"Huh? Why is someone sleeping on the ground over there?"
Qiong Rong poked her head out between Lingyi and Xing Yan. Once she saw the scene in the courtyard, she could not help crying out.
There, in the hazy moonlight, a man in black lay on the courtyard's white stone paving. He was lean and muscular, his face covered with a black cloth-plainly no honest fellow.
"Some petty thief trying to fish in the inn's muddy waters?"
Though Xing Yan recognized the man's identity at a glance, something puzzled him. This gentleman of the rooftops was sprawled brazenly on the ground, panting for breath, seemingly unafraid of anyone discovering him.
Xing Yan found the sight utterly baffling. In his experience, the first rule when doing something so disreputable was to conceal yourself and take care not to be discovered. Back when he had slipped into Lady Rui's room at the Flower Moon House to frighten that villain, how carefully he had crept along, hiding his tracks and muffling his footsteps!
Shaking his head inwardly, Xing Yan gave a loud shout, leaped over to the thief, and bent down to seize his collar and haul him up for questioning. Yet though the thief looked small, he was as heavy as dead weight in his grip. Even with the boy's considerable strength, he had to hastily exert more force to keep the fellow from dropping.
Only after dragging the thief to the doorway and setting him down did Xing Yan see clearly by the candlelight that this gentleman of the rooftops was foaming at the mouth, his nostrils flaring as though he had suffered some sudden illness. The sight alarmed Xing Yan. But after a couple of startled exclamations, he noticed the slender little dragon maiden beside him covering her mouth and