I Crossed Over with My Enemy, Only to Find Him Running the Empire - Chapter 21

Chapter 21: The Little Sister-in-Law is Missing

Li Qiaoqiao’s heart tightened. She instinctively clicked off the flashlight and melted into the shadows.

The woman seemed very familiar with the Wu household. She unlatched the back gate with practiced ease and slipped out noiselessly, quickly vanishing into the night.

Who was that? Why sneak out before dawn? To meet a lover, or to engage in some shady business?

A flurry of guesses flashed through Li Qiaoqiao’s mind, her heart racing.

When Wu Ya finally stumbled out of the pit toilet, his entire face was scrunched into a knot. With one hand, he pinched his nose shut; with the other, he flailed wildly at the air as if he could physically beat back the unspeakable stench clinging to him.

“Good god…” The words squeezed through his gritted teeth, his voice distorted. “That is literally a chemical weapon!”

Seeing him like this, Li Qiaoqiao couldn’t help but burst into a fit of giggles.

“Oh? What’s wrong with our Young Master Wu?” she teased, her voice intentionally loud, mischief dancing in her eyes. “Is the ‘fragrance’ of the latrine not to your refined palate?”

Wu Ya shot her a fierce glare, but the effect was somewhat undermined by the fact that he was still pinching his nose with watery eyes. He hurried to the center of the courtyard and took deep, desperate gulps of fresh air.

“You call that a toilet?” Once he caught his breath, he hissed through clenched teeth. “It’s a hole in the dirt with a few planks slapped over it! If you look down, you can see… you can see…”

He couldn’t finish the sentence, overcome by a fresh wave of nausea.

Li Qiaoqiao laughed until she doubled over. “What did you expect? A five-star hotel? This is the countryside; you’d better get used to it.”

Wu Ya clearly had no intention of getting used to it. He paced the yard, occasionally lifting his sleeve to sniff it, terrified the smell had bonded with the fabric.

“No, I need to air out before I go back inside,” he muttered, refusing to budge from the courtyard.

Li Qiaoqiao shook her head. “Give it a rest. If you stand out here any longer, Mother will start asking why you’re daydreaming in the middle of the yard.”

Reluctantly, Wu Ya moved toward the water vat. He ladled out water and washed his hands obsessively, scrubbing until the skin turned red.

“Is there soap? Hand sanitizer?” He turned to her with a final glimmer of hope.

Li Qiaoqiao spread her hands. “Do I look like someone who owns hand sanitizer? We use honey locust pods here.” She pointed to the dark, shriveled things in a bamboo basket in the corner.

Wu Ya leaned in, took one look, and recoiled. “Does that actually work?”

“Work or not, it’s what you’ve got,” she snapped. “Finish up and get inside. It’s time for bed.”

With a long sigh of resignation, Wu Ya pinched a piece of the pod and continued his war against his own hands.

…

The Negotiation

Once they were back in the room, Li Qiaoqiao pulled two blankets from her bundle. One was the soft, thick fleece she had brought from the modern world; the other was the coarse, thin one provided by the Wu family.

Wu Ya’s eyes lit up, and he immediately lunged for the good blanket.

“Hey!” Li Qiaoqiao barked. “Ever heard of first come, first served?”

Wu Ya hugged the fleece blanket tight. “This one is warmer.”

“No kidding! I know it’s warmer!” She reached out to snatch it. “Give it here!”

He dodged her. After a moment’s thought, he played his trump card: “I’ll pay you back when we get home.”

Li Qiaoqiao paused, her eyes narrowing. “How much this time?”

“Name your price,” Wu Ya said with the air of a man who was “not short on cash.”

“Five hundred thousand,” she said bluntly.

Wu Ya’s jaw dropped. “Why don’t you just rob a bank?”

“Give it back then.” She reached for it again.

“Deal!” Wu Ya wrapped the blanket tighter. “We’ll settle the tab together later.”

Li Qiaoqiao withdrew her hand, satisfied. She picked up the ragged blanket to make the bed, muttering, “Added to the previous 1.5 million, you owe me an even 2 million now, Young Master Wu.”

…

A Morning Stroll

The next morning, Li Qiaoqiao managed to sleep in. It was the second branch’s turn to cook, so she didn’t have to rush to the kitchen. By the time she got up, the sun was high.

She led Wu Ya—who was playing his “clumsy fool” role perfectly—out into the village for a walk. They scouted the layout: the Village Head’s brick house, the ancestral hall, and the old well.

“That mountain over there has good terrain,” Wu Ya whispered, his professional instincts kicking in. “With the stream and the forest, it would make a great tourist resort or a farmhouse B&B. It would definitely go viral.”

Li Qiaoqiao snorted. “Wake up, Young Master. This is ancient times. There isn’t even a proper road, let alone tourism.”

“Professional habit,” he muttered sheepishly.

As they walked, children mocked Wu Ya, calling him “Stupid Tie Niu.” One brave boy even spat toward them. While Wu Ya maintained his blank stare, he secretly wiped a few stray droplets off his hand onto his clothes with a look of suppressed agony. Li Qiaoqiao had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at his hygiene-induced torment.

…

The Crisis

They returned to the Wu house just in time for lunch, but the atmosphere was wrong. There was no smell of food; instead, there was a thick cloud of tension.

Zhang Jinhua stood in the middle of the yard, her face grim as she barked orders. Her sons and grandsons stood by, heads bowed.

“Are you all wooden posts? What are you standing there for? Go find her!” her voice shrieked, scaring the chickens into the corners.

Li Qiaoqiao led Wu Ya forward, her voice cautious. “Mother, what happened?”

Zhang Jinhua’s anger softened slightly, but her brow remained knitted. “Have you seen Cuiyun?”

“Little Sister-in-law? No,” Li Qiaoqiao blinked. “What’s wrong?”

“She’s been missing since early morning. It’s almost lunchtime and she’s nowhere to be found!” Zhang Jinhua stamped her foot in frustration. “That girl is getting more undisciplined by the day!”

Li Qiaoqiao realized the gravity of the situation. Wu Cuiyun was the baby of the family, the apple of Zhang Jinhua’s eye. If she was truly lost, it was a disaster.

“Don’t just stand there!” Zhang Jinhua turned back to her sons. “Tiesheng, take the boys out! Tiezhu, Tiegen, you too! Search the whole village, front to back. Ask if anyone saw her!”

The men hurried out, leaving the courtyard half-empty. Zhang Jinhua turned to Li Qiaoqiao. “Settle Tie Niu in the room, then you go look too! That girl is going to be the death of me…”