Zhang Yinluo stepped into the courtyard and looked over its layout, and her eyes lit up. With her family learning and her training under Lingjiu Palace, she saw at a glance that the courtyard was arranged in the pattern of an eight-trigram array. It surely accorded with the principles of the five elements and eight trigrams, and surely concealed some very formidable measures, leaving ill-meaning intruders a way in but no way out... For a moment, her opinion of Sun Lang rose another notch.
Only...
"An eight-trigram array has eight gates — Rest, Life, Harm, Block, Vista, Death, Fright, and Open..." Zhang Yinluo looked at one corner. "Why does the Rest Gate correspond to the outhouse? By rights this should be the Death Gate..."
"Because the traditional way to break an eight-trigram array is to enter by the Life Gate, cut your way out through the Rest Gate, and then enter again by the Open Gate..." Sun Lang smiled meaningfully. "So I prepared a little surprise specially for the clever children who, by legend, study the five elements and eight trigrams and love to use their heads... A trifling trick. Forgive me for the laugh at your expense."
Zhang Yinluo seemed to grasp something, looked at Sun Lang's smile, and gave a slight shudder. "You..."
"Don't worry, I've no interest in piss and shit. I just set the trap as the chance presented itself." Sun Lang waved a hand. "Only a pervert would enjoy playing with shit..."
Ignoring Zhang Yinluo's odd look, he pushed open the door of the main house, first setting the box down, then pulling out all the assorted weapons hidden up his sleeves and under his robe and tossing them aside. A moment later his sigh drifted out from within. "Aiya, today passed uneventfully too... And here I thought, after last night's business, some thief too dumb to know death would come adventuring here."
"Last night's business" and the like reminded Zhang Yinluo of why she'd come. The head constable gave up examining the room's layout and details and strode in. "There's no time to lose. Get ready and we'll set out."
"Eh? What?" Sun Lang turned back, baffled, blank-faced. "Go where?"
A bad feeling rose suddenly in Zhang Yinluo's heart, but she answered at once. "To search for Qin Yu, who vanished last night, of course! If she was carried off by villains, then rescue her and throw the villains who took her into the cells — and then throw her into the cells too! And if she was rescued by her own associates, then throw her and her associates into the cells together!"
"Hold on... so no matter what, this lady thief gets sent back to the cells?" Sun Lang put on a horrified air. "Are you some kind of pervert? Even if you haul that thief into the cells, her organization will surely find a way to spring her in a few days — how's that any different from now? Are those few days really so dear to you? And both possibilities share one ending: that no matter what, someone else gets tossed into the cells by you in passing — whether the ones who took her or the ones who rescued her. Is that fun? Do you have some strange fetish — like running dark training sessions on the prisoners in the black cells? Planning a little Dungeon Keeper, are we?"
Zhang Yinluo was nearly dizzied by his rambling, but after a befuddled moment she finally caught up. "Wait... that's not the point! And I have no strange fetishes!"
"If your reason for hounding these petty thieves isn't some peculiar kink of your own, then what is it?" Sun Lang dug at his nostril. "Don't tell me it's for justice..."
Zhang Yinluo threw out her chest and said loftily, "And what if it is?"
"Stop sticking your chest out. I know you're busty — that's why I let you talk..." Sun Lang gazed at her, his look most peculiar. "But seeking judicial fairness in this dumbass country, with its broken rule of law and all its feudal, backward dealing and scheming — did your head get squeezed by your tits?"
"...So it was you who said that!"
"And what if it was?" The errant shrugged. "That thief was no good to begin with. Even if you haul her back, in a while her associates will surely find a way to spring her, and she'll be out there living high again, picking locks and slipping doors the moment the mood takes her, right back to the trade. What's the use of catching her? Why waste the time? Better to leave her be. These famous, capable thieves have high standards anyway — they only target rich dogs, and those rich dogs bleed the people dry and seize their good farmland, no good things themselves. Better to let dog bite dog. Call it a good deed."
As a public servant who ate the imperial grain, Zhang Yinluo naturally sneered at Sun Lang's crooked sophistry and his chaotic, order-despising creed. But she'd at least learned that arguing morality and rule of law with this errant of warped values was a waste of time, so she could only try to move him with reason and feeling. "I've thought it over. You said it yourself — if she's caught, in a few days her associates will spring her. So why begrudge those few days? Why clash with the constables? Which makes me think the likelier case is that Qin Yu was taken by someone with ill intent, and may be suffering rough treatment and harm..."
"Isn't that all the better?" Sun Lang sneered. "The government office that ought to uphold public order and punish thieves by the full force of the law, mindful of social stability — and of the little coppers and the tributes slipped in from outside — graciously pardons these incorrigible burglars in the spirit of humanitarianism, returns them to society, and hopes they'll turn over a new leaf. Meanwhile a man full of lust and malice, willing even to dirty his own dick, stands in for the magistrates to deliver these ever-escaping thieves their just punishment — and if his methods are a bit rough, if he has a bit of fun with it, well, that's understandable too... The things the magistrates won't do, you won't let the righteous heroes do either?"
Zhang Yinluo was nearly apoplectic. "Don't you understand that she may be in danger and despair right now, longing for someone to save her?"
"I do." Sun Lang cocked his head. "I also know that even as we speak, someone in this world is surely dying, and injustice is surely being done — that even here in Mingzhou City, right now, someone is probably crying out in pain, and no few of them are pitiable souls who did no evil yet met with disaster. Next to these honest, decent unfortunates, what is one lady thief's plight? She chose this trade, so she should be braced to face the consequences. And you, with such a kind heart — why not go find someone who truly needs help?"
"...The injustices of this world are beyond counting. How could I have the power to set them all right? All I can do is help, to the best of my ability, every person in need I come across — one thing at a time. And right now, I think of that lady thief perhaps shut in some dark room, weeping and struggling amid base and contemptible leers. Never in her life has she longed for another's help and rescue as she does now, never so hoped that justice and light exist in this world. If that is what she hopes for, then I am willing to reach out my hand and pull her back into the light. And I'm willing to believe that, having been through this, she'll come to yearn for a life in the light, find faith in it, turn over a new leaf, and start again." Zhang Yinluo said calmly. "In your eyes she may be a shameless thief reaping what she sowed. But thief or not, I want to save her — because in my eyes she too is someone who truly needs help, whether from her present plight or toward a true new life... Since I've come upon this, I must go and save her. To let it lie would leave my conscience uneasy."
"Conscience uneasy..." Sun Lang nodded. "So, I'll ask again: is it for justice, or for conscience?"
Zhang Yinluo started slightly. She was about to blurt out the answer without thinking, but caught the crux of the question at once. The girl bit her lip, and her expression slowly paled.
The errant smiled faintly. "It seems you've realized it. But no need to rush an answer — some people search a whole lifetime and never find the true one, let alone the you of right now. That answer is found through endless experience and seeking... When the day comes that you can answer the question without the slightest confusion, then crown your deeds with the name of justice."
The head constable looked thoughtful, as though she'd glimpsed some truth of life in it. Gazing at her lost in thought, Sun Lang gave a serene, merit-and-fame-concealing little smile.
"...Damn. She actually bought it."
"What did you say?" The voice had been pitched too low for the head constable to catch. But coming back to herself, Sun Lang's smile and words made Zhang Yinluo realize something, and her expression slowly turned to delighted surprise. "So you said all that to remind me? I nearly misjudged you just now. So — shall we set out now?"
Sun Lang answered with a gentle smile. He waited until Zhang Yinluo was about to return the smile, then said out of nowhere, "Save the sleep-talk for your dreams. When did I ever agree?"
"Hey, hey, hey!" The emotion and delight on Zhang Yinluo's face instantly collapsed. The head constable stamped her foot. "I just said all that — weren't you moved by my words at all? Not the slightest flicker of feeling? Have you not a shred of sympathy or pity in you? At the very least, agree with my ideas a little! Say something about how you feel, would you!"
Sun Lang said gravely, "How I feel — sure, I've got that."
"What feeling?"
The errant glanced first at the constable's uniform Zhang Yinluo wore, then at the girl's eye-catching, ample bust, then thought back on what she'd just said, and nodded. "My feeling is this, lady officer — no, my lady head constable: if you lived in the book Ice Peak Demon Romance, you'd most likely have died of bliss by now."