"Father, let's look for the largest and most luxurious mansion," said Chang'an.
"It's pitch black out here. How am I supposed to know which mansion is the largest and most luxurious?" replied Old Gu Six.
Chang'an: ...
"Where are official residences usually located?"
"In Yizhou County, they're on the east side."
"Given our current direction, Father, you should be going left for east. Why are you going right?"
Old Gu Six: ...
After an hour of searching, they found Flower Willow Street, the small tavern, and the wealthy merchant's mansion.
Just as Chang'an was about to suggest finding an inn in the city to stay for the night and scouting properly tomorrow, they finally found the Prefecture Governor's Mansion.
It wasn't in the east of the city. Good heavens, it had been built in the west, and it was still under construction. The area it covered was vast, giving the impression of a palace being built.
Even though it was late at night, the mansion was brightly lit, and faint sounds of laughter and merrymaking could be heard from afar.
Old Gu Six led Chang'an carefully past the patrolling guards to a spot with the most security. The more people guarding a place, the more likely there were treasures inside.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a paper package. "Daughter, cover your nose and mouth. Hold your breath when I light this package."
Chang'an obediently did as she was told, watching Old Gu Six take out a flint and light it. A faint smoke wafted out, and the guards surrounding the courtyard fell one by one.
By the time the white powder in the package had burned out, all of them had been knocked out.
This courtyard not only had guards outside but inside as well. Old Gu Six went first, with Chang'an following closely behind.
He swiftly and unexpectedly dealt with the guards inside the courtyard, not sparing even the two crouching on the roof beams.
The two on the roof beams were killed outright. These two were probably the County Governor's secret guards and couldn't be left alive.
Old Gu Six used his sword to break the lock on the room. Inside was just an ordinary room, as ordinary as could be.
The County Governor's mind worked in strange ways indeed. A bunch of people guarding outside, even secret guards deployed here, all to guard an ordinary courtyard and an ordinary room?
Anyone with half a brain would know this room had to have some trick to it. The father and daughter pair began searching for hidden mechanisms.
Chang'an thought of what she had seen on TV before, where secret passages were often behind bookshelves or paintings.
However, they found nothing. Finally, only the bed was left to search.
The pair lifted the blanket and the bed board, but still nothing.
Chang'an, in a fit of temper, kicked the bedhead. Then they heard a 'click-clack' sound. Following the sound, they saw large floor planks under the bed sliding aside, gradually revealing an entrance about the size of a well opening.
She exchanged a glance with her father. Old Gu Six held Chang'an back as he took the lead.
They descended the stairs to find an enormous underground chamber. Old Gu Six tossed a few copper coins out, waited for a few breaths, but no traps or hidden weapons were triggered.
The underground room was filled with uniformly sized large wooden crates, at least two hundred of them.
Old Gu Six opened the crate at the front. It was full of neatly arranged silver ingots. He picked one up and turned it over, finding the local money house's mark on the bottom.
Official silver from the imperial court always bore the court's mark, while silver from aristocratic families or wealthy merchants had their family insignia, like the Jiang Family from Jiangnan who had their family crest on the bottom of their silver ingots.
Common people used silver fragments, and even if they had ingots, those would bear the money house's mark.
Old Gu Six didn't know how much the annual salary of a County Governor was, but he knew the silver in this underground chamber definitely came from illegitimate sources. It was clear evidence of collusion between officials and merchants, with a money house specifically laundering money for the County Governor.
Each crate could hold a thousand taels. Chang'an roughly counted: there were 120 crates of silver ingots, 100 crates of gold ingots, and various high-grade jewelry and jade items.
Chang'an didn't bother to estimate their value, she just waved her hand and stored everything in her villa space.
The underground chamber, which had been packed full, suddenly became very spacious.
"Father, this is probably just one of the places where they hide money."
Old Gu Six nodded in strong agreement. "That's right, there should be a main treasury. We still have time, let's look for it."
The father and daughter pair silently left this courtyard and wandered around for another half hour.
Well, they didn't find it, and the patrolling guards had already discovered the people who had fainted outside that courtyard.
The County Governor had been alerted, and the entire mansion was now bustling with people searching for the intruders.
Chang'an and Old Gu Six were hiding in a half-built courtyard.
Old Gu Six glanced at Chang'an, quickly picked her up onto his back, and dashed out.
After escaping, they found a relatively lavish courtyard. There were no lights inside, suggesting it wasn't inhabited yet. Old Gu Six took out his flint and set it on fire.
Watching it burn, Old Gu Six immediately left with Chang'an on his back.
The people searching for the intruders were distracted by shouts of "Fire! Fire!" and rushed towards the commotion.
While the Prefecture Governor's Mansion was in chaos, Old Gu Six took the opportunity to leave the premises. A group of people followed them out, though they used the main gate and left openly.
Our pair had to sneak out quietly, without making the slightest sound.
"Father, hurry! With all this commotion, they might start searching the entire city soon."
"Alright, hold on tight!"
Old Gu Six leapt into the air, and Chang'an felt the cold wind whistling past, nearly freezing her solid.
Indeed, as Chang'an had predicted, when the County Governor realized the intruders hadn't been caught in the mansion, he thought they might have escaped in the chaos and ordered a city-wide search.
The guards from the Prefecture Governor's Mansion were banging loudly on doors of shops, inns, and restaurants along the streets. Even ordinary people's homes were being ransacked.
If Old Gu Six hadn't hidden quickly at one point, they would have been discovered.
They lay flat on the roof of an ordinary citizen's house, only getting up to leave after those people had walked out of the alley.
They finally made it to the city wall, but the County Governor's men had arrived there too, and the number of people on the wall had doubled.
Chang'an thought to herself: In novels, the female protagonists always steal things so smoothly, why is it the opposite for her?
They returned to the same corner where they had entered the city, but unfortunately, even though it was a blind spot, someone was now standing guard there.
Father and daughter: We're done for!
Old Gu Six carried Chang'an on his back as they hid in the shadows. They were wearing night clothes, with black masks covering their faces, blending into the darkness.
After waiting for who knows how long, the guard finally left. But they didn't act immediately, instead waiting another quarter of an hour. Still, no one else came to that corner.
They nimbly climbed over the city wall and escaped. The mule was still waiting for them where they had left it, not stolen.
"Father, why don't you teach me lightness kung fu? Then I could run away on my own when we're up to mischief in the future," Chang'an suggested.
Old Gu Six gave Chang'an a long-suffering look. "Are you sure you can learn it? You tried when you were little, but you couldn't even memorize the basic inner cultivation techniques. We gave up on that endeavor."
He had never seen anyone with such poor memory. It was like trying to teach a fish—she'd forget the first half by the time she learned the second half. She never managed to remember it all.
"...I must have been too young then. Just tell me, will you teach me or not?" Chang'an pressed.
When little Chang'an had tried learning, she was only three years old. This wasn't like memorizing texts where rote learning would suffice. It required true understanding and internalization.
They had tried teaching little Chang'an as if she were an adult. She was just a normal three-year-old child, not a prodigy or blessed with protagonist's luck. Their teaching methods were all wrong—how could she possibly learn?
Young children have fleeting interest in everything. Of course she lost motivation when she couldn't master it after a long time.
