With the sky darkening, Xu Fai could feel the danger arising, as the sun lowered, the air turned colder while wolves howled nearby. A pair of eyes seemed to be watching her as she soon as she saw the river filled with muddy water. Although she seemed to be alone on this lonely street, but her instincts honed by many times in dangerous situations made her more perspective than most people.

Just as I thought, there should be another bandit watching the house, or else how would they really know if they are being followed or not?

Looking at the muddy river, Xu Fai smile suddenly turned wicked, and jumped directly in. After a while, what emerged from the muddy river was akin to a sea monster, all wrapped up in mud, not a single human feature can be seen.

Plop plop the big mud pieces slides off of her, slowly revealing…her butt-like cheeks…all red and swollen.

In her hands, wiggling around was actually 5 big catfishes!

“Ho ho ho! 5 fishes! I shall be full tonight! Now I need to find a place to cook this” she sang this out loud, as if she proudly wanted to announce her catches.

As she pretends to scan the area, before heading to the exact same hut by the river which looked like it will crumble with the slightest wind.

Entering, she breathed in a deep breath of dust and spider webs, which made her cough loudly, further announcing her entrance.

The bandit hidden behind the overgrown weeds was lost in thought, as the gold was already delivered but there still was no sign of the boss,

Why is there a lady here!? What does she mean by cooking!?! Can’t she choose somewhere else!?! Should I go in and stop her?! Would she find the gold!? Ah Boss where are you!?

************

From the other side:

Boss: “…” still knocked out thanks to the young lady

************

I looked around the dusty place, and found a pair of fresh footprints among the dust that traced forward and back. Following those footprints, there it was, the holy superior in most lives. A silk bag placed on the alter table, truly worthy of being prayed upon. Opening the bag, it was as if the gold bars were flashlights themselves, brightening up the room, as well as my smile.

Ho ho ho, looks like Christmas arrived early!

Wiping my hands, I carefully and quickly begun the operation.

The bandit outside was waiting anxiously for the results, debating whether he should expose his hide-out, but before he could make the decision, Xu Fai came out, dressed just as she came in, without any additional bags besides the 5 catfish, she disappointedly looked around, and said,

“Ah, how can I cook the fish without a fire? Ah, so sad. Guess I have to go back before I can eat it”

Watching her walk away toward the single road down the river, the bandit can no longer keep his suspicion from growing, seeing that it was only a girl, she probably couldn’t escape from him even if she wanted to, so he went into the hut to find the gold.

Entering the hut that was already messy before from abandonment, surprisingly, it turned even messier! With mud tracks everywhere, and things turned over, wooden furniture turned into scraps.

Just what happened here?!

Finding the bag of gold turned into a task, as the footprints were replaced by muddy streaks that went all over the hut.

Finally, he found the silk bag underneath a pile of woods, and eagerly took it to find that the weight was wrong!

Opening the bag, there wasn’t a single gold, but rather a medium-sized rock with the word’s gold on it, written with something sharp and a weird symbol with an arrow upward and two lines.

Yes, that weird symbol is the modern version of a wink (^_-).

Quickly, the skinny bandit with black clothes and speedy feet went to catch up to the girl who was still leisurely walking among side the river, while whistling a tune underneath the bright moon.

“Wait!” the bandit screamed out, as he reached out to grab her.

Being held back, Xu Fai no longer walked and stared into the bandit’s face with a huge scar across his left cheek, rather than being frightened by such a face, Xu Fai calmly asked with a questioning face,

“How may I help you?”

“Where’s the gold?”

“Gold? What gold?”

“The gold from the hut! Don’t pretend to be stupid!”

“Now why would that shabby hut have any gold in it? Besides, even if there is, I didn’t see any gold in the hut though?”

“But it was there before! It’s gone once you’ve left!”

“Mister, do you see me carrying gold? Is this your way of harassing young ladies? Now let me teach you this, it isn’t a good pick up line, it would be better if you actually handed gold!”

Staring at her disheveled state, with mud hiding most of her features except her red cheeks, one would have to be blind to want to chase her!

But she really can’t be hiding so much gold within her clothes without making it obvious! So where can it be?!

Trusting his instincts, he decided to get physical and using the hand that already was holding her shoulder, he pulled her in, hoping to pin her under and force the answer out of her or else he would break one of her arms.

But it was as if she expected that pull, she tumbled onto him unexpectedly, and her elbows managed to jab right into his stomach, while her knee went for the man’s golden egg.

“AH!” The bandit couldn’t help but to cry in pain, as he pushed her off of himself, while holding his treasures, sweating in pain.

“Ai yah, are you okay?! Young man, if pick-up lines don’t work, you can’t use force! You have to just accept that this young lady does not like you”

Hearing that, the originally pale face turned red with anger, wanting spit out blood.

Patting his back, I snickered at his appearance, as he turned from a lively weed to a wither dandelion.

“Now now, since I can’t accept your love, I can still treat you to a meal. How about you follow me and we can have a feast? Look at how many catfishes I’ve caught!”

Unable to speak, the poor bandit can only nod his head in agreement, seeing that his only clue to the gold was this girl, and if she warmly welcomes him into her home then he can force her to talk at any time.

After resting a while, letting the pain abide, they began walking back into the forest lurking with evil intentions.

Author's note:

Hehehe where did the gold go?!