Chapter 161: Beyond Tears

The secret police of the Imperial Capital pounced like a pack of fierce hunting hounds. Lin Qi had no idea how they managed it; the Dragoons were galloping on horseback right beside them, yet these men running on foot actually arrived first. Witnessing these jogging Copper Helmets get there before the Dragoons, Lin Qi gained a newfound respect for their abilities.

Over a dozen grim-faced, stern Copper Helmets ran up, panting heavily, to No.1 Shenghui Street. Brandishing their copper-tipped batons, they shouted fiercely at the dozens of idlers gathered near the doorway, ordering them to scatter quickly. But these idlers each had powerful patrons and influential backings; why would they ever pay these Copper Helmets any mind?

All the idlers laughed merrily, completely ignoring the threats and shouts from the Copper Helmets.

Just as one irritable Copper Helmets started cursing and swinging his baton, intending to teach a particular idler a lesson, the man calmly pulled a silver emblem from his pocket and flashed it. The Copper Helmets stiffened, staring hard at the emblem for a moment before silently sheathing his baton and walking expressionlessly into No.1 Shenghui Street.

The idlers roared with laughter together. Playing lackey to the young masters of the Imperial Capital’s top aristocratic families meant they could borrow their family’s clout to intimidate these Copper Helmets—a thoroughly entertaining delight for them. Watching the Copper Helmets rush inside, the curious idlers, eager to see what was happening inside, also surged in. Lin Qi cheerfully followed right behind them.

Following the tree-lined avenue briskly for a while, Lin Qi arrived in front of the three main buildings.

Elham stood before the main building’s entrance, his face livid, body trembling noticeably. Ya and Ling, usually cold and aloof like twin icebergs, now had pale, ghastly faces. Their vacant eyes stared blankly, having lost all focus as they stared fixedly at a point in the sky, as if all vitality had abandoned them.

As for Tolin, and the brothers Yan and An, they weren’t faring much better. Shivering near the main building’s door, they craned their necks like dead ducks, looking utterly lost at the thoroughly cleaned ground floor hall. Only a few large, hard-to-move pieces of furniture remained.

But these pieces of furniture hadn’t escaped harm. Any gems, gold, or silver originally embedded on them had been ruthlessly stripped away. Now, they resembled seventy- or eighty-year-old women after their heavy makeup had been scrubbed off, suddenly transformed into things monstrously ugly.

The precious ornaments that once hung on the walls had vanished without a trace. Paintings, true artistic treasures created by masters, had been sliced whole from their frames, rolled up, and stolen. Even the gold and silver embedded in the picture frames had been meticulously gouged out. Empty frames hung on the walls now, gaping like wide-open, screaming mouths.

The once magnificent chandelier that hung from the main hall’s ceiling, adorned with thousands of diamond pieces the size of peas, was gone. When lit at night, those diamonds had reflected the light, creating an indescribably resplendent scene—like thousands of tiny suns glowing with all the colors of the rainbow, crafting a dream-like, heavenly atmosphere.

Now, the chandelier had been scraped bare. The thousands of small diamonds were gone. Even the pure gold chains that held it up were taken. What remained was only the chaotic skeleton of the chandelier, haphazardly discarded on the floor, looking like a pitiful woman after brutal suffering, lying there weak and powerless.

Those ruthless thieves had even pried off the decorative panels around the fireplace mantels. Those panels had been made from rare thousand-year-old agarwood. Heated by the fireplace’s flames, the wood would naturally release a warm, sweet fragrance that calmed the mind and refreshed the air.

But all those thousand-year-old agarwood panels were gone. The grand fireplace now resembled a ninety-year-old man’s mouth, stripped of all its teeth, leaving behind only a dark, hideously gaping hole.

One Copper Helmets stared blankly at the hall, which looked like it had been scrubbed clean, and muttered under his breath, “Even cleaner than if a dog had licked it.”

The sound of hooves drummed on the pavement as a full troop of one hundred Dragoons charged in, accompanied by several dozen more Copper Helmets. The Dragoons swiftly secured the mansion’s entrances and exits, forbidding any unauthorized bystanders from approaching.

The newly arrived Copper Helmets exchanged a few serious, low words with their fellows who had arrived first, then split into two groups heading towards the other two auxiliary buildings.

Lin Qi swayed gently as he walked. It didn’t matter which building he went to; he had full confidence in the expertise of the men trained by his own father. They wouldn’t have left behind anything valuable and portable. All twelve extended Four-Wheel Carriages, plus the ankle chain on his foot, and Uncle Bar and Aunt Lili’s Spatial Artifacts—everything valuable within the three buildings had been thoroughly swept away.

Apart from those truly immovable beds, sofas, and heavy wardrobes, everything of worth had been taken.

And even though those large beds, sofas, and wardrobes couldn’t be moved, any precious materials embedded into them—gems, metals, decorative plates—were all pried off. Even the large mirror panes on the wardrobes had been snapped away without hesitation—after all, a full-length mirror could fetch several thousand gold coins on the market. Only those unscrupulous merchants in the Vias Commercial Federation knew how to make such large mirrors, keeping their prices steep.

Lin Qi wholeheartedly agreed with that Copper Helmets’ muttered words. ‘Cleaner than if a dog had licked it’? Nope. More like two hundred voracious wolves had thoroughly pillaged this place.

With an odd smirk twisting his lips, Lin Qi sidled up to Yulian. Without moving a muscle on his face, Yulian subtly slipped a Tixiang family emblem into Lin Qi’s hand.

With the Dragoons and Copper Helmets here, not having a Noble family’s emblem for protection would be troublesome indeed. Lin Qi weighed the heavy emblem in his palm and then, chuckling softly, leaned casually against a wall. He watched Elham and his group through slitted eyes.

Their faces looked like those of the dead.

Tixiang was also stunned by the scene before him. Just two days prior, when he and Lin Qi had visited, this place had been opulent and luxurious beyond words. Now… it could scarcely be distinguished from a slum dwelling in the poorest quarter. He carefully approached Elham and asked in a low voice, “What in the world happened here? How could everything be… like this?”

Elham trembled, speechless for a long moment. After what felt like an age, his lips finally quivered as he uttered, dazed, “Yes… what happened? Uh… what happened? How… how could it be like this?”

Elham squeezed his eyelids tightly shut. He seemed desperate to shed tears, but no matter how hard he tried, not a single drop would come.

Watching poor Elham’s pitiable little expression, Lin Qi felt immense satisfaction deep within.

But seeing that pair of sisters, Ya and Ling—women who had previously stood so aloofly superior, had snootily looked down their noses, and had deliberately caused trouble for Lin Qi—now reduced to looking like two brittle pieces of wood… that feeling blossomed into outright, glorious joy.