His face was covered.

In this era, it was rare to see someone with their face covered like this.

Usually, those up to no good either pulled a stocking over their entire face or wore a mask.

Probably because he was confident there were no cameras out here, he didn’t seem to mind leaving his eyes exposed.

So this man had only covered his face loosely, not very securely.

Unfortunately, the moonlight wasn’t bright enough, and Zhen Jiu’er only caught a glimpse from the corner of his eye.

The moment he turned, that small portion of his face that had finally come into view vanished again in an instant.

That brief flash just now — it felt like she’d seen nothing at all, and yet somehow, like she’d seen so much.

Why did she keep feeling this sense of familiarity…

Jiu’er froze for a moment, and the man’s fist, taking advantage of her split-second distraction, came right at her face.

Zhen Jiu’er snapped back to her senses and moved to dodge, but to her surprise, the man clearly hadn’t intended to actually hurt her.

It was a feint — once it made Jiu’er jump back to avoid it, the man kicked off with his long legs and vanished instantly into a nearby patch of weeds.

Zhen Jiu’er didn’t give up and kept chasing.

The man ducked into a weed-choked corridor.

Jiu’er knew this corridor very well — it was long, and led straight to the rear courtyard.

He seemed to know the manor’s layout extremely well too, but judging by how overgrown this corridor was, this appeared to be the first time anyone had ever intruded here.

If it was truly his first time here, how could he possibly know where the corner turned?

Just who was he?

Jiu’er chased after the man in black, and by the time she passed the corner, she found he had already gotten far ahead.

She kept chasing, but the moment she emerged from the weeds, she’d clearly lost all trace of him.

She was about to keep searching when suddenly, she heard someone bark out sternly, “Who’s there?”

Without thinking, Zhen Jiu’er lunged forward and struck out with a palm strike.

The man hadn’t expected the newcomer to be so skilled — caught off guard, his arm took the hit, and his brow furrowed sharply from the pain.

But this man was clearly also a trained fighter, his body solid with muscle; even after taking the hit, he only pulled his arm back briefly.

The next moment, he had already launched an attack at Zhen Jiu’er.

This wasn’t the man in black from before!

He, too, was dressed in casual clothes, but this outfit clearly wasn’t meant for moving around at night — just ordinary everyday wear.

His face wasn’t covered by a black cloth either, and he felt completely different from the man before.

It was as if he were just… passing through.

“You’re—”

Jiu’er stepped back several paces and stopped, then looked at him again, feeling as though she’d seen this person somewhere before.

“One of Ninth Master’s people?”

That was right — he was from the archaeological team, sent by Lu Beicheng. She’d seen his photo on Qin Fei’s phone before.

He was called… Yan Qiu, if she remembered right! The team leader of the archaeological group.

Why was he here?

“Who are you?” Yan Qiu frowned, though the wariness from before had eased somewhat now.

This little girl looked barely twenty, and there was nothing off about how she dressed or carried herself.

Still, a young woman out here alone in the middle of the night was, in itself, extremely suspicious.

“Don’t misunderstand — I came here with Ninth Master. I’m his attending physician.”

“Attending physician?” Yan Qiu’s gaze grew even more probing.

Given her age and appearance, there was no way Ninth Master would have hired her — let alone that she was a woman.

Yan Qiu simply didn’t believe it. “Are you working with that person from before? Are you tomb raiders?”

Were tomb raiders these days really so bold? Running around out in the open without even covering their faces?