In the chilly, drafty night, a mouse stared at the empty courtyard wall with crimson, deep-set eyes.
The people outside the courtyard gate had all left, leaving behind only a corpse crushed to a pulp, too ruined to be carried away.
All other traces, such as the body of A Ling pierced through the chest and the butcher with his meat cleaver corroded by the curse, had been taken along when the group left.
Clearly, these people had no intention of leaving any clues for Yu Xing and the others, and Yu Xing himself had a plan of his own, so he pretended not to care upon seeing this and made no move to stop them.
A leaf drifted down from the withered tree, landing right on the head of the peeking mouse, which shook its head to dislodge the leaf, silent and lonely.
After a moment, as if somewhat dissatisfied at not being able to hear anything, it quietly crawled forward a short distance.
The mouse pricked up its ears, eager to catch any sound from within the courtyard.
The sounds of resistance and battle would do, a scream would do, or even the sound of flesh being sliced and blood splashing; just give it something, anything.
Yet the few people in the courtyard had put on the earphones Ren Yi had distributed earlier, at Yu Xing's prompt.
While adjusting his earphones, Zhao Mou searched all the stone carvings hidden in Sister Xue's captured sleeves, placed them aside, and confiscated all the hidden weapons concealed within her clothes—including the dagger at her waist, the long rope in her sleeve, the sharp hairpins and pearl ornaments on her head, and even scraps of small concealed projectiles.
He had to admit that Sister Xue really carried an abundance of hidden weapons,