Perhaps feeling that walking in silence was too dry, Shi Yue made conversation by asking, “Have you ever been to the Western Regions?”
“No,” Pei Xuan replied coldly.
“Then have you ever seen Hu people?”
“They were common in the beast arena.”
“Oh.” Shi Yue didn’t press further, figuring Pei Xuan probably didn’t like being reminded of that dark history in the beast arena.
Stepping out through the side gate of the marquis’s estate, the night grew deeper, and the streets were completely deserted.
The night watchman struck his gong and wooden clapper, one slow and two quick beats, signaling that it was now midnight (the hour of Zi).
Shi Yue rarely ventured out of the estate this late. Looking at the dark, quiet street lit only by scattered patches of light, he felt it was eerily still and instinctively edged a little closer to Pei Xuan.
Pei Xuan didn’t miss this small gesture, and the corners of his lips curved upward. “What? Is the Young Marquis scared? If you’re scared, it’s still not too late to turn back.”
“Who’s scared?” Shi Yue puffed out his chest, but the sudden exertion pulled at the nearly healed scar on his shoulder. The unexpected pain made him gasp. “Hiss.”
Watching him, Pei Xuan couldn’t help but be amused. He wanted to let his smile widen, but quickly forced it down. “Idol-headed fool.”
Rubbing his wound, Shi Yue glared fiercely at him.
Outside the public office.
From afar, they could see two red lanterns hanging from the doorframe of the public office, gently swaying in the night breeze and casting eerie shadows against the wall. Two guards were nodding off like chicks pecking at rice.
“These guards are way too slack,” Shi Yue muttered under his breath.
Pei Xuan sneered, “The case is already closed. Who cares about a bunch of dead dancing girls?”
“Come on, let’s climb over the wall,” Shi Yue whispered to Pei Xuan.
However, the moment Shi Yue walked up to the wall, he froze.
Why was this wall so high?
How was a good-for-nothing like him without any lightness kung fu supposed to get up there?
Slowly and hesitantly, Shi Yue shifted his gaze toward Pei Xuan.
“Ahem, Guard Pei, do you think this wall is a bit too high?”
Leaning lazily against a tree, Pei Xuan met Shi Yue’s eyes. Those eyes clearly spelled out two words:
So clumsy.
After staring at each other in silence for a moment, Pei Xuan slowly strolled over, inspected the wall, and nodded with exaggerated helpfulness. “Mm, it certainly is quite high.”
“Well, look, since we came here together, even though you can get in, it wouldn’t be very nice to leave me behind all by myself, right?” Shi Yue stepped closer and negotiated with him.
Pei Xuan put on an expression of deep thought. “What should we do then, Second Young Master?”
Acting.
Keep right on acting.
Shi Yue refused to believe he didn’t know what those words meant.
But right now, he had no choice but to rely on Pei Xuan.
Taking a deep breath, Shi Yue forced down the urge to beat him up, maintained his smile, and said gently, “So could I trouble Guard Pei to take me up? I’m very light; I definitely won’t weigh you down.”
To prove his point, he even flexed his arm to demonstrate how “feather-light” he was.
Watching his antics with an inscrutable gaze, Pei Xuan finally let out a dry chuckle. “Fine. Who made you my master?”
Shi Yue raised his hand, signaling for Pei Xuan to wrap an arm around his waist.
Instead, acting as if he didn’t see the gesture, Pei Xuan very “politely” grabbed his arm, gave a push with his feet, and the two of them leaped into the air. Terrified, Shi Yue instinctively grabbed tight onto the lapels of his robe.
Glancing down at his own grabbed arm, Shi Yue rolled his eyes inwardly. In his past life, Pei Xuan had been all over him on the couch, demanding every which way; yet in this lifetime, he suddenly wanted to play the gentleman.
While Shi Yue’s thoughts drifted, Pei Xuan tapped his toes lightly, moving as weightlessly as willow catkins, and landed steadily within the courtyard of the public office.
The sensation of standing on solid ground again made Shi Yue feel immensely grounded.
Rubbing his arm, which ached from being grabbed, Shi Yue complained, “Next time you’re going to fly, can you give a warning first? You scared me to death.”
“You’re hoping for a next time?” Pei Xuan drawled lazily. “Hurry up. It’ll be dawn soon.”
Pouting, Shi Yue nevertheless hurried along to keep up with his pace.
The distant sound of a guard yawning drifted faintly over, and the figures of the two quickly melted into the deep shadows at the back of the public office.
Avoiding the patrolling handymen, Shi Yue and Pei Xuan bent low and hurried toward the innermost building.
This was where the magistrate kept the corpses.
With a soft creak, Shi Yue gently pushed the door open and flicked open a flint lighter (fire striker).
The moment the door opened, a wave of musty mildew mixed with the distinct stench of blood rushed over them.
Frowning, Shi Yue stepped inside.
The resting racks on both sides were covered with white cloths. Moonlight spilled in through the lattice windows, casting mottled shadows across the shrouds, making the scene truly hair-raising.
“It’s these bodies,” Pei Xuan spoke up abruptly, diluting the eerie atmosphere somewhat.
Shi Yue walked over to where Pei Xuan was standing and looked down along his line of sight. Indeed, these were the dancing girls from that day.
Suppressing his discomfort, Shi Yue lifted the white cloth and examined the corpses closely.
“Did you find a flower on them?” Standing arms folded to the side, Pei Xuan teased with a mocking tone. “Do you need me to find you a magnifying glass?”
“Stop messing around,” Shi Yue glared at him and continued his inspection. He checked several bodies in a row without finding anything unusual; they were entirely consistent with the official case file.
Pei Xuan remained silent.
Straightening up to massage his aching lower back while still scanning the dancing girl’s corpse, Shi Yue suddenly spotted something.
“Pei Xuan!” Shi Yue called out.
Strolling over leisurely, Pei Xuan asked, “What is it?”
“Look!”
Following the direction of Shi Yue’s finger, they saw a tattoo on the inner side of the ankle.
The tattoo wasn’t large, and because it was located on the inside of the ankle, it would easily go unnoticed unless one looked closely.
The pattern of the tattoo was intricate, looking like a snake winding round and round, exuding a sense of mystery and eeriness.
Instantly re-energized, Shi Yue checked the ankles of the other dancing girls. Every single one of them bore this exact totem, and the ink had faded to a dark, deep black, suggesting the tattoos had been applied a very long time ago.
Shi Yue asked, “You saw plenty of Hu people in the beast arena. Do you recognize what this means?”
Staring at the totem for a long time, Pei Xuan finally said, “I’ve never seen this exact one, but I’ve seen similar things. Many tribes in the Western Regions carve their beliefs onto their ankles, but this is the first time I’ve seen one carved as a snake.”
memorizing the design of the totem, Shi Yue resolved to draw it out upon returning and send men to investigate.
“Put out the fire striker right now,” Pei Xuan commanded sharply.
“What?”
Before the words fully left his mouth, Shi Yue was yanked backward by Pei Xuan, who clapped a hand over his mouth and dragged him behind a large cabinet.
“Who’s there?!”
As it turned out, the two of them had been too engrossed to notice an approaching patrol of minor guards, whose flickering firelight had alerted the intruders.
With a loud clatter, the door was thrown open, and several guards rushed in with swords drawn.
With his mouth covered by Pei Xuan, the two of them squeezed tightly into the narrow gap between two cabinets, not daring to make the slightest sound.
Shi Yue’s back pressed firmly against Pei Xuan’s warm chest, allowing him to clearly feel his solid, powerful heartbeat.
Lowering his gaze to the top of Shi Yue’s head, Pei Xuan could feel Shi Yue’s warm breath gently puffing against his palm, tickling him.
This was the first time Pei Xuan had ever stood this close to another person, and he found it extraordinarily awkward.
Sweeping his gaze around the room, the lead guard announced, “There was light in here just now! Someone definitely broke in! Search everywhere thoroughly!”
“Yes!”
Shi Yue’s heart raced. Hiding right here between the cabinets, if the guards conducted a careful search, they would undoubtedly be discovered.
Seeing them search systematically from the outside in, getting closer and closer, and closer still.
Shi Yue thought to himself that if worst came to worst and they were found, he could just fall back on his usual persona as a cockfighting, playboy young master who came looking for nocturnal thrills; at worst, his father would just give him a thorough tongue-lashing.
Just as he was thinking this, Pei Xuan tugged on a lock of his hair.
Frowning in annoyance at the sudden sting, Shi Yue turned his head to glare at him, only for Pei Xuan to lightly smear a finger across his lips.
What is this?
Looking at Pei Xuan in confusion, Shi Yue touched the spot with the tip of his tongue.
Blood?
Why on earth did he smear blood on his lips?
Without time for explanations, Pei Xuan channeled his demonic energy, forming a spell with his right hand. A swirl of dark mist slowly materialized, and with a flash, Pei Xuan and a bewildered Shi Yue vanished from the spot.
When Shi Yue regained his senses, the two of them had already been instantly teleported outside the public office.
This was Shi Yue’s first time experiencing true magic, and it felt wonderfully novel.
“Well, well, you’re quite impressive, Pei Xuan!” Smiling brightly, Shi Yue looked at Pei Xuan approvingly.
Perhaps because Shi Yue’s praise was far too sincere, or perhaps because it had been a very long time since anyone had praised him so openly and without reservation, the tips of Pei Xuan’s ears turned slightly red. Turning his face away in embarrassment, he muttered awkwardly, “My teleportation can only carry myself away, but if your body has my blood in it, you can travel along with me, you idiot.”
Pouting, Shi Yue retorted, “I’m not a demon; how am I supposed to know the activation conditions for your spells?”
Pei Xuan’s palm still had a cut he had made earlier with his sword to draw blood, and it was still oozing crimson.
Yet he acted as if nothing had happened, seemingly feeling no pain at all.
Fearing someone might get hurt tonight, Shi Yue had brought along a jar of ointment. Pulling it out, he handed it to Pei Xuan, then with a sharp rip, tore a strip of cloth from his own robe.
“Put some ointment on; it’ll heal faster.”
Glancing at the jagged, crooked strip of cloth, Pei Xuan looked thoroughly unimpressed, but in the end he said nothing, took the supplies, and quietly began applying the medicine to himself.
However, since his right hand was injured, trying to apply ointment with only his left hand proved exceedingly clumsy.
Watching Pei Xuan fumble awkwardly with his left hand, smearing the ointment everywhere, Shi Yue finally couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Let me do it.”
With that, Shi Yue took the ointment from Pei Xuan’s hand and lightly dipped his fingertips into it.
Because it was dark, illuminated only by the thin wash of moonlight, he had to lean in close to examine the wound carefully. His stray locks fell forward, and fearing he might cause Pei Xuan pain, he moved with the utmost caution and gentleness.
Without a word, Pei Xuan let him apply the medicine, his eyes fixed unblinkingly on Shi Yue’s face. The person who usually acted so brash and carefree was now treating him with such gentle, meticulous care.
As Shi Yue finished dressing the wound and noticed that Pei Xuan had been silent for so long, he abruptly raised his head.
The moment he looked up, he crashed straight into Pei Xuan’s deep, steady gaze.
Silent and still, Pei Xuan looked down at him. There was no trace of his usual laziness or detachment in those eyes; instead, they appeared remarkably profound.
Looking at Pei Xuan like this, Shi Yue couldn’t help being irresistibly reminded of A-Yao.
That quiet young master from Qingluan Mountain had always looked at him with such clean, silent eyes as well.
Shi Yue recalled an occasion from the past that felt uncannily similar to this moment, another night spent tending to a wound.
Except back then, the injured one had been himself.
“A-Yao, it hurts so much.”
A fourteen-year-old Shi Yue had cradled his swollen, bruised knees, tears welling in his eyes as he whimpered miserably.