After the eight wet black paint zhangmu chests were arranged in the middle of the room, Lu Yi examined the chests carefully, looking at the dimensions: they were the same as what Jinxia had said. He was about to order YangYue to open all the boxes, but YangYue was nowhere in sight. It turned out that YangYue had hurried to go cook ginger soup for Jinxia, as soon as he had put down the chests and hadn’t waited for Lu Yi’s order, instead he’d immediately run away in an instant.
If they were JinYiWei, he wouldn’t need to say a word, because no one would dare to move one step. These LiuShanmen were too loose [they did whatever they wanted]. Lu Yi pulled out his sword, cut the sealed wax layer, splitted the copper lock and opened the chests.
A gold-plated statue with a crown of gemstones, a silver flower emblem of a tortoise and a crocodile with a green jade, a greenish-green silver lion, a large round of jing glass(hornless dragon), a tiger, and so on. In these eight chests were various dishes, bowls, glasses, gold wine cups, various jewelry, silver household appliances, jade ornaments, calligraphy paintings… He quickly glanced at all of them and immediately knew they were highly valuable.
In her room, Jinxia had changed her wet clothes with ones that were clean and dry, wiping her wet hair. YangYue brought over the ginger soup, she drank it all at once and gulped it down immediately, her body felt a little warmer.
“He definitely wants to take all the birthday gifts for himself.” While chewing the remaining ginger in the bottom of the bowl, she expressed her thoughts.
“It seems impossible…” YangYue felt that it was not possible, “This incident, we both know about it, we’re LiuShanmen’s, he can’t ignore that.”
“Maybe, he’ll come and seal our mouths shut later.” Jinxia guessed.
“You mean … like this?”
YangYue put his hand on his neck and pulled it away. [Basically he made the slicing gesture]
Jinxia drew the shape of a gold bar with her hands: “He would have offered us this first if we were acquaintances, since we’re not, he would just…” Her hand rested on her neck and ferociously pulled it.
YangYue was feeling conflicted: “I do want it too, but if my father found out about this, would you dare to take the silvers?”
Jinxia hesitated for a moment, feeling uncertain and said: “Master has said from the beginning that about the content of the birthday gifts we shouldn’t interfere. No matter who takes it, it doesn’t matter in what hands they fall into, it’s all the same to us. After all, this master struggled in the water for so long, there is no service for the sacrifice, accepting a little from work is not too much…oh yeah, why did he go down in the water?”
YangYue listened to her, but his mind was unfocused, he remembered something, immediately turned his body and walked out: “I’ve just seen black sesame in the kitchen, I’ll make some dumpling cakes for you.”
“Wait!”
Jinxia looked at him suspiciously and called him back.
YangYue felt very uncomfortable being watched closely by her and finally said: “You entered the water and he immediately appeared. I was going to lie to him, but whether or not he falls for it, it’s up to him.”
“You…”
They each felt uneasy in their heart. At this moment, a ship’s crew member knocked on the door, conveying that they were both invited by JinYiWei’s Daren to go to the upper room.
“He’s really going to keep our mouth shut?” YangYue panicked and hesitated, “Or I’ll go and tell father first.”
“Don’t rush, we’ll go and take a look first, what’s the point of being afraid of him?”
Jinxia pulled YangYue, then they went upstairs.
When they reached the front of the door of the upper room, they knocked and a soft voice could be heard: “Enter.”
Jinxia and YangYue entered the room and immediately saw Lu Yi: he was wearing a green lotus robe wrapped around his body, his wet hair was not tied, it only hung behind his head. Lu Yi sat leaning on a round chair made of an imitation of a yellow bamboo, frowning at the chests.
“…Look, jade green silver lion!” Jinxia patted YangYue, calling him to look at the chest.
YangYue glanced at her a few times and whispered: “…a golden lion on top of the kirin, this gold cup looks like it’s about four or five tails in weight.”
“It seems to be.” Jinxia sighed.
Seeing these two little constables behaving disrespectfully, continuing to whisper, Lu Yi raised his eyebrows and coldly stared at the two of them: “You two quietly went underwater, meaning you were going to embezzle these birthday items, right?”
Jinxia was stunned, all the chests were currently in the middle of his room, clearly, he was the one that wanted to embezzle the gifts, yet he was accusing them of having evil intentions.
YangYue immediately replied in a hurry: “I don’t dare to, Daren, please check carefully, I only wanted to investigate the case, that’s why we went into the water.”
“Does Yang ChengWan know?” Lu Yi continued to ask.
Jinxia quickly said: “He doesn’t know.”
“He knows.” YangYue answered at the same time.
The two of them looked at each other in surprise, while Lu Yi raised his eyebrows high.
“He knows.”
“He does not know.”
They once again answered opposing words and as soon as they finished speaking, Jinxia glared at YangYue indicating: ‘Why did you join in the conversation? You’re usually not this quick.’ Feeling frustrated, she hit her forehead.
Seeing the two of them in conflict, Lu Yi was somewhat satisfied and asked: “How did you know these chests were underwater? You, talk.” He pointed at YangYue.
“Uh…uh…” Because of Lu Yi’s accusation earlier, he was still stunned by it, “…so it’s like this… on the chest there was a candle, uh, no, on the floor there was a candle…then there were also scratches…so there it was, so then we guessed…”
Lu Yi patiently listened to his explanation, but when he heard the word ‘guess’, he immediately lost his temper, raised his hand, signaling YangYue to stop talking, then looked at Jinxia: “You, talk.”
Jinxia let go of her hands and said: “Actually, we were only guessing, and luck was on our side since we found these chests underwater.”
“So that’s how it is,” Lu Yi nodded his head, his face was expressionless, “Then you might as well guess if I could put you in the chest and then sink you underwater.”
“Jingli Daren loves to joke…haha..” Jinxia laughed dryly, seeing Lu Yi’s creepy cold eyes, there was choice but to tell the truth, “First, the guard who fainted was not drugged with powder but mosan medicine. The scratches left in the room, especially seeing the footprints were all traces left by the guards, it means there were at least six or more people not including the watcher. Secondly, if these chests were moved out of the hull, the ship would have definitely changed in height, but from yesterday afternoon until now, the water level line had no significant change. Thirdly, the wax oil on the floor of the room can indicate how much of the amount was used, if the purpose was to prevent the humid temperature, it wouldn’t require that much.”
“You already knew, yet intended to hide it and you still say you don’t want to embezzle?” Lu Yi said slowly.
“Wang Fangxing was suspicious of the subordinates who were with him, of course it’s not good for me to say this in front of the crowd.” Jinxia laughed sweetly, “Besides, we were not certain that these chests would be underwater, so I thought after confirming I would report to Daren.”
Even the last sentence of her words, Lu Yi did not believe it; he held up the teacup and slowly sipped his tea. In his head, he suddenly remembered Wang Fangxing’s actions and words, the frightening reaction didn’t seem to be fake, but the banner-carrying officer and the other guards’ expressions…robbing these birthday gifts was not an easy task, the one who could do this was definitely not a person of low rank, he at least had to be a small leader with some reputation that could get others to join him in committing crimes.
The cup of tea was not finished yet and Lu Yi had already decided. He pointed his finger at YangYue: “You, call Wang Fangxing and that banner-carrying officer here.”
YangYue was stunned for a moment, but did not dare to say anything, he walked out as fast as possible.
Calling them here? Was Lu Yi going to return these chests to them? Jinxia was confused about the plan.
Lu Yi once again raised his voice: “If I remember correctly, after returning from the ship, you first reported to Yang Superior and then went into the water, correct?”
Because it had been seen by him, Jinxia could not deny and could only nod her head.
“Did you report in detail all the situations to Yang Superior?”
Jinxia being cautious said indistinctly: “Just reported a few.”
“So, Yang Superior knew the thief was someone on the ship?”
“He did not know, I did not tell him about these speculations.” In her heart, she knew that JinYiWei had the ability to change from flat ground to three levels of waves, in order to avoid the embezzlement accusation from him, she quickly explained the situation and took the matter in her own hands, “I was curious for a moment, and insisted on going into the water to investigate.”
Long and slender fingers tapped softly on the shiny Huangyuan wood, Lu Yi tilted his head slightly to look at her, after a while, he asked: “You’re a constable, why set up a stall at the night market?”
“…That’s my mother’s stall, she didn’t feel well that day so I helped her.” Jinxia didn’t understand why he suddenly asked about that.
Lu Yi nodded his head and said: “It seems your family’s finances are somewhat complicated, no wonder your mother wants you to marry into that teacher’s family so you can save on tuition fees.”
“You…you eavesdropped on our conversation!” This embarrassing problem was heard by him. Jinxia was feeling distressed and her face became very red.
Lu Yi was not anxious or angry, and said: “So, you went underwater to make a fortune for yourself, even though you couldn’t embezzle all the birthday gifts, but you still wanted at least to pick up some stuff right?”
He was not wrong: looking at the things in these chests, just picking up one small thing and she wouldn’t have to live in a financial crisis with her family. Jinxia went underwater, aside from wanting to teach someone a lesson, she also wanted to pick up something for herself. Lu Yi guessed her heart, she glared at him. After a while, she released her fist and said: “Daren’s words are indeed sharp, I did not take anything, all the chests are here with you.”
“Your luck is indeed good.” He said lightly.
Jinxia quietly gritted her teeth, feeling angry but did not dare to speak: this master, in the morning was thrown left to right for half a day in the water, being unlucky and was almost caught by you, and being accused of embezzlement, you called that luck? You have good luck, your whole family has good luck.
The sounds of footsteps could be heard outside the door, YangYue led Wang Fangxing and the banner-carrying officer into the room.
“This is…this…this…” Wang Fangxing, as he entered, immediately looked at the eight black painted zhangmu chests, still wet and lined up neatly on the floor.
Lu Yi got up and greeted him: “These chests have just been found, don’t know if these are the lost birthday gifts?”
“Indeed, yes, yes!” Feeling both surprised and happy at the same time, Wang Fangxing no longer cared about etiquette, he immediately walked over to check the contents in the chest. At the same time, Lu Yi waved his hand gesturing for Jinxia and YangYue to back out. Jinxia wanted to watch a good performance, after leaving the room, so she secretly crouched under the window, eavesdropping on the activities inside.
YangYue gave her a hand gesture, asking Jinxia to follow him out, but she did not want to and even pulled him down to listen with her.
***
Inside the room, Wang Fangxing looked at the gold and silver equipment, precious stone jewelry, calligraphy paintings and others that were all there, exhaling a long breath of relief. He looked at Lu Yi and happily said, “Where did you find these chests?”
“On your ship.”
“Our ship?” Wang Fangxing displayed a confused look.
“These chests were placed at the bottom of the ship in a waterproof compartment. Regarding how they were placed there, I think you should ask your banner-carrying officer.” Despite his laughter, Lu Yi’s eyes were sharp like a sword, he looked at the banner-carrying officer’s dark face, standing beside Wang Fangxing.
Wang Fangxing suddenly turned around, in disbelief and said: “Sha Xiuzhu!”
The black-faced banner-carrying officer’s name was Sha Xiuzhu. He stood up straight, his eyes looked at Lu Yi. Jinxia did not understand how Lu Yi could know this case was done by Sha Xiuzhu. She risked the danger, stood up to take a look at the officer’s face: he was about seven feet, because of being in the defense army for many years, his skin had become dark and rough, while his hand muscles were thick, probably due to long-term hard work and training in martial arts.
After the eight wet black paint zhangmu chests were arranged in the middle of the room, Lu Yi examined the chests carefully, looking at the dimensions: they were the same as what Jinxia had said. He was about to order YangYue to open all the boxes, but YangYue was nowhere in sight. It turned out that YangYue had hurried to go cook ginger soup for Jinxia, as soon as he had put down the chests and hadn’t waited for Lu Yi’s order, instead he’d immediately run away in an instant.
If they were JinYiWei, he wouldn’t need to say a word, because no one would dare to move one step. These LiuShanmen were too loose [they did whatever they wanted]. Lu Yi pulled out his sword, cut the sealed wax layer, splitted the copper lock and opened the chests.
A gold-plated statue with a crown of gemstones, a silver flower emblem of a tortoise and a crocodile with a green jade, a greenish-green silver lion, a large round of jing glass(hornless dragon), a tiger, and so on. In these eight chests were various dishes, bowls, glasses, gold wine cups, various jewelry, silver household appliances, jade ornaments, calligraphy paintings… He quickly glanced at all of them and immediately knew they were highly valuable.
In her room, Jinxia had changed her wet clothes with ones that were clean and dry, wiping her wet hair. YangYue brought over the ginger soup, she drank it all at once and gulped it down immediately, her body felt a little warmer.
“He definitely wants to take all the birthday gifts for himself.” While chewing the remaining ginger in the bottom of the bowl, she expressed her thoughts.
“It seems impossible…” YangYue felt that it was not possible, “This incident, we both know about it, we’re LiuShanmen’s, he can’t ignore that.”
“Maybe, he’ll come and seal our mouths shut later.” Jinxia guessed.
“You mean … like this?”
YangYue put his hand on his neck and pulled it away. [Basically he made the slicing gesture]
Jinxia drew the shape of a gold bar with her hands: “He would have offered us this first if we were acquaintances, since we’re not, he would just…” Her hand rested on her neck and ferociously pulled it.
YangYue was feeling conflicted: “I do want it too, but if my father found out about this, would you dare to take the silvers?”
Jinxia hesitated for a moment, feeling uncertain and said: “Master has said from the beginning that about the content of the birthday gifts we shouldn’t interfere. No matter who takes it, it doesn’t matter in what hands they fall into, it’s all the same to us. After all, this master struggled in the water for so long, there is no service for the sacrifice, accepting a little from work is not too much…oh yeah, why did he go down in the water?”
YangYue listened to her, but his mind was unfocused, he remembered something, immediately turned his body and walked out: “I’ve just seen black sesame in the kitchen, I’ll make some dumpling cakes for you.”
“Wait!”
Jinxia looked at him suspiciously and called him back.
YangYue felt very uncomfortable being watched closely by her and finally said: “You entered the water and he immediately appeared. I was going to lie to him, but whether or not he falls for it, it’s up to him.”
“You…”
They each felt uneasy in their heart. At this moment, a ship’s crew member knocked on the door, conveying that they were both invited by JinYiWei’s Daren to go to the upper room.
“He’s really going to keep our mouth shut?” YangYue panicked and hesitated, “Or I’ll go and tell father first.”
“Don’t rush, we’ll go and take a look first, what’s the point of being afraid of him?”
Jinxia pulled YangYue, then they went upstairs.
When they reached the front of the door of the upper room, they knocked and a soft voice could be heard: “Enter.”
Jinxia and YangYue entered the room and immediately saw Lu Yi: he was wearing a green lotus robe wrapped around his body, his wet hair was not tied, it only hung behind his head. Lu Yi sat leaning on a round chair made of an imitation of a yellow bamboo, frowning at the chests.
“…Look, jade green silver lion!” Jinxia patted YangYue, calling him to look at the chest.
YangYue glanced at her a few times and whispered: “…a golden lion on top of the kirin, this gold cup looks like it’s about four or five tails in weight.”
“It seems to be.” Jinxia sighed.
Seeing these two little constables behaving disrespectfully, continuing to whisper, Lu Yi raised his eyebrows and coldly stared at the two of them: “You two quietly went underwater, meaning you were going to embezzle these birthday items, right?”
Jinxia was stunned, all the chests were currently in the middle of his room, clearly, he was the one that wanted to embezzle the gifts, yet he was accusing them of having evil intentions.
YangYue immediately replied in a hurry: “I don’t dare to, Daren, please check carefully, I only wanted to investigate the case, that’s why we went into the water.”
“Does Yang ChengWan know?” Lu Yi continued to ask.
Jinxia quickly said: “He doesn’t know.”
“He knows.” YangYue answered at the same time.
The two of them looked at each other in surprise, while Lu Yi raised his eyebrows high.
“He knows.”
“He does not know.”
They once again answered opposing words and as soon as they finished speaking, Jinxia glared at YangYue indicating: ‘Why did you join in the conversation? You’re usually not this quick.’ Feeling frustrated, she hit her forehead.
Seeing the two of them in conflict, Lu Yi was somewhat satisfied and asked: “How did you know these chests were underwater? You, talk.” He pointed at YangYue.
“Uh…uh…” Because of Lu Yi’s accusation earlier, he was still stunned by it, “…so it’s like this… on the chest there was a candle, uh, no, on the floor there was a candle…then there were also scratches…so there it was, so then we guessed…”
Lu Yi patiently listened to his explanation, but when he heard the word ‘guess’, he immediately lost his temper, raised his hand, signaling YangYue to stop talking, then looked at Jinxia: “You, talk.”
Jinxia let go of her hands and said: “Actually, we were only guessing, and luck was on our side since we found these chests underwater.”
“So that’s how it is,” Lu Yi nodded his head, his face was expressionless, “Then you might as well guess if I could put you in the chest and then sink you underwater.”
“Jingli Daren loves to joke…haha..” Jinxia laughed dryly, seeing Lu Yi’s creepy cold eyes, there was choice but to tell the truth, “First, the guard who fainted was not drugged with powder but mosan medicine. The scratches left in the room, especially seeing the footprints were all traces left by the guards, it means there were at least six or more people not including the watcher. Secondly, if these chests were moved out of the hull, the ship would have definitely changed in height, but from yesterday afternoon until now, the water level line had no significant change. Thirdly, the wax oil on the floor of the room can indicate how much of the amount was used, if the purpose was to prevent the humid temperature, it wouldn’t require that much.”
“You already knew, yet intended to hide it and you still say you don’t want to embezzle?” Lu Yi said slowly.
“Wang Fangxing was suspicious of the subordinates who were with him, of course it’s not good for me to say this in front of the crowd.” Jinxia laughed sweetly, “Besides, we were not certain that these chests would be underwater, so I thought after confirming I would report to Daren.”
Even the last sentence of her words, Lu Yi did not believe it; he held up the teacup and slowly sipped his tea. In his head, he suddenly remembered Wang Fangxing’s actions and words, the frightening reaction didn’t seem to be fake, but the banner-carrying officer and the other guards’ expressions…robbing these birthday gifts was not an easy task, the one who could do this was definitely not a person of low rank, he at least had to be a small leader with some reputation that could get others to join him in committing crimes.
The cup of tea was not finished yet and Lu Yi had already decided. He pointed his finger at YangYue: “You, call Wang Fangxing and that banner-carrying officer here.”
YangYue was stunned for a moment, but did not dare to say anything, he walked out as fast as possible.
Calling them here? Was Lu Yi going to return these chests to them? Jinxia was confused about the plan.
Lu Yi once again raised his voice: “If I remember correctly, after returning from the ship, you first reported to Yang Superior and then went into the water, correct?”
Because it had been seen by him, Jinxia could not deny and could only nod her head.
“Did you report in detail all the situations to Yang Superior?”
Jinxia being cautious said indistinctly: “Just reported a few.”
“So, Yang Superior knew the thief was someone on the ship?”
“He did not know, I did not tell him about these speculations.” In her heart, she knew that JinYiWei had the ability to change from flat ground to three levels of waves, in order to avoid the embezzlement accusation from him, she quickly explained the situation and took the matter in her own hands, “I was curious for a moment, and insisted on going into the water to investigate.”
Long and slender fingers tapped softly on the shiny Huangyuan wood, Lu Yi tilted his head slightly to look at her, after a while, he asked: “You’re a constable, why set up a stall at the night market?”
“…That’s my mother’s stall, she didn’t feel well that day so I helped her.” Jinxia didn’t understand why he suddenly asked about that.
Lu Yi nodded his head and said: “It seems your family’s finances are somewhat complicated, no wonder your mother wants you to marry into that teacher’s family so you can save on tuition fees.”
“You…you eavesdropped on our conversation!” This embarrassing problem was heard by him. Jinxia was feeling distressed and her face became very red.
Lu Yi was not anxious or angry, and said: “So, you went underwater to make a fortune for yourself, even though you couldn’t embezzle all the birthday gifts, but you still wanted at least to pick up some stuff right?”
He was not wrong: looking at the things in these chests, just picking up one small thing and she wouldn’t have to live in a financial crisis with her family. Jinxia went underwater, aside from wanting to teach someone a lesson, she also wanted to pick up something for herself. Lu Yi guessed her heart, she glared at him. After a while, she released her fist and said: “Daren’s words are indeed sharp, I did not take anything, all the chests are here with you.”
“Your luck is indeed good.” He said lightly.
Jinxia quietly gritted her teeth, feeling angry but did not dare to speak: this master, in the morning was thrown left to right for half a day in the water, being unlucky and was almost caught by you, and being accused of embezzlement, you called that luck? You have good luck, your whole family has good luck.
The sounds of footsteps could be heard outside the door, YangYue led Wang Fangxing and the banner-carrying officer into the room.
“This is…this…this…” Wang Fangxing, as he entered, immediately looked at the eight black painted zhangmu chests, still wet and lined up neatly on the floor.
Lu Yi got up and greeted him: “These chests have just been found, don’t know if these are the lost birthday gifts?”
“Indeed, yes, yes!” Feeling both surprised and happy at the same time, Wang Fangxing no longer cared about etiquette, he immediately walked over to check the contents in the chest. At the same time, Lu Yi waved his hand gesturing for Jinxia and YangYue to back out. Jinxia wanted to watch a good performance, after leaving the room, so she secretly crouched under the window, eavesdropping on the activities inside.
YangYue gave her a hand gesture, asking Jinxia to follow him out, but she did not want to and even pulled him down to listen with her.
***
Inside the room, Wang Fangxing looked at the gold and silver equipment, precious stone jewelry, calligraphy paintings and others that were all there, exhaling a long breath of relief. He looked at Lu Yi and happily said, “Where did you find these chests?”
“On your ship.”
“Our ship?” Wang Fangxing displayed a confused look.
“These chests were placed at the bottom of the ship in a waterproof compartment. Regarding how they were placed there, I think you should ask your banner-carrying officer.” Despite his laughter, Lu Yi’s eyes were sharp like a sword, he looked at the banner-carrying officer’s dark face, standing beside Wang Fangxing.
Wang Fangxing suddenly turned around, in disbelief and said: “Sha Xiuzhu!”
The black-faced banner-carrying officer’s name was Sha Xiuzhu. He stood up straight, his eyes looked at Lu Yi. Jinxia did not understand how Lu Yi could know this case was done by Sha Xiuzhu. She risked the danger, stood up to take a look at the officer’s face: he was about seven feet, because of being in the defense army for many years, his skin had become dark and rough, while his hand muscles were thick, probably due to long-term hard work and training in martial arts.
