In the secret chamber of the Feng residence, the flickering candlelight added a touch of gloom to Feng Zhi's pale face.

Standing before him was a middle-aged man dressed in the uniform of a county clerk, short and stocky, with shifty eyes. He was Zhang Gui, the warehouse clerk of Heyang County.

"Zhang Gui,"

Feng Zhi glanced at Zhang Gui indifferently: "You've been working in this county government office for ten years now, haven't you? What's your monthly salary?"

"Only a hundred coins!" Zhang Gui replied in a low voice.

"A hundred coins?"

Feng Zhi chuckled: "I heard that your mother is bedridden for many years, and you have two half-grown sons to feed. Your wife can't even afford a decent piece of clothing... Tsk tsk, your life is worse than that of the servants in our Feng family!"

Zhang Gui lowered his head even further, his rough fingers nervously twisting the hem of his clothes: "Second...Second Young Master, please understand, I...I..."

"A clear understanding?"

Feng Zhi chuckled and casually tossed a heavy coarse cloth money bag onto the table: "Here are fifty taels of pure gold, enough for your whole family to live comfortably for the rest of your life. It's more than enough to hire the best doctor for your mother and buy land and a wife for your son!"

Zhang Gui suddenly looked up, his eyes fixed on the money bag, his Adam's apple bobbing violently, and his breathing becoming heavy.

Fifty taels of pure gold! He couldn't earn that much in several lifetimes!

"But……"

A glint of greed flashed in Zhang Gui's eyes, and he hesitated before saying, "Second Young Master, that...that's the treasury, a vital location. The fine iron is military supplies...Magistrate Li certainly wouldn't..."

"Magistrate Li?"

Feng Zhi's voice suddenly turned cold: "He won't live much longer! A barbarian from Liangzhou who doesn't know the immensity of heaven and earth dares to run wild in Heyang territory?"

Before long, he will be disgraced, imprisoned, and perhaps even... beheaded!

As he spoke, Feng Zhi took a step closer, his chilling gaze fixed on Zhang Gui: "And you, you only need to do one very simple thing."

After this is done, take this gold and your family. The Feng family will arrange for you to elope to a place where no one can find you, and then live a life of luxury! Otherwise…”

Feng Zhi didn't continue speaking, but simply clapped his hands.

The side door slid open silently, and two assassins kept by the Feng family appeared without a sound. Their eyes were indifferent, their waists were bulging, and their silent threat was suffocating.

Zhang Gui's face turned deathly pale instantly, and large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead.

On one hand, there was the allure of wealth and peace for his entire family; on the other, the chilling threat of death loomed before him, along with the fifty taels of gold that could crush his very backbone…

He reached out with trembling hands and finally grabbed the heavy money bag, greed completely taking over his eyes.

"I am willing to serve the Second Young Master!" Zhang Gui's voice was hoarse, filled with a desperate madness.

"very good."

Feng Zhi smiled with satisfaction, then leaned down and whispered each step of the plan in Zhang Gui's ear.

The night was as dark as ink.

Deep inside the backyard of the Heyang County government office, the heavy iron gates of the treasury were tightly shut, isolating the inside from the outside.

The sound of the night watchman's clapper had just faded into the distance when a short, stocky black figure silently appeared in the shadows of the warehouse side wall.

It was Zhang Gui.

He nervously looked around, and after confirming that no one was around, he took out a string of specially made keys from his waist—one of which was a duplicate key that the Feng family had secretly made at great expense based on the description of the former warehouse clerk.

Zhang Gui's hands trembled violently. It took him several tries to insert the key into the lock. The soft click was so clear in the quiet night that it startled him so much that his heart almost jumped out of his throat.

Zhang Gui then slipped into the warehouse and, by the faint light of a tinderbox, quickly located his target—dozens of dark iron ingots, neatly stacked and covered with tarpaulin, bearing the official mark of the government, in the deepest part of the warehouse.

Without hesitation, Zhang Gui quickly tore off the tarpaulin and, following Feng Zhi's instructions, struggled to move the heavy iron ingots one by one to a corner near the ventilation opening on the back wall.

Each time the heavy iron ingot hit the ground, it made a dull thud, which was particularly clear in the silent warehouse. Each time, it made Zhang Gui's heart jump and his back was soaked with sweat.

After moving the last piece, he was almost exhausted. Without even catching his breath, he quickly sawed off several wooden bars inside the ventilation shaft, creating a barely passable opening for the iron ingots.

Then, he took out a specially made whistle from his pocket, put it to his lips, and blew out three short, sharp whistles.

As soon as the whistle sounded, several echoing responses of the same rhythm came from the darkness outside the back wall of the warehouse.

Immediately afterwards, several ropes were silently lowered into the ventilation shaft, where several of Feng family's carefully selected, strong and trusted henchmen had been waiting for some time.

Zhang Gui hurriedly tied the rope securely to the iron ingot. The people outside pulled with tacit agreement, dragging the heavy iron ingot piece by piece out of the hole and disappearing into the night outside the wall.

In less than half an hour, a full five hundred catties of refined iron vanished from the treasury as if it had evaporated into thin air, leaving only a few sawed wood stumps at the ventilation opening and an empty corner of the treasury floor.

Zhang Gui slumped to the ground, panting heavily, staring at the empty corner, his eyes filled with immense fear and a twisted sense of relief.

He then hastily covered the tarpaulin back in its place, trying to restore it to its original state, before staggering out of the warehouse, locking the door again, and quickly disappearing into the darkness.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking.

As usual, County Magistrate Wang Tong, accompanied by Registrar Zhao Qian and Clerk Zhou Kui, went to the treasury to conduct a routine inventory check of the warehouse supplies.

Zhang Gui, the warehouse clerk, followed at the back with his head down, his face frighteningly pale, and his hands trembling slightly in his sleeves.

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