Seeing the offerings before them, the team members still seemed a bit hesitant.
One of the team members whispered, "Chief of Staff, I heard that the god in this temple is quite effective. If we just eat his offerings… isn't that a bit disrespectful?"
"It's fine, he and I are old acquaintances. No need to stand on ceremony with him. Just eat to your heart's content!" Yamabuki was already gnawing on an apple.
Seeing their Vice Captain eating with such relish, the team members no longer cared about such details and began to devour the fruits and pastries.
As a result, they waited there for a long time but didn't see the person they were supposed to meet.
After eating his fill, Yamabuki stroked his chin, muttering, "Could my prediction be wrong? Furuoki Ōtogawa isn't hiding here at all? Or is it that a cunning rabbit has three burrows, and he has another hiding place?"
Yamabuki pondered for a long time but couldn't figure it out, after all, he wasn't a Shinigami Detective.
It seems the Gotei 13 needs to introduce talented detectives. A thousand years from now, I'll go directly to Beika Town and kidnap the Shinigami Detective to work for me.
Wait, according to what the tavern owner said earlier, Furuoki Ōtogawa should be carrying a lot of money. Money in this era is made of metal, and carrying so much money to kill someone would definitely be very inconvenient.
As a professional assassin, Furuoki Ōtogawa would definitely hide the money in a place that is not easily discovered.
What kind of place is not easily discovered?
Yamabuki looked at the statue in the temple.
People in this era were often more superstitious, attributing everything they didn't understand to mysticism.
It was said that this statue was very effective, so it was probably rare for anyone to act disrespectfully towards it.
"I'll help you move, and give you a massage while I'm at it. Consider it payment for eating your offerings just now." Yamabuki directly lifted the statue from its base and casually tossed it aside.
Those more superstitious team members quickly righted the statue, bowing repeatedly and muttering words like "Please do not be offended."
After Yamabuki moved the statue, he was as happy as a child when he saw what was hidden beneath it.
There was a bowl-sized hole beneath the statue, very deep. Yamabuki reached in and pulled out item after item—large bags of coins, many small gold bars, and some jewelry.
Just this money alone was almost half a month's revenue for his clothing store!
Yamabuki once saw a video online where a large hole was made in a tree where a woodpecker lived, and many nuts fell out!
Yamabuki felt like he was that wicked lumberjack, and Furuoki Ōtogawa was that poor woodpecker who had spent an entire winter collecting and filling the tree, only for it all to benefit someone else.
"Awooooh! Chief of Staff, we're rich now!" The team members shouted excitedly when they saw the money.
This was enough to cover several years of their salaries.
"The money isn't ours. We need to be honest and return it to its owner. Of course, we can't return it here." Yamabuki thought of a rather fun idea. He took out a piece of wood, carved a few words on it, then dropped it down the hole and restored the statue.
"Alright, brothers, let's head back." Yamabuki happily led his team members back to the Eleventh Division.
It wasn't until the afternoon that the rain finally stopped, and a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky.
At dusk, Furuoki Ōtogawa returned happily, carrying a bag of money.
This mission had also gone very smoothly. The target was a noble young master who thought his personal guards were skilled, but unexpectedly, Furuoki Ōtogawa easily killed them all in just a few moves, completing the mission effortlessly.
The person who hired him had given him a very generous reward.
Furuoki Ōtogawa extravagantly took out a copper coin to buy a bowl of wine, and then just as extravagantly took out another copper coin to buy a small dish of pickled vegetables, enjoying his dinner with relish before returning to the temple.
He vowed to be like a diligent little bee, accumulating wealth bit by bit, and one day he would become a rich man.
Furuoki Ōtogawa chose the temple as his home for two reasons: first, it was free and inconspicuous, and second, there were free offerings to eat.
He was about to eat some after-dinner fruit when he realized that today's offerings were pitifully few.
There was only one grape.
Furuoki Ōtogawa, adhering to the truth that "free things are the best," picked up the grape and popped it into his mouth.
Then he moved the statue, preparing to deposit the money he had just earned inside.
But as he moved the statue, he noticed something was off; it seemed as though someone had moved it. A bad premonition surged in his heart. Furuoki Ōtogawa quickly pushed the statue aside and reached inside, only to find…
"Empty… How could it be empty… How could it be empty… Empty…" Furuoki Ōtogawa felt his mind descend into utter chaos.
He reached out and slapped himself hard.
"A dream! This must be a dream! Wake up immediately! Or did I come to the wrong place? Do other villages also have an identical temple, with an identical statue inside, and an identical hole beneath the statue?!" Furuoki Ōtogawa trembled as he went outside, confirming that it was still the same temple, the same statue, but the money beneath the statue…
"It's gone!!!! All gone!!! My money!!! My money!!! Ah ah ah ah ah ah!"
Furuoki Ōtogawa knelt on the ground, howling at the sky. The pain was worse than being cut into a thousand pieces.
"Oh God! Why are you doing this to me! My money! The money I worked so hard to save for years!" Furuoki Ōtogawa cried out in sorrow to the heavens.
He might have forgotten a certain truth.
Little bees are indeed diligent, but the honey they produce is ultimately taken by wicked humans, and they themselves don't get to eat much of it.
Moreover, while humans plunder the honey brewed by the little bees, they also praise the bees for being diligent and say they are humanity's good friends.
This was the ultimate psychological warfare.
At this moment, Furuoki Ōtogawa displayed the qualities of a top-tier assassin. He immediately began searching around the statue for clues, confident that he would find something.
Once I find them! I will cut that damned thief into a thousand pieces! I will pull his intestines out of his belly and stuff them into his mouth!
No, even doing that wouldn't be enough to quell the hatred in my heart!
Just as he was feeling around the hole beneath the statue, he touched a piece of wood. In the starlight, he saw words carved on it.
"Are you angry? Are you desperate? If you want your money back, help me kill someone."
....
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