Chapter 75 Make a Name for My Friend!

“Ah, my money bag… My money bag is gone…”

A shrill scream, which sounded like the heartrending cry of a pig before it was led to be slaughtered, came from a cabin.

This scream shattered the peace of the large ship and woke countless passengers from their dreams.

“Me too. My money bag is gone…”

“There is a thief on the ship. Hurry up and report it to someone in charge…”

“Poom! Poom! Poom!” More and more students in various disheveled states opened their cabin doors and shouted angrily.

“Sailors! Sailors! Ask the person in charge to come over quickly!” Zhang Linpu staggered out and shouted as he fastened the belt around his waist. “All the 100 gold coins in my bag have been stolen. Hurry and get them back. Otherwise, we will never let you off.”

“That is right. I had 50 gold coins too.”

“I had 120 gold coins.”

…

Li Muyang opened his eyes. After hearing what they were shouting about outside, he immediately touched his crotch.

Fortunately, both his gold coins and his assets were still intact.

He then closed his eyes and intended to continue sleeping. It was the first time he left his parents and sister and set out on a long journey. Last night, he had a lot of thoughts in his mind, so he fell asleep only when half the night had passed.

It was still dark outside and the faint outline of the moon could be seen in the sky. “How can people outside wake me up at this time?” A thought hit Li Muyang all of a sudden.

Suddenly, he jumped up from the bed, pulled out his luggage that he hid under the bed and rummaged through it.

He found nothing.

The gold coins hidden in the luggage were all gone.

Luo Qi had divided the gold coins into several small packages and hid each small bag of gold coins in his clothes, food boxes and books. To his surprise, the thief managed to find all these gold coins and left the empty bags in their original places. It looked as if they had never been touched.

It was indeed a master thief!

Li Muyang pushed the door open and went out, where there were a group of people making a lot of noise outside.

Zhang Linpu and the other university students from Jiangnan City who lost their money bags were shouting agitatedly. A man wearing a cocked hat was trying hard to explain something to them, but they would not listen to his explanations at all. These passengers held on to the arms and the clothes of this middle-aged man, demanding compensation for their losses.

“Young masters! Young masters! Please listen to me… Please listen to me…” The man with the cocked hat kept bowing and said, “Now the ship has entered the Cock-Crow Lake, which is the most dangerous place along our route and the favorite hideout of those gangsters on water. Thus, though the thief stole your money, he would not be able to leave the ship here.”

“This ship has been sailing all the way and did not dock anywhere. Therefore, I am sure that the damned thief must still be on board. Just give us some more time. Then, we will send people to search every room. Since a large amount of money has been stolen, it will not be easy for the thief to hide his loot. If we find the money, we can catch the thief, right? Then you can get a satisfying explanation.”

Zhang Linpu felt it was reasonable and loosened the collar of the man who was in charge. He turned to look at the other university students who were also from Jiangnan City and asked, “What do you think?”

“Search the ship. We must search the whole ship!” All of them yelled as their anger reached a boiling point. Even though money was an external thing that was not physically connected to them, it was still their lifeline. Just after they left their homeland, all of their valuable items had been stolen by a thief. Would they have to live on air once they arrived in Capital Heaven?

Zhang Linpu saw Li Muyang coming out of the cabin and he asked, “Li Muyang, is there anything stolen from you?”

“210 gold coins were stolen,” Li Muyang said.

Everyone was stunned. These people did not expect Li Muyang to have such a large sum of money on him while he was on his way to his university.

“Is that true?” Zhang Linpu did not believe it.

“I was lucky enough to come in first in the Liberal-arts Exam this time and the City Lord rewarded me with 2,000 gold coins. Originally, my mother wanted me to bring half of the money so that I would not have to suffer much outside. I thought I would not use so much, so I brought only 210 gold coins with me.” Li Muyang explained. No matter what, he could not let others know that he hid another small bag of gold coins in his crotch, because it was his life-saving money.

“…”

Everyone stared at Li Muyang and wondered, “How could this bastard take the first place in the empire’s Liberal-arts Exam?”

The man named Chen Tao was in charge of the ship. He gathered all the crew and passengers on the first and second floor on the deck and then he sent a group of well-armed guards into every cabin to search.

All the university students followed behind them to oversee the operation. Therefore, under everyone’s noses, no one could play any tricks.

Unfortunately, after finishing their search of all the cabins, they did not see the picture they envisaged — a huge pile of gold coins shining in a hidden corner.

“The thief must have hidden the gold coins…”

“What will we do if we lose the money? Do we have to wait to die after arriving in Capital Heaven?”

“No way. We lost our money on this ship and the shipping company has to pay for our losses.”

…

Zhang Linpu pointed to the top of the stairs on the third floor and said, “Steward Chen, we have not searched the third floor, have we?”

When he heard what he said, Chen Tao instantly became very anxious. He constantly waved his hands and said, “We can’t search the third floor. Some important people are staying on the third floor. They can’t possibly steal the little amount of money that the students have.”

Zhang Linpu was unable to endure any of this any longer. He pointed at Chen Tao and shouted, “Steward Chen, what do you mean? Are you saying that people on the third floor are important and we are the mean and low ones? We finished searching all the cabins on the first and second floors, including the cabins of the crew. However, we have not found the thief and the gold coins that we lost. Thus, we certainly should search the third floor…”

“He is right. We are all equal before the law. How can people staying on the third floor be superior to others?”

“Even if there are some important people on the third floor, are their servants and guards nobler than us? Who can guarantee that all of these people have clean hands?”

…

Once again, Chen Tao turned down his request and said, “We can’t do this. We can’t do this. Besides, I can’t decide on this matter. Our shipping company had promised these honored guests when they booked these VIP cabins on the third floor that we would never intrude on their rest.”

“Then, where can we get our stolen money back?” With his face full of anger, Zhang Linpu said, “If your shipping company can compensate for the loss of money for all the university students here, we will not search the third floor. Otherwise, even if the king is up there, we will break into their cabins to take a look…”

“Yes. We will go up and check.” The crowd was burning with rage and echoed in unison.

“What are you all yelling about?” An arrogant voice came from the top of their heads.

Cui Zhaoren, who was wearing a black cloak, appeared at the door of his cabin accompanied by several subordinates of the Department of Supervision and asked with an extremely impatient look. After all, these people downstairs disturbed his sweet dreams, which was truly depressing. He snorted coldly and said, “We don’t care about your several hundreds of gold coins at all. If you dare to slander us without any second thoughts, I will rip your mouths to pieces. Fucking get out of here, all of you!”

“You!” Zhang Linpu wanted to continue to argue with him. However, when he saw those men in black reaching for the handles of their knives and looking ready to fight at any time, he lost his tongue.

“Let us go up and have a look.” A light voice came out.

Zhang Linpu, who was standing at the head of the group, ducked quickly to prove to the group of black-robed men that he was not the one who was speaking. So it had nothing to do with him.

The crowd dispersed instantly. Everyone was trying to hide behind the person who spoke, to disassociate themselves from this tense situation. Then, Li Muyang, who had been tailing the crowd and walking through each cabin with a slightly relaxed posture, faced Cui Zhaoren directly.

“Oh, it is this fool!” Everyone thought in their hearts.

“Who the hell are you?” Cui Zhaoren raised the corners of his mouth and asked.

“Li Muyang,” Li Muyang said with a smile.

“What the hell is Li Muyang?”

“Li Muyang is not a thing but a living person.” Li Muyang smiled brightly and said, “Yan Bolai, the City Lord of Jiangnan City, is my eldest uncle. Besides, Yan Xiangma, the son of the City Lord, is my brother, who is willing to go through life and death for me. He is a famous rich playboy in Jiangnan City who is capable of doing almost any evil deeds. So, please think well before you do anything, young master.”

Li Muyang used a petty trick here. He thought that since all of these people had got on the ship at Maplewood Ferry, then most of them must be from the Jiangnan City. Everyone from Jiangnan City knew about Yan Bolai’s power and influence and that Yan Xiangma was a well-known playboy.

“These people on the ship must have taken note of the fact that Yan Bolai had rushed over just now to see me off. No matter who they are, they should, at least, show some respect to the City Lord Mansion, right?” Li Muyang thought to himself.

As for Yan Xiangma… Well, since he himself often declared that he was capable of doing all sorts of bad stuff, Li Muyang would love to make a name for his best friend and brother.