I'm Already the Richest Man, Why Did My System Just Arrive?

Chapter 275: Chapter 171: Success

Xiaotao cautiously asked if he needed a massage anywhere else. Zheng Xiu wasn’t sore, so he declined and told her to get an early night’s rest.

The little girl left, crestfallen.

「The next day.」

A burst of hurried hoofbeats woke Zheng Xiu.

As Xiaotao helped him wash up, Zheng Xiu asked about the bandits’ movements.

Judging by the sound, Zheng Xiu estimated that over two hundred men had ridden out.

Xiaotao didn’t hide the truth. She said that food was scarce in the village, so the second-in-command had personally taken some men out to hunt.

”Hunting?”

Zheng Xiu frowned.

Usually, when Xie Yunliu spoke of ”hunting,” it was just a euphemism for going out on a raid.

Yunhe Village hadn’t had a score in half a month, ever since winter set in. Zheng Xiu wondered if Xie Yunliu had caught wind of something. Some unfortunate merchant caravan was probably about to have its luck run out.

That evening, Xie Yunliu finally returned with a band of men, all of them looking rushed.

Among those who went were the three newcomers: Chu Chengfeng, Wen Shishan, and Xiao Buping.

Incidentally, Wen Shishan’s disguise as a man had long been exposed. However, the bandits all seemed to have heard about the history between Chu Chengfeng and Wen Shishan. Xie Yunliu had even deliberately assigned their rooms next to each other, with a hole in the adjoining wall big enough for a person to crawl through.

Everyone had a tacit understanding of the situation.

Xie Yunliu’s behavior upon his return struck Zheng Xiu as odd.

Usually, even if it was snowing when he got back, he’d strip to the waist and either spar with Chu Chengfeng until they both passed out drunk at midnight, or if Chu Chengfeng wasn’t interested, he’d spend an hour or so lifting heavy stones, a picture of restless energy. But today, the moment he was back, Xie Yunliu had cheerfully scampered up to the dome, seemingly with something urgent to tell his sister.

Zheng Xiu quickly found the loose-lipped Xiao Buping.

”Where did you all go today?”

Xiao Buping grimaced. ”Hunting, of course.”

He said as he pointed to the eight wild boars the bandits had hauled back.

It was hard to say where they’d found them, but each boar looked to weigh a good two or three hundred pounds—enough to feed the whole village for quite some time.

In addition to the boars, they had also brought back two cartloads of grain.

”Really just hunting? You didn’t go anywhere else?”

Xiao Buping thought for a moment, then shook his head. ”Not exactly. We actually hunted ten wild boars. Then, Xie Yunliu personally took a group of his trusted men to a nearby town to trade for grain.”

”Traded for grain? Wasn’t there anything strange about it?”

”Strange! Of course it was strange! We’re perfectly good bandits and thieves, but instead of just robbing people, Xie Yunliu insisted on trading boar meat for grain in town. Dammit, if I, Xiao Buping, hadn’t just switched to this line of work, I would’ve thought we were a bunch of respectable folk who just happen to hunt in the mountains.”

”No, what I mean is, when Xie Yunliu went to town, did you notice anything... even stranger?”

Of course it was strange for bandits to trade meat for grain instead of just taking it, but that wasn’t what Zheng Xiu was getting at.

He had a nagging feeling that Xie Yunliu had found something out.

After some persistent questioning from Zheng Xiu, Xiao Buping finally coughed something up.

He said that after returning from town, Xie Yunliu had been especially cheerful—more so than when they’d last plundered a chest full of silver.

”By the way, why are you asking all this?”

Xiao Buping stared quizzically at the Scholar.

Zheng Xiu fobbed him off with a few vague words and went back to keeping an eye on Xie Yunliu.

Thanks to the successful hunt, the bandits got roaring drunk again that night.

The next day, as he was painting the view of Xie Luohe’s back, just as Zheng Xiu was about to leave, Xie Luohe—who usually ignored him completely—suddenly spoke.

”Those two Four Seasons Map scrolls... have you figured anything out from them?”

Zheng Xiu shook his head and answered honestly, ”I can’t see anything in them.”

Xie Luohe fell silent.

Zheng Xiu looked at Xie Luohe. After half a minute of shared silence, he couldn’t help but ask, ”I’ve been here for so long, and you’ve never once asked. Aren’t you curious about what the National Preceptor said to me before he died?”

The corner of Xie Luohe’s mouth twitched into a smirk as she pointed to her own ear.

Zheng Xiu froze, then cursed inwardly.

’No wonder she never asked. She’d already heard the last words the National Preceptor whispered to me. A true Sharp-Eared. Dammit.’

Seeing the look of defeat on Zheng Xiu’s face, Xie Luohe turned and walked toward her wooden cabin, feeling a strange, faint sense of satisfaction.

’Hmph.’

’Trying to play games with me?’

Xie Luohe said nonchalantly, ”In a little while, you and I are going on a long journey.”

”Me... with you?” The two months of peace were suddenly shattered. ’So I was right to think Xie Yunliu’s reaction was strange,’ Zheng Xiu thought. After a moment’s thought, a possibility struck him. ”You’ve found the other two Four Seasons Map scrolls?”

Xie Luohe nodded, then pushed the door open and entered her wooden cabin.

JINGLE.

A slight breeze from Xie Luohe entering her home sent a clear, crisp sound through the air. Zheng Xiu then noticed that at some point, a string of wind chimes had been hung from her doorframe.

Zheng Xiu’s lip twitched. He instantly understood what she was doing.

’So, hanging up some chimes makes it different from Feng Bei’s home, is that it?’

’Who does she think she’s fooling?’

Although Xie Luohe hadn’t said when they would be leaving, the thought of his impending departure from Yunhe Village felt strangely... unsettling to Zheng Xiu, if only for a moment.

’Oh well. It’s time for a change.’

「A few days later.」

While Xie Yunliu was leading a patrol around the mountain, Zheng Xiu took the opportunity to visit the workshop.

The workshop’s head craftsman was a veteran blacksmith everyone called Old Jiao, a man in his sixties.

In his youth, Old Jiao had also run with the gangs, living a life of constant danger. Before he was thirty, he went straight, changed his name, moved to the south, married a wife, and was blessed with a son. Later, when his son grew up, the fact that he had been a bandit in his youth was somehow leaked. His old bounty was still posted at the Government Office, and a Ghostwriter came knocking, hoping to claim the reward with Old Jiao’s head.