Ma-ge clung to the police for protection, tears and snot running down his face, crying and pleading to be allowed into the group of people implicated in the crackdown. Even though the neighbourhood police were in a dilemma, they felt unable to turn down the request from a member of the public who wanted to improve himself, hence they readily invited him into the police car along with the rest and took him away.

Ma-ge let out a huge breath of relief, feeling that he was temporarily in a safe zone. As for his wife and kid outside, he couldn't take care of them for the time being and could only pray for their wellbeing.

He didn't see that the "female ghost" that had scared him into pissing his pants just now was in the last police car.

...and someone had caught her and was wiping her hands.

"What are you spraying on my hands? Hey… wait a minute, you're just wiping it directly on my hands? Isn't it sticky?"

His face grumpy, Yu Lanchuan squirted the hand sanitiser on Gan Qing's hands, then threw the entire box into her bag. "It's alcohol-based. Disinfectant. Is it sticky?"

Gan Qing wriggled her fingers. The hand sanitiser very quickly took effect and her hands felt very cool and refreshed.

Without waiting for her reply, Yu Lanchuan shot her a verbal jab. "Not as sticky as your hand. When you villains say your lines, you just have to do something with your hands, don't you? Will you forget your lines if you don't have any actions accompanying it? You touch everything! You… What are you doing!"

Before he could finish speaking, Gan Qing's hand that appeared and disappeared like an elusive ghost suddenly reached out. There was no space to dodge in the narrow space of the car; her hand landed right on Yu Lanchuan and withdrew after just a light touch, leaving only the lingering scent of the hand sanitiser on his ear.

The hairs on the back of Yu Lanchuan's neck stood up and he nearly hunched his shoulders up.

"Isn't that so?" Gan Qing said, full of self-assurance. "We witches from the demonic and unorthodox sects are lecherous and love touching people's faces. Is it against the law, Officer Yu?"

Yu Yan was driving and looking at the road ahead with an impassive face, pretending that he was an A.I. He replied in a flat and serious tone. "According to the relevant laws and policies, the search results cannot be displayed."

"Which word is a sensitive word?" Gan Qing asked.

"All of them." Yu Yan's gaze shot out of the rearview mirror. "In front of a bachelor, even the way the two of you breathe causes disharmony. May I trouble you to be more mindful of your manners?"

Gan Qing asked, "Why don't I give you a charm for good luck in romance?"

"Your charms stopped working long ago," Yu Yan said in a melancholic tone. "Teacher Meng-Meng, ever since you descended to the mortal realm, your magical powers are becoming less and less effective."

While speaking, he took another look at Gan Qing. After knowing her for so long, Yu Yan felt that her temperament was actually very easy-going and could be said to be a match for his own ability to put up with being humiliated for the sake of the important things—to endure Yu Lanchuan, some flexibility in handling things was necessary. She was good at talking and had a sense of humour, and didn't like to stand out too much in a crowd. Like most young people, she never had enough money to spend but was also very open-minded about how broke she was and didn't give off a sense of being stingy and miserly. She was an ordinary woman whose personality was easier to get along with than the average person. When she smiled, her eyes were clear with quite a touch of the tranquility that came from years gone by. She didn't seem to have anything at all to do with all those "jianghu enmity" and whatnot.

But there were a few seconds every now and then—the times when she revealed the blade between her fingers—when she would reveal a nature that didn't seem to belong to the current times. It gave others a whiff of that old and wild and ever-changing jianghu air, and only then would they sense, all of a sudden, that she came from another world, that she was just passing through, that she walked a path that was different from theirs.

There actually wasn't anything nice to touch on that "Ma-ge's" forlorn donkey face. Yu Lanchuan was neither fussy about cleanliness nor was he a vinegar jar of jealousy, so naturally, he wouldn't be angry just because her hand was itchy and she had touched an irredeemable gambler's face. It was just that when Gan Qing led them to the underground gambling den just now so easily and familiarly, that feeling she gave out—of a drifting existence, interspersed with the stench of blood—felt too distant. It gave others an illusion: she happened to be passing by, happened to have a bit of interaction with them and was sitting down for a cup of tea, but they will have to go their separate ways in the end.

Yu Yan sighed internally and thought, Yu Lanchuan has fallen head over heels.

And this pit he had fallen into was even quite a bumpy one.

"Teacher Meng-Meng," Yu Yan said. "That person we caught just now, how much would he know?"

"Quite a lot. This person has wide connections." Gan Qing thought for a while, then said, "He may look unassuming but just look at how he has swindled so many people until they lost their entire fortune, yet the victims all did not dare make a police report."

"Yeah, why is that?" Yu Yan asked.

Gan Qing said, "If they make a police report, they could keep their money. If the police act fast, they might even catch this Ma fellow. But he's not alone, there are still the high-interest loan lenders behind him, as well as many professional ruffians that you can not even begin to imagine."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "For example, Travellers' Sect?"

"Yeah. There might even be people from the Xu clan. They can just send a few people to cause a disturbance every three or five days and the average person wouldn't be able to bear it. Which is more important, the safety of your whole family including the elderly and the children, or money?" Gan Qing paused. "We take the chance now while he's scared to cut off his communications with the outside world and who knows, we might be able to dig quite a bit of info out of him. If we do it well, we can even go fishing with this lure."

Yu Yan frowned, "Will he cooperate?"

The corners of Gan Qing's mouth again stretched out in that smile that made a person tremble in fear. "He will. He's only a middleman. If he explains everything clearly to the police, he might even get lenient treatment. He gets nothing by keeping secrets. No one believes that he can keep his mouth shut anyway. When the time comes that the police aren't protecting him and no one in his pack of friends gives a damn about him, I will still pay him a visit."

"He… He's that afraid of you?"

Gan Qing's eyes curved. She didn't say anything.

"I don't know what it's like, all right, so I'm going to say something as an outsider. Don't get angry after you hear it," Yu Yan said. "Teacher Meng-Meng, to be honest, there are times when I don't feel that you're extraordinarily powerful. Of course, when it comes to weak scholars like me, you definitely can knock down eight of me in one go without breaking a sweat but compared to those we know who are trained in martial arts… and also those people that we have arrested, I don't think you are capable of taking them out in a one hit K.O."

She played her tricks in the middle of the night and slipped away from the bald man; in the end, she also slipped away from her shoe and had to hop back home.

Even chasing after Yan Hao gave her a stitch and a stomach upset, and she didn't even catch him.

Of course, these people were considered friends and she hadn't used her "true strength."

But every time she used her "true strength," she ended in a very wrecked state. Whether it was against Paradise's Xu clan people or against Yang Ping, her victory had come at a very high cost. Until now, the cast on her arm had yet to be removed.

Yu Yan said, "I feel that when they hear the name Wan Mu Chun, their reaction is about the same as hearing the name Little Li Flying Dagger. It's like their necks would get snapped the moment they saw you. Isn't it a little exaggerated?"

"It has always been so." Gan Qing let out a laugh, not at all bothered. She said very good-naturedly, "When my shifu taught me all those years ago, he wasn't very serious. My foundation is not good. Furthermore, I'm naturally right-handed and I changed to using my left hand by force, it's already good enough that I can open gaps between my fingers. It's entirely by relying on my ancestors' influence to scare people that I can still make my way around out there."

Yu Lanchuan lifted his eyes and shot a barb at Yu Yan across the space. "Don't talk so much when you don't know anything, you're showing your ignorance."

Yu Yan quickly corrected his attitude. "Ai, all right, Alliance Leader. You're the boss."

Yu Lanchuan didn't look at Gan Qing but he kept her within sight of his peripheral view. He said mildly, "But Wan Mu Chun isn't the type to fight competitive matches with others."

The spring blossoms were so tender they could not even withstand a single blow, the spring grass short and small. Every year, the ice on the river was tossed between sudden cold and warmth in the nights between seasons. A mere suggestion of green overlaid the willows on the banks, yet this delicate strength was everywhere, making the biting cold finally yield a total defeat and disappear without a trace.

For generations, the sect of Wan Mu Chun only had a single heir. Their numbers were few, their strength limited. Yet, every generation would always do something unexpected. Every time the edge of their blade touched a spot, it would never come away empty. From Mr. Chun to Wei Huan and further on to Gan Qing, this reputation had never fallen, and a mere three words were the nightmare lurking in the dark and sinister ravine.

However...

Yu Yan heard him trail off halfway and say no more, so he asked, "I know, so?"

Yu Lanchuan didn't say anything anymore—however, that was Wan Mu Chun, not Gan Qing.

Wan Mu Chun was everywhere but Gan Qing was only one person. Even Wei Xiao, all those years ago, had only dared to change his name to Wei Changsheng and avoid the eyes and ears of others, and only then could he have a peaceful life for a few years.

If Gan Qing followed the conventional route and lived her life like an ordinary person, to those people who were desperately terrified of Wan Mu Chun, she was a live target. The Xu clan people who marketed health supplements everywhere had withdrawn from Yanning for the moment and Wang Jiusheng had also fled the country but these were all temporary. Once the storm was over and they could free their hands, they would definitely get rid of her for peace of mind.

If Gan Qing carried on Wan Mu Chun's legendary "blade of nightmare" and continued to hang above the heads of others, she could not stay for long at No. 110.

Only that which can not be fathomed has no gaps for others to exploit. It was only a matter of time before she carried on her ancestors' fate of living a wandering existence.

When Yu Lanchuan's thoughts reached this point, his chest felt as though it was filled with icy water, his heart sinking uncontrollably to the bottom.

Speaking of this matter, it could entirely be blamed on Wei Xiao.

Mr. Chun borrowed the force rallying the country in the post-liberation years and took the opportunity to wash his hands of the past. His descendants were completely able to live low-key lives; the one who should cook could cook, the one who should study could study. Wan Mu Chun would slowly fade out of the people's awareness, fading into obscurity like the countless sects lost to history.

But when Wei Xiao was young and making his way into the world for the first time, he insisted on wanting Wan Mu Chun to surpass its past during his time and just could not bear to bury this three-cun-and-two-fen blade. To harbour talent is to attract misfortune; in the end, he was embroiled in resentment and enmity, and could not withdraw himself.

"By the way," Seeing that he was being ignored, Yu Yan just had to touch on a sore spot, "Gan Qing, we've caught so many of Travellers' Sect people and right now, because of that rotten business of Yang Ping being suspected of taking drugs and committing murder, as well as Zhu Qiao's unsuccesful murder attempt, the old cases are also being dragged out. If we continue this line of investigation, I'm not sure how many people we will need to investigate. If, by chance, we can't scoop up the whole lot in one go, with how high-profile you've been recently, will they take revenge on you?"

Gan Qing shrugged, not at all bothered. "My front door is always open. I welcome them."

Yu Yan and Yu Lanchuan spoke almost in unison, "This is not a joke!"

Gan Qing laughed. Without waiting for Yu Lanchuan's expression to change, she suddenly looked up and said softly, "Do you guys know what 'beating the grass to alert the snake' means?"

A small blade was wedged between the fingers of her left hand. Just like the other day when she had demonstrated the coin trick to the intellectually-disabled teenager at the noodle shop, the blade flipped nimbly between the gaps of her fingers. The way she did it made the extremely sharp edge stick close to her flesh, the cold light gathering into a single thread, a sight that was rather hair-rising...

Sometime in the evening, at the breakfast stall where Gan Qing and "Ma-ge" had sat down for a chat, a few men sat at the table where the two of them had sat.

"Here you go." The boss brought over the greasy menu. His eyes swept around his surroundings, then he bent down and said in a low voice, "A woman exposed Ma Laoliu at the place this morning. He was brought out in front of everyone. That woman was quite tall and her hood covered more than half her face. The marks on the table were left by her."

After hearing that, the men took out a string and a ruler, and carefully measured the marks left on the table. "The same length, three cun and two fen."

"The cross-section is level, each cut reaching the bottom… What kind of knife was it?"

"I didn't see," the stall owner said softly. "I only saw her reach her hand out and scrape randomly on the table. Ma Laoliu nearly pissed his pants when he saw it."

"Then it should be a blade between her fingers," one of the men said. "Wei Xiao's supreme skill."

"Ma Laoliu ain't any kind of tough guy but I'm not afraid if he confesses to the police," another man said. He reached out and tapped on the marks on the table. "I'm afraid of this one."

"This is someone who could kill Wei Huan at seventeen years old."

"Fortunately, she's right here in Yanning now and has a fixed address."

The few of them exchanged looks. The stall owner kept his voice low. "Our President Wang's opinion is that we shouldn't let the night be long and fraught with dreams^[1]."

T/N:

[1] "The night is long and fraught with dreams" 夜长梦多 is a pretty common phrase that means that when something is dragged out, things may change for the worse.