Courtyard House: Home Alone

Lin Yifan glanced at the ashen-faced Yoshijiro Umezu, chuckled, and with a flick of his hand, the documents and pistol on the table disappeared. Suppressed gasps instantly filled the conference room.

These seasoned Japanese generals had never seen such an unbelievable tactic before. They froze in their seats, even their breathing became cautious.

Lin Yifan was too lazy to waste any more words with them. With a thought, he put the entire conference room, along with all the Japanese officers inside, into his system space. After doing all this, he silently teleported back to the alley, straightened his clothes, and swaggered towards the direction of the puppet palace.

As he walked, he used his mental energy to survey the palace. He wasn't in a hurry; he released his mental energy to scan the entire palace, collecting all the precious calligraphy, paintings, bronzes, and porcelains into his spatial storage.

Finally, a small treasure vault was discovered underground in the garden, filled with gold and silver jewelry that Puyi had brought from the Forbidden City, as well as many imperial seals and precious books from the Qing Dynasty.

Lin Yifan chuckled inwardly. These things were originally treasures of China, but they had fallen into the hands of puppets supported by the Japanese. How could they be as safe as taking them back and storing them in his own warehouse?

With a thought, he stored all the treasures in the vault into his spatial storage. Then, he turned his attention to Puyi, who was taking a nap.

Lin Yifan had no intention of taking the puppet emperor's life; he simply put away the two jade pendants on the emperor's body and a jade thumb ring that was placed on the bedside table.

After packing up all his belongings, Lin Yifan quietly slipped out of the palace, hailed a rickshaw on the street, and swaggered back to the Xinjing Railway Station.

He planned to take the train from Xinjing to Fengtian, where the largest arsenal in Asia, the Fengtian Arsenal, was located.

He didn't want to see the weapons and ammunition flowing from this arsenal harming the Chinese people again.

The rickshaw arrived at the train station quickly. Just as he was about to get off and pay, an alarm suddenly sounded from the direction of the Kwantung Army headquarters. The piercing alarm instantly covered the entire city. The Japanese military police and Kwantung Army soldiers inside the station immediately blocked all entrances and exits with their guns at the ready. Armed patrols searched for pedestrians along the streets.

The Chinese rickshaw driver trembled in fright, his legs going weak, and he stammered, "What...what happened? Has something terrible occurred?"

Lin Yifan understood immediately; it must have been the Kwantung Army headquarters that discovered all the officers inside were missing, which triggered the city-wide alarm.

He paid the fare without making a sound, took out the resident ID card and put it away, then mingled with the panicked crowd and slowly moved towards the entrance of the station.

Chaos reigned all around, with cries and shouts mingling with the curses of the Japanese soldiers. No one noticed the child in school uniform, who calmly followed the crowd to undergo inspection.

Before the news of the incident at headquarters reached the station checkpoint, the Japanese military police simply glanced at his identification as usual and waved him through.

Lin Yifan bought a train ticket to Fengtian, the fastest train to the city. Just two minutes after entering the carriage, the train sounded its whistle and slowly started moving, leaving Xinjing Railway Station.

He leaned back in his chair, watching the city walls of Xinjing rushing past the window, a faint smile playing on his lips. This trip to Xinjing had brought him far more profit than he had expected.

Meanwhile, Puyi, who was taking a nap, was also awakened by the alarm outside. He hurriedly got up and called for his servants, but no one answered for a long time. He quickly put on his shoes and prepared to go out to check.

Suddenly, she felt something was missing. Upon closer inspection, she realized that a thumb ring and two jade pendants that she wore every day and particularly cherished were gone.

"These scoundrels dare to steal even my beloved possessions! They must be severely punished when we get out!" Puyi was both shocked and furious. He had assumed that someone from the palace had taken advantage of the situation to steal his jade pendant.

As I walked out of the dormitory, I noticed that many things seemed to be missing from the palace; it turned out that Tang Bohu's statue was hanging there.

The painting "Pine Trees and Mountain Path" is gone; only three bare nails remain on the wall.

Further on, the Song Dynasty Ru kiln celadon vase that used to be displayed on the multi-treasure pavilion has disappeared, and the several authentic works by famous Yuan Dynasty artists that used to hang on both sides of the corridor are also empty.

Puyi panicked and staggered to the side hall where the treasures were hidden. When he pushed open the door, he found that all the treasure chests that had been neatly arranged inside were empty, and not a single treasure remained.

His legs gave way and he collapsed onto the doorstep, stammering, "It's over...it's all over...I've encountered a ghost!"

After sitting on the threshold for a while, Puyi calmed himself down and shouted, "Where are they? You bunch of lackeys, don't you all want to live anymore?"

As soon as the shouts were finished, two terrified eunuchs scrambled in, knelt down in front of Puyi, and trembled so much that they could barely speak.

Seeing their behavior, Puyi was so angry that he kicked the head eunuch away and shouted in a shrill voice, "Where are all the treasures in the palace? Who stole them out to exchange for wine and meat? Are you all blind?"

"Such a big thing happened, why didn't anyone report it to me! Quickly send someone to the Kwantung Army headquarters to find Commander Honjo... no, Commander Umezu, and tell him to send someone to investigate immediately!"

The eunuch scrambled to his feet and hurriedly ran out, only to be stopped at the palace gate by Qi Jizhong, Puyi's personal bodyguard. Qi Jizhong knelt before Puyi and said, "Your Majesty,...something terrible has happened. More than ten division commanders and eleven brigade commanders of the Kwantung Army have...disappeared from headquarters. Even Commander Umezu is...missing."

The Japanese have now sealed off the entire city and are searching for suspicious persons from house to house. The entire new Kyoto is under martial law. The Kwantung Army headquarters sent word that the palace gates must also be closed immediately and no one is allowed to leave the palace to cooperate with them in the search for the assassin.

Upon hearing this, Puyi felt a chill run down his spine. It turned out that not only had he lost his treasure, but a group of Japanese generals had also vanished without a trace. This was no petty theft; it was clearly a powerful figure who had broken in.

He shakily got up from the ground and waved his hands at Qi Jizhong: "Seal...seal the palace gates quickly! Everyone go back to your rooms and stay there. Don't run around. Cooperate with the Japanese search. You must...no, you must cooperate with the Japanese to find that murderer!"

Qi Jizhong immediately responded and went to make arrangements. Instantly, all the gates of the entire pseudo-imperial palace were closed, and everyone was on tenterhooks, with no one daring to move around.

Puyi was restless in his palace, his heartache over the loss of his treasures outweighing his fear of the assassins. He only hoped that the Japanese would capture the assassins quickly and recover his precious possessions.

Qi Jizhong quietly arrived at the inner palace, pushed open the side door of Empress Wanyi's bedchamber, and immediately saw Wanrong leaning against the soft couch, her face flushed with an abnormal redness, as if she had just finished smoking opium.