Chapter 120: Male and Female Thieves

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

At night…

The black clouds covered the sky, obscuring the starlight. The lights of the majestic Yun’an were as bright as day. It was like a sea of fire on the dark land, spreading along the river to the end of the sky.

With the reconstruction of Dye Workshop Street, almost all the surrounding residents had moved away. At night, it became a black hole in a sea of lanterns, leaving only a faint light in the middle.

In the small courtyard in Double Osmanthus Alley, Ye Jingtang had changed into night clothes. He leaned against the door with the Hornless Dragon Saber in his arms and looked at the afterglow of the lights in the direction of the Imperial City, thinking about the ginkgo tree that he frequently had on his mind.

The bird was squatting on his shoulder and energetically chirping. It was probably saying that it went to buy rice in the afternoon, but Poached Eggs didn’t buy dried meat for it.

The doors and windows of the main room were closed. Lights were on inside, and Ye Jingtang could hear the conversation of two women.

“Martial Mistress- I want to go too. I’m almost bored to death in the capital…”

“Stay at home and study. Last time, your master tested you on your homework, but you couldn’t memorize a single sentence. Have you forgotten how much I was scolded because of you?”

“I’m a Jianghu person. What’s the use of studying…”

“Yunli!

“Sigh- Martial Mistress, your chest is so big. How will you breastfeed your child if you bind it too tightly…”

“Shh!”

The house fell silent.

Ye Jingtang could tell that Heroine Luo was wrapping her little watermelons. He raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything to scare her.

Squeak!

After a while, the door opened, and the light in the room fell on the courtyard, reflecting the reflection of two women, one big and one small.

Luo Ning was wearing a black night suit. As soon as she opened the door, she saw Ye Jingtang leaning against the door. Her beautiful eyes were slightly shocked, followed by anger. Clearly, she suspected that he had sneaked to the door and peeped at her changing clothes just now.

But Yunli was behind her, so she couldn’t say it out loud. She didn’t have any evidence either, so she thought about it and decided to let it go.

In order to make it convenient for her to move around and not cause rustling sounds, her night clothes were all tight-fitting. There was no hem on her robe, and her pants and leggings could be seen.

Luo Ning was tall to begin with, so wearing this outfit accentuated her long legs. Her upper body was bound, and her chest was very tight, making it look much smaller. Her face was covered with a face cloth, and her hair was wrapped up, leaving only a pair of soul-stirring eyes exposed.

Ye Jingtang glanced up and down and felt that this outfit was… umm… uniform temptation?

Realizing that Heroine Luo was glaring at him, Ye Jingtang smiled and raised his hand to cover his face with a scarf. “Let’s go.”

Zhe Yunli was still dressed like a girl next door. She held her saber in her hand and leaned against the door frame listlessly, her fingers twirling the little turtle ornament she had bought for the bird. “Brother Jingtang, let me follow as the lookout. It’s so boring to be home alone.”

Luo Ning turned around, pointed at the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone on the table, and said in a cold voice. “Before I return, if you don’t finish today’s homework, I will punish you and ground you for three days!”

“Sigh-” Zhe Yunli had no choice but to return to the room reluctantly and sprawled on the bed. “Got it! Martial Mistress, be careful.”

Luo Ning had never had the image of a strict mother in the past, so she was a little helpless about this. After closing the door, she silently jumped onto the wall. “Let’s go.”

The bird raised its wings. “Chirp!”

Ye Jingtang flew up and followed beside Luo Ning. Like male and female thieves creeping in the night, they silently left Dye Workshop Street and sneaked toward the center of the city.

At noon, after finding out that the deceased had been hit by a palm technique of the Pacifying Heaven Cult, Ye Jingtang had the intention of conducting another autopsy and asked about the location of the morgue.

After running in the night for a while, the two of them arrived outside a government office in the north of the city.

This government office was the Anti-Crime Division under the Ministry of Justice. It controlled the bandits in the north of the city. The morgue was at the corner of the government office. At night, there were few lights inside. Constables with official swords hanging from their waists were patrolling the surroundings, but there were not many of them.

Whoosh!

Ye Jingtang and Luo Ning were on a building near the government office. They first asked the bird to investigate the situation near the morgue. Soon, the bird flew back.

“Chirp chirp-” It indicated that there were only two guards.

When Luo Ning cooked, she was incomparably gentle and beautiful. When she handled affairs, she was full of chivalry, and her eyes were extremely focused. After carefully checking the surroundings and confirming that there was nothing unusual, she raised her hand slightly, crossed the wall of the government office with Ye Jingtang, and landed among the buildings.

At night, the government office had already ended work. There were very few people remaining, and only the cries of birds and insects sounded.

Ye Jingtang silently crept on the roof and quickly arrived at the northwest corner of the government office.

Morgues weren’t good places. The officers on duty here definitely wouldn’t stay in the same room with corpses. They were all in the guardroom outside.

Ye Jingtang silently landed on the roof of the brightly lit building and listened attentively. He could hear a soft voice coming from below.

“… The people of the Black Office are interesting. Sir Yuwen met two fools on Bamboo Street today…”

Luo Ning landed in front of Ye Jingtang. When she heard the conversation, she blinked and felt that it sounded a little familiar. When she first met the little thief, he had pressed on the bed and teased her with dirty words. There was this sentence among them…

So that’s what it means!

This perverted little thief…

Ye Jingtang was carefully listening to what was going on in the room when he suddenly felt a murderous aura!

He observed from the corner of his eye and found that Heroine Luo was glaring at him with a pair of cold eyes, as if she was looking at a pervert who did all kinds of evil. If not for the fact that the occasion wasn’t right, she might have drawn her sword and attacked him!

Ye Jingtang blinked.

Luo Ning didn’t say anything. After all, it had been a long time since the incident. She retracted her gaze. After confirming that there was nothing unusual around her, she landed outside the morgue and gently hooked her finger.

Ye Jingtang asked the bird to stand sentry on a tree. He landed silently by the wall and surveyed the environment of the morgue.

Morgues were special. In order to preserve corpses for a long time, they were built in cool places. This morgue looked like it was often used. It was made of stone and had no windows, only a small door.

Luo Ning moved to the door and skillfully unlocked the lock with an iron needle. Ye Jingtan stood behind him and paid attention to the surroundings.

After unlocking the lock, Luo Ning held it in her hand and slowly pushed the wooden door open with her palm. A cold breeze immediately came from the pitch-black room.

The permanent population of the capital exceeded one million, so there were all kinds of people. No matter if it was humans or ghosts, they all knew some martial arts. No matter how strict the laws were, it was impossible to avoid the occurrence of murder cases.

For this reason, the morgue of the Anti-Crime Division was quite big. There were 30 beds in it and more than ten corpses covered with white cloth.

Luo Ning entered the morgue first, followed by Ye Jingtang. He closed the door silently and raised his hand to get her to stand at the door while he went to lift the white cloths.

She knew what it would be like to store corpses for a few days in the summer, so she didn’t reject Ye Jingtang’s good intentions.

Ye Jingtang took out a flame stick and blew on it. After there was some light in the dark room, he used his hand to block the weak light, went to the wooden beds where corpses were stored, and carefully searched for the corpse under the white cloths.

Great Wei didn’t restrict weapons. The corpses that could enter the government office’s morgue must have died violently. With mutilated limbs and the hot summer, it was imaginable what the scenes under the white cloths were like.

Under every piece of white cloth contained a different big surprise. Ye Jingtang frowned in disgust just after flipping open the first one.

Fortunately, this ‘unveiling’ didn’t last long. At the third corpse, he found Zhao De, a junior official of the Ministry of Works.

Ye Jingtang secretly heaved a sigh of relief and tilted his head slightly. Luo Ning walked up to him silently and used the light of the flame stick to check the black palm print on the corpse’s chest.

Seeing Luo Ning staring at the corpse for a long time, Ye Jingtang leaned close to her ear. “How is it?”

“This…” Luo Ning took the flame stick from Ye Jingtang’s hand and moved closer to the corpse to examine the skin texture. Her eyes were full of doubts. “It’s indeed the Eight Trigrams Wandering Body Palm. It’s not too powerful, but the user is extremely experienced. I almost believed that Protector Zhang did it himself. But from the size of the palm, the murderer is definitely not from our cult.”

Ye Jingtang pondered for a moment. “Could the murderer be one of Zhang Henggu’s former disciples?”

“Impossible. Protector Zhang’s disciples are ail hall masters and helm masters of the Pacifying Heaven Cult. I know all of them, and I’ve never heard of any other disciples.”

“Could someone have coincidentally used the move?”

Luo Ning thought for a moment and shook her head. “The meridians for qi circulations are like the layout of a Go game. There’s an old saying that there’s no such thing as an identical game. It’s impossible for there to be two completely identical Go games in the world. No matter how similar they are, there are subtle differences. This palm print is identical to Protector Zhang’s Wandering Body Palm. It must be from the same source.”

Ye Jingtang nodded slowly and thought for a moment. “Do you want to write a letter to the Pacifying Heaven Cult and ask? Since it was created by Zhang Henggu and came from the same source, it’s impossible for Zhang Henggu not to know the origin.”

Luo Ning wanted to nod, but after some thought, she turned her head. “1 am a leader of the rebels of the Pacifying Heaven Cult. If I help the Imperial Court solve the case and find the real culprit, won’t it…”

Ye Jingtang really didn’t expect Heroine Luo to think of this. He spread his hands. “If you don’t help me solve the case, how can I establish my prestige in front of the Prince of Jing? Without prestige, how can I save Qiu Tianhe?”

Establish prestige?

Why do 1 feel like I’m helping you woo the princess…

Luo Ning felt strange in her heart, but she couldn’t say it out loud. So she didn’t say anything else and silently studied the details of the palm print.

The two of them hadn’t studied it for long when a noise suddenly sounded outside.

Coo- coo-”

It was the hooting of an owl.

The flame stick in Luo Ning’s hand was instantly covered, and there was no longer any light in the morgue.

She was listening carefully when she realized that the man was hugging her and slowly pressing her down.

Luo Ning knew that there was movement outside, so she didn’t resist. She silently leaned into the little thief’s arms and rolled under the wooden bed by the wall with him.. She listened attentively to the movements outside the morgue…