Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After a few hours, the sky had completely darkened.
Without warning, dark clouds began to form in the sky, rolling in as if it were threatening heavy rain.
At that moment, inside Feng Ping’s Qing Dynasty Palace, there were crowds of people everywhere near Wen Yuan Pavilion!
Under the illumination of huge searchlights, everyone could see both inside and outside of the little house where the secret passageway to the treasure had been found. White isolation tents had been set up and everyone who entered the area was wearing heavy biochemical uniforms.
The only thing that could be seen held in these workers’ hands were opening or cutting devices. Some were holding sterilizers. Everyone looked extremely nervous and tense.
Zhao Yu, Miao Ying, Cui Lizhu, Xiao Hang, and Li Jing, who had purposely rushed over, were all sitting in the command car and monitoring the situation underground on the big screen.
“Soon. Soon it will be open, right…?” Cui Lizhu asked as she watched the staff working in the pit drill through the iron door. “This will destroy all the locks’ cores! I’ve said this so many times but if I were the one going down, I’d make sure that the door would be returned to its original state…”
“Idiot,” Zhao Yu said, almost spitting as he messed up Cui Lizhu’s hair. “Even the forensics department doesn’t know what’s past the door, how can I let you go?”
“According to our remote sensors …” Li Jing said, holding a tablet computer. “The space below is less than 50 square meters, and the metal content is extremely high. I didn’t expect that this small house would have gone unnoticed despite being renovated several times!”
“I think the point is that no one could have thought of it!” Xiao Hang said, shaking his head. “We’ve been so tunnel-visioned by this legendary treasure and thinking that it must be hidden in a massive place. Maybe somewhere the size of a football field! But who would have thought that it was just this little… and, it was hidden in such an unexpected place…?”
“Zhao Yu…” Li Jing began solemnly, closing the tablet computer. “There are no outsiders here. Can you please tell us where this group of criminals came from?”
“Uhm… Leader Li, I have already told you just now, so …” Xiao Hang said upon hearing this, hurriedly reminding her.
“I know, but…” Li Jing said, sighing softly and looking at Zhao Yu with confusion. “Since you refuse to say it, it must not be Seraph! If it is some other organization, then at the very least we need to be prepared!”
“Hehe!” Zhao Yu smirked, spreading his arms. “Rest assured, the real situation is a lot more complicated than you think!”
“Alright, I get it! It seems like… it really seems like…” Li Jing said, “The thugs knew the location of the secret fortress of Yi Shan, the secret passages in the Qing Palace, they had a kaleidoscope in their hands, and they even knew the secrets of the Russian nesting doll! Needless to say, they must have been sent by Japan!”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought too!” Xiao Hang said, shrugging. “If it were anyone else, they probably wouldn’t resort to blowing up the treasures, right?”
“No matter the case, good job Zhao Yu!” Li Jing said, praising him. “This is a matter of international importance so it must be handled with care!”
“Aha, so that’s what this is!” Cui Lizhu said, patting Zhao Yu on the shoulder and praising him. “Wow boss! You really have courage and foresight. You have the potential to be a general!”
“Not just a general, I can be a chef!” Zhao Yu said, grinning. “After this, we should all take a trip to the market! Let me tell you something, if this matter was really so simple, I wouldn’t be keeping quiet about it!” [1]
“What? Do you mean…?” the others asked in surprise.
“Are you curious?” Zhao Yu asked, smiling. “Well, alright then. Let me tell you a couple of things.
“The masked man told me if that they could successfully retrieve the treasure and give it to the person behind the scenes, each of them would get, at the very least, around 200 million euros!!
“If they failed to obtain it but blew it up, then each of them would get 50 million euros!” Zhao Yu said, snapping his fingers. “In addition, there was also a consolation reward, which all the participants got. That was, if any of them were killed, their families would still get the money!”
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“Wow, that’s surprisingly humane…” Cui Lizhu said in surprise. “We don’t have contracts like that within our thief circle! If we die, that’s it!”
“But there is a clause!” Zhao Yu said. “They first had to find the treasure they were talking about…”
“Ah, so that explains the treasure part… but what about the fortress?” Li Jing asked, frowning. “Blowing up the fortress was part of their plan, right?”
Zhao Yu nodded, admitting it was true. “Yes, I asked him about that. He said that it was something like an extra reward, a bonus tier if you will. The reward started at ten million euros!”
“Ah, I see!” Li Jing said, nodding. “You repeatedly mention the euro. It seems like this plot to find the treasure is really more complicated than it seems! No wonder, uhm…”
Before Li Jing could finish her sentence, something new appeared on the monitor. The staff had opened the rusty door!
When everyone saw this, the room fell silent and everyone stared at the screen intently. Nobody even blinked.
As the lights came on, a narrow and cluttered space appeared on the surface of the iron gate.
The floor was paved with cement and there were shelves stacked on either side. The shelves were filled with various bottles and jars, and various books.
Walking further in, many large boxes lay strewn on the ground. Most of the boxes were old-fashioned crates. The staff opened the crates and found piles and piles of documents.
Further up, the small house seemed slightly more spacious. On the screen, there were many things that looked like storage shelves. Or perhaps they were small refrigerators? After opening them, were small colorful culturing bottles that contained unknown liquids could be seen.
The house was small and soon they came to the end. On the last storage rack, they spotted some strange guns. The guns looked like water guns and had huge plastic barrels attached.
In the deepest corner of the house, there were also some scattered artillery shells.
“What is all of this…?” Cui Lizhu finally said to break the silence, unable to hold in her curiosity after watching through the whole thing. “Who wants to spend billions of euros on this garbage? Fortunately, the thugs didn’t go in. If they had seen how torn and tattered everything was, they would probably vomit blood from frustration!”
“No!” Zhao Yu said seriously, patting Cui Lizhu’s shoulders. “You are wrong, these things are treasures!”
Hearing what Zhao Yu said, everyone turned their attention to him.
“Fate makes fools of people. In fact, from the distant traitor Liu Dianchen, the world has been misunderstood, and the misunderstanding carried on for eighty years! They even let Secret Services set up a department…”
“This…” Everyone frowned, not understanding what Zhao Yu meant.
“Actually, Liu Dianchen overheard everything correctly!” Zhao Yu said again. “When the Japanese war was about to end, the Japanese army did indeed hide a bunch of important things. However, that stuff was neither gold, nor was it treasure. It was what you see in front of you!”
“What?!” Cui Lizhu seemed to realize. “These are the treasures?!”
“Close!” Zhao Yu nodded. “At that time, Liu Dianchen hadn’t heard the last word. The word plan followed the word treasure!”
“Treasure plan?!” everyone repeated.
“Yep!” Zhao Yu said. “The treasure plan was just the codename of the emergency operation at that time. In fact, it was not really a treasure…”
[1]: The general/chef comment is a play on similar-sounding words in Chinese