Divine Thief of the Shadows
At that time, the two were seated in the yard and enjoying the winter sun. Wang Chuan and Huang Quan brought out rattan chairs. The chairs did not have legs. Instead, they used rattan strips curved in an arc. When a person sat on it, it could sway back and forth, and it was very satisfying.
The two were both quite good at martial arts, and both had internal strength. Even on a winter day, they would not feel cold if they sat outside for a long period of time. After Xuan Tian Hua finished speaking about the commoners and their “anti-eighth coalition” that had been formed, as well as the commotion currently being caused, he asked her: “Have you arranged for your own people to get mixed in to provide those people with a certain amount of guidance?”
Feng Yu Heng shook her head: “I was thinking about doing that. On the day that I had Wang Lin announce the closure of Hundred Herb Hall, I had prepared that sort of group. Unfortunately,” She spread her hands, “They didn’t get used!” As she spoke, a smile appeared on her face, and she looked quite pleased with herself.
Xuan Tian Hua looked at her smiling expression and could not help but laugh, “Just look at how pleased you are with yourself.” But this girl should indeed feel pleased! Without needing to arrange for someone to guide these people, and without her doing anything to push these people to gather, they went ahead and did it on their own and shouted those sorts of things. It could be seen just how irreplaceable Imperial Daughter Ji An had become after these two years. He was proud of her!
“Does seventh brother feel that doing things this way is improper?” After all, causing such a disturbance during the first month, if the Emperor decided to assign blame, she bore a certain amount of the blame. “Say, Father Emperor won’t blame me, right? If he really gets angry, if I go out and advise those commoners, can things be brought back?”
Xuan Tian Hua, however, shook his head, telling her: “Seventh brother is proud of you! Father Emperor will also feel proud of you! When I came over, I ran into Xu Jing Yuan. He was heading into the palace. Normally speaking, those officials should have been stripped of their position and had their homes raided, but you know that there were too many officials causing an uproar. Punishing one or two would be unfair, and if they were all punished, there would not be enough people to fill up those empty positions, and it would cause turmoil in the court.”
“Then how will Father Emperor resolve it?” Feng Yu Heng thought for a bit, “Have them forfeit their salaries?”
“Un.” Xuan Tian Hua nodded, “Forfeiture of salaries is the only way to resolve it. But this is just temporary. Father Emperor has not become senile. He is quite clear on that debt! Old eighth is his son, but those officials do not share any blood relation with him. For the time being, they will forfeit their salaries. Following that, just wait and see. One matter after another will be placed on them. I can imagine their stunned expressions when those matters come out. I can also imagine them being left with no chance to right a wrong when faced with Father Emperor’s fury. Taking care of them one at a time, he will have time to find someone suitable to make up for the vacant spot. As for the new person to come in, they will definitely not be part of old eighth’s faction.” As he spoke, he stopped the swaying rattan chair and looked toward Feng Yu heng: “It’s just that you have suffered a grievance, and you have no choice but to go to Ji An Prefecture. Only with you leaving can you avoid the turbulence of the court. Don’t worry, even after the first month, when Ming’er heads South, the large capital will still have seventh brother. The things that should be had, seventh brother will make sure to protect it for you.”
Feng Yu Heng gazed at Xuan Tian Hua. While looking at him, she suddenly felt a bit distressed. If possible, she really hoped to avoid getting someone like Xuan Tian Hua, who was a living deity, involved in something as filthy as a succession battle, spending entire days jockeying for power and focusing on the situation in the capital while speculating about the enemy’s intentions. As she saw it, Xuan Tian Hua should spend his entire life aloof and without worrying about a single thing and without thinking about a single thing. He should live the life that he wanted to live. As for the current situation, it was definitely not what he wanted.
But what could she say? He was a prince and was born in the imperial family. He could not escape this fate. Even if he did not search for trouble, trouble would look for him. Even if he escaped to the edges of the world, the things that ought to come would come. For example, the sixth prince, he hid in the Northwest, but what came of it? The things that he needed to face were faced when he returned. Although he did not compete for the throne and did not want the throne, she still remembered Feng Fen Dai having sought out the sixth prince’s birth mother, Noble Lady Li. At present, nothing had come of it; however, she did not know what sort of things would happen when she left the capital.
“There’s no need for you to worry about me.” Seemingly having guessed what she was thinking, Xuan Tian Hua faintly said: “Do what you want to do. Walk the path that you want to take. Don’t worry about the dangers and hardships. As long as you continue to advance, seventh brother will always protect you.”
Hearing Xuan Tian Hua speak like this was something that Feng Yu Heng absolutely could not endure, as she would feel choked up every time. Xuan Tian Hua was the finest and purest person that she had met since coming to this era. This sort of purity and fineness was something that even Xuan Tian Ming could not match. Unfortunately, he had chosen to protect her; however, there was nobody to protect him.
“Seventh brother.” She once again had the rattan chair begin swaying once more and decided to change the topic, “The eighth prince’s faction in the capital, what sort of people does it have? You should have nearly a full understanding, right?” Her eyes were squinted into thin lines, and they faintly gave off a hard-to-detect joy.
Xuan Tian Hua did not notice her expression and simply nodded, saying: “I do.”
“Then can you provide me with a list of names?” She had become spirited. Stopping her chair from swaying, she grabbed the chair’s armrests and pleaded with a smile: “Just write a list of names for me. Also, write down their official positions and ranks. Un, just the officials in the capital for now. Or there should still be some that are not officials. Either way, anyone that you know of that has connections to him, just tell me about all of them.”
Xuan Tian Hua was puzzled: “What are you wanting to do?”
Feng Yu Heng said: “Not much, I just want to have an understanding. I need to know who is hidden behind me. The ones that acted up during the banquet was just a portion, right? There should still be a group that has not exposed themselves. Tell me, and I will think about it.”
Xuan Tian Hua unconsciously went with it and nodded, saying: “Alright.” He then got up, “Let’s go inside. I’ll write it for you right now.”
The eighth prince’s faction had a total of 23 people in the capital. Of that group, 15 were officials, and they were all from famously wealthy families, imperial businesses or leaders in business in the capital. They were all very wealthy.
Xuan Tian Hua was very thorough. Not only did he write down the positions and ranks of the officials on the back, but he also wrote down their businesses and sources of income. He also provided a rough estimate of their annual income. This caused Feng Yu Heng’s eyes to light up. Staring at the annual incomes, she nearly began to drool. What caused her to rejoice the most was that one of the people was the boss of a private bank. It was the one ranked second in Da Shun, Sheng Yuan Bank.
She smiled so widely that she could not keep her mouth shut. Seeing Xuan Tian Hua finish writing, she pushed him out of the manor: “Seventh brother, I’m tired. I want to rest for a bit. You go back first. I will definitely go and see you before I leave.”
Xuan Tian Hua did not understand what she wanted to do and was helplessly pushed out of the manor. He just thought to himself that this girl had many wild thoughts, and he advised her that she must be careful, no matter what she did. Xuan Tian Ming was still at the military camp. If she needed anything, she should go to the Chun Palace to look for him.
Feng Yu Heng sent him off with a smile then practically dashed back to her own courtyard. Sitting inside her room, she looked at the list of names and could not stop laughing foolishly.
Wang Chuan and Huang Quan were dazed by her laughter, as Huang Quan asked her: “Young Miss, is there a flower on the paper?”
Feng Yu Heng shook her head, “No flowers, but there is money!”
That’s right, there was money, especially the bank. That made her even more hopeful. Her thoughts on the bank suddenly expanded. She then slapped her forehead, so stupid! How had she not thought of this point! She always felt that stealing gold and silver was most practical, and she would not touch the banknotes. After all, she had no way of trading them in. It was very easy to be caught, but if she stole the banknotes, she could use the name on the banknotes to secretly head into the bank and place the banknotes on the counter to take away the corresponding amount of money on her own. Was this not better? She could not openly trade it in, but why had she not thought of trading it in secretly? Immediately after stealing it, she would go and trade it in. She would not give them a chance to file a report and have the banknotes voided. Right, she would do it like this!
The more Feng Yu Heng thought about it, the more she felt that this path had a bright future. It was such that she laughed foolishly on her chair for an entire afternoon. In the end, the laughter brought Ban Zou out. The three believed their young miss had gone crazy and wanted to go find a doctor.
Of course, Feng Yu Heng could not lose face in that way and quickly regained her composure, waving to the three: “It’s fine. It’s just that seventh brother told me a joke earlier. The more I thought about it, the funnier it became, thus I could not control myself.”
Ban Zou raised an eyebrow, “His Highness the seventh prince can tell jokes?” The two servants nodded, agreeing with Ban Zou’s suspicion.
Feng Yu Heng did not care for such things. If she said that he could, that meant that he could. Even if he could not, he could! Thus there was nothing that the three could do and could only go along with it. They then watched her eliminate an entire leg of pork on her own for dinner.
Of course, Feng Yu Heng eating a little bit more was for the sake of making a move that same night. Oh, but it would not just be this one night. With so many families, it would take at least three to fives days, right? But thinking about it like this, it seemed that she would not be able to finish before the 15th. Either way, money was first. No matter how long it took, she would only stop when she had stolen it all.
She stood up and went to the warehouse of the imperial daughter’s manor. For fear of not having enough room inside her space, she took out all of the chests that she had taken from the Sheng Palace and placed them inside the warehouse. It was only when the inside of her space was completely clean that she left with a content feeling. She then returned to her room and went to sleep. She slept until a little past midnight before waking up. Changing into clothes for moving around at night, she immediately used her space from inside her room to get free of Ban Zou. The poor Ban Zou believed that his master was still obediently sleeping in her room until dawn the next day. He had no clue that she had strolled around the capital all night and only returned when the sky was beginning to turn light.
Feng Yu Heng was not familiar with every name on the list. On this night, she chose to only target the ones that she was familiar with. Finding their manors, she went straight for their treasuries. Banknotes were easy to steal, and they were hard to notice. After the treasury had been robbed, she would search for the warehouse. No matter what was in it, it would immediately be emptied.
After robbing four homes in this manner, she checked how much she had stolen in banknotes and found that they were all to be withdrawn from the first or second bank of Da Shun. This made things easier to handle. Going based on the markings on the banknotes, she found the bank and boldly placed the banknotes on the counter. She then entered the vault without any feeling of unfamiliarity and very strictly took the amount of silver dictated by the banknotes.
Of course, Da Shun’s first bank, Feng Hui Bank was the eldest prince’s business. She could not possibly scam the eldest prince. That was why she took it out based on the proper amounts. It was also fortunate that the money in the vault was all proper amounts. It was very easy to obtain the right amount. As for the bank belonging to the eighth prince’s faction, she was not as polite. She did not even leave the banknotes behind, directly entering the vault to completely empty it.
In an instant, her pharmacy was completely full. Even the bed in her rest room was completely covered in boxes. Feng Yu Heng was filled with satisfaction, as she returned to her manor to go to sleep. However, unbeknownst to her, rumor of a “divine thief of the shadows” began on that night, and it had spread all over…