, then go get the flashlight.”

“Okay!” Little Douzi turned and walked toward the bedroom.

Lin Lan dragged the dining table over to barricade the door, then brought over the long bench from the stove to brace the table. She scooped up Little Douzi, opened the back door, then the back gate, and ran to Li Guizhi’s house, pounding on their door.

“Sister Li, open up! It’s me, Lin Lan! Sister Guizhi…”

Li Guizhi groggily heard the shouting and nudged her husband. “Listen. Is someone shouting outside?”

Zhang Rongqing perked up his ears to listen, then rolled over and sat up. “It’s Lin Lan from next door!”

Li Guizhi heard it clearly now too. “Something must have happened for her to be out this late.” As she spoke, she switched on the electric light, threw on some clothes, opened her door, ran to the courtyard gate, and opened it.

Zhang Rongqing ran out right behind her.

When Lin Lan saw the couple, she said in a panicked voice, “Sister Li, there was a thief at my house! Could I trouble Brother Zhang to go to my great-uncle’s house and get his youngest son?”

“Okay, I’m on my way.” Zhang Rongqing took a flashlight and ran quickly toward Yang Dingbang’s house.

Li Guizhi looked at the terrified mother and son, patted Lin Lan’s arm sympathetically, and asked, “You came over, but did the thief get away?”

Lin Lan nodded. “He’s outside the kitchen door. I… I don’t know what happened to my Dahuang.”

Hearing this, Little Douzi buried his face in her shoulder and started to cry. “Mama… Dahuang… WAAAH…”

At the thought of Dahuang, Lin Lan’s nose stung, and tears welled up in her own eyes. “Don’t cry. We’ll go check on Dahuang after Uncle gets here.”

Li Guizhi closed her gate and walked back with the mother and son, her voice a mix of admiration and pity. “Lin Lan, you’re so bold. A thief comes, and you dare to fight him with a knife. What would you have done if something had gone wrong!”

“I was pushed to the brink, I had no choice. I was afraid someone was guarding the back door, so all I could do was fight.”

Once inside, Lin Lan, worried that Li Guizhi would be scared, handed Little Douzi to her. She walked to the kitchen door and saw that the thief’s hand was still nailed to the panel. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhang Rongqing reached the back door of Yang Dingbang’s house and started pounding on it, shouting loudly.

Hearing the shouts, Yang Dingbang turned on the light, got out of bed, and walked through the main hall. He saw the light was on in the old matriarch’s room and went to her doorway. “Grandma, who’s that shouting outside?”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep