Raiders of the Duke and Duchess

Chapter 937: The Fear of a Pebble

The night was dark, the moon was hidden behind the clouds, and the light was dim.

It was a night perfect for committing crimes.

It was the hour of the Ox, the time when a person is most sleepy. There were no rules between the master and servants in the Ji family. So when Lin Yi stood at the door of the Ji family and saw the doorman dozing with his head tucked up and a quilt wrapped around his body, he did not feel surprised at all.

He stood at the door with his hands behind his back, looking up at the copper-studded vermilion door in front of him. The dim moonlight shone on his miserable face and into his eyes that rarely saw the sun. Even in such light, he seemed to be very unaccustomed, squinting his eyes and staring for a long time before suddenly jumping up and landing inside the high wall.

As soon as he landed, layers of fog enveloped him, and the range of his vision quickly shrank. Lin Yi stood there without moving. He just squinted his eyes, and stretched out his arms after the fog stabilized. At a distance of only an arm's length, he couldn't even see his own hands clearly.

I wonder if the Ji family will get lost and wet their pants if they get up at night? When this thought came to Lin Yi, he laughed... Li Yuqi had previously placed a maid in the Ji family. The maid said that she had never seen any thick fog at night and could walk freely. It seemed that there was no confusion in this regard - what a pity.

Lin Yi was not actually worried about the thick fog in front of him. He had broken into Ji's house several times before. He knew that the thick fog looked strange, but it was only used to scare people and had no killing power at all. Miss Ji's formation... was really a bit childish. Maybe she was just being kind and worried about hurting innocent people.

The layout of the Ji family's house is not complicated. The houses in the eastern suburbs were originally built by the imperial court, and the layout is the same. This house only has a small tower, which is said to be a Buddhist pagoda with hundreds of years of history, so it has been preserved.

The layout elsewhere is exactly the same.

Before coming here last time, Lin Yi had already figured out the layout of Princess You's house next door. He was already familiar with the place after trying it out last time, so he really didn't care about the mysterious fog in front of him. He sneered in his heart and took a step forward. The fog in front of him slowly swayed, like a veil blown by the wind, rippling layers of ripples, and a winding path slowly appeared in front of him.

In the sight where I could not see anything, a small path suddenly appeared, and it was clear enough that I could see the small stones on the roadside not far away.

It feels like walking into a trap.

Lin Yi raised his foot and retracted it. He stood there with his hands behind his back and looked for a long time. The grass on the roadside swayed in the wind, which was very beautiful. The air could smell the fragrance of grass leaves, and in the distance, there seemed to be the fragrance of osmanthus. It reminded me of the leisurely mood of having a few drinks under the bright moon and sparse stars after the autumn rain. But at this moment, it was the night of the twelfth lunar month in the deep winter, where was the fragrance of osmanthus? But at this moment, the hair falling on the chest did not move at all.

He stroked the dark and fuzzy hair on his chest, thinking that Ji Wuyan's mysterious tricks only exposed the truth that she was at her wit's end. He stepped out with his hands behind his back and stepped steadily onto the cobblestones on the path. He thought that he would be greeted by countless hidden weapons, but unexpectedly, there were birdsong and music. His eyebrows raised slightly, and he looked up at the night sky. He didn't know when the clouds faded, and a silver crescent moon hung high in the night sky. Is it really under the moon and flowers, with the sound of music and harmony? Lin Yi just found it interesting, and for a moment he didn't know what Ji Wuyan wanted to do. Was she inviting him to enjoy the moon, listen to music and have a midnight snack? Or was there a female ghost in red waiting for her to dance at the end of the road?

He became interested and walked forward leisurely with his hands behind his back, muttering as he walked, "It would be great if an ambush was set here. But I don't know what they are doing, and they just keep making some insignificant pomp... I thought the young master of the Ji family was different, and would be more ruthless, but I didn't expect that she is a woman after all. Look, if some people are ambushed here, even if they can't catch me, they can at least let me use up some energy. Or, we can have a round-robin battle. If we don't have enough people, we can ask the emperor for them. We just need to tell the emperor that we are ambushing to catch Lin Yi. How can the emperor not agree?"

He kept on muttering to himself with his hands behind his back, as if he was strolling in his own garden, looking quite leisurely and carefree.

The sound of the piano seemed to be closer.

The melody was vague and unfamiliar. He had been in Yanjing City for many years, but had never heard a similar melody... It sounded like the sound of a spring, a gentle breeze and drizzle, or a cluster of flowers with birds paying homage to the phoenix. It was both quiet and lively.

His steps were slightly hesitant. Was this the sound of Ji Wuyan's piano? He remembered that when Ji Wuyan first came to Yanjing City, his extraordinary piano skills caused quite a stir. Fengchenju was also the first to charge an entrance fee to enter and consume. Although it received mixed reviews at that time, Ji Wuyan and Fengchenju had indeed dominated the hot search list in Yanjing City for a long time, and thus made a lot of money... Now that Ji Wuyan and Chao Yun were gone, Fengchenju had finally become an ordinary teahouse and wine shop, and its glory was gone.

He sighed and strolled with his hands behind his back. The cobblestone path unfolded before his eyes. The grass on the roadside stretched in the wind. His sight fell on a point in front of him. It was a pebble on the roadside. It was round in shape, like an egg, and very beautiful... Suddenly, he paused and looked down at his chest. His hair was still motionless. He knew that he was in a fog array. This time, the array had some more nonsense than before - like embroidered flowers, but it was still not scary.

But it was not until this moment that he vaguely felt that something was wrong. The wind was fake, the grass was fake, and the pebbles on the road were also fake... That pebble had been there for a long time. No matter how he walked, the pebble was always at the same distance and in the same position.

This road is also fake.

But this was not surprising. The formation was just a momentary oversight. It would only take more time and effort to find the true position in the formation. However, he slowly raised his head. The sky was still the same, with a crescent moon hanging above his head and twinkling stars dotting it. It was quiet and vast.

But...if I remember correctly, it's only been two days since the first day of the twelfth lunar month, how come the moon is so close to being full?
This was not the first time he had come across Ji Wuyan's formation. Every time, it was just a foggy trick, but everything he saw was real. But this time was different. What he could see, what he could not see, what was close at hand, and what was far away were all fake!
In this situation, a sudden fear climbed up his spine and rushed to the top of his head - if he took this step, would there be a smooth road or a cliff? The motionless pebble in front of him was Ji Wuyan's negligence or a fatal move.

He knew none of it.

Because of the unknown, there is fear.