Cheng Chang said, “Constable Yun and I found Snowball wandering the streets. I suspect something may have happened to the second young lady of the Yao household—might I trouble the young heir to have your men search for her?”

Cheng Ye, well aware of how much Yao Susu treasured her cat, needed only one glance at Snowball cradled in Cheng Chang’s arms to agree at once. “No trouble at all—this falls within my duties. The Third Young Master is too courteous.” He immediately dispatched men to search the major streets and alleys of Jinling.

Nearby, Sun Haiping, seeing Snowball perpetually clinging to Cheng Chang, tried to take the cat from him for a moment to hold her himself.

Snowball, ever the discerning judge of appearances, hadn’t even let Sun Haiping’s hand touch her before letting out a fierce, warning yowl, her fur bristling instantly.

Sun Haiping muttered a few choice curses under his breath and gave up the attempt.

Having dispatched his men, Cheng Ye didn’t leave immediately, choosing instead to remain and wait for news.

He glanced at Yun Xi, noting her vermilion uniform and sword at her waist, and asked, “Constable Yun is on duty today?”

“Yes,” Yun Xi replied.

Cheng Ye nodded, and after a pause, asked further, “How long have you served as a constable?”

“Three years now,” Yun Xi answered.

“Ah,” Cheng Ye said.

After another pause, he continued, “Is it difficult work?”

“Not particularly,” Yun Xi said.

“Good, if it’s not too difficult,” Cheng Ye said.

Yun Xi found herself puzzled.

She had no idea what exactly the young heir was trying to say, but since he kept initiating conversation with her, it seemed rude to simply walk away.

In truth, her mind remained fixed on the matter of the scarred attendant. She wanted to climb the bamboo platform to scan the crowd for him, but as she wasn’t a member of the imperial family, she couldn’t simply climb up whenever she pleased.

She kept hoping Cheng Chang might interrupt their conversation and lead her up to the platform himself.

But at this particular moment, Cheng Chang seemed to have developed remarkable tact, standing silently to the side with the cat in his arms, as though he weren’t even present.

Cheng Ye, falling briefly silent, pressed on undaunted. “Has Filthy settled in well at the Marquis’s residence?”

“He has,” Yun Xi said, deciding she might as well say everything she could think to say all at once. “He’s growing quickly—already gotten quite a bit bigger. Just very mischievous—loves rolling around in mud, so I have to bathe him every few days.”

Cheng Ye laughed. “A pup of two or three months is about equivalent to a two or three-year-old child—right at the peak of mischief.”

“Does he still enjoy the bone and meat I sent over last time? If he does, I’ll have more prepared and delivered.”

“…”

The night had grown quite late by now, yet the festive atmosphere showed no sign of fading.

More and more people joined the harvest dance in the streets, some bringing their own millet husks, scattering them to the beat of the excited drumming.

There was shouting, running, the clamor of countless voices all mingled together in extraordinary commotion.

As Yun Xi continued her exchange with Cheng Ye, she suddenly sensed something was wrong.

Even accounting for the festival, the street felt unusually chaotic—and mixed within that chaos seemed to be a note of genuine panic.

Yun Xi listened intently for a moment, then frowned and said, “Young Heir.”

Cheng Ye had noticed the same unease.

He nodded and quickly climbed the nearby bamboo platform to survey the scene, when suddenly he spotted soldiers galloping urgently toward them from not far off, calling out loudly, “Young Heir, something’s happened!”

“Bandits disguised as commoners are causing trouble on East and West Streets! It looks like looting and robbery!”

Cheng Ye asked, “Has anyone been hurt?”

“There must be injuries—the crowd’s in chaos, and there’s bound to be trampling amid the pushing and shoving. We don’t yet know if there have been any deaths…”

Cheng Ye quickly descended the platform, asked for the exact locations of the disturbances, and swung up onto his horse.

“Immediately send word of this situation to Lord Yao at the Privy Council and Lord Qin at the Ministry of War. Order all soldiers under the capital bureau and the patrol division to disperse the crowds at each disturbance site and capture the bandits. Have the remaining forces patrol all streets and alleys, guarding against any stragglers disguising themselves as commoners to cause further trouble.”

“Yes, sir!”

Just as the messenger soldier turned to leave, Cheng Ye called him back.

“The bandits causing trouble tonight—are they the same brigands who’ve been causing repeated unrest in the capital’s outskirts recently?”

“Reporting to the Young Heir, yes, it’s them.”

Cheng Ye’s heart sank.

Exactly what he’d feared would happen.

His Majesty had already erupted in fury multiple times over the unrest caused by these bandits. Lord Yao, Lord Luo, the Minister of Justice, even Prince Ling and Prince Yun—all had been reprimanded over this matter.

Now these reckless outlaws had dared to cause chaos right before the Emperor’s eyes on the festival day itself—the lanterns in the imperial palace would surely burn all through the night now.

Anxious, Cheng Ye took up the long spear handed to him by one of his subordinates and urged his horse forward, but then, seeming to remember something, turned back and said to Yun Xi and Cheng Chang, “Third Young Master, Miss Yun, I must go check on the disturbances. Please wait here for word of Miss Yao.”

With that, he instructed several guards to remain behind to protect Yun Xi and Cheng Chang, then rode off.

The whole city rang with unrest. Yun Xi and Cheng Chang climbed the bamboo platform to survey the scene below.

Though soldiers had rushed to the nearby streets to restore order, their numbers were still too thin for the moment. The common people, unaware of what exactly was happening, were instead surging further away, toward the very areas where the trouble had broken out.

Seeing this, Yun Xi said worriedly, “Those bandits are all disguised as ordinary civilians. I doubt the soldiers will be able to tell them apart properly once they arrive, let alone capture them all.”

Cheng Chang considered this for a moment, then said, “It’s not difficult, actually.”

“By all accounts, these troublemakers consist of two separate groups—one, the roving bandits who drifted into the capital’s outskirts about a month ago, and the other, mountain brigands who’ve been entrenched there for decades. Even if they know each other, they surely can’t all recognize one another perfectly. Trust between the two groups would be limited.”

“Given how tightly secured Jinling is today, for them to have infiltrated successfully, they must have planned this very carefully.”

“With preparation this thorough, once it comes time to actually act, there’s no way they’d lack organization—someone must be giving orders, coordinating who does what, when to strike, when to retreat.”

“And given the limited trust between the mountain brigands and the roving bandits, to prevent anyone from taking advantage of the chaos or accidentally harming their own, they’d need some way to bridge that mistrust.”

Yun Xi asked, “How would they bridge it?”

“Time. There isn’t much time, so the simplest solution,” Cheng Chang said, “would be through clothing.”

It was much like students wearing school uniforms, or companies requiring standardized uniforms—beyond eliminating comparison and improving professionalism, it also fostered a sense of collective identity.

This was simply the natural way of thinking for a modern person.

Yun Xi paused, then understood. “The Third Young Master means these bandits must share some common element in their clothing?”

Cheng Chang nodded. “And whoever’s giving the orders would likely have something distinctive marking them, beyond that shared element.”

“Once we capture the ringleader and interrogate him, we’ll learn exactly how many people are involved tonight, who they are, and what the specific plan was.”

Yun Xi felt as though a fog had suddenly lifted. She turned her gaze back to the disturbance below with newfound scrutiny.

Sure enough, the troublemakers all had cloth wrapped around their heads. It was midsummer, so plenty of people wore headscarves in general, but the bandits’ scarves were distinctly different—all the same earthy yellow color, and… there seemed to be some kind of pattern on the back as well.

Yun Xi thought, wrapping headscarves was truly a clever tactic—once it came time to retreat, they need only remove the scarves and vanish into the crowd, and who would ever recognize them again?

She couldn’t help glancing at Cheng Chang.

His gaze remained calm and focused, still carefully scanning the crowd for the scarred attendant.

Devising a method to identify the bandits through their clothing wasn’t, in itself, particularly difficult—what was remarkable was how effortlessly, almost casually, he’d arrived at the solution, without seeming to think about it at all.

Yun Xi pressed her lips together, her feelings difficult to articulate. One moment she felt a flicker of joy, delighted by the Third Young Master’s exceptional perceptiveness, so far beyond ordinary understanding; the next, a wave of frustration, realizing that after three years as a constable, she still fell short of what he’d grasped in a single idle thought.

Steadying herself, she ultimately settled into calm acceptance.

The misty lanterns shone brightly ahead, the path forward clear.

Since the road ahead was long, she would simply have to work all the harder.

Yun Xi drew her gaze back to the crowd, and suddenly her eyes lit up. “Third Young Master, look!”

Not far from the base of the bamboo platform, a man dressed in coarse cloth robes, eyes lowered, was hurrying quickly toward them.

It was the attendant with the scarred palm.

Yun Xi said immediately, “I’ll go meet him.”

Before Cheng Chang could even warn her to be careful, she had already unsheathed the sword at her waist and hurried down from the platform.

The crowd was in disarray, but the scarred man had already spotted Yun Xi as well.

He quickened his pace, taking several swift strides forward—just as, at that very moment, cold light flashed beside him, and three bandits wearing earthy-yellow headscarves suddenly appeared, one on each side and one behind.

The bandits raised short daggers and lunged at the scarred man instantly.

Despite his considerable skill, facing three attackers at once proved too much, and he was blocked from advancing further.

The onlooking commoners, seeing weapons drawn, scattered in panic in every direction.

Amid the surging crowd, Yun Xi found herself blocked at the periphery, and in the next instant, five or six more bandits appeared around them, every strike aimed with lethal intent, clearly seeking the scarred man’s life.

Only then did Yun Xi understand—hidden among these mountain brigands and roving bandits were assassins sent by the true culprit to silence him for good.

But there was no time to think further. The scarred man, fighting off eight attackers alone, was rapidly losing ground, and just as one dagger was about to plunge into his back, Yun Xi shouted “Watch out!” and drew her sword, hurling the hilt with all her strength to knock the blade aside.

The two finally converged, though the surrounding guards remained blocked at the outer edge of the crowd.

Standing back to back with the scarred man, Yun Xi said, “I’ll handle these men. Get to the bamboo platform quickly and find the Third Young Master.”

“I can’t,” the scarred man said. “Once the soldiers arrive, even the Third Young Master won’t be able to save my life. I’m going to die eventually, regardless.”

Yun Xi paused, parrying two bandits lunging at her, and asked, “Who exactly ordered you to harm the Third Young Master?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never even seen them. We just call them ‘the noble one’—someone with considerable power, it seems.”

Yun Xi understood.

Tonight’s disturbance had grown far too large. With the scarred man now caught fighting openly, once the soldiers arrived, they’d inevitably take him into custody.

However esteemed his status, Cheng Chang held only the rank of city inspector—he had no authority to keep this man out of the imperial soldiers’ hands, especially with the Emperor himself present tonight. Even if Cheng Chang found some way to save him eventually, it would have to wait until after the Emperor’s own interrogation.

And that so-called “noble one,” having eyes and ears even among the soldiers, would surely move to silence him before Cheng Chang could ever intervene.

So whether the scarred man went to find the Third Young Master or remained here fighting the bandits, either path would ultimately land him in the soldiers’ custody—a dead end regardless.

This scarred man hadn’t come to see Cheng Chang today out of trust—he’d come because he’d been driven to the brink of desperation, seeking only to save his own life.

Unless he could be certain of surviving, he wouldn’t say a word.

It seemed… tonight was not the right time to question him after all.

Yun Xi caught a bandit’s wrist and twisted it sharply, shoving him back, then asked the scarred man, “Can you keep yourself alive?”

“What?”

“If I cover your escape, can you survive?”

The scarred man gritted his teeth. “Yes!”

“Good! Then you must live, no matter what. Find another opportunity, and come see me and the Third Young Master again.”

The moment she finished speaking, she pushed off with the balls of her feet, leaping into the air, sweeping her sword in a wide arc to block the path ahead, then retreated several steps rapidly. Reaching the edge of the crowd, she spun her sword in a circle, sweeping it in a wide horizontal arc to drive back the approaching bandits, then shoved the scarred man forward. “Go!”

The scarred man moved with remarkable speed, vanishing into the crowd in an instant, disappearing without a trace.

Seeing their target escape, the eight bandits grew desperate and immediately moved to pursue him. Yun Xi wasn’t about to let them go so easily—she planted her sword tip against the ground, using it as leverage to flip herself into the air, landing directly in their path to block them.

But however skilled she was, facing eight opponents alone was ultimately beyond her strength.

Moreover, these bandits, having resolved to fight her to the death, struck with pure lethal intent. In one careless moment, a flexible sword whipped toward her from the side, aiming straight for her throat.

Yun Xi threw herself backward, narrowly avoiding it, but the flexible blade seemed almost alive, curving through the air like a striking serpent, following her as she fell back.

At that exact moment, a horse’s whinny sounded nearby, and a long spear thrust in from the side, entangling itself with the flexible sword.

The spear twisted several times, wrapping the sword completely, then with a sharp upward flick, sent both the blade and its wielder flying through the air.

Only then did Yun Xi have a chance to glance to the side—it was Cheng Ye.

He had been chasing the bandits and, spotting her locked in fierce combat from a distance, had hurried over to help.

Cheng Ye asked, “Constable Yun, are you hurt?”

Yun Xi shook her head. “My thanks, Young Heir.”

By this point, the soldiers had finally arrived as well. With the crowd still not fully dispersed, the bandits, sensing things had turned against them, hastily pulled off their headscarves, hoping to vanish into the crowd and flee.

Cheng Ye let out a sharp shout, fearing they might fail to capture the bandits in full, and spurred his horse forward, joining the soldiers in urgent pursuit.

Yun Xi paused for a moment where she stood, suddenly recalling Cheng Chang’s earlier words—

“Once we capture the ringleader and interrogate him, we’ll learn exactly how many people are involved tonight, who they are, and what the specific plan was.”

“And whoever’s giving the orders would likely have something distinctive marking them, beyond that shared element.”

All these bandits wore earthy-yellow headscarves.

So the so-called ringleader, beyond that shared headscarf, must have something else distinguishing them.

Yun Xi’s gaze swept across the crowd, searching carefully, and sure enough, she spotted a figure moving suspiciously, pulling off his earthy-yellow headscarf while fleeing into a side alley—yet unlike the other bandits, his headscarf had a single stalk of rice grain tucked into it.

Without a second thought, Yun Xi leapt into action.

Moving with remarkable lightness, she pushed off from a nearby horse for leverage, soaring through the air like a bird in flight, closing the distance to the fleeing man in mere moments.

She swept her sword around, pressing it against his throat.

“It’s you—the one who brought these people to cause trouble?”

There was no need for him to answer.

Seeing their leader captured, the fleeing bandits around them lost all cohesion, either scattering in panic or immediately surrendering.

Within moments, Cheng Ye had captured the majority of them.

As Cheng Ye was still tallying the numbers, a long horn suddenly sounded from the far end of the street.

The deafening march of approaching troops grew louder, and the crowd scattered to either side of the street, watching in awe as columns of soldiers in chainmail armor and crimson-feathered helmets advanced.

The Palace Guard Command—the Emperor’s own imperial guard.

They had actually… alerted the Palace Guard Command.

For Emperor Zhaoyuan to dispatch the imperial guard from the palace to suppress unrest on the Autumn Festival night, his fury must truly have been ignited.

The commanding officer of the Palace Guard, Second-Rank General Xuan Zhi, strode forward to stand before the assembled group, nodding to Cheng Ye. “Young Heir.”

Then he continued, “By His Majesty’s command, this general has come from the palace to suppress the unrest. May I ask, Young Heir, are all the bandits responsible for tonight’s disturbance among those captured here?”

“Not all of them,” Cheng Ye said. “But we’ve captured the ringleader.”

Xuan Zhi nodded. “You’ve worked hard, Young Heir.”

Cheng Ye clarified, “General, you’re mistaken—it wasn’t I who captured the ringleader, but Constable Yun of the Capital Prefecture Office.”

He stepped aside, revealing Yun Xi standing behind him. “This is Miss Yun Xi of the House of Zhongyong.”

Xuan Zhi paused for a moment, then said, “So this is General Yun Luo’s sister.”

He added, “This general actually witnessed it from the watchtower just now—Constable Yun’s swordsmanship was truly impressive.”

Yun Xi bowed with her sword clasped. “General Xuan flatters me.”

With the Palace Guard now present, Vermillion Bird Street was quickly cleared. Xuan Zhi ordered his guards to bind the captured bandits, then relayed His Majesty’s command for Cheng Ye, Cheng Chang, and the other nearby imperial relatives to return to the palace together.

Watching the Palace Guard’s retreating formation, Yun Xi finally allowed herself to breathe a little easier.

But she couldn’t fully relax—Yao Susu remained unaccounted for, and there was still her sister-in-law to worry about. With tonight’s chaos, and Fang Fulan rarely venturing out, Yun Xi had no idea how she and Luo Shu were faring.

She sheathed her sword at her waist and was about to head toward the pharmacy to find Fang Fulan when, behind her, the sound of the Palace Guard’s marching abruptly stopped. In the next instant, the guards and imperial relatives parted to either side of Vermillion Bird Street once more.

Down the center of the street, a lone figure approached from a distance, first exchanging a few words with Xuan Zhi, then walking directly toward Yun Xi.

Yun Xi looked closely.

It was Eunuch Wu, the palace secretary-attendant she’d met outside the palace gates during her earlier vigil.

As he drew closer, Eunuch Wu smiled kindly. “Miss Yun Xi, His Majesty has sent this humble servant to relay a verbal decree.”

“You are commanded to accompany the Palace Guard and the imperial relatives back into the palace.”