Chapter 307 : Bandits (3)

The spring rain slowly sprinkled down, falling like countless fine needles and sprinkling in every corner. Yuxi stood outside the window, looking at the hazy thin threads of rains and the people coming and going outside.

Zisu brought a cup of tea to Yuxi and said, “Miss, have a cup of hot tea!” After rushing for over a month, everyone was exhausted. It just happened that day it was raining, so they could stay here and wait until it stopped raining before going on their way.

Yuxi took the tea, and after taking a couple of sips, she bowed her head and thought for a while before saying to Zijin, “Go and ask Master Yang to come over.”

Master Yang was a little surprised to hear that Yuxi had been asking after him, but he gave her a face and asked, “I don’t know what Miss Han wants from this old man?”

Yuxi asked Zisu to wait at the door while she said to Master Yang, “Master Yang, I’m not going to lie to you. There are so many bandits in Menghu Mountain, and I am very uneasy about passing through there.” Although Chief Huang had assured her, Yuxi was still not at ease. There were thousands of bandits, not the 60 or so bandits just like whom they met before. Once those thousand bandits caught up with their group, there was no telling what might happen.

Master Yang chirped, “Miss, Chief Huang has a life-long friendship with the second leader of Menghu Mountain, so you don’t need to worry.”

Yuxi froze but then shook her head and said, “Even if the second leader of Menghu Mountain has a lifelong friendship with Chief Huang, he is not the one who is really in charge. Then again, a mountain fortress of that size must have people fighting and scheming against each other.” Yuxi was not familiar with the bandits of Menghu Mountain, but human nature was like that; where there were many people, there would also be many disputes. And as Master Yang had said, in the eyes of those bandits, she was a fat sheep. The other bandits in Menghu Mountain might be unwilling to let a fat sheep like her go just because Chief Huang was familiar with their second leader, and this was the reason Yuxi felt uneasy.

Hearing Yuxi’s analysis, Master Yang smiled a little. “You’re not stupid enough.” Seeing Yuxi’s puzzled look, Master Yang said, “You have put a lot of gold and silver jewellery inside your carriage, right?” It was not even a question but an affirmation.

A look of astonishment appeared on Yuxi’s face. “How did Master Yang know that?” This was something that no one else knew about except a few people. Nor did Yuxi believe that these people would have leaked it.

Master Yang smiled a little and said, “It was Zijin who told me.”

Yuxi said without even thinking, “Impossible.” Zijin would never leak information about her to anyone, and no matter how Master Yang knew, Yuxi believed that Zijin would not have told him.

With a cold snort, Zijin said, “Old man, stop stirring up trouble. Miss won’t believe your nonsense!” Speaking of which, Zijin had been particularly respectful of Master Yang when she first went to the mountain. Later, when Master Yang hid the letter that Yuxi had given her and tried to take her on as a disciple, she became less kind to Master Yang, but deep down, she still respected him.

Instead of getting angry, Master Yang asked, “Tell me, how much gold and silver jewellery did you put in your carriage?”

Yuxi replied in a low voice, “There is a box of jewellery worth 70,000 to 80,000 taels of silver in total.” These did not include the other jewellery she obtained from other people.

Master Yang’s eyes grew wide and round as he thought how bold Yuxi was to bring all of those pieces of jewellery with her.

Feeling that it wasn’t honest enough, Yuxi whispered, “In addition to that, there are some precious herbs.”

Master Yang asked, “For example?”

Yuxi said, “Among them was a nearly four centuries old Changbai Mountain ginseng.” Of all the medicinal herbs, this ginseng was the most valuable. This treasure had been given to her by Qiu Shi. Yuxi had refused it at first, telling Qiu Shi to keep it for herself, for such a treasure could be a family heirloom. However, Qiu Shi still foisted it off to Yuxi, saying it would be more beneficial to Yuxi.

Qiu Shi’s way of thinking was simple: if Yuxi had not protected her courtyard at that time, all these things would have been gone. Therefore, she would not be reluctant to part with whatever items she gave to Yuxi.

Master Yang couldn’t help laughing. Nearly four centuries old ginseng, that was almost a fine thing. One could not buy such a thing for any money because it could save lives in times of crisis. Not to mention there must be other valuable herbs, plus 70,000 to 80,000 worth of jewellery. Oh right, he should not forget about the ten or so carts of stuff behind. When Master Yang counted everything, his head got a little dizzy.

Master Yang immediately exclaimed, “No wonder you hired so many armed escorts. So that’s why.” After saying that, he looked at Yuxi and said, “There are advantages and disadvantages to having more people. The good thing is that small groups of bandits don’t dare to move against you, but the bad thing is that when others see so many people, they know that you are a fat sheep. Speaking of which, you sure have a lot of guts.” She was the exact definition of a very fat sheep. After catching this fat sheep, even if there were thousands of bandits on Menghu Mountain, they wouldn’t have to worry about their expenses for a year long.

Yuxi looked anxiously at Master Yang and said, “I am just worried about any mishaps. It’s tolerable to lose the other things, but the things inside my carriage must not be lost.”

Master Yang muttered in his heart. If it weren’t for Han Jianye and Zijin’s face, he would have grabbed the nearly four centuries year old ginseng. “These things have long since fallen into the eyes of those who have an interest.”

Zijin asked, “How do these people know about it?” From the time they set out from the capital until now, they hadn’t opened it at all. Thus, how could old man Yang know that there would be valuable things on their carriage?

Master Yang couldn’t help but laugh. “This is something a young lady from a wealthy family who has never gone away from her home will understand. If the carriage weight is different, will it leave the same track as a normal carriage? Those who make a living by robbing others, can they not guess that there are valuable things in the carriage?” Master Yang originally thought that there was ten to twenty thousand worth of jewellery on it, but he didn’t expect that this girl had put more than one hundred thousand worth of things in it. This kind of boldness was not something that ordinary people could have.

Yuxi laughed bitterly at this. Yes, how could she have forgotten that the load-bearing would not leave behind the same track as the other carriages? So it was useless to read a lot of books. Without practical experience, one would only reduce to a bookish fool. Yuxi asked, “Master Yang, so what now?”

Master Yang said, “If you have confidence in this old man, you can leave them to me. There is no other better way than that.”

Zijin asked, “If we give them to you, they won’t check your carriage?”

Master Yang chirped, “You still don’t want to admit that you are a foolish girl? Once you give those things to me, I will not be going together with you people. Besides, the two of us, Yu Zhi and I, are not eye-catching. Us two will be rather safe by ourselves than going on with you guys.” He was just an ordinary old man, and Yu Zhi was also unimpressive. Hence, they would not attract any attention with just the two of them.

After saying this, Master Yang looked at Yuxi and pointed out, “Let’s not talk about the other things. Just by looking at your carriage, I can tell that you are rich.”

Yuxi nodded her head and said, “Okay, then I’ll have to trouble Master Yang.”

Master Yang froze and then asked with a smile, “Aren’t you afraid that I will sweep all the stuff up?” More than 100,000 taels of silver worth of things would last for a lifetime.

Hearing this question, Yuxi laughed a little and said, “There’s no harm. If you take my things away, Master Yang, I will ask my Er Ge for them.” Of course, she said this in jest. Yuxi knew that Master Yang would not care about this little thing of hers. Some people valued money, others saw it as dirt, and Master Yang was the latter type of person.

Hearing her answer, Master Yang laughed out loud, “I’m beginning to like you a little.” Such a valuable item was given to him for safekeeping just because of his words, and he must say that this was a talent. But it was also because of this trust that made Master Yang’s heart feel comfortable.

Zijin thought a little more. “It’s not that easy to swap things out without anyone knowing. Besides, after changing everything out, the carriage will become empty.”

Yuxi was not worried about this. “If we don’t put anything of value at all, people will be suspicious.” She would put the additional dowries given by others into the compartment and then select some not too valuable herbs to lay on top of it.

When Master Yang knew what Yuxi was planning to do, he said, “There is no need to put the herbs in.” If they could put it together with the oldest ginseng, how bad could it be? Even though they were not his, he still could not bear it. It was okay if they lost the jewellery, but one could not buy these rare herbs with money, and they could use them to save lives in critical times!

Yuxi thought for a moment and nodded, “That’s right.” After lowering her head for a moment, she smilingly said, “Apart from the jewellery, let’s put in inks and inkstones as well. Many of them are antiques and not light in weight.”

Master Yang thought that Yuxi was indeed a talent. “You mean to exchange them for stones?” How much worth were those antiques? To Master Yang, those inks and inkstones were still stones even after a thousand years. Of course, the bandits of Menghu Mountain would think the same too.

Yuxi looked at Master Yang and stated, “The best one of these inkstones is worth more than a thousand taels of silver!” Of course, only this one piece had any value, and it was still from Han Jianming’s collection.

Master Yang couldn’t help but smile happily again. “Fine, if you say it’s worth something, it’s worth something. When the time comes, just take out that spirit and go talk to them about them.” He didn’t even need to think that if the people of Menghu Mountain heard these words from Yuxi, they would be so angry until they vomited blood.

Yuxi said, “I’m taking precautions just in case!” Perhaps, it would be possible to get past Menghu Mountain without any problems! Of course, after hearing Master Yang’s words, Yuxi felt that this was too unlikely.

That evening, Yuxi had several boxes containing pens, ink, inkstone and books brought into her room. Someone who was carrying the stuff couldn’t help but ask Han Ji, “What’s in this? Why it’s so heavy?”

Han Ji replied, “I don’t know.” These things were all locked, so Han Ji didn’t know what was inside.

The following night, with the assistance of Chief Huang and Han Ji, Master Yang and Yu Zhi successfully took out most of the things hidden in the carriage.

After all the items carried to the two men’s room, Master Yang couldn’t help but mutter, “It’s a good thing they were all contained in small boxes; otherwise, we would have trashed the good stuff.” Whether it was the jewellery boxes or the boxes containing herbs, they were all specially made.

Yu Zhi looked at the pile of boxes and asked in a small voice, “Master, what about the one containing that four centuries-old ginseng?” Not interested in the other things, Yu Zhi was full of interest in that old ginseng.

Master Yang felt that his disciple was hopelessly stupid and pointed to the rectangular box, saying, “Ginseng is long. Surely it’s in that thing?”

Yu Zhi picked up the box, and Master Yang couldn’t even stop him before he opened the box. The ginseng was wrapped in brocade, and when he plucked the brocade away, Yu Zhi looked at it and secretly exclaimed, “It’s really good stuff!”

Master Yang slapped Yu Zhi’s head and said, “Isn’t that nonsense?” Nearly four centuries years of ginseng, that was a great treasure! The ginseng was very well preserved, with the primary root, lateral roots, reed head, ringlets and adventitious roots all intact and undamaged, definitely the best of the best. Alas, he honestly wanted to take it out to make wine. What to do?