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 over and sit down,” Fourth Brother said, beckoning to me.

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 ill at ease; sitting in his chair, he kept repeatedly smoothing down his clothes.

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 my poor management of my subordinates. I’m afraid they gave Young Master He a fright just now.”

Overwhelmed, He Yu frantically waved his hands from his seat. “Ah, no, I wouldn’t dare! Don’t worry, my lips are sealed. I definitely won’t breathe a word to anyone!”

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 wild fantasies of mobsters silencing witnesses. In his anxiety, he had blurted out his innermost thoughts.

Fourth Brother leaned toward me slightly and asked, “How are your injuries? Did you go see Bai Shenxian after coming back up?”

“Not yet.” Only then did I feel 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, and the fabric rubbing against the wound was starting to feel uncomfortable.

Fourth Brother instructed 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.

My mother said to me, “You’re an adult now. 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 it up for you too?”

I didn’t really want to speak. My feelings were complicated, and I didn’t know how to answer. Truthfully, I’d had plenty of time to get checked by Bai Shenxian first, but I had even skipped the bandages just to get here sooner. However, I maintained my usual silence, because my mother loathed it when people played the affection card. That tactic never worked on her.

He Yu spoke up for me. “Wasn’t he just in a hurry to see you? Xiao Yao really wanted to see you. He was in such a rush changing in the tent that he nearly tripped, right?”

He Yu nudged my shoulder with his, wearing a smug look that said, See? I got it right this time. I whispered for him to screw off, then stole a glance at my mother, only to find that her expression hadn’t changed at all.

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

My heart skipped a beat, and my pulse raced. What else could it be but the Black Hoof Iron? Beside me, He Yu sucked in a sharp breath. We exchanged a furtive glance. I knew we were in for it today; whether we could bluff our way through depended entirely on how well the two of us talked.

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 all the running and 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 passed down 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 started nodding like chickens pecking at grain, echoing him with quick smiles. “Right, right. Fourth Brother is absolutely right.”

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

“Lost?”

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

I’m finished, I thought.

“Xiao Wu,” she said. “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, and 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. “Young Master He might not know, but this is an heirloom passed down through generations of our Gan Clan. If it vanishes without a trace, it will be hard to answer 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 going on like this. On the surface, she was explaining things to He Yu, but she was actually dropping hints to me. She was waiting to see if I would confess on my own or wait for things to escalate so everyone could watch me get exposed. She was testing whether I had the sense to come clean on my own initiative.

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 in confusion.

“I burned the Black Hoof Iron. Just tell me, how do you plan to deal with me?” As I spoke, I suddenly felt a strange urge to laugh. Setting up this entire Hongmen Banquet just to finish dealing with Liang Si and then move right on to me… To think I had come rushing all the way over here expecting something special.

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

My mother tapped the table twice with her finger. “Punishment is a must.”

He Yu was the first to snap out of it. He slammed his hand on the table and stood up, visibly agitated. “No! Wait, don’t! I was the one who burned that thing! Back when we were trapped in the illusions inside the Yin-Yang Thirteen Palaces for over an hour, we remembered that raw rhino horn can communicate with spirits. Using the Shengxi Material was our only way out, so we had no choice but to burn it to see if it worked. Besides, I was the one who threw the material away in the end. I can’t escape the blame. If you’re going to punish him, punish me along with him!”

He poured all of this out in a single breath, his chest still heaving when he finished.

Hearing him heap the blame onto himself made me flare up with anger. The Black Hoof Iron was indeed something I had brought down there, and now that it was gone, the responsibility rested on me. There was no question that I was the one who had destroyed an heirloom passed down through five or six generations of our Gan Clan. My mother clearly only intended to deal with me. I had figured I would just confess, let them punish me, and end the whole matter.

But now He Yu jumping in like this would undoubtedly complicate things. The Black Hoof Iron wasn’t any ordinary rhino horn; it held symbolic significance among the Five Masters. If word of this got out to people with bad intentions, it would turn into a massive ordeal, escalating to the He and Gan clans, and the elders of both families might even have to meet.

I looked up and swore at him, “Are you kidding me? I burned my own family’s property, so what the hell does it have to do with you? What’s with this loyal-unto-death act you’re putting on? Do you think I give a damn? Since when does the Gan Clan punishing its own juniors have anything to do with someone named He?”

This only made He Yu more agitated. “When the hell did I take the fall for you? I’m stating 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 to make a big deal out of this, but I’m telling you, letting a brother take the fall for me? I, He Yu, am not that kind of person!”

He spoke so convincingly that I could hardly argue back. Having said his piece, He Yu turned and sat down, bowing respectfully to Fourth Brother and my mother. “You two, Xiao Yao never wanted to burn your family heirloom. I was the one who felt we couldn’t just stay trapped inside to die, so I forced it from him and burned it. At the time, I only knew it was an heirloom; I had no idea it had such a major background.”

“Shut your mouth! Shouting so loudly, do you want the whole world to hear?” I interrupted He Yu. “Do you really want Fourth Brother to call your family elders over? If this really blows up, who does it benefit? This is Gan Clan territory, and I bear the main responsibility. When you get home, go beg for forgiveness however you damn well please.”

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