Ji Lao San looked up at the sky, his heart aching as if twisted. "Did I offend the God of Wealth today?" he wailed. "I’ve been losing money left and right! Is there a Divine Temple nearby? I need to go pay my respects!"
Ji Lao San asked his servant.
The servant shook his head vigorously. "I don’t know!"
Ji Youcheng was so angry that he stomped his foot. "You, you, you... Why didn’t you remind me that there were banknotes in there, not loose silver pieces?"
The servant looked utterly innocent. "Master, isn’t it said that when offering prayers, sincerity is what makes them effective?"
Ji Lao San was rendered speechless and stalked off without another word.
"Hey! Master, where are you going?"
The servant quickly followed, asking again, but received no reply. So, he had no choice but to silently trail after his master, observing his foul mood all the way to the Yuelai Inn.
At this time, the Yuelai Inn was somewhat deserted. It was just past noon, and no one was taking a rest there yet.
Ji Youcheng and his servant entered the Inn, and a Xiao Er hurriedly came forward to greet them.
"Sir, are you here for a meal or to stay for the night?"
Ji Youcheng casually tossed a Token to the Xiao Er. "Tell your shopkeeper to come see me."
The Xiao Er didn’t pay it much mind at first. However, when he took a closer look at the Token Ji Youcheng had given him, his expression changed instantly. Not daring to delay, he hurried off.
「Upstairs in a guest room」
Meanwhile, the shopkeeper was being interrogated by the Lord God Hunter. "Lord God Hunter, this actually isn’t the first time our establishment has had items go missing. For the past half-month, things have been disappearing from the inn from time to time. What people lost weren’t exceptionally valuable items – some were dozens of taels of silver pieces, others were clothing or dry rations for travel. We compensated them ourselves and considered the matter settled. But we never expected that last night, an important item belonging to a distinguished guest would also be lost from our inn! You say our inn is guilty of internal theft, but that is truly wronging this humble one!"
The old shopkeeper was almost in tears. Of the two gentlemen before him, one had arrived late the previous night, close to midnight. Upon waking in the morning, this guest claimed an important item of his was missing. He had searched everywhere and made an unreasonable fuss before leaving in anger. Shortly thereafter, this Lord Ji, said to be the Lord God Hunter, had arrived. He accused the inn of internal theft and insisted they return his medicine box!
Ji Youzhi spoke, "You claim your inn didn’t commit internal theft. However, the doors and windows were undamaged, and you’ve also confirmed that no strangers entered or exited. So, how did the items simply vanish?"
Ji Youzhi had previously inspected the scene and found nothing, aside from a few small, plum-blossom-shaped paw prints that looked like a cat’s.
Upon inquiry, it turned out that the inn shopkeeper’s young granddaughter owned a brown-patterned cat.
"This... this humble one doesn’t know!" the shopkeeper stammered. "Lord, last night, it wasn’t just this gentleman’s medicine box that went missing. The two boxes brought by our... our boss’s trusted subordinate, they vanished too!"
Ji Youzhi asked, "When Jin Ge entered the Inn with the boxes, who else was in your establishment? Did anyone see the two boxes he was carrying?"
"This humble one isn’t sure... Huh?" The shopkeeper looked surprised. "Lord, how did you know that my boss’s trusted subordinate is named Jin Ge?"
Before Ji Youzhi could answer, Ji Youran also looked at him with a questioning gaze.
"Jin Ge?" Ji Youran asked. "Who’s that? Do you know him?"
Ji Youzhi rubbed his forehead, a hint of a headache in his voice. "He’s Third Brother’s subordinate."
"Ah! Third Brother’s subordinate?" Ji Youran exclaimed, then gestured towards the shopkeeper. "But this man just said Jin Ge is his boss’s trusted subordinate!"
Ji Youzhi tilted his head back to look at the ceiling. "Correct. This is one of Third Brother’s secret businesses."
Ji Youran was so furious he ground his teeth.
"Just how many businesses does that Ji Lao San have that I don’t know about?" Ji Youran fumed. "My medicine box was lost in his inn! I’m going to make him compensate me!"