Night had fallen, and the alley was deserted except for the occasional stray cat leaping past, its soft meow spreading through the spring night of the capital.

The youth clutched the bulging contents in their clothes, moving like a ghost through the alleyways.

An innocent man bearing treasure invites disaster. She had won so much silver at Letong House, inevitably drawing others’ resentment. If she were followed on the main road and exposed to the He family’s location, it would be disastrous. She didn’t want to bring trouble to the He family.

However… what you fear most tends to materialize. He Yan stopped in her tracks.

The alley ended at a street. Being less bustling than the Letong House area, it was lined with small shops and taverns, all tightly shuttered now in darkness, without a soul in sight. Only starlight and moonlight fell on the ground, providing slight illumination.

He Yan turned back, crouched to pick up some stones, pondered briefly, then suddenly whirled around and threw them.

The stones flew swift and sharp like loose arrowheads. With several “thud” sounds, people fell from the concealing darkness.

“Stop following me,” He Yan said. “You can’t catch me.”

“How about with us added?” Another voice rang out. From the other end of the alley emerged several people, led by a bare-chested burly man whose hands looked capable of snapping He Yan’s neck in one grip.

“Kid, seems you’ve made quite a few enemies,” the large man laughed. “Hasn’t anyone taught you not to draw too much attention on your first visit to a gambling house?”

He Yan clutched the silver in her clothes and calmly replied, “Since it was my first time at a gambling house, naturally no one taught me.” But she thought to herself that these gambling house people were indeed as her former military brothers had said—no decent folk. They would break their own rules.

“Still talking back when death’s at your doorstep,” the large man flew into a rage. “Today I’ll teach you a lesson. I’ll twist off your arms and make you kneel and call me grandfather!”

He Yan stood in the alley, caught between the bare-chested man and his servants in front and the mysterious followers behind, with nowhere to escape.

And she didn’t even have a weapon.

“Let’s see if you have what it takes,” she slowly clenched her fists.

“Arrogant!” The large man waved his hand, and his servants rushed forward while he charged in, though without much technique, chopping down toward He Yan’s back.

But under the moonlight, the youth ducked nimbly, dodging the blow. He only saw a blur before feeling a heavy punch to his back. This added fuel to his fire—he roared in fury, only to see the youth had already leaped onto the alley wall.

“Catch him!”

The people who had been following He Yan seemed to understand the situation. Someone grabbed her clothes and pulled her down. With a “rip,” the hem of her robe tore.

“Oh dear,” she sighed, quite distressed. “It’s ruined.”

“Still worried about your clothes?” The large man’s nose twisted in anger, enraging him further. “I’ll beat you to death today!”

He lunged at He Yan. His massive form was like a small mountain, his movements seemingly making the ground tremble. With so many servants, dealing with a young upstart would normally be effortless. But today he had met his match. Though the youth looked young, somehow they were like a slippery loach, impossible to catch. They weaved through the crowd, striking sparingly but always hitting vital points. Soon, the servants and guards were beaten to the ground.

He Yan dodged the large man’s frontal punch, flipped over, and kicked toward his abdomen, but unfortunately, the movement was slightly off.

The large man suddenly screamed in agony.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to,” she felt a bit guilty.

After all, this body wasn’t entirely in sync with her martial skills yet, preventing perfect accuracy. The large man clutched his lower body and fell, groaning. His voice in the night was both eerie and pitiful.

He Yan bent down to collect the scattered silver. After working all night and fighting a battle, she couldn’t let the hard-earned silver benefit others.

Moonlight fell on the ground scattered with silver and jewels. The youth bending to collect them resembled a scene from some supernatural tale, like a scholar who had stumbled into an immortal realm and couldn’t resist claiming the treasures there.

He Yan found this thought amusing and laughed.

Having collected the silver, she glanced at the people groaning and sprawled across the ground, about to flee when suddenly a gentle voice called out: “Young brother, you dropped some silver.”

He Yan looked back.

At the door of the darkened tavern stood a young man wearing an indigo wide-sleeved robe that swayed in the wind, emphasizing his slender figure. His black hair was bound with a blue jade crown, his features fine and gentle, extraordinarily refined and otherworldly, like an immortal. He smiled, and stepped forward, holding a piece of silver that He Yan must have dropped during the fight.

She had sensed someone else by the tavern earlier, but since they had been there from the start without joining the fight, likely just a passerby, she had ignored them. She hadn’t expected to see such a person.

He Yan had seen many men, having lived among them as a man in her previous life. Most were like tonight’s brute—strong but neither handsome nor beautiful. Xu Zhiheng had been elegant and graceful, the most “attractive” man she’d known, but compared to this man’s bearing, he seemed somewhat lacking.

Earlier she had thought that collecting silver resembled a scene from mythology. Now it seemed even more so—a poor youth encountering a true immortal, stunned by their beauty. Would the immortal next offer spiritual guidance?

Drawing closer, she found this man increasingly otherworldly, like an immortal from a mural. Seeing her silence, the immortal reminded her again: “Young brother?”

He Yan snapped back to reality.

She took the almost-lost silver piece from his hand and smiled, “Thank you.”

The man smiled again. “You’re welcome.”

He Yan turned and left without looking back.

She moved quickly, like a wild cat crossing walls, vanishing in moments, impossible to follow.

In the night, more people emerged, approaching the blue-robed young master, quietly saying, “Fourth Young Master, that youth…”

“Just a passerby, no need to mind him,” the immortal smiled, as if recalling something amusing, his smile widening slightly. “Quite clever.”

[Note: The final line in Chinese is a meta-commentary indicating that the handsome man introduced is the second male lead, warning readers not to ship the wrong couple.]