"Why aren't you in your own Pill Rooms? What are you doing in Junior Brother Tang's courtyard?" Ji Xingsi asked.
Yan Biao spoke with perfect conviction. "Where would Inner Sect Disciples like us get Pill Rooms in our courtyards? We make do with empty bedrooms."
"If a furnace explodes, it punches through the roof and wrecks the bedroom! Where else would we do it but in the courtyard?"
"Don't you have your own courtyard?" Ji Xingsi pressed.
"We can't blow up our own courtyards either! Blowing up Little Junior Brother's is fine!" Yan Biao enthusiastically spoke his mind.
Ji Xingsi's brows twitched as he listened. The explanation was outrageous, but coming from Yan Biao, it made perfect sense!
He pointed at Tong Banzhi and asked, "And why did you go to Junior Brother Tang's courtyard?"
"Oh, my!" Tong Banzhi covered his face shyly and explained in an effeminate voice, "I felt sorry for Junior Brother and wanted a chance to give him a relaxing massage!
"Would you like to try it, Senior Brother Ji? I'm ever so good with my hands!"
Ji Xingsi's blood pressure soared. He felt as though even his brain had stiffened a little.
Yet this bizarre excuse was also entirely fitting for Tong Banzhi!
Shaking his head to clear it, Ji Xingsi suddenly thought of a lead. He looked at Tang Yan and asked, "What book were you reading that day?"
"Three Hundred Lectures on Demon Realm Materials," Tang Yan answered.
"And what did you do from the night of the third to the morning of the fourth?" Ji Xingsi asked.
"Read Demon Realm Herbal Observations."
"What did you do?" Ji Xingsi asked Yan Biao.
"Practiced alchemy here!" Yan Biao pointed at Tang Yan's courtyard.
"And you?" Ji Xingsi pointed at Second Chair.
"I practiced alchemy