I bring bad luck to my husband, you bring bad luck to your wife.

After they finished eating, on the way back, Xiangxi's sister-in-law made a separate batch of fried dough crackers, stuffed with extra generous amounts of filling.

"You can eat it when you get home tonight. If you like it, I'll have your brother deliver it to your house every few days."

"Sister-in-law, no need." Xiangxi knew that her brother and sister-in-law worked hard to earn their money and was reluctant to let them spend so much.

"Don't be so polite with your wife, we wouldn't have been able to rent such a nice stall without your husband." The sister-in-law knew exactly what was going on.

Her family was new to the area and had no one to make things difficult for them, so they were all counting on Yang Tongchuan, their in-law.

In the evening, Yang's mother asked Yanzi to cook a pot of corn porridge and prepare two cold dishes. The whole family enjoyed the meal with the fried dough sticks.

The entire Yang family compound was filled with the aroma of fried dough sticks, making Zhen Laifu, who was craving them, pace back and forth in the courtyard.

As the weather gets hotter, Xiangxi is suffering from the heat of summer and can't sleep at night.

In addition, Yang Tongchuan had a fiery temper, and Xiangxi would break out in a sweat whenever he got close to him.

Yang Tongchuan had no choice but to stay close to the bed, fanning Xiangxi while trying to lull him to sleep.

Summer brings an abundance of fruits, but unfortunately, Xiangxi dares not eat too many for fear of getting an upset stomach.

For example, my sister-in-law ate too much watermelon that day, which had been chilled in well water, and started feeling nauseous and vomiting that night.

She even thought she was pregnant because her period hadn't arrived, but when the doctor came to check, it turned out she was just pregnant, and all her hopes were dashed.

After this embarrassing blunder, Mingle was so ashamed that she stayed indoors for two days before finally feeling comfortable enough to come out.

On the other hand, Yang's mother seemed to have accepted the reality that her eldest son's lineage was having difficulty producing offspring, and did not show any particular disappointment.

That day, the yamen arrested a special thief.

He was caught stealing by the owner and brought here.

When Yang Tongchuan followed the clues to investigate the thief's house, he discovered something even more alarming.

He actually discovered a lot of calligraphy by famous calligraphers in the home of a petty thief.

The funny thing is, there are three or four other versions of the same artwork.

Yang Tongchuan doesn't understand calligraphy, but he does know how to forge.

Take these counterfeit goods back to the yamen and hand them over to Constable Wang, so that he can report to the county magistrate.

A small job instantly turned into a big one.

This petty thief is clueless.

He stole the items from a haystack behind the dock warehouse.

That day, he was wandering around aimlessly with nothing to do. Because of the curfew, he hid at the dock to avoid the patrolling officials.

I happened to see a man secretly hiding something in the haystack.

The thief assumed that a dockworker had stolen valuable items from the warehouse, so he took out the man's hidden belongings after he left.

But when I got home, I saw that they were just calligraphy and paintings, worthless, so I just tossed them aside, thinking I'd keep them to start a fire for the kang (a heated brick bed).

Despite repeated torture and interrogation, they were unable to extract any other useful information.

"These kinds of calligraphy and paintings can't be sold in a small place like ours. They definitely have to be transported to the capital or big cities in the south to be sold." Officer Wang asked the owner of the calligraphy and painting shop for help.

These calligraphy and paintings are all high-quality forgeries; they're quite well-written and enough to fool those nouveau riche.

"Since it was stolen from the docks, everyone will have to work hard these next few days. Take turns staking out the dock warehouse tonight and make sure we catch that kid who made the counterfeit." Chief Constable Wang assigned the task.

Yang Tongchuan is going to the docks tonight with two other constables to keep watch.

I didn't sleep all night and got bitten by mosquitoes all over my body.

When I came back this morning, my eyelids were swollen from being bitten.

Xiangxi applied the anti-itch ointment to each spot on him one by one. After she finished, Yang Tongchuan smelled of mint.

After persisting like this for half a month, when the brothers had already lost confidence.

That night, Yang Tongchuan finally caught a suspicious-looking man there.

They brought him back for questioning. The man's surname was Zhao. Although he was over thirty years old, he had actually studied at an academy when he was young and was a student.

Zhao Tongsheng was not good at studying, but he had beautiful calligraphy skills and loved writing poetry.

He usually makes a living by copying books.

Last year, a former classmate introduced him to a business opportunity to support his family: ghostwriting for wealthy young people.

Those rich kids who were just wasting their time would give Zhao Tongsheng some money, and he would do all the homework assigned by their teachers for them.

But as time went on, the gentleman naturally saw through this little trick, and the deal fell through again.

Just when Zhao Tongsheng thought the matter was over, someone approached him and paid him to copy a piece of calligraphy.

Zhao Tongsheng agreed without much thought.

The man was quite satisfied with Zhao Tongsheng's calligraphy, so he discussed another business deal with him.

On the sixth day of each month, someone would deliver the calligraphy or paintings that needed to be copied to Zhao Tongsheng's doorstep, and then imitate three cat meows.

Zhao Tongsheng can then go out and take the things home.

On the last day of each month, Zhao Tongsheng would simply deliver the copied calligraphy and paintings to the designated haystack.

"How will the wages be settled?" Yang Tongchuan looked at Zhao Tongsheng's attire and didn't seem like someone who was earning money.

"Wages? Hold onto the wages until the next time you assign him work, then leave them all at the door." The interrogator took a sip of tea and continued.

"This guy surnamed Zhao is really unlucky. He hadn't even done a few jobs before he ran into this petty thief. He had no idea that the things in the haystack had been stolen. He was just wondering why he hadn't received his money for so long, so he sneaked into the warehouse to try his luck and see if he could run into the contact. He wanted to get his wages back, but he didn't expect to be caught by us." The yamen runners who were interrogating him all felt that this Zhao Tongsheng's luck was exceptionally bad.

"Then the clue has gone cold again." Yang Tongchuan didn't want to work so hard for nothing.

"No, Constable Wang has already taken his men to the dock. This incident happened near the dock's warehouse, so it's definitely related to those people at the dock. I'll rest for a bit and wait for Constable Wang to return with his men. I reckon there'll be more interrogation to come."

After listening to the interrogation, Yang Tongchuan suddenly wondered if something had happened at the dock this year, as things seemed to be going terribly wrong every day.

When Yang Tongchuan got home that evening, he found that there were guests at his house.

It was Xiang Qiang who brought Uncle Chen, the dock manager, to the door.

Uncle Chen had done a favor for the Xiang family, so when he urgently sought out Xiang Qiang today to ask for his help in making an introduction, Xiang Qiang found it difficult to refuse and had no choice but to bite the bullet and bring the person to the Yang family.

Everyone else in the main hall left, leaving the main hall to Uncle Chen and Yang Tongchuan.

"Officer Yang, I just want to ask what kind of case this is. Officer Wang suddenly led his men to seal off a warehouse at our dock today and arrested all the guards. Our boss sent me out to find out if those few fools guarding the warehouse did something wrong." As Uncle Chen spoke, he stuffed a purse into Yang Tongchuan's hand. It was light and not made of silver; it might have felt like banknotes.

Yang Tongchuan wasn't stupid; he knew perfectly well what he could and couldn't say.