The open and covert struggles within the palace caused little disturbance outside. Yanjing Capital City remained calm and peaceful.
Outside Changyang Gate, Fan Qinghe and Little Yunli lay side by side on a rooftop, carefully watching the city walls. Niao Niao flew high overhead, searching every corner of Palace City so she could warn Ye Jingtang inside at any moment.
After a long wait, Ye Jingtang had yet to emerge, but a breeze had risen over the rooftop, bringing a little more chill.
Zhe Yunli looked up at the overcast sky and whispered:
"Aunt Fan, it looks like rain. Why hasn't Brother Jingtang come out yet? He couldn't have taken a wrong turn and really ended up in the Empress Dowager's bed, could he?"
Fan Qinghe did not believe Ye Jingtang was so lustfully audacious that he would dare lay hands on even the Empress Dowager. She replied:
"What nonsense fills your head all day? Keep watch properly."
Zhe Yunli had been keeping watch all along, but there really was nothing to see around them. Just as she was growing thoroughly bored, distant Changyang Gate quietly opened a crack. A shadow flashed out and vanished among the buildings below in the blink of an eye.
Fan Qinghe's eyes narrowed slightly. After looking around, she flew down with Yunli and entered the courtyard of a private residence, asking:
"How did it go? Did you get it?"
After landing behind the courtyard wall, Ye Jingtang pulled down his black face cloth, took a sheet of golden paper from his robe, and handed it to Qinghe.
"Got lucky. I ran into a burglar inside. He'd gotten in as a male favorite and even knew how to open the mechanism. I snatched the prize out from under him..."
Fan Qinghe accepted the Dragon-Mingling Diagram,