Qiao Hanlin’s eyes were bleary with drink as he looked at Zuo Liang beside him and clapped him heavily on the arm twice: “You’re the best, Brother Zuo. Look at those little brats — not one of them cares about me anymore.”

Zuo Liang glanced at the hand on his arm, then lowered his eyelids, concealing a boundless killing intent.

“Second Brother.”

Just as Zuo Liang was about to support Qiao Hanlin and leave — intending to use the opportunity to get another look at the protective amulet — a clear, crisp voice rang out.

“Second Brother, you’ve gotten yourself into this state again. Are you tired of living?” Qiao Yiran and a young attendant came hurrying over, and Qiao Hanlin’s ear was immediately seized and yanked upward.

“Father is home today, and you still dare to go out drinking. Just wait until you get back — he’ll break your legs like kindling.”

“Ow, ow, ow — Sister, lighter, please.” Qiao Hanlin’s ear was being twisted, and the pain made him grimace and bare his teeth, yet he didn’t dare make a fuss. Compared to his father, he feared his little sister even more.

“So you do feel pain. I thought you’d drunk yourself senseless.” Qiao Yiran yanked him to face her. “Let’s go.”

The weight left Zuo Liang’s hands, and all that remained of Qiao Hanlin was his retreating back.

“You’ll get what’s coming to you when we’re home.”

“Drinking and drinking — you’ll drink yourself to death at a banquet table one of these days.”

Amid Qiao Yiran’s scolding, accompanied by Qiao Hanlin’s pleas for mercy, the sounds gradually faded into the distance. Only then did Zuo Liang slowly clench his fist.

But very quickly, he let out a cold laugh.

Even without confirming it, he had already made out the pattern on that protective amulet. He could be certain: the Qiao family was the same Qiao family from all those years ago, and the last treasure map he was searching for was in the Qiao household.

With this realization, Zuo Liang strode swiftly down the stairs and headed straight for the Shi Mansion.

Although it was the middle of the night, the streets were still lively because of the night market, and with people preparing New Year goods and food, many households would be busy until the early hours of the morning.

Zuo Liang ran the whole way to Shi Guang’s residence. Shi Guang had not yet retired for the night and was having a late-night snack attended to by Qiu Cao.

“Second Young Master.” Seeing Zuo Liang arrive in such haste, Shi Guang knew he had urgent business, so he waved his hand to dismiss Qiu Cao.

“What has happened?” Shi Guang picked up his handkerchief and wiped his mouth.

Zuo Liang said: “That last family — I’ve found them.”

“Really?” Shi Guang’s eyes lit up. “Right here in Shun Cheng?”

“Back then, I overheard the conversation between those three families. They said Shun Cheng was the most peaceful, and so they decided to come here to seek refuge. Over the past few years, my search has always been centered on Shun Cheng and its surrounding areas.” Zuo Liang’s eyes flickered with excitement. “We already have two maps in hand — only one more is needed to find the wealth from back then.”

Shi Guang listened and was greatly excited: “I don’t have much real power in my hands right now. Liu Qing Nian’s faction has all thrown their lot in with Shi Ting. If I want to develop and grow my own forces, this sum of money is of paramount importance — it could be said to be the life-or-death source of our future grand ambitions.”

“Second Young Master, rest assured. The amount of this sum will absolutely exceed your imagination. Once we obtain it, the great enterprise can be accomplished.”

While searching for the map, Zuo Liang also sent someone to the Zhiqing County — now known as Jiuyang Village — to look for clues.

He had a man disguise himself as a Taoist priest, using the pretext that there was an ancient tomb on the mountain to mobilize the local villagers to dig on the hillside. In reality, it was merely a ruse — he wanted to find the location where the treasure had been buried all those years ago.

Back then, his father had been hired by the Chen family to draw maps for them. Out of curiosity, he had followed along.

Fearing that his father and the others would discover him, he had hidden inside a concealed compartment beneath the carriage.

He had slept inside the compartment and didn’t know how long he dozed, but eventually the carriage stopped. He saw a group of people moving goods without pause.

Afterward, the carriage turned and went back — it made several such round trips — and he grew dizzy and disoriented, with no idea where he was.

Later, when he awoke again, he heard a chorus of agonized screaming.

There were people outside holding torches, and through the cracks of the carriage he could see many people lying on the ground, writhing and struggling in tremendous pain.

He saw his father standing before those several people. His father still had a carving pen in his hand.

They made his father drink something, and then his father collapsed to the ground. After falling, his father grabbed at one man’s trouser leg, bitterly begging and pleading, but that man simply kicked him away.

He wanted to burst out, but the lid of the hidden compartment was weighed down by something and could not be opened no matter what.

The mountain wind howled. Not far away, lightning crackled and thunder boomed, and a heavy downpour was imminent. Amid all that clamor, his cries went unheard.

He watched helplessly as these people were flung into a large pit, which was then covered with earth. He cried until his throat went hoarse, but he could not get out. There was no way for him to save his father.

Thinking back on it now, if something had not been weighing down the hidden compartment, a small child like him truly would have rushed outside heedless of everything — and charging out would have been a path straight to death, leaving him with no chance to ever avenge his father.

When he had cried himself to exhaustion, he heard those people talking. He learned that his father had carved a map onto the backs of the eldest sons of those three families, and that only by combining all three maps together could one find the location of the buried treasure.

He was still very young at the time, the night was dark, and he had been sleeping the whole way — it would have been impossible for him to remember the location.

He did not know how much time passed, but when he made his way back to the county town again, it was already broad daylight. The carriage he had been hiding in had been abandoned in a grove of trees.

Just when he was so hungry his front and back felt fused together, a group of people preparing to flee found the several carriages and decided to use them to leave the county. He was pulled out of the hidden compartment and rescued by these people.

He ran back to find his mother and younger brother, but they were already gone. With no other choice, he returned to that fleeing crowd.

He followed the refugees southward. Along the way, to sustain himself, he took on many dirty and exhausting jobs. Once he fell ill — so severely that he curled up in a dark corner waiting for death — yet the next morning he saw the rising sun once more.

He kept his will to survive burning while never stopping his search for his mother and younger brother.

He wandered and drifted, never settling, until he finally arrived in Shun Cheng.

He recalled what he had overheard back then: those three families had likely also come here by now. And so, he set his mind on revenge — on obtaining that fortune.

But given that he was nothing more than a laborer, it was impossible for him to locate those three families. Without a powerful backer, he had no means to avenge himself.

It was at this time that he met Shi Guang.

During the years of his wandering, he had encountered a martial arts master of exceptional skill and had followed him diligently in training. After the master’s death, he had never abandoned his practice, and his considerable fighting ability quickly attracted Shi Guang’s attention. He was recruited into Shi Guang’s service.

Zuo Liang spent two years at Shi Guang’s side, gradually earning his trust and becoming one of his most trusted confidants.

When Zuo Liang judged the timing to be right, he told Shi Guang the secret of the buried treasure in Zhiqing County. Faced with such immense wealth, no one could remain unmoved — least of all the ambitious Shi Guang.

Shi Guang provided Zuo Liang with financial resources and manpower, directing people to search for the whereabouts of those three families and to retrieve the maps.

Zuo Liang had found the Chen and Xu families one after another. While obtaining the maps, he had also ruthlessly slaughtered both families, leaving not a single soul alive.

But with only two maps, the true location of the buried treasure could not be found. So Zuo Liang had to locate the Qiao family.

He had received word and begun keeping his eye on the household of Old Master Qiao. More recently, he had deliberately sought out Second Young Master Qiao to make contact and probe for information. To his surprise — having worn out his iron shoes searching everywhere — it was at today’s drinking table that he had found the compelling evidence proving that this Qiao family was indeed the same Qiao family from all those years ago.

“The Qiao family is not like the Chen and Xu families,” Shi Guang said. “The Qiao family has a large and prosperous business and holds a certain name and footing in Shun Cheng. We’ll need to plan carefully to get the map.”

“The Second Young Master is absolutely right,” Zuo Liang said. “The Qiao family’s compound is several times larger than those of the Chen and Xu families, and they have many mouths in the household. We cannot do it the way we did before, walking in as if there were no one there.”

Shi Guang clapped Zuo Liang on the shoulder: “My great enterprise rests on you.”

Once he obtained this money, combined with the forces he had already accumulated, he believed he would rapidly develop and grow in power. By then, even if Shi Ting joined forces with Liu Qing Nian and others, they would be nothing to fear.

“Second Young Master, rest assured. Over the next two days I’ll spend more time with Second Young Master Qiao. He is a man of wine and pleasure — I can certainly worm useful information out of him.”

Qiao Hanlin was dragged back to the Qiao Mansion by Qiao Yiran and was still muttering his complaints. “Sister, you could at least give your big brother a little face. You grabbed my ear in front of so many people — how am I supposed to show my face among my friends from now on?”

“Friends?” Qiao Yiran slapped the table. “You call those drinking buddies your friends? They’ll only address you as brother at the drinking table. The moment you step away from it — when you’re truly in trouble — they’ll be the first to disappear.”

Qiao Hanlin fell silent.

“Second Brother, for your own good, you’d better stay home quietly before the New Year and not go out. Otherwise, one of these days you’ll end up dead in the street with no one to collect your body.”

“Hey, what kind of way is that for a person to curse their own brother to death?”

Qiao Yiran rolled her eyes. “This is my sincere advice to you, and it’s also what Father asked me to pass along. Father says everyone is to stay home over the New Year — no going out — and if he finds out anyone has, he’ll break their legs.”

Qiao Hanlin curled his lip dismissively. Old Master Qiao said things like this all the time; he had grown so accustomed to it that he never really took it to heart.

As for Qiao Yiran’s warning, it went in one ear and out the other — he paid it no mind whatsoever.

Qiao Hanlin behaved himself at home for two days before his backside grew restless.

“Where is the First Miss?” Qiao Hanlin asked the maid beside him.

“The First Miss is in the Master’s study, copying scriptures for the ancestral rites, she said.”

That was the sort of task Old Master Qiao never asked him to undertake — not only was his heart not devout, but he reeked of wine and pleasure. If he were the one to copy the scriptures, even their ancestors would probably find it so offensive they’d leap out of their graves in disgust.

Qiao Hanlin’s eyes darted around, and he said quietly: “Stand guard at the door for me. If the First Miss comes, tell her I’m sick — a cold, one that could be catching — and ask her to go back quickly.”

The maid said nervously: “Is — is that going to work, Second Young Master?”

There wasn’t a single servant in the Qiao household who wasn’t afraid of the First Miss.

“What’s wrong with it? Is she going to eat you?” Qiao Hanlin winked at the maid. “Alright, I’m going out.”

“Second Young Master, please come back early!”

“I know, I know.” Qiao Hanlin’s voice faded away, just like his figure.

—