"These things..." Yu Xiao Ke gave the gold and silver inside the chests a rather greedy look, pointed at them, and asked.

"Lady Swallow, if you like them, then they're all yours!" Old Black naturally had no use for such things. Better to play the good man and hand them all to Yu Xiao Ke—it would at least keep her working harder.

"Truly?" Yu Xiao Ke was startled, then overjoyed. She promptly drew a cloth wrapper from her clothes and made ready to bundle all that gold away. To Yu Xiao Ke, no antique could compare with gold for plain practicality: gold was easy to unload, and carried home it was money.

And besides, such was Yu Xiao Ke's nature: she would sooner haul it until her back broke than let money slip away.

Wei Zhao's mouth twitched twice. This Yu Xiao Ke was greedy indeed. Those things were heavy, and lugging them about would only hobble her. Still, as he reckoned it, if there had truly been something fine, Yu Xiao Ke would never have been able to snatch it anyway—better to take what others had passed over; that was something solid.

Yu Xiao Ke began stuffing gold ingots into her wrapper, her grin stretching nearly to her ears. Carried home, this gold would keep the orphanage going for a long, long while—how could Yu Xiao Ke not be thrilled?

Once she had finished one chest, she moved on to fill another. But when Yu Xiao Ke's hand touched the gold bars inside that chest, the jade pendant on Wei Zhao's body abruptly gave off a warning signal!

Out of nowhere, above the passage that had been empty a moment before, a huge boulder appeared. It materialized soundlessly above Yu Xiao Ke's head, and only after she touched the gold bar did it give a "crack" and come plunging down, aimed squarely at the crown of her head!

"Look out!" Wei Zhao shouted. Yu Xiao Ke heard it too—something amiss above her. Instinctively she raised her head, and there was a boulder, dropping straight toward her!

Yu Xiao Ke nearly expired with fright. Her heart cried out in protest: so much gold, almost within her grasp, and with it the orphanage's future secured—what a wonderful thing that would have been! And now she was to die here? What rotten luck!

To be fair, Yu Xiao Ke was in truth a rather clever female thief, and her conduct back in the tomb had proven as much. But this time, money had indeed clouded her wits. When she took the first chest of gold ingots she had been secretly on her guard, yet nothing strange had happened, and so she relaxed. Seeing Elder Yu and Old Black already walking toward the display cabinets in the distance, while Wei Zhao and the others still waited on her, she grew a little impatient—and so, through a moment's carelessness, she committed a serious blunder.

Wei Zhao saw Yu Xiao Ke staring blankly at the boulder, making no move to dodge, and hastily ran to her. He scooped her up in his arms, carried her to one side, and barely evaded the boulder. With a tremendous "boom", the boulder smashed down on the spot where the treasure chests had stood, driving several of them into the ground—proof enough of the force behind it. Had it struck a person, that person would surely have died.

"My gold..." Yu Xiao Ke looked back and saw her cloth wrapper crushed beneath the boulder. Her heart ached. So much money, all gone!

Seeing Yu Xiao Ke's money-mad behavior, Wei Zhao was caught between laughter and tears. She had nearly lost her life, and still she fretted over gold? Could a person truly be that much of a miser? In exasperation, Wei Zhao gave her a pinch without thinking. "You nearly died just now, and you still want money? Yu Xiao Ke, can't you be less of a miser? With that piddling skill of yours, you still come out and make a spectacle of yourself. I can save you once—can I save you a hundred times?"

"Ah—" Yu Xiao Ke cried out when Wei Zhao pinched her, because at that moment Wei Zhao's hand was pinching her breast! And so she had not caught much of what he said; shame and fury overwhelmed her. "You... your hand..."

"What about my hand?" Wei Zhao blinked, plainly not catching on. He was still angry—why would he notice where his hand had landed? Prompted by her words, he unconsciously moved his hand.

"Your hand... and you're still squeezing!" Yu Xiao Ke was about to explode. She sprang down off him. "You... you... you're taking liberties with me!"

Wei Zhao was dumbfounded. He looked at his hand and replayed the sensation of a moment ago... It seemed, perhaps, that he had indeed been touching Yu Xiao Ke's breast? Damn it, was there any need to be so wretched? He had finally worked up the nerve to play the rogue for once, and he hadn't even known it, hadn't even felt it—and then he had let go!

"In the heat of the moment, I didn't notice." Wei Zhao was rather embarrassed, but what he said was true: he had genuinely not noticed such a small detail earlier. To save Yu Xiao Ke, in that desperate instant, how could he have cared whether his hand landed on her breast?

"Oh..." Yu Xiao Ke was no fool. Thinking back over what had happened, Wei Zhao probably had not done it on purpose. Still, to be taken advantage of for nothing left her feeling cheated. "Thank you..."

"Enough, let's go." Wei Zhao spoke flatly, then turned and went straight after Elder Yu and Old Black. His aim was Zhang Liju's medical notes, and he could not let Elder Yu reach them first and quietly make off with them.

"Oh..." Yu Xiao Ke cast a reluctant glance at the boulder. She knew there was no getting back what lay beneath it. She sighed and hurried to catch up with Wei Zhao.

Chen Yutian followed as well, saying little. Whatever passed between Wei Zhao and Yu Xiao Ke was scant concern of his. Qiu Lingshan, however, knitted her brows slightly; the sight of Wei Zhao carrying on in such an ambiguous way with a female thief rather displeased her.

Ahead, Elder Yu and Old Black were examining the contents of the display cabinets. The cabinets held antiques, every one of them out of the ordinary, each worth a fortune once taken outside. Of course, that was relative: in their own day these things might have been worthless, which was why they had been set in the outer ring. But times had changed, and these were genuine antiques now—their value was another matter entirely.

Yu Xiao Ke pressed her lips together and said nothing. She still felt giddy, as though she were floating. Just like that, she had been groped? Watching Wei Zhao's back, a complicated look flickered through her eyes. Oh, yes—what had he called her just now? Yu Xiao Ke?

Dimly, Yu Xiao Ke seemed to hear the Male Thief addressing her that way!

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