Unlock
Xie Xuanchen looked up at her, his gaze looked rather strange. After Mu Mingtang noticed this, she hurriedly waved her hand: “Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t used it yet, I just learned it to prepare for emergencies. Anyway, since we don’t have anything better to do, don’t be too hopeful, I’ll try.”
In fact, Xie Xuanchen didn’t believe her very much. How could the locks tailor made by the imperial court be opened so easily? However, Xie Xuanchen wasn’t the best at dealing with women. He already couldn’t deal with his mother back then. Now that Mu Mingtang was speaking, he was too embarrassed to refuse.
Xie Xuanchen stretched out his right hand and let Mu Mingtang do her work. Mu Mingtang saw him hang his one arm in mid air, the heavy handcuffs were supported by the strength of his one arm. The sight of it tired Mu Mingtang out and she said, “My lord, you can just place your hand on the bed, I’ll unlock it as I sit on the foot rest.”
“It’s okay.” Xie Xuanchen didn’t put much thought to it. “Just do what you’re supposed to do.”
How stubborn, Mu Mingtang stopped talking, she nodded and said, “Okay.”
Mu Mingtang worked on it by herself, and Xie Xuanchen didn’t even bother to look at her, as he said, “The imperial lock can’t be unlocked so easily. The one on me is made even more special, it’s all made of black iron and the core of the lock is also specially made. There are only two keys in this world that could open this, can’t be copied, and they must be used together to open this. An ordinary thief would just pick the lock of the common folk, how can it be used to open the imperial locks? They’ve never even seen such a lock, and I’m not sure……”
There was a faint clicking sound at this moment, and Mu Mingtang quickly held onto the handcuffs and said, “It’s open.”
Xie Xuanchen’s words haven’t even sunken in. Although he really wanted to break free from the chain, he was the child of a high-ranking official, and he grew up surrounded with imperial matters, hence, he had an inexplicable trust in the imperial court. The common thieves only picked the locks of the common folk, how could she have unlocked the imperial lock.
Mu Mingtang had finished speaking, but Xie Xuanchen hadn’t come to his senses yet. Mu Mingtang was struggling to hold the iron handcuffs alone, and Xie Xuanchen was so surprised that he didn’t even react to help her with them.
Mu Mingtang slowly put the iron cuffs on the bed, Xie Xuanchen’s hand felt instantly lighter, he looked down at his wrist, and he still felt that it was unbelievable.
“You……”
Mu Mingtang smiled very modestly: “I’m actually not very good at it. I just gave it a try. I didn’t expect to succeed.”
In order to be considerate of Xie Xuanchen’s sensitive mind, Mu Mingtang deliberately said her words humbly. In fact, the masters were always among the people, especially the talented craftsmen, they were scattered all over the city.
That’s the old thief who taught her how to open locks. Xiangyang had crumbled down, everyone didn’t know how to survive, and could only flee in a hurry. The old thief was originally unwilling to teach her, but then halfway through, fearing that he would not be able to survive and the family’s skills would go extinct, he reluctantly taught Mu Mingtang.
Quoting the words of the old thief: “I don’t expect you to carry forward my legacy, and don’t you say that you’re my heir. I’m just afraid that my skills will be forever lost, that’s why I taught an outsider, which is you. Stealing isn’t a good thing but my skills are innocent, whether or not you’re going to use it in the future, it’s none of my business.”
Unexpectedly, Mu Mingtang would use it in such a place, how weird could fate be.
Xie Xuanchen stared at her for a long time. He suddenly stretched out his hand and said, “Give it to me.”
“What?”
“Your tool for opening locks.”
Mu Mingtang hurriedly placed the fine gold wire in his hand, Xie Xuanchen took it and started to study it. Upon seeing that he was looking rather attentively, Mu Mingtang leaned forward proudly and said, “It’s made of pure gold. I specially twisted it out from the jewelry.”
Is it because of the gold? Xie Xuanchen glanced suspiciously at Mu Mingtang, he re-cuffed himself, and poked the thin gold wire into the keyhole to try it out.