Moonlight filtered through the broken beams of the dilapidated temple on the outskirts of town. Pi Yanlin lay flat on a slab of bluestone, his hands tucked behind his head.
Gu Qinghuan stood by a shattered window with her arms crossed, tapping the scabbard of her Dark Iron Sword against his foot. "Are you sure you aren't just making excuses to be lazy again? The clerk at the Xuan'an Bureau was talking about checking attendance for the menials yesterday."
"It's been seven days." Pi Yanlin stared at the spiderwebs overhead, the Copper Piece in his sleeve digging uncomfortably into his wrist. "The Copper Piece says 'tenfold return.' Today is the last day of the System's hundred-day sign-in; I have to at least try." He rolled over, the moss in the cracks of the stone slab tickling his back. "Besides... have you ever known a lazy person to solve half the cold cases the Xuan'an Bureau has piled up over the last twenty years?"
Chapter 44