Chapter 15: Night Travelers, Displaying Martial Skills

Chapter 15: Night Traveler, Moving Skills

The amount of information was overwhelming—wokou pirates, court intrigues, everything at once.

Ning Xishi didn't let the man go just yet. Instead, he knocked him unconscious and, taking a circuitous route, brought him to the only gathering point in the capital of their "Beggar Gang," now renamed the Jule Gang.

— Qingyan Tower.

That's right, this was their gang's base, and the innkeeper, waiters, and everyone else were all members of the gang.

However, aside from the shopkeeper, no one else knew Ning Xishi's true identity. Even when Ning Xishi came to handle gang affairs, he always wore a silver-white mask.

Earlier that day, when Shopkeeper Xiao saw Dongshuang leaving with the substitute, he felt uneasy. Within a few minutes, sure enough, two figures climbed over the wall behind the wood shed—one of them wearing a silver-white mask.

Seeing this, the shopkeeper's heart settled immediately. After dismissing the attendants, he rushed over: "You took care of it yourself?"

Shopkeeper Xiao was an old hand in the Beggar Gang; otherwise, he wouldn't have been chosen to come to the capital to protect their Young Chief up close.

He naturally knew that aside from his lightness skill, Ning Xishi was all show and no substance—one slight test would expose his true abilities.

Ning Xishi maintained his lowered voice: "Mm, this man's martial arts shouldn't be poor. He mentioned something about wokou colluding with the court. Interrogate him thoroughly."

"Understood." Shopkeeper Xiao quickly acknowledged, then remembering something, whispered in Ning Xishi's ear, "Before Dongshuang left, he said he'd wait for you by the latrine. It's down the alley off East Gong Drum Lane, past the Ministry of Rites compound."

Ning Xishi nodded.

He was in a hurry and didn't have time for details, so he vaulted back over the wall.

Even in midsummer, the night breeze carried a slight chill. Ning Xishi, dressed in black, moved across the rooftops of the capital's residences, taking in nearly the whole area at a glance.

But he had no time to admire the view—his heart pounded so hard it felt like it might burst from his chest.

What a rush!

Here he was, a law-abiding citizen, pulling off a doppelgänger act in the capital at night, and he still had to switch back before the other guy returned to the General's residence.

Ning Xishi's palms were slick with sweat. Fortunately, the night patrol guards were pretty lax, and with Ning Xishi's exceptional lightness skill, he made it to East Gong Drum Lane without any trouble.

Ning Xishi knew the Ministry of Rites compound well—it was where his father had worked for over twenty years. Ning Xishi had played there often as a kid.

After changing back into his regular clothes and handing the night clothes to the stand-in, Ning Xishi and Dongshuang emerged back onto the main road.

A night breeze blew, and Ning Xishi felt a chill run down his spine.

He said to Dongshuang, "I'm all sweaty. I need a hot bath when we get back."

The adrenaline hadn't fully worn off yet.

Ning Xishi rubbed his arms and said, "Why does my back feel cold? Let's hurry back..."

Before he could finish, Ning Xishi heard a familiar scolding from behind: "You unfilial brat! What are you doing near the government office at this hour?"

Dongshuang's legs nearly gave out first, and he almost dropped to his knees. Ning Xishi had been fairly calm, but Dongshuang's reaction rattled him, and he nearly knelt to his father as well.

Ning Xishi tried to look calm as he turned around, and seeing his father's furious glare, stammered, "Father, hear me out—let me explain."

"Earlier, your mother said that now that you're grown up, we should watch out for you sneaking out at night to drink with shady characters. I didn't believe it—I said you'd never do that. And today you made me look bad in front of your mother!" said Ning Hanjiang, the Minister of Rites, who had just gotten off his shift. "Let's go home. We'll deal with this when we get back."

Hearing the first part, Ning Xishi shrank like a scared quail, obediently taking the scolding.

But by the end, Ning Xishi realized his father was confused from his shift—he'd forgotten his son was already married.

Ning Xishi opened his mouth but didn't know how to break it to his father.

After all, being a son who married into another family as a male wife was quite a shock to his parents.

Seeming to notice that his son hadn't put on his usual act of being cute and attentive, Minister Ning paused briefly, then was snapped back to reality by a cold wind—oh right, his youngest son was married now and had to live at his in-laws' home.

Tears suddenly welled up in Minister Ning's eyes. He turned away from Ning Xishi and walked off, wiping his tears as he went.

Ning Xishi stood there, his soft, murmured "Father" carried away by the night wind, leaving only the sound of the wind whistling through the alley.

Only once his father was out of sight did Ning Xishi and Dongshuang head toward the General's residence. Steward Li Yuan was waiting at the gate as usual. He started to greet him, but seeing Ning Xishi's grim expression, he didn't dare say much—just escorted him back to the courtyard to rest.

That night, Ning Xishi, who rarely suffered from insomnia, only fell asleep very late.

But the next day, he still remembered he had classes. Woken by the faint noise outside in the early morning, he was instantly wide awake.

Dongshuang came in carrying a washbasin, cautiously checking Ning Xishi's expression, and said, "Steward Li sent word this morning that today is the day for the bride's visit back home. The General has urgent official business and can't accompany you, Young Master, but the carriage is already waiting outside. You may depart whenever you're ready."

Ning Xishi sprang out of bed like a leaping carp and said, "Let's go. We're going home."

·

Up on the second floor of the General's residence armory, Xie Jingxing sat by the window, watching Ning Xishi and his attendants cross the courtyard toward the outer compound.

The noise outside the window soon died down, and only then did he look down at his own legs.

Seeing this, Qiu Changyu hurriedly said, "The divine physician said your legs are only temporarily out of commission. His golden needle technique is miraculous—as long as you keep up with the acupuncture and take your medicine, you'll gradually recover within three months."

But Xie Jingxing asked about something else: "Have you found the mole in the Imperial Academy?"

That mark was in a fairly critical spot in the Academy—aside from the students who came and went daily, there was no other plausible explanation for who could have tampered there.

But the Academy had a lot of students, and nearly all of them could have had access to the library.

It wasn't easy to narrow down quickly.

Qiu Changyu was thorough when it came to serious matters: "We already found him. However, the student said a fellow townsman came to the capital to study, found out he was at the Academy, and was especially attentive and ingratiating—generous with meals and spending. So he struck up a friendship with him. Later, the fellow asked him to draw that pattern on the bricks outside the library. He thought it was odd, but the fellow said it was his family's religious symbol, and that carving it into the Academy would guarantee him top honors in the next imperial exam."

Xie Jingxing glanced at him.

Qiu Changyu continued, "This guy doesn't seem to be lying. I cross-checked several students' stories, and they all match up. However, the generous fellow townsman gave them all fake info—when we checked the addresses they provided, every one was an empty house."

Seeing Xie Jingxing's eyebrows rise, as if to say "You tipped him off?", Qiu Changyu quickly added, "That's possible. But last night, that man was still hosting a banquet at Qingyan Tower, and by midnight he'd vanished without a trace—really strange. Moreover, the house under his name was fully furnished with daily necessities, not like someone who'd fled after spotting our people."

Xie Jingxing frowned slightly, then concluded: "Someone else must have snatched him up."

Qiu Changyu had thought of that too, but his people had investigated for so long without finding any other faction looking into this matter.

It was really strange.

"What about the students we caught earlier? Nothing besides contacting the Beggar Gang?" Xie Jingxing asked.

"It seems that's all. After all, they're Academy students—our people only threatened them pretending to be thugs and didn't dare use torture," Qiu Changyu shook his head.

If they'd used torture in secret and the students reported it, the matter would blow up, and no one would get off scot-free.

"Oh, right," Qiu Changyu recalled something and spoke up, "According to those students, yesterday when that man was hosting, Young Master Ning barged into their private room with his friends without warning and drank their Qiulu Bai wine."

By any normal chain of reasoning, since the man had disappeared last night, everyone who had appeared yesterday, including Ning Xishi and the others, would be under significant suspicion.

But with the precedent of Biniang, Qiu Changyu really didn't want to suspect their Lady General again.

Besides, if the Lady General truly had such capabilities, she wouldn't have been forced by the emperor to marry their general as her husband.

All the threads were about to connect into a long causal chain in Xie Jingxing's mind when he suddenly heard Qiu Changyu's final words. If Xie Jingxing's mind had a progress bar, it would have just screeched to a halt and reset to zero.

He was clearly taken aback: "Ning Xishi?"

Qiu Changyu shrugged: "Yeah, I find it weird too. We don't even need to look into Young Master Ning's friends—they all come from clean families. Other than their bad behavior, there's no way they're connected to the martial world."

For government officials, secretly colluding with martial arts sects would mean having their families seized and being exiled to Ningguta.

This was a red line in policy that most people wouldn't cross.

Xie Jingxing, who had been deducing everything so quickly and effectively, now felt his mind jam, leaving only the painting on his desk—a young man leaning on a bridge, folding a willow branch, smiling as he looked over.

Qiu Changyu waited for the general to argue back, but after a long silence, the general gave no orders.

In the end, all he said was: "Keep watching the Imperial Academy."

"Yes."

·

Meanwhile, Shopkeeper Xiao, in the cellar he'd dug eighteen meters deep, hadn't even started questioning the man when he spilled everything.

"My name is Old Fourth Ming. I was sent by the family head. My first purpose is to find out who the disguised Japanese pirates are, and if possible, investigate how they collude with the court; my second purpose is that before the Martial Arts Alliance Leader competition, I must invite the Beggar Gang to come out and compete for the position of Alliance Leader!"

Shopkeeper Xiao's face twitched involuntarily. He wanted to say the man was making up lies, but he couldn't find any reason why the man would fabricate such a story.

In fact, the man was so sincere that Shopkeeper Xiao felt guilty for locking him in such a deep underground cell, as if he didn't trust him enough.

Old Fourth Ming said: "You must be a big shot in the Beggar Gang. I've sent out my new signal for so long without any response. With the day for choosing the Alliance Leader drawing closer, you must tell your gang leader to go and become the new Alliance Leader!"

==========Author's Note:==========

Good night