Jing Ke looked at Hua Mulan, and neither of them spoke.
Despite the extreme urgency, I couldn't help but exclaim, "Damn, thank goodness they all drank poison, otherwise, would I have to take the hit on all four of them?" I'd rather just drink the poison.
Just then, the man who had gone upstairs came back down, looked at us, and asked, "Which one of you is Mr. Xiao?"
I said, "What is it?" I knew their intentions, and since there was no immediate danger to my life, I wasn't in a big hurry.
The first foreigner said, "You probably know why we're here. Tell me, where are you hiding the stuff?"
I shook my head and said, "Would you believe me if I told you?"
The foreigner, brandishing his gun, asked, "Which one of you is Mrs. Xiao?" He glanced at the women at the table, his gaze finally settling on Li Shishi. He chuckled, "If I'm not mistaken, this is her. I've heard Mr. Xiao and Mrs. Xiao have a very deep and loving relationship..."
I said, "Guess again."
The foreigner pointed a gun at Li Shishi's head and said, "I don't have time to waste with your words..."
I quickly said, "You don't need to waste your breath on me, and you don't need to play the hostage game with me—there's a bead in the drawer of the cabinet, take it."
The foreigner was taken aback by my confident opening remarks, but then his tone shifted dramatically in the last sentence. He opened the drawer and examined the bead in his hand. Ever since it came into my home, this thing had adhered to He Tiandou's basic guiding principle: the most dangerous place is the safest place, so it had always been casually tossed into the drawer.
The foreigner didn't seem to know much about Chinese artifacts. He examined the pearl under the light for a while and said, "Are you kidding me? Is this thing valuable?" The treasure only had a faint halo under the light, and it certainly didn't look as bright and dazzling as a glass ball, so the foreigner was a little suspicious.
Li Shishi scoffed, "You don't even recognize a luminous pearl, yet you dare to work in this line of work?"
The foreigner blushed, casually stuffed the beads into his pocket, pointed the gun at me, and asked, "Anything else?"
I spread my hands and said, "That's the only valuable thing in this house. Would you put everything together?"
The foreigner glanced at his watch and sneered, "It's only 9:15 PM. We've already taken down the security guards, and unfortunately, you're the only resident here. Looks like we have plenty of time." He waved his hand, beckoning to the other person inside and the two standing outside, "Take everything you can. The boss said that any seemingly insignificant item here, Mr. Xiao, could be a priceless treasure."
I couldn't help but ask, "Who is your boss?" Anyone who can ask that must know something about me.
The foreigner ignored me. He tucked his gun into his belt, pointed first at the cabinet where the pearl was, and ordered the two newcomers, "Move this away!"
I yelled, "Can you move the cabinet and leave the beads behind?" I wanted to complete the "buying the box and returning the pearl" trope for him. But my cabinet was indeed expensive, made of mahogany, costing me several thousand yuan. I peeked outside and saw two large trucks and a car parked there, and couldn't help but click my tongue, "Are you the mafia or a moving company?" It seemed they came prepared, determined to raid my house even if it meant killing a thousand innocent people.
The two foreigners struggled to lift the cabinet and slowly moved it out. The foreigner who had been watching us looked around, pointed to a table, and asked the first one to come in, "Do we need to move this?"
I said with my head down, "Please, have you ever seen an antique table with a keyboard drawer?"
The foreigner looked ashamed and muttered, "I'll go look around somewhere else."
The first foreigner thoroughly checked us from head to toe, finding no weapons, and then strolled around reassured. He even spent a long time searching the kitchen and the first-floor restroom. When he came out, his pockets were filled with many strange little things, from a peeler he couldn't bear to throw away to imitation ivory chopsticks, and even a small abacus that Cao Xiaoxiang used as a toy—all of which he carefully kept as antiques. This was probably at Kong Kong'er's instigation; he was the one who found the Jing Ke sword in the pile of yams.
My limbs felt weak, but my mind remained clear. After watching for a while, I chatted with the foreigner standing next to me and said, "Excuse me, can I ask you something?"
The foreigner assumed I had changed my mind and wanted to cooperate with him, and politely said, "Please go ahead."
"You're quite well-educated, aren't you? Do you know anything about computers?"
The foreigner paused for a moment, then said, "It's alright."
I said, "That's perfect. Since you're here, could you take a look at my computer? The internet speed has been terribly slow lately. Sometimes it takes more than ten seconds to flip through a page of a novel. Also, the network connection often has problems, but unplugging the router usually fixes it."
Wu Sangui said, "Do you often visit pornographic websites? I always see pictures of naked women on your computer."
I scoffed, "Which website doesn't have naked girls? It all depends on whether you're using naked girls for advertising or advertising naked girls."
The foreigner angrily shouted, "Shut up!"
Just then, the foreigner who had gone inside suddenly ran out excitedly, shouting, "Guess what I found?"
I tensed up immediately and subconsciously glanced at the Mulan armor hanging on the living room wall. This was He Tiandou's idea, and it seemed to be working quite well; it had been hanging there openly, and the foreigners had completely ignored it. This was probably related to their lifestyle; don't Europeans often display a knight's armor in the corner of their living room?
Two foreigners rushed into my study, and soon they laboriously carried out a bookcase. It's not their fault; ever since we bought this house, I've had a dream: no matter what else is like, I must have a fancy study. Antique calligraphy and paintings, mosquito coils, an inkstone and a brush made of skunk hair on the table. It's not just for show; I want my child and Baozi's to have a learning atmosphere from birth. When I told Li Yun, who was helping me with the renovation, about this idea, he readily agreed. Li Yun is from the Song Dynasty, so all this was a piece of cake for him, and my study is absolutely antique. From the bookcase to the cups and chairs, there's not a trace of modernity. Moreover, this study was actually used by Qin Hui for a period of time. Although Xiang Yu and his men weren't scholars, they sometimes used brushes to write or draw, so everything here has a residential feel. The foreigners, upon seeing it, were overjoyed—but actually, there's nothing of real value in it.
The two foreigners carried the incredibly heavy bookcase into the living room, took a breather, and told the other two who had just loaded my table onto the truck: "Move everything in the study together, don't forget a single thing."
So the other two joined in carrying the bookshelf. Mine is a modular bookshelf, with five sections in total. They struggled to load it onto the car, glancing at us warily at first, but then they got too busy to care. The medicine was indeed potent; even standing up and taking a few steps without supervision took a lot of effort, let alone resisting.
So we were ignored. Sitting around with our whole family watching them busily moving our furniture out, I dare say it was a very unique feeling. Xiang Yu looked displeased, Er Sha continued eating his food, and the others either turned away or looked back, watching the foreigners work, I wonder what they were thinking.
"Hey, slow down, don't bump into the wall; keep it straight, the person inside, lower it; um, could someone please turn off the stove in the kitchen, there's still soup sitting there..." I mumbled nonsense while observing the group. I noticed that they initially consciously kept two people in the room, but gradually they relaxed their guard. After moving out three sections of the bookcase, the four of them completely ignored us, often leaving the room at the same time.
After they were out of our sight again, I gestured vigorously at Liu Bang with my chin and said, "Bangzi, Bangzi!"
"ah?"
"You're closest to the door, can you stand up and ram it now?"
Liu Bang, with a mournful face, said, "Is this all the plan you came up with?"
I said firmly, "As long as you close the door, I have a way to turn things around."
Are you sure?
I nodded vigorously.
Liu Bang stopped wasting words. Although this young man was neither good at literature nor martial arts, he was by no means someone to be slaughtered. He shakily and laboriously stood up, shuffling towards the door like Wu Lao Er, a character played by Zhao Benshan. Realizing that it would be too late to catch him while he was dawdling, Liu Bang simply lunged forward and slammed the door shut with his body.
Upon hearing the commotion, the four foreigners outside the door shouted in unison, ran to the door, and yelled, "Open the door, or we'll shoot!"
They shouted a few times, but ultimately dared not fire. The foreigner in front then took out a wire and started poking at the keyhole...
Of course, I wasn't idle either. The moment Liu Bang slammed the door shut, everyone's eyes were on me. I quickly pulled two biscuits from my pocket, placed one in front of Xiang Yu and one in front of Jing Ke, and said swiftly, "Eat these biscuits, and you will regain your former strength, but remember, you only have 10 minutes!"
What I gave them were the other half of the mother-child biscuit, each a copy of their own power. I had originally planned to save them for future heroic feats, but now it's all over.