Squeak-rattle! Squeak-rattle!
The iron wheel of Hong Ling’s heavy treasury wheelbarrow rolled across the concrete plaza and stopped right in front of the four craters.
Ever since Day 1 in Dry-Well Village—when she was a skinny fifteen-year-old maid sleeping on top of the last bag of moldy rice with two kitchen cleavers in her hands—Hong Ling’s favorite sound in the whole world had been the clinking of coins going into Pei Xuan’s vault.
And her most hated sight in the whole world was anyone trying to break her Young Master’s property without paying for it!
Standing at Rank 5 High Foundation Establishment, wearing a neat red silk treasurer’s jacket with a golden abacus pin on her collar and two heavy fused [Rank 5 Butcher Cleavers] strapped to her waist, Hong Ling looked down at the four radish-stained Golden Core Ancestors like a strict headmistress catching four kids stealing cookies.
“Hands out of the holes, please!” Hong Ling said crisply, snapping open her three-foot-long [Fused Lock-Cracking Insulated Tongs] with a loud CLACK-CLACK. “Under Dry-Well Municipal Law Section Nine, any unregistered person who falls out of the sky and cracks public pavement must surrender all personal valuables for immediate bailiff appraisal!”
Down in Crater #4, Ancestor Gold-Bone—whose ten chubby golden fingers were covered in forty-two sparkling Rank 6 Spatial Storage Rings—gasped in horror and tried to stuff both of his hands into his mouth to hide them!
