The File of the Person Investigating Me Was Thinner Than the One I Made for Her

Just last night, the person in charge of the Suotuo branch hall had signed a search and seizure order, under the public pretext of a routine inspection. By this evening, Luo Tan's second invitation had arrived at Perching Swan Academy.

This time, the meeting was in a private seating area on the second floor of a streetside tavern in the south of the city.

When Qin Zhaoye pushed open the door and went upstairs, Luo Tan was standing by the table in a pale yellow blouse, warming wine. Two burly men by the stairway kept their right hands beneath the edge of their table, while an accountant at the next table clattered away on his abacus, the corner of his eye fixed on the bamboo curtain around the private seating area.

Having failed to sound him out at the teahouse yesterday, this Night Owl Terrace ace had simply called in all her outer-ring informants for support.

"Yesterday, we were too busy brooding over tea to enjoy ourselves properly." Luo Tan picked up a white porcelain wine pot and filled his cup. "Today I've prepared some dishes to go with the wine. Please don't stand on ceremony again, Young Master Qin."

"Miss Luo Tan, how could I refuse such generous hospitality?"

Qin Zhaoye took the cup, his gaze sweeping over her face.

The Wordless Ancient Scroll opened silently in his sleeve. Most of the golden annotations on its pages were still shrouded in golden mist. After comparing the results yesterday, he had figured out the rule governing the Eye of Historical Observation: as long as the other person's cultivation was at least twenty levels higher than his, the annotations would be incomplete. Luo Tan was a level-forty-four Soul Ancestor, exactly twenty levels above his twenty-four.

But the informants she had brought were not at such a high level. Qin Zhaoye glanced once at the stairway and once at the next table, and two pages of annotations appeared in full. The man working the abacus was none other than the proprietor of the inn in the south of the city, a covert agent of the branch hall. He had personally gone to the south gate to meet her the afternoon before last, then delivered three dishes to the west wing himself that night.

As for who she was, whom she had studied under, and what post she held in Spirit Hall, the history book stated it all plainly. There was no need for annotations.

After three rounds of wine, Luo Tan rested her chin on her hand and smilingly steered the conversation deeper. "Speaking of which, Young Master Qin, that second Soul Skill you displayed at the training ground yesterday was truly stunning-covering ten zhang in a single step. May I ask which senior on the continent your master is?"

At those words, the abacus at the next table instantly grew quieter.

Qin Zhaoye picked up a crisp peanut with his chopsticks and chewed it before looking up at her. "Before asking about someone else's master, shouldn't you show your own hand first?"

Luo Tan covered her mouth and laughed. "I'm just an independent cultivator, with no master or sect. What hand could I possibly have to show?"

"An independent cultivator?" Qin Zhaoye set down his chopsticks and tapped the table lightly three times. "You entered Suotuo City through the south gate between three and five in the afternoon the day before yesterday, then settled in the west wing of the inn's rear courtyard in the south of the city. The night you arrived, you ordered three dishes: steamed sea bass, crispy-skinned squab, and a plate of sweet fermented-rice dumplings."

At that, the smile froze on Luo Tan's face.

That inn was a base rented out by a covert agent of the branch hall, and even the cook was one of their own. No outsider could possibly have known what she had ordered!

Before she could smooth things over, Qin Zhaoye picked up his tea bowl, skimmed the foam from the surface, and continued as though reciting a menu:

"Level-forty-four control-type Battle Soul Ancestor, Martial Soul Demon Fox, disciple of the current His Holiness the Pope, assigned to Night Owl Terrace, an intelligence network directly under Spirit Hall. Codename: Crimson Sparrow."

Qin Zhaoye looked up at her with a smile. "Miss Luo Tan-no, Miss Crimson Sparrow-did I get a single word wrong? The person investigating me has a thinner file on me than the one I made for her."

A deathly silence fell on both sides of the bamboo curtain.

Luo Tan's right hand, holding the white porcelain wine cup, stopped dead in midair. She looked as though she had been nailed to her chair, remaining frozen for three full breaths without moving a muscle. Wine spilled from the cup and soaked a patch of her pale yellow sleeve.

The informant posing as an accountant at the next table saw her cup stop and mistook it for the signal to attack. His left hand clamped down on the edge of the table, ready to flip it and draw his blade!

Luo Tan caught sight of him from the corner of her eye and sharply pressed her left hand downward three times through a gap in the bamboo curtain.

The informant had already lifted the table half an inch, but when he saw the gesture, he forcibly held his breath and set it back down, his back drenched in cold sweat.

Luo Tan slowly returned the wine cup to the table, putting away all her coquettish charm. Her voice was very low. "Even the person in charge of the branch hall has no authority to access the details of Night Owl Terrace. Where did you get them?"

"You needn't trouble yourself over that, Miss Luo Tan." Qin Zhaoye leaned back in his chair, showing no intention of using what he had exposed to extort her. "We can each go about our own business. I only want to ask you to do one small thing for me."

"What is it?"

"I hear the Suotuo branch hall has a routine inspection aimed at Perching Swan Academy in the next few days," Qin Zhaoye said evenly. "I like peace and quiet. Sorry to trouble you, Miss Luo Tan, but I'd like you to step in and put a stop to it for me."

Luo Tan's fingers clenched tightly around her handkerchief.

She was an ace of Night Owl Terrace, yet he held every piece of leverage against her in his hands. If she really let the branch hall make a disturbance at Perching Swan Academy, Qin Zhaoye could very well let slip that "Crimson Sparrow is in Suotuo City," and the secret mission she was on would fall apart on the spot. She had clearly been ordered to investigate him, yet after a single encounter, the investigator had become the one under his thumb!

Luo Tan took a deep breath. "Fine. I'll suppress the branch hall's routine inspection for you."

"Dealing with a smart person saves trouble." Qin Zhaoye rose and cupped his hands. "Thank you for the hospitality. Next time, it'll be my treat."

After watching Qin Zhaoye go downstairs and walk away, the informant at the next table hurriedly lifted the curtain and entered. "My lady, shall I take some men and do away with him?"

"Pull everyone out!" Luo Tan said coldly. "There's nothing unusual about this man. There's no need to keep watching him. Also, take my written order to the Suotuo branch hall immediately and have the person in charge cancel the routine inspection of Perching Swan Academy!"

Half an hour later, in a guest room at the inn in the south of the city.

Luo Tan sat alone beneath the lamp and wrote the three characters of Qin Zhaoye's name on a blank sheet of letter paper. She stared at them for a while, then traced over the original strokes again and again, but even after the ink soaked through the back of the paper, she had not written a single word of her secret report.

At the same time, in the grade-A single room at Perching Swan Academy.

Qin Zhaoye shut his door and brewed some hot tea. Without losing a single soldier, he had not only secured exemption from the routine inspection but could even turn Night Owl Terrace's intelligence network to his own use from now on.

He spread open the bronze scroll. A string of messages urging an update had already appeared in the group.

[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Folks, the blockbuster archaeological deep-dive post is undergoing its final proofreading! It's eighty percent compiled, and it's definitely the most explosive family-background melon of the First Era!]

[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Your eighty percent feels like it's been stuck there for almost half an hour! Even the production team's donkeys wouldn't dare rest this long. Post it already!]

At this moment, it was deep in the quiet night in a dormitory at Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy, but Tang San was not sleepy in the least. He sat cross-legged on his bed, staring fixedly at the progress bar.

A few days ago, the group had just mentioned that his father, Tang Hao, was the young master of the Clear Sky Sect. Today, Lan Xuanyu was about to post the most explosive family-background melon of the First Era. Tang San had a vague premonition, so he was following the updates so closely that he could not close his eyes.

Tang San tapped the screen of light several times to refresh it, but seeing no sign of the new post, he typed out two lines in quick succession.

[Tang San: @Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor, how much longer?]

[Tang San: Is it ready?]

[Ancestral Precepts Recitation Champion: Look! You've kept our founding ancestor up so late that he's refreshed and sent two messages in a row! @Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor, hurry up. I bet this post will leave the whole group dumbstruck!]

[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: Stop rushing me, stop rushing me. I'm checking the original text of the Official History of the First Era one last time. If there's no problem, it'll be at ninety-nine percent right away!]

At this point, Qin Zhaoye watched Tang San repeatedly refreshing and sending messages. He tapped the group administrator panel and put up tomorrow's special-session schedule first, settling in to wait for the big post to go live.

[Group Owner: Don't rush. I, your historian, will put up tomorrow's special-session schedule first. Once the big post has been checked, we'll start the feast.]

Unexpectedly, the moment the schedule went up, the progress bar at the top of the scroll chimed and filled ahead of time.

[Ten-Thousand-Year Melon Field Contractor: No need to wait until tomorrow! The big post is finished, and the hard evidence from the official history is in place. Group owner, please start the session tonight!]

[Group Hub: The announcement for the archaeological confrontation special has been posted. The topic of this session is "The Old Case of Tang Hao and Ah Yin." Opening tonight!]

At Nuoding Academy, Tang San stared at the five characters for "Tang Hao and Ah Yin," his breathing suddenly catching. After all, throughout his childhood, his father had worked the forge and drunk in Holy Soul Village, never once mentioning his mother to him.

Tang San typed out a line in the group, word by word. It was only six characters:

[Tang San: Who exactly is my mother.]