Liu Ye asked excitedly, “Can we? Since all the common people have left, the government officials should’ve left too, right?”
Bai Zilin shook his head. “Hmm… I’m not really sure about that. Let’s go to the town tomorrow. We’ll stay there for a day, then leave directly from there.”
Liu Ye happily nodded. “Alright, tomorrow we’ll go to town. Hehehe… treasure hunting again. I hope we can still find gold…”
The next day, Liu Ye and Bai Zilin each ate an apple. Liu Ye went outside and took out a small pushcart from her space, tied a backpack basket onto it, and the two of them strolled into town.
As expected, there were far fewer people in the town. The people they saw were mostly families traveling together, moving outward. Of course, the poor were fleeing famine on foot, while the wealthy rode horse carriages or ox carts, heading to relatives in the south to temporarily take refuge and continue living comfortably—just in another place.
“Brother Bai, the town is so big. Where should we go?” Liu Ye asked.
A flash of sharp calculation crossed Bai Zilin’s eyes. “The wealthy families in town all live behind the government office in a few streets called Jinyun Alley. Let’s go there. Since the drought started, they’ve already moved their entire households.”
Half an hour later, they passed the closed government office and entered Jinyun Alley.
Some houses had their doors shut and locked, while others stood wide open with broken locks lying on the ground—clearly already looted.
Bai Zilin pointed at one house with an open door. “We’ll stay in this one for now.”
Liu Ye had no objections. A broken lock meant no one was inside and it had already been looted, so it was safer.
Bai Zilin sat on the stone steps in the courtyard. “Liu Ye, pick up the lock at the gate and close the door from inside.”
She obediently did as told, then began her “treasure hunt” in the courtyard. As expected, a place already searched wouldn’t have much left—she was mostly just looking around randomly.
In the backyard, she went to the well and peeked inside. It was completely dry. Then she checked the kitchen—everything had been turned upside down, bowls and basins scattered on the floor, and even the large iron wok had been taken away.
“So thoroughly looted… there’s definitely nothing left inside the house,” she muttered.
She returned to the front yard. “Brother Bai, the backyard was completely cleaned out. Nothing at all. Even the wok was taken.”
Bai Zilin smiled. “If even the gate lock was broken, there’s definitely nothing left. Stop looking and come rest.”
But Liu Ye waved her hand and pushed open another room door. Inside, the room was surprisingly neat and tidy, as if it hadn’t been searched at all. Even bedding was still on the bed.
“Brother Bai, this room is pretty clean. You can rest here. I’ll go take another look outside.”
Bai Zilin shook his head helplessly. This girl…
“Alright, go ahead.”
Liu Ye left the room, went to the back courtyard, took a running start, and vaulted into the next yard. Earlier she had seen this place had its gate locked, meaning it hadn’t been looted yet—and likely had only been abandoned recently.
This household was similar to the previous one. She immediately snapped the lock open and entered.
Inside, it was dark. But the furniture was impressive—tables, chairs, and benches made of high-quality huanghuali wood. It would be a shame to leave them here gathering dust.
She waved her hand, and the entire house was instantly emptied, leaving only a layer of dust on the floor.
Liu Ye clapped her hands in satisfaction. “OK, that’s enough.”
She wasn’t planning to take too much—space storage was limited after all. Besides, huanghuali wasn’t the rarest wood; the truly valuable ones were golden-thread nanmu and small-leaf red sandalwood.
She moved on to the kitchen and found many fine utensils—basins, bowls, and pots—all very exquisite, so she stored them away as well.
Finally, she entered the study. She searched through the bookshelves carefully, looking for hidden mechanisms or secret rooms—don’t wealthy households usually have those?
But after an hour, she still found nothing.
“Looks like there really isn’t one,” she said, standing up and dusting herself off. She cleared out the entire study as well.
After checking the walls and floor once more and finding nothing unusual, she left.
Back in the courtyard, she jumped into yet another neighboring house. After searching both inside and outside, she still found nothing valuable. However, in the backyard, she discovered a cart—the kind pulled by oxen.
She tested it by pushing it back and forth. It was sturdy.
“This cart is pretty good… way better than the handcart I had. Brother Bai can sit on it too.”
If they could find an ox, they might even be able to pull it.
She pushed the cart back to the previous house—but Bai Zilin was gone.
She searched the courtyard and rooms but couldn’t find him anywhere.
“Where did Brother Bai go?”
Don’t tell me he also went treasure hunting in another house… very possible. She decided to wait.
About an hour later, Bai Zilin came back from another neighboring house, leaning on his crutch. Liu Ye was startled.
“You can even climb walls with crutches?”
Bai Zilin was also surprised to see her back so soon. “Oh, I just went next door to look around. When did you come back? Did you find anything good?”
Liu Ye noticed a flicker of guilt in his eyes and suspected he hadn’t really gone next door.
“I found a cart,” she said. “Tomorrow I’ll push you. The journey south is long—you can’t keep hopping around like this.”
Bai Zilin glanced at the cart at the gate. “That is quite big. It can carry supplies. But I can still walk on my own—it’ll help me recover.”
Suddenly, Liu Ye noticed thick smoke rising in the distance.
“Brother Bai! There’s a fire over there!”
Bai Zilin thought to himself: Of course I know. I started it.
But he turned and acted surprised. “Oh no, it really is on fire. It must be thieves who got angry after not finding valuables and set it ablaze.”
Liu Ye immediately protested, “I didn’t set any fire! I didn’t even go that far!”
Bai Zilin quickly explained, “No no, I wasn’t talking about you. I meant someone else…”
Liu Ye knew he wasn’t serious and was just joking.
“Brother Bai, if the people who fled famine come back and see their houses burned down, they’ll be heartbroken, right?”
Bai Zilin nodded enthusiastically, eyes full of amusement. “Of course they will. Very heartbreaking indeed. How pitiful.”