"Should I get the money from the manor's treasury or your private stash?" Leader Ye said in a voice that made it seems like Xie Yang was committing a crime.
Xie Yang's eyes twitched. What crime was there in taking the criminal money for himself and not giving it to the useless authorities who failed to do their jobs properly and let a significant criminal run his business in the spiritual forest? Yes, Merchant Jin's had a bounty on his head. Xie Yang earned 2000 gold coins from giving his head to the authorities. He kept mum about everything he found from Merchant Jin's place, though, including the bandit's den. He cooked up a plot and fooled them into believing that he and Leader Ye came across Merchant Jin and coincidentally realized him as a criminal and killed him. Under Leader Ye's stern glare, the inspector had to believe me even if they found his story unbelievable.
Thus, Xie Yang kept the wealth he got from the bandit's den.
Xie Yang replied, "I do not wish to trouble father with this matter anymore, so take it from my private stash."
Xie Yang's private stash included things he had gotten from the bandit's den. He hadn't sold the weapons and magic pouches or opened the mysterious chest and Merchant Jin's private inter-spatial item, yet he had counted 1000 gold. Add on the two thousand he got from the official; he had around 3000 or so gold taels.
"I will quickly sort them out then."
"Mm-hmm."
Leader Ye turned around to leave, but when he reached the door, he suddenly remembered something and stopped.
"Before I leave, I still have a matter to discuss with you*. Wen An wishes to serve you. He says that even the status of a slave will be acceptable. He feels extremely grateful to you because you saved him and wants to use the rest of his life to repay you."
(Leader Ye used an informal "You" here)
"You have checked his background, right?"
Leader Ye looked shocked as he asked in a bewildered voice, "How did you know?"
Xie Yang exposed a thin smile and replied, "I guessed."
"He used to work as a debt collector for a gambling inn. While his work wasn't honest and he was very good at it, scaring the restaurant left and right, every month he would deposit 70% of his earning to the orphanage that had taken care of him."
"What about the rest?"
"He gave the rest to his adoptive mother, whose son is sick and needs monthly treatment to stay out of his bed. (Deathbed)"
Xie Yang's eye raised, and he turned his head to look at Leader Ye, who was behind him and next to the door, before asking, "So, how did he survive?"
"The gambling inn provided him with food. As for accommodation, most of the time, he slept in the temple. And when he couldn't go there, he used the ground as his bed and the sky as his blanket, sleeping in the wild without care of getting robbed."
"Pfft!" Xie Yang started laughing.
It indeed took Leader Ye by surprise.
"I'm pretty sure that the bandits picked him up when he was sleeping on the road and dragged him to their cell."
"Well, there was a huge chance that Xie Yang was right,' Leader Ye thought.
"Let him serve me."
Wen An wanted to turn over a new leaf. He no longer wanted to work in a gambling den as a debt collector. He was tired of breaking into people's houses and threatening them to pay up. He didn't like the debt collector or the foolish gambler, who clearly had a family to take care of but still indulged in gambling, losing money that they needed to feed their child. How could a man be so irresponsible? They were as worse as his parents, who had abandoned them at the doorsteps of the orphanage on a cold winter night. He would have frozen to death if it weren't for his adoptive mother. His adoptive mother's situation wasn't good either. Her husband was dead, and her son was sick. The orphanage was good but not financed by the locals. It ran on alimony given by the typical household, and sometimes a reasonable person would also leave behind a bid donation. Still, when the times were hard and when they weren't, Wen An didn't forget to donate his income to the orphanage.
Wen An was a good person, but because of his surroundings and circumstances, he had to do evil deeds to take care of himself and the people he cared about, Xie Yang could tell.
He could also tell that the latter wanted to latch on to him to find redemption and become a good man, and most importantly, earn a lot to help out his adoptive mother and her sickly son.
"En."
"Wait a moment."
Leader Ye: "..."
Xie Yang opened his magic pouch, took out a silver tael, and flicked it towards his stepbrother, who grabbed it so fastly that Xie Yang didn't even see how he did it.
"This is for?"
"Wen An's salary."
Leader Ye turned and left, leaving Xie Yang alone in the room with Zhang Xiu, whose eyelashes fluttered.
She was about to wake up!