However, this wasn’t the time to worry about it. In any case, she’d be leaving later.
When Tang Doudou didn’t respond, the woman just sighed. She felt that any additional exhorts would probably be useless right now so it’d be best for the young man to come to terms with things himself, so she exhorted the man a little before leaving with her mother-in-law and son.
Right after the woman left, the man’s friendly smile disappeared and he turned to go make the bed. In reality, there wasn’t much to make. After all, it was just for sleeping in.
After fiddling with it for a while, the man awkwardly walked over and put his large rough hand on Tang Doudou’s shoulder. “This brother…”
Tang Doudou shook slightly from the surprise and some soot fell off her face.
“The departed has departed, you must save your sorrow ah! The bed’s been made, so rest early!” After saying that, he sighed heavily and walked back to the bed to sleep.
Tang Doudou was aware that the commoners didn’t have it easy. They had to go to bed early because they had to wake up very early and there were a lot of things they had to do each day for the sake of supporting their family. These men also had it tough. When that woman said that they would go with her to take a look at the situation, she meant only herself because the rest of the family couldn’t afford to spare that time. However, this was already quite a favor.
Tang Doudou gradually approached the man with two fingers outstretched.
However, she couldn’t bring herself to hit him in the end. Instead, she took out the knockout powder Nan Maner had given her and quickly flicked some into the candle flame. A thin strand of scented smoke rose up. She asked the man, “This brother, where’s the latrine?”
The man was already sleepy from the start, so after inhaling a bit of the drug, he become even more drowsy. “The latrine? You need to go to the latrine? After you get out, turn right. The place where a donkey used to be tied is the latrine… It’s dark, so be care. Don’t step, step on…”
Tang Doudou checked to make sure he was completely unconscious before reaching out to extinguish the candle and silently leaving from the window.
She wasn’t dumb enough to continue leaping from roof to roof and instead, wandered aimlessly on the streets. Had it been a usual night, she would have stuck out like a sore thumb, but tonight was so chaotic that there were plenty of people still on the streets.
Some patrol groups would pass her from time to time, but no one stopped to inspect her or even glance that her. She blended in completely with the rest of the citizens that were out to take a look at the chaos.
However, Tang Doudou had her sights on these patrolling guards.
Her reasoning was still the same: the most dangerous place was the safest place. It’d probably never occur to them that she would infiltrate the patrol groups, right?
After an hour, she finally caught a guard that went off on his own.
When he got out of the latrine, she approached him from behind and hit his head hard before dragging him into the shadows.
After changing into his clothes, she ran out.
As she ran, she stuck the moustache pieces she had prepared on top of her mouth. This matter had used up an hour, but it hadn’t been used in vain. Not only was this guard about the same size as her physically, his two slanted mustaches were extremely easy to imitate.
That was why although her looks were a bit off, no one in the patrol group noticed that she was someone different since it was late in the night.
The supervisor scolded her a little for being lazy and needing the latrine so much, then urged her to hurry up. Following that, they traded positions with another patrol group.
Once they did, the supervisor started roll call. Tang Doudou had already been prepared for this, so she answered calmly, then started walking with these sleepy guards back to their living quarters.
When she saw the long rows of communal beds and smelled the strong odor of men in this room, she was barely able to stop herself from turning around and leaving. In the end, she still couldn’t stand it and said that she needed to make a trip to the latrine due to stomach pains. She walked towards the direction of the latrines, but when she reached an area where no one was around, she immediately changed directions and started heading towards the lit area where the superiors seemed to be.
Whenever she encountered people on patrol, she would avoid them and wait for them to pass before continuing on.
When she was getting near, she heard the sounds of a bunch of things being smashed. She glanced at the nearby trees, then lithely jumped up one before turning to leap onto the roof. She glanced around cautiously. After ascertaining that nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, she picked a less conspicuous area and crouched down to lift away the roof tile.
She saw that there were about four people that looked to be officials inside. On the main seat was her old friend Xiqiu Yue and the prime minister was at his right. She didn’t know who the other two were, but the fact that they were able to talk in private with Xiqiu Yue and the prime minister at night meant that they definitely had high statuses.
“Your Majesty Sangfroid Prince, this humble official feels that plan is truly not appropriate!” The official sitting at Xiqiu Yue’s left had white hair that was crushed by his official’s hat. His gray beard was shaking and his face was very lean. His tone was helpless but also filled with resolution.
Xiqiu Yue didn’t say anything and just picked up his tea to take a sip.
The prime minister squinted and peeked at Xiqiu Yue’s expression. When he saw that Xiqiu Yue looked aloof and unconcerned as if the rest of this had nothing to do with him, he became irked. His Majesty had handed this matter to Xiqiu Yue, but this whole time he had been keeping up this unconcerned manner and threw everything to them. When mistakes occurred, they were scolded, but when achievements were made, he was the one praised.
“Li daren, this is His Majesty Sangfroid Prince’s personal suggestion, how can it be inappropriate?” This was the first time Xiqiu Yue made a suggestion, yet this group insisted on picking out problems. At that time, if Xiqiu Yue became annoyed and decided to dust his hands of this matter, they wouldn’t be able to do anything but cry.
The prime minister, with his extensive experience, was well-aware that this wouldn’t be easy to handle.
In his opinion, getting involved with matters relating to Baili Yu was even more troublesome than trying to touch the sky. It’d be best of Xiqiu Yue did it himself so they can just let the dogs bite each other… The prime minister slapped his own head. He was seriously becoming increasingly muddled, to have compared the emperor and the princes to dogs.
The prime minister wiped his cold sweat. Fortunately it had all just been thoughts.
Li daren also glanced at Xiqiu Yue before asking, “Your Majesty Sangfroid Prine’s methods are all targeting the traitor Li Xueyi. However, His Majesty’s intention is to…”
“Li daren, to capture the traitor, you must first capture the king. Could it be that you haven’t heard of this saying?” Xiqiu Yue who had been silent this whole time finally spoke.
Li daren‘s words were choked back into his throat. However, when he recalled what His Majesty had instructed, he forced himself to continue, “But, according to the news that our subordinates have sent us, Li Xueyi has already lost influence among the traitors, so is there any use in capturing her?”
Xiqiu Yue put down the cup and said calmly, “The matters of the Jianghu isn’t as simple as you guys think.”
Xiqiu Yue was pretty famous on the Jianghu as well. Everyone here was well-aware of that fact. Hence, right after he said this, Li daren immediately stopped arguing.
When Xiqiu Yue saw that there were no more objections from this group, he stood up. “It’s already quite late, so I’ll be leaving now. If there’s anything else, let’s discuss it tomorrow.”
The people inside the room stood up and saluted. “Our respects, Sangfroid Prince.”
Then Xiqiu Yue’s figure disappeared out of Tang Doudou’s line of sight. Following that, there was the creak of a door opening. Xiqiu Yue had left.