Chapter 122: A Second Investigation of the Villa

Page 1 of 3

“Outsmarting the unsuspecting? This job is as good as done!”

Hou San, wearing a Monkey King mask, pried open a villa window and climbed into the living room. He turned back and gave a sly wave to Zhu Dachang, who wore a Pigsy mask, then snickered.

“Eat her food, take her things, and clean the place out!”

Zhu Dachang patted his round belly and said innocently, “Third Brother, I ate a lot of little cakes at the jewelry store just now. I’m already eighty percent full. I can’t eat much more…”

Hou San rolled his eyes. “Who the hell told you to actually eat anything? With the time you waste on that, you could have carried off several more items. Once we sell them, you can eat whatever you want. Hurry up. Stop dragging your feet. Time is money!”

“Oh,” Zhu Dachang replied softly. He followed Hou San and began searching the villa.

Two minutes and thirteen seconds later, Hou San frowned at the handful of loose change he had found beneath the television cabinet.

“That can’t be right. This is such a huge villa, and this is all the money they keep in the house?”

Zhu Dachang pointed toward the study and lowered his voice conspiratorially.

“Third Brother, in those television dramas, rich people always hide valuable things in their studies. There’s a saying for it… Oh, right! ‘Within books lies a house of gold!’”

“Makes sense! How could I have forgotten that?” Hou San said, giving Zhu Dachang a rare approving glance. He pursed his lips and continued, “Here’s what we’ll do. I’ll search the study. You go back and take another look where we found those fake jewels earlier. If there are any left, take them all. Even scraps are worth something. We can set up a street stall and sell them for three or five coins apiece. That’ll be enough to buy meat for a few days.”

Zhu Dachang nodded vigorously and rubbed his fingers together.

“Third Brother, can I save one for Cuihua? I once heard someone say that women are like dinosaurs—they both love collecting shiny things. After we get back this time, Cuihua and I are supposed to be married. I need something sparkly to make a respectable showing.”

“Where did you pick up that heap of nonsense?” Hou San’s face twitched several times before he cleared his throat. “How can you use something fake for a wedding? True love should be matched with real gold! How could those fake jewels here possibly be presentable? If someone saw through it, where would that leave Cuihua’s dignity? Have some ambition. Don’t forget, we’ve got another job tonight. The jewelry store’s goods should be genuine. Pick whatever you like then. Consider it my wedding gift to my little sister-in-law. Enough talk. Let’s get this business done first. It’ll be trouble if that woman suddenly comes back…”

Zhu Dachang scratched his head and gave a foolish, delighted grin.

“Mm.”

Then he headed toward the dressing room with practiced ease.

Hou San watched his retreating back, rubbed his hands together, hunched his shoulders, and tiptoed into the study. He searched everywhere but found no sign of the legendary house of gold. With a long sigh, he rested one hand on a vase and swept his gaze around the room. Suddenly, he nudged the vase.

His heart jumped. He had expected it to fall, but it remained perfectly still.

His eyes shifted. Hou San tried lifting the vase. When he saw that it was still firmly attached to its stand, he smacked his lips and slowly twisted it.

With a creak, the bookshelves in the study gradually slid apart, revealing a safe embedded in the wall.

Delight spread across Hou San’s face. He hurried over, swallowed, and stared at it with shining eyes.

“So the house of gold is in here!”

Taking a deep breath, Hou San pressed the side of his face a few inches below the safe’s lock. He closed his eyes and gently turned the combination dial: three rotations to the left, three to the right, then three more back and forth.

Cold sweat began to bead on his forehead. Hou San swallowed, steadied his breathing, and wished he could make his heart stop beating as well.

Click!

The combination lock stopped at 696969, and the safe gave a soft sound as its mechanism released.

Hou San exhaled a long breath of stale air, wiped the cold sweat from his brow, and shrugged with a sinister smile. He opened the safe door—and froze.

Inside the square safe, there were no dazzling treasures of gold and silver, nor stacks of banknotes piled as high as mountains. There was only a yellow kraft-paper file envelope and a black USB drive.

Hou San pursed his lips in disappointment. He picked up the envelope and the USB drive and was about to open the envelope when footsteps suddenly sounded behind him.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood straight up. His hand silently found the homemade gun tucked inside his trouser leg. He yanked it out and spun around.

Page 2 of 3

“Third Brother… it’s me…”

Zhu Dachang raised both hands. His face went deathly pale, and he stammered, “Don’t shoot…”

Seeing Zhu Dachang’s face, Hou San steadied himself. His shoulders relaxed, and he lowered the homemade gun. He glared at Zhu Dachang and snapped, “Wasn’t I clear that you were supposed to look for those fake jewels? What are you doing here? And why the hell did you sneak up behind me without making a sound? Do you know how easily that could have caused an accidental discharge?”

Zhu Dachang gave an embarrassed grin.

“Third Brother, there was nothing over there. The place was completely bare. I guess after we paid them a visit, they didn’t dare leave anything in the house anymore. So I thought I’d come help you look for the house of gold…” He glanced at the safe behind Hou San. “Did you find it?”

Hou San raised the kraft-paper envelope and black USB drive in his hands, looking dejected.

“What house of gold? There’s nothing here but these two things. Who knows what shameful secrets they’re hiding inside them that they had to lock them in a safe…”

Just then, a series of knocks echoed through the villa.

Bang, bang, bang.

It sounded as though something were striking the door.

Hou San was startled. He immediately handed the envelope and USB drive to Zhu Dachang, then raised the homemade gun and began walking toward the study door one cautious step at a time.

Zhu Dachang tucked away the envelope and USB drive. Together, he and Hou San poked their heads out from the study at different heights and peered into the empty living room.

“Third Brother, there’s no one here. That sound seems to be coming from the laundry room. Wasn’t there a woman who died in there earlier? Could the place be haunted?”

“What the hell do you mean, haunted? Have you forgotten what that person told us when we were children? There are no ghosts in this world—only the ghosts in people’s hearts…”

Hou San quietly stepped out of the study and waved Zhu Dachang over.

“There’s nothing worth taking here. We should leave while we can and conserve our strength for tonight’s big job.”

When Zhu Dachang heard Hou San suddenly mention that person, he nervously touched the phone in his pocket. He crept into the living room and was just about to return to the window when he glanced uneasily back toward the laundry room.

He stopped at once, patted Hou San on the shoulder, and stammered, “Third Brother… someone just poked his head out of the laundry room… We’ve been discovered!”

Hou San’s eyes widened. He swiftly raised the homemade gun and turned to aim at the laundry room. Putting on a show of calm, he shouted, “Who’s in there? I saw you! Get out here now! If you don’t come out, I’ll shoot!”

Zhu Dachang hurriedly pulled his own homemade gun from his trouser leg and snarled, “We saw you!”

A portly middle-aged man wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts raised both hands and slowly shuffled out of the laundry room. His face was filled with terror as he stared at Hou San and Zhu Dachang. He licked his lips, forced an ugly smile, and said, “Kon-ni-chi-wa!”

Hou San exchanged a glance with Zhu Dachang and slowly approached the plump middle-aged man.

“What are you saying?”

The middle-aged man gave an awkward laugh.

“Ha-ji-mei… ma-shi-ta… do-zo! Yo-ro-shi-ku… o-ne-gai… shi-ma-su!”

“What kind of nonsense are you spouting?” Hou San dug a finger into his ear. “Who the hell are you? Have you been in this villa the whole time?”

“So-desu-ne…” The middle-aged man cleared his throat. “Wa-ta-shi-wa… ho-u-fu-ku… sa-n…”

Hou San scratched his scalp, interrupted him, and turned to Zhu Dachang.

“Can you understand him?”

Zhu Dachang shook his head bashfully.

“No!”

“I can’t understand him either.” Hou San advanced on the middle-aged man with the gun raised, rolled his neck a few times, and jerked his chin toward Zhu Dachang. “Since neither of us can understand him, we’ll have to communicate in the international language.”

Zhu Dachang stared at him blankly.

“What language is that?”

Hou San lowered the homemade gun, punched the middle-aged man in the stomach, and sneered. His eyes were icy as he spat out two words:

“Body language!”

The middle-aged man cried out and crumpled to the floor, clutching his stomach. He quickly put on the expression of a foreign visitor and begged in broken Mandarin, “Don’t hit me… actually, I speak… a little… a little Chinese!”

Page 3 of 3

Hou San stared expressionlessly at the middle-aged man and pursed his lips.

“See? Now we can communicate. You still haven’t answered my question. This time, use words I can understand. Got it?”

“Got it, got it!” The middle-aged man nodded rapidly. “My name is Pao Fanshan. I was in the villa the whole time… but I didn’t see what you two bosses did, and I don’t want to know what you two bosses did. I’m just a passerby…”

“A passerby?” Hou San gave a mocking laugh and pointed the homemade gun at the man’s naked body. “You like passing through other people’s homes stark naked?”

“I was wearing clothes when I arrived,” Pao Fanshan said miserably.

“Look at that—you gave yourself away!” Hou San pointed at Pao Fanshan and grinned at Zhu Dachang. “This bastard took his clothes off inside the villa. Understand?”

Zhu Dachang tilted his head, blinked, and thought for a moment.

“Third Brother, what does that mean? I don’t understand…”

Pao Fanshan also looked blank.

“I don’t understand either…”

“It’s not that you don’t understand. You just don’t want to understand.” Hou San rolled his eyes at Pao Fanshan, a contemptuous smile curling at the corner of his mouth. He turned to Zhu Dachang and explained, “He was probably teaching that woman Japanese here in the villa while stripping off his clothes in a frenzy…”

Zhu Dachang opened his mouth wide.

“Oh.”

He looked at Pao Fanshan with an expression of partial understanding and let out a long sigh.

“So-desu-ne!”

Hou San stared at Zhu Dachang in amazement.

“You know Japanese too?”

Zhu Dachang blushed shyly and lowered his head.

“I picked up a little while watching cartoons under the covers with Cuihua…”

Hou San immediately choked on his own saliva. After coughing several times, he pointed the homemade gun at Pao Fanshan and said coldly, “Do you know what we brothers do for a living?”

“I know…” Pao Fanshan began, but after glancing at the menacing homemade gun, he immediately changed his answer. “I don’t know! I don’t know!”

“You ought to know…” Hou San crouched down and stared fixedly at Pao Fanshan. “To tell you the truth, we brothers are ruthless bandits who have killed countless people! We came to this villa today intending to borrow a little spending money, but after searching for ages, we couldn’t even scrape together a hundred. Do you think that’s acceptable?”

Pao Fanshan swallowed hard.

“No, not at all.”

Hou San sniffed.

“Good. I’m glad you agree it’s unacceptable. As it happens, you and we are in the same line of work. You steal women, while we brothers steal money. Neither of us is better than the other. Under the circumstances, shouldn’t you compensate us for the emotional wounds we suffered because of your lover?”

“She isn’t my lover!” Pao Fanshan hurriedly shook his head. “Besides, look at the state I’m in. What do I have that could possibly compensate you?”

“You haven’t even pulled your trousers back up, and now you’re denying knowing her? What a despicable bastard!” Hou San narrowed his eyes at Pao Fanshan, then gave Zhu Dachang a meaningful glance. With an expression of deep regret, he said, “In that case, we can only apologize to you.”

Zhu Dachang let out a roar like an enraged dog, reversed his homemade gun, and smashed the butt against Pao Fanshan’s head.

“Sorry!”

Pao Fanshan’s vision went black. He collapsed straight onto the floor, the corners of his mouth twitching several times before he passed out.