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Under the bewildered gazes of everyone around, Lin Yuan used the tip of her foot to scrape away the mud bricks blocking the stove hole, and then, bending slightly, she pulled out a red, squarely-shaped brick from the opening.

It was a red brick!

After a moment of silence, the villagers erupted in turmoil; as expected, the brick thief was from the Lin family! And it was none other than Lin Yongcheng, who was studying at the town’s school!

Lin Jiazhong’s old face was utterly disgraced by his two sons today; his chubby cheeks trembled with anger.

Lady Ma had no mind to clean up after her younger son anymore, her incredulous gaze fixed on her older son, her only hope now.

How could this happen? How could their home be lacking those few measly bricks?

Compared to those worthless bricks, her son’s future was of the utmost importance!

How could he, without any sense, do something so humiliating?

At this moment, Lin Yongcheng was already filled with such regret that it pained him inside.

Last night, seeing the suffering on his younger brother’s face, he blamed everything on Lin Yuan, that Little Disaster Star.

And when he thought of how they were even constructing a new house next door with red bricks, he felt an overwhelming sense of injustice!

In a fit of anger, he had targeted those red bricks. To be honest, those bricks weren’t worth much; not even enough for a meal in the brothel!

But, just the thought of that Little Disaster Star seeing the red bricks stolen and driven to a frenzy was enough to make him feel vindictively satisfied that last night’s misdeed was well worth it!

However, he hadn’t expected that on a night with no one around, she would still manage to track him down!

The stove hole was kicked clean by Xia Zheng, revealing the haphazard but tightly packed red bricks inside!

Xia Zheng looked disdainfully at the dirty mud bricks on the ground, grumbling in his heart about Lin Yuan. That girl, why couldn’t she leave the physical labor to him!

"Uncle, didn’t you just say I wouldn’t be able to find the stolen goods? Now that the red bricks have been found, how should we discuss this?"

Lin Yuan casually threw the red brick in her hand to the ground, brushed the dirt off her hands with ease, and looked at Lin Jiazhong with a mocking, almost amused gaze.

Lin Jiazhong felt his mouth twitching under her mocking and anticipatory stare. Why hadn’t they drowned her in a pig cage that day!

Before Lin Jiazhong could even speak, Lady Ma had already thrown the dirty bedding from her hands, rushed forward in two or three steps to stand protectively in front of Lin Yongcheng, and, opening her arms like a hen protecting her chick, exclaimed frantically, "These bricks, these bricks, I stole them! They have nothing to do with my son, nothing to do with him! You, Little Disaster Star, don’t think of slinging mud on my son. It was all me!"

Her eldest son was her only hope, and she couldn’t let him be labeled as a thief. If word got to the ears of the scholars at the town’s school, no amount of silver would be enough to let her son continue his studies!

Lin Yuan paused briefly before she understood, she knew exactly what Lady Ma was aiming for. However, since she had blown this matter up, she wasn’t going to give Lin Yongcheng any chance to recover.

First he incited Yong Le to raid her mooncake stall, and now he’d had the audacity to target the red bricks; who knew if next time he’d follow Lin Dashuan’s example and target her family members!

She had already been fooled once; she absolutely couldn’t let Lin Dashuan’s incident happen again!

However, before Lin Yuan could speak up, Lin Yongcheng, standing behind Lady Ma, was the first to protest, exclaiming anxiously, "Exactly, exactly, these red bricks weren’t stolen by me! I don’t know how they got under my bed!"