Xie Liwei walked to the wall and reached out to pry at the luminous pearl on it. Perhaps because it was often touched, the luminous pearl was dimmer than the other pearls.
The bead was activated, producing two crisp "click" sounds, but the wall in front of me didn't change much.
Fang Rao pressed against the wall, feeling around little by little, and then found loose marks above the gold brick. The two moved the gold brick aside, pushed aside the wall, and found a small passageway large enough for one person to pass through, only achievable by crawling. The door was about the size of a dog hole.
For a moment, neither of them wanted to go inside...
Fang Rao spat twice on his palm, then crawled inside.
"Master, let me go in first to see what's going on. If there's a problem, I can retreat on my own."
Anyway, the key to the vault is in their hands, so no one outside can get in.
After Fang Rao left, Xie Liwei kept wondering how Tong Qian distinguished his private property.
He examined the gold bricks but found nothing unusual.
But there must be some small details he overlooked, which he just can't figure out right now.
An hour later, Fang Rao emerged from the tunnel, panting heavily, and said, "Master, you would never guess where this tunnel leads!"
Xie Liwei was still identifying the gold bricks, and without turning his head, he asked, "Which of his private residences is this?"
"It's his family's ancestral hall!"
He dug a tunnel from the ancestral hall to the Ministry of Revenue's treasury; he was truly filial!
"We should go." Xie Liwei rearranged the gold bricks on the ground, and then climbed into the passageway with Fang Rao.
When he returned to the Prince of Xiaoyao's mansion, he was covered in the smell of dirt and was sent by Song Yaozhu to take a bath.
It must have been really tough on Tong Qian, who stayed up all night to climb such a long road just to see his precious child, and then went to court the next day.
To embezzle so much silver is something no ordinary person would do.
"I examined most of the gold bars there, but I couldn't find anything that was different from the ones in the national treasury."
Song Yaozhu rolled up her sleeves and helped him wipe his body, rubbing soap on his skin.
After a moment of contemplation, Song Yaozhu uttered a thought that shocked Xie Liwei: "Is it possible that all the gold bricks in the vault belong to him?"
Xie Liwei looked up at her in disbelief, his eyes filled with shock, even more so than when he saw the room full of gold bricks.
"Whenever the Ministry of Revenue opens the treasury, someone must notice something is amiss, right?"
"The inspector is only conducting an inspection; he doesn't know the true state of the Ministry of Revenue's accounts. He'd only suspect something was wrong if he saw an empty treasury, wouldn't he?"
Xie Liwei thought about it and agreed. If a country's treasury is empty, wouldn't that make people feel insecure?
"With so much gold, it would be difficult to handle even if we moved it out."
"Let's move them first," Song Yaozhu shrugged indifferently. Something is better than nothing; every little bit helps.
"Okay, I'll let Fang Rao rest for a bit, and then I'll take some people to move it tonight."
In this kind of thing, the most important thing is not to be too greedy. The more you want to take everything, the easier it is to expose yourself.
Song Yaozhu converted all the silver in the debt into gold, saying, "We'll only take this much. Anything extra is for helping others collect debts; we can't be greedy."
Xie Liwei agreed with her idea, and that night he set off with several guards from the Tong family's ancestral hall to the treasury to begin transporting the gold.
They made only two trips and had already collected enough gold bars, then they started tinkering with the Tong family ancestral hall.
"The princess told us to install lightning rods here, but it's only April now, and we won't be able to get them until the end of May when there's thunder and lightning."
"Oh dear, just do whatever the master tells you to do! Why waste so much breath? You don't even have the brains for that."
After tinkering for a while, the group quickly left the scene and went back to their room to melt down the gold.
But melting so much gold wasn't so easy; after only a few pieces were melted, the fire stalled. Although no black smoke could be seen at night, those monitoring the palace could still see the flames burning continuously.
"What should we do with so many gold bricks?"
The gentlemen sat together, watching the gold bricks blink in their eyes. Mr. Lan chuckled and said, "Let's each get one!"
Then he was glared at by the other gentlemen.
Song Yaozhu rested her chin on her hand, looked at the flickering candlelight, bit her lower lip, and said, "I have a way."
"What?"
Yuwen Wuji took a sip of fresh fish soup and heard his subordinates report that the Xiaoyao Prince's Mansion had been lit up all night until dawn.
What are they doing?
"Organize the warehouse," Li Wei replied guiltily.
He didn't understand why the carefree prince was organizing the storeroom so late at night instead of sleeping.
Yuwen Wuji was also puzzled, "Have someone keep an eye on it."
Because of this, he was distracted throughout the morning court session.
After the court session, someone reported that Princess Xiaoyao had brought many things to Prince Xuan's residence, saying that she wanted to add to Princess Yongle's dowry.
They also sent a lot of gifts to the Lu family, the family of the young lady whose engagement with Cui Yan was broken off, to give her face.
“Princess Yongle and the Princess Consort have a good relationship, so it’s only a courtesy to add to her dowry. Miss Lu will soon be the Princess Consort’s second sister-in-law, so it’s probably for the sake of the Song family’s reputation.”
It's a small matter, but something just doesn't feel right.
"Didn't she have a falling out with the Song family?"
"Between relatives... even if the bones are broken, the tendons are still connected. How can they be severed so easily? I suppose the Princess Consort is also filled with regret, which is why she is using this marriage with the Song family to try and reconcile with them as before?" Li Wei became less and less confident as he spoke. He really wanted to slap himself a few times. A mere servant, speaking so much of his own thoughts in front of the Emperor and trying to influence His Majesty's hearing—did he have a death wish?!
Yuwen Wuji pondered for a moment, then said with concern, "Have someone go and see what gifts she sent."
Every family that receives a gift has to register it. These are all social interactions, and if anything seems amiss, the people from both families will definitely notice something fishy.
But Yuwen Wuji was still uneasy.
"Is it really okay to put the gold bricks in those boxes?" Mr. Lan was a little scared.
The carpenters in the manor worked overnight to make compartments in those boxes, and although you couldn't tell the difference, the weights were different.
"Be bold and careful. We'll keep a close eye on these two companies these next few days."
Mr. Lan was quite disappointed that Ji Ming wasn't there and missed witnessing the grand spectacle of the BRICS summit. He'd tell him about it later and make him furious.
Well, there's nothing to brag about, since all that gold isn't his anyway.
The amount of gold bricks sent to Prince Xuan's residence was not large, and there was a fear that they would be difficult to retrieve later. Everything sent to the Lu family was to be returned to the Song family intact after Miss Lu's marriage.
Song Yaozhu dealt a heavy blow to the Song family, showing no concern for their reputation or face. She'd simply stage a wedding abduction to steal everything.
Anyway, the bandits Xie Liwei kept in the mountains outside the city would have to be of some use.
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