In the sweltering height of summer, under the scorching sun of the dog days, the poisonous orb hung directly overhead.
The ground was so hot it seemed to smoke. The leaves on the crooked trees lining either side of the main road had curled up under the sun, drooping listlessly.
Beyond the border of the Great Yan Kingdom, a carriage was slowly approaching to the crisp rhythm of horse hooves.
This was no ordinary carriage!
This was a carriage that nearly blinded the guards stationed at the city gate.
The carriage itself had originally been crafted from premium red sandalwood, exuding understated luxury. But now, it had been wrapped in layer upon layer of dazzling pure gold foil.
The carriage glittered brilliantly, and even the two Ferghana horses pulling it had absurdly large, fist-sized solid-gold money trees perched on their foreheads.
With every turn of the wheels, blinding golden rays flashed beneath the sunlight.
The message it broadcast in every direction was unmistakable:
We’re idiots with more money than sense!
Inside the carriage, Su Yaoyao reclined comfortably against the cushions, thoroughly pleased with her artistic makeover.
Around her neck hung a solid-gold necklace weighing a full three pounds.
The chain was as thick as an iron dog leash and clanked loudly whenever she moved.
She had also forced twelve emerald rings, each the size of a pigeon’s egg, onto her ten fingers.
Across from her sat the Tyrant of the Great Abyss Kingdom, Su Zhen, wearing an expression of utter despair.
His eyes had rolled back, and he was gasping heavily for breath. Sweat poured down his forehead and streamed wildly along his cheeks.
“D-daughter…”
Su Zhen tugged at his constricting collar, his voice trembling.
He was wrapped from head to toe in an unbelievably thick, glossy northern sable coat!
At thirty-five degrees Celsius, that sable coat was nothing short of a portable torture device.
“Father, keep your mind calm and your body cool. Don’t move around—moving will only make you hotter.”
Su Yaoyao waved a large gold-trimmed palm fan while leisurely popping a chilled grape into her mouth.
Su Zhen was so furious that his mustache bristled. He wiped the sweat from his chin.
“Do you think I want to wear this thing?! I feel like I’m about to be fully cooked. Sprinkle me with some cumin and I’ll be ready to serve!”
“You were the one who said we had to disguise ourselves as the richest nouveau riche in all of Great Yan,” he continued. “You even said that real nouveau riche wear sable in summer and expose their waists in winter!”
The heat had made Su Zhen dizzy. He felt as though he were about to be steamed alive in the dog days of summer.
“It’s called nailing the look.”
Su Yaoyao spoke with absolute seriousness as she talked complete nonsense.
“Think about it, Father. Our current identities are those of international merchant tycoons—walking money printers.”
“This border region of Great Yan is a godforsaken place, crawling with ruthless bandits and shady inns.”
“If we don’t look like brainless fools with money to burn, how will those criminal elements be tempted to come after us so we can rob them right back?”
At the words “rob them right back,” the Tyrant, who had been on the verge of heatstroke, suddenly brightened.
Even though prickly heat covered his back, he swallowed his suffering and forced himself to endure the heat.
“Remember, Father,” Su Yaoyao reminded her father, who was liable to draw his sword and start cutting people down at any moment. “Once we pass through that city gate, you’re no longer Su Zhen. The Emperor of Dayuan is traveling incognito.”
“Your alias is Qian Duoduo. You’re the distant elder cousin of the richest man in Great Yan.”
“And I’m Qian Baobao, your beloved and spoiled only daughter.”
Su Zhen fully embraced his role. He stroked the fake beard stuck to his chin and nodded firmly.
“Got it. Qian Duoduo and Qian Baobao.”
“Let’s go! Into the city! Today, your father is going to make a few risk-free, high-profit deals right here in Great Yan!”
Amid a chorus of crisp bells, the glittering carriage swaggered into the largest market town along the Great Yan border.
The place was a melting pot of every kind of shady character. The streets were packed with escaped criminals, bandits in disguise, and employees from crooked inns trying to lure in customers.
The moment this moving vault entered the town, the entire noisy street fell deathly silent.
A steamed bun slipped from the hand of a vendor by the roadside.
A butcher sharpening his knife stood there with his mouth hanging open, forgetting to move.
Every gaze locked onto the blindingly ostentatious carriage like hungry wolves that had gone ten days without food.
From inside the carriage, Su Yaoyao could clearly hear the synchronized sound of people swallowing along both sides of the street.
“Father, the fish are biting. Get ready to play your part.”
Su Yaoyao lowered her voice and chuckled.
The carriage charged recklessly down the street before finally stopping in front of a luxurious three-story inn.
The inn was exceptionally grand, with two strings of large red lanterns hanging by the entrance. Its signboard bore four boldly written characters:
Dragon Gate Inn.
Su Yaoyao nearly burst out laughing when she heard the name. What a classic name for a crooked inn! At first glance, it looked like a century-old establishment with a highly professional operation.
Inside the inn’s main hall, the proprietress had been idly working a golden abacus. The moment a flash of gold caught the corner of her eye, the abacus slipped from her hand and landed on the counter with a clack.
Her foxlike eyes widened.
She had struggled along the border for ten years and run her crooked inn for just as long, but she had never seen such an outrageously obvious fat sheep flaunting its wealth in public!
This wasn’t merely a fat sheep. It was a moving mountain of gold—a cash machine delivered straight to her by the heavens themselves!
The proprietress dabbed at her crimson lips while studying herself in the bronze mirror on the counter, then forced a syrupy smile onto her face.
She twisted her almost painfully slender waist and hurried outside in dainty little steps.
“Oh, my! What an honor to welcome two distinguished guests! Your arrival truly brings glory to our humble establishment!”
The proprietress had applied her face powder extremely thickly. When she smiled, white powder sifted from her face like falling snow.
Su Zhen was hot, irritated, and thoroughly miserable, but he never forgot his nouveau riche persona.
He gave a cold snort, deliberately raising his nostrils as he looked at the proprietress with the contempt one might reserve for garbage.
He swaggered forward and adjusted the unbearable sable coat around him, letting out a disdainful snort through his nose.
“Do you have the finest rooms in this dump?”
“This lord has nothing but money! If I’m not comfortable here, I’ll tear this crooked inn apart today!”
As he spoke, Su Zhen reached into his sleeve and pulled out a ten-tael gold ingot.
Without even sparing it a glance, he tossed it at the proprietress’s feet as casually as if he were throwing away trash.
“Take that as a tip. Now hurry up and show us the way!”
The moment the proprietress saw the gleaming gold ingot on the ground, her eyes turned into copper coins and glowed green.
She pounced on it like a vicious dog on a scrap of meat and stuffed the ingot straight down the front of her dress.
“Yes, yes, of course! Rest assured, my lord, we have the finest Heaven-grade Room Number One in the entire town!”
“We guarantee that you and your daughter will be perfectly comfortable here. You’ll arrive as guests and never leave—ah, no, I mean, you’ll feel right at home! Right at home!”
The proprietress was so excited that she nearly blurted out what she was really thinking.
Su Yaoyao quickly lifted her skirts and followed after them. The three-pound gold chain around her neck swung back and forth, dazzling the proprietress until her eyes went blurry.
“Oh, dear Father, this inn looks barely acceptable, but I suppose we can make do and stay here tonight!”
Su Yaoyao put on the innocent, naïve act of a pampered young lady and clapped her hands in delight.
The group followed the proprietress upstairs.
Walking at the very front, the proprietress appeared to be bowing respectfully as she led the way, her mouth constantly spilling out flattering words of good fortune.
But in reality, the hand she kept behind her back was frantically signaling to the workers in the main hall.
First, she gave a thumbs-up, then drew it sharply across her throat in a throat-slitting gesture.
Next, she pointed toward the carriage outside, glittering with gold, and made a gesture that clearly meant to empty it completely—not leave a single blade of grass behind.
The thugs disguised as shop assistants and tea servers immediately understood. One after another, they revealed cruel, greedy smirks from the shadows.
Following behind them, Su Yaoyao saw every one of the proprietress’s little movements clearly.
She sighed helplessly inwardly, and her thoughts exploded in Su Zhen’s mind:
[That proprietress’s acting is terrible! Out of ten, I’d give her two points at most.]
[Couldn’t she be just a little more discreet with those hand signals? Why does she have to wave her hand so forcefully behind her back? Is she afraid everyone else is blind?]
[And the workers downstairs are all so ferocious, with murderous intent practically threatening to blow the roof off the inn.]
[With this level of professionalism, they still have the nerve to run a black inn. They have absolutely no professional ethics whatsoever. They’re a disgrace to the criminal underworld of Great Yan!]
Su Zhen was wrapped in a sable coat and sweating profusely as he trudged along. Hearing his daughter’s scathing commentary, he nearly missed a step and tumbled down the wooden staircase.
He forcibly kept his expression in check, though the corners of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
The proprietress pushed open the inn’s best room on the far end of the second floor.
“Esteemed guests, this is the finest room in our establishment. It’s spacious and well lit, and especially quiet at night. What do you think? Are you satisfied?”
Su Yaoyao walked inside and looked around at the somewhat aged rosewood furniture. She nodded in satisfaction.
“Not bad. It’s spacious enough, and it’ll certainly be convenient to move around at night.” Su Yaoyao’s lips curled into a meaningful, chillingly sweet smile.
The proprietress assumed that the inexperienced young lady was praising the room for being spacious, and the smile on her face grew even brighter.
“Of course! You two must be thirsty after your long journey. I’ll go to the kitchen and brew you a pot of the finest pre-Qingming Longjing tea!”
“Please, don’t stand on ceremony with our little establishment. Consider this pot of tea a welcome gift from me to the two of you!”
The proprietress withdrew from the room with great enthusiasm and thoughtfully closed the door behind her.
The instant the door shut, the ingratiating smile vanished from the proprietress’s face like water receding with the tide, replaced by an utterly vicious and sinister expression.
She swayed her slender waist as she hurried down the stairs and slipped straight into the inn’s dark kitchen.
Several burly workers with thick necks and fleshy faces had been waiting impatiently for her. Each of them held a butcher’s knife polished to a gleaming shine.
“Boss, this is a super-fat sheep—the kind you only see once every few hundred years! When are we making our move?”
A scar-faced man lowered his voice, licking his lips in excitement.
The proprietress gave a sinister chuckle and pulled out a crumpled package made of oiled paper.
She carefully unfolded it. Inside was a large amount of fine white powder.
“Why the hurry? That old man has an extremely solid stance. He looks like a martial artist. If we fight him head-on, our brothers might get hurt.”
The proprietress sneered as she poured the entire packet of Ten Fragrance Softening Tendon Powder into the steaming teapot without the slightest hesitation. The poison was said to seal a person’s fate at the touch of blood and be powerful enough to knock out an elephant.
The white powder quickly dissolved into the tea, colorless and odorless, leaving no trace behind.
She replaced the lid on the teapot, greedy and vicious light flickering in her eyes.
“Drink up. Once you’ve finished it, you’ll be sending them to the afterlife tonight!”
