Chapter 107: The Wallet Was Stolen

Gui County. Nine o’clock at night.

Lu Kun, Mrs. Liu, and Big Girl were quietly eating dinner together when there was a knock.
Knock, knock, knock.

The knocking sounded at the hallway door, and Big Girl hurried to open it.

“Why, why, why, our little princess—what happened? Why are you like this?”

Seeing Little Girl come in with her little schoolbag slung over her shoulder, already near tears as soon as she stepped through the door, Lu Kun couldn’t help but ask.

“You two haven’t eaten yet, have you? Sit down and have a bite. We can talk as we eat. Big Girl, go bring three sets of bowls and chopsticks from the kitchen,” Mrs. Liu said softly.

If his own wife hadn’t greeted Liu Shixun and Sun Chengze standing by the side, Lu Kun might not have noticed that they were there.

“No, no, Sister-in-law, we’ve already had dinner. We’ll head out now,” Sun Chengze said, trying to pull Liu Shixun by the sleeve to leave with him.

“Grrr... grrr.”

Liu Shixun’s stomach kept growling, and he was gulping at the corners of his mouth.

Sun Chengze said nothing.

Lu Kun’s lip twitched. “Just sit and eat. Why this shyness? Is there still a meal missing at my table?”

...

“Well, tell me then—what happened to make you cry like a kitten? You were fine when you left. Did some ugly animal in the park scare you?”

Lu Kun pulled Little Girl close. He reached for a cloth on the table and was about to wipe her tears, then realized halfway through that it was just a rag.

He pulled it back smoothly and, as if nothing had happened, wiped the table area right in front of her seat.

“F-Father, my wallet is gone!”

The child sobbed so hard she was hiccupping. She unhooked the small bag from her back and handed it to Lu Kun.

“Goodness, look at this! How did this schoolbag get slit up like that?”

Lu Kun saw at once: the bag, bought only a short while ago, had clearly been cut by something sharp.

He glanced at Liu Shixun and Sun Chengze, who were still eating.

“This… it was probably cut on the bus. There were so many people then, none of us noticed,” Liu Shixun muttered into his meal, and Sun Chengze answered in an awkward, sheepish tone.

“Wait—Little Girl, where did that wallet come from?” Lu Kun suddenly realized, his expression stiffening as he looked at her through her tears.

“I found it.”

“Found it?”

“Really.”

The little girl nodded vigorously.

“I found it the other day when you took us to the cinema, Dad.”

“?”

Lu Kun seemed a bit dazed, unable to recall.

“That day, while we were watching the movie, I suddenly felt something under my feet and thought it might be a wallet…”

“That can’t be,” Lu Kun said. “I remember you never bent down, let alone picked up any wallet.”

He remembered now. The movie they watched had been terribly dull; all the while he had mostly eaten popcorn and kept his eyes on Big Girl and Little Girl.

“I did not, I did not bend down,” she said, her face turning pink. “I was afraid if I bent down, I’d get exposed. So I just sat still with an expressionless face, slowly lowered my body little by little, and slipped it away silently.”

“…”

You are truly a clever little fox.

“How much money was in it?” Mrs. Liu asked, studying her with an odd expression.

Little Girl sighed, looking down and frowning, “It was empty. Not a single coin.”

“…”

“Then where did you get your money? Why would a thief leave Uncle Shixun’s and Uncle Chengze’s wallets alone and go to the trouble of slicing open your bag to steal your wallet?” Lu Kun asked. Everyone looked at Little Girl.

Liu Shixun’s eyes flickered. He knew that when they set out, Lu Kun had only given Little Girl a few small coins. A thief, no matter how reckless, would never risk much trouble for that.

He himself had at least twenty or thirty yuan on him. If the thief was choosing a mark, he should have chosen me.

Could it be the thief looked down on me?
Liu Shixun always did have an odd way of thinking.

“It was just the few coins Dad had given me,” Little Girl said, sounding even more wronged.

Lu Kun rubbed the back of his head and asked uncertainly, “Do pickpockets these days have such poor judgment? Is it worth all that fuss for just a few coins?”

Everyone shook their heads together.

“Don’t start crying yet. Tell us the whole thing from start to finish—every bit of it. Don’t leave anything out. Then we’ll all figure it out together. How does that sound?” Lu Kun patted Little Girl’s hair as he tried to console her.

“After I found that wallet, I washed it, and then I saw how beautiful it was, so I kept it hidden under my pillow. Today when Dad gave me a few coins, I put them all in it. When I stacked them, I found even all that money together was lighter than the wallet itself!”

As she said this, Little Girl gave Lu Kun a petulant look—the one who had been waiting for her to continue—then went on, “So I took the newspaper Dad had already read, cut out paper pieces shaped like money, and stuffed the ‘paper cash’ inside.
That made the wallet nice and bulky. I kept carrying it everywhere.”

“Today on the bus, I was afraid someone would steal it, so I put it in the inner layer of my bag.”

“When I got off the bus, I discovered... it was gone, and the bag had been slashed open,” she finished, unable to stop crying.

The others put their hands to their foreheads.

The meaning was clear.

It was probably that moment, when Little Girl put the wallet inside her little bag, that the thief took notice.
The thief must have thought it contained real money, and so simply slit open her bag and stole it.

“Ha! Little Girl, you really are funny,” Liu Shixun could not hold back a laugh.

Lu Kun reached over and dabbed at her tears. “Don’t be sad. I bet the thief is even more miserable than you are right now, with the size of this loss carved right into his pride.”

“Ha! Ha! Ha!”

Everyone gave a full-hearted laugh.

...

After dinner.

That night, Lu Kun had no mood to watch television with his wife and children.

“Chengze, come to my study for a moment,” Lu Kun said, standing and lightly patting Sun Chengze on the shoulder.

“Don’t follow.”

Lu Kun pointed at Liu Shixun, who was about to get up and follow Sun Chengze, and said it with a warning in his eyes.

Liu Shixun: “…”

In the study.

After Lu Kun sat down, crossing his right leg over his left and touching his brow, he said, “Don’t laugh. Don’t make a habit of laughing like that.”

Sun Chengze: “…".