Chapter 32: Fire in Yihong Courtyard (Part 2)

"It's only the beginning of the Xu hour now. You still have three quarters of an hour. The city gates will probably be closed by then."

Weng Toubai is also a very social person. When he entered the city, he started chatting with the girls in the city and heard all the news. Isn’t he putting it to use now?

Three quarters of an hour? 45 minutes, barely enough. As for the two kidnappers, they couldn't be dealt with for the time being, which made Lin Yue feel quite regretful.

“Crack.”

Lin Yue was surprised by the slight sound. She didn't expect to find it so quickly.

But in order to prevent any loud noises from happening next, Lin Yue started pretending to cry.

"Mmmmm, mother, wuwuwu."

Anyway, the sound is not particularly loud, but it is enough to make the people guarding outside relax their vigilance, and it can also cover up the sound of the mechanism being triggered.

Lin Yue didn't expect that the madam would set the mechanism on the bed where it was within reach. No one would have thought that there was a bulge at the innermost part of the bed string. As long as you press it slightly, a secret compartment will pop out from the innermost part of the bed.

There was only a three-foot-long box with a lotus pattern in the secret compartment. Lin Yue guessed that it must be something extremely important.

Perhaps the madam thought that no one could find what she had hidden, so there was only a simple lock on the box. Lin Yue did not activate her lock-picking skill, so she asked Weng Toubai to do it for her.

Weng Toubai never thought that his roots could actually unlock the door and open up his new world. From then on, he ran wildly in increasingly strange directions.

A piece of mutton-fat white jade as big as a baby's fist, smooth and warm, was engraved with the words "Prince Jing". Lin Yue sighed twice, thinking that he was worthy of being the regent. In this remote corner of Lingnan, he even had his lackeys and spies. If the little emperor wanted to take power, he would be like a mayfly trying to shake a tree, overestimating his own abilities.

There was a stack of silver notes, each worth a thousand taels, a total of one hundred thousand taels. I'm afraid this was the madam's life savings, accumulated bit by bit. There was also an account book at the bottom. After flipping through it, it recorded how much silver was sent to the prefect every year, how much silver was sent to Kyoto, and what important news was obtained for the regent.

It seems that this brothel owner is not a fool. She knows to keep evidence in order to save her own life. Although in the end times, weak women will engage in money-for-sex transactions, it is voluntary and a transaction they have to make in order to survive in extreme environments.

But this brothel owner is different. She forced girls from decent families to die in despair and forced many families to break up.

Lin Yue closed the box in a good mood and put it in her arms. This room was no longer of any value. She wondered where the madam would put the silver that Yihongyuan earned every day?

The secret room is usually built underground or on the first floor, but the entire Yihongyuan is full of people coming and going, and it is difficult to enter and exit without being discovered. Only the kitchen, warehouse, toilet, and woodshed are less visited.

Yihongyuan had daily income, so it was likely frequent. She had to guard not only against outsiders finding out, but also against those inside the building finding out and stealing. So, first she ruled out the kitchen; the toilet smelled too strong, and frequent visits to the woodshed were too intrusive. That left only the warehouse.

There is a high probability that there is a secret room in the warehouse, and most of Yihongyuan’s income may be in it. There may be three to five hundred taels of silver placed outside to confuse people.

With the help of Weng Toubai, the floor plan of Yihongyuan had already been memorized. It just so happened that the madam's window was facing the woodshed, so there must be no one there at this time.

Because she had been pretending to cry, the two people guarding outside did not doubt that a weak woman could break the knotted rope. Now she was eating the pig's trotters brought to her by the servants in big mouthfuls. This was a delicious food that they could not eat on weekdays. It should have been sent by the brothel owner to reassure them.

Lin Yue quietly opened the window, opened the pot of flowers in the room, and hung herself outside the window before she stopped sobbing.

The second floor in ancient times was only three meters high. Lin Yue grabbed the vines and jumped lightly to the ground safely. He looked around vigilantly and found that no one was approaching the warehouse.

"Brother Long, why is there no movement in there? Should we go in and take a look?"

"She cried for so long, she might have fallen asleep. We tied her up so tightly, how could she break free? Eat quickly, or it will get cold soon. We don't usually get such good food."

The two people who were busy eating never thought that the people inside had already run away, nor did they think that tonight might be their last meal.

Lin Yue successfully found the warehouse, and there were indeed several boxes of gold, silver and jewelry hidden inside. Unfortunately, they were too heavy, and there were people everywhere, so there was no one to help. At this time, she once again envied those people with space abilities, who could just wave their hands and take these boxes away directly.

Lin Yue could only reluctantly grab a handful of gold leaves on the plate and put a few five-liang silver ingots on it. It would be inconvenient to carry more.

The moon was already high in the sky, and the entire Yihong Courtyard was brightly lit. Lin Yue knocked out a young lady in the building, changed into her clothes, and quietly approached the brothel owner Zhang Lihua. She still remembered that her indenture was on the brothel owner's body, even though her name was not on it.

Dancers in scantily clad clothes were twisting their waists on the stage, musicians were playing lewd music, and in the hall, richly dressed men were behaving dissolutely and flirting with prostitutes. The whole hall was filled with the strong smell of powder, alcohol, and incense.

Lin Yue, who had just entered, was hit hard and almost couldn't breathe. She looked at the people inside in horror. How could they love each other in such a harsh environment?

"It's on fire, help!"

An elegant man's clothes caught fire and he was so anxious that he jumped up and down.

When everyone looked, they saw that the entire Yihong Courtyard was on fire, with raging flames burning inside. No one noticed it until someone's clothes were burned.

"Ah! Run!"

"Fire, where is the fire?"

"Don't panic, don't squeeze me, mother, help!"

"Tiesheng, Tiesheng, quickly organize people to put out the fire, hurry up."

For a moment, the entire lobby was in chaos and everyone was running outside. However, the space at the entrance was so small that many people were bumped into and trampled.

There were wails, curses, screams and cries all mixed together.

Zhang Lihua was thinking about the private money in the room. Anyway, the silver and everything else were in the secret room in the basement, so there would be no problem for the time being. But if her room was burned down, all the savings she had worked hard to save for ten years would be gone.

Tie Sheng was her personal bodyguard. Lin Yue breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the strong man leave. If he were still there, her sneak attack on the brothel owner would definitely not have been so successful. Now it was really God helping her.

Lin Yue approached Zhang Lihua like a ghost, and with a knife, she fell limply to the ground. After groping for a while, she found the indenture contract she had seen before, as well as some silver wrapped in a purse that she had just held in her arms.

Lin Yue tore the paper into pieces, slashed the throat of the unconscious madam, mixed into the crowd and went straight out. Looking at the purgatory-like Yihongyuan, she smiled triumphantly.