At three o'clock in the night, the dripping sound of the copper kettle was particularly clear in the empty courtyard. The candlelight in Liu's room flickered with a small, flickering flame, illuminating her sallow face. A half-cold steamed bun on the table was covered in ice. She stared at the bite marks on the edge, her nails digging deep into her palms, leaving a few bloodstains on the brocade handkerchief. Ever since the Seventh Prince's cart of croton seeds arrived, the servants had been looking at her as if she were the plague. The sour porridge Lu'e had just brought was still sour and pungent, yet that little bitch had actually called it "a heat-clearing and detoxifying brown rice and multi-grain porridge."
"Madam..." Lu'e huddled behind the carved wooden door, her fingertips scratching at the peeling paint, her voice trembling like a leaf in the autumn wind. "Master Liu outside the city... is waiting at the corner gate."
Liu's head shot up, the golden hairpin at her temples trembling violently. The ruby on its tip shone fiercely in the candlelight. She stumbled to her feet, the brocade quilt sliding off to reveal her patched undergarment. "Let him in! Tell everyone that anyone who dares to speak will have their tongue cut out!"
A moment later, the door hinge creaked softly, and a burly man with a face full of flesh entered, his head bowed. The brass blade of the ring-handled sword at his waist gleamed coldly in the candlelight. He plopped down on the rosewood armchair, the muddy soles of his boots scraping against the carved armrests. "Madam Liu, where is this treasure you speak of? I've brought twenty men with me, and if I don't see the real thing, I'll be in trouble!"
Liu gritted her teeth and poked the moldy spot on the table with her fingertips: "It's in the warehouse! That little bitch Shen Weiwan has been sneaking into the warehouse every day recently. She must have hidden the general's private money! You take the brothers to pry open the warehouse tonight, and you will get 30% of what you steal!"
"Great!" Master Liu laughed, patting his belly, his saliva splashing on the back of Liu's hand. "I've had this knife for ten years, and there's still no lock I can't pick!" He wiped the corner of his mouth and lowered his voice. "But let me be frank. If you play tricks on me..."
Chun Tao, hiding behind the crabapple tree outside the window, covered her mouth, her heartbeat nearly bursting through her chest. She stared at the gleaming blade at Liu Ye's waist, her nails digging into the bark until the light in Shen Weiwan's room crackled, then she crouched and slipped back into Songyun Hall.
Chen Weiwan was unfolding a map of Langya Mountain in the candlelight, a green bamboo paperweight pressed against the corner. The cinnabar calligraphy on it, "Where bones are buried, where gold is hidden," looked like congealed blood in the candlelight. Seeing Chuntao stumble in, she didn't even look up. "Did Liu find Liu San, the 'mountain pioneer' of the west city?"
"Miss, how did you know?" Chun Tao panted, leaning on the edge of the table, the velvet flowers on her temples tilted behind her ears. "That Liu San said he wanted to tear down the storehouse and search for treasure!"
Chen Weiwan lowered her wolf brush, and the ink smeared along the edge of the map, just enough to cover the cenotaph marker on the topographic map. Her fingertips tapped the ledger on her desk, and the six small words on the cover, "Liu's Corruption Record," were faintly visible in the candlelight. "The other day, the bribed servant 'accidentally' leaked the information to you, hoping to lure the snake out of its hole."
The old butler came in leaning on a cane, the bronze ornament on the top of the sandalwood cane knocking against the blue bricks: "Miss, the storeroom has been cleaned out as you instructed. The real stuff was moved to the secret compartment a long time ago, and now it's piled with..."
"They're all my father's moldy military manuals and last year's stale grain." Shen Weiwan stood up and pulled out a ceramic jar labeled "Sichuan Peppercorns" from the bottom of the cabinet. She lifted the lid and a choking red mist emerged. "Chun Tao, move this half-jar of chili powder to the warehouse beam. Remember to spread it through a fine silk sieve."
At midnight, the gong rang out, and more than twenty dark figures scaled the high wall like civet cats, their steel knives slicing cold arcs in the moonlight. Liu San and his men crept outside the warehouse. Seeing the rusted copper lock, he grinned and slashed with his knives. A loud clang startled bats from the beams, and their flapping wings knocked over the oil lamp in the corner. The flames licked the spider webs, crackling loudly.
"Damn it! What the hell is that!" Liu San cursed as he rushed into the warehouse, but he stepped into the basin of water and fell "plop" on the rice husks on the ground. As soon as he got up, he smelled a strong spicy smell, followed by a loud sneeze, and his face was covered with tears and snot.
"Cough cough! Where did the chili powder come from?" The thugs behind him rubbed their eyes and coughed. Some of them were choked and rolled on the ground, and the steel knives fell to the ground with a loud noise.
Liu followed behind, covering her mouth and nose with a handkerchief and cursing, "Fool! Find the treasure!"
Before he could finish his words, the roof suddenly began to shower with red powder—Chun Tao was hiding on a beam, desperately pouring chili powder through a sieve. The hooligans were choked and rolled on the ground, sneezing one after another. One of them pulled out the knockout drug from his arms and tried to throw it at the others, but accidentally spilled it on his own face, causing him to cry out in pain.
Liu San rubbed his red, swollen eyes. His fingertips touched a gilded wooden box, and he instantly forgot the pain. "Eureka! Here's the treasure!" He swung his knife to split the box open, and the musty smell hit him—it was filled with worm-eaten copies of Sun Tzu's Art of War, with dried maple leaves wedged between the pages. "Damn it! I've been fooled!" He kicked the box in anger, but heard a deafening shout from outside the yard:
"Catch the thief! Someone is robbing the warehouse!"
Shen Weiwan rushed in with more than twenty servants holding lanterns, and the torchlight illuminated the thugs rolling on the ground. She saw Liu's face flushed red from the chili powder and her hair disheveled, and deliberately exclaimed: "Aunt? Why are you with these people?"
Liu pointed at Shen Weiwan and was choked by the chili powder and couldn't speak a complete sentence: "You...you plotted against me!"
"What are you talking about, Auntie?" Shen Weiwan blinked her innocent eyes and took a step forward to avoid the vomit on the ground. "I heard the noise in the warehouse, so I brought the servants to guard the yard. I didn't expect to see you with these..." She paused and raised her voice, "with these knife-wielding thieves!"
The servants around immediately started talking:
"Oh my God! The Second Madam is actually colluding with thugs?"
"I was wondering why two pieces of golden nanmu wood were missing from the warehouse. Turns out it was her doing!"
"If the general were still alive, he would be heartbroken seeing this scene..."
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