Chapter 672: On the Roof

They were already some distance away before Ah Guang asked in a low voice, "I caught a bit of wind about this before — what Lin Ji does for a living doesn't seem quite on the up-and-up."

"Shh, why do you care about other people's business? It's got nothing to do with us. We're just ordinary folks — let people do whatever they want."

"I was just curious, asking, that's all. There's no one else around anyway."

Ah Zheng asked curiously too, "What's not on the up-and-up about him? Didn't they say he helps his uncle — or is it his maternal uncle — receive goods and do hauling at the dock in town? That's why he's got a few steady workers carrying sacks under him."

Xiao Xiao also said, "That's what I heard too, which is why everyone used to see him coming and going with his workers all the time and didn't think it was strange."

"Maybe so, no need to guess. Whether he's on the up-and-up or not, what's it got to do with us? We've still got real business of our own. We're almost there — stop talking."

Ye Yaodong looked at the house now in the distance, eased up on his pedaling, and changed the subject.

A ruthless character who could chop a man's hand off was already beyond the scope of ordinary people's brawls. Better to keep their distance — among friends, the less contact with him the better.

Keeping a respectful distance also cut down on trouble. He'd just barely maintain a nodding acquaintance with the man, that was enough.

Ah Guang also slowed his pedaling at the same time, riding alongside him. The two bicycles went parallel, then one behind the other, and both pulled over at a nearby corner by the road. They didn't stop right at the Wang family's door — they figured walking over was safer.

Who parks their bike right at someone's front door when they're up to no good?

Don't they all park at a bit of a distance? So people don't see them and get suspicious, and so it's harder to be caught with evidence.

They picked up their bamboo baskets, lightened their steps, and slowly made their way toward the row of stone houses ahead.

Coastal fishing villages don't have much land, so everyone's houses are built in terraces — that way they save the stone for one wall. So basically none of them have courtyards, just a little private plot in front and behind the house for growing some vegetables, plus a small piece of land from the household contract responsibility system.

If they wanted more land to farm, they'd have to go up the mountain and reclaim some slope themselves — whoever reclaimed it got to farm it, and no one would fight over it.

"Shh~"

When they got to the Wang family's row of houses, front and back, they raised a finger to their lips and let out a soft "shh."

Ah Zheng couldn't wait; he felt along the window beside the front door and whispered, "The windows seem to be all shut tight?"

Xiao Xiao: "Then what do we do?"

Ah Zheng: "Check the gap under the door?"

Ah Guang frowned and whispered, "Terrible idea — the gap under the front door and the gap under an interior door are the same thing?"

"The gap under the front door's no good either. Even if you squeeze in through the front door gap, you'd end up in the main hall — who knows where you'd end up?" Ye Yaodong explained.

"I'll go check the side windows and the back door window to see if any are open?" Ah Zheng said, and immediately circled the house.

The others followed and circled it too.

To everyone's disappointment, the Wangs had all the windows locked — not a single one left open.

Everyone's brows furrowed.

Ah Zheng shrugged and spread his hands. "It just isn't hot enough yet. If it were a little hotter, they'd all be sleeping with the windows open."

Every household's windows had steel bars installed — one by one, set vertically across the window — so they didn't have to worry about thieves climbing in if they slept with the windows open at night. But there were no screens at this time.

"We went through all that trouble catching this snake, don't tell me we can't get it in — all that work for nothing?" Xiao Xiao drew lines on the wall with a stick, feeling glum.

"Not entirely for nothing — at least we can take it home and stew it! Um… stew it ahead of time… take it to Fatty's place now and it can go straight into the pot…"

Nobody paid any attention to Ah Zheng's talk of putting it straight in the pot — who would willingly let all that effort go to waste?

Ah Guang also felt it was a bit of a pickle. "Bad call — everything's shut up tight. What do we do?"

Everyone looked at Ye Yaodong — after all, he was the one who wanted to mess with the Wang family. Now that the snake couldn't be thrown in, they had to see what he'd say.

And Ye Yaodong at that moment was looking up at the roof, measuring the height with his eyes.

At this time, the stone houses in the countryside weren't built very tall — a stretch of houses, all low, and only one story. The tiles on top could be seen scattered and uneven.

"What are you doing, Dongzi?"

Seeing his expression, the others all looked up too.

"The roof?"

"The roof?"

"You're not thinking of climbing onto the roof, are you?"

The three of them spoke up at the same time, all arriving at the same thought.

Ye Yaodong rubbed his chin. "The roof isn't that high."

"There's no ladder. We'd have to go home and get one?"

"We don't need a ladder. Isn't there a cart by the front door? Push it over, stand it up against the wall, you guys help steady it, and I climb up — wouldn't that work?"

The roof was triangular, and the eaves were only a little over two meters off the ground. At his height of one meter eighty, he didn't even need to stand on the cart — standing on a few of their shoulders would be enough to lift him up.

But they were each short enough already — stepping on them… they'd get even more compressed. What if it affected the next generation?

Ah Zheng snapped his fingers in delight. "Right! Lift the tiles off the roof and drop it down from above."

"Dropping it from above, you can pick the spot — dead accurate. Brilliant~" Xiao Xiao excitedly slapped his thigh.

"Shh shh~ Keep it down. Don't let anyone hear. It's not that late yet — they might not be sound asleep. Keep the noise to a minimum."

"Shh shh!"

The three of them put their index fingers to their lips at the same time, not daring to speak again.

Ye Yaodong got straight to work. "You guys wait under the eaves on the side — I'll go push the cart over."

They usually left the cart by the door and didn't worry about it being stolen, because they all marked theirs. At worst, someone would borrow it and return it.

That made it convenient for him to make use of — borrow from anyone, why not?

Right~ He was just borrowing it and would return it. This was called taking from the people, using for the people — nothing wrong with that.

Ye Yaodong eagerly pushed the cart, keeping the noise down as much as possible, and pushed it to the corner of the side wall.

"Why not take the stuff on top off first?"

"Same thing — if we take it off here, we can just put it back on when we're done and push it back. Otherwise, pushing it back and then loading the odds and ends on top would be too rushed."

"You really do think things through!"

The brothers worked together to take the rope and the useless sticks and such off the top of the cart, and set them aside in a corner first.

Then they worked together, gently standing the cart upright and leaning it against the wall.

"Hold it steady, a little more steady."

"Don't worry, go ahead."

"Ptooey ptooey~"

Ye Yaodong spat twice into his palm, then rubbed his hands together before gripping both sides of the cart, ready to climb up.

But just as he stepped up with his right foot, he suddenly realized—he didn't dare catch snakes.

He'd have to climb onto the roof while holding the bamboo basket—what if he accidentally tipped it out?

He twisted his head around to look at Aguang, "Comrade Aguang, Comrade Shunzi, can you go up?"

Aguang glared. "Why does it always have to be me? The snakes you want me to catch, the roof you want me to climb, and later you'll want me to collect them too? All the work goes to me, what do you do? What good are you?"

"Uh~ it's just that I'm afraid when I climb up, if I don't hold it properly and it spills out, and I don't dare catch them anyway, wouldn't that be all for nothing?"

"I've had it with you. The lid on top is sealed tight. Just tie the rope on the bamboo basket to your waistband—how could it fall?"

Trying to trick him into working again—no way!

"The roof isn't easy to walk on, who can say for sure, and there are two bamboo baskets. How about you come up too? One person pouring one would be faster. Otherwise, after pouring one basket, we'd have to move to another spot to pour, and if it takes effect too quickly, I won't even have time to climb down from the roof before the whole place erupts in chaos. What if we get caught red-handed? If I can't run, don't even think about running yourselves!"

If you took out that last sentence, the rest actually made a lot of sense.

It was far more reliable than his earlier excuse about the bamboo basket tipping over and the snakes running out, and him not daring to catch them.

"Then you go up too, Aguang. Two people, one basket each, each pick a room to pour into. Faster."

"The sooner it's poured, the sooner done, then we can hide on the side and watch the show."

Aguang rolled his eyes at them—those two atmosphere-makers only knew how to talk, just flapping their lips.

Still, two people going up really would be faster, in case the reaction was too intense and they didn't have time to clean up.

"Then tie one basket on each of you, you go up first."

"Alright, our Brother Guangzi is still the brave and loyal one!"

Having achieved his goal, Ye Yaodong contentedly tied one bamboo basket to his waist, then carefully climbed up. "You two hold it steady."

"Don't worry, if you fall, we'll take care of you for the rest of your life!"

"Ptooey! Shut up, keep it down, we're thieves, got it?"

What time is it already and still talking so much? Really unreliable!

Ye Yaodong held onto the cart, and with their human-powered assistance, stepped onto the very top. Luckily he was tall enough—standing at the highest point, even with nothing to grab onto, he easily climbed up onto the roof.

The moment he stepped down made a bit of a loud noise. He stopped in place, paused for a moment, then waved at Ah Zheng down below to signal him to come up. Then he himself carefully shuffled forward a few steps to make room for Aguang to stand.

He also gave him a tug along the way, helping him stand up smoothly.

Aguang carefully hunched over, standing on the roof, and said in a tiny voice: "Wasn't that too much noise?"

"It's fine. Even if they heard it, they'd just think it was a rat scurrying by."

Aguang nodded—there were often rats scurrying on their own roof too.

"Be careful, walk forward. Their room should be over there. Each of you find a spot, lift a tile, and pour it in."

After saying that, Ye Yaodong tiptoed over first, trying to be as careful as possible and not make any noise.

After crawling past the highest point of the roof, he found a spot he figured should be over the room, and carefully lifted up a small piece of tile.

But when he was about to pour, he found that the mouth of the bamboo basket was bigger than the opening he'd made by lifting the tile, which startled him so badly his hands shook and he pulled the basket back.

The opening was so small—if he missed and poured it on the roof, he'd scare himself half to death.