"Are you sure he wasn't there?" Song Lu asked suspiciously.
Lin Wanmo stepped aside from the doorway. "If you don't believe me, go search for yourselves. I'd like to know where that boy went, too. If you find him, I'll thank you."
Lin Wanmo could guess what Xu Yuan had gone off to do, but she certainly wasn't going to tell the two Qu Hui Division officers.
Song Lu barreled forward, hand on her saber, ready to go in and search for real—only for her senior to yank her back.
They had no warrant and couldn't just barge in to search. It was against the rules.
So the two of them could only slink out of the alley, dejected. Fu Jingyu had a bad feeling. "Master Chen sent people to arrest him yesterday, and now he's missing first thing this morning..."
Song Lu slapped her saber scabbard and immediately reached a conclusion. "He fled to escape punishment!"
Fu Jingyu glanced at his junior sister. She was still quite adorable. As for her brains, well, there was plenty of time for those to grow.
"I'm worried he went to find Master Chen."
Song Lu was startled. "He'd dare?"
"Hasn't everything that boy did in Qihetan Town been outrageously bold?" Fu Jingyu quickened his pace. "Let's head back and ask Old Yan to make a divination."
Xu Yuan had changed back into his fine silk clothes and blended into Wangjing Ward.
As he passed Chunxiang Pavilion, he instinctively craned his neck—only to find that the place had hung out a sign announcing it would be closed for the day. The girls had all been given the day off.
He'd seen nothing.
Xu Yuan wanted to criticize them, but he hadn't even managed to gather any material.
Then he made his way