Chapter 267: White Hair, Youthful Face

“We’ve seen enough. Let’s put it back,” said Yan Lao’er.

He did love silver, but if it wasn’t his, he didn’t care to take it.

Yan Yu didn’t respond. She was still rummaging through the various chests.

Before long, she pulled out a few silver ingots.

“Dad, look at these. They’re all official silver, but the casting molds are clearly different.

Look at the stamps. These two were minted in the Capital City, this one’s from Linhai, that one’s from Jiangdu Prefecture, and this one’s from Deshui…”

Yan Lao’er took them and examined them closely. “Quite the mixed batch.”

“Other than the Capital City, the rest are all from major coastal provinces in the south. I’m thinking, maybe the Crown Princess Consort is from the south. If she traveled north by boat along the coast, then the origins of these items make sense. They could be gifts and tribute she received along the way,” Yan Yu speculated.

She’d gotten the idea from the scattered trinkets.

Silver peanuts, silver beads, a few lifelike silver dates, gold leaves, gold lock pendants… none of them were everyday items. They were all auspicious in meaning, freshly made, and clearly crafted specifically as offerings for the Crown Princess Consort.

She figured these were most likely gifts the Crown Princess Consort had received during her journey.

With so many people giving gifts and such a wide variety, the records probably weren’t kept too meticulously. That’s how someone found an opportunity to steal.

Yan Lao’er whistled. “Well, damn, she really raked it in. And this is just a small portion. The bulk of it’s already gone. At this point, it’s probably been brought into the Prince’s manor.”

He clicked his tongue in amazement. “Look at that. Just getting married and she gets this much in gifts. We’d have to sell how many carts of Scented Soap to earn that much?”

Muttering as he worked, Yan Lao’er tossed the silver ingots back into the chest and began repacking everything.

He picked up the heavy iron chains, ready to lock the boxes back up.

“The Crown Princess Consort doesn’t exactly need to worry about spending money. Let’s put it back for now. Later, we’ll figure out a way to send word. What do you think?” he asked.

“We’re not putting it back in the same place. Let’s stash it somewhere else,” Yan Yu said with a mischievous grin.

Yan Lao’er chuckled.

“Alright, let’s do it.”

When that thief comes back and scours this whole area, they’ll find nothing but bare riverbed.

Heh heh heh!

Unlike others who needed to mark their hiding spots, they had Sanbao. No need for any of that.

They could even dig a pit at the bottom of the river and bury the chests deep.

But considering how hard it would be to retrieve them, they decided against it.

After hearing from his daughter that the thieves might’ve used two old willow trees as markers, Yan Lao’er deliberately walked downstream for quite a stretch until he found two similar-looking trees. Only then did he have Sanbao drag the chests to the middle of the river.

Sneaky, through and through.

Yan Yu discussed with her father, “We need to tell Uncle about this. Whether or not we inform the Prince’s manor, and how we go about it, that’s for him to decide.”

Yan Lao’er nodded vigorously. “Yeah, yeah. If your uncle says we shouldn’t meddle, then we’ll keep our mouths shut. Apart from your mother, we won’t tell a soul.”

The father and daughter had been busy all day and were completely exhausted. So they had Sanbao tow them underwater again while they napped under a thick quilt on the raft.

…

Changping and Linhai faced each other across the sea.

On one side was Pinglang Town in Changping, and on the other, Guiyuan Town in Xiangyun County, Linhai Prefecture.

When Yan Lao’er opened his eyes, all he saw was endless water.

The sky was blue, the sea was blue, white clouds drifted like smoke, and the sun was just rising.

A breathtaking view, like a painting come to life.

“Dabao! Girl! Yu! Wake up! Are we on the sea? Sanbao! Hey! Why’d you bring us all the way out here???” Yan Lao’er finally realized what was going on and panicked.

Yan Yu cracked open her eyes, still unfocused, trying to gather her bearings.

Yawning, she said, “Dad, I told Sanbao to stop out here when we got close to Guiyuan Town. Look again, we’re not far from the shore. Just paddle a bit and we’ll be there.”

“You scared me half to death! I thought Sanbao had short-circuited from being in the water too long…”

Yan Yu: …

Guiyuan Town sat a bit inland from the coast.

It was said that Linhai had long suffered from typhoons and flooding, so all the towns were built away from the shore. Only a few fishing villages clung to the coastline.

Once they entered Guiyuan Town, they headed straight for the pharmacy and grain store.

Grain prices were reasonable, but the medicine was twenty percent more expensive than what they’d paid in Longxing.

Yan Lao’er decided to put down a deposit and arranged with the shopkeeper to pick up the goods the next day. He went on to place deposits at a few more shops.

As for the grain store, they mostly asked about prices.

One, they didn’t have enough money. Two, their raft couldn’t carry that much cargo.

Just as they stepped out of the grain store, the street suddenly came alive with commotion.

Several strong young men carried pig, sheep, and ox heads at the front. Behind them, men and women dressed as immortals walked on stilts, trying hard to look calm and graceful.

Next came a line of young Taoist novices, holding obviously fake ritual tools.

And then came the older Taoists. They didn’t exactly radiate immortal energy—more like they were all skin and bones. Not a scrap of meat on their cheeks. Each held a horsetail whisk loosely draped over their elbow.

But the real standout was the Taoist at the very end.

He was old like the others, but he had white hair and a youthful face, with a clean, refined appearance that, paired with his snowy hair, gave him an ethereal, otherworldly aura.

Two young Taoists followed beside him.

One held a brass basin.

The old Taoist with the youthful face scooped water with one hand and flicked it with a graceful wrist. With the other, he dipped his fingers and snapped droplets into the air.

Effortless. Unrestrained. Dashing.

Trailing behind him, the crowd of men, women, and children pressed in from all sides. Everyone wanted to get closer, but no one dared to bump into the Taoist. Their restrained expressions barely concealed a kind of wild fervor.

“It’s Daoist Floating Cloud from Floating Cloud Temple! That’s Divine Water—Divine Water, you hear me!”

With someone shouting like that, the entire street erupted in chaos.

“Hahaha! I caught it, I caught it! All my ailments are gone, I’m healed, I’m healed!”

“My leg, I can feel my leg again! I can stand! I can walk! Thank you, Daoist, for bestowing the Divine Water! Thank you!”

“Daoist Floating Cloud, I’m willing to offer incense to your statue every day! Please, have mercy and grant my son some Divine Water to save him from his suffering…”

At first glance, it looked like Yan Lao’er was holding onto Yan Yu to keep her from getting swept away by the crowd.

But in truth, it was Yan Yu who was dragging her father along…

It was like the whole town had gone mad in the blink of an eye.

And the one they were losing their minds over was that showy, self-satisfied Daoist who thought he looked cool and had been playing with water the whole time.

“Dad, how old do you think he is?” The Yan father and daughter had found a corner to hide in, with a wall on one side and Sanbao on the other.

Sanbao stood guard, keeping the crowd at bay and giving the two of them a nice little pocket of peace.

“He doesn’t look old at all,” Yan Lao’er said.

“I think so too,” Yan Yu added, pointing out a few details. “Look at his smile—no wrinkles at the corners of his eyes. If he were really an old man, no matter how well he took care of himself, he couldn’t hide that.

And his eyes—clear and bright, no cloudiness in the whites at all.

Actually, the biggest giveaway of age isn’t the face, it’s the hands. Old people’s hands are completely different from young people’s.

That Daoist’s hands? Definitely a young man’s hands.”

Yan Lao’er looked intrigued. “And how can you tell?” He held out his own hands for a closer look.

“Look at the fingernails. They’re pink and healthy, and when he was playing with the water, they even had a bit of a sheen,” Yan Yu replied seriously.

(End of Chapter)