The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 20 The Eight Heavenly Gates: The Thieves
Exhausted during the day, smoking sleeping pills at night.

I was woken up in the middle of the night by a splash of water, and when I woke up, all my family's wealth was gone.

This is what happened to most people tonight.

The most tragic case was that of Lady Lü.

She was the only woman tonight who was applauded by the thieves.

Under Zuo Wenxuan's murderous gaze, she picked up her clothes one by one, completely naked.

He wore it with a blank expression.

He looked at the other person coldly:
"Is this my fault? What's my fault? Is it just bad luck?"

"what"

Zuo Wenxuan held his head in his hands.

His head kept hitting the wall with a "thump, thump, thump".

A huge green grassland grew on his head!

But he had nowhere to vent his pent-up grievances!
In a corner of the communal sleeping area, the nanny held the still unconscious twins, not daring to move.

Three superior rooms not far from them.

The officials, awakened by the splashing, were furious.

This is inside a post station!
PS: A post station was equivalent to a state-run courier station, government guesthouse, highway service area, or social service organization today.

Their main functions included: delivering official documents and military intelligence, and providing food, lodging, and horse changing services for traveling officials and merchants.
In a post station under the jurisdiction of Daming Prefecture, they were actually robbed.

The stolen money included:

The public funds were used to cover the living expenses of more than 400 people along the way.

The private savings of the officials.

There was also the hard-earned money from Zuo's in-laws before the trip, and the high fare he earned during the day!

All of it added up to quite a sum, roughly over eight hundred taels.

It's all gone, absolutely all gone!

The officials were shouting that they wanted to find the postmaster to settle accounts.

Upon exiting, I saw three thieves in black lying in the courtyard.

They didn't even care about the horrific sight of their necks being cut off.

They pounced on him and almost stripped the thief naked.

After searching for a long time, I couldn't find a single copper coin.

Of course, it wasn't all without any gains!

They discovered that all three of the men were missing a section of the little finger on their right hand.

Neat and orderly, the kind that is artificially cut off.

The leader surnamed Huang's expression hardened: "It's actually the Thieves' Sect of the Heavenly Eight Gates!"

The leader surnamed Mao looked up at the sky speechlessly.

"Thieves? Why don't they dig up graves or rob the rich to help the poor? What are they doing stealing from us poor officials?"

The leader surnamed Huang pondered, "We are poor officials, but the people we are escorting are not poor!"

The leader surnamed Mao was speechless.

It took them a long time to realize that the legendary and powerful thief gang had killed three of their disciples.

Who killed him?
Who has the ability to kill three people in a row?

Isn't it said that all the members of the Heavenly Eight Gates possess genuine martial arts skills?

The two leaders' gazes toward Gan Minglan changed several times.

Could it be her? !
Gan Minglan waved her arms straight:
“It wasn’t me. My dad asked a friend to protect me. These people sneaked into my room and were discovered by the other party. I also want to ask, is it illegal to kill them?”

The two of them breathed a sigh of relief, and their respect for the pork seller grew even stronger.

She has a great dad!

The leader surnamed Mao also explained to her:
"The laws of Bei state state that anyone who trespasses on a private residence with criminal intent shall be killed without consequence. This also applies to places like post stations. I wonder which hero your father has invited?"

The leader surnamed Huang was keen to make connections:

"Yes, please introduce us, Madam."

Gan Minglan shook her head:
"Those who work in this line of work rarely show their true faces. They might come to my rescue if I'm in mortal danger, but they charge fifty taels of silver for each rescue." The two leaders gasped: That's way too expensive! The life of the pork butcher is so different from their lowly lives!
Gan Minglan: Where is she supposed to find people for them when they're just made up out of thin air?

The bodyguard was also drugged.

He was allowed to come along, simply because An Gan Hong truly loved his daughter.

The last postmaster to be woken up by the splashing.

Looking at the three corpses on the ground, the terror in his eyes seemed genuine.

It seems this thief gang is not to be trifled with!
However, he couldn't afford to offend the officials who worked for the prefect of Daming Prefecture.

Caught in a dilemma, they finally decided to report to the authorities that very night.

at this time.

Aside from the children who were still asleep and sprawled out, the adults suffered terribly.

The elderly people felt dizzy and lightheaded, their hearts broken.
Most of them had their retirement savings stolen!

They've only been gone for two days. How will they survive without silver notes to pave the way on the road ahead?
The five hours they traveled each day were enough to kill them.

Damn thieves!
They even found the silver notes hidden under the smelly shoes!
Luo huddled in the corner, not daring to utter a sound.

I'm so scared now.

If the expert hired by their father-in-law hadn't acted quickly enough to kill the thief who entered their room...

She and her daughter-in-law would not only be touched all over their bodies by men.

The two hundred and fifty taels of silver she had painstakingly saved over the years were also stolen by thieves.

Someone was crying not far away.

They said the silver notes sewn into the grandson's clothes were all stolen!
This is outrageous! They didn't even spare the children!

Where would be the safest place for her to hide her banknotes?
Luo was extremely flustered.

The look in Zuo Wenkang's eyes as he gazed at his wife in the darkness was overflowing with adoration.

In the past, I only knew that my wife was good at slaughtering pigs.

I only found out today that she kills people more smoothly than she kills pigs.

He's not so easily fooled by some expert hired by his father-in-law.

Although his wife had washed up, he could still smell the blood on her.

In my previous life, I followed Prince Zhan for fifteen years.

He was no stranger to the battlefield; he had even personally killed enemy soldiers.

Without his wife's intervention, they probably wouldn't even have known their underwear had been stolen.

What I fear most is someone who is greedy for money and also harms people!
He sincerely clasped his hands together and thanked the gods in heaven again and again.

He's determined to cling to his wife's coattails in this lifetime!
An hour later.

Eight yamen runners arrived at the Lu County government office.

After ascertaining the details of the case, the head constable took the three bodies away.

What else can I do?
So many people's testimonies.

The cases all point to premeditated home invasions where victims were killed in self-defense.

They were already being very accommodating by not asking them to arrest the other fugitives.

Lu County was still under the jurisdiction of Daming Prefecture.

When the county magistrate learned that they had lost public funds, he lent them three hundred taels of silver.

This bill would naturally be sent back to the government office of Daming Prefecture.

Compared to the more than 800 taels they lost, this amount of public funds was barely enough to support them in completing the escort mission.

The officials wore long faces.

Some people even whispered superstitious beliefs among themselves:
"It's bad luck. I had a bad feeling about it yesterday morning. All of us brothers got covered in that shrew's molten gold juice!"

"Others burn incense and bathe before going on a long journey to pray for good luck, but we ran into bad luck first thing in the morning! See, it seems like we're all having a run of bad luck, aren't we?"

"What should we do? We still have three thousand miles to go! Should we offer incense at a temple we pass by? Or ask a high-ranking monk to bless it or something?"

"That's a good suggestion, but you'd better not make it."

(End of this chapter)