Miss, Please Respect Yourself - Chapter 11

In the cell surrounded with walls on all sides, it was hard to tell whether it was dusk or evening.

Yang Jin was busy searching for a way out, feeling around everything that looked like a possible mechanism, but found no clues.

Meanwhile, when someone was working, Wen Qian leisurely enjoyed her freedom.

Earlier, her face had been splashed with water, and now, her makeup was smeared. After adjusting to the dim light, she took out her small bronze mirror she carried with her for a while. Then, she slowly pulled out a small box of rouge and indigo powder from her sleeve and began to delicately paint her eyebrows.

Out of the corner of his eye, Yang Jin caught a glimpse and couldn’t help but turn his head. “At a time like this, you still have the mood to put on makeup?”

“Why shouldn’t I?” Wen Qian replied, inspecting her reflection from various angles.

Yang Jin frowned. “In a place like this, with no light, who are you putting it on for?”

She replied as a matter of course, “You.”

Yang Jin: “…”

She was always like this. It seemed like nothing ever weighed on her mind. Even if a knife were plunged into her, she’d probably think it was nothing more than a bowl-sized scar. Was she simply too carefree, or perhaps oblivious to danger?

For some reason, seeing Wen Qian seriously putting on makeup suddenly drained Yang Jin of his annoyance.

“Aren’t you afraid we’ll be stuck here forever?”

Wen Qian nonchalantly dabbed some lip balm on her lips. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”

For once, Yang Jin was left speechless by her words. After a moment, he could only sigh helplessly, “Do whatever you like.”

Dipping her little finger into water, she softened the rouge and blended it gently at the corner of her eyes, perfecting the look. Wen Qian nodded with satisfaction. While tucking the bronze mirror away, she suddenly seemed to recall something. “Did you find Liu Wenyuan yet?”

Yang Jin was still knocking on the hard stone walls. At her question, his fingers paused briefly before resuming the tapping.

“Yes, I did.”

※

Within the Tang Mansion, dusk had already fallen, the sky outside the window was painted with a large swath of deep blue, and the shadows of the trees were dark and hazy.

Shi Baichuan clutched his wine cup, nervously glancing toward the door multiple times.

The birthday banquet had been going on for quite some time, and the hall was filled with the clinking of cups. Many were already drunk, their faces uniformly flushed, giving the gathering an air of festive cheer.

However, Yang Jin was not among them. Not only that, but Wen Qian was also nowhere to be seen.

According to the original plan, if they were still inside the Tang Mansion, they would receive a signal before the evening meal and would have rushed in to catch the criminal and retrieve the stolen goods. If the mission failed, at the very least, Yang Jin would appear at the banquet to express his disappointment or hint at their next steps.

But things had taken an unexpected turn, both the main players of this show had disappeared without a trace or even a message. Had they eloped together?

In Shi Baichuan’s subconscious, the possibility of Yang Jin being captured didn’t even cross his mind. If it had happened, it must have been part of a trap to lure the enemy.

Therefore, during the entire banquet, the Embroidered Uniform Guard officers were on standby in the hall and remained alert, just like Shi Baichuan, holding their wine cups absent-mindedly, ever watchful for any sign of disturbance from outside the courtyard.

But even as the banquet ended and guests were sent off, everything remained calm.

At this moment, Shi Baichuan could no longer keep up the pretense. His face, once composed, was now lined with worry.

The Tang Mansion was not some brothel or tavern where one could drink too much and sleep it off. As the guests took their leave, Tang Shi, with a gentle smile, subtly hinted that it was getting late. Shi Baichuan had no choice but to rise slowly, though internally, he was burning with impatience. His eyes scanned the bustling figures across from him—servants, maids, guards, and guests—any one of them might be Liu Wenyuan.

He nearly impulsively dragged Tang Shi over to interrogate him.

But with Yang Jin absent, he dared not act without orders.

He made his way slowly toward the main gate, glancing back every few steps. When he turned one last time, he saw the flickering lights in the distance. Tang Shi nodded and smiled at the ‘Second Young Master Yang’, “Young Master Yang, thank you for gracing us with your presence. When I return to the capital, I will surely pay you a visit when I have time.”

Shi Baichuan forced a polite response before leaving with his group.

As the music and drums from the lively banquet faded, the Tang Mansion once again fell into silence. Only a few busy servants remained in the front hall, tidying up the aftermath of the banquet.

※

In the stone chamber, Yang Jin lifted his robe and squatted next to Wen Qian, using a tree branch to draw two circles on the ground.

“We have always believed that Liu Wenyuan came to Guangling to seek refuge with Tang Shi, because of their close relationship. That much is true. But we have overlooked one thing.”

He paused.

“And that is whether Tang Shi was willing to shelter Liu Wenyuan.”

Wen Qian frowned and tilted her head. “You mean… he’s not in the Tang Mansion?”

“He is.” Yang Jin looked at her, “If he wasn’t, Tang Shi wouldn’t have been so wary of us. So, Liu Wenyuan must be hidden somewhere—that’s one possibility. But there’s also another.”

“What is it?”

He replied slowly, “Liu Wenyuan may already be dead.”

Wen Qian narrowed her eyes at the words.

Why would a traitor linked to a rebellion choose Tang Shi when there were other people to seek refuge with? This governor-general of two provinces likely had something to hide himself.

She pondered aloud, “Was it Tang Shi who killed him?”

Yang Jin neither confirmed nor denied. “To be honest, I had never had such a guess before coming to the Tang Mansion. It only occurred to me when I encountered that servant who died of illness in the courtyard.”

He then recounted to Wen Qian what had happened in the side courtyard.

Hearing about Tang Shi’s strange behavior in the middle of the night, she shuddered, remembering the man who pretended to be so upright as he visited the music workshop to listen to music. Now her impression of him instantly soured, as if a chill had settled in her bones.

“What exactly was he doing?”

Yang Jin explained, “Sleepwalking, also known as ‘nocturnal wandering’ or ‘somnambulism’, is a condition in which a person appears unconscious but moves about freely while asleep and completely unaware of what they do.

“Generally speaking, those who have suffered trauma, are mentally distraught, or have inherited it from their parents are more likely to develop this condition. It seems Tang Shi may indeed be afflicted with this illness, which is why the servants saw him moving about at night, even though he wasn’t truly awake.”

Wen Qian nodded thoughtfully but then wondered, “What does his illness have to do with him killing Liu Wenyuan?”

“Are you saying that Tang Shi killed him in his sleep?”

“That’s not what I mean. Of course, this is just my own speculation—” Yang Jin’s tone softened. “I once heard from a physician that sleepwalking patients usually don’t go beyond familiar areas during their nocturnal wandering. They often repeat actions they’ve performed many times during the day.”

At this point, it seemed like he was guiding her toward a realization. “Think about it, what does Tang Shi’s hand gesture resemble?”

—Bending over, his hands gripping something, swaying back and forth.

Pulling a rope?

That didn’t seem quite right.

His movements shouldn’t have been swaying back and forth, but rather, diagonally downward, then upward, then downward again, repeating this pattern over and over.

Wen Qian tilted her head back and quietly visualized the scene in her mind. It suddenly became clear to her.

“He was… digging something?”

Yang Jin nodded. “He wasn’t digging, he was burying.”

She immediately understood, everything clicked into place for her.

Tang Shi had buried Liu Wenyuan himself, hiding the body and destroying the traces, leaving them with no clues to find.

※

The stone chamber was devoid of light, sealed off on all sides. Only on the left stood an iron door, locked from the outside. Unless one were a peerless master or a deity descending from the heavens, breaking through it was impossible.

In such a dark environment, even a fleeting moment seemed to drag on. As Yang Jin continued pacing near the stone wall, Wen Qian, growing bored, finally got up, smoothing her skirt.

“Are your little underlings of any use or not?” She played with a strand of hair on her chest and said casually, “We’ve been trapped here for quite a while, and they haven’t come to rescue you. Could it be they’re scared and ran off secretly?”

“Baichuan has always known how to handle things.” Yang Jin ran his hand lightly along the stone wall. “He’ll come to fetch us.”

Unconvinced by his mysterious confidence, Wen Qian was about to retort when something flew toward her in the dark. It’s a dark and quite big object. When she made out its shape, her scalp tingled, and a chill shot from her feet to her head. She couldn’t help but let out a scream, leaping behind Yang Jin in a flash.

Thinking it was some kind of hidden weapon, Yang Jin instinctively reached out and caught it. The object felt slightly hard, with sharp spikes.

The object struggled in his palm with its claws and teeth. By the dim light, he saw it was just a beetle, somewhat resembling a rhinoceros beetle.

“Just this?” He tilted his head slightly as he held the bug. Wen Qian’s pale, frightened face showed just how much it had scared her. His lips curled into a faint smirk and he turned his head away.

Seeing the expression on Yang Jin’s face, Wen Qian took a few fearful steps back and retorted indignantly, “So what? Is it really that strange for a beautiful young woman like me to be afraid of bugs?”

There were three things she avoided the most in her life, and insects had always held the top spot, unshaken for years. The other two fluctuated depending on her mood.

“I suppose not,” Yang Jin chuckled, shaking his head. “I just didn’t expect you to be scared of something.”

Wen Qian glared at him unhappily. “What’s so surprising about that? Don’t you have anything to fear too?”

He pondered seriously for a moment. In fact, there were quite a few things he feared.

However, just as he was lost in thought, Wen Qian caught a whiff of something peculiar in the air.

“Do you smell something?”

A sharp, pungent odor was gradually filling the room. Yang Jin quickly scanned their surroundings and soon noticed thick smoke seeping through the cracks of the iron door.

“It’s smoke!”

“That bastard Tang is setting a fire outside?!” What a cowardly move. Trapping them inside wasn’t enough—he didn’t even dare face them and resorted to such a despicable tactic.

Wen Qian was about to reach out to push the door, but Yang Jin swiftly pulled her back.

“Don’t touch it, watch your hands!”

The iron door had already grown scorching hot, sizzling as it heated up. Several rats that had been hiding in the chamber tried to squeeze through the door’s gap, only to be roasted alive in an instant, their bodies smoking.

Wen Qian turned around and asked him, “What is he trying to do?”

His face darkened slightly. “Isn’t it obvious? Tang Shi wants to suffocate you and me to death with this smoke.”

She gritted her teeth, puzzled. “Didn’t you say he didn’t want to harm me?”

Yang Jin nodded at first. “At the beginning, yes. But if he’s figured out who I am by now, he’ll probably want to silence us.”

It was a clever move on Tang Shi’s part. After all, ‘Second Young Master Yang’ had openly attended the Tang family’s birthday banquet. Even if they died here, Tang Shi could easily feign ignorance.

“So, I’m here to accompany you to your grave?”

“…You could put it that way.”

Before he finished speaking, Wen Qian lifted her leg and kicked him. Yang Jin thought about dodging but hesitated and took the hit without flinching.

This operation had truly been a disaster; losing both the battle and the woman.

Fortunately, since the gap in the door was small and Tang Shi was afraid to open the door, it would take some time for the smoke to completely fill the chamber. They wouldn’t be suffocated to death so easily.

Just as Wen Qian was having this thought, she noticed a small hole open in the door, about two fingers wide. A dark unknown object from outside slowly pushed through the gap, shrouded in the thickening smoke.

At that moment, Yang Jin suddenly pulled her aside.

A flash of light streaked through the chamber, followed by a series of deafening bangs.

Firearms!

He should have guessed it earlier.

If Tang Shi didn’t want to get involved, he could have handed the person over to the Embroidered Uniform Guard. The fact that he chose to silence them instead proved that the Tang family was deeply entangled in Prince Ning’s rebellion.

Only generals had the authority to use firearms.

So the Tang family was supplying Prince Ning with military arms!

In the midst of the crisis, Wen Qian didn’t dwell on these thoughts as much as Yang Jin did. Seeing that they were now facing both smoke and gunfire, she realized they were in grave danger. What had seemed like a spacious chamber just moments ago and the smoke wouldn’t kill them immediately, now, she suddenly felt that it was not enough.

The smoke stung their eyes, and they could barely keep them open. In the thick fog, they stumbled around blindly for a while until Yang Jin grabbed her and asked urgently, “Where’s that bug from earlier?”

Though Wen Qian was dazed from the smoke, she still felt goosebumps rise at the mere mention of it. “Of all times, you’re still thinking about that bug?”

The snakes, insects, rats, and ants in the chamber were also suffocated from the smoke by Tang Shi and rushed out of their hiding spots, dragging their families behind them. Yang Jin waved away the smoke in front of him and followed the trail of the fleeing creatures.

It was still a wall, though he could faintly see the rhinoceros beetle he’d released earlier struggling to crawl through the cracks.

Yang Jin reached out to touch it. The wall felt slightly damp, almost as if it had been soaked with water, making this small section softer than elsewhere. Covering Wen Qian, he said, “Step back.”

Curious about what he was planning, Wen Qian peeked out from behind Yang Jin’s back and saw him take a deep breath, gathering his strength into his palm. With a single strike, he broke through the wall, creating a small hole.

Behind the hole seemed to be another place, with another passage to follow.

The gunfire grew louder and more intense, as if it was urging someone to die. Yang Jin quickly crawled through and turned back to pull her after him.

The hole was low, barely big enough for one person to crouch through. Wen Qian handed him her hand, and the moment she lowered herself down and lifted her leg, a blast erupted near her leg. The stone shards grazed her ankle, cutting a small wound. Before she could feel the pain, blood began to flow.

She grimaced and clutched Yang Jin’s arm as she crossed through the opening, her footing slightly unsteady.