Chapter 161: Caught. . . by the enemy?
Ming Tao paraded through every single thing Hye Yang owned, ensuring to return them back to their rightful place after touching every item. He was sure not to leave any of his fur spreading around. Even though Hye Yang did not know that he had broken out of her hypnosis, he did not want to take any chances to make her suspect even for a split second.
The more he searched, the more he began to worry of what he was doing was in vain. All of these were just a pile of fur skins as mats and rugs. Folded clothing and leaves.
Ming Tao did not know how Hye Yang did it, but every single thing that could lead to her being charged for a crime was nowhere near her hiding place.
Ming Tao wondered if she buried anything underground but digging would be another work especially when he had no knowledge of where to begin. Then, he also wondered if she did not bring any of her possessions to his clan. That would make more sense. After all, a schemer would be unwise to leave remnants of what could put them in trouble lying around aimlessly in their absence.
Ming Tao shifted back into his human form then began to search more thoroughly. He still found nothing. At this point, he was going insane. He needed to find herbs. Anything at all that could link Hye Yang to her crimes.
It was then something clicked in Ming Tao’s mind. So far, he had been rummaging through the things his eyes could see yet never checked the things nobody would expect.
Underneath the fur skins that laid on the ground. It had to be. If she was to dig and hide something, it would be in a place no one would suspect. A place she always stayed on that she could feel it there without any suspicion. After all, no one would find anything wrong with a fox laying on a mat. Ming Tao proceeded to clear the things from on top of the fur skins on the ground and raised it up.
Just as he expected, the ground underneath looked like they had been dig through and covered right after. Bingo. Wherever Hye Yang was hiding, now was the end of it.
Ming Tao used rough hand movements to dig his hands through the patted to harden soil. He felt his fingers reach for something. He knew he was so close to discovering whatever it was down there and was eager to find out what it was.
He did not think to check it while he was here however, he would retrieve it, pat the sand back to its original shape and add something down there to substitute for the item he would take then he would spread the fit skins back onto the ground and rearrange everything back to where he remembered seeing them. After this, he would take whatever it was he found back to his home and go through every single thing.
He would prefer doing it in front of the Ruling Oracle so there would be no chance to claim anything fraudulent was done to alter this thing and blame the ’innocent’ Hye Yang but he also wanted to find out what was inside of here first just in case it was nothing to worry about. The last thing he wanted was to be made a fool when he was trying to tell the truth.
Ming Tao let out a sigh, still digging, that was something he would think about when he was away from this place. He could not be comfortable in the enemy’s rented territory.
Ming Tao’s hand finally reached for whatever it was down there. He saw that it was tied all over with attire that could only be made in the fox clan and belonged to only someone linked to those in the higher classes in the clan. He knew the attire differences because he had stayed in the fox clan for a while when he was bonded to Mira. And now, this was his ticket to exposing that wrench.
A smile curled at the end of Ming Tao’s lips as he pulled the cloth out. There were other things underneath it that he retrieved too.
From the look of how well dug this spot was, Ming Tao could not help but wonder which other place underneath fur skins that Hye Yang had hidden other stuff. He was ready to find out today.
Ming Tao kept the items hidden in cloth by his side then began to cover the hole he dug. His eyes laced around the place for stones. If he had thought this through, he would have brought his coat or something where he could have hid everything he had found but he did not think this far.
Shit.
Ming Tao found stones laying at the far end of the more bushy parts of this space and he walked there to get some. He untied one of the cloth that secured way less items and wrapped it around the sole stones of similar weight. The he dug the other untied stones in first, covered it with sand a little before putting the wrapped stone in. Now he covered that one too. If Hye Yang was to check this spot, she would not know someone had infiltrated before as long as she saw the cloth and that would be enough for Ming Tao to be done with everything he was planning.
As Ming Tao was burying the stone, he heard footsteps. This made him halt in his spot. His heart began to pound in his chest as the footsteps became nearer. No. Not now. Why would anyone be coming here now?
His nose twitched as he scented the air. He could not make definition of the exact person nearing this place through the scent because of the distance of the person from where he was at but he scented fox and that was definitely not Mira’s. He could spot Mira from over a mile away through her scent.
There was nothing calming about this fox’s scent. It smelled like wood in the wild and flames. It also scented like a rough feminine scent that could be mistaken for a masculine one.
Ming Tao’s brows furrowed. He would not be able to finish burying the stone and set this place up back to the way he saw it in such a short time before the person arrived here and leaving this place unkept this way would be way too suspicious now.
He did not know what to do. His hands immediately rushed to fill up the dug hole then he patted it down. It was no where as smooth as how he found it but he had no time to do that. He needed to get away from here as soon as possible without leaving a trace of his presence and he did not want to shift.
Him shifting would definitely make a sound that would alert whoever was out there that someone was nearby and his cheetah scent would definitely be way more obvious now. In fact, he wondered if whoever was coming could smell him already.
Ming Tao’s immediately spread the fur skins over the ground and hurriedly began to arrange the things he put aside back on top of it. His heart still raced heavily in his rib cage and his head began to pound. The intruder was getting closer.
In fact, now, Ming Tao could hear voices and laughter. Female laughter. The chatter grew louder and so did the sound of feet hitting the ground.
"Shitttt." Ming Tao cursed under his breath. As much as he hurried, he knew he had no time. There were just a few steps away from where he was.
Why the hell were they headed towards his direction of all places? There were other places to be in Hye Yang’s hiding spot that where he was.
Ming Tao’s had not heard Hye Yang’s voice yet but the sound of female voices filled the air. The bush where he picked the stones from began to shake and he turned his head in that direction. His eyes widened.
He had not even hidden the things he dug out from the ground yet. The fur skins was still a mess on the ground and he could already see the head of one of the people nearing where he was.
Shit. This was so bad.
Ming Tao immediately grabbed onto the things he dug out of the ground and decided to bolt.
But just before he could go away, his eyes locked into one of the women there. Someone he recognised way too well. Someone he had lived with for quite a long period of time too.
The woman first stared at him with shock. Then confusion. Then her eyes raided the environment he was at before meeting his gaze again.
Ming Tao was caught. The person saw his face and the person knew who the hell he was.
This was bad. This was really bad. Running and hiding was no use but he decided to try anyway even though he knew it was futile.
The oerson’s lips parted to say out the words he already knew was coming. "What are you doing, Ming Tao?"