The eastern city had always been the most prosperous part of the capital. Banks, silk shops, and other businesses stood packed together like rows of fish scales, and behind every vermilion-lacquered gate lay astonishing wealth.
Chen Ye's target today was the Everlasting Prosperity Bank.
The Everlasting Prosperity Bank belonged to the Zhang Family, that of the Minister of Revenue. Like the Lin Family, Minister Zhang was a member of the nobility who had made his fortune by sucking the flesh and blood from the people. Greedy and base by nature, he employed ruthless methods, and the people of the capital privately called him "Zhang the Flayer."
After what had happened the previous night, security at the Everlasting Prosperity Bank had clearly been tightened considerably. Not only were household guards stationed at the entrance, but archers also patrolled back and forth across the rooftops.
Unfortunately for them, these precautions might stop an ordinary flying thief, but they could not stop Chen Ye.
Relying on the Nightwalker's powerful class talent, Chen Ye swaggered past the patrolling household guards as though no one were there and went straight to the bank's rear courtyard.
The vault door was exceptionally sturdy, and three unusual locks from the Western Regions hung on it. An ordinary flying thief could only gaze at the door and sigh.
But Chen Ye had never intended to pick the locks.
He went around behind the vault and stood against the wall, tapping the cold surface lightly with his fingers. With his ear pressed to it, he listened carefully to discern its internal structure.
A moment later, he finally found a weak point. He slipped his short blade into the gap between the bricks and pried one loose with a little force.
The rest was simple. Chen Ye repeated the process and soon made a hole large enough for a person to pass through.
Once inside the vault, he saw chest after chest of copper coins gleaming enticingly.
Gold and silver were scarce and extremely expensive in the Great Zhao dynasty, so they were rarely seen on the market. Even a large bank like this kept little of either on hand.
Even so, the copper coins stored here were no small sum. Most had denominations of ten or a hundred, and there were even some large coins worth a thousand.
Faced with enough wealth to drive a person mad, Chen Ye remained entirely unmoved.
He carried the chests of copper coins out of the vault one by one and quietly transported them to a secluded spot in the city that he had chosen beforehand.
The entire process flowed as smoothly as clouds and water, and he actually managed it without alerting anyone.
Thud.
Inside a dilapidated courtyard, a woman feeding her child rice gruel so thin she could see her reflection in it jumped at the sudden sound.
She looked warily into the courtyard and saw a palm-sized cloth bundle lying quietly on the ground.
She hesitated for a long while, but curiosity eventually got the better of her. She walked over carefully and picked it up.
The bundle felt heavy in her hands.
When she opened it, the woman instantly clapped a hand over her mouth.
Inside were dozens of large copper coins worth ten or a hundred each, enough to feed her and her child their fill for several months.
She immediately rushed out of the courtyard, hoping to find the benefactor who had given her the money.
But on the empty street outside, there was nothing but the cold moonlight.
The woman fell to her knees with a thump and kowtowed repeatedly toward the empty air, murmuring, "Thank you, Bodhisattva. Thank you, living immortal..."
Similar scenes were playing out again and again all across the city.
Many poor people struggling on the brink of life and death received this money that had fallen from the heavens.
One person reacted quickly and rushed out of his home just in time to see a black figure standing motionless on a distant rooftop.
Dressed entirely in black with a black cloth covering his face, the man stood straight as a sword. A bright full moon hung behind him, its cold light outlining his proud, aloof figure, making him look like a deity descending into the mortal world.
The sight was seared deep into the witness's heart, leaving him profoundly shaken.
He wanted to chase after the man and thank him, but in the blink of an eye, the figure on the rooftop vanished into thin air, as though he had never appeared at all, leaving only a stretch of cold moonlight.
The next day, the sky grew bright.
Yawning, the clerks at the Everlasting Prosperity Bank opened the doors and prepared to begin the day's business. But when they went to inspect the vault as usual, they were all dumbfounded.
The vault had been looted clean, and more than a dozen chests of copper coins had vanished as though they had sprouted wings.
When the news spread, the entire capital erupted in an uproar.
Almost at the same time, word spread that hundreds of poor households in the city had received money.
What drove the powerful families mad was that the money had already been distributed among hundreds, even thousands of households, in varying amounts. There was simply no way to begin tracking it down.
The common people who had benefited kept their mouths shut tighter than anyone, so recovering the money would be no different from fishing for a needle in the sea.
This was no longer a matter concerning one or two families. It was a challenge to their entire class!
The Lin Family.
Smash!
Lin Hong hurled the teacup in his hand to the floor, his face livid.
Sitting across from him was a middle-aged man in fine robes whose expression was just as ugly. He was the owner of the Everlasting Prosperity Bank, Minister Zhang himself, Zhang the Flayer.
"This is intolerable! Absolutely intolerable!" Minister Zhang trembled all over with rage.
"Yesterday it was your Lin Family, and today it's my Zhang Family! Is this man planning to rob every one of our great families in turn? And he even handed all the money out to those mudlegs. He's committing a monstrous sin!"
Lin Hong's expression was even uglier than his. "We must investigate this matter thoroughly, or we won't be able to satisfy everyone."
"Exactly. I'll go contact the others right now. We must drag this brat out and bring him to justice!" Minister Zhang immediately agreed.
Before long, every prominent and powerful family in the capital had joined forces, mobilizing all their resources and vowing to drag out this outrageously audacious flying thief.
Meanwhile, Cheng Ming and Cheng Zhiwei had once again come to the scene of the crime at the Everlasting Prosperity Bank.
After examining the scene, grandfather and granddaughter fell into a long silence.
"In a single night, he distributed money worth tens of thousands of taels to hundreds of households, all while avoiding notice." Cheng Ming stroked his goatee, his brows tightly furrowed.
"By rights, one person could never have done it, yet there really are only traces of one person at the scene. What on earth is going on?"
In Cheng Ming's experience, flying thieves and master bandits of the jianghu, especially those who moved from place to place to commit their crimes, rarely worked alone.
After all, in an unfamiliar place, it was easy to come to grief without local accomplices to provide guidance and support.
So, upon learning that the bank had been robbed and the money distributed overnight, he had thought they would surely find more clues this time. Perhaps they could even follow the vine to find the melon and drag out the flying thief.
Yet when he arrived at the scene, the situation was nothing like that. Every clue showed that their target was still acting alone.
But was that really possible?
Just then, Cheng Zhiwei suddenly raised her head and voiced a deduction as startling as a stone shattering the heavens. "Grandfather, could it be... we've been looking in the wrong direction?"
"Hmm?"
"We've been assuming this person is a flying thief from outside the city, and that's why he would need accomplices to guide him. But what if he isn't an outsider at all?" Cheng Zhiwei spoke quietly, but her words made Cheng Ming shudder.
"If he's from the capital, and knows its streets and alleys, where the wealthy households are, and where the slums are like the back of his hand, then he wouldn't need accomplices at all."
"So he could very well be... a local master bandit!"
His granddaughter's words exploded in Cheng Ming's mind like a thunderclap!
Understanding dawned on him, and many things he had been unable to figure out suddenly became clear.
But immediately afterward, a deeper doubt welled up in his heart.
"Is... is that possible?" Cheng Ming murmured to himself.
The capital lay at the Son of Heaven's feet, and for that very reason, the authorities kept an exceptionally tight rein on the forces of the jianghu.
The Six Gates, the Arrest Bureau, the Military Patrol Office, and other organizations formed a vast net. How could a master bandit of this caliber be lurking here without anyone else knowing a thing?
Yet aside from that explanation, there seemed to be no more reasonable conclusion.
After a long silence, Cheng Ming slowly rose to his feet, a glint of resolve flashing in his eyes.
"Zhiwei, prepare the carriage. We're going to see someone."
"Who?"
"Zhao An of the Arrest Bureau."