The window was gently pushed open, and a slender figure leaped inside.
It was a woman with a veiled face. Judging by her build and her eyes, she was none of the other than Liu Ying, the assassin who had been hunted down so rigorously over the past few days.
In the moonlight, Liu Ying staggered over to a chair and sat down, completely ignoring Zhou Yan's defensive posture.
She reached up and pulled off her veil, revealing a delicate face. Combined with her pale complexion, to Zhou Yan she looked like a beauty carrying a profound sense of shattered vulnerability.
"I've come to deliver a merit to you," Liu Ying began, her voice weak yet calm. "The entire city is on lockdown now, and the people hunting me are all carrying crossbows, not to mention the other two Xiantian experts continually pursuing me. No matter how much skill I have, I can't escape."
Zhou Yan gripped the hilt of his sword, but did not strike immediately. He noticed a deep, bone-visible sword wound on Liu Ying's left shoulder, blood already soaking half her garments.
Liu Ying continued, "The reason I came to find you is, firstly, to express my gratitude—thanking you for not stepping out to stop me when I went to seek my revenge. Secondly, you have a good reputation among those constables. 'Brother Zhou,' who can show sympathy to a few lowly constables, surely won't make things difficult for a poor girl like me, right?"
She gave a bitter laugh. "As a woman, if I fall into the hands of those people, God knows what kind of fate awaits me." She paused, then went on, "Rather than falling into anyone else's hands, I'd rather come to you to make an end of it. At least your reputation is good." With that, she closed her eyes, raised her chin to expose her neck, and assumed the posture of awaiting execution.
Zhou Yan remained silent, though the tip of his sword lowered slightly by a fraction.
His thumb unconsciously stroked the sword hilt as his gaze swept over Liu Ying.
"Surely there's more to it than that," Zhou Yan suddenly spoke, a hint of playful amusement in his voice. "You want me to help you evade the manhunt."
Liu Ying's expression shifted slightly, but she quickly regained her composure.
Zhou Yan continued, "In everything you just said, you didn't mention a single word about the first time we crossed paths, when I ambushed you."
He kept stroking the hilt of his sword. "And if you were truly afraid of being humiliated, why take the risk of coming to me? Wouldn't it be much quicker and less painful to just end it yourself?"
Liu Ying's fingers curled slightly, tightening their grip on the armrests of the chair.
"As for talk of gratitude," Zhou Yan sneered, "I don't think I've done anything worth thanking me for. You'd be much more convincing if you said you came to settle the score for that ambush."
Moonlight filtered through the lattice window, casting mottled shadows between the two of them.
Zhou Yan went on, "And the moment you came in, you made yourself look so fragile—were you trying to stir up my sympathy? You heard that I show care for ordinary constables, decided I must be a good person, and came here looking for a way to survive?" Zhou Yan paused to ponder for a moment before continuing, "There aren't many people in Yuzhou City who could help you—a dozen or so chief officials at the yamen, and then there are the three of us who are Xiantian experts. Because of this business with you, those officials have been keeping themselves tightly hidden these past few days, making it very hard for you to get close to them. As for the three Xiantian experts, the one working for the imperial court is out of the question. There's another one who has been relentlessly hunting you down and is already blazing with real fury, so he's out too. That only leaves me. Even though you and I have a score to settle over a sword fight, one could say we were each just serving our respective masters, so you took the risk and came to me?"
Liu Ying opened her eyes, stared fixedly at Zhou Yan, and let out a wretched laugh. "Why rack your brains so much? Can't it simply be that I've had my revenge and no longer want to live?"
Before her voice had even faded, the long sword in Zhou Yan's hand swept toward Liu Ying's neck. Although she was badly injured, she instinctively tilted her head and dodged, and a strand of dark hair drifted down to the floor.
"So you do still want to live," Zhou Yan withdrew his sword and stood straight, the corners of his mouth curling into an ambiguous smile. "No need to talk nonsense. Why don't you tell me what you can offer me instead."
Clutching the wound on her shoulder, Liu Ying leaned back against the chair, panting, and laughed bitterly. "You really are out for my life, Master Zhou. Since that's the case, why bother asking what I can bring you? Why not just kill me outright? This time, I absolutely won't dodge."
Hearing this, Zhou Yan swung his long sword once more. Liu Ying tilted her head and dodged again.
She raised her eyes to meet Zhou Yan's playful gaze, and a flush of color actually appeared on her pale face.
"You really are a cunning woman, and I don't strictly have a reason to kill you anyway," Zhou Yan twirled the long sword in his hand. "It's just about making some silver. As long as you can offer a price higher than the imperial bounty, helping you out once isn't entirely out of the question."
Liu Ying said with lingering resentment, "How about a Xiantian expert working at your command?"
Zhou Yan merely shook his head slightly. "The price is high enough, but how can I guarantee that you'll serve me wholeheartedly? You certainly don't look like an honest person. If I'm going to have you do things, I can't very well tie you to my side, can I? Once you run off, where am I supposed to go looking for you?"
At these words, Liu Ying bit her lower lip, drew an oil-paper packet from her bodice, and placed it trembling on the table. "Inside here are the smuggling routes Liu Laosan uses in collusion with the salt merchants of Jiangnan, as well as the account books detailing the bribes he paid to certain officials. If you get your hands on these, at the very least you can extract hush money from those officials—it will definitely yield more than the bounty. If you're interested in getting involved and making a cut, that would mean endless wealth."
Zhou Yan nodded slightly, his mind already made up, though he still said playfully, "If I kill you, these things will be mine anyway."
Liu Ying said coldly, "There's only an opening chapter in here!"
Zhou Yan silently marveled at how cunning this woman truly was. He spoke up, "Fine, then you can hide here with me for now. No one will come to inspect my quarters anytime soon." With that, he tossed over a packet of wound ointment. "Tend to your own injuries. The wind has been blowing hard these past few days and I haven't had a chance to buy medicine, so use this sparingly." He pointed toward the inner section of the bed. "If you need to rest, you can go inside."
Looking somewhat nervous, Liu Ying asked, "Where are you going to sleep?"
Zhou Yan gave her a strange look and pointed at the bed. "I'll be sleeping out here on this side, of course." At this, Liu Ying's face flushed with anger. "You... you..."
Zhou Yan shrugged. "If you don't like it, feel free to choose between the wardrobe, the sitting room, or the floor." With that, he walked back to the bed.
He was certain she wouldn't dare make a move against him. The grudge of the ambush paled in comparison to her own life; if she attacked him—not to mention whether she could even win—even if she managed to kill him, she would cut off her own last remaining path to survival.
"You're ruthless. I'll sleep inside." Her injuries truly couldn't withstand any more rough treatment. Besides, once she pulled the curtains in the middle, he surely wouldn't part them and do anything to her, would he? Surely not.
Over the next few days, Zhou Yan continued to tour Yuzhou City with Wu Qinghe daily. The two of them would either climb high to gaze into the distance or boat upon the river, acting as though they were completely oblivious to the manhunt sweeping the city.
"Brother Zhou, what do you think of the night view of Yuzhou City?" Wu Qinghe stood upon the city wall, gesturing toward the myriad lights below as he asked.
Gazing at the distant pinpricks of starlight, Zhou Yan smiled. "It's truly breathtaking. But Brother Wu, how is it that we haven't seen Chief Constable Zhao these past few days?"
Wu Qinghe sighed. "Don't ask. That assassin still hasn't been caught, and the superiors are pressing hard. On top of that, plenty of people are dissatisfied with the lockdown; Chief Constable Zhao hasn't closed his eyes in three days. Who knows where that assassin is hiding, or through what crack they slipped out of the encirclement."
In his heart, Zhou Yan silently apologized to Chief Constable Zhao—after all, the assassin was simply paying too much.
Zhou Yan's gaze swept casually across a street corner. There, a few constables were interrogating passersby with exhausted expressions.
Meanwhile, back in Zhou Yan's room, Liu Ying was hiding behind the bed curtains to nurse her injuries. Aside from emerging briefly for meals, she spent all her time behind closed doors. Heaven only knew what she was doing behind those curtains.
"Is your shoulder feeling better?" That evening, Zhou Yan brought back a parcel of pastries and asked casually.
Liu Ying poked her head out from behind the curtain. "Thanks to you, I'm not dead yet." She accepted the pastries and hesitated for a moment. "Outside... how is the situation?"
Sitting on the edge of the bed as he unbuckled his sword, Zhou Yan replied, "The whole city is under martial law, and the constables are about losing their minds. But don't worry, days like this are almost at an end."
Liu Ying stared at his back, as if wanting to say something, but ultimately retreated back behind the curtain.
In the dead of night, lying in bed and listening to the steady breathing coming from behind the curtain, Zhou Yan finished his cultivation and turned in for the night.
Two days later, Chief Constable Zhao finally cracked under the pressure and lifted the lockdown.
The moment Zhou Yan returned to the inn that day, a round of knocks sounded outside his door.