After Nan Yun left the teahouse with his men, Xi Qingyue flicked her sleeve and roused the few people who had fainted by the entrance.
The young masters and ladies shook their heads groggily after waking. When they saw the corpses on the floor and the blood spilled everywhere, they remembered what had happened before they passed out. Terror filled their hearts, and they nearly fainted again on the spot.
Xi Qingyue cast them an indifferent glance. “Now that you’re awake, get lost. No one here is going to serve you tea if you stay.”
Hearing a child’s voice in the midst of their panic, they turned toward Xi Qingyue in shock. Seeing two little girls sitting calmly at the table, drinking tea with smiles on their faces, left them utterly dumbfounded.
The next moment, they spun around and fled out the door, terrified that they might not escape if they were even a step too slow.
Resting her chin on one hand, Xi Weilan watched them run away and muttered, “They have no manners at all. They didn’t even thank you, Sister.”
Xi Qingyue smiled and patted her head. “Lan'er, we won’t stoop to their level. As long as they don’t stay behind and get in our way, that’s enough.”
“Mm, you’re right, Sister. We’re too generous to hold grudges against small-minded people.” As soon as she finished speaking, Xi Weilan suddenly remembered something. She hopped down from her chair and ran toward the bodies inside the teahouse.
Reaching the corpses, she happily squatted down and began searching through them. Before long, her tiny hands were full of scattered pieces of silver.
She ran back to Xi Qingyue with the silver in her hands and placed it on the table. “Sister, we made money again!”
Xi Qingyue was instantly speechless. Were they really in need of silver now?
She had Xi Weilan hold out her hands. A thin stream of water immediately flowed over them, gently washing them clean. Once they were clean, the water vanished, and the droplets on her hands evaporated in an instant.
Smiling, Xi Qingyue took Xi Weilan’s hand and led her toward the counter. “Lan'er, the real money is over there. There’s a hidden compartment inside with a stack of banknotes.”
At that, Xi Weilan turned toward her with a delighted expression. “Sister, does that mean we’re the richest people in the world now?”
Xi Qingyue nodded without hesitation. “Of course. Even the imperial treasury isn’t as rich as we are. You can spend it however you like.”
With that, the two happily went behind the counter, crouched down, opened the hidden compartment, and began counting the banknotes.
By the time the city constables arrived at the teahouse, all they found were bodies sprawled across the floor and blood everywhere. There was nothing else.
“Damn it, we’re too late. The murderer got away.” The lead constable looked deeply disappointed. Such a great opportunity for merit had slipped through his fingers.
However, one of the more timid constables breathed a sigh of relief at his words. “Chief, someone who can kill so many people and still get away isn’t someone we could defeat even if we found them. It’s better that they’ve fled—we won’t have to worry about losing our lives.”
The lead constable shot him a fierce glare. “Look at you, acting like such a coward. We’re officers of the law. Are dozens of us really supposed to fear a few street thugs? There’s nothing left to do here, so let’s go to the Invitation Moon Tower. There’s been a murder there too. If we arrive late, someone else will get there first. If we catch the culprit, maybe we’ll get to visit the Invitation Moon Tower whenever we want without spending a single coin.”
At the thought of being able to visit the Moon-Inviting Pavilion for free in the future and enjoy the company of beautiful women on both arms, he burst into hearty laughter. Without sparing another glance at the corpses in the teahouse, he strode outside, while the others followed behind him, laughing as well.
Behind the counter, Xi Qingyue was sitting on the floor with Xi Weilan, sorting through the valuables they had acquired. Just as she gathered up the banknotes and silver, intending to leave, she overheard the bailiffs talking about going to the Moon-Inviting Pavilion. At once, she no longer felt any urgency to move.
After the bailiffs had left, she and Xi Weilan slowly emerged from behind the counter.
She could not help shaking her head and sighing. “Sigh... It seems everyone in the yamen will have to be replaced. Keeping people like this around is useless. They casually drew their conclusions without even checking whether the people on the floor were dead or alive.”
Although many bodies lay sprawled across the floor, there were still five unconscious survivors among them. Yet they had all been mistaken for corpses.
At the corner of a shop not far from the teahouse, several youths poked their heads out from behind the wall in a row, peering in the direction of the teahouse. They were the three boys and two girls Xi Qingyue had driven away earlier.
They were greatly puzzled to see the officers leave the teahouse less than a quarter of an hour after entering. They certainly did not believe the authorities had kindly chosen not to arrest the two children; that clearly made no sense.
The boy in blue frowned in confusion. “Strange. They didn’t arrest those two children?”
A young woman in a green skirt ventured a guess. “Could those two children have escaped through the back door? They can’t possibly be the murderers. We were too nervous earlier and mistakenly thought they were.”
At that, a young man in green shook his head. “Not necessarily. Someone shoved me to the ground, and I hit my head on the doorframe and passed out. All of you fainted too. None of us actually saw who killed those people. There’s something strange about those two children.”
The boy in blue gathered his courage. “How about we go back and take a look?”
The moment the words left his mouth, he was immediately met with refusal.
“No.”
The girl in pink was especially indignant. “Are you trying to get yourself killed? That place is full of corpses. If you want to go, go by yourself.”
The boy in blue was not offended. Instead, he smiled sheepishly. “I’m just curious. The authorities have already been there, so it should be safe. What’s so scary about corpses? It’s not as if we’ve never been to a morgue before.”
No one paid him any attention.
Though afraid, the boy in blue could not suppress his curiosity and still intended to take a look. He patted the gray-clothed boy beside him on the shoulder. “Good brother, come have a look with me.”
“Fine, I’ll go with you—but we can only look from the entrance. We can’t go inside.”
When he agreed, the boy in blue smiled. “All right. You wait at the door, and I’ll go in and take a look. The tea at this teahouse is pretty good. I’ll grab a couple of tins to take home.”
With that, he pulled the boy in gray toward the Ten Directions Teahouse once more.
The girl in pink rolled her eyes behind them. “So he’s going there to pick up bargains. No wonder he insisted on going back to look at the corpses. Isn’t he afraid they’ll come back to life?”
The boy in blue approached the entrance of the teahouse with a delighted expression. The moment he stepped inside, he met Xi Weilan’s curious gaze.
Xi Weilan pointed at him and shouted, “Big Sister, they’re back again!”
The boy in blue stiffened in fright, frozen where he stood. The boy in gray likewise stood rooted to the spot, unable to move.
Xi Qingyue looked coolly at the man standing frozen in the doorway. “You here to pick up the spoils?”
The moment she said that, the man in blue hurriedly shook his head. “No, I just came to take a look.”
For some reason, he was terrified whenever he looked at Xi Qingyue. That child frightened him even more than the corpses on the ground.
Xi Qingyue stared at him for a long while before suddenly smiling. She pulled out a pistol and pointed it at the man in blue. “Come in. I have something to ask you. If you don’t tell the truth, I’ll kill you right now.”
At her words, the two men at the door began trembling uncontrollably. A chill ran down their spines. They wanted to flee, but their legs felt rooted to the ground.
The man in blue regretted it beyond measure. He should never have come just for the food and drink. For the sake of a little tea, he had nearly gotten himself killed.
Gritting his teeth, he lifted his chin and walked inside. The man in gray had no choice but to follow him in.
Seeing the two of them wearing expressions as though they were marching to their deaths, Xi Qingyue couldn’t help but laugh. “If you’re so afraid of dying, you shouldn’t go sticking your noses into everything—or let your curiosity get the better of you. Haven’t you heard the saying? Curiosity killed the cat.”
