Chapter 207: Surveillance

My family’s ancestral home sits outside the county seat. It has no heating, and in the winter, once the snow falls, the chill seeps up from the ground. Not to mention, the place has been uninhabited for a long time. I was kneeling on a tattered prayer mat in front of the altar, surrounded by eight men. They weren’t all Gan Rong’s people; some had been sent by other Pankou specifically to keep an eye on me, fearing I might slip away if they looked the other way for even a second.

I rubbed my knees, occasionally glancing at the eight big guys out of the corner of my eye. Every one of them stood straighter than a flagpole; they must have been given strict orders before coming here.

God only knows how long I’d been kneeling. Outside, the sky was gradually darkening, and soon the only light in the room came from the flickering flames on the altar. Gan Rong probably didn’t want to freeze me to death, as she’d provided a prayer mat. Even though it was so worn it was practically falling apart, it at least ensured my legs wouldn’t be ruined by the frost.

I was wearing my thickest down jacket, but it was no match for this kind of winter. The longer I knelt, the colder I got, and I instinctively started to huddle into myself. Just as I was wondering how long I’d have to endure this, the eight men guarding me received a notification and withdrew outside one by one.

The two iron doors were shut, and I clearly heard a heavy lock click into place. Suddenly, I was the only one left in front of the altar. I immediately shifted my posture, sitting cross-legged on the mat to massage my completely numb legs.

I hadn’t thought to bring any padding, and now my stomach was cramping with hunger. If I’d known it would be like this, we should have just fought it out. There was no way the three of us couldn’t have taken on Xiao Wu and his crew; I shouldn’t have come to this godforsaken place to suffer.

Looking at the fruit arranged on the altar, I stood up, grabbed an orange, peeled it, and started eating. I figured my grandfather was a generous man and wouldn’t hold a small thing like this against me. However, the moment the orange hit my tongue, I realized the segments were nearly frozen. My teeth chattered from the cold, and I couldn’t even tell if it was sour or sweet.

As I sat back on the mat in frustration, I heard a rustling sound coming from the rafters. Still clutching my orange, I looked up, wondering if the house had developed a rat problem after years of neglect.

Just as I raised my head, two figures dropped down from the beams. Under my shocked gaze, He Yu and Lu Ayao quickly moved to grab several door panels from the hall and propped them up to block the entrances.

“How did you guys-” I started in surprise.

He Yu made a shushing gesture, signaling for me to sit down. I obediently shut up and sat. Then I watched as he unzipped his down jacket and pulled out a massive thermos. He pulled off his gloves and rubbed his hands together.

“We started planning how to get stuff to you the moment you left. We got here in the afternoon, but those bastards wouldn’t let me in for anything. They were on high alert then, but they loosened up a bit at night, so we took the chance to scale the wall. We actually had to pry up some tiles from your roof to get in. Otherwise, we were planning to pull an all-nighter up there.”

He Yu tossed me a handkerchief to wipe my hands, then unscrewed the top lid of the thermos. An aroma wafted out that nearly made me faint with longing – it was a hearty mutton stew.

I took the disposable chopsticks He Yu handed me and was about to dig in when I paused. “Aren’t you guys eating? You’re just going to watch me?”

“We ate before we came. This is for you, scooped straight from my hotpot. It’s a bit of a mess, but it’ll fill you up. Conditions are limited, as you know, so just make do. Once you’re done kneeling and come back, we’ll make something proper to fix you up,” He Yu said.

Hearing that, I couldn’t hold back any longer and began to wolf it down. As I ate, my body gradually warmed up. Between bites, I watched Lu Ayao pull a sleeping bag and a thermal blanket from his pack. He spread the thermal blanket on the floor first, then laid the sleeping bag on top, which would make sleeping much warmer.

“I’m telling you, your mom is way too ruthless. Picking this time of all times… and now that people from the other Gan Clan Pankou have shown up, you could’ve gone home after one day, but now it looks like you’ll have to stay for the full three. Three days. New Year’s will be over. What kind of New Year’s Eve dinner is that?” He Yu grumbled as he tidied up.

I took a bite of a sesame flatbread and chewed as I spoke. “Didn’t you hear what Xiao Wu said? The news is already out. The word that I burned the Black Hoof Iron has definitely spread through Fourth Brother’s Pankou by now. There’s no hiding it, so there’s no escaping this punishment. Not only do I have to be punished, but it has to be severe. Ideally, it happens at a significant time so every Pankou in the Gan Clan knows I’m kneeling here because of the Black Hoof Iron.”

“Why? Why do it that way?” He Yu asked.

Before I could swallow my bite of flatbread, Lu Ayao picked up the explanation for me. “Because the Black Hoof Iron isn’t important for what it is, but for what it does. Simply put, whoever holds the Black Hoof Iron controls the accounts. Therefore, the news of its destruction must be known by every branch of the Gan Clan. It signals that from now on, the Pankou will no longer use the Black Hoof Iron as the standard. This prevents a lot of unnecessary trouble in the future.”

He Yu had never managed a household, but once Lu Ayao explained it, he had an epiphany. “So this actually turns out to be a good thing? I’m still pissed, though. There are plenty of ways to punish someone. Why make our Xiao Yao the one on the front lines? I just hope we don’t end up with nothing to show for it but a permanent chill in his bones.”

I finished the entire bowl of mutton soup like a whirlwind. He Yu took the bowl and brought out a container of dumplings for me. By the time I was done, I was hiccuping, so stuffed I couldn’t move from where I leaned against the altar leg. Only then did He Yu stop feeding me.

As it grew later, the three of us crawled into our respective sleeping bags to rest. With a full stomach, I slept quite comfortably. In the early morning, someone pulled me up and sat me back on the prayer mat. I spent the dawn half-asleep, kneeling in a daze. A short while later, the eight big guys came back inside to resume their watch.

He Yu and Lu Ayao repeated this trick for three days. They mastered the timing for the last two days, arriving right when the eight guards were changing shifts in the afternoon. It was the same routine: pry up the tiles, jump down, and then haul my half-conscious self out of the sleeping bag the next morning.

The food He Yu brought every day was different: noodles, steamed buns, large flatbreads, mutton, beef, and giant chicken legs. Occasionally, fearing I’d get bored of the food, he even squeezed some fruit juice for me. Those three days of “punishment” were actually quite comfortable. Forget about starving; I probably gained a few pounds.

This meant that when I finally returned, my employees crowded around me one by one, fussing over my well-being with such concern that I actually started to feel a bit embarrassed.

Once the New Year festivities passed, the three of us gathered at the shop to begin our investigation into Northwest Outdoor. I’d heard that after we disembarked from the ship, those black crates had also been offloaded one by one. They had been well-hidden and managed to escape any official notice.

My initial plan was to start the search in the north. If we found nothing there, only then would we consider the possibility of those remote, uninhabited regions like Tibet.

However, before we could even officially launch our investigation, we discovered a critical problem.

All three of us were being watched simultaneously.