n“Who says there are no brigands inside the city? Motherf*! That’s just gibberish. Do brigands discriminate cities and villages? Look at that Ma Tuo Zi, his eyes turned green when he heard about the houses with money…”

nThe fat man cried.

nThat hateful guy not only scared me half to death; he also took my precious banknote along with a few pieces of silver before leaving!

nHe even said he was doing work in heaven’s stead (TLN: justice, charity, etc.). Before leaving, he told me ‘I take your money to eliminate trouble for you; you need not mind. My heart is good.’

nMotherf*! If everyone has a good heart like you, all the people in this world would have been dead a long time ago.

nBrother, I already showed you the way. If you want to find people to do heaven’s work for, or if you want to look for those voluptuous girls, I will not get in your way. I just hope you won’t look for me; I am not rich at all!

nFatty prayed as he walked.

nThat afternoon, Chu Yang immediately left the citadel to go to the mining area. If he wanted some iron then he must come here. Before he left, Wu Yun Liang gave him a thirty thousand silver taels banknote. It might sound like a lot, but it was barely anything for buying iron.

n“Sorry, our Iron Cloud Nation has very strict control on iron!”

nChu Yang had to painfully spend one thousand for ‘business relations’, in order buy a little iron at a cutthroat price. Of his thirty thousand, more than half was now gone.

nAfter only one night, Chu Yang looked at the block of fine iron and was almost in tears.

nThere was no other way, he had to use up the rest of the money. In the blink of an eye, a rich man full of money like him had turned into a pauper. But it was still not enough for what he needed. Chu Yang was angry, his eyebrows pinched together as he dumped his anger into thin air.

nMoney! What’s most important right now is money!

n‘A coin can force a good man to die!’ He used to laugh at this saying and call it a joke. A coin can force an idiot to die, but me? Hahaha…

nHis eyes suddenly emitted a green light, like a wolf’s eyes in the night.

nThe next day, the wealthy houses of Iron Cloud Citadel discovered they had been robbed.

nThe thief was very clever; he visited many homes unseen during the night without leaving a trace. It was still early in the morning when numerous members of the big houses could barely breathe looking at their empty treasury.

nIf a few hundred thousand mice got into a granary, it would not have been so empty! At most, there would be a few scrap pieces left behind! This heartless thief spared nothing, making the owners stomped in such anger that was enough to shake the whole citadel.

nTheir stomps were answered with only dust flying in the air…

nGold all gone, silver all gone, treasures all gone, everything was cleaned out! So clean that even a mouse would have cried and left. This thief was too cruel!

nAll the guards did not hear anything, not even a shadow was seen!

nAmongst the wealthy people, there was old man Li who put his banknotes under his pillow for safekeeping. When he saw his treasury emptied, he thought he still has some consolations. Unfortunately, when he went to check, he was rendered unconscious with a punch. And when he came to, he discovered his banknotes totaling tens of thousands silver teals had disappeared.

nHe also vaguely saw a hunched back…

nIn every treasury, there was a line left behind to show how honorable this pirate was (TLN: I know, he’s not on a ship, but it is literally sea bandit and pirate is the closest thing) . The words were, ‘The name will never change, rob from the rich and give to the poor, Five Flower Mountain’s Ma Tuo Zi!’

nWhoever did this really had a heroic air.

nThe next morning, Iron Cloud Citadel’s courthouse’s door was knocked loudly by the many people seeking redress. They were all big bosses who were crying loudly and banging on the door as if they wanted to shatter it for revenge. As time passed, the front of the courthouse became even more chaotic with the sounds of screaming and crying everywhere.

nThe crying sounds were so miserable, making even bystanders shed tears as well.

nBut the officials of Iron Cloud Citadel just sat coldly on the sideline; some even gloated a little when they saw such a scene.

nThese officials simply wrote up a report and sent these bosses home to wait for their news.

nThe reason behind this was that these rich people were not exactly good themselves. They were normally arrogant with their noses in the air; they would sell their morals for money. Even when Prince Bu Tian was collecting money to build the army, these stingy men all said that they had no money to spare and their families were at the brink of starvation.

nThe brink of starvation, huh? Then how could you lose hundreds of thousands taels of silver and gold? You are really poor!

nYou people didn’t have any money, right? What could you have that the thieves actually want? Now you want us to hunt down the thieves for you. Even if we could, we would rather say we couldn’t.

nPutting everything into the military fund would be best.

nHowever, the wanted notice to capture Five Flower Mountain’s Ma Tuo Zi was sent out quickly. This was still a vicious, greedy criminal. Of course, they had to bring him to justice!

nIn one night, fifty to sixty rich houses were robbed, it was surely not just one person. If ignored, the danger would be immeasurable.

nThe entire Iron Cloud Citadel law enforcement were busy for the next few days. During these days, even though they did not manage to capture Ma Tuo Zi, they did grab a handful of petty thieves.

nOutside of the courthouse, at small corner some distance away, an ornately dressed fat man watched the wealthy people cry and scream to the heavens. His eyes widened, his lips shook, and his face turned blue. It looked like his butt had been sitting on that chair for a long time.

nGod…! This was the doings of that Ma Tuo Zi! I swear what he did had nothing to do with what I said.

nThis thief is too fierce!

nLuckily, he caught me earlier on. Otherwise, I would probably be of those crying people.

nIn truth, Chu Yang’s actions were very precise. He directly aimed at those stingy people thanks to that fat man. Because that guy was shameless and base, he naturally hung out with birds of the same feather.

nWhen his life was threatened by Chu Yang, he did not pay any mind to friendship! Even though there actually were some upstanding business people who were enthusiastic about public welfare, they rubbed people like this fat man the wrong way. Under duress, he blurted out the names that he was most familiar with.

nThe fat man covered his ears from all the crying, and turned his fat butt to go back home. F*! I am now the richest! Haha! You guys normally looked downed on me saying I have no money. Now, haha, who would dare compare themselves to me?

nThank you Ma Tuo Zi!

n**********************************************************

nThree days later, Chu Yang opened an ordinary shop on the busy main street two blocks from the prince’s manor.

nIt was a three-story house; yesterday it was still a tea shop, but today the front had changed. Three groups of workers were busy with the renovations for one day and one night.

nThe old owner thought it was a little weird, but after seeing a pile of shiny gold, immediately cooperated and moved away.

nHow could he not accept? His shop was worth a little over fifty taels of gold, but the other person threw out two hundred taels. Plus, the other person did not want anything inside the shop. With that amount of money, he could easily find a better place to open shop. Not accepting would be foolish.

nSo this place now belonged to the rich and powerful man with the surname Chu.

n