Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Meanwhile, after shaking off Jang Un-mo, Jang Un-chu returned home.

By coincidence, Old Madam Gang was looking for her.

Jang Un-chu respected Old Madam Gang greatly.

Although Old Madam Gang had initially been unhappy that Jang Un-chu was remarrying, once she entered the household, she treated her the same as the other daughters-in-law.

She never deliberately made things difficult for her.

Later, after seeing that Jang Un-chu had a good temperament, handled things neatly, and seemed to have a harmonious marriage with Gang Jo-hang, Old Madam Gang no longer had any complaints about her.

So when Old Madam Gang said she needed help with something, Jang Un-chu had no reason to refuse.

Besides, she still hadn't told the Gang family about her conflict with Jang Un-mo.

Perhaps it would be better to give them some warning beforehand.

Jang Un-chu followed Old Madam Gang into the room to help her.

The twins who had secretly followed Jang Un-chu felt relieved.

After receiving their mother's instructions and coming toward the Gang household, they had spotted Jang Un-chu along the way.

Seeing that she hadn't gone straight to her room to search for the letters, but had instead been delayed by another matter, eased their tension considerably.

The twins exchanged glances.

Then they moved.

The two children quietly slipped into Jang Un-chu's room.

Jang Un-chu was their aunt.

Perhaps because of her lingering guilt, Jang Un-mo occasionally came to visit her.

The children sometimes came with her.

So there was nothing strange about them knowing where Jang Un-chu's room was.

Once inside, the twins began searching everywhere.

Chests.

Wardrobes.

Any place where something might be hidden.

Elsewhere, Gang Gye had already woken from his nap.

Still drowsy, he lay against the window and watched the two children enter his parents' room.

Zhao Yang and Zhao Shan were both clever little things.

This was also the first time their mother had entrusted them with such an important mission.

Once they entered the room, they moved around quickly, almost enjoying the thrill of a treasure hunt.

Before long, Zhao Yang called out happily,

"Found it."

Zhao Shan hurried over and looked at the letters in her brother's hand.

"Are these the letters Mother meant?"

The two of them were only five years old this year.

They had only recently started learning to read and didn't know many characters yet.

They looked over the letters together, but couldn't understand what was written.

Zhao Yang sounded uncertain.

"Probably? I don't see any other letters in this room."

Zhao Shan nodded, then nervously checked what was happening outside.

"Let's take them to Mother first and let her see. Hurry before we get caught. Otherwise, they might catch us."

"Okay."

Zhao Yang agreed.

Then, suddenly, a voice came from behind them.

"What exactly are you two doing?"

"Ah!"

"Eek!"

The two children screamed in fright and collapsed onto the floor.

Their hearts were pounding so hard that they even clutched their chests.

Gang Gye watched them with the corner of his mouth slightly raised.

Seeing the room his mother kept so tidy turned upside down like it had been robbed was enough to make his blood pressure rise.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have deliberately frightened them.

Originally, Gang Gye hadn't planned to enter the room.

He had intended to wait until the two children found the letters and left on their own.

But while waiting, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

The letters weren't the only valuables in his parents' room.

Their savings were there too.

So was the silver from selling the massage prescription.

If these two children decided to take some silver as a bonus, Gang Gye might genuinely cry.

After thinking about it, he decided to come over and watch them personally.

And what he ended up seeing was the room his mother had carefully organized thrown into complete disorder.

Naturally, he wasn't happy.

Zhao Yang and Zhao Shan were both terrified by Gang Gye's sudden appearance.

They froze in place.

They were still children, after all.

And they had been caught doing something bad in someone else's house.

Of course they were afraid.

But when no adults from the Gang family appeared even after some time passed, their fear gradually faded.

"Let's go."

Zhao Yang glared at Gang Gye and grabbed his sister.

He didn't forget to threaten him either.

"If you tell anyone, I'll beat you every time I see you from now on."

As Zhao Yang passed Gang Gye, he even reached out and shoved him to the ground.

The stinging pain in his palm left Gang Gye speechless.

He genuinely couldn't believe it.

Wait... am I actually being bullied by these kids right now?

Gang Gye watched the two of them leave.

Then he looked down at his scraped palm.

He took a deep breath.

And in the sharp, carrying voice of a small child, he shouted,

"Thief! There are thieves! Everyone, come look!"

As history had proven, people had always loved watching a commotion.

The moment Zhao Yang and Zhao Shan ran out of the Gang family's courtyard, the neighbors came outside to look.

Even people living farther away began poking their heads out.

"Where's the thief?"

Then everyone saw Jang Un-mo's two children frantically running from the Gang household.

They were hiding something in their hands.

Even while running, they kept glancing behind them.

The girl even fell once.

But instead of crying from the pain, she immediately jumped back up and kept running after her brother.

It was completely unlike her usual spoiled, delicate behavior.

Meanwhile, inside the Gang household, Jang Un-chu heard her son's cry and hurried outside.

When she saw Gang Gye on the ground, she rushed over.

"Little Six, what happened? Are you hurt?"

Old Madam Gang and the others also came out of their rooms and gathered around him anxiously.

Gang Gye raised his lightly scraped palm and pouted.

"Brother Zhao Yang pushed me."

"Brother Zhao Yang and Sister Zhao Shan were stealing things from Mother's room, and I happened to catch them."

"Then he pushed me and ran away."

"He also said that if I told anyone, he'd beat me every time he saw me from now on."

In Gang Gye's memories, those two children had always been troublesome.

They were clever and extremely devoted to their mother.

Whenever the heroine suffered some grievance during her conflict with the female supporting character, the twins would come looking for Gang Gye in the original novel to take revenge for their mother.

They might not have beaten him directly, but their verbal threats and hostility were never mild.

For the heroine, it might have seemed satisfying.

But for a weak, quiet child, it had left a considerable shadow.

Jang Un-chu's expression immediately darkened.

She looked toward the gate.

The two children had already run far away.

And in the distance, she could vaguely make out Jang Un-mo and Old Madam Jang as well.

She could guess why Zhao Yang and Zhao Shan had appeared.

But even if she chased after them now, it was already too late.

Jang Un-chu first examined her son's hand.

Then she held it gently and cleaned the wound.

Old Madam Gang followed behind them, cursing nonstop.

"Those rotten little thieves. Their backsides must be itching for a beating."

"What kind of parents raise children to steal from other people's homes every day?"

"I'm going to the Zhao household later to demand an explanation."

Then she remembered to comfort her grandson.

"Does it hurt badly?"

"Don't listen to those little brats threatening you."

"Next time, call Daejang and the others."

"Our family has so many people. Do you think we'd lose a fight?"

"They threatened you, so we should go beat them once too."

"Then they'll know to avoid you whenever they see you."

Gang Gye couldn't help laughing.

"Okay. Thank you, Grandma. I understand."

Madam Oh added,

"Sister-in-law, shouldn't you check what those two stole?"

"You hid the silver properly, right?"

From the way the children had run away, they really seemed to have stolen something.

Madam Oh didn't know how much money the third branch had saved.

But even the eight taels Little Six had earned from selling the massage technique was no small amount.

Gang Gye's injury wasn't actually serious.

He had merely scraped his palm against a stone when he fell, peeling some skin and drawing a little blood.

It looked worse than it was.

Village children were always bumping into things and getting hurt, so it wasn't anything especially alarming.

After treating his wound, Jang Un-chu said,

"I'll go check."

Unless it was nighttime, village households generally didn't lock their front gates.

But silver was important to everyone.

Even in a peaceful village, valuables still had to be hidden carefully.

If someone left silver out in plain sight and some hooligan or mischievous child stole it, regretting it afterward would be useless.

Jang Un-chu was no exception.

She kept their larger savings in a jar buried beneath the floor.

A heavy object that only someone as strong as Gang Jo-hang could easily move was placed over it.

The wardrobe only held a small amount of money for everyday use.

That was why she hadn't panicked much.

And more importantly, she knew perfectly well why Zhao Yang and Zhao Shan had appeared at this particular time.

The more she thought about it, the more frustrated she became.

Anger burned inside her with nowhere to go.

While they were talking, people began appearing outside the front gate.

Neighbors living nearby had hurried over to watch the excitement.

Those farther away were also gradually arriving.

Soon, there would probably be quite a crowd.

Before anyone even entered the house, a woman who lived nearby called out,

"Cuilan, I just heard someone shouting that a thief broke into your house?"

Several people behind her also stepped into the courtyard.

Cuilan was Old Madam Gang's given name.

"Exactly."

Old Madam Gang sounded thoroughly displeased.

"Look at our Little Six's hand."

"Those two thieves were stealing things and got caught by our child."

"So what did they do?"

"They pushed him to the ground and made him bleed."

"They know perfectly well that our Little Six is weak."

"Stealing wasn't enough for them. They even bullied a child."

"Isn't that going too far?"

Everyone looked toward Gang Gye's hand.

It had already been wrapped in a bandage, so the wound itself couldn't be seen.

Still, the behavior was clearly unacceptable.

Nobody asked exactly how serious the injury was.

Instead, they all began condemning the Zhao family.

A habit of petty theft couldn't be tolerated.

Everyone was thinking the same thing.

If children were allowed to wander around stealing from houses, who knew when their own homes might be next?

Taking advantage of the commotion, Gang Gye gently tugged at his mother's hand.

Then he whispered,

"Mother, I saw them steal the letters you kept in the chest."

A clever smile spread across his face.

"Good thing I took some out beforehand."

Jang Un-chu froze for a moment.

Then she saw the bright, knowing smile on her son's face.

Before she realized it, she smiled too.

The enormous stone that had been weighing on her heart seemed to disappear in an instant.