Episode 91

Qi Yan belonged to an aristocratic family in the capital. Many of his family members were government officials, so the household rules were strict and the younger ones were mostly mature, polite and well-mannered. But Qi Yan was an exception.

He wasn’t any less than the others. Reading, writing and making good arguments came naturally to him, and he was even better than some of his relatives. But he didn’t like rote learning. Neither did he fancy the predictable life of a government official, nor go down the usual route of getting married and establishing his career. He liked excitement and challenges.

He was observant and loved thinking about all sorts of things. He was also a prankster who was able to learn any sort of skill from his elders, servants and anything he saw on the streets and use it on others. He could make others fall for his tricks again and again, and the other party still didn’t know he was the one behind it.

He loved squatting in random corners to listen to gossip, he loved flying from house fence to house fence in the night. The darker it was, the better. Sometimes he would feel an itch in his hands and decide to be a Robin Hood.

Very few people knew that the infamous “Know It All” and “Super Burglar” of the capital city were both Qi Yan.

By the time the Qi family found out, these two nicknames had already become household names. They couldn’t stop others from talking about it.

So, the only thing they could do was to go according to the house rules. They gave him a good beating for being disobedient, cleaned up the mess he had created, then watched him carefully to make sure he did not go down the wrong path.

But all of these were secrets that Qi Yan guarded very carefully. He would never tell anybody about this, regardless of the place and time. Zhao Zhi knew a little because of who he was and the position he held, but he would never tell anybody else about this.

Song Caitang had only met him twice and not for a very long time. They hadn’t exchanged a lot of words and did not cross paths before. She actually managed to guess so much about him despite that!

Qi Yan was completely flabbergasted.

He forgot to fan himself and seemed to have forgotten how to blink too. His entire self was frozen in time as he stared straight at Song Caitang without speaking for a long, long time.

But Song Caitang was very pleased with his reaction. The silence in her ears felt wonderful.

Her lashes fluttered as she used a slim, fair finger to hold up her teacup. The green color of the ceramic cup against her smooth, fair skin made it seem to glow.

The space was completely silent, except for the sound of her gently scraping the cup lid against the teacup.

“So, exactly who are you, Mr. Qi?”

Since she had already started asking, she might as well ask everything else. She looked at him and said, “Are you connected to this case purely by coincidence? Or… is there more to this?”

“What is your purpose in coming to Luanze? Is it really just to protect your cousin on her journey here?”

Qi Yan put his fan on the table. The fan frame hit the stone table with a crisp clink.

“You’re really good.”

He looked at Song Caitang with a conflicted look in his eye, “No wonder Zhao Zhi treats you differently.”

Song Caitang sipped her tea. These questions were up to her to ask, but it was up to Qi Yan to decide if he wanted to answer them. She wasn’t too disappointed that he didn’t answer her directly. Her gaze remained as calm as ever, “Are you scared now? You want to move far away from me right now?”

Everyone liked clever people, but there were many times when one did not want to befriend exceptionally smart people, because smart people could see through them easily, so one would feel like they couldn’t hide any secrets or lie to such people. That felt terrible.

Just like now. Qi Yan didn’t dare to try and hoodwink her.

Song Caitang was used to that.

Maintaining a distance from others wasn’t a bad thing.

She remained in the same position and continued drinking her tea in a calm and elegant manner.

Qi Yan rubbed his nose, then picked up his fan from the table. He unfolded it, touched it, then quietly folded again. He unfolded it again, then folded it again…

As the fan unfolded and folded again, he seemed to have found himself again. He laughed heartily, “Miss Song, if you were hoping to scare me away, I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed.”

“Am I like any other person on the street? The universe is vast, but I have bigger guts than that. My curiosity is even greater than a hundred cats! You’re scary, but it’s a very attractive sort of scary. I’m more inclined to stay and find out more rather than run away.”

As he spoke, he winked at her, as though he were an elegant playboy, “I can see that you’re not like most other girls your age, so I’ll go ahead and speak my mind…”

“Miss Song, the way you behave does scare men a little, but you make them feel safe too! The one who’s lucky enough to marry you is going to be so happy! You’re clever, capable, and you’d definitely protect your man. You’d make sure that nobody in your family ever gets bullied! With such an incredible woman managing the household, life would be so smooth sailing! Everything would go his way without him having to do anything!”

Song Caitang stared at him. Where was this man’s shame? Or was he just shameless? He was looking for a wife so that she could protect him? Whut?

She raised an eyebrow, “Even if it means that you won’t be able to flirt with young ladies anymore?”

Qi Yan immediately got serious, “Do I look like that sort of person? I am an aristocratic gentleman with excellent character who keeps himself pure and takes care of himself, so I don’t even have pretty maids waiting on me! Of course, like everyone else, I do love pretty things, so I’d take a second look during the occasional moments I see one…”

Song Caitang raised her eyebrows even higher and looked a little curiously at him.

An aristocratic gentleman with excellent character who was also a thief?

Qi Yan’s words were just meaningless responses that didn’t answer any of her questions.

This man had a lot of secrets, but he wasn’t willing to share them.

For some reason, the more Song Caitang smiled at him, and the brighter her smile became, the more nervous Qi Yan became and he didn’t know how to joke around her anymore. He sighed deeply as he gave up and stuffed his fan back in his belt, “You’re able to see through any person’s heart, so if we interact any longer, I’m afraid I won’t be able to hide anything from you. You might even be able to deduce how old I was when I last peed my pants. But there are some things… I can’t talk about now.”

He looked at her, “If you need to know or ought to know, you will know.”

Song Caitang didn’t seem interested in his secrets as she continued drinking tea calmly, “Is that so?”

“I can tell you one thing. I have absolutely nothing to do with the Lu Guangzong murder case. That was purely a coincidence,” Qi Yan had a sincere look in his eyes, “If I had anything to do with it, you would have noticed something by now. There is no need for me to lie to you.”

“Okay.”

“I’m serious! Don’t worry, I’m just like Zhao Zhi – we’re very righteous, kind, sincere, friendly men who keep ourselves pure and never get entangled with women!”

Qi Yan was about to beat his chest and swear by his words.

But Song Caitang’s gaze was focused on some place behind him. She had a tiny smirk on her face, “Is that so?”

Qi Yan immediately turned around…

… and nearly punched the next person.

He had just assured Song Caitang of his and Zhao Zhi’s character, and Zhao Zhi was doing the exact opposite.

He just said that they never get entangled with women, but what was Zhao Zhi and Ling Qianqian doing right now?!

Ling Qianqian was his cousin and she was merely tugging at Zhao Zhi’s sleeve, but… but… he had just said those things!

If he hadn’t hoped to endear himself to Song Caitang by comparing himself to someone that she knew for a longer time, this wouldn’t have happened!

Qi Yan felt like he had been truly slapped in the face. He hurriedly explained, “Er… this cousin of mine can’t be considered a woman.”

Song Caitang smiled at him, “What did you say?”

He gritted his teeth, “She’s just a tween who hasn’t grown up yet!”

“I see.”

“I’m serious! I’ve taught her before to stop having any delusions! Brother Zhi will never have any feelings for her and will never marry her! But she’s too young and she doesn’t understand that she shouldn’t choose a man just because he’s good looking. She might like this face now, but she might see a better looking guy in the future and go crazy over him instead!”

“Miss Ling is going to overhear that.”

“Whaaa? Oops! I’ll speak more softly…”

Song Caitang looked at the man next to her who had immediately backed down and felt that he was quite an interesting character.

At least he was authentic.

She looked around, her gaze landing on Wen Yuansi and Guan Rongrong on the left, then on Zhao Zhi and Ling Qianqian on the right. This felt a little awkward.

There were a lot of people at the party, plus these were two very intelligent men with two women who were very young, so nothing terrible was going to happen. Just sitting here to watch them didn’t seem appropriate.

“I’ll go out for a walk.”

Song Caitang got up and left via a small cobblestone passageway at the side.

“Wait for me!” Qi Yan ran after her.

Wen Yuansi had already spotted Song Caitang a long time ago but couldn’t get to her. When he saw her walk away, he realized that he wouldn’t be able to say hello anymore and had a look of regret in his eyes.

Zhao Zhi, on the other hand, had only just spotted Song Caitang. But before he could go over, Song Caitang had already walked out.

He turned his feet, dodged Ling Qianqian’s hand and walked toward that cobblestone passageway, “I’m very busy and I don’t have time to play with you.”

Of course, Ling Qianqian was very disappointed.

Her makeup was immaculate and she was wearing a brand new dress, but her Zhao-gege never even looked at her.

By the time she looked at where Zhao Zhi was headed, she only spotted the edge of a woman’s skirt and Qi Yan’s back view.

Her cousin had been hanging around that female coroner who knew how to dissect bodies, and he also said earlier that he would host Song Caitang…

So, was that woman in the distance… Song Caitang?

Zhao Zhi was actually running after a woman?!

That had never happened before!

Ling Qianqian narrowed her almond-shaped eyes slightly as a fury burned inside them.

As Song Caitang continued walking, she suddenly heard voices.

She was a well brought up person whose first instinct was to stop and walk away, since it was rude to eavesdrop on someone else. But Qi Yan blocked her way and even tugged at her sleeve to motion to her to keep walking.

Song Caitang frowned as she looked at him puzzledly.

Qi Yan dared not speak or make any noise in case it alerted the people speaking. He had no choice but to use his hand actions and mouth to tell her that this had something to do with the murder case they were investigating.

This was very important, so of course Song Caitang wasn’t going to just walk away. They continued walking down the same direction as before.

In no time, she saw the people who were speaking.

It was Fourth Missy Gan and her son.

The atmosphere seemed tense, like they were quarreling.

Gan Zhixuan’s expression was uptight and he was very angry, “Who in the world is my father? If you were willing to tell me earlier, all of this wouldn’t have happened!”

Fourth Missy Gan held up a handkerchief to wipe away the tears pouring down her cheeks, “I… I’ve told you a long time ago that he’s dead… his entire family is dead… Why don’t you believe me…”

“Even if his entire family’s dead, surely they must be buried somewhere as a clan, right? Why have you never brought me there to pay my respects? Is my father secretly alive? You’ve been avoiding the subject only because you don’t want me to know, right? What are you afraid of? I’m already 15 and I can become the head of the family! I’m able to take anything!”