What a Skillful Move!

"Ah!"

Niu Shiyang's nose caved in, his teeth shattered, and the tremendous impact to his head made him let out a miserable scream before he blacked out on the spot.

If he had merely been tripped—even if he had landed face-first—he should not have fallen so disastrously.

But after Qin Yao's covert little maneuvers, Niu Shiyang hit the ground and went straight to sleep.

All one could say was that young people really did sleep well!

"Ow, ow... It hurts like hell!"

Qin Yao started putting on an act again.

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Skill "Acting" Proficiency +3, Current Proficiency: 501/500

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Ding! Skill "Acting" has advanced to the Minor Accomplishment Realm (1/2000)

At once, Qin Yao felt as though his acting had undergone a transformation!

Back when he put on an act, if someone stared at him carefully for long enough, they would most likely find it a little fake.

Fortunately, back in the mines, those around him were either fellow wretched mine slaves or lofty overseers.

The mine slaves could barely keep up with their own work. Where would they find the leisure to pay attention to others?

Aside from patrolling, the overseers spent every spare moment playing cards and boasting. They were not idle enough to stare at any one mine slave for long.

That was why Qin Yao had acted his way to this day without ever being exposed.

But now that his Acting skill had charged into the "Minor Accomplishment" realm, even when performing the same act, he unconsciously shed some of that deliberate affectation and gained a natural ease that came at his fingertips.

His acting left no trace, natural and fitting.

In most situations, it could even pass falsehood off as truth!

Take squad leader Yang Yongchao, for instance—ever since the mine slave group had dispersed, he had been watching Qin Yao's every move. Yet he genuinely failed to notice that the youth's "pain" contained any act at all.

This kid first got tangled up with Steward Wang's lackey; then, against all expectations, he knocked the man unconscious and resolved the immediate crisis.

I really don't know whether to call him lucky or unlucky!

With that thought, he walked over to Qin Yao and Niu Shiyang.

He first pointed at Qin Yao and asked, "You. Can you still move?"

"Hiss... I can, sir. It's just that my back hurts terribly from the fall..."

Qin Yao said, drawing in a breath through a face full of "pain."

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Ding! Skill "Acting" Proficiency +2

"Doesn't look like you've broken any bones. Go home and sleep it off. Move along, move along!"

Yang Yongchao waved him off with a perfunctory expression.

"B-but that thief robbed and beat my grandfather, and then rammed into me. I..."

Qin Yao revealed a look of grievance and unwillingness.

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Ding! Skill "Acting" Proficiency +1

"Enough, enough!"

Yang Yongchao frowned, his tone rather impatient. "You're already a criminal bearing guilt. Do you really expect that if this gets taken to the yamen, some 'upright magistrate' will uphold justice for you?

"If Li Gang hadn't said you were a capable worker and asked me to keep an eye on you so you wouldn't get harmed by someone on the road... I couldn't be bothered with this rotten mess!

"Get going. Do you understand?"

"This... sigh, all right."

Qin Yao let out a helpless sigh.

In truth, when Li Gang had approached Squad Leader Yang and quietly asked him to look after Qin Yao, Qin Yao had already heard every word with his extraordinary hearing.

That was also the source of his confidence that even if he "accidentally" injured Niu Shiyang badly in the fall, neither he nor his family would be held accountable.

At that moment, Qin Yao and Old Master Qin supported each other as they limped toward their home.

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Ding! Skill "Acting" Proficiency +1

Yang Yongchao turned around and pointed at the unconscious Niu Shiyang on the ground. "Who knows where this guy lives? Go call his family to come carry him back!"

"I do."

A scrawny young man immediately sprang out from among the neighbors and said as though claiming credit, "Niu Shiyang's home is at the intersection ahead. Turn left, and it's the seventh house on the right.

"But he lives there alone. His younger sister, the one who became Lord Wang's concubine, moved into the big manor in the east of the village half a month ago."

"Then what are you standing around for? Find some people and carry him back together!"

"Oh, yes, yes, yes..."

No one noticed that when the scrawny young man revealed where Niu Shiyang lived, Qin Yao's ear twitched slightly.

The neighbors could not help whispering among themselves—"Niu Shiyang is far too stupid!"

"He charged over to ram into someone himself, but lost his footing and ended up smashing his own face instead."

"Yeah, yeah, I saw his two front teeth fly way out—hehe..."

"Thanks to that Brother Yao, that fall wrecked Niu Shiyang so badly he probably won't be able to leave the house for days."

"Right, right, the neighbors can finally have some peace and quiet for a couple of days!"

"If you ask me, this is retribution for how overbearing and tyrannical he usually is."

"Indeed—what a satisfying sight, what a satisfying sight! Hahaha..."

At that moment, Yang Yongchao raised a large hand and shouted, "Go on, get out of here! Everyone disperse!"

A short while later.

Inside the shabby little house Old Master Qin had rented.

"Grandpa, Brother, are you all right?"

His younger sister Qin Lan fought back the tears in her eyes as she asked anxiously.

Originally, the little girl had been washing clothes inside.

Then she suddenly heard her grandfather's and brother's voices rise from the street, giving her quite a fright.

But the little girl understood that if she went out at a time like this, she would only make things worse.

So she only dared to go into the yard, crack the door open a sliver, and peer outside.

But the gap was too narrow, and her view was extremely limited.

Qin Lan did not dare call out again.

Just as she was scratching at her ears and cheeks in utter anxiety, she saw her brother and grandfather supporting each other as they walked over.

Only then did the little girl relax somewhat...

"I'm fine."

Qin Yao affectionately pinched Lan'er's still slightly baby-fat cheeks. "Your brother here is built tough!

"It's Grandpa who suffered..."

"I'm doing all right too."

Old Master Qin moved his shoulders a couple of times and said, "This old man was at least a trained fighter in his youth. Taking a few punches and kicks from that hollow-fat fellow is no great matter.

"Originally, I had planned to squat down, hunch myself over, and secretly pour those things that cannot see the light of day out of the money pouch.

"Then I would hand the pouch over to that bastard and treat it as spending money to ward off disaster!

"But before I got the chance, you charged over.

"Good child, you were still too impulsive. Given our current circumstances, we should endure what we can..."

But Qin Yao shook his head. "Grandpa, I understand all that, but that bastard laid hands on you. I can't endure that!

"And don't worry, Grandpa. I have a way to deal with it.

"Didn't that bastard take a nasty fall afterward?"

"Oh?"

Old Master Qin's aged eyes immediately lit up. "You mean... that wasn't a coincidence?"

"Mhm."

Qin Yao nodded with a serious expression, then told him everything—how he had taken advantage of the chaos to trip Niu Shiyang, then pressed the man's head into the ground.

"Good, good, good! I never expected my good grandson to have such skill!"

Qin Dashan stroked his beard, his heart brimming with delight.

Then, as though he had suddenly remembered something, he said, "Right. When I saw you tip the money pouch upside down, only the coins came out. Where did the other things go?"

"This? Hehe, it's all technique!"

Qin Yao proudly lifted his chin, then demonstrated it again in front of his grandfather.

The beginner-level Lockpicking skill gave him an exquisitely fine degree of control over his palms and fingers.

Not only could he feel through the pouch and identify which objects were coins.

Through the clever use of his five fingers, he could shake the coins out while keeping all the other little tools lodged in the pouch exactly as they were...

After seeing it, Old Master Qin was utterly amazed. "What skill—truly, what skill!"

For a time, he became completely convinced of what Qin Yao had said that morning: that he had dreamed of a method for training finger dexterity, and that if practiced well, it held a tiny chance of reopening the ruined martial veins.