Chapter 2052: Ah, maybe I just dropped it by accident?

Even the utterly shameless Xu Jie, who always lacked any scruples, had no clue about this matter, let alone Ye Zhangqing, who felt as if he had fallen into a mist, completely unable to make sense of it, and had no idea who was involved at all.

Only Ye Zhangqing could be seen with furrowed brows, eyes half-closed, right hand supporting his chin, sitting quietly there, sunk in deep thought.

Xu Jie beside him, seeing this, felt a hint of doubt arise in his heart, and he softly asked.

"Junior brother, what's wrong with you? Why are you so worried?"

Hearing Xu Jie's inquiry, Ye Zhangqing slowly opened his eyes and let out a soft sigh.

"Someone in the city again claims their treasure was stolen, and according to rumors, this is the work of the Thieves' Sect……"

Then Ye Zhangqing briefly recounted to Xu Jie the specific circumstances of the several victims' lost treasures.

After hearing Ye Zhangqing's words, the originally quiet hall instantly became lively.

Xu Jie, Yun Xiantai, Hong Zun, and the others present all showed looks of surprise, glancing at each other.

Because during this time they had remained inside the Sect, never stepping out even a single step, let alone stealing others' treasures.

"How strange, how odd—could it really be that someone so audacious dares to impersonate our Thieves' Sect and steal?"

Xu Jie muttered to himself.

For a moment, the entire hall was filled with a tense and mysterious atmosphere, as everyone lowered their heads to ponder, trying to solve the mystery.

Just then, Xu Jie, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly lifted his head, a flash of light in his eyes, and shouted loudly.

"I know."

His sudden shout was like a thunderclap on flat ground, startling everyone present.

Everyone's eyes turned to Xu Jie, full of suspicion, asking.

"What do you know? Stop beating around the bush and speak."

Under the eager gazes of everyone, Xu Jie's face showed a smug smile, appearing completely confident.

He cleared his throat, then affected a mysterious tone by lowering his voice.

"There is no such thing as a lost treasure at all; this is purely a farce concocted, directed, and performed by those old fellows."

Xu Jie said with a look of disdain.

Immediately after, he dropped another shocking piece of news.

"Not only that, the treasures you have been painstakingly searching for are all on me right now."

Huh???

Hearing this, everyone present stared at each other in disbelief.

Especially that last sentence made everyone even more puzzled—how exactly did those treasures end up on Xu Jie?

Thus, everyone's gazes unanimously focused on Xu Jie, filled with questions and curiosity.

Among them, Hong Zun was the first to unable to suppress his doubt and posed a question.

"Tell me clearly—how did these treasures end up on you?"

Faced with Hong Zun's questioning, Xu Jie instead appeared quite calm and composed.

Only seeing him lightly shrug his shoulders, then he recounted in detail what had happened yesterday.

As it turned out, when Xu Jie's Senior Brother Zhao Zhengping went out to cultivate and returned, he happened upon a great number of treasures outside the mountain range.

However, the Senior Brother, being upright and unyielding, felt no temptation toward this unexpected wealth and chose to ignore it, leaving the scene directly.

Later, Xu Jie inadvertently learned of this.

Being quick-witted, he naturally would not miss such a great opportunity, so he immediately set out for that place.

As expected, upon reaching the destination, he easily gathered all the treasures into his bag.

At this moment, upon reflection, Xu Jie suddenly realized that the appearance of those treasures there was obviously no coincidence.

It is obvious that someone had carefully set up a trap, the purpose being to lure people into it.

Before this, Xu Jie had completely failed to notice the situation, but upon hearing Ye Zhangqing's words, his thoughts flashed like lightning and he quickly came to his senses.

It is obvious that someone intends to pin the blame on them to achieve some ulterior motive.

Xu Jie detailed the whole sequence of events to everyone, and all present fell into silence after listening.

Although no one spoke up, from their solemn expressions it could be seen that each person actually had already agreed with Xu Jie's speculation.

So then, what exactly caused this to happen?

Actually, just a little thought will yield the answer.

Without a doubt, those old fellows resorted to any means, even discarding a great deal of precious treasure, solely to obtain special favor from Ye Zhangqing—that is, the so‑called 'special treatment' slot.

Faced with this situation, Ye Zhangqing's expression became especially complex.

He glanced around at the silent crowd, only to see Xu Jie, who had at some point quietly drawn near, grinning with a smug smile as he spoke.

"Junior brother, do you see clearly? This matter really has nothing to do with me at all—I am completely a victim."

However, in response to Xu Jie's words, Ye Zhangqing merely gave him a casual glance, then reached out and said calmly.

"Hand it over."

Xu Jie, seeing this, was startled and quickly asked.

"What… what should I hand over?"

Seeing this, Xu Jie's normally calm face instantly showed a deep look of doubt, his eyes darting around.

"Hey, you jerk, stop pretending to be clueless—those treasures are all hidden on you."

Ye Zhangqing looked at Xu Jie's feigned clueless expression and couldn't help feeling both annoyed and amused as he spoke.

Hearing this, Xu Jie jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, eyes wide, and retorted.

"What? Why should I hand over the stuff I picked up? These are treasures I painstakingly gathered—you can't just demand them."

Just thinking about how he had barely managed to obtain those precious treasures yesterday, now having to give them up made Xu Jie feel extremely reluctant.

The treasures hadn't even warmed in his hands before he had to give them away for nothing; he truly felt unwilling.

Given Xu Jie's usual extremely stingy, miserly nature, faced with such an unreasonable request, he naturally refused on the spot without hesitation.

He has always been a tight-fisted iron rooster; whenever anything good gets into his pocket, trying to get him to take it out is nearly impossible, harder than climbing to heaven.

Only saw Xu Jie instinctively step back several paces, creating distance from Ye Zhangqing, as if afraid the other would suddenly rush forward and forcibly seize his treasure.

As for Xu Jie's reaction, Ye Zhangqing found it not at all surprising; after all, he had seen such scenes countless times, so it was nothing unusual.