Chapter Five: The Foolish Father

As soon as the door opened, the room was filled with boxes containing various fabrics that her father often brought her, along with fine furs. Reds, whites, yellows—large and intact, smooth and lustrous, soft and fluffy—Chaoxiao looked at them with a sigh, thinking of how many little creatures had perished for these materials. But since they were already dead, she scanned them all into her backpack, determined not to waste anything.

Having cleared three storerooms, she remembered there were two more untouched on the other side. Hastening her steps, she ran out of the empty storerooms, ready to continue her task. Unexpectedly, just as she reached the entrance of the middle storeroom, a familiar figure appeared outside the storeroom courtyard.

From afar, he spotted her, eyes wide with surprise, voice filled with astonishment.

“Chaoxiao?”

Her treasured daughter, whom he had searched for everywhere, was here alone in the storeroom? Li Zelin was taken aback, but without hesitation, concerned for his daughter, he lifted his cloak and hurried toward her as fast as he could.

“My dear, I’ve been looking for you everywhere—why did you come here?”

Huh? What did he mean? How could he still say that? She was the one who had been desperately searching for him! Silly father was just silly!

Chaoxiao rolled her eyes. Her clueless father showed no sign of awareness, his face glowing with joy at finding his daughter. His steps quickened as he crossed the courtyard gate and rushed through the yard. Just as he reached her, he spoke:

“My dear child, you’re not scared, are you...?”

Bang!

“Ouch!”

Chaoxiao froze in shock as her father, so close yet suddenly bowing deeply, fell flat on the ground. She stared dumbfounded at her clumsy father sprawled before her, utterly bewildered. How could he fall like that? On flat ground? Surely, he was a silly dad, wasn’t he?

But her silly father, afraid she might be frightened, didn’t get up right away. Instead, he looked up with a comforting smile.

“Hehe, my dear, I’m fine, really. It doesn’t hurt, hehe...”

Chaoxiao was utterly embarrassed and silently questioned her mother’s judgment.

Is this the man Mother had painstakingly chosen?

Talented and charismatic? Handsome and commanding? A charming scholar? Ha!

Chaoxiao was absolutely convinced her mother had chosen her silly father solely for his face.

“Silly dad, silly dad, silly silly silly...”

Li Zelin looked at his daughter’s blank expression and couldn’t help but feel heartbroken.

Since his wife’s passing, his daughter had become dull and vacant. The thought pained him deeply.

Due to the parents’ attitudes and to preserve the family’s reputation, he had no choice but to drown his sorrows in drink, seeking out renowned physicians day and night, though to no avail. Now that the Wen Ding estate was being searched, he feared the worst...

Li Zelin’s eyes darkened. He brushed away the restless, noisy Huahua perched above and forced a smile as he struggled to rise, reaching out to hold his daughter.

“Good girl, Dad’s not hurt, okay? My dear, Dad will take you—”

“Who goes there? The Wen Ding estate is under investigation. All personnel are to be escorted. Identify yourselves!”

How could they arrive so quickly!

Just as his hand reached out to his daughter, a sharp command came from behind.

Soon, many footsteps followed. Li Zelin’s heart sank. Instinctively clutching his daughter tighter, he noticed the open door of the storeroom behind her and his heart skipped a beat.

This can’t be good.

Could it be that his beloved daughter had inherited his wife’s secret techniques?

Otherwise, how to explain the chaos in the estate and why the child was here? Why were the storerooms, which should have been full, now completely empty?

Remembering the strange things that would appear and disappear from his late wife’s hands, Li Zelin hugged his only daughter tightly. A flash of thought crossed his mind, and with a shift in his gaze, he began to wail uncontrollably.

“My child, it’s all my fault. I am a scoundrel, a disgrace. If I hadn’t drunk every day, wasted away in debauchery, been deceived and squandered the family fortune—”

“It’s all my fault, making you worry at such a young age!”

“It’s my fault for coming to the storeroom to steal silver, forcing you to bear such burdens so young!”

“I was wrong, I won’t do it again. But you must keep this secret from your grandparents, or they’ll break my legs!”

Huahua, who had earlier sensed the tense atmosphere and fled to hide on the roof, now peeked out cautiously, unable to bear watching the foolishness of her master.

The newly arrived imperial guards also found it hard to look away.

“What kind of man is this? A grown man acting like a child!”

The leader of the imperial guards twitched the corner of his mouth and scrutinized the man holding a child and crying tears and snot. He wondered if this was some disguise. There was not a trace of the dashing, elegant scholar he once knew.

“The three storerooms are empty. Judging by the traces inside—no dust, no disturbance—they were emptied not long ago,” the leader reported.

Hearing this, the leader clicked his tongue and shook his head sadly at Li Zelin.

“What a prodigal son! Who knows what was stored in these three empty storerooms before, but luckily, the other two storerooms next door were still locked. They must contain something.”

Casting a disdainful glance at the man crying while holding the dazed child, the leader noted that the father and daughter had nothing on them and decided not to scrutinize further.

After all, from his perspective, with empty hands and storerooms showing no signs of tampering, even if they were hiding something, it couldn’t be much. A body search would follow soon; there was no way to escape. The search was the priority.

With a wave of his hand, the leader dispatched two subordinates to escort the pair to the front courtyard to join the other detainees and await the magistrate’s identification. Meanwhile, he ordered the rest to thoroughly search the remaining two storerooms.

Seeing this, Li Zelin breathed a quiet sigh of relief and hurriedly left with his daughter. Before they could exit the estate, the other two storerooms were opened, and the imperial guards poured in, soon hauling out many valuable items.

Carried by her silly father, Chaoxiao watched helplessly as many treasures were carried out from the two storerooms she had missed. She bit her lip painfully. When she saw two men carry out a blood-red coral tree over one person’s height tall, Chaoxiao instinctively pressed her small hand to her chest.

Such a beautiful red coral tree—she had missed it! Compared to the silver, furs, and medicinal herbs she had gathered, those treasures now seemed far less appealing.

Her luck, she thought, was truly as her mother had said—she had not inherited her mother’s lucky spirit.

With a pout, Chaoxiao’s head drooped onto her silly father’s shoulder. As her head fell, she inadvertently met the gaze of the imperial guard leader.

Chaoxiao instinctively clung tighter to her silly father’s neck, puzzled: Why was the harsh-looking guard staring at her silly dad like that?

The leader, seeing the fine treasures in the two remaining storerooms and contrasting them with the three empty ones, felt a pang of pain in his heart. What a fortune had been lost!

The Wen Ding estate was now condemned with an added crime.

At the same time, imperial guards swarmed the entire estate. Those found guilty were arrested, those suspected searched. Aside from Autumn Fragrance and a few others whom Chaoxiao had promptly released, all servants were taken away.

The wicked nanny and her cohorts who thought they had escaped through secret means were quickly captured by the guards surrounding the estate. Their belongings confiscated, they were dragged back like stray dogs. After identity verification and questioning, they were beaten a few times and then thrown into the servants’ quarters as company.

Unaware of all this, Chaoxiao, held by her silly father and escorted solemnly by two imperial guards to the front courtyard, remained oblivious.

It was only because the maids and servants scattered while scrambling for valuables that the guards suspected someone might be hiding goods or attempting to flee with treasures. This accidental confusion unintentionally cleared the way for Chaoxiao, saving them trouble.