Liu Baoju asked, "What's suspicious about it?"
Guo Shouguang said, "We were all robbed on the same night, and almost none of us were home when it happened."
Liu Baoju and Xu Qinglian exchanged a glance. Xu Qinglian asked, "Are you saying someone planned this in advance?"
Guo Shouguang said, "I don't know, sir. I just find it very strange. Most of us went to the Wild Goose Tower tonight for the Charity Auction, yet our homes were all robbed at the same time. Could there be a connection?"
Liu Baoju narrowed his eyes, a sliver of cold light flashing through the thin gaps. Through gritted teeth, he said, "Could this have been a ploy to lure the tiger away from its mountain?"
Xu Qinglian asked, "Where is Hu Xiaotian now?"
Guo Shouguang said, "He accompanied His Highness the Prince of Zhou to the Wan Family's residence."
Xu Qinglian paced back and forth a few steps.
Liu Baoju said, "I'll take some men to search his house right away!"
Xu Qinglian stopped and shook his head. "No!" Before tonight, he might have agreed to Liu Baoju's idea without hesitation. But at the Wild Goose Tower, he had seen firsthand how extensive Hu Xiaotian's connections were. Sending men to openly search his home would very likely anger him.
Guo Shouguang also thought it inappropriate. He said quietly, "I wonder whether his home was robbed too."
Hu Xiaotian had become the prime suspect among his colleagues, and they certainly weren't wronging him. After all, he had planned the entire affair from start to finish. Murong Feiyan had been responsible for stealing Xu Qinglian's belongings, while Xiao Tianmu had taken on all the thefts targeting the other officials, great and small. In truth, these officials' homes had practically no defenses to speak of.