OFTLHFRO C71

Chapter 71 Catching a Bandit Gang

The three children were extremely reluctant to see their two fathers go on a long trip.

But there was no helping it.

They prepared the next day’s tofu and milk tea and informed the tavern keeper.

Fortunately, they hadn’t signed any long-term contract before; they simply delivered and sold what they had each time. A quick heads-up to the keeper to line up another tofu supplier early was enough.

As for the small shop, it would be closed for two days. They asked Wen Liuyun to inform their regulars in advance, then the couple bought a carriage and left town.

Even while still in town, they felt they were being tailed, and there was even a bandit “scouting mark” scratched into the corner by their courtyard wall.

Give it two more days and those people would probably have tried to snatch the kids.

The carriage headed straight to the county office, with the item hidden on a hill along the road to Yuanzhou Prefecture.

The men trailing them followed all the way but dared not enter Yuelan County.

Seeing Luo Mingchen and Huo Yan come back out of the county seat puzzled them, but they kept following.

From the scouting they’d done, Xiao Lin shouldn’t be dead yet, which meant the item was likely handed to Huo Yan.

After all, those two were in it together. Back at the bandit stronghold, if Huo Yan hadn’t secretly felled a swath of them, the group wouldn’t have been tied up and dragged off their own mountain.

The carriage rolled on.

Sitting beside Huo Yan, Luo Mingchen said, “Seems like eight men.”

“Their whole band numbers three hundred.”

Tilting his head, Luo Mingchen asked, “Some are still hiding?”

Huo Yan nodded slightly. “Mm. Eight alone couldn’t have hurt Xiao Lin that badly.”

Along the way, a few more joined the tail.

Luo Mingchen couldn’t help teasing, “Did Xiao Lin steal their ancestral treasure or something?”

“Who knows with him.”

Huo Yan was also exasperated by Xiao Lin. He’d told him eight hundred times not to steal, but those hands just itched.

When they reached the place where Xiao Lin had buried the goods, Luo Mingchen, guided by Huo Yan’s directions, used water tendrils to dig out a large chest.

The bandits, perhaps afraid of being discovered, kept a middling distance and couldn’t see clearly what was happening in the trees.

They dug up the other chests too, emptied them into the space, and only then left.

Back in the carriage, Luo Mingchen unrolled the sheepskin and studied it. “No matter how one looks at it, this doesn’t seem like a treasure map.”

Glancing over as he drove, Huo Yan’s expression turned grave. “It’s a military cipher. If delivered to the prefect, someone who understands will decipher it.”

“Huh?”

“He’s kicked a very large hornet’s nest,” Huo Yan said coldly.

A bandit gang colluding with the county yamen and the military—this likely recorded some high official’s…

Seeing Huo Yan’s face darken, Luo Mingchen joked, “With a talent for trouble like his, how come you never chopped his hand off?”

Huo Yan chuckled. “If he hadn’t shown me much kindness, I wouldn’t bother with him.”

“He saved you before?”

“When I joined the escort agency, he took me under his wing for seven or eight years,” Huo Yan said. “I was young then. The others didn’t want to take jobs with me; only Xiao Lin dared to, and he taught me many ways of the jianghu. But… he often broke the taboos himself.”

Hearing this, Luo Mingchen understood why they were so close.

To Huo Yan, Xiao Lin wasn’t a blood brother but was better than one—half a teacher, even.

“No wonder he left you a share of his estate.”

With a faint curl of his lips, Huo Yan said, “When we get back, let’s tell him a chest is missing and watch him cry.”

Knowing he was joking, Luo Mingchen played along. “Sounds good to me.”

They chatted for a long while. When Huo Yan said they were nearly at the Yuanzhou border, the group behind still hadn’t moved.

Luo Mingchen started getting drowsy. “How long until they make their move?”

“On the slope up ahead.”

“Really?”

He didn’t know why Huo Yan was so certain.

But things happened exactly as Huo Yan said. Just as they reached the slope, rocks began tumbling down.

A few water tendrils from Luo Mingchen swatted the boulders aside with ease.

Bandits who’d never seen such “martial arts”: “…”

After a stunned moment, one bandit shouted, “Charge—!”

Dozens rushed down from both sides of the slope.

Luo Mingchen simply waited, and when they were close enough, he bound them all at once.

That strange, overwhelming force sent them into terrified screams. “Demon!”

During all this, Huo Yan stayed seated in the carriage, not moving an inch.

Looking over the struggling mass, Luo Mingchen asked, “How far is it to Yuanzhou?”

Huo Yan stepped down, pulled out the prepared hemp ropes, and quickly bound and gagged the group with practiced ease. “Twenty li. You watch them. I’ll fetch help.”

“Alright.”

With only one carriage, forcing these men to walk would take forever. Better for Huo Yan to bring a bigger party to haul them back.

Luo Mingchen handed him the sheepskin and the token left by the Third Prince. Once the carriage rolled away, he leaned against a tree and sat, nibbling a fruit while the bandits stared.

Seeing him pull food from thin air only deepened their conviction that he was a monster, and they shivered in fear.

He flashed a big, toothy smile for good measure, making them even more afraid.

He waited a long time, but before Huo Yan returned with reinforcements, another bandit troop arrived—clearly the same gang.

Seeing their brothers trussed up like twists of rope, the head bandit’s face went thunder-dark, and he roared at Luo Mingchen, “Hack him to pieces!”

The captured bandits tried to warn their chief to stay away, but gagged, they could only moan.

Rubbing his ear, Luo Mingchen thought the man had quite a set of lungs.

As the group charged with blades drawn, Luo Mingchen pulled out the hidden darts Huo Yan had given him—coated, he’d said, with a drug that induces unconsciousness.

In a blink, water tendrils had them bound as well.

“What kind of technique is this?” the bandit chief gasped.

“Take a guess,” Luo Mingchen replied with a smile.

The bandits: “…”

“Untie me if you’ve got guts, and we’ll fight one-on-one!” the chief spat.

Without politeness, Luo Mingchen jabbed the dart into his shoulder. “A group of you one-on-one against me—who’s the coward here?”

“You—!”

He tried to say more, but his eyelids drooped and he slumped into unconsciousness.

Raising a brow, Luo Mingchen muttered, “Works that well?”

Not knowing how many it could knock out, he went down the line, pricking others.

At the tenth man, the drug wore off.

So he pulled out another dart with a sunny smile. “Sorry—one more prick.”

Bandits who got jabbed twice: “…”

Four darts later, the whole lot were out cold. He frisked them, collected a haul of items, piled the weapons together, and dusted off his hands. “Done.”

When Huo Yan finally arrived with officers and soldiers, they were greeted by a heap of bandits tied into “twists,” another heap stacked into a “human tower” of the unconscious, and a mound of weapons and assorted loot.