The moment they heard what Xiaowu said, Wang Er asked, “What do you mean? Are you looking down on our source of income? Do you think it is wrong for us to do this?”

Xiaowu looked anxious and a little slow as he hurriedly explained, “It’s not true! I’m just worried you don’t have enough money. Also, if you didn’t help me, I would have…”

Xiaowu’s eyes turned red as he spoke and wanted to kneel before Wang Er and the others.

Li Erfa was caught by surprise and quickly helped him up.

“What are you doing? You don’t have to be so formal with us now that we are friends!”

Wang Er finally let down his guard on Xiaowu. After observing Xiaowu for some time, he found Xiaowu authentic and ungreedy.

He placed two pearls in Xiaowu’s hands.

“Enough. Don’t worry. There is enough for everyone. I won’t let you work for nothing.”

“Erm…”

Xiaowu looked at the pearls in his hands hesitantly. Li Erfa also placed a gold hairpin in Xiaowu’s hands.

“Enough. Just take it. What are people going to say if they find out we ill-treat one of our own?”

Xiaowu felt his acting was superb.

He looked at Wang Er and the others teary-eyed as he choked and placed the valuables they had given him into his chest.

They happily split their loot and buried the bodies.

Xiaowu noticed that Wang Er and the others had saved some medicinal powder in their basket.

From the looks of it, they would save some medicinal powder each time they looted the unmarked burial gravesite.

Xiaowu made a mental note as he packed up and left the mountain.

It was very eerie and cold on the mountain at night. Xiaowu could faintly hear rustling.

However, he was unable to hear anything the moment he stopped to listen carefully.

Not even the sound of insects or birds could be heard and no other trees grew on the mountain other than pine trees.

“Er, are there really ghosts in the unmarked burial site?”

“Perhaps. Also, there are people out there eviler than ghosts.”

The wind swept Wang Er’s voice away. Judging from the serious look on his face, Xiaowu was certain the looting was not as simple as it seemed.

It appeared this would be a tough case to crack.

Xiaowu contemplated in his heart. Now that he had earned their trust and was a part of their team, he had made quite a bit of progress. He was confident about cracking the case if Chu Yunshen could give him a little bit more time.

Xiaowu touched the plunder in his chest as he followed Wang Er and the others down the mountain confidently.

The mountain quickly disappeared behind them and the oppressive sensation he felt dissipated gradually.

After Xiaowu and the others left, the wind had swept the clouds away leaving the moon unusually bright.

If anyone was there, they would be able to see a pair of bright eyes looking for something among the edge of some broken stones on the mountain.

He had to strike while the iron was hot.

Xiaowu didn’t part ways with Wang Er and the others after getting back to the city. Instead, he invited them to go for a drink.

After all, they were very close now. As Li Erfa would say, they were so close that they had even shared food and drink with each other.

Inside the tavern late at night, smoke rose from the steamers on the stove.

The tavern owner was scooping hot water from the pot and throwing it on the ground as he yawned.

The glossy lanterns gave off a red glow in the darkness. Wind swept through the streets leaving them rustling as the flames stubbornly refused to go out.

All the other tables at the tavern were empty and only their table was occupied.

The scent of alcohol and steam from the pot blended as they wafted into the cool atmosphere.

Someone’s voice came from the distance.

“Er, let me offer you a toast!”

Xiaowu’s face was flushed as he held his wine with his hands shaking and was incapable of standing up straight.

Wang Er wasn’t that drunk, but he stared straight into the air with a light in his eyes.

Xiaowu turned to toast Li Erfa sitting on his left. Since his hands were not steady, his glass tilted when he turned and a lot of wine was spilled.

“Erfa! I have to toast you as well!”

Li Erfa was already dead drunk. The moment he heard what Xiaowu said, he raised his hand mechanically and drank.

Xiaowu sat down after toasting the man as he hugged Wang Er and Li Erfa by the shoulders and sighed, “I am so grateful of you. From now on, I am at your service!”

Li Erfa pulled Xiaowu’s hand off his shoulder and said valiantly, “You don’t have to be so formal with us now that we are friends!”

Wang Er nodded as well. He watched as Li Erfa got drunk and ate a peanut before he gulped the wine from his glass and said to Xiaowu, “From now on, we should just be loyal to each other. As long as you don’t turn against us, we will treat you well.”

An ingrate?

What did Wang Er mean by that?

He also said humans could be eviler than ghosts up on the mountain earlier.

Was there more to this?

Wang Er was a little drunk, so he became more talkative.

He looked at Xiaowu profoundly as though Xiaowu reminded him of someone.

“You are a good man!”

Xiaowu did not see this coming. Wang Er looked like he was dying to say some things after keeping them to himself for a long time. All the drinking had loosened his tongue.

“I didn’t want to treat you with such caution.” Wang Er started with his story as he kept filling his glass.

Xiaowu frowned as he took Wang Er’s wine from him. The last thing Xiaowu wanted was for Wang Er to get drunk. Otherwise, he would never learn the truth from him.

Xiaowu said with genuine concern, “Er, you should slow down on the wine. I will help you drink some!”

People who were drunk didn’t like it when others tried to stop them from drinking.

Also, Wang Er got emotional when he saw the look of concern emanating from Xiaowu’s square face.

“I am fine! I can still drink!”

He took the wine glass from Xiaowu’s hand and filled it again.

This time, he did not drink without eating and took a bite of food before turning to tell Xiaowu, “There used to be more burial workers working for Uncle Gen.”

“I know this. I heard Uncle Gen hired us because they went missing.” Xiaowu pretended to nod knowingly.

“No, you don’t get it!” Wang Er looked even drunker than before as he waved his hand at Xiaowu hard and interrupted him, “Do you think they are just missing? Hahaha!”

Were they finally going to come clean with the truth?

Xiaowu couldn’t help feeling excited.

After all, he had worked hard to gain their trust and work with them. He had arranged for himself to get beaten up to earn their trust and plunder the unmarked burial gravesite with them.

Now that Xiaowu’s plans were about to succeed, he could not help feeling exhilarated.

Since he was still pretending to be someone else, he acted shocked as he asked, “Didn’t they go missing? Don’t tell me the burial site is really haunted?”

“Hahaha!”

Wang Er belted out laughing the moment he heard what Xiaowu said.

“What ghosts? Ghosts my arse! They are the only ghosts on the burial site!”

“…”

Wang Er didn’t make himself clear enough, so Xiaowu wasn’t able to discern the truth from drunken babble.

All he could do was to act lost in the hope that Wang Er would clarify himself.

Wang Er knew Xiaowu was an honest man, so if Xiaowu didn’t have anything to say, it meant Xiaowu didn’t understand what he was saying.

He knocked back the now cold wine. Although he seemed drunk, a murderous light radiated from his eyes subtly.

“Anyone who attempts to cause trouble for me has to die!”

Xiaowu finally realized Wang Er was not kidding when those words suddenly popped from his mouth.

Something must have happened here. Perhaps Wang Er might have really sent those people to their deaths and left them haunting the unmarked burial gravesite.

Sadly, Wang Er continued drinking the moment he finished his sentence and refused to talk about it. Xiaowu had no choice but to quietly drink his wine as he thought about squeezing the information from Wang Er some other time.

The shopkeeper was leaning on one hand and dozing off at the stove as he nodded uncontrollably like a woodpecker when Xiaowu and the others left.

Xiaowu smiled as he pondered, but the moment he recalled the case, the smile on his face disappeared.

How could he have the cheek to smile when he had no leads about the case?

So many people had gone missing…

Xiaowu was really starting to feel the burden on his shoulders. He had to work on it even faster.

Xiaowu supported Wang Er and Li Erfa with one hand each.

Wang Er was still able to stumble along on his own. Li Erfa’s legs had already gone limp. If Xiaowu wasn’t so strong, Li Erfa would have already fallen onto the ground by now.

Xiaowu supported Li Erfa as Li Erfa muttered drunkenly.

Wang Er remained quiet. He looked at the sky as the sun gradually rose and seemed to be in deep thought.

“It’s too bad Ming Zi couldn’t join us today,” said Xiaowu as he chuckled.

“He never drinks with us.” Wang Er’s voice sounded even deeper when he was drunk. “But Ming Zi is a nice guy and just as honest as you.”

Xiaowu felt deeply misunderstood. He had the human skin mask to thank for his down-to-earth image that made people think he was a pushover.

The three of them trudged back slowly. Li Erfa even leaned against the wall and vomited for a long time. By the time Xiaowu brought them back home, it was already dawn.

Li Erfa quickly started snoring thunderously the moment Xiaowu put him onto the bed. Wang Er took off his shoes and socks before he fell into a deep slumber.

Xiaowu noticed Ming Zi surprisingly missing from the room when they came back.

Since Wang Er and Li Erfa had already fallen asleep, Xiaowu could not dig more information from them, so he decided to find an empty space on the bed and went to sleep.

It was already nightfall when they woke up. Li Erfa woke up with a splitting headache and was crying in pain as he held his head in bed.

“It hurts like hell, but we sure had a good time drinking! We haven’t drunk so heartily in a long time, right Wang Er?”

Wang Er sat in bed as he quietly rubbed his temples. He simply frowned and acknowledged Li Erfa.

Li Erfa noticed Ming Zi’s bed empty, so he asked Wang Er, “Has Ming Zi gone out again?”