Most of the rooms had communal beds and were intended for people who made a living doing menial labor.

Xiaowu specially changed his disguise and used a human skin mask of a lewd cunning man so that no one could recognize him.

After he was done disguising himself, Xiaowu hurried to their residence at Tonghua Street undetected.

Tonghua Street was not a flourishing street as its name suggested. Instead, it was a very rundown area.

Everyone walked around quickly without lingering.

Xiaowu wanted to head over to Wang Er’s place to observe them, but he noticed Wang Er, and the others walking out of the compound and seemed to be heading somewhere.

“Wang Er, you have to follow my bet this time. The last time I followed yours, we lost so badly!”

Xiaowu hurriedly hid in a corner when he saw them walking out to eavesdrop on their conversation.

“Li Erfa, what the hell would you know? Those people must have ganged up on us.” Wang Er’s voice could be easily recognized.

He spat some phlegm onto the ground before he continued, “Ptooey! Those assholes aren’t happy when we win money, so they cheated. Do they think I don’t know what they did?”

Li Erfa raised his voice by a few degrees. “Huh? What do you mean? Are you saying that the gambling den cheated?”

Xiaowu didn’t hear any reply from Wang Er and guessed he probably nodded.

Li Erfa was in disbelief and asked quizzically, “Would the gambling den dare to cheat?”

“Wang Er is right,” said Ming Zi as he broke his silence. “I suggest you stop going there.”

“Why can’t I?” Wang Er didn’t care about Ming Zi’s suggestion. “So what if they cheat? Do you think I am afraid of them? I can afford it.”

“No way. That is my money too!” Li Erfa realized it was true, so he was infuriated. “I am going over now to settle the score with them!”

Xiaowu secretly reached his head out to look at them. He saw Li Erfa rolling his sleeves up as he charged to the gambling den angrily.

Ming Zi pulled Li Erfa and spoke as he looked at Wang Er and gestured for him to say something. “Use your brain. If you kick a fuss, you will land us all in trouble.”

Ming Zi kept gesturing for Wang Er to talk to Li Erfa out of going. Wang Er had no choice but to say, “Are you crazy? Do you want the whole world to know we have money?”

Wang Er watched as Li Erfa threw his temper and added, “At the worst, we can always dig up more valuables next time. If anyone finds out we have money, Uncle Gen will make life hard for us.”

Despite Li Erfa’s fury, he promptly stopped thinking about charging over to the gambling den to settle scores with them for cheating him when he thought about Uncle Gen.

Uncle Gen? Why were they talking about Uncle Gen again?

What did they mean by digging up valuables?

Also, Uncle Gen was just a hunched-back elderly man. Even though he was their superior, why would they have to be so afraid of him?

Sure enough, Prince Jing was right about the situation!

The more Xiaowu investigated the case, the more strange things he unearthed. He couldn’t help being more serious when he heard what they just said.

Since Wang Er had convinced Li Erfa out of acting brashly, he attempted to lighten the atmosphere. He grabbed Ming Zi by the shoulder and laughed cheekily at him. “Ming Zi, are you going to Piao Xiang Brothel again?”

Xiaowu spotted Ming Zi blushing. It certainly seemed somewhat off to see a dark skin brawny man suddenly flush crimson.

“N-no.”

“What are you saying? Can you speak up and be a man?”

Li Erfa joined in at teasing Ming Zi. Since he could not go to the gambling den, he tried to change the subject of the conversation and move on. “I definitely saw you going to Piao Xiang Brothel before. You went to the brothel asking for their top girl.”

“I didn’t think you were interested in girls!” Wang Er grabbed Ming Zi by the shoulder and made fun of him.

“Wait… Yu Die isn’t any girl.”

Ming Zi felt a little embarrassed, but he hurriedly explained.

“What is so different about her? Isn’t she just a girl from the brothel?”

Li Erfa was not good at talking, so Xiaowu couldn’t help shaking his head.

Ming Zi pursed his lips and frowned the moment he heard this.

Wang Er hurriedly intervened and hit Li Erfa’s back hard.

“What would you know? How can Yu Die compare to the other girls?”

He turned to speak tactfully to Ming Zi, “Don’t listen to him. He doesn’t understand the situation. If you have plans, you’re free to go ahead.”

Ming Zi didn’t want to stay after hearing what Li Erfa said. Since Wang Er suggested for him to go, it was the perfect time for him to leave.

He said goodbye before turning to leave. Wang Er scolded Li Erfa for talking rudely.

Xiaowu went into a brief dilemma before he decided to follow swiftly behind Ming Zi.

Judging from Wang Er and Li Erfa’s conversation, they ought to be heading to the gambling den.

Now was the best time for him to find out what Ming Zi was up to.

How could he afford to see the top hostess at Piao Xiang Brothel with his meager salary?

After Xiaowu came to a decision, he followed swiftly behind Ming Zi five paces away from him.

Since Ming Zi was preoccupied, he did not turn to look at all.

Ming Zi headed down a path and entered the poshest commercial district in the capital.

The shops in the area only sold exorbitant high-end products! What was Ming Zi doing here?

Xiaowu hid by the side and secretly watched as Ming Zi entered Caidie Store.

Caidie Store was the biggest cosmetics store in the capital and just its cheapest rouge was worth one tael of silver.

The cosmetics Chu Yunshen had given Wan Xia previously were the best in the store. It was so high quality that no ordinary family could afford it.

Xiaowu watched as Ming Zi left the store before he swiftly darted inside.

“What did the man just buy?” asked Xiaowu as he handed the employee a string of copper coins and stuffed it in his hands.

Initially, the employee noticed Xiaowu’s lewd features and the rags he was dressed in and quickly lost interest in talking to Xiaowu.

Now that Xiaowu had offered him money, he smiled happily as he asked, “How can I help?”

“I want to know what the man bought,” asked Xiaowu again as he lowered his voice.

“Are you talking about the tall dark brawny man?” asked the employee as he cautiously put the copper coins away in his chest.

“He keeps swinging by every three to five days to buy the latest product. If there are no new products, he would buy our best seller.”

Every three to five days? How could Ming Zi have that kind of money to spend here?

“Do you know who he is buying the products for?”

“How would I know? We do not dig into our customers’ lives.” The employee waved his hand nonchalantly.

“Then how much do these cosmetics cost?” asked Xiaowu. He changed his strategy when he was unable to squeeze more information about Ming Zi’s purchase from the employee.

The employee spoke about the products animatedly as he picked up a couple of rouges and introduced them to Xiaowu.

“Our store has a 100 year old history. The latest product costs one tael and five copper coins while the best-seller goes for one tael. We are an honest business, so you can trust us!”

Xiaowu looked at the cosmetics in the employee’s hands and knew it was impossible to get more information from him.

Since he was worried about losing his trail on Ming Zi, he decided to stop talking with the employee and turned to leave.

“Aren’t you going to pick something?” The employee shouted from behind as Xiaowu left.

He watched as Xiaowu ran off and couldn’t help complaining, “I thought you were a big customer. I can’t believe I made a mistake.”

Xiaowu ran out and looked left and right several times but failed to find Ming Zi.

Just as he was about to walk around and try his luck looking for Ming Zi, he suddenly caught sight of Ming Zi leaving a store when he glanced a little to the left.

Xiaowu didn’t bother checking with the store this time. Instead, he followed behind Ming Zi to find out where he was going.

Xiaowu raised his head to look at the store signboard hanging overhead when he walked by the store and realized it was Ruyi Store.

Wasn’t Ruyi Store a jewelry store?

Why was Ming Zi going around buying women’s products? Did he have some strange fetish?

Xiaowu felt chills running down his back just thinking about it. Ming Zi entered yet another store up ahead.

Xiaowu wanted to follow behind him and strode swiftly towards the entrance, but a brawny man suddenly stopped him at the door.

“What are you doing here? We aren’t open for business yet!”

Not open for business? What place were they at?

Xiaowu retreated to see the signboard and discovered it was Piao Xiang Brothel.

A brothel?

It was genuinely too early for them to be open.

Xiaowu nodded knowingly as he looked at the sun hanging overhead.

However, he felt something was amiss.

Why could Ming Zi enter the brothel if it was not open?

Xiaowu acted unreasonable as he shouted at the brawny man, “Why can’t I come in? I have plenty of money!”

“Just leave. So what if you have money? Come back when we are open. Stop making trouble while the girls are getting their rest.” The brawny man was not an easy target. He promptly shoved Xiaowu and seemed prepared to throw Xiaowu out altogether if he refused to leave.

Xiaowu refused to budge. “What about the guy who just went in earlier? If he can go in, so can I!”

The brawny man laughed as he glanced at Xiaowu. “How can you compare to him? He is Yu Die’s intimate friend.”

“So what if they are intimate friends? I can find an intimate friend in there as well!”

Since Xiaowu wanted to get into the brothel, he ended up sounding like a hooligan.

“Of course it means a lot if you are intimate friends with one of our ladies. Do you know how hard it is to earn their favor?”

The brawny man was not angry. Instead, he stood at the door with his arms crossed as he looked at Xiaowu coldly and scoffed in disdain, “Also, he is a generous man and never makes things hard for Yu Die, so Lan always allows him to enter.”

From the sound of it, the girls at Piao Xiang Brothel were even more precious than girls from an average family.

Xiaowu wanted to laugh when he heard what the brawny man said. However, he acted indignantly and looked as though he might pick a fight.

“Tell me what you mean when you say he is a generous man? I am sure I can surpass him!”

The brawny man laughed even more loudly and felt as though Xiaowu had just said something funny.

“Why are you such a nosey parker? Fine. I don’t mind telling you a little.”

The brawny man told Xiaowu about all those things Ming Zi had given Caidie and how often he came. He wanted to help open Xiaowu’s eyes, but he did not realize it was exactly what Xiaowu was counting on.

Xiaowu instantly realized Ming Zi had bought all those luxurious ladies’ products for a girl in Piao Xiang Brothel called Yu Die.

Didn’t he need money to visit the brothel?

“That’s nothing to me! How much does Yu Die cost a night?”

Xiaowu acted like a hooligan as he spoke in contempt.

The brawny man finally scrutinized Xiaowu before he said hesitantly, “Not much. Five taels of silver!”