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Chapter 5: You Are Not In Exile, You Are Clearly Traveling!
🕑 Added 2024-02-24 01:22:52 +0000 UTCChapter 5: Nothing Found
"Search, keep searching! There must be a secret chamber here, and the valuables must be hidden in the secret chamber."
Guo Qiang's face was grim as he rummaged through the warehouse, believing that the silver was hidden in a secret chamber.
Several of his men hurriedly searched around, trying to find any mechanisms.
"Tap the walls. If it sounds hollow, it means there's a secret chamber."
"Makes sense." Guo Qiang's eyes lit up, then he turned to praise, "Well done. Once we find the secret chamber, I'll reward you..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Guo Qiang was dumbfounded because the person who had just spoken was Chen Xue.
She was actually helping them find the secret chamber in her own family's treasury!
Was he hallucinating, or had she lost her mind?
He couldn't figure it out, but he knew the method was valid, so he simply ignored it and turned to search for the secret chamber.
"I, I found it!"
Suddenly, one of Guo Qiang's trusted subordinates exclaimed. It was the same subordinate who had arranged to hide the disaster relief grain in the Chen family's warehouse.
"Where?" Guo Qiang asked eagerly, running over. Beside him, Chen Xue's heart skipped a beat. She remembered that in the original owner's memory, there definitely was no secret chamber in the treasury. How could they possibly find it?
Could it be that there really was one, and the original owner didn't know?
Thinking this, Chen Xue's expression turned somewhat unpleasant, and she hurried over.
She saw her subordinate holding a small white pearl, dropped on the ground, apparently unnoticed by Chen Xue.
Seeing this, Chen Xue breathed a sigh of relief. She thought they had found the secret chamber, but it turned out to be just a small pearl, which she didn't even bother to pick up.
"Get lost!"
Guo Qiang's face immediately darkened. If it weren't for the Imperial Censor being present, he would have chopped off his subordinate's head.
Playing tricks on him, was he!
The subordinate felt wronged after being kicked, "General, didn't you say the treasury was empty? I found..."
"Get lost!"
Not taking work seriously and even arguing back, Guo Qiang was about to explode with anger.
However, since his subordinate had found a pearl, albeit a very small one, it indicated that there used to be something valuable here, but it had been moved.
Thinking of this, he sneered, "Continue searching!"
Beside them, Chen Xue spoke again with a sense of grievance, "I told you, our family is very poor, so poor we can't even make ends meet."
Guo Qiang ignored her, but the Imperial Censor believed her. He sighed, feeling some regret, "Ah, if only I had known Zheng Yuan was so incorruptible, I shouldn't have doubted him. Even if it meant risking my life, I should have stopped His Majesty."
"Your Excellency, it's not too late now." Chen Xue interjected opportunistically, "As long as Your Excellency continues to investigate the truth..."
*Cough!*
Guo Qiang coughed, interrupting their conversation, then turned to his men, "Take her away, send her to the front yard."
But Chen Xue spoke up first, "Wait, I can take you to the other storerooms in our house."
"Heh!" Guo Qiang was about to sneer, thinking, I would have known where your storerooms are even without you, but then he thought that perhaps the storerooms he knew of were just superficial, and suddenly swallowed his words.
"Why?" he asked curiously. Why would Chen Xue do this? Shouldn't she be desperately trying to stop them?
"It's almost noon," Chen Xue replied appropriately. "While you search the storerooms, who knows how long it will take? It's almost noon, you'd better finish early so I can have lunch."
Lunch?
Guo Qiang's mouth twitched. Are you still thinking about lunch? Do you even deserve a last meal? You might not even make it to tomorrow, and you're thinking about lunch.
Hopeless!
He shook his head, feeling some sympathy for Chen Yuan. The only daughter of the family had a problem with her brain, tut-tut-tut.
Sure enough, with Chen Xue leading the way, their efficiency increased significantly.
However, the storerooms they opened were still empty, which made Guo Qiang somewhat suspicious. Was Chen Xue doing this intentionally, leading them to empty storerooms?
"Wait a minute!"
Guo Qiang suddenly stopped in his tracks, pointing to the rooms on both sides. "What are these rooms for?"
"My parents' room and some other empty rooms," Chen Xue replied honestly.
"Let's go in and take a look!"
Guo Qiang sneered. He wasn't going back to the treasury; it might be empty again. Maybe the valuables were hidden in their rooms.
Even if they couldn't find gold, silver, and jewels, anything else of value would do. After all, it was rare to get a chance to raid a household, and finding nothing at all was simply unbelievable.
It couldn't be that even their living quarters were empty. That would be too far-fetched...
Guo Qiang widened his eyes, staring at the room. Seeing that there was only a table, a few chairs, and a bed in the room, he began to doubt his life choices.
Was this a room?
Was this where people lived?
Where were the blankets?
Where were the pillows?
Who sleeps without a pillow!
Who sleeps on the bed board, even in an ordinary household, it's impossible to be so outlandish!
"Zheng Yuan, this is really..."
The Imperial Censor opened his mouth, not knowing what to say. He had been shocked, moved, sympathetic, and heartbroken several times already.
Now, seeing this scene, although he was still shocked, he quickly accepted it.
"No wonder a few days ago, when the court called for disaster relief donations, Zheng Yuan also contributed ten thousand taels. It turns out he sold his family's belongings to make up the sum. This is just..."
Seeing that Chen Yuan was willing to sleep on a bed board to donate money for disaster relief, the Imperial Censor was deeply touched. He wished he could rush to the palace now and ask the Emperor to reconsider this case.
Hearing the Imperial Censor explaining for him, Chen Xue touched her nose. This reason did seem reasonable.
Reasonable my foot!
Guo Qiang cursed inwardly at this moment. Were the people of the Chen family crazy? Who the hell is so stingy that they sleep on bed boards at home?
This definitely wasn't Chen Yuan's room.
He refused to give up and kicked open the door of the adjacent room, only to find it cleaner than the previous one.
There wasn't even a bed board inside, just an empty room that looked like it had just been built and hadn't been inhabited yet.
"Go, kick open all the doors for me!"
Guo Qiang was furious, instructing his men to kick open all the doors. He stood in the courtyard, able to see all the rooms at once.
The result was that all of them were empty.
He began to doubt his life choices.
Was this really the Chen family?
Did he walk through the wrong door and raid the wrong house?
In fact, this wasn't the home of a third-ranking official but that of a beggar. No, even beggars would have at least a blanket.
He returned to the front yard in a rage, only to see his subordinates already gathered there, making him even angrier.
"Why are you standing around like idiots? Have you finished raiding?"
"We've finished."
Guo Qiang was stunned for a moment, then realized something and asked eagerly, "Where are the goods?"
"There are none."
They shook their heads. "There's nothing valuable in the Chen family."
"That's right."
Someone chimed in, "There's nothing but feathers in the chicken coop, not even a chicken leg."
"Yeah, I've raided many households, but this is the first time I've found one so poor."
"Not just poor, it's unbelievable. It's like a new house, as if the Chen family just moved in."
Listening to their comments, Guo Qiang summed it up and concluded with four words - nothing found.
Well, not exactly nothing found.
There was still a broken vase fragment in the hall and a pearl the size of a grain of rice found by his subordinate.
Thinking of this, he felt a surge of anger in his chest, then spewed out a mouthful of old blood.
*Puff~*
