141 White Mouse

"If the wealth was indeed stolen by an otherworldly spirit, I shall immediately go and invite an expert to deal with it," Li Qizong said.

Li Xintian replied, "Father, there is no need to rush. I still need a few days to investigate this matter thoroughly. Once we are certain it was not the work of human hands, it will not be too late to bring in an expert."

"Very well, let us do as you say, my son. I leave this in your capable hands and appreciate your efforts." Li Qizong held a great deal of trust in Li Xintian's abilities.

"Understood, Father. I know what must be done," Li Xintian said.

Li Qizong continued, "As for Steward Qian, he shall be locked in the woodshed until the investigation is complete. Regardless of whether he is directly involved or not, he cannot escape the blame for dereliction of duty." With that, he glared sternly at Steward Qian.

"Thank you for your mercy, Master! Thank you, Eldest Young Master!" Having escaped thirty heavy beatings, Steward Qian felt as if he had been granted a reprieve from death. He kowtowed repeatedly in gratitude.

"Take him away," Li Qizong commanded with a wave of his hand.

Two servants immediately hauled Steward Qian away and escorted him from the room.

"Father, time is of the essence. I shall begin my investigation right away. Please hand over the treasury key so I may go and inspect the premises," Li Xintian requested.

"Whatever Tian'er does, I am at ease." Li Qizong removed a golden key from around his neck and handed it over.

Taking the key, Li Xintian immediately turned and left. Hu Qiuyan hurried along closely behind him.

"Eldest Young Master." When Li Xintian arrived at the treasury entrance, he found a squad of servants patrolling the area.

"I am going inside to take a look. Continue your patrol. Oh, and send a message to Black Three in the county town. Tell him to find out which person or household in Shuiwen County has suddenly come into wealth within the past month. Let him know the Li family has lost ten thousand taels of silver. If he can help us find it, the Li family will reward him with five hundred taels," Li Xintian instructed one of the servants.

Black Three was a notorious idler and ruffian in Shuiwen County, leading a gang of ne'er-do-wells who spent their days eating, drinking, gambling, and doing nothing productive.

Yet, men like him were exceptionally well-informed; they knew of everything happening within the county. The Li family frequently sought information from them. Over time, familiarity had grown, and Black Three was always eager to work for the Li family, especially since each task yielded a generous reward.

"Understood, Eldest Young Master. I shall go at once," the servant said, offering a cupped-fist salute before departing immediately.

With his orders given, Li Xintian brought Hu Qiuyan into the treasury.

He unlocked the heavy doors with the golden key, used a fire-striker to light an oil lamp, and finally illuminated the pitch-black interior of the storehouse.

"Xintian, isn't this the treasury? Why is there nothing here, and why is it so dark everywhere?" Hu Qiuyan asked.

Li Xintian smiled and explained, "The treasury is divided into an inner and outer section. This is the inner treasury, where the foundation of the Li family's wealth is kept. Beyond this lies the outer treasury, where gold, silver, and copper coins are piled."

"How strange. Why is the inner treasury on the outside and the outer treasury on the inside?" Hu Qiuyan asked with curiosity.

Li Xintian pointed down at the floor. "Do you see the floor tiles beneath your feet?"

"I see them. They're pitch black," Hu Qiuyan replied.

"Those aren't floor tiles; they are gold bricks, merely brushed over with a layer of black lacquer. Furthermore, the gold bricks are laid three layers deep," Li Xintian laughed. He then pointed to the winter-melon-shaped stones stacked in the corners to the left and right. "Those large winter melons aren't rocks either. The ones against the left wall are gold, and the ones against the right wall are silver. Each of them weighs a thousand catties. If thieves were to break in, they wouldn't realize these items are precious; instead, they would be drawn to the ordinary money in the outer room. This way, we can deter plunderers and preserve a foundation of wealth for the future."

"Even if a thief were to discover them, those gold and silver winter melons weigh thousands of catties. They wouldn't be able to budge them and would simply have to leave them behind."

Hu Qiuyan's eyes widened in sheer disbelief.

Those pitch-black, massive boulders were actually cast from gold and silver, and the floor tiles beneath her feet were forged from pure gold! Just how much was all of this worth?

It was not just Hu Qiuyan who was astonished; even Li Xintian himself had been shocked when he first learned of it. He had never imagined that the anti-theft technology of a wealthy ancient household could be so lavish—casting gold and silver into the shape of giant winter melons so that even if you knew they were valuable, you could not carry them away and could only sigh in despair.

Of course, such security measures were impossible without immense family wealth.

"This is a secret of the Li family. Only my parents and I knew of it. You are the third person to know—even my younger brother is unaware," Li Xintian said. With that, he stepped further into the outer treasury.

Hu Qiuyan felt a warmth bloom in her heart, sweet as candied fruit, touched that Li Xintian trusted her so deeply.

Li Xintian, however, felt quite nonchalant about it. Since she was the woman he intended to marry, she would be his own flesh and blood soon enough. There was no need to conceal such matters. To put it bluntly, even if Hu Qiuyan were to turn out to be greedy one day and run off with money, how much of these gold bricks and silver winter melons could a mere fox spirit actually carry away?

Moreover, the manor was heavily guarded.

It was much like how everyone knows a bank has money, yet who dares to simply take it?

The outer treasury was entirely different. Here, chest after chest was neatly arranged before their eyes. When the lids were opened, they revealed massive amounts of copper coins and silver ingots, their brilliance dazzling under the lamplight to the point of nearly blinding the eye.

Although the wealth within these chests was enough to make anyone's heart race, in reality, their value paled in comparison to the gold bricks and silver winter melons in the inner room. They merely served as a facade to make outsiders mistakenly believe this was the true accumulation of the Li family and the location of the main treasury.

Little did people know just how vast the wealth accumulated by three generations of the exceptionally wealthy Li family truly was.

If Li Xintian had not spent heavily over the past decade or so to invest in establishing racecourses, escort agencies, and agricultural estates, the Li family's fortune would be even greater.

"Could that be the ten thousand taels of silver that went missing?"

Suddenly, he noticed a chest that stood completely empty, the silver inside having vanished without a trace.

An empty chest would never be left in the treasury. Every single chest was kept filled to the brim with silver and copper coins, so a single glance was enough to tell which box was missing its contents and where the numbers did not add up.

To leave an empty chest so openly displayed here without any attempt at concealment—without a doubt, this was certainly not the work of Steward Qian.

As the saying goes, a thief has a guilty conscience. If Steward Qian had truly done it, he would never have left this empty chest sitting so conspicuously here. The moment his father, Li Qizong, stepped inside to inspect, the theft would be uncovered immediately.

Seeing this vacant chest, Li Xintian knew instantly that Steward Qian had not taken the silver. It was undoubtedly the work of demons or ghosts.

Of course, there was also a slight possibility that it was the deed of a Daoist practitioner utilizing esoteric arts.

Yet that probability was extremely low. Daoist practitioners feared karmic retribution above all else. To brazenly take ten thousand taels of silver uninvited would incur enough bad karma to utterly ruin one's path of cultivation. Therefore, it could definitely not be the work of a cultivator.

"Let's look around and see," Li Xintian said, holding up his lantern to survey the perimeter of the treasury.

Perhaps he could find some clues or traces left behind.

"Xintian, it feels so eerie in here. My heart is trembling a bit; let's hurry outside," Hu Qiuyan said, looking frightened.

Li Xintian replied, "Wait a moment longer. Allow me to investigate first."

He walked a full circle around the room, yet found nothing out of the ordinary—everything appeared completely normal, with not a single trace left behind.

Viewed in this light, the disappearance of the ten thousand taels of silver was most likely the work of a malevolent spirit or ghost.

Only spirits could pass effortlessly through walls and spirit away silver with ease.

"It seems I will really have to rely on Black Three to dig around for information," Li Xintian murmured, resolving to take some time to personally patrol Shuiwen County.

"Let's go. We're leaving."

Just as Li Xintian turned to lead Hu Qiuyan away, a faint, squeaking sound suddenly echoed from the depths of the treasury.

It was a rat.

Yet, rats in the treasury?

One had to remember how solidly constructed the Li family's money vault was. The surrounding walls were built from massive bluestone blocks, and the mortar used to bind them was a mixture of clay, sticky rice, and fish glue. Once set, it was as sturdy as the defensive walls of the imperial capital. It was utterly impossible for any ordinary rat to burrow its way through.

However, whenever something defied reason, a strange entity was bound to be behind it.

Li Xintian immediately turned back and re-entered the treasury to check.

At that moment, he spotted a white-furred rat perched atop a chest, scooping up a silver ingot and stuffing it directly into its mouth.

The silver ingot, easily the size of an adult's palm, was actually swallowed whole into the creature's belly by the tiny rat. Yet, looking at the rat's abdomen, there was not the slightest sign of bloating; it remained completely flat. Seemingly unsatisfied, the rat reached out to grab another ingot and swallowed it too. After consuming a full three ingots, it finally grew alert, turning its head sharply as it noticed Li Xintian striding toward it.

"Squeak!"

The white rat let out a sharp cry, instantly leaping down from the chest with a rustling sound. It scuttled rapidly along the base of the wall, making a beeline for a stone crack no wider than a finger.

That impossibly narrow gap was somehow squeezed through by the white rat, and it vanished from sight in the blink of an eye.

By the time Li Xintian rushed over, he caught only the tail of the rat disappearing into the stone crevice, failing to catch the creature in time.

"This rat has attained spiritual awareness and become a spirit."

Li Xintian's primary concern was not the three ingots of silver his family had just lost, but rather the white rat itself.

Clearly, a creature capable of swallowing a silver ingot as large as its own body in one go and squeezing through such a microscopic stone gap could never be an ordinary rodent. It had to be a supernatural entity that had cultivated a certain degree of Daoist power.

"This white mouse must have at least one or two hundred years of cultivation under its belt. Yet, even with such cultivation, since it hasn't taken human form, it shouldn't understand the use of silver. To it, silver is nothing more than stone—inedible and useless rubbish. Therefore, stealing our family's silver could not be for its own use; it must be stealing it for someone else. Only humans understand the value of gold and silver."

Li Xintian fell into deep contemplation.

He reasoned that there must be someone behind this white rat, or perhaps it was being directed by someone.

Yet, theft of this nature incurred karmic retribution for cultivators, so it certainly wasn't the work of a Daoist master.

Who, then, was pulling the strings behind this white rat?

After pondering for a moment, Li Xintian decided he still needed to investigate properly. However, this line of inquiry had already allowed him to pinpoint the culprit.

It wasn't Steward Qian, but rather this white rat.

Rats were naturally gifted at burrowing, and a rat with spiritual power was even more formidable. A tiny bluestone crack was no obstacle at all; indeed, only a supernatural creature could accomplish such a feat.

"Let's leave this place," Li Xintian instructed, leading Hu Qiuyan out of the treasury without delay.

Upon returning, he recounted the entire incident to his father, Li Qizong, and Chen Shuxia in broad strokes.

Li Qizong's eyes widened in shock. "Such a thing actually happened? The Li family's tens of thousands of taels of silver were stolen by a white rat?"

"Yes, Father. I saw it with my own eyes. The white rat swallowed three silver ingots in one breath without its belly swelling, and then escaped into a stone crevice," Li Xintian said. "There is no doubt about its abilities. A spirit with such powers has set its sights on our treasury. If left unchecked, not just ten thousand taels, but every single coin in the Li family vault will eventually be emptied out. Therefore, Steward Qian is innocent."

"Then... what should we do now?" Li Qizong hesitated, momentarily at a loss. "Since this is the work of an otherworldly spirit, we should invite a Daoist master or expert to our home to capture the demon."

"The most urgent task right now is to seal up that stone crack in the treasury to prevent any further loss of silver. As for Steward Qian, we should release him and grant him a sum of silver so he can return home to retire in peace," Li Xintian suggested.

"Sealing the crack is easy enough. But since Steward Qian is innocent, as his master, I should offer him an apology and ask him to resume management of the treasury. Why dismiss him?" Li Qizong asked in confusion.

Li Xintian explained, "After going through this ordeal, Steward Qian's loyalty will inevitably have been shaken. To let him continue guarding the treasury would likely no longer be safe. Furthermore, he is getting on in years; allowing him to retire to his hometown and enjoy his remaining years in comfort is only proper."

"Hah, Tian'er truly possesses a heart of seven apertures, discerning and refined in the world! So meticulous, so insightful into human nature, and so mature in handling matters... Your father is immensely gratified..."

Li Qizong spoke, but catching sight of Hu Qiuyan standing quietly behind Li Xintian, he abruptly stopped himself.

"Cough, cough. Since the matter of Steward Qian is settled, I am still uneasy about the treasury. Sealing the crack is simple, but what if the white rat returns?"

"There must be cats kept within the household. If we have a cat patrol the treasury, we can rest easy," Li Xintian said.

Li Qizong's eyes lit up instantly. "Makes sense! Makes sense! Rats fear cats above all else."

"However, ordinary cats cannot handle a rat that has attained spiritual power. I need to go and make some preparations," Li Xintian said with a cupped-fist salute, before turning to leave once more.