Chapter 452: Unexpected

"Wow, these trotters smell amazing!"

Heart 9 took a deep sniff of the dishes on the table and couldn't help but swallow.

"Whee!" Jester clutched the table with both hands. So short that he was practically hanging in the air, this didn't stop him from drooling uncontrollably over the spread of dishes, his saliva dripping onto the floor.

"Hey, senior! Your drool is practically flooding the kitchen!" Jian Changsheng looked at the two and couldn't help but complain. "Can we please try to restrain ourselves a bit?"

Jester silently closed his mouth, but the drool didn't disappear; it just flowed back into his stomach with frantic gulps. His small face was full of grievance.

Jian Changsheng sighed deeply. "I told you we shouldn't have come here... If this continues, they'll discover us sooner or later."

"Relax, they won't find us," Heart 9 said nonchalantly. "This kitchen is two stories high and spacious, with too many places to hide... Unless they conduct a deliberate, systematic search, it'll be hard to find us."

At this, Jian Changsheng's gaze swept around. Indeed, as Heart 9 said, the place was spacious and had a lot of equipment for storing ingredients. With just a glance, he had already spotted several good hiding spots...

This place really is good, isn't it? Could it be that Heart 9 chose this place not because he was hungry, but because he genuinely had experience?

Jian Changsheng looked at Heart 9 with a bit more respect. He thought, 'As expected of a senior from the Twilight Society, I still have a lot to learn in this regard.'

"Oh, right, what's next?" Heart 9 casually pulled a chicken foot from a plate, started gnawing on it, and asked with a puzzled expression.

Jian Changsheng's eyes widened. "You're actually eating??"

"What's there to be afraid of? With so many dishes piled up, who would notice one missing?" Heart 9 said indifferently.

Seeing Heart 9's shameless demeanor, Jian Changsheng knew he had overthought things earlier. This guy was clearly a lunatic with a bizarre thought process... He sighed and said:

"Next, we wait for Heart 6 to send us a message, to see if the painting is here."

"Send a message?"

"He said... as long as we're also on the 'stage,' fate will deliver the message to us."

Just as the three were speaking, a gust of wind carried a paper crane, floating lightly in through the window. After twirling gently in the air for a moment, it wobbled and landed precisely in the center of the three.

"Holy cow." Heart 9's eyes widened. "What kind of trick is this? You can do that?"

Jian Changsheng immediately picked up the note and opened it. The first line read:

△ *The note, carrying a message, drifted with the wind. Perhaps by fate's grace, it landed right between the three idling individuals. Even if they were slow-witted, they now knew it was time to act...*

Jian Changsheng's expression immediately turned strange as he read the line. "...Is he scolding us?"

"That's not important. Look at the back." Heart 9 pointed to the reverse side.

Jian Changsheng flipped the note over and saw several lines of scribbled handwriting. It was clearly written just moments before.

"The painting is indeed at the Huadu Consortium." Jian Changsheng's eyes lit up. "He said the painting is currently mixed in with over a hundred other paintings, being transported by staff from the top floor to the warehouse. Now is the best time for us to act!"

"Let's go! Quickly then..." Before Heart 9 could finish his sentence, voices drifted in from outside the door. His and Jian Changsheng's expressions changed, and they looked at each other simultaneously.

"Someone's coming in. Let's hide first."

In the blink of an eye, Heart 9 had scurried behind the oven. Meanwhile, Jester had already disappeared without a trace. Jian Changsheng stood stunned for a moment, then rushed towards a freezer he had eyed earlier, flipping himself inside to hide.

There were nine such freezers in the kitchen, lined up in a row. The frozen meat stored inside perfectly concealed Jian Changsheng's figure, making it arguably the best hiding spot in the entire kitchen.

"Quick! The chairman is asking for the dishes! Everyone move faster!!""Serve the ready dishes first! What else isn't prepared yet?""A pork chop.""Then make it fast! It needs to be on the table in fifteen minutes!"

A figure who seemed to be the head chef rushed into the kitchen with a group of people. They immediately covered the prepared dishes on the table with metal cloches and wheeled them out on elegant trolleys... Perhaps the process was too rushed, as no one noticed that a bare bone, gnawed clean by Heart 9, had been mixed in among the chicken feet.

Once most of the dishes on the table had been moved, several chefs began rapidly chopping vegetables, apparently preparing to cook main courses on the spot. At the same time, a figure walked directly towards the freezers.

"We still have a lot of pork chops left, right?""Plenty. They're in those few cabinets. Just pick some.""Alright."

The person casually walked up to a freezer, took two pork chops from the top, and was about to turn and leave, when he saw a pair of startled eyes buried under the frozen meat, staring at him in disbelief...

The person rubbed his eyes, and after confirming he wasn't dreaming, pointed at the freezer and exclaimed, "Oh my god!"

"There's someone hiding here!"

"Damn it!" Jian Changsheng couldn't help but curse. He leaped out of the freezer like a phantom, grabbed a piece of frozen meat, and slammed it hard onto the person's back of the head, knocking him out instantly.

However, this sudden development also drew the attention of the other chefs. They stared in shock at Jian Changsheng, who had sprung out of the freezer. Before they could even react, another figure flashed out from behind the oven, knocking them all unconscious in a few swift moves!

Looking at the chefs sprawled haphazardly on the floor, Jian Changsheng's blood boiled.

With so many freezers lined up and dozens of pieces of meat piled high like mountains, why did you have to pick the very one I was in? What kind of rotten luck is this... Now that these chefs are down, it won't be long before others notice something is amiss. Their presence has largely been exposed.

Jian Changsheng never expected that Heart 9 and Jester, who had been reckless, would be fine, while he, who had been playing by the rules, would become part of the 'accident.' He felt extremely frustrated.

"They'll find us sooner or later. We need to hurry." Heart 9 didn't mock Jian Changsheng; instead, he became uncharacteristically serious and said in a low voice,

"Since exposure is inevitable, let's not be hesitant... Let's grab the painting as quickly as possible and get out of here!"

A flicker of determination crossed Jian Changsheng's eyes. He nodded firmly. "Alright!"

The two exchanged a look, then dashed out of the kitchen at top speed, sprinting towards the mansion!

Meanwhile, Chen Ling slowly took a seat in the mansion's dining hall.

Immediately after, at Zong Wen's command, trolleys, each covered with a metal cloche, were pushed into the center of the luxurious dining hall...