Liang Yanbei’s ears were much more sensitive than Wen Chan’s, and he could tell that there was more than one person from the sound of their footsteps.
Coupled with the faint sound of their conversation, he guessed that it was a man and a woman.
The two of them had already reached the door of the small courtyard.
He easily grabbed Wen Chan, pulled him around the screen, and got into the inner room.
The structure of the room was not complicated. The furnishings were simple, and the light was too dim. Liang Yanbei took a quick look and found no place to hide the two of them.
Wen Chan’s eyes had gone dark, and he couldn’t see anything. He pushed Liang Yanbei twice and said with urgency, in a low voice, “Under the bed, go under the bed.”
The people outside were getting closer and closer, and Liang Yanbei had no time to think anymore. So in two-three steps, he ran to the bed and let Wen Chan get in first.
At the moment the door was opened, Liang Yanbei hid his whole body under the bed.
Maybe it was cleaned. Because it was not dirty down there.
The foot of the bed was more than two feet long. So Liang Yanbei had to roll in twice to completely hide, and he had his shoulders next to Wen Chan.
In a short while, the room lit up with light.
He saw two pairs of feet that were entangled walking from the outer room to the inner room as if they couldn’t wait any longer.
Wen Chan couldn’t see it, but he could hear footsteps getting closer and closer. He saw that the feet of the bed were too high, and half of Liang Yanbei’s body was covered with light. So he reached out and pulled Liang Yanbei’s clothes.
Motioning for him to move inside.
Liang Yanbei thought he was feeling uncomfortable. So he turned around quietly, trying to face Wen Chan sideways.
However, the distance between them was too close. When he turned around, the tip of his nose was almost touching the bridge of Wen Chan’s nose, and the hot breath he exhaled fell on Wen Chan’s face.
It immediately made his face feel hot.
Because of the light behind his back, Wen Chan couldn’t see Liang Yanbei’s face clearly. But he could vaguely see the bright eyes.
He suppressed his flustered breathing and lowered his head in a hurry.
They were very close, and it was very quiet.
Wen Chan couldn’t remember how many years it had been since he had been this close to Liang Yanbei, so close that he could clearly hear the rhythmic beating of the heart in Liang Yanbei’s chest.
It was as if you could feel it if you just gently put your hand on it.
As far as he could remember, it had been so long that Wen Chan had long forgotten what Liang Yanbei’s embrace felt like.
There were only a few remaining thoughts that have been stubbornly retained over the years.
Wen Chan felt that his heart was pounding so hard that it sounded like gongs and drums.
Suddenly there was a muffled sound from the bed, and the woman’s voice sounded from above his head, “Brother Ah Yun, I thought you wouldn’t come back for me today.”
“How could it be? I haven’t seen Yu’er for a day, and I miss Yu’er so much that it is scratching my heart. How can I stand it anymore?”
The man’s voice was low and deep, with a lingering smile in his words.
As if wrapped in honey, the woman was so happy that she bloomed, “You know how to tease me with sweet words.”
“Isn’t that what Yu’er likes to hear?” The man gasped.
The pair of man and woman didn’t expect that there would be two people hiding under their bed. After closing the door, they rushed to do the good deed. After a while, the hard-to-hear voices became intertwined.
Wen Chan’s face was really indifferent, and he turned a deaf ear to those voices. But he thought in his heart: You are such a cheater, Tan Yuji. You actually have someone outside!
He thought of his first queen in his previous life, Jiang Yueying.
No one knew if she had any thoughts of murdering him when she had an affair with the imperial bodyguard…… But even if she had, it would have been difficult for her to succeed. After all, he was the emperor, and he was very strict about food, clothing, housing, and transportation. So that no one else could take advantage of it.
Just thinking about it made his thoughts drift away again.
Suddenly, there was a high-pitched cry from the woman.
Wen Chan couldn’t help but tremble when he heard this, and he moved towards Liang Yanbei.
And just as he was about to lower his head further, he suddenly felt Liang Yanbei’s arm move, and his warm palms covered his ears, blocking most of the filthy sounds.
He also put his arm under Wen Chan’s head very thoughtfully as a pillow.
Wen Chan looked up in astonishment but still couldn’t see anything clearly.
It was just that the warmth of Liang Yanbei’s body that surrounded him, blended with the heat of his body and then turned into something sweeter than berries, tightly wrapping Wen Chan’s heart.
His heart started pounding, and he became restless.
The man and woman on the bed were moving back and forth a lot, and just when they were about to get to the point, there was a sudden shout outside the door.
“Young Lady! Madam has something to tell Young Lady. So she has sent this servant to tell Young Lady about this!”
This little maid came just at the right time.
After the voice came, the movement on the bed stopped abruptly, and then the man’s voice sounded, “This b*** of a maid deserves to be killed. You don’t mind her.”
“No way.” The woman refused, “She is one of my mother’s people. She cannot be touched. Get up quickly.”
“But……”
“No buts. My mother is looking for me now. There must be something urgent. I have to go.” The woman pushed the man away firmly.
“Then when will you come back?” The man was very unhappy when he was stopped in his excitement.
“I’m afraid that it won’t be possible today. Brother Ah Yun, please go back today and let’s meet another day.”
The man was very unhappy about this matter, and the woman coaxed him with a gentle voice. It was not until the maid outside urged her again that she straightened her clothes and went out.
After the woman left, the man was alone in the room, cursing for a while to vent his anger, and then strode away.
After waiting for a while, the two of them got out from under the bed.
Liang Yanbei was fine. His red clothes were dark in color, and no dust could be seen. On the contrary, Wen Chan’s clothes were light in color, and half of his body was stained with light dust.
He patted it clean with his hands, and just as he was about to speak, he heard Liang Yanbei beside him say in a low voice, “That woman is most likely Tan Yuji.”
Wen Chan, “???”
“I don’t want to hear this kind of nonsense from you again.” Wen Chan sighed seriously.
The woman called “Yu’er” who appeared in Tan Yuji’s room was 100% her. What other possibility was there that he had to say ‘most likely’?
Liang Yanbei thought to himself: It was only after you came to Wuyue Island that you started to listen to me seriously. And he said, “This is the last time I talk nonsense in my life.”
Wen Chan couldn’t help but smile after hearing this and then urged, “Let’s leave quickly.”
“There’s no rush.” Liang Yanbei paced around the house, “Let’s search around first.”
The man did not blow out the lights when he left, which saved them the trouble of lighting them again. One lamp in the inner room and one in the outer room illuminated the room brightly.
Wen Chan then thought about it: We have come here already, and we can’t just go back with nothing, right?
Fortunately, he also started searching together to see if he could find anything relevant in Tan Yuji’s room.
Because it was a temporary residence, there were not many things about the girl in the room. There were mainly the wardrobe, bed, and bronze mirror table.
Wen Chan didn’t want to go through the woman’s clothes, so he picked through in front of the bronze mirror table.
It had nothing more than some jewelry and some jade hairpins for ornamentation. He fiddled with it casually, and suddenly saw a cyan hairpin among the dazzling pile of hairpins. He reached out and took it out.
The style of this hairpin was not unique, but it could be seen that it was made of high-quality jade. The most important point was that, according to Qin Qi’s words, the woman who pointed them in the wrong way was wearing a cyan hairpin.
Although it was highly likely that it was just a coincidence, and Wen Chan even suspected that every girl would have such a cyan hairpin in their hands1I don’t, but I wanna have one., at the same time, it also added to his doubt about Tan Yuji.
He put the hairpin back in its place and opened the table drawer.
As soon as he opened it, his nostrils were hit by a scent that was mixed with a strong smell of grass. The smell was indescribably weird, and it made Wen Chan frown.
He took out several boxes of rouge from the drawer and opened them one by one. Sure enough, he saw mashed grasses in one of the boxes.
The grass was slightly yellow, and it was pretty dry. So it was obvious that it had been used.
When hidden in a drawer full of rouge, it was made more conspicuous.
Wen Chan confirmed his suspicion of Tan Yuji the moment he saw the juice from the grass. He held the box and was about to turn around to call the other person. But he was shocked to find that Liang Yanbei had been standing behind him for some time.
“Can you make some sound like a normal person?” Wen Chan was shocked and a little frustrated.
“Then next time, should I imitate the crow of a rooster while walking?” Liang Yanbei said, raising his eyebrows slightly, “I called you just now. But you were so immersed in your thoughts that you didn’t hear it.”
Is that so?
Wen Chan asked, “What do you want me to do?”
“I finished looking over there and found nothing.”
“Look at what this is?” Wen Chan remembered that he still had something in his hand and handed it to him.
Liang Yanbei stretched out his two fingers, picked up and twiddled with a piece of the grass that had been mashed together, and took a serious look at it, “The root of the grass is narrow, and the rest is wide. And the juice has turned yellow. It must be the commelina benghalensis.”
“Then the murderer is Tan Yuji?”
“There have all along been two murderers.” Liang Yanbei shook his head lightly, “Besides, this thing alone is not enough to convict Tan Yuji. We still need more evidence.”
“Then let’s go to the commelina benghalensis field and have a look. Maybe we can find something.” He suggested.
Liang Yanbei agreed immediately, “Okay, let’s go now.”
“Now?” Wen Chan subconsciously glanced at the sky outside, “It’s a bit late……”
It was not peaceful in Jile City in broad daylight, let alone at night. And the location of the yamen was somewhat remote.
“It’s just the right time now. If you don’t want to, we can stroll around the city for a while before going.” Liang Yanbei thought for a moment, “We haven’t had dinner yet. Why don’t we go get something to eat first.”
Wen Chan still wanted to speak, but Liang Yanbei gently pushed his arm and urged, “Put the things back, and let’s get out of here.”
As soon as he said that he was leaving, Wen Chan quickly put his things back, not wanting to stay for a moment longer.
After he put all the rouge boxes back, he kept only the box with the commelina benghalensis and said, “Let’s keep this as evidence of the crime.”
The rouge box was exquisitely made, with the two words “Tan Clan” printed on the bottom. Once the thing was taken out, Tan Yuji would not be able to rely on it.
The two of them didn’t stay longer. They took the box and left Tan Yuji’s residence. They bypassed a secluded path and left the City Lord’s mansion through the east courtyard gate.
During the nighttime in Jile City, there was a lively atmosphere of singing and dancing. Music and singing came from all directions, and gongs and drums were played to create a continuous and beautiful rhythm.
Wen Chan looked at the scenery of red flowers and green willows2all the colors of spring, and sighed again: This city is indeed worthy of being called Jile3It means “bliss”.
The festival lasted for two months, starting in May and ending in July. Of which June was the most lively time to worship the gods.
The City Lord’s mansion was located in the center of Jile City. At this moment, most of the people in the city have gathered there. A circle-shaped fire was lit in the wide open space, and people were singing and dancing around the fire.
Wen Chan’s eyes reflected the firelight, and it was filled with a shine. He couldn’t help but exclaim in a low voice, “There are so many people.”
He liked lively places the most. The more people there were, the happier he was.
Liang Yanbei noticed his little expression and pulled him towards the huge bonfire, “Let’s go and have a look too.”
Translator’s corner
Just like Liang Yanbei even I have the habit of saying dumb stuff just to start or continue a conversation, since I am a really good conversationalist (I AM being sarcastic here).
Thank you so much for reading the chapter. If you liked my translation and wanna support me, you can comment down your thoughts or send me a Kofi.
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