Two months later, at the Moonlight Pavilion in Heaven Dou City.
This court etiquette academy of the Heaven Dou Empire had been established nearly twenty years earlier.
Every year, nobles spent vast sums of money studying so-called aristocratic refinement at the academy. Today, however, the Moonlight Pavilion was utterly unlike its usual bustling self. Its mistress had broken with her routine, ended all the lessons early, and shut herself inside.
The night was black as ink. The clamor of voices gradually faded into silence, and the lights within the Moonlight Pavilion went out one by one, plunging it into darkness. Only a few lanterns hanging beneath the eaves swayed forlornly in the cold wind.
Suddenly, a figure leaped onto the wall like a phantom, silently observing the layout of the Meng Residence and any movement within. A pair of reddened eyes gleamed.
After waiting quietly for a moment, the figure darted toward the rear courtyard, moving like an enormous bat, utterly silent in flight. He reached the guest rooms in a side courtyard, carefully slipped to the ground, and darted beneath a window.
At the window stood a woman who looked to be in her early thirties. She wore a pale green, long-hemmed silk robe beneath a dark green satin vest with an open front, with a cloud-patterned sash cinched around her slender waist. She gazed out as though waiting for someone.
After looking her over, the shadowy figure called softly to her.
"Little sister!"
Surprise flashed in the woman's eyes. She had never expected her second brother, Tang Hao, to arrive so soon.
"Second brother, come in, quickly."
Tang Yuehua swiftly opened the window, and Tang Hao slipped through it in an instant.
His tattered robe had not even been patched, leaving the bronze skin beneath exposed. His once