102 Chapter 102 Causing Trouble (3)
When they pa.s.sed by the servants’ room, the couple blew over the knockout powder to knock everyone out.
Then, they almost encountered a patrol team when they walked to the central courtyard. Afterward, the two hid in a rock decor and observed the surroundings.
In the end, it was confirmed that there were two teams of five people, and the interval between each group rotating was quite long.
The two of them stayed in the rock decor and waited for the patrol team to come over. They blew some knockout powder and carried the fainted people into the decor.
They proceeded to knock everyone out in the manor. According to the layouts of the manor, they found a study in a courtyard in the northeast.
Gu Chengrui stepped forward and used a wire to open the lock. The two of them put on shoe covers and gloves respectively before quietly walking in.
Seeing that the curtains inside were down, Zhou Ying took out two small thumb-sized flashlights and carefully looked for the Qiao family’s account book containing evidence of the crime.
Very quickly, the couple found the account book. However, it was apparent that it was just a surface-level accounting book. But it was not difficult to see that the business of all the Qiao family restaurants wasn’t doing well, especially the restaurants in this town. They basically maintained a level of neither profit nor loss.
“No wonder he’s willing to risk so much on our recipe,” Zhou Ying couldn’t help but say.
“The taste of his food is part of it. I think it also has something to do with his character.” Gu Chengrui shook his head and returned the things to their original positions.
Then, the two started to look for a secret room in the house. They finally found a secret underground room about five square meters in size, hidden behind a bookcase.
There were two large boxes and a small bookcase inside.
He opened one of the boxes and saw gold ingots.
There were four ornaments in the other box. A Jade Guanyin statue, a hanging cypress sculpture with three sheep, a red coral tree sculpture, and a green jade scepter. They were so exquisite that even the couple who did not know much could tell they were precious.
Zhou Ying put them all into her inters.p.a.ce, and the two looked at the small bookshelf. On it were the real account books.
She realized that the Qiao family had been in contact with the county governor for a long time, and they would send many gifts to them every year.
The two boxes of things from before were most likely this year’s New Year’s gifts.
Finally, there were a few letters between them. Gu Chengrui read through them and realized that no other people were mentioned in the letters.
He didn’t know who the county governor backing Elder Qiao was, but he still put down the letter.
After the two of them left the study, they were a little depressed when they saw that they hadn’t gotten many results.
Zhou Ying and Gu Chengrui continued looking for the manor’s various storehouses. First, she found a storehouse of about 100 square meters beside the kitchen. Inside, there was all kinds of food; cured meat, frozen meat, dried vegetables, pots, bowls, ladles, and so on. She put all of them into her inters.p.a.ce.
Then, they went to the warehouse in the front yard. Because it was where they kept their money, two people were left to guard it. When they went over, the two guards were chatting in low voices.
Seeing this, Zhou Ying directly took out a tranquillizer gun, put the two people to sleep, and then stepped forward to take back the needles.
Looking at the big lock on the door, Gu Chengrui immediately went forward to unlock it. He pushed the door open and walked in.
However, the Qiao family was not as rich as they had imagined. They had only received less than ten thousand taels of silver from the warehouse.
There was also a small chest of silver pieces and a large chest of copper coins.
Finally, they found about five thousand taels of silver in a paper form inside a drawer. Seeing that they had got what they could, the two of them wiped away their traces and retreated.
After they left the manor, they went straight home and fell asleep.