Chapter 198: Exposed

Once the men were mostly dealt with, Fourth Brother waved his hand, dismissing everyone to return to their posts. I could clearly see them all heave a massive sigh of relief at the gesture. As they filed out, only He Yu and I remained, standing stiffly in place like a pair of wooden poles.

“Why are you standing so far away? Come, sit down,” Fourth Brother said, beckoning us over.

I pulled He Yu along as I slowly walked forward. Xiao Wu naturally took a seat opposite me, while I sat in the chair closest to Fourth Brother. He Yu sat beside me, looking uncharacteristically restless; he kept fidgeting with his clothes the moment he sat down.

Once silence returned to the tent, my mother finally set down her book. She glanced at He Yu and me, her tone softening slightly as she addressed He Yu. “My apologies for the lack of discipline among my subordinates. I’m afraid they gave the Young Master a fright just now.”

Flattered and overwhelmed, He Yu waved his hands frantically from his seat. “Ah, no, not at all! Don’t worry, my lips are sealed. I definitely won’t say a word!”

I gave him a subtle nudge to shut him up. When He Yu got nervous, he started babbling nonsense. I could already guess his head was filled with noir fantasies of the mob silencing witnesses. In his anxiety, he had blurted out exactly what he was thinking.

Fourth Brother leaned toward me slightly. “How are your injuries? Did you go see Bai Shenxian after you got out?”

“Not yet.” I touched my arm through my jacket. I had been in such a rush to wash up earlier that I hadn’t even had time to wrap it in gauze. The fabric rubbing against the wound was starting to feel uncomfortable.

Fourth Brother urged me, “Bai Shenxian is in the tent on the far left. Remember to go see him in a bit. I heard from Little Seven that you fell from quite a height and coughed up a lot of blood. Even if you feel fine now, I’m worried about internal injuries. It’s best to let him check you over.”

I nodded, noticing my mother looking at me.

“You’re an adult now,” she said. “You’ve been in Kaifeng long enough. Stop letting your Fourth Brother worry about everything for you. If the sky were to fall, is your Fourth Brother supposed to hold that up for you too?”

I didn’t really want to speak. My emotions were a tangled mess, and I didn’t know how to respond. Truthfully, I’d had plenty of time to see Bai Shenxian first, but I had skipped the bandages just to get here sooner. I maintained my usual silence, however, because my mother loathed it when people tried to play the emotional card. That tactic never worked on her.

He Yu tried to speak up for me. “He was just in a hurry to see you! Xiao Yao really missed you. He was in such a rush to change in the tent that he nearly tripped, right?”

He Yu bumped my shoulder with his, wearing a smug look that said, See? I got it right this time. I whispered for him to get lost, then stole a glance at my mother. Her expression hadn’t changed at all.

After a moment, she spoke again, this time addressing me directly. “Gan Ji, that item your Fourth Brother entrusted to you. Xiao Wu told me you took it with you when you led the team underwater. It’s time to return it to its rightful owner.”

My heart skipped a beat, and my pulse began to race. What else could it be but that piece of Black Hoof Iron? Beside me, He Yu sucked in a sharp breath. We exchanged a furtive glance. I knew we were in trouble today; whether we could bluff our way through this depended entirely on our wits.

I weighed every word carefully, following the story He Yu and I had rehearsed. “Xiao Wu is right. To keep it from Liang Si, I did take it down with me. But… but it was too chaotic down there. We entered the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces and were attacked by those White Corpse Turtle Immortals. Between the running and the falling, it just…”

“Oh, right! Look at my memory,” He Yu chimed in, picking up where I left off. “We were actually going to mention this just now, but so much was happening that it slipped our minds. We had that Shengxi Material tucked away the whole time we were running, but who knew? Once we stopped, it was gone. It probably fell out somewhere.”

Fourth Brother clearly believed us. He hesitated for a moment and sighed. “That Shengxi Material was an heirloom from Master’s ancestors, but you two barely escaped with your lives down there. If the Black Hoof Iron is lost, so be it. What matters is that you made it back safely.”

He Yu and I immediately nodded like chickens pecking at grain, echoing him with smiles. “Right, right. Fourth Brother is absolutely right.”

Neither of us dared to look at my mother. As expected, she interrupted us the very next second.

“Lost?”

The moment she spoke, both He Yu and I flinched.

I’m dead, I thought.

“Xiao Wu,” she said, her voice cold and steady. “Remember to tell the search teams later to comb through the entire tomb. Front to back, inside and out, every area they should or shouldn’t enter, every single floor tile. Turn it all over. I expect that within ten days or half a month, we’ll find that lost Black Hoof Iron one way or another.”

She was deadly serious, speaking without a single pause. He Yu glanced at me, his eyes wide with terror. He scrambled to stop her. “Wait, wait, Auntie… that… that’s really not necessary. We went through so many places. A total search… it’s just not necessary.”

My mother gave him a relaxed smile. “The Young Master might not know, but this is an heirloom of the Gan Clan. If it vanishes without a trace, it will be difficult to give an account to the people at the Pankou. It’s fine. My men have conducted searches like this before. The tomb might be a bit large, but it will be found eventually.”

I felt a surge of weary frustration. She clearly knew the truth already, yet she was still playing these games. On the surface, she was explaining things to He Yu, but she was actually targeting me. She was waiting to see if I would confess on my own or wait for her to blow the whole thing up and humiliate me. She was testing whether I had the sense to come clean.

I slumped against the back of my chair like a deflated balloon. He Yu tried to say something else to cover for me, but I gave his sleeve a sharp tug. I shoved my hands into my pockets and confessed gloomily, “I wasn’t telling the truth just now. It’s not lost.”

Fourth Brother looked at me with a face full of confusion.

“I burned the Black Hoof Iron. Just say it—how do you plan to deal with me?” As I spoke, I suddenly felt a strange urge to laugh. They had set up this entire Hongmen Banquet just to deal with Liang Si and then move right on to me. To think I had come rushing over here thinking there was something special going on.

As soon as those words left my mouth, both He Yu and Fourth Brother froze.

My mother tapped her finger twice on the table. “A punishment is absolutely necessary.”

He Yu was the first to snap out of it. He slammed his hand on the table and stood up, his emotions running high. “No! Wait a minute! I was the one who burned that thing. We were trapped in those illusions in the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces for over an hour. Then we remembered that rhinoceros horn can summon spirits. Using the Shengxi Material was our only way out. We had to burn it to see if it worked. Besides, I was the one who finally threw the horn away. I’m the one to blame here. If you’re going to punish him, then you’d better punish me too!”

He spat all of this out in a single breath, his chest still heaving when he finally stopped.

Hearing him take the blame on himself made me flare up with anger. I was the one who had taken the Black Hoof Iron down there, and now it was gone. The responsibility was mine. I had destroyed a Gan Clan heirloom that had been passed down for five or six generations—that was a fact. My mother clearly only intended to deal with me. I had planned to confess and let the matter end once they decided on my punishment.

But now He Yu had suddenly jumped in with all this, which would undoubtedly make things complicated. The Black Hoof Iron wasn’t just some ordinary rhinoceros horn; it held symbolic significance among the Five Masters. If word of this got out to the wrong people, it would turn into a massive ordeal. It would inevitably escalate into a conflict between the He and Gan clans, and the elders of both families would likely have to meet.

I looked up and snapped at him, “Are you joking? I burned my own family’s property. What the hell does that have to do with you? What are you doing, acting out some ‘live together, die together’ drama? Do you think I care? Since when does the Gan Clan punishing its juniors have anything to do with someone named He?”

This only made He Yu more agitated. “When the hell did I try to take the fall for you? I’m stating the facts! I’m the one who lit the damn Black Hoof Iron! I snatched it right out of your hands! Old Lu and Tian Xiaoqi can both testify to it! I know you don’t want this to blow up, but I’m telling you, I, He Yu, am not the kind of man who lets his brother take the blame!”

He spoke with such conviction that I could hardly refute him. After finishing his piece, He Yu turned and sat down. He gave a respectful bow toward Fourth Brother and my mother. “You two, Xiao Yao didn’t want to burn your heirloom. I was the one who felt we couldn’t just let everyone die trapped in there, so I snatched it away and lit it. At the time, I only knew it was an heirloom; I didn’t realize it had such a significant history.”

“Shut up! Are you shouting so the whole world can hear you?” I interrupted He Yu. “Do you want Fourth Brother to call your family elders over? Who benefits if this really blows up? This is Gan Clan territory, and I take primary responsibility. When you get home, you can go ahead and beg for forgiveness however you like.”

I immediately turned my head toward Fourth Brother. “Fourth Brother, whether I have to copy books, lose my allowance, or face some other penalty, just deal with me however you see fit.”