Jiang Yueli took care of a guard who had stepped out and quickly changed into his clothes. Luckily, her tall and slender figure, combined with a face veil, disguised her well enough.
Feigning nonchalance, she returned to her post. After a while, she used the excuse of getting a drink of water. The guard only said, “Hurry in and back,” and she nodded, slipping into the cave. Although the entrance was small, inside it opened into a surprisingly spacious chamber.
From the cave mouth, she had already heard the sounds of hammering and striking. Now inside, the sounds were louder. She glanced at a mountain of gold piled near the entrance. Under the veil, her mouth dropped in shock. Could it be real? That was… nugget gold? So much of it? The largest pieces were as big as water buckets, some pitted and rough, others irregularly oval. The shapes were bizarre, and the sizes varied greatly—but the sheer quantity was staggering.
Even more importantly, nugget gold usually appears downstream of gold deposits. The presence of so much here suggested a massive gold vein upstream, yet to be discovered.
A saying from her past life came to mind: a gold mine might not always have nugget gold, but anywhere there is nugget gold, there is certainly a gold mine. This is why nugget gold was highly prized—even in ancient times, it was more valuable than ordinary ingots. Ancient refining techniques were limited; typical gold purity here was around 70–80%, but nugget gold could reach about 90% purity—a rarity for the era. If used for jewelry, it would be far more lustrous than lower-purity gold.
Jiang Yueli’s eyes shone as she stared at the treasure. Moving deeper, she noticed hundreds of crates being transported to a corner. Clearly, they were filled with gold blocks. Jiang Yueli mentally calculated how feasible it would be to discreetly swap out the gold.
Lost in thought, she felt a sudden tap on her shoulder. Instinctively, she wanted to flip her assailant over, but remembered she was deep in enemy territory and restrained herself.
“You spacing out? The master leaves first thing tomorrow. These gold blocks need loading. Go fetch some men to help,” said a masked figure with sharp black eyes. Jiang Yueli quickly nodded, replying “Yes.”
Unaware of the man’s identity, she ran out and relayed the message to another guard: “The master wants you to bring people to load the gold. I’ll stay here and watch.” The guard nodded without suspicion and went to gather workers.
Taking advantage of the moment, Jiang Yueli collected scattered stones and prepared to swap the gold in the crates with rocks, putting the gold safely into her spatial pocket.
Soon, ten or more horse-drawn carts arrived. Jiang Yueli marveled at how they managed to bring carts up the mountain. Though night had fallen, the bright moonlight allowed them to see clearly.
As the workers began loading, Jiang Yueli volunteered to help, taking charge of securing the crates with ropes. In doing so, she discreetly replaced the gold with stones, crate by crate, without anyone noticing.
The gold was so abundant they couldn’t load it all in one trip. From conversations, she learned about a previous batch of over forty crates that had already been moved. This time, they loaded another seventy or so crates. Each crate weighed at least 300 pounds, allowing only five or six crates per cart.
She calculated the total: inside the cave, there were at least 500,000–600,000 taels of gold. At ten taels of silver per tael of gold, this was equivalent to 5–6 million taels of silver—enough to rival half of Nanyao’s treasury.
Caught up in excitement, she hadn’t noticed someone standing behind her. Turning around, she met a pair of cold, piercing eyes.
It was him.
Jiang Yueli’s heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t expected to see that man here again. So the reason they had met at the dilapidated teahouse was that he was secretly mining gold?
“Still daydreaming? Go bring the carts to the master,” a cold voice ordered. Bei Chen Yuan didn’t speak directly but gave a sharp glance to his subordinate. Shi Ying barked an order. Jiang Yueli quickly complied, realizing the “master” they referred to was him. Who was this man, daring to steal gold? And where were they planning to transport it?
Although curious, Jiang Yueli didn’t dare intervene. She was already engaged in her own illicit activity—who was she to judge? She had no pretensions of justice. The villagers, however, she intended to save, reporting the illegal operation to the authorities afterward.
By dawn, the carts had been sent off with the master. Jiang Yueli returned to the cave and swapped out the remaining crates’ gold for stones. The unsorted gold near the entrance, she left—it was too risky. Daylight would increase vigilance, making it harder to act unnoticed.
Jiang Yueli didn’t hesitate. Using the pretense of relieving herself, she escaped. Once safely down the mountain, she submitted a report to the city authorities, claiming illegal mining and villagers forced into labor. The magistrate, who had been troubled by the missing villagers, finally had a lead and immediately went to investigate.
Shi Ying, having brought only a few men, couldn’t risk mobilizing more troops. He had intended to release the villagers after evacuation. But before noon, scouts reported a large contingent of government soldiers approaching. Shi Ying ordered an immediate retreat, leaving behind thirty loaded crates and a few unsorted ones.
When the Tianmen City magistrate arrived with soldiers, the cave contained only villagers locked in stone cells and scattered nugget gold. The magistrate immediately freed the people and examined the crates. The gold thieves had fled in haste, clearly having seen the soldiers coming.