Baozhu had made up her mind. She would meet Han Yun in the dead of night and demand a Travel Pass for their party directly from him.
Wei Xun was unhappy, a tightness clogging his chest, yet he could think of no reasonable objection. He went to fetch his junior fellow disciple's and senior martial uncle's Ordination Certificates for stamping, only to discover that Zhou Qingyang's room was empty. Zhongqiu County enforced a strict curfew, but in the middle of the night, she had vanished to who knew where.
He had no mind to investigate. Carrying Baozhu on his back, he raced all the way to the County Yamen and slipped inside again.
Baozhu's plan was to imitate the method they had used against Dou Jing: "appear in a dream" and persuade Han Yun to issue the documents and stamp them. Who could have expected him to spend half the night in an endless discussion with his colleagues and subordinates? Baozhu and Wei Xun hid on a roof beam in the room adjoining the reception hall, until Baozhu's legs went numb from crouching.
At last, all the extraneous people left, leaving Han Yun alone in the room. Still, he refused to go to bed, burning lamp oil as he read and wrote.
Baozhu was so sleepy that her eyelids kept fighting to close. Leaning against Wei Xun as she shifted her weight from one leg to the other, she whispered, "People only see thieves eating meat, never thieves taking a beating. This line of work isn't easy either." Wei Xun covered his mouth and snickered.
After another long while, Han Yun put away the Six Canons and removed his outer robe, revealing a short-sleeved raglan tunic underneath. He seemed to be preparing for bed. From afar, Baozhu saw a strip