Shameless Little Rogue

Creak, creak-

The sound of old timber rocking still came from the little courtyard in the secluded alley.

Ye Jingtang racked his brains for dirty talk that even he found shameless.

The coldly beautiful heroine still bit her lower lip, her tearful eyes fixed on Ye Jingtang, refusing to let anyone outside hear her moan.

Fortunately, Ye Jingtang's acting was convincing. The constables outside finally let down their guard, and their hushed voices sounded again:

"Looks respectable enough, but that mouth of his... what did that mean?"

"I'll show you another day. Nothing worth listening to. Come on, let's go..."

Tap, tap-

After two soft sounds of men vaulting the courtyard wall, the courtyard fell completely silent.

Inside the sealed room.

Ye Jingtang quietly breathed a sigh of relief, turned toward the window, and listened closely.

The woman's original icy expression had long since vanished. Her face was flushed and glistening, sweat beaded her forehead, and her lovely peach-blossom eyes shone clear and bright.

Color had returned to her entire face, making her beauty all the more breathtaking, like a celestial maiden of jade who had suffered cruel ravishment.

The woman gazed at the handsome profile so close to hers. Perhaps she had been mortified and furious for too long, but now she could no longer quite muster her fury. The cold poison had clearly subsided by more than half, yet she felt even weaker than before:

"You... ah~..."

Once the officers had gone far away, the woman had just been about to demand an explanation when she felt the little rogue's hand move.

Earlier, they had been forced to put on an act, which could still be explained away. This time, he was doing it for real!

She hastily covered her mouth, murder flashing in her eyes as she stared at the man above her:

"You..."

Ye Jingtang turned back, looking baffled:

"I'm not supposed to let go? Then I'll put it back..."

The woman was no soft persimmon to be squeezed at will. The flexible sword at her waist abruptly left its sheath in a flash of cold light.

Ye Jingtang reacted extremely quickly, leaping straight away and landing elsewhere in the room, his hand gripping his saber hilt:

"What are you trying to do? Kill the donkey once the grinding's done... tear down the bridge after crossing the river?"

The woman pointed her flexible sword at Ye Jingtang, her gaze indignant:

"Shameless little rogue..."

"Heroine, don't you know which of us is the thief here?"

Ye Jingtang looked at her face, lovely as pear blossoms in the rain, with a distinctive beauty even in anger:

"Without that, how were you going to keep the officers from coming over to check your face and injuries? You knew disaster was staring us in the face, yet you stubbornly refused to make a sound. Were you trying to worry me to death?"

The woman's eyes were icy, but she could not suppress the bewildered helplessness deep within them:

"I know you were putting on an act, but you... you made the act real! You took advantage of my helplessness..."

Ye Jingtang retorted, "You wouldn't cooperate even when I made it real. Could you have cooperated if I'd only pretended? Don't you have a daughter? Don't you know how to act this out? Or did you always just turn your head, close your eyes, and refuse to make even a little sound when you did it before?"

Faced with such filthy language, the shame and anger in the woman's eyes deepened:

"You're shameless!"

Ye Jingtang looked displeased. "You asked me to cover for you, and I risked myself to help. Now the officers are gone, you call me shameless? If you'd kept your head and cooperated, would I have touched you?"

"..."

The woman glared at Ye Jingtang, but she also understood that he was telling the truth. After gritting her teeth for a long time, she finally lowered her flexible sword:

"Since you helped me out of righteousness, I... I'll spare you this once..."

Only then was Ye Jingtang satisfied. He approached the bed:

"You said you'd teach me martial arts. Go on."

?

The woman lifted her eyes, her gaze full of anger:

"You took such liberties with me, and I'm letting it go, yet you still..."

"Liberties? You think I wanted to? I haven't even accused you of taking advantage of me."

Seeing that she wanted to renege, Ye Jingtang grew unhappy. He picked up a small mirror beside the bed and reflected both their faces in it:

"Look for yourself. Which of us is better-looking? Would I need to risk my life and everything I own for you?"

?

The woman might never have had her beauty disparaged before. She clearly found his words utterly laughable, but then she glanced at their reflections in the mirror:

After everything she had just endured, her hair was disheveled, tear tracks stained her face, and she wore a furious expression. However beautiful she naturally was, at that moment she possessed less than half her usual stunning allure.

The little rogue beside her, however, had sword-like brows, star-bright eyes, and a distinguished bearing. From his features to his air, he was flawless beyond reproach...

Niao Niao, who had been hiding under the bed all this time, emerged to act as judge. After standing between them and looking back and forth for a while, the bird pointed a wing at the young married woman:

"Chirp."

The meaning was that Sister Little Watermelon was still prettier.

?

Discovering that the stupid little bird was undermining him, Ye Jingtang was speechless.

The woman understood Niao Niao's meaning, and a faint trace of pride flashed in her eyes. But after this interruption, she also felt less confident insisting that this handsome little rogue had coveted her beauty and taken advantage of her. She said coldly:

"This... I'll pretend this never happened. You mustn't breathe a word of it either, or even the gods won't be able to save you."

Seeing that the young married woman had stopped being unreasonable, Ye Jingtang tossed the mirror aside and straightened his robes.

The woman turned her gaze away, wrapped herself in the thin quilt, and quietly adjusted the front of her clothes where they had been rumpled by his hands...

Watching her flushed face and her eyes alternate between anger and mortification, Ye Jingtang naturally understood what was going on. He thought, Even putting on an act got her into this state...

If he said that aloud, she would surely fight him to the death. Ye Jingtang said no more. He fastened his robe and asked:

"Now that everything's fine, shouldn't you explain what happened? Who are you? What did you do?"

The young married woman's thoughts were rather muddled. Silently straightening her clothes, she said icily:

"My name is Luo Ning. Knowing anything else won't do you any good. I came to the capital only to rescue a friend from the martial world. At noon, while investigating the Black Bureau, I accidentally triggered a trap and was poisoned by its smoke. I hid here to escape White Impermanence's pursuit..."

Ye Jingtang was somewhat surprised to hear this-the Black Bureau's constables usually went out on assignments in pairs. Its six strongest chief constables were known in the martial world as the Six Fiends, with titles taken from underworld officials:

Iron-Armed Impermanence, Ghost-Shadow Impermanence, Vajra Ox-Head, Silver-Hook Horse-Face, White-Haired Truth-Listener, and Eight-Armed Ksitigarbha.

This young married woman named Luo Ning had managed to escape White Impermanence's pursuit, which meant her martial skills were certainly not to be underestimated.

After hearing the general course of events, Ye Jingtang looked around again:

"Where's that girl of yours?"

"She helped lure the pursuers away. She should be back soon. You... you'd better leave immediately..."

"This is my home!"

Ye Jingtang gestured at the bedding. "I only bought these sheets and quilts yesterday. They're all I own. You moved into the magpie's nest like a cuckoo without so much as a greeting and brought trouble down on my head. I haven't even made things difficult for you, and now you want me to leave? Are you trying to wriggle out of teaching me martial arts?"

After suffering such a grievous loss, Luo Ning truly did not much want to teach him.

But in the martial world, a promise was worth a thousand pieces of gold, and she did not want to owe this little rogue a favor either. Thus, she still stood up, slid her feet apart, and raised both palms:

"I said I'd only teach you one move, and only once. If you can remember it and learn it, that's your own ability. If you can't, you lack the good fortune. You can't accuse me of breaking my word."

Ye Jingtang nodded slightly, his expression intent as he watched Luo Ning's movements.

Luo Ning raised both palms and moved them rhythmically, sometimes cradling the moon, sometimes holding them level. Her movements flowed like drifting clouds and running water. After demonstrating back and forth for a while, she pushed forward and finished.

"Have you learned it?"

??

Ye Jingtang looked utterly bewildered. "You're cheating, aren't you? Do you take me for a three-year-old? You call that martial arts?"

Luo Ning looked angry. "I've already taught you the move..."

"What did you teach me?"

"Chirp."

Niao Niao looked equally bewildered and even waved both wings a few times to convey-twirling your hands around? Who couldn't do that?

Luo Ning met Ye Jingtang's eyes. Seeing that his expression did not seem feigned, her anger slowly faded, and she asked in confusion:

"You've never learned martial arts before?"

Ye Jingtang had wanted to say he had, but then thought again-everything his foster father had taught him was empty show... didn't that mean he had never learned?

Ye Jingtang's expression softened a little, and he earnestly sought her guidance:

"I really haven't learned genuine martial arts. Are you sure you were teaching me a move just now?"

Luo Ning gave Ye Jingtang a few strange looks. "You have excellent natural aptitude and internal force supporting you. I assumed you'd learned martial arts... if no one taught you, how did you train to this level?"

"Every day, I run thirty li with weights, lift a stone training weight three hundred times, do five hundred sit-ups..."

Luo Ning raised a finger slightly, signaling him to stop:

"What you're describing must have been someone guiding you to build a foundation. Proper martial artists don't train that way."

"So I'm an improper martial artist?"

"Yes."

Luo Ning nodded like Niao Niao, wholeheartedly agreeing with that assessment.

Ye Jingtang opened his mouth, but did not argue with Heroine Luo. Instead, he asked:

"How do normal martial artists train?"

"What we call martial arts consists of martial techniques and internal force. The two complement each other. With techniques but no internal force, you'll never achieve more than a resemblance in form. With internal force but no techniques, you're like someone commanding thousands of troops who only knows how to storm a city with brute force and understands nothing of strategy."

Ye Jingtang understood her meaning. "I have felt that way. So right now, I'm a brainless general who only knows how to charge headlong? How should I practice techniques?"

Luo Ning said earnestly, "Techniques are methods for circulating qi, not routines for actual combat. Once you've thoroughly mastered them and possess both spirit and form, you'll naturally understand how to use a move in a real fight. With the same straight punch whose supreme skill appears unadorned, someone else can shake a city wall while you can't break a door plank. The difference lies in the mastery behind it."

Half understanding, Ye Jingtang raised his hands and moved them slowly:

"So practicing slowly like this teaches the method of circulating qi, and in a real fight, you only use that final push?"

"It seems you understood."

Luo Ning nodded. "This is the first form of the Cloud-Adhering Fourteen Hands. It emphasizes soft force. Once you can strike someone's chest or abdomen and shatter every organ without damaging the skin, you've grasped the basics. For an ordinary person to reach that stage takes at least three... three..."

Before the young married woman could finish, she saw the black-clad young man before her raise both palms and move them back and forth, reproducing her earlier movements without the slightest deviation.

"You really do have a good memory!"

Luo Ning looked slightly surprised and continued instructing him. "Think carefully about why there are so many movements. Feel out the precision and force of each one, and the flow of qi and blood. Focus on comprehending the method of circulating qi hidden within... within..."

Her words stopped.

Whoosh... whoosh...

Inside the sealed little room, a faint breeze brushed her face, lifting the strands of hair at her temples. The young married woman's gaze slowly changed from surprise to shock...