Spreading all wealth to buy a peaceful mind

"I'm going right now, I'm going right now!" The innkeeper scrambled up and hurried toward the door as if his life depended on it, terrified that if he was even a second late, his wife would swallow him whole.

After a short while, the innkeeper came back staggering under the weight of a fairly large chest. As soon as he set it down, he collapsed onto the floor, gasping for breath as if carrying the chest had taken almost all of his strength.

Liu Ling'er was puzzled. If they found it this hard to move their wealth, and the chest was full of gold, it should amount to at least tens of thousands of taels. Why on earth were they so greedy for her mere couple of thousand taels of silver?

Only after opening the chest did Liu Ling'er realize she had overthought things. There was indeed gold and silver inside, but not all that much—only a few hundred taels. The rest consisted entirely of copper coins. Still, a full chest of copper coins could fetch a considerable sum if exchanged for silver.

The proprietress, kneeling on the floor, glanced at the chest, a look of deep heartache crossing her face. This money had originally belonged to her, and in the blink of an eye, it had become someone else's! Ah, back to square one overnight! The ill-gotten gains she had extorted and looted through past misdeeds were about to vanish into thin air.

Suddenly, her eyes fell upon a cloth pouch. The pouch looked completely unfamiliar, not like anything from the funds she usually managed. She let out a questioning gasp, "What is this? Why is it in my money chest? Dear, did you grab the wrong thing?"

When she opened the pouch and dumped it out, ten golden beads rolled out with a rattling sound. Each bead was about the size of a chicken egg, and those ten golden beads together must have weighed three or four catties!

The proprietress glared fiercely at the innkeeper. "Speak! Where did these beads come from? I distinctly remember I didn't have these things!"

The innkeeper's eyes darted nervously, and he answered in a faint voice, "These beads... these are my private savings. I saved up a little bit of petty cash from time to time, and then went into the city to exchange them for golden beads so it would be easier to hide them and harder for you to discover."

"Oh! I never thought you had the spine for this—saying one thing to my face and doing another behind my back! Tell me, what other tricks do you have up your sleeve? Do you have any other secret stashes left? You'd better confess honestly, or if I find out, you're dead!" The proprietress unleashed her inner tigress, roaring so fiercely that the innkeeper shrunk into a ball and shivered in the corner.

Liu Ling'er and Baili Xian exchanged glances. So fear of a person could really reach this extent; it seemed the innkeeper's life was far from easy! What left Liu Ling'er even more speechless was that under such harsh conditions, the innkeeper had still managed to amass such a substantial private stash. It truly proved that where there is a policy from above, there are countermeasures from below!

The innkeeper clutched his head and muttered under his breath, "Well, you see... these are truly all my private savings. If I didn't need these things to save my life, I wouldn't have been willing to take them out. Alas!"

Thinking about it brought nothing but bitterness. If the proprietress hadn't kept him on such a tight financial leash in daily life, would he ever have needed to set up a secret treasury?

Liu Ling'er put on a stern face. "Ahem, in my view, this gold and silver can at most redeem one life. If you have no money left here, I'll have to take the life of one of you."

Upon hearing this, the proprietress collapsed onto the floor and crawled on her knees right up to Liu Ling'er. "Young master, spare our lives! This is all the wealth we have in the world! As long as you spare us, we will work like cattle and horses until we've earned enough to redeem ourselves."

Liu Ling'er let out a giggle. "Look at how scared you are! I was just teasing you! I simply can't stand you two extorting others like this. Don't you think running a shady inn and harming people will bring down heavenly retribution? Besides, those who often walk by the river are bound to get their shoes wet, and if you walk night paths often enough, you are bound to run into a ghost!"

The proprietress kowtowed repeatedly, finally catching her breath as the heavy weight lifted from her heart. "The young master's words are a wise lesson. We will engrave the young master's teachings in our hearts, and we only beg the young master to bestow the antidote and spare my life!"

Liu Ling'er stepped forward and handed the proprietress a pill. "Eat it! It should keep you safe and sound until tomorrow morning. When we leave tomorrow dawn, I'll give you the real antidote!"

Hearing that this wasn't the genuine antidote, the proprietress felt a pang, but knowing it could save her life and stop the itching on her body for now, any temporary relief was better than none.

Picking up the cloth pouch, Liu Ling'er took out a few golden beads and handed them back to the proprietress, patting her on the shoulder. "Don't say I didn't give you a chance. This gold is enough for the two of you to live peacefully through the rest of your lives. You can take the money to start a legitimate business, or you can move away—do whatever you like, as long as you stop running a shady inn!"

She then pointed at the chest full of gold, silver, and copper coins. "As for these, most of them are ill-gotten gains, and I have no use for them. Before the sun sets, go distribute this money to the households in the village. Consider it parting with your wealth to buy peace of mind."

Since their lives were still in Liu Ling'er's hands, how could the innkeeper and his wife dare to raise any objections? Being able to escape with their lives from Liu Ling'er's hands felt like their ancestors' graves were smoking with auspicious smoke.

When the two of them went out to distribute the wealth, Baili Xian stared unblinkingly at Liu Ling'er, sending a creeping chill down her spine. "What are you looking at? That gaze of yours is so strange, it's as if you want to eat someone alive!"

Baili Xian withdrew his burning gaze. "What kind of poison did you feed that proprietress? How come I've never heard of it before?"

So that was what he wanted to ask! Liu Ling'er said triumphantly, "Ha, looks like even you were fooled! To tell you the truth, what I fed that proprietress was just a little pill rolled out of pastry. There was no poison in it at all!"

"Oh!" Baili Xian was immediately astonished. "Then why did I see the proprietress acting as if ants were crawling all over her entire body after she ate the pill you fed her? Don't tell me that had nothing to do with the medicine."

Liu Ling'er sneered. "Of course it had nothing to do with it! I'm no empress dowager skilled in the art of poison. I simply tapped the acupoints on the proprietress to induce numbness. Combined with her guilty conscience for all the bad deeds she'd committed, naturally she had to obey every word I said."

Baili Xian massaged his forehead. "After all this, you were just putting on a bluff and playing ghost! You're getting close to being a common charlatan. Who on earth taught you these crooked and unorthodox ways?"

Liu Ling'er slapped a hand over Baili Xian's mouth. "Keep your voice down, will you? It won't end well if someone overhears, especially that proprietress. If she finds out I was playing tricks on her, she'll probably try to fight me to the death."

Early the next morning, amidst the hopeful gaze of the innkeeper's wife, Liu Ling'er bestowed upon her the 'antidote' she had promised yesterday, and then set off with Baili Xian to continue toward their destination.

The innkeeper watched the direction the two of them were leaving in, his mouth twitching as he wanted to say something. The proprietress stomped on his foot. "What are you staring at! Since they were so formidable, why would they be afraid of those bandits? Haven't we suffered enough because of you? I'm telling you, you fool, yesterday when I told you to get the money, you actually handed over everything, even digging out your own private stash, leaving us in such an awkward predicament now..."