The Inverted Dragon's Scale

From the inside of one of the cabins came a sharp noise like the wailing of a pig.

The noise punctured the peace of the ship; countless guests were awakened from their sleep.

“Mines too, my purse is also gone—–”

“There’s a thief on the ship, go report this to the authorities ——”

Sounds of doors being pushed open, disheveled students with face filled with anger were yelling across the ship.

“Boatman, boatman, hurry get the person in charge to come here——” Zhang Linpu hurriedly tied up his belt stumbling out of his room shouting: “The one-hundred gold coins inside my bag was stolen, you’ve got to retrieve it back for me. Otherwise—-I won’t let it go.”

“Exactly and my fifty gold coins—–”

“My one hundred twenty—–”

——-

Li Muyang opened his eyes, after listening and clearly understanding the commotion outside, the first thing he did was touch the crotch of his trousers.

Fortunately, the gold coins were still there.

So he closed his eye, preparing to go back to sleep. This was his first time to be away from home and the first time he left his family; last night he lied in bed thinking of all sorts of worries, it was not until the second half of the night that he eventually fell asleep for a short moment.

It was still dark outside, a faint shadow of the moon still hanging in the sky, but he was already awakened?

Suddenly, he leaped out of bed, pulled out his luggage from under the deck and frantically searched for a while.

He couldn’t find anything.

The hidden bags full of gold coins all vanished.

Luo Qi divided the gold coins into several smaller amounts; each bag was hidden inside his clothes, boxes of food or books. All of them have been taken, yet the luggage was still in the exact same place, just like no one has ever moved it at all.

A mysterious thief!

Li Muyang pushed open the door, outside was already a scene of noisy confusion.

Zhang Linpu and other scholars of Jiangnan who also lost their purse were all shouting across the ship, while a middle-aged man with a triangle hat was trying very hard to explain to them but they won’t listen at all, instead pulled the middle-aged man’s arm and lapel demanding the boatman to compensate their losses.

“Gentlemen, gentlemen——please hear me out, please listen to my words.” The man with the triangle hat bowed incessantly. “Now the passenger ship had already entered into the fowl crying lake area, this is the most dangerous place and the most likely place for lake bandits to appear. Even if the thieves stole all the money it’s highly unlikely they would disembark here.”

“The ship would continue to sail and not dock at any place. So, I’m certain that damn thief must still be on the ship. If you give me some time, I can organise a group of people to search every cabins and each compartments. The money stolen is no small amount, even if the thieves want to hide it on the ship it’s not an easy task. If we find the money, then would that not lead us to the thief? At that time I can give everyone an explanation.”

After carefully listening, Zhang Linpu also thought it was reasonable. He loosened the boatman’s collar, turned around to face his fellow scholars and asked: “What do you guys think?”

“Search. We must search.” With grief and indignation across the crowd’s face, they said in a loud voice. Money is just an object, but it’s also an life saving object. They just left home and all their money had been stolen. What would they live on in Tiandu?

Seeing Li Muyang walking out of the cabin, Zhang Linpu asked: “Li Muyang, were any of your stuff stolen?”

“My two hundred and ten gold coins were stolen.” Li Muyang said aloud.

Everyone was speechless; they had no idea that Li Muyang would bring such a large amount of money to study.

“Is this true?” Zhang Linpu was in disbelief.

“I was lucky to achieve first place in the exams, the lord of the city rewarded me with two thousand gold coins. Mother wanted me to take half of it to study, so I won’t suffer outside. I thought I wouldn’t use that much, so I only brought two-hundred and ten gold coins.” Li Muyang explained. He must not let anyone know of the little packet in his pants no matter what, this is his money to survive.

“——–”

The entire crowd stared at Li Muyang while pondering, how did this asshole achieve first in the exams?

The person in charge of the ship is called Chen Tao, the entire boat crew as well as all the guests on the first and second decks gathered on the top deck, organising a group of guards to search every compartment and cabin on the ship, one by one.

All scholars were standing behind watching closely, there is no way for anyone to escape under their noses.

Unfortunately, in the end everybody was left disappointed; all cabins has been searched but they did not see what they hoped for; the sight of a large heap of gold coins stacked in a hidden corner, glistening brightly.

“The thief must have hid the gold coins——–”

“With no money, what can we do? When we go to Tiandu, are we going to die?”

“No, our money is lost on the ship, the ship will have to pay for our losses——-”

———–

Zhang Linpu pointed to the stairwell on the third deck “Manager Chen, it seems we haven’t searched the third floor, right?”

Chen Tao was incredibly anxious, repeatedly waving his hand in refusal: “We must not search the third floor. The third floor is for VIPs, they will not steal some student’s little money.”

Zhang Linpu’s little heart can’t stand this any longer, pointing at Chen Tao he shouted: “Manger Chen, what do you mean? Upstairs are for VIPs, so we are grassroots and dust? Now that the entire first floor, second floor and the crew’s cabins have been thoroughly searched yet we still can’t find the thief or the lost gold, then of course, we must search the third deck——–”

“Exactly, even if the prince breaks the law, he must be punished like an ordinary person. What makes those on the third floor superior?”

“Even if there are some VIPs on the third floor, what about their servants and guards? Who can guarantee that they do not have sticky fingers?”

———-

Chen Tao still refuses. “It’s something that I can’t do, I must not. Beside’s this is not up to me——The guests on the third deck reserved the whole deck and we promised not to disturb them.”

“Then what about our stolen money?” Zhang Linpu was filled with anger. “If your ship will pay for all the money us scholars have lost then we won’t have to search the third floor. Otherwise, even if it’s the emperor we are still going up to see——-”

“Yes, we are going up to search——-” The crowd snarled.

“What’s with the yelling?” An arrogant voice resounded from the top of the stairs.

Accompanied by several men of his monitoring division, Cui Zhaoren, dressed in a black cape, walked out of the cabin with an irritated face; a beautiful dream being disrupted is indeed frustrating. He said coldly: “just a few hundred gold coins, we won’t even take a glimpse at them. If you continue to make false accusations, watch if I would slap your mouths—–get out of here.”

“You——–” Zhang Linpu tried to stand firm but seeing the men in black, one after another, holding onto the shaft of their blade, with their eyes ferociously glaring at them, as if they were ready to pull out their blades at anytime, the words that had already reached his mouth wouldn’t come out no matter what.

“Let us go and have a look.” A clear voice echoed over.

Zhang Linpu, who was standing right in the front, swiftly leaped aside to make it clear to the group of men in black that he was not the man who said these words. This matter had nothing to do with him.

The crowd dispersed, at the back of the crowd was Li Muyang, who has been following the crowd all along, searching one cabin after another, with a somewhat leisurely expression, he was pushed right to the front of Cui Zhaoren like stars clustering around the moon.

“Turns out it’s that retard.” Everyone thought to themselves.

“What are you?” The corners of Cui Zhaoren’s mouth slightly raised as he said without a trace of politeness.

“I’m Li Muyang.” Li Muyang said, smiling.

“And what is Li Muyang?”

“Li Muyang is not a thing, he’s a living person.” Grinning from ear to ear, Li Muyang continued: “The lord of Jiangnan city Yan Bolai is my uncle. The lord’s son Yan Xiangma is my brother——Yan Xiangma is Jiangnan city’s most famous hedonistic young master, he is capable of doing anything. So, young master please be careful.”

Li Muyang played with their mind here. He thought that since the majority of these people boarded the ship at Maple Forest Crossing, then most of them are from Jiangnan. Who in Jiangnan would not know of the lord of the city, Yan Bolai? Who would not know of the famous hedonistic young master Yan Xiangma?

Just moments ago Yan Bolai rushed over to see him off; everyone on the ship should have witnessed this. No matter who they are, they will always give some respect to the lord of the city, right?

As for Yan Xiangma, since he often says he’s capable of committing any crime, then as his close friend, Li Muyang did not hesitate to make him become more well known.

“————”