Chapter 1383 — Yu Xiao Ke's Heart Stirs: Could It Be He Knows Her? Knows Her Real Name? After All, She Had Never Made the Name Yu Xiao Ke Public Within Thief Gate, Always Taking Part in Missions Under the Alias of the Swallow Heroine - So How Did Male Thief Come to Know That Name?

She had found him familiar the first time she looked at him. Could it be that he was someone she knew in real life?

But had he really called her Yu Xiao Ke? Now she was not so certain. In that moment of overwhelming shyness, might it not have been a hallucination? Perhaps Male Thief had never addressed her that way at all. Yu Xiao Ke herself could no longer tell.

"What are you doing? You're wandering every which way - do you think you're a crab?" Qiu Lingshan already had a bellyful of fire, and the sight of Yu Xiao Ke stumbling crookedly along only stoked it further. "Walk faster, or Male Thief will have to come back and rescue you again!"

"Oh... oh..." Yu Xiao Ke glanced at Qiu Lingshan, feeling rather aggrieved. It was your man who was playing the rogue with me, wasn't it? So why blame me? Yu Xiao Ke naturally assumed that Qiu Lingshan's temper came from having caught her earlier, half-ambiguous exchange with Wei Zhao - witnessed by the Female Thief, his true partner, and furious over it.

Still, it had to be said: Yu Xiao Ke's guess was not far off the mark.

"She nearly got crushed to death just now and she's still shaken. If you think she walks too slowly, carry her on your back!" Wei Zhao said with a frown, glancing back at Qiu Lingshan.

Wei Zhao, for his part, had not thought that deeply. He assumed Qiu Lingshan's shortness with Yu Xiao Ke came of her being the Female Thief - someone who might at any moment want to bring her to justice.

Qiu Lingshan bit her lip, ready to explode with rage. Why, why? He treated a female thief better than he treated her? Was she really so incapable of moving his heart? True, she had been a bit of a fool before, but she was not a fool now; she had grown far more mature and calm, no longer the hotheaded girl she once was. Could she still not compare to a female thief?

Yu Xiao Ke opened her mouth, then faltered. Looking at Qiu Lingshan's chest heaving with fury, she could not help sighing. It seemed Male Thief did not treat her well after all. Could it be that Male Thief had tired of the old and taken a fancy to the new - that he truly had designs on her?

At that thought, Yu Xiao Ke grew conflicted. Did this mean she had a chance to get rid of the Female Thief and become the Female Thief herself? But... if Male Thief was the sort to tire of the old for the new, what if he swapped her out after a while? By then she would be damaged goods, her capital gone - and what would become of the orphanage?

No. This matter had to be weighed carefully. She might feel a little fondness for Male Thief, but this concerned her whole life and the future of the orphanage. She could not go rushing in recklessly.

Yu Xiao Ke hurried her steps and caught up, giving Qiu Lingshan an apologetic look.

Qiu Lingshan did not know whether to be angry or amused; against Yu Xiao Ke she was truly helpless. With Wei Zhao here, there was no chance of dragging her back. Never mind - she had come this time to catch tomb robbers. Best not to stir up side troubles.

With Yu Xiao Ke as a cautionary example, though Old Black and Elder Yu said nothing, the two of them plainly grew more careful. They only gave the curios and vessels on the display racks a casual look, eyes and ears alert in every direction, watching at all times for danger to descend.

"There's nothing here but ordinary-grade vessels," Old Black said flatly when he had finished looking.

They were antiques, yes, but of little value - like the pile of gold and silver at the entrance, they were there to fool people. Not the work of any famous official kiln, but goods of the sort found in a junk market, worth anywhere from a few thousand to a few tens of thousands, the priciest no more than a hundred or two hundred thousand. Such trifling sums did not even register with Old Black.

What Old Black disdained, Elder Yu naturally disdained even more. Besides, Elder Yu had come this time seeking treasures, not wealth; his attention was fixed on the Qi Gathering Pill, the notes on the practice of medicine, and the legendary insights of the pill refiners. Clearly, things of such importance ought to be kept in a treasure vault, a library, or even the main burial chamber - not left lying in a corridor on the outer edge of the tomb.

Even so, Elder Yu examined the porcelain on the display racks one by one, hoping to see whether anything was hidden inside.

"There is nothing I want here. Anyone who cares to take it may take it," Elder Yu said, also flatly.

Wei Zhao went over and looked through them one by one, then turned and left as well. Yu Xiao Ke, still shaken by what had happened, wanted to take a few pieces of porcelain, but feared the giant boulder would appear again; she shook her head and left with Wei Zhao.

Qiu Lingshan and Chen Yutian had not come to rob a tomb in the first place, so whether the things here were valuable or not was of little concern to them.

The group walked on. Along the left and right of the corridor, treasure chests and display cabinets still appeared, but they merely glanced at them and moved on. Yu Xiao Ke did not dare to be greedy either, taking only a few gold ingots from each chest, never too many, and watching in every direction for danger while she did it.

Wei Zhao was caught between laughter and tears. Yu Xiao Ke was less greedy than before, but she was still greedy. He found himself having to predict danger for her whenever she pocketed her gold ingots. What kind of business was this!

Some distance ahead, they came upon a bookshelf. Elder Yu hurried toward it as though taking two steps at once, for he cared only about books and pills and had little interest in anything else. This was the first bookshelf they had seen, and he would not easily let it pass.

Wei Zhao, too, quickened his pace after him. If Elder Yu would not let these things slip, neither would he. Wei Zhao had been seizing every chance to fleece Elder Yu precisely so that a fight between them, when it came, would be that much easier.

Elder Yu was somewhat displeased that Wei Zhao followed so close upon his heels, but there was nothing for it.

Wei Zhao knew medicine himself, so a single glance was enough to form a general judgment of the books on the shelf. They were all medical texts, but not rare sole copies or lost works - merely common medical books and pharmacopoeias, the sort whose reprints could be found in any bookshop on the market. Nothing remarkable.

Yet the real purpose of this bookshelf might well have been to mislead the petty thieves who broke in. Such men knew nothing of which medical texts were rare copies. The true value of these books lay not in their contents but in the books themselves: old books were a kind of antique, fit for a scholar's collection or as a gift to a friend, and each volume was worth no small sum.

Elder Yu, however, lacked Wei Zhao's ability. His eyes nearly pressed against the books as they traveled back and forth over the titles on the spines, as though he meant to see whether the volumes he wanted were hidden among them.

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