Escape of the Detective

Once Yujia asked her question, Zhu'er immediately bowed and blurted out, "Fourth Miss, I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what? No need. You were just doing your job, just like how I was doing mine," Yujia quietly said.

Zhu'er wasn't looking at her, seemingly too ashamed to make eye contact. Yujia had already slipped out of the ropes around her wrists, which fell to the shadows on the floor. She maneuvered her arms a little, as if she was trying to get a comfortable position, when she was just pulling the dagger out of its sheath. 

"This is under a well, right?" Yujia asked, keeping the conversation going.

"Yes," Zhu'er replied simply.

"If I'm going to die," Yujia sighed, "let me at least die with clarity. How does this entire thievery-process work?"

Zhu'er looked up now, regarding Yujia with a bit of suspicion. "I can't… tell you that."

Yujia smiled. "You don't have to go into the details. Do you all just randomly steal things, or is there some sort of organization to it? I've been pondering this question for a long time."

In the meantime, she managed to saw through one of the ropes with the dagger. Now, there were a few more to go. Thankfully, there was a lot of sound of chaos and fire coming from above, so the sounds of her knife against the rope wasn't too noticeable.

"There's some organization."

"Ah, neat. How long have you been a thief?"

Zhu'er squeezed her eyes together. "I was pressured into it.

"Oh? How so?" Yujia looked at the girl with interest. She didn't mention Yang Qingxia's necklace, which was discovered in Zhu'er's jewelry box.

"A lot of the girls in the operation are," Zhu'er explained, "People let their guard down easier with maids. So… they need us for some of the plans, at times, or for sending messages. Personal maids are usually not coerced, but maids like me who just do random tasks around the household will be forced to work with them." 

Yujia thought back to the time where she, the Fourth Miss, was stolen from. Those five gold taels vanished after Manyu directed Hui'er away, and Yujia was put asleep by some sort of drug. Thinking of Manyu, Yujia asked, "Is that so? Do you know a maid called Manyu?"

Zhu'er, who was slightly more comfortable discussing things now, answered, "Her name sounds familiar, but I don't think I know her personally."

"She was one of the thieves involved in stealing my taels," Yujia told Zhu'er, "I think, hearing your explanation now, she must've been coerced. How do they threaten you all?"

"There are many ways. Many servants in the villa are involved in it, so if you don't cooperate, they can easily make your life horrible until you do. They also can't have anyone leaking their secrets, so… there are some death threats along with it."

Yujia observed the expression Zhu'er wore. She didn't seem to lie— not that she would really have any reason to lie to Yujia, who in her eyes, was probably destined to die. It felt like something these thieves would do too.

A second rope was cut behind Yujia's back. Her arms were mostly free of movement now. 

"Steward Liu…" Yujia brought up, "He really caught me by surprise. I didn't think he would be involved. After all, back in the days, there was a case with my personal maid. He was the one who brought her to the family and accused her of being a thief."

Zhu'er said, "As far as I know, he didn't always work with the thieves. It was only recently, about a few weeks back, that he got involved. I don't know how they managed to convince him, though."

Yujia let out a deep breath. "The temptation of wealth was probably too much."

"Likely."

"What about A'Ling? I saw her in the group. They are very involved in the process, aren't they?"

Zhu'er nodded. "Yes, they—"

Before Zhu'er could finish her words, Yujia sawed through the last rope. The fibers broke, and the ropes fell. Yujia stood up, slowly, dusting off her sides and flipping the knife in her hand.

Zhu'er recoiled, her eyes widening at the site that Yujia managed to break free.

"It is quite convenient to hide a dagger up your sleeve," Yujia explained, focusing her gaze on the blade in her hand. She then looked back up at Zhu'er. "I did like our little conversation, so I really don't want to fight or harm you. It seems like you're not all too loyal to this thieves' group either. What do you say about helping me?"

Zhu'er backed away, her posture tensing. "I— that—" she stammered, eyes fixed on the knife. 

"If you help me, I won't harm you," Yujia said, then realizing that her words sounded very threatening. She quickly added on, "I'm not too keen on stabbing people."

It didn't seem to be very comforting. Zhu'er's face paled. 

Continuing on, Yujia assured, ��Relax. As long as you let me walk out of here, no harm will come to you. If Steward Liu and the others demand for an explanation, just say that I had a dagger on me, and you were defenseless."

A tense moment passed. Finally, Zhu'er pressed her lips together and decided, "Alright. The… the rope ladder. It's behind you. You can go."

"Let me look around, first," Yujia stated.

She realized that she was on a tight schedule. When the fire was put out, the thieves would likely return. Yet she had such a perfect opportunity in the den of all the thieves. Wouldn't it be a waste to not explore it?

Up against the walls of the well were many shelves, some of them filled with a few unsold treasures. As Yujia walked past them, she recognized a few of them as items that were labeled as missing in Madam Zhang's records. They were mostly small trinkets.

Yujia theorized that the thieves stole small things each time, storing them in here and then selling them in larger batches. This made the process much more efficient and the act of stealing less noticeable.

In the back of one of the shelves, there was a locked chest. Yujia sized it up with a glance. It was big enough to hold paper records.

She grabbed the box and asked Zhu'er, "Do you know what's in here?"

Zhu'er shook her head. She might've been lying, but considering that her position was shallow in the entire operation, it made sense that she wouldn't know where the records were kept.

The idea of thieves keeping records was strange. However, Yujia figured that with someone meticulous as Steward Liu running everything, he was probably going to have some sort of organization on paper to make sure that everything went smoothly.

She grabbed the box. "I'm going to take it."

Zhu'er didn't say anything against it. It wasn't like she could stop Yujia from taking the box anyways, with Yujia still holding the dagger and all.

Yujia looked through a few more shelves to see nothing else of interest. She bit her lip, then walked across to the rope ladder. 

"Thanks for your help," she acknowledged to Zhu'er before she turned and began climbing the ladder.

Zhu'er still didn't say anything.

The bottom of the well was hollowed out, creating a wide room, so when Yujia began to climb, the ladder was not entirely pressed up against the wall. As she climbed upwards, she entered the area of normal thin walls of the well, feeling safer once she reached this area. If she fell backwards, she would be able to catch herself by throwing an arm out to the other side of the well. 

Thankfully, her arms were not entirely weak anymore, so she managed to pull herself up. The moment her head popped up to the surface of the well, she looked around. There were no servants standing around, and sounds of commotion in the villa still occurred.

Perfect.

Now, Yujia supposed, it was time to make a break for it. Her identity was busted. Steward Liu wanted her head rolling on the floor. She had all the clues that she could find. There was no more need to dawdle in the Yang Villa. 

…

Once the Fourth Miss climbed up, Zhu'er took a few deep breaths before deciding that she had to find Steward Liu and tell him. Like the peculiar Fourth Miss said, she wouldn't be entirely blamed for the escapee, yet she would be blamed if she didn't do anything about it.

She didn't entirely agree with the ways of the thieves. But they had their ways of controlling people, like hiding stolen objects within the belongings of these people they wanted to control. If the person did anything out of line, they would get reported, and thus get their hands chopped off.

For the sake of her safety, Zhu'er had to help them, even if she didn't think that they were in the right.

She took a glance at the well one more time, then reached for the ladder and began to climb.

…

Yujia didn't have time for goodbyes. 

As she ran out of the East Courtyard, she didn't see Xiaoyi, which was probably a good thing. She would feel a need to stop and thank Xiaoyi for what she had done to help Yujia, if that was the case, which would delay her escape greatly.

Servants were rushing with buckets of water to put the fire out, so Yujia managed to blend in with the chaos. She was just one of the many faceless servants, running back and forth.

She wanted to take advantage of the chaos to escape through the front doors of the villa originally. However, when she arrived at the center yard of the villa, she noticed Steward Liu standing at the front doors with a hawk-like gaze, looking at all the servants running through the doors to fetch or bring water.

Yujia immediately spun around, making a direct turn for the South Courtyard. Back doors it was.

Heart drumming, Yujia arrived at the South Courtyard to find one thing: the back doors were locked.

She stared at the back doors, panicking. Why were they locked? Shouldn't they be opened?

The idea that the South Courtyard was furthest away from the North Courtyard surfaced in Yujia's thoughts. Because of speed, it would be impractical to use the South Courtyard to carry water to help the fire. Judging by the quiet courtyard, all the servants had rushed to go see the fire too. Thus, the doors were locked, and had stayed locked.

Madam Zhang's words from much earlier on rang in her head as well. "In case you haven't noticed, the back doors are locked shortly after the end of dinner. You won't be able to enter or exit then."

Yujia really wanted to facepalm right now. 

She looked at the locked door, the box in her hands, and then, the scraggly tree growing next to the door. Since things came down to this point, and she needed to leave the villa, maybe she had to climb the tree and vault over the walls.

That did not sound safe at all, but what could she do? She had no other options.

She didn't know how to climb a tree, but Yujia stuck the box underneath her arms and wrapped her hands around the trunk, trying to figure out how to take the first step.

Half a minute of trying to climb later, the sound of footsteps nearing the yard alerted her. Yujia, who made no progress on climbing the tree, panicked even more.

She couldn't hide behind the tree. It was too scraggly. What was she going to do?

Her feet raced to behind the nearest building, seeing if she could duck inside a room. Just as she did so, the footsteps entered the yard. She barely managed to open the door.

She was not going to make it. She was not going to make it. She was not going to make it.

They were going to notice her.

Then, someone suddenly grabbed Yujia by the sleeve of her robe, yanking her into the room. She almost yelped out of surprise, but looking over, she saw the face of Xie Yufeng in the moonlight. Her hands flew over her mouth, and Yujia immediately shut up. 

The set of footsteps, belonging to two people, neared. One of them said, "I think I heard something over here."

Yujia cowered, shrinking down and curling up against the wall. Meanwhile, Xie Yufeng took a look at her, then a look at the door.

Yufeng sighed, opened the door, and looked out. Yufeng seemed to see the two, saying, "What's all the commotion?"

"Ah? There's a fire in the North Courtyard?" the other voice replied.

"Oh, I didn't know." Yujia heard the sound of Yufeng yawning as she replied, "I just woke up."

"You're a deep sleeper." A pause. "She's not the one we're looking for, right?"

The other voice answered, "Nope, definitely not."

"Well," Yufeng said with exasperation lining her voice and possibly an eye roll, "I'm exhausted. What's so interesting about a fire? Going to go back to sleep."

"Alright. Have a good night."

With that, Yufeng closed the doors. She didn't say anything until the sound of footsteps distanced. Then, once she was sure that she was gone by checking outside one more time, she faced Yujia. "What are you doing?"

Yujia, who managed to catch her breath from that stressful, tense moment, "I'm… running away." She looked at Yufeng, who seemed awfully well-dressed for someone who was supposed to be in bed at this hour. "What were you doing?" She didn't imagine that Yufeng was too interested in seeing a fire.

"I'm running away too," Yufeng admitted, "or, I was supposed to, until you came tumbling inside."

"Ah." Yujia stood up now, wincing. "Thank you for helping me out again. You really saved my life back there."

"Mhm." 

Yufeng didn't seem like one who liked too many "thank you"s. She opened the door again, slipping outside. Yujia followed.

The two both walked towards the back doors, and Yujia pointed out, "The doors are locked. I… I was trying to climb the tree earlier."

"Well, I happen to know how to pick locks," Yufeng replied, a small smile gracing her lips. 

She reached in her hair and pulled a pin out, going forward to pick at the lock. Except, before she could get too far, the sound of footsteps came back. Yujia, hearing them, hastily tapped Yufeng on the back.

"Ah." Yufeng fidgeted with the hairpin some more, barely paying attention to the footsteps. 

The same two people entered the yard. Seeing Yujia and Yufeng standing at the back doors, they stopped in their tracks, one of the yelling out, "You two! Stop!"

F*ck.

Yujia backed up a step, eyes racing back and forth. She reached in her sleeve, ready to whip her dagger out. 

What to do now? The lock— the people— 

The moment the two ran towards Yujia and Yufeng, there was the sound of a loud click. In Yufeng's hands, the padlock fell apart, and Yufeng tossed it aside, pushing the door open. She looked at Yujia, then at the people, only uttering one word.

"Run."