38.5 Paying or not

"What's the plan?"

"The first auction starts this noon. What we can do is that we can go in, and since it is an auction in which all items will be sent in to the people who bought it."

"We can intercept them there, knock them out with sleeping gas without them seeing us, and steal all the items after the items are carried out of the stage."

The animals, including the sheep, nodded. The pheonix and cat, given their skills, the cat will be able to hide himself and so on. The pheonix would be the highest bidder, bidding the highest so that the auction will repay Xuanmei for the money that was lost as they could not find the item.

"Ming, I need your help. We will both steal all the items so as to prevent suspicion. With so many treasures there, why would a burglar steal only one?"

The white cat nodded before it's body split into half. Both copies made black so as to assist Xuanmei in her job. As noon was about to arrive, they made their way into the auction house, sitting quietly as they waited for it to begin.

As a seller, Xuanmei was able to access the second floor, and managed to sneak Ming in as Blue Pheonix, (A: Or now, thanks to Ming, Xuanmei called him Bluey), waited in the Pagoda.

However, things didn't go as planned. After Bluey had raised the price, someone had started a fight below, further raising the price. Ming and Xuanmei, after stealing the items and placing them in the Pagoda, were stopped on their way out.

"Actually, a small situation had happened when the bidding for the jewelry had started... The jewelry is gone."

Xuanmei narrowed 'his' eyebrows, lips pulled into a frown, looking extremely anxious and worried.

"That... The last bid was two million silver taels, and if we paid that price, we'd have to shut down this auction house, so..."

Xuanmei raised an eyebrow, knitting them together slightly, "Then just give me something of equal value."

The auctioneer that ran up to him shook slightly, cold sweat pouring down.

"A-Actually, all of the items in our warehouse were stolen..."

"Fine. How much is your auction house worth?"

"N-Not that much, unfortunately... Two of our auction houses add up to about one and a half million?"

Xuanmei glanced at him, "One auction house?"

"This one is half a m-million."

Xuanmei sighed like she was having a huge dilemma.

"Alright. This auction house and one and a half million taels of silver will do."

"B-But we don't have enough silver taels!"

"Not enough? Don't you have a whole chain of auction houses?"

"Yes... But we have to give some money to the others too!"

"Ah!" Xuanmei said loudly from the front gate of the auction house, "What do you mean you won't repay me?"

"S-Sir! You're creating a commotion! Please stop!"

"Is that so? So are you paying, or not?The common folk will cry injustice for their lost items, you know?"