Liu Xiawei paced restlessly around the mansion.
As he passed by a garden, suddenly there was a "thump" and something flew out from behind a cluster of camellias and landed in front of him.
"You scared the hell out of me! Who the hell threw things around like that?" he said, rushing over.
There was no one behind the camellias. Looking up into the distance, I saw a pink hem flash by around the corner.
Liu Xiawei was stunned. He ran back to where he had been and saw that what had fallen in front of him was a purse.
He picked it up, opened it, and found a key and a note inside that read "Secret Box Key".
This...this...isn't this just like falling asleep and finding a pillow?
Who is helping him?
He can't care about anything else now, he's going to take a gamble! If he fails to steal, or gets caught, he'll just get a beating or a scolding, so what?
......
After throwing the things over, Li Jiaojiao felt uneasy and even seemed distracted while studying with the Duchess of Pingguo.
Won't that idiot find it too suspicious and be too afraid to take action?
But she has no better plan now.
"Fire! Fire!" A maid's alarmed cry suddenly rang out from outside.
Lady Pingguo and Granny Yu were startled: "Where is the fire?"
A young maidservant came running in, panting: "The front yard! The front yard is on fire!"
"Did you send someone to rescue them?"
"People have already gone to help, but the fire is too big..."
Lady Pingguo was so frightened that her face turned pale.
Li Jiaojiao was secretly delighted. Could it be that idiot was behind it all? Did he set fire to the front yard to steal something?
He cried urgently, "Mother, let's go see, let's go quickly..."
"Alright, let's go!"
The group rushed out the door and hurried towards the front yard.
Li Jiaojiao took a step back and instructed Xiao Lü, "Go back to my courtyard and keep watch."
Little Green was taken aback: "Why?"
"Go when I tell you to."
Xiao Lü had no choice but to lift her skirt and return to Li Jiaojiao's courtyard.
Li Jiaojiao was afraid that after Liu Xiawei touched the Duke of Pingguo's wife's things, he would touch hers as well.
After Xiao Lü left, Li Jiaojiao thoughtfully asked the maid who hadn't followed to go to the front yard to help.
Soon after, all the maids and servants had left.
When Li Jiaojiao and the others arrived at the front yard, they saw that the room that was on fire was the study of the Duke of Pingguo.
Duke Pingguo stood not far away, cursing angrily. Although the study was useless to him, the calligraphy, paintings and furniture inside were not cheap.
The fire was quite large, and it took a good 45 minutes to put it out.
Li Jiaojiao clicked her tongue in amazement, "That was really ruthless!"
......
At the same time, Liu Xiawei tiptoed into the bedroom of the Duchess of Pingguo.
Moving the bedside table aside, I indeed saw an iron box embedded in the wall.
He carefully inserted the key, and with a click, it actually opened!
He excitedly emptied everything out of the container.
Besides a stack of land deeds and shop deeds, there were also several high-quality jade bracelets and jewelry.
He flipped through the land deeds and his eyes widened in disbelief: "These two estates...aren't they part of our Duke's mansion? And these three shops too...when did they become Mother's dowry?"
"I knew it! How could Guangniang's dowry possibly generate 30,000 taels of income a year? It turns out it originally came from our Duke's mansion."
"Forget it, I'll just sell them all together anyway! Rather than letting that bitch Li Jiaojiao get away with it, I might as well spend it myself."
Thinking it over, Liu Xiawei stuffed everything into the cloth bag, then locked it again and moved the bedside table back.
Fearing discovery, he dared not touch the jewelry that the Duchess of Pingguo often used on the table, and tiptoed away with his belongings on his back.
After leaving the house, Liu Xiawei went straight to Deli Money Shop, slammed all the land deeds and shop deeds on the table, and acted like a big shot.
"Look, I've got it! Give me the money!"
The big man's eyes lit up when he saw the shop contracts, and he immediately ordered someone to bring up a man who looked like a shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper looked at each shop deed one by one, quite satisfied: "Good, good, the debt of 30,000 taels is now cleared."
Liu Xiawei snorted coldly: "Only thirty thousand taels? Don't take me for a fool. These fields and shops alone are worth more than that."
The shopkeeper, abandoning his usual fierce demeanor, laughed and said, "Yes, yes, yes. We've estimated that in addition to the original 30,000, we'll give you another 10,000 taels."
Liu Xiawei frowned: "Only ten thousand? Do you think I'm stupid? I won't sell! I'll sell it to someone else and then pay you back thirty thousand."
"Wait... wait, Mr. Liu, name your price!"
Liu Xiawei flipped through the shop deeds and land deeds one by one, pretending to know a lot, but he was already extremely annoyed.
He hates things with lots of words; they annoy him as soon as he looks at them, so he can only estimate them in his mind.
My mother's dowry back then was about 20,000 taels of silver, plus an estate.
Besides her mother's dowry, there are also items from their Pingguo Duke's mansion here. Their family's annual income is currently around 30,000 taels...
After thinking for a moment, Liu Xiawei said, "Besides forgiving the 30,000 taels of debt, you have to give me another 50,000 taels..."
The shopkeeper's face turned cold: "Master Liu is asking for an exorbitant price. You can't possibly sell these things in a hurry. Besides, apart from our Deli Money Shop, I'm afraid no one else would dare to take your goods."
Liu Xiawei said urgently, "Then... forty thousand taels!"
The shopkeeper said, "After forgiving the 30,000 debt, I'll give you another 20,000."
Thirty thousand!
"Twenty-five thousand, that's the most I can do."
"make a deal."
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