“Blame it on that stupid dream, what a mess of random nonsense.” Yun Qingwan rubbed her face, trying hard to snap herself fully awake.
“Alright, get up and get dressed,” Li Jingye said, nodding with an air of absolute nonchalance.
By the time Yun Qingwan finished tidying herself up and the two of them stepped outside, it was around 12:30 AM, and the surroundings were dead silent.
They quickly arrived outside the Huo family residence. Yun Qingwan raised an eyebrow—this man was truly not to be underestimated.
For the longest time, the Huo and Li families had been on close terms, and there had even been talk of an alliance through marriage between them. Huo Qiyuan was completely infatuated with Cao Zhizhi, to the point where he swore he would marry no one else.
No one would ever suspect that the ones framing the Li family were actually the Huos.
Previously, Cao Zhizhi had used various excuses to string Huo Qiyuan along. After being rejected by Li Jingye last night, however, she and Huo Qiyuan had rushed down to register their marriage bright and early this morning.
The courtyard wall of the Huo residence was about two meters high. Such a height was nothing to Li Jingye, but it was thoroughly unfriendly to Yun Qingwan.
“Come on, step on my shoulder, I’ll send you up,” Li Jingye squatted down in front of her.
Yun Qingwan didn’t stand on ceremony. With Li Jingye’s assistance, she stepped onto his shoulder, and he slowly stood up until she was able to climb onto the top of the wall.
Seeing that Yun Qingwan had landed safely on the wall, Li Jingye vaulted over in a single bound, then opened his arms wide. Understanding his intent, Yun Qingwan didn’t hesitate to jump down, and true to form, he caught her securely.
The two of them crept stealthily beneath the windows of the Huo house. Pushing a window open with utmost care, they could faintly hear the sound of someone snoring inside.
Yun Qingwan retrieved some sleeping incense from her experimental dimension, lit it, tossed it inside, and snapped the window shut.
Li Jingye raised an eyebrow. “Is that sleeping incense?”
His lips were practically brushing against her ear.
Yun Qingwan shrank her neck back slightly and nodded.
Li Jingye fell silent. He hadn’t expected her to come so fully prepared.
Confirming that everyone in the Huo household was sound asleep, the two climbed through the window and headed straight for the study. Li Jingye replicated his earlier trick to hide a letter, while Yun Qingwan set about searching for the mechanism to open the secret room.
“Are you looking for the mechanism to a hidden vault?” Li Jingye quietly stepped up behind her.
Yun Qingwan nodded. “Since we’re already here, returning empty-handed is not my style.”
He had just wanted to ask how she planned to carry things out, but remembering something, he swallowed the question and simply helped her search instead.
Yun Qingwan was growing fonder of this man by the minute. He didn’t waste words; he just rolled up his sleeves and got to work.
This time, it was Li Jingye who found the mechanism. When the secret room materialized behind a bookshelf, Yun Qingwan was left speechless—why were hidden vaults always behind bookshelves? Could they please come up with something original?
Well, precisely because there was zero creativity involved, finding it hadn’t taken any effort at all.
The two of them stepped inside the vault, where five large chests sat neatly aligned. Yun Qingwan’s heart leapt with joy; barring any accidents, these chests were packed with treasures, and every single one of them now belonged to her.
She popped open one of the chests to take a look: it was filled entirely with antique porcelain, cultural relics, and rare calligraphy and paintings—priceless treasures. However, she recognized a few pieces from videos she had scrolled through in the modern era, items that had somehow ended up in foreign museums. As for how they had ended up wandering overseas, that was a question well worth pondering.
“Do I need to turn around?”
Watching Yun Qingwan busy herself with joyous enthusiasm, Li Jingye asked.
Instead of answering, Yun Qingwan posed a counter-question: “Do you think this is ill-gotten wealth that I should turn over to the state?”
“This was obtained through your own capability, so it belongs to you,” Li Jingye answered, his stance crystal clear.
Yun Qingwan wagged her index finger. “Wrong. It belongs to us and our children.”
Li Jingye froze for a fraction of a second, then smiled. Her future really did include him.
Unaware of what he was smiling about, Yun Qingwan directed him to get to work. “Li Jingye, open the rest of the chests and see what’s inside.”
Li Jingye complied immediately.
One chest of gold ingots, one chest of silver ingots, one chest of jewelry and ornaments—Li Jingye remained entirely calm through them all, right up until he opened the fifth chest. At that sight, his expression shifted drastically.
Yun Qingwan leaned over to take a look, and hissed through her teeth. Inside sat a small radio transceiver and several red-header confidential documents. It turned out that the true traitors collaborating with the enemy and selling out the country were none other than the Huo family.
After reading through the documents, Li Jingye’s breathing turned ragged and his eye sockets flushed red. If he could, he would gladly march out right this second and kill Huo Zhentao (Huo Qiyuan’s father) with his bare hands.
His grip on the documents tightened so fiercely that the veins on the back of his hands bulged outward.
“Li Jingye, now that we’ve found these, we need to notify the relevant departments right away so they can take action, protect state property, and make sure the Huo family gets the punishment they deserve.”
Yun Qingwan stashed the remaining four chests into her spatial dimension, restored the hidden vault to its original appearance, and left the Huo residence alongside Li Jingye.
First, they headed to the military supervision department. Giving the guards the slip, they slipped the documents and a denunciation letter directly onto the duty officer’s desk, explicitly detailing the mechanism to open the secret room within the letter.
Upon discovering the denunciation letter and documents, the duty officer turned deathly pale with shock and rushed to notify his superior officers late into the night.
Next, the pair made trips to the Public Security Bureau and the Municipal Revolutionary Committee to drop off the remaining two letters of denunciation, similarly outlining the method to access the vault’s mechanism.
The Huo family’s situation was entirely different from the Li family’s. The Lis had been framed; even if a threatening letter had been planted, without substantial physical evidence, the worst they faced would be being sent down to the countryside. Had it not been for the later explosion, Father Li wouldn’t have faced execution in the original book.
The Huos, however, were a different story entirely. The radio transceiver and classified documents were ironclad proof—any single item of which would strip the Huo family raw. As for Huo Zhentao’s ultimate fate, there could only be one outcome: bang!
Noticing Li Jingye’s heavy expression, Yun Qingwan rolled her eyes playfully. “Li Jingye, do you know where that Director Li who came this morning lives?”
Gazing at the girl before him—who had tucked all her hair up under a cap and was dressed in a black shirt and overalls—he nodded.
“Then lead the way, we’re going to pay back a debt.”
Catching his arm, Yun Qingwan strode forward briskly.
Li Jingye yanked her back, saying helplessly, “It’s this way.”
Yun Qingwan: “……”
Could you have mentioned that a bit earlier?!
Half an hour later, Yun Qingwan stared in utter disbelief at the courtyard before her. For a district Revolutionary Committee director to live in a courtyard this massive—was that even reasonable?
“Are you sure this is the place?”
Li Jingye nodded.
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get to work!” Yun Qingwan gave a decisive wave of her small hand.
“Wait!”
Li Jingye stopped the wildly excited little woman.
“There’s a dog in this courtyard, right near the front gate.”
Yun Qingwan shuddered. Having been chased by a dog when she was little, she harbored a deep-seated psychological shadow regarding dogs.
“Then what do we do?”
Seeing the fear on her face, Li Jingye gently patted her head and asked in a low voice, “Do you have any bones? Ideally ones laced with sleeping powder.”
Yun Qingwan’s eyes lit up. She didn’t even bother asking how Li Jingye was so certain she possessed bones. They were both smart people; although they hadn’t used her spatial dimension face-to-face, she hadn’t deliberately hidden it from him either, so he must have figured something out.
Even though he had already guessed it, watching a bone materialize out of thin air still caused Li Jingye to momentarily forget his facial muscle control. It took him a good long while to recover his composure.
“You…” His throat felt parched, making it nearly impossible to form a complete sentence. “Are you a fairy sent by the heavens to save the Li family?”
What he actually wanted to ask was: Once your mission is finished… will you leave?