The two fetched their horses from the inn and, following the map and directions Zhang Jianyuan had given, rode for Qin Yu's secret dwelling. A thief's bolt-hole is usually calm and ordinary, hidden in the busy market where no one can find it. They crossed East Crossroads Street, passed over Anxing Bridge, and amid the clamor found the little courtyard where Qin Yu lived. The door wasn't locked, but it was barred from within.
Sun Lang pounded hard on the door and called loudly, "Hello in there! Shunfeng Escort Agency!"
Zhang Yinluo didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She tilted her ear and listened a moment; there was no sound inside. Before she could offer her view, a sword sang — Sun Lang drew the Startled Swan Sword, slid it into the door's seam, and severed the bar with one stroke, pushing the gate open.
"Hey, hey, hey!" As a martial artist, the head constable winced. "Don't go using the Startled Swan Sword for things like that!"
"Isn't a weapon for cutting things? What's the difference between cutting a man and cutting wood?" Sun Lang twirled a sword-flower and sheathed it. After two years of training his control had vastly improved, and the Imperial Arm's material was very tough; an ordinary cut without force wouldn't damage the blade. The errant looked the courtyard over, then suddenly whistled. "A surprise."
"What?" Zhang Yinluo couldn't keep arguing — she thought he'd found something, and rushed in, glancing about. "What is it, is someone still here?"
"Someone here? Were you hoping a few timid fawn-like eyes would appear in the doorway — a pack of half-grown, ragged children glaring at you fiercely?" Sun Lang sneered. "Still holding out for the 'she may be a thieving, plundering lady bandit, but she's secretly raising a band of orphans and only resorts to this to feed them' redemption twist?"
Zhang Yinluo flushed and glared at him. "I am not! What 'surprise' were you talking about?!"
"The surprise is that Qin Yu, a wary thief, would normally set many traps in her dwelling — there are five or six right here in this courtyard, from repeating crossbows to tripwires. And yet, they've all been destroyed." Sun Lang whistled. "Which is to say, someone's already been here — and with ill intent."
At that, Zhang Yinluo's expression changed sharply. She drew her blade at once and charged into the house. Sun Lang smiled and followed, and the moment he stepped in he heard her cry of dismay: "Someone really did break in!"
Sun Lang looked around and sighed. "A shut-in single lady slob..."
The head constable whipped her head around like a lion shaking its mane. "Meaning?"
"Meaning that even before the uninvited guest broke in, Qin Yu's room was already a mass grave of clutter — so much so that whoever came to destroy the clues wouldn't know where to begin." Sun Lang frowned and extended the Startled Swan Sword's scabbard, lifting a mysterious garment of bright crimson cloth. Zhang Yinluo looked closely — a woman's bellyband. Before she could flush and curse him shameless, the errant flung the thing away like lightning. "Ugh, revolting..."
...A reaction like that leaves me with no idea how to respond.
Ignoring the head constable's odd look, Sun Lang prowled the room, from the front hall to the bedchamber. The place was a chaos, sundries and clothing flung everywhere, the wardrobe and screen toppled and strewn about, all of it covered in the marks of saber and sword. It seemed that, atop Qin Yu's dreadful personal hygiene and housekeeping, an uninvited guest had broken in, searched everywhere, and then wrecked the place wholesale to destroy evidence.
Zhang Yinluo gazed at the mess, sighed, and rolled up her sleeves.
Sun Lang frowned. "...What are you doing?"
"Seeing whether we can find any leftover evidence, of course!" She seemed a touch low. "A step too late... is the trail just cut off like this? No — we have to..."
"Idiot." Sun Lang smiled. "You won't find anything..."
The head constable shot him a hard glare. "If you don't want to help, go wait outside, and stop leering around the place! We'll search even if there's nothing to find — this is the only lead..."
"Yes, understood. Though I'd like to tell you where the clue and the crux really are, since you want me to leave, I can only obey — after all, you are the employer." Sun Lang nodded gravely, then turned to go.
"...Come back!"
Sun Lang didn't so much as listen, walking on. "Don't wanna, nya."
"...A person like you acting cute only makes it more revolting. Stop messing about, this is serious."
Sun Lang intoned flatly, "Because you yelled so unreasonably, the other party doesn't feel like talking to you — unless you act cute, nya."
Zhang Yinluo shot to her feet and barred his way in three quick strides. "All right, all right, stop it, I'm sorry, I misjudged you, can we just talk properly?"
The errant looked down at her, then said abruptly, "Big tits, no brains, nya..."
"...You're the no-brains, nya!" The words were out before Zhang Yinluo realized Sun Lang had led her right along. She drew a deep breath, looked at him, and tried to act as if nothing had happened. "Anyway, you..."
Sun Lang, face blank, suddenly turned his head aside and clapped a hand over his mouth. "Pfft."
"Pfft your head! " Zhang Yinluo's fury fully ignited, and she instinctively grabbed for his lapel. "You—"
But the next instant, a gust of wind reversed, and Sun Lang flickered away. The errant retreated a few steps, his movement quick as a phantom, and frowned. "I told you not to make any contact with me. Don't forget."
"Why such a big reaction?" Zhang Yinluo said, alarmed and suspicious. She looked at her hand, then at Sun Lang, recalled his repeated emphasis, and only now half-believed him. But a woman's curiosity and love of gossip stirred at once... Does this guy really not want any contact with a woman? Why? Could it be... gynophobia? He turns into a different person the instant a woman touches him? Or some unspeakable experience in childhood, leaving him afraid of women, which is why he acts so foul and contrary? Mm, from a psychological angle, that's actually rather plausible...
So thinking, a faintly sinister smile tugged at her lips. "Heh heh heh, if you won't tell me, I'll touch you — touch you again and again..."
Sun Lang sucked in a cold breath and gazed at her. "I say... you'd actually threaten me with that? Too much water in your body lately, or hormones out of whack?"
"Meaning?"
"Never mind..." Sun Lang sighed. "I'll stop messing with you. But I have to tell you, this is no joke — don't touch me. Come, come here, let me explain what actually happened... I said you won't find any clue, not because the clues were destroyed, but because there were no clues here to begin with... Whoever did this is someone outsmarted by her own cleverness. She meant to deliberately lure us into wasting time here, to divert our eyes."
Oho, so he really is scared! And it worked, just like that! However lightly you skate past it, you can't hide the fact that I've got you spooked!
Zhang Yinluo laughed smugly to herself and filed the matter away, feeling she'd won a key victory in the great war against Sun Lang... She believed she'd grasped a secret weapon, seized the initiative!
Unaware of her thoughts, Sun Lang went on, "Let's start by analyzing this uninvited guest herself... I can confirm she's all but certainly Qin Yu's contact — high in rank, superb in skill, deep in scheming. She hired Qin Yu to do something for her, or her master, that no one could be allowed to know — so much so that she had to contact Qin Yu in person, and even destroy the evidence and divert attention herself rather than send someone, because she dares trust no one, has no one she can entrust it to..."
"No, no, no, let's start from the beginning..." Zhang Yinluo said, puzzled. "Why do you think she's luring us?"
"The reason's plain as day..." Sun Lang sighed. "I just think... if you wanted to destroy evidence, wouldn't setting a fire here do the job? Once and for all."
"..." You make a fair point. How did I not think of that. But... what if she lacked experience and didn't think of arson?
Sun Lang continued, "That's the first doubt. The second — supposing she's as dumb as you and didn't think of fire..."
"..." I'll endure it, I'll endure it, I'll endure it!!!
The errant pointed at the toppled wardrobe and the hacking and ruin on the door, and the many shredded papers and objects. "It looks like a chaos of random blade-marks, the destructive traces an intruder leaves while rummaging and wrecking. But it isn't... From these marks, the one who swung the blade gathered her qi and stilled her mind; every stroke drove force the length of her arm — no wild hacking. In other words, it was all deliberate. And I can not only tell it was deliberate, I can tell from the marks that her hand-to-hand skill is formidable. She's a young woman of twenty-four or twenty-five, tall, long of arm, born martial-artist material..."
That edged into the uncanny. Zhang Yinluo blinked. "How can you tell? Can you teach me?"
"Can't be taught — it's a bit of life experience." Sun Lang said haughtily. "I've fought a hundred battles and seen plenty!"
"That weird line again! Fine, don't teach me, you miser, always fobbing people off with that."
Zhang Yinluo pursed her lips. "And then? Seeing all this, is there a clue?"
"A clue, naturally... Look at these gashes — the depth and force vary a little, which means she hacked her way in, wrecked the place, and hacked her way out, without long searching or rummaging, without even pausing. Her breath was ragged, her strength spent, with no time to regulate it or rest, so the strokes she made before leaving are a touch shallower. In other words, she was in a hurry, or afraid of being discovered — she didn't linger long at all..." Sun Lang said. "Which tells us one thing: she came only to divert our gaze, to send us chasing the wrong direction. And she was anxious, pressed for time. And she was confident Qin Yu left no clue here pointing to her — which tells us a great deal more..."
He turned his head, eyes blazing. "We're going to find Zhang Jianyuan."
"Wait, I'm still completely lost — explain it to me!"
"No time to explain — get in!"
"...Get in what?!"