Chapter 165 The Zhao Family Imprisoned

Just as Liu Ye was about to straighten up and enter the space, she twisted her ankle and sat down on the ground. There was a cracking sound from under her bottom, and a door appeared on the ground directly in front of her. There was a faint light inside, and she could vaguely see a ladder.

Liu Ye smiled as soon as she saw it. It turned out there really was a secret room inside the artificial hill. She quickly stood up from the ground and climbed down the ladder. When she reached the bottom, she saw a room full of boxes. So many boxes! Could they all be full of silver?

She casually opened a box, and sure enough, there was a lot of silver inside, each silver coin weighing fifty taels. Since she had found it, she decided not to be polite.

She playfully snapped her fingers in the air, and the boxes in the room instantly disappeared, all of them stored in her spatial storage. She walked around the basement but didn't find any doors.

Oh dear, Young Master Zhao and his men are blocking the way outside. How am I supposed to get out? I'll just go up first. She climbed the ladder back up into the artificial hill and heard Young Master Zhao still grumbling outside. She simply slipped into her spatial dimension.

Upon entering the space, she was greeted by a large pile of boxes. She laboriously moved the boxes aside, as they were too obstructive in the entryway. While moving the boxes, she counted them. This time, there were more boxes than last time, but the amount of silver was the same as what she had stolen last time—25 million taels of silver. All ten boxes of gold had been converted into silver. It seemed that Prefect Zhao intended to use this silver for something. Why would he need so much silver?

Who cares what he does? It's all hers now. She's so tired. Moving hundreds of boxes all at once is exhausting, even though she's strong. She needs to replenish her spiritual spring water quickly.

Just then, footsteps and voices suddenly sounded outside. It was Young Master Zhao leading his men into the artificial hill to arrest someone. He had been shouting outside for a long time, but no one came out and he couldn't hear any movement inside. He was a little worried, so he simply brought his men in to arrest them.

Holding a torch, Young Master Zhao walked to the deepest part of the artificial hill and saw that the entrance to the basement was open. His face turned pale instantly, his vision went black, and his legs went weak, almost causing him to fall to the ground. He handed the torch to a servant and nervously climbed down into the basement, only to see a scene he did not want to see: the basement was empty except for dust.

Young Master Zhao's legs went weak, and he slumped to the ground, his eyes wide with disbelief: "Impossible, absolutely impossible! There was only one person with him, how could he have managed to empty so much... impossible!"

Young Master Zhao gritted his teeth as he got up from the ground, his legs trembling as he climbed the ladder. He emerged from the artificial hill with a dark face and shouted at all the servants, "Listen up, everyone! Surround the Zhao residence! Don't let a single mouse escape! Now!"

Hearing the commotion, Prefect Zhao also ran over to see what was going on: "Hua'er, what happened?"

When Young Master Zhao saw that his father was about to cry, he knelt down on the ground with a thud: "Father, the silver, the silver is lost again..."

Upon hearing this, Prefect Zhao exclaimed, "What?! The money is gone again! I'm completely finished now!" He rolled his eyes and fainted instantly.

"father!"

About an hour later, Liu Ye felt it was about time. She slipped out of her spatial dimension and quietly made her way to the exit of the artificial hill. She saw that the outside was in complete chaos, with maids and servants running around in the courtyard, each carrying a package as if they were about to run away. She reached into her spatial dimension, took out a package, hugged it, and ran out with her head down. In this way, she successfully left the Zhao residence and returned home safely.

Liu Ye took off her shoes, happily crawled into bed, and lay down. "Comfortable," she thought, "now the Zhao family has nothing left to sell!" She continued, "Zhao Xinbao, let's see how you dare call others poor now! You're poorer than anyone else!"

However, she felt a little guilty towards Young Master Zhao. He had treated her and Brother Bai quite well, but she had now ruined him financially... However, his father was the prefect, so he certainly had no shortage of ways to make money, and he would probably turn things around soon. She shouldn't shed tears while reading Dream of the Red Chamber and worry about the ancients. Time to go to sleep.

As dawn broke, the Zhao mansion was in complete disarray. All the maids and servants had fled, including Zhao Xinbao's personal maid. They knew that their master had committed a grave crime that would lead to the confiscation of their property, and he was doomed. How did they know this? It was because Steward Zhao had told them before he ran away. That's how they found out.

Prefect Zhao fainted yesterday due to a sudden illness and hasn't woken up yet. After a doctor examined him and prescribed medicine, Madam Zhao brewed the medicine for him to drink, but he still didn't wake up. Old Madam Zhao was so anxious that she almost cried herself blind. Zhao Xinbao also stayed by his bedside, and Young Master Zhao went out to raise money.

"Mother, I'll take care of my husband here. You should go back and rest. Xinbao, help your grandma back to rest. Don't come over here."

Zhao Xinbao wiped away her tears and helped Old Master Zhao back to rest. Madam Zhao sat on the bed, looking haggard, and looked at Prefect Zhao with heartache: "Husband, Mother is leaving."

Prefect Zhao's eyelashes trembled slightly as he opened his sorrowful eyes: "Lianrong, our Zhao family is finished. I am a sinner of the Zhao family!"

Madam Zhao shook her head with a wry smile and gently comforted her, "It's not your fault. When you sided with the Crown Prince, you should have expected this day to come. Their arms are bigger than our thighs. If they want to harm us, how can we resist? It's all fate. Don't think too much about it. Take care of your health first. Hua'er has gone out to borrow money again."

Prefect Zhao struggled to sit up, and Madam Zhao quickly helped him sit up against the headboard. Prefect Zhao sighed, "Alas, I'm afraid no one will dare to lend us money this time. We'll have to think of another way. Have all the people in the manor run away?"

Madam Zhao said with a bitter taste in her mouth, "That's right. Even my maid Qiuyun ran away. She even took the few pieces of jewelry I had. Sigh, I really didn't expect that Qiuyun, who was my dowry maid from my family, could do such a thing."

Prefect Zhao, feeling a pang of heartache, grasped Madam Zhao's hand tightly and said with a face full of guilt, "I'm so sorry. If the Crown Prince blames us this time, I'm afraid our whole family will be in trouble... Hua'er, when you come back, let's pack our things and run away to the south."

Madam Zhao quickly said, "Alright, I'll have Mother and Xinbao pack their things right away."

As the saying goes, when bad luck strikes, even drinking cold water can cause problems, and farting can cause serious injury. Young Master Zhao was driving a carriage with his family inside, about to escape from the mansion, when the Zhao family was surrounded by the county magistrate and his troops, and the whole family was imprisoned.

Only then did Young Master Zhao realize that after Steward Zhao ran away, he went to the yamen to report his father. He also handed over two account books to the yamen, which were evidence of his father's embezzlement. When Magistrate Liu saw that a promotion opportunity had come, how could he let it go? He immediately came to arrest him.

Liu Ye heard the news three days later. She went to the general store to buy salt and heard people on the street talking about it. She put the salt in her bag and came out of the general store to stroll around the street. Little did she know that she would steal silver and implicate the entire Zhao family.