A Thief!

"Rongrong." Xiao Wu spoke blankly.

"I knew the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was rich, but... isn't this just too rich?"

"How much manpower and material resources must this have taken?"

"If they'd hired a plant Soul Master to accelerate some plants and build a single-story house, that would've been one thing, but this..."

She could not go on, because she truly did not know how to describe the shock she felt at that moment.

Even the fastest construction crew would need several days just to lay the foundation.

Yet Ning Rongrong's people had completed everything from nothing to something in just one day and two nights. They had even planted the flowerbeds in the courtyard.

"Alright, alright." Ning Rongrong linked arms with Xiao Wu and smilingly interrupted her.

"Let's hurry inside. It's already so late. If we don't eat and sleep soon, dawn will be here..."

After a long while.

The moon hung high overhead.

After dinner, Zhao Linchuan stood before the floor-to-ceiling window in his third-floor room, looking up at the moon in the sky.

"It'll be a full moon soon... I wonder if I'll be able to hook that 'big fish.'"

Just then, Ning Rongrong quietly twisted open the door and slipped inside.

She first locked the door behind her, then turned on the Soul Tool lamp. Its gentle light instantly filled the room, dulling the silvery glow of the moonlight somewhat.

With her back against the door, her hands tucked behind her, Ning Rongrong wore a sly, enticing smile as she asked in a sweet, delicate voice:

"Big brother, did you miss me?"

Zhao Linchuan turned around, blinked, and said helplessly, "Rongrong, if you keep doing this, Xiao Wu will find out."

"How could she?"

As she spoke, Ning Rongrong lifted her right leg high above her head. Her toes stretched straight, her lines smooth and graceful, like a white crane spreading its form beneath the moonlight.

Her skirt slid down, exposing her entire fair, slender leg, which gleamed faintly beneath the soft light of the Soul Tool lamp.

"Xiao Wu is busy arranging her little room right now. How could she have time to bother with me?"

She raised two fingers of her left hand and pulled open the eyelid of her "right eye," then said pitifully:

"Big brother, my Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect has recently used special connections to evade taxes and save quite a bit of money. Would you like to inspect it?"

"Heh, you little brat. Who taught you this stuff?"

"I didn't get a close look just now, but you seem even prettier than before."

"Then... what about 'her'?"

As she spoke, she tapped her "eyeball."

"You little brat, what kind of question is that...?"

A very, very long while later.

Ning Rongrong had just finished checking the "account book" with Zhao Linchuan and was preparing to sneak off, wash up, and return to rest.

Suddenly, faint footsteps sounded.

Ning Rongrong blinked twice, and the two of them turned their gazes toward the hall below the stairs.

Moonlight streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, dyeing the hall's floor a sheet of silver-white.

Ning Rongrong pressed herself close to Zhao Linchuan's ear, her lips against the edge of his ear, and whispered:

"Big brother, there's a thief. Now this is fun."

Zhao Linchuan transmitted his voice to her irritably, his voice ringing in her mind. "Someone's already stealing right at your doorstep, and you think it's fun?"

"Hehe." Ning Rongrong answered cheerfully, "The area around Shrek must be filled with people from our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. There's no way a thief from outside could get in."

"You haven't met my father. On the surface, he looks kind and amiable, but behind the scenes, he's more cautious than anyone."

"There's no way he'd feel at ease without seven or eight hidden sentries around the place where his daughter lives."

Zhao Linchuan raised a brow and transmitted his voice. "You mean this is an inside thief?"

"That's right."

Ning Rongrong whispered to Zhao Linchuan about how they had encountered Tang San at the village entrance today.

"Big brother, that man's intentions were far too obvious. Just like when you wanted to eat my 'thick bread,' he definitely isn't a good person."

The corner of Zhao Linchuan's mouth twitched. He ignored the deeper meaning in Ning Rongrong's words and continued transmitting his voice.

"Rongrong, do you want to mess with him a little?"

"How?"

"Do this. Go back quietly first. I'll transmit my voice to you later. Once you hear it, hurry over and shout, 'There's a thief!' Leave the rest to me."

"Alright..."

Ning Rongrong answered softly, then began to leave on tiptoe.

After Ning Rongrong left, Zhao Linchuan hid sideways behind a load-bearing pillar and quietly waited for Tang San to enter.

Moonlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows, leaving the hall half-lit and half-shadowed.

The shadow cast by that load-bearing pillar was just enough to conceal him. From the entrance, there would only be a patch of spotless empty ground.

Time passed, second by second.

One minute, two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes...

Zhao Linchuan could not help grumbling inwardly.

Can you even do this, kid?

With skills like this, how did you manage to steal the Mysterious Heaven Skill?

It had to be said, whether the burglar-proof lock on the door was too "advanced" or little thief Tang San was simply terrible at picking locks, Zhao Linchuan was nearly asleep by the time Tang San still failed to open it.

The lock had been clicking away for over ten minutes, yet it would not open, like a stupid bird that could not peck through its shell no matter what it did.

In the end, the boy gave up.

He moved to the floor-to-ceiling windows on either side, took a dagger from his Soul Tool, then carefully cut through the glass bit by bit and climbed inside.

Damn it, you finally got in.

Zhao Linchuan transmitted his voice to Ning Rongrong, who was hiding in the passageway. "Rongrong, it's time."

The instant Ning Rongrong received the message, she perked up. She first yawned, not too loudly or softly, just enough for it to echo through the hall with a languid trace of sleepiness.

Then, wearing slippers, she padded out of the passageway with soft slaps, as though she had gotten up to use the bathroom.

But that one yawn nearly scared Tang San to death.

His foot, which was stepping onto the staircase, abruptly froze. His entire body stiffened in midair, one foot planted on the higher step and the other hanging above the lower one.

His posture was so ridiculous that he looked like the joker cards in a deck.

Cold sweat emerged on his forehead and ran down his cheeks.

He crouched down and curled into a ball, hiding in the shadows of the stairs, barely daring to breathe.

A moment later, Ning Rongrong seemed not to have noticed him.

The sound of flushing came from the bathroom, followed by running water as someone washed their hands, then the soft slap-slap of slippers against the floor.

Just as Tang San thought it had merely been a false alarm and was about to breathe a sigh of relief—

"What are you doing?"

Ning Rongrong suddenly appeared in the middle of the hall.

Moonlight fell upon her. She wore a pale aqua nightdress, her long hair draped over her shoulders. One hand rested on her waist while the other pointed toward the stairs, a teasing smile curling at her lips.

"Ah—! Damn it!"

Tang San cried out, instantly springing up from the ground.

At that moment, his heart nearly leaped out of his throat. Blood rushed to his head, his mind went blank, and instinctively, he tried to flee outside.

"Help! There's a thief!"