Chapter 12: Each Harbors Their Own Thoughts
In the carriage heading toward Buye Tian City, Ying Ru Shi flipped through her notes, making sure no intelligence had been overlooked.
After Yellow Dog resolved the difficult problem of opening the gold vault, there remained only one last major obstacle in the thieves’ plan: closing the temple doors.
On this matter, no one could come up with a good solution.
Anguo Temple was very large, with more than one exit, and more importantly, it also had a second and even a third floor.
Even if the four of them immediately controlled the main gate, the monks in Anguo Temple would surely know to escape from the side or back doors, or even jump directly from the second floor—it wasn’t impossible.
Then should they suppress all exits first?
Setting aside the fact that there were only four of them and manpower was extremely tight, a greater issue was that the main hall of Anguo Temple was also not small, and the process of closing the hall doors and then regrouping at the vault would inevitably take considerable time.
If Yellow Dog’s method proved feasible, then the four of them would need to work together in the vault and couldn’t split up.
But there were still four days left, so “Black Wolf” proposed that they end the meeting for today, go back and think carefully about the “closing the hall doors” task, and reconvene at the Thieves’ House tomorrow at the usual time to continue the discussion.
Ying Ru Shi understood in her heart that Black Wolf and Red Snake were surely off verifying the method provided by “Yellow Dog.”
They likely didn’t believe that such ordinary tools, paired with a technique of no real difficulty, could achieve destructive power that even third- or fourth-stage Tokens couldn’t match.
But without verification, they couldn’t refute it, so they simply interrupted the meeting and planned to use the verification results tomorrow to thoroughly slap “Yellow Dog” in the face.
They all wanted to suppress “Yellow Dog’s” momentum.
Yes, even though Black Wolf chaired the meeting and Red Snake often joined the discussion, the truly dominant figure in this meeting was the quiet and reserved “Yellow Dog.”
Everyone else knew nothing about the Thieves’ House, but he knew how to operate the sand table;
Among the three major problems, he solved the most troublesome one—“opening the gold vault.”
No one could refute his proposals, and whatever he said, the rest could only listen.
If this continued, he would easily seize the leadership of their four-person group.
Black Wolf, who had tried to compete for leadership from the start, realized that if this went on, he would become the sidekick, so he decisively ended the meeting.
If Black Wolf wanted to prove that Yellow Dog’s method didn’t work, she would probably be disappointed, Ying Ru Shi thought.
Although it hadn’t been tested yet, Ying Ru Shi was sure that Yellow Dog would never speak without basis.
This stemmed not only from her observation of Yellow Dog but also from... that white iron straight blade.
The straight blade that Yan San used to kill Wu Wanliu was missing after the man died.
It was clearly a new Token that had never appeared in “The Messenger’s Compendium,” yet it was in Yellow Dog’s hands.
It was hard for Ying Ru Shi not to associate Yan San with Yellow Dog—she even suspected that the blade in Yellow Dog’s hand was exactly Yan San’s.
Before leaving Pingcheng, she had deliberately questioned the Hundred-Ward Riders who had entered the secret realm today and confirmed that Yan San had not brought a straight blade before entering.
Yan San hadn’t even used a straight blade when fighting the Demon King.
Someone had suggested that the blade resembled the Demon King’s weapon, but the two blades the Demon King dropped today were already among the spoils, and neither had Token effects.
It was as if Yan San had borrowed the white iron straight blade from someone just before the kill, and once he finished, it automatically returned.
As if someone stood behind the curtain, watching the world coldly, occasionally dropping a single piece that changed the fate of certain people.
As if...
“Yellow Dog...”
Ying Ru Shi mulled over the codename, burying these baseless speculations deep in her heart.
For some reason, she began to look forward to the theft four days later.
...
...
“Miss, all the wooden cabinet doors have been ripped off—so impressive!”
Wu Qiu was very excited, and the other three maids felt similarly.
They were all ordinary people, and although they did manual labor often, they weren’t particularly strong—but these four battered wooden cabinets before them were their masterpiece—so we could actually be this strong!
However, Medicine Master Wen did not look pleased.
“Go buy four iron cabinets and try again,” she ordered.
At that moment, a servant came to report that the Lord of the Prefecture had finally finished his official duties and had time to meet her.
Medicine Master Wen rushed to Changqiu Study, closed the door, and said, “Father, we can now deploy ambush troops on Vermillion Bird Avenue. Once we descend, you can capture those three thieves!”
Whew.
Medicine Master Mo Ke put down his long water pipe and exhaled a puff of pale smoke.
He remained silent for a long time, until Medicine Master Wen grew a little impatient, and he finally said slowly, “Compared to Bingzi Pepper Forest, the Thieves’ House is more important—you are more important. Rather than making a big fuss over Bingzi Pepper Forest, it’s better to let you all steal it. Once you control the Thieves’ House, it won’t be too late to return it.”
Medicine Master Wen was stunned.
“Of course, I won’t condone your theft of Bingzi Pepper Forest. If you cause any trouble, I can only guarantee your safety.
If you want to steal from Bingzi Pepper Forest, you’ll have to rely on yourselves.”
“Father,” Medicine Master Wen said slowly, enunciating every word, “I don’t understand.”
Medicine Master Mo Ke stood up and paced back and forth in the room.
After hesitating for a while, he sat back down and took a deep drag on the water pipe, sighing, “Wen, I won’t hide it from you. I have many enemies at court. The moment they get a chance, they try to deceive His Majesty and set me up...
Bingzi Pepper Forest was the Grand Ancestor’s sword.
If it returns to the public eye, those arrogant officials might unite against me.”
Arrogant?
Weren’t they loyal instead?
“Father, the reason you have so many enemies is because you appoint only your own people and exclude others,” said Medicine Master Wen.
“You think that Bingzi Pepper Forest would remind many loyal officials of the Grand Ancestor’s favor and the imperial family’s grace, so you’d rather let us steal it to undermine the imperial prestige!”
“Insolent!”
Medicine Master Mo Ke smashed the water pipe with a slap, stood up, and glared angrily at Medicine Master Wen.
“You talk to your father like that?! Who do you think you are, the emperor?”
“In your bid for absolute power, you treat everything as bargaining chips.”
Medicine Master Wen raised her hand to sweep away the smoke in front of her, shook her head, and said, “Father, you’ll regret this.”
“The twenty-four prefectures of Chang’an rest on my shoulders. It’s not your place to decide national affairs,” Medicine Master Mo Ke said coldly.
“Wen, I am the Grand Chancellor of Great Zhou!”
...
...
Jiangnan City, the Shang Residence.
“You’re back?” Shang Qiao hurried over to find his sister. “Are you okay?”
Then he saw Shang Xinlei sitting there eating osmanthus cake one bite after another.
She not only seemed fine, but her appetite was great.
“What did you discuss at the Thieves’ House? What’s your plan to steal Bingzi Pepper Forest?”
“Hmm…” Shang Xinlei tried to recall. “The sand table in the Thieves’ House can zoom in and out—it’s really fun.”
“What else?”
“Well… Black Wolf is kind of self-important, always trying to boss us around. But she’s so obvious about it that it comes off really clumsy. In contrast, White Fox is much smoother, but I don’t know why today she was super, super, super focused on Yellow Dog. It looked like Yellow Dog didn’t recognize her either. Could it be she figured out Yellow Dog’s real identity?”
“The most interesting one is Yellow Dog. He thought he hid it well, but he kept drooling while staring at me!”
“What!”
Shang Qiao shot to his feet. “He drooled while looking at you?!”
“Yup, especially when I was eating osmanthus cake and licking the glutinous rice powder off my fingers. I even saw him swallow!”
Shang Xinlei giggled, “Even though he was wearing a mask, I could totally read his expression—he was definitely hoping I’d share the cake with him. Hmph, if he doesn’t ask, I won’t give him any!”
“Oh, so he was drooling over the cake…”
Shang Qiao slowly sat back down. “So what about your theft plan?”
“Huh? They’ll take care of that. I’ll just go with them,” Shang Xinlei said, propping up her chin.
“All in all, they’re a very interesting group. I’m already looking forward to the day we all go to Chang’an together.”
Shang Qiao felt something was off.
The Thieves’ House was supposed to be a dangerous secret realm full of scheming theft kings fighting over treasures—
How did it turn into a private gathering of friends planning a vacation, according to his sister?
They were supposed to be aiming for the secret realm or treasures—
Sis, what exactly are you going for?