Around midnight, Su Fan suddenly heard movement outside his door.
"Boss, this kid is with that guy. He should have money too. Let's take care of him first!"
Four men, their faces masked, were lurking outside Su Fan's door, clearly up to no good.
"Be careful! They're spending money so lavishly. If this job goes well, we'll be rich!"
The leader, the boss, slapped the speaker on the head, telling him to keep his voice down.
"Boss, the sleeping powder..."
A subordinate presented the soporific incense.
They had done this sort of thing many times before and were well-equipped.
Inside the room, Su Fan's heart stirred.
He tiptoed to the door.
The boss outside took the sleeping powder from his subordinate, dipped his finger in saliva, and poked a hole in the window paper.
Then, he inserted the stick holding the soporific incense.
Once the incense was blown inside, the person within would fall unconscious in no time.
Su Fan looked at the thin bamboo stick inserted from outside and smiled slightly.
"Let me show you what a real beating from society looks like."
Su Fan directly took the bamboo stick into his mouth and blew air outwards.
Just as the boss outside was about to blow the incense in, the bamboo stick seemed to leak air, and the incense spilled out directly from it.
The boss accidentally inhaled a mouthful.
"Bad! Be careful!"
The boss hastily warned the others and reached to cover his nose, but it was too late. He immediately felt dizzy and his head swam, then he collapsed to the ground with a thud, unconscious.
The other three covered their noses, looking at each other, somewhat at a loss.
"What do we do? The boss is out cold."
"What else can we do? Are we going to miss this chance to get rich just because the boss is down? You two go handle the other one, this one's mine!"
The silver Chen Fang had produced at dinner was very attractive to them. While one piece of silver might not be much, someone who could casually produce a silver ingot without batting an eye here definitely had more money.
They didn't want to miss this opportunity to strike it rich.
Inside, Su Fan almost burst out laughing. Was he trying to split them up because he was afraid I couldn't handle three people alone? You're truly my good brother.
Only one person remained outside. He gently pushed open Su Fan's door. Without the sleeping powder, he had to be careful not to make too much noise and wake the occupant.
Because it was too dark inside and they couldn't light a lamp, he could only rely on the faint moonlight from the window to grope his way forward.
Su Fan quietly followed behind him, not in a hurry to take him down, wanting to see what this guy was up to.
The man, guided by the faint moonlight, slowly groped his way forward and soon found the cabinet.
Normally, guests would store their luggage in the cabinet.
He carefully opened the cabinet door and reached inside to search.
Soon, he frowned. The cabinet was empty, nothing inside.
Su Fan smiled. His belongings were all in his backpack; how could they be in the cabinet?
"Could it be on him? He's quite cautious,"
the man muttered to himself.
Then, to Su Fan's surprise, he groped his way towards the bed.
Was this guy that bold? Daring to approach the owner's bed without sleeping powder?
The man reached the bedside and reached out towards the bed, not afraid of waking the person with this action.
Even though Su Fan hadn't been asleep at all.
"Huh? Where is he?"
As the man groped, he suddenly realized there was no one on the bed. He directly threw the quilt aside, and indeed, it was empty underneath.
"I'm here."
Su Fan decided he wouldn't play around anymore. If he kept playing, Chen Fang might die next door.
The sudden voice from behind startled the man.
"Ah! A ghost!"
The man cried out in shock, jumping with fright.
Su Fan directly hit him on the head with a club. Before the man could react, Su Fan had knocked him down with one blow.
After dealing with this person, Su Fan walked towards Chen Fang's room next door.
In Chen Fang's room, an oil lamp had already been lit.
"You're here."
Chen Fang had already subdued the two men and was standing on them. Seeing Su Fan arrive unharmed, he smiled and said.
Su Fan felt he had worried for nothing. How could Chen Fang's strength not detect the approach of these thieves?
"There are two more in my room, what should we do with them?"
Su Fan asked Chen Fang.
"Wake up the innkeeper and hand them over to him."
Chen Fang said.
They needed to continue their journey and certainly didn't have time to report to the authorities and hand these people over to the officials. They could only hand them over to the innkeeper for safekeeping, and have them sent to the authorities in the morning.
When the innkeeper's wife learned there were thieves, she was quite surprised.
Then, seeing that they had already been subdued by Su Fan and the other, she broke into a smile.
Handing these thieves over to the authorities would not only earn her inn a good reputation but might also bring a reward.
"Don't worry, I'll have Big Head watch them. They won't escape!"
The innkeeper's wife assured Su Fan and the other.
Big Head was the inn's cook, a tall and burly man, who, at first glance, looked like a butcher.
After handing the people over to the inn, Su Fan and the other returned to rest with peace of mind.
The four men were bound hand and foot and locked in the woodshed. Big Head locked the woodshed door and pulled up a chair to sit outside.
"Making me watch them in the middle of the night. You guys are comfortable, all going to sleep."
Big Head grumbled resentfully.
He was unhappy with the innkeeper's wife's arrangement.
After muttering his complaints, Big Head slumped onto the chair and rested. He wasn't foolish enough to stand guard. Why should they all sleep while he had to watch people? Big Head simply lay down on the chair and fell asleep.
Inside the woodshed.
The leader of the four finally woke up.
"Wh... what happened?"
The leader asked the other three, somewhat bewildered. As soon as he woke up, he found they were tied up, but he didn't know what had happened.
"Boss, we've kicked an iron plate. Those two guys are both formidable martial artists. We're done for."
A subordinate explained to the boss with a bitter smile.
"What?"
The boss was still somewhat confused.
However, he had a rough idea of what had happened. Judging by the current situation, they had been captured.
"We need to find a way to escape. If we're handed over to the authorities when it's dawn, it's over for us!"
The boss knew the seriousness of the situation. If they were handed over to the authorities, only death awaited them.
"How do we escape? These ropes are tied tighter than pigs, how can we escape?"
The subordinate complained incessantly.
The boss struggled with the ropes, which were indeed tied very tightly.
The boss looked around and then his gaze fell on a woodcutter's axe by the window.
"Hey! You climb over there and get that axe!"
The boss said to the subordinate who was the only one not tied to a pillar.
There was only one wooden vertical beam in the woodshed, so only three people could be tied to it. The remaining one was simply tied securely and placed nearby. Now, only he could move.