When Yu Lanchuan went downstairs, by coincidence, he bumped into Gan Qing. Gan Qing had wrapped herself in a long hooded padded jacket that seemed to date from the Republican era. The jacket covered her from her head to her calves and the hood was up over her head. A few locks of hair that had fallen out were dripping wet and the ends of her pyjamas peeked out at her feet. She had probably been getting ready for bed.

Yu Lanchuan felt that it was a little strange. She didn't seem like the type who, upon hearing the neighbours shout "thief," would clamber up to join the excitement.

The entire building only had one elevator. Everyone wanted to use it, so it was very slow. Hence, the two of them walked down using the stairs.

Walking in front, Gan Qing suddenly said in a low voice, "The person who knocked on your window climbed upwards after that."

"You saw it clearly?" Yu Lanchuan was briefly stunned. Then, for reasons that he himself did not know, a question slipped out of his mouth. "Have you heard of Tang Qian Yan?"

Gan Qing remained silent from the tenth floor all the way to the eighth floor. Just as Yu Lanchuan thought that she didn't want to answer him, she unexpectedly uttered a "Yeah" in a soft voice. "'The flying sparrow skims the water, it leaves no trace on the snow'… But they have become just a lizard now."

By the time the two of them came down, there was already a group of neighbours crowding around the door to 804. Speaking of which, it was strange; it was just past 10 p.m. and even the "hair-intact nun" Gan Qing hadn't gone to bed yet. For the modern day city folk, it was still too early. Why would a burglar pick this time to break in?

"What I think is, the thief was probably targeting 803." A neighbour was expounding on his theory. "They saw that the old lady was home alone today. She sleeps early and is hard of hearing, so they had the guts to act! They didn't expect to get the wrong balcony."

The old lady from the next door 803 had come out to join the crowd. She happened to hear this line and turned pale with fright.

"Don't make wild guesses, don't scare the old lady." The man at 804's door waved his hand. "The light in our house was spoiled today so the house was dark. Maybe the burglar thought there was no one at home."

The man looked to be around the age of 37 or 38. He was tall, with a decent appearance. When he spoke, it was with a slow and low voice. Yu Lanchuan thought he seemed familiar and was just pondering if they had met before when the man accidentally glanced towards him. "Hey, you are… Director Yu?"

His reflexes kicked in and Yu Lanchuan put on a professional smile.

"I'm Nicholas from IMI! Everyone calls me Nick. I've done a report with you for the project on exhibition centers! Do you remember me?"

In Yu Lanchuan's brain that had been curdled into a pot of congee by the last-minute meeting and the Martial Arts General Assembly, a string of letters popped up. His temples began pounding and he had a sudden realisation. He recalled who this person was—after all, in their "white collar demon" circle, this way of mixing languages when speaking had gone out of fashion a few years ago. When he occasionally met someone who used this "traditional" style, the impression they left would be rather deep.

Yu Lanchuan nodded reservedly. "Hello, Director Nie."

This man's name was Nie Ke. He was from another investment company. In the past, they wanted to involve Yu Lanchuan's company when they invested in a project and hence, the two companies had worked together before. Yu Lanchuan didn't remember Nie Ke's rank but when it came to those who were out and about to do business, one could never go wrong by addressing them as Director.

"Our house is in the suburbs. It's too far. Going through the morning rush hour adds more than two hours to my commute. Sadly, I can't afford a house in the urban area. This year, it was only for the sake of letting our child attend the kindergarten here that we finally made the resolve to rent a place here. Luckily the kindergarten is on vacation today and we have sent the child to his grandma's place." Nie Ke politely invited the neighbours into his house. The light in the living room was indeed not working and his house was pitch-black inside. He lowered his voice by an octave. "Xiaoman, are you okay?"

Only then did everyone realise that there was also a woman in the house. She appeared to have blended in with the darkness.

Even though Nie Ke had already lowered his voice a lot, he seemed to have frightened her. The woman jumped up stiffly from the sofa, like a dehydrated zombie.

"This is my wife." Nie Ke sighed. "At that time, I was boiling water in the kitchen. She was in the bedroom alone and happened to run into the burglar. But she didn't run away immediately and even wanted to catch them—What were you thinking? The way you are, could you catch anyone? What if they had a knife? I just look away for a moment and something could have happened to you. What am I to do, ai—Luckily, that burglar didn't think there would be someone inside and was frightened off. They just jostled her for a bit and then ran off, and even broke one of our windows."

Gan Qing switched on the lights in the corridor and the entrance hall. With the help of the illumination, everyone saw that Mrs. Nie was holding a piece of muslin cloth and pressing it against her forehead. There were some bloodstains on her forehead and the corner of her eye that hadn't yet been wiped away. There was a very dark streak of dirt on her cheekbone. Maybe because she was tired from holding up her arm, the hand that was holding the cloth trembled non-stop.

"She knocked her head." Nie Ke wrapped an arm around her shoulders and said to the neighbours. "Her forehead knocked against the corner of the table. I said I would bring her to the hospital but she doesn't want to go."

Mrs. Nie didn't say anything. She curled into his shoulder, hiding herself.

The neighbours didn't notice anything amiss. No matter who it was, if a burglar suddenly broke in while they were sitting at home, they would be frightened too and wouldn't be able to sleep peacefully for the next few days. Hence, they all urged Nie Ke to make a police report.

Gan Qing remained at the door and didn't enter the apartment. She looked past the crowd towards the balcony. One opened window on the balcony was shattered to pieces and the wind was blowing in from there. A few stray glass pieces had fallen onto the balcony. If they had broken out from inside the room, most of the glass pieces would have fallen outside.

At this hour, the roads were no longer congested. The police arrived very quickly. The warm-hearted neighbours surrounded the police and without waiting for them to start their inquiries, they began to noisily pour all their guesses and theories into the police's ears.

Drowning in the crowd, the police tried their best to swim out. "Make way, everyone, please make way. We want to look for the victim of the break-in to ask questions!"

Nie Ke caressed Mrs. Nie's hair. "My wife is a housewife. She can't really speak well and has also received a great fright today. Let her rest, I will talk to you."

The police asked the woman a few questions. All she did was nod or shake her head, and the man next to her supplemented all her answers. She indeed had the bearing of someone who stayed home most of the time and rarely met other people. Hence, after confirming that she didn't need an ambulance, they didn't ask her any more questions.

Mrs. Nie walked around the crowd, her head lowered, planning to go to another room.

Right then, a hand pulled her to a stop. Mrs. Nie quivered and turned around, startled. She saw that the person stopping her was a thin young woman.

Gan Qing lightly pinched her chin and turned her face to the side. "You knocked your head on the corner of the table but how did you get this on your face?"

Her eyes that rarely opened wide reflected the light in the entrance hall. Along with the movement of her eyeballs, the reflected light seemed to flicker, like sparks leaping from a cold flint stone.

The woman stepped back stiffly and evaded her hand.

Unconcerned, Gan Qing moved her hand back into the sleeve of her cotton pyjamas. Her eyelids dropped, covering the light in her eyes. "Was it when you grabbed him, he pushed you hard against the wall, and you lost your balance and hit against the corner of the table?"

The woman nodded in a fluster, evading her gaze.

"Next time something like this happens, you need to shout immediately," Gan Qing said. "I live right upstairs, 1003. I'm usually very free anyway. If you have time, come hang out with me."

The woman's face was wooden and she didn't say anything. She quickly slipped into her bedroom.

Gan Qing's gaze lingered on the opened balcony window in the Nie home for a few seconds. Then, she glanced at Nie Ke who was answering the police's questions. Quietly, she avoided the crowd and left the Nie home.

Yu Lanchuan looked at Yu Yan whose police cap had been knocked askew by the crowd. "Why is it you again?"

"How the hell would I know? When other people are on shift, it's a quiet and peaceful night; the moment I'm on shift, the police are dispatched to the crime scene. Don't you think it's weird?" Yu Yan's brows knitted, his face in a frown. He said, "Master Lan, do you have any more martial arts techniques for maintaining good health? Teach me a few moves, I feel like I'm not far from sudden death due to overwork."

Coincidentally, Gan Qing was passing by. She heard those words and pushed her hood up. "It's Mercury retrograde. Officer, I have a protection charm, do you want one? I'll give you an insider discount, only fifty-two yuan. Anytime you need one, just come to Mudpool Backlane and look for me."

The cost was two yuan. With fifty yuan profit, she could pay Boss Meng back.

Yu Yan said in shock, "You're spreading your feudalistic nonsense to the police?"

Gan Qing smiled mysteriously and turned to go. "It's more effective than reblogging pictures of lucky carps on Weibo. But it's fine if you don't believe it."

Yu Yan had just used his side account to reblog a lucky carp and felt his knees itching to kneel down to her. He decided that after his shift was over, he would take off his uniform and secretly go over.

"Just now, someone said they saw the burglar who broke in." Yu Yan became serious and asked Yu Lanchuan, "Someone also said that the burglar was dressed up like Spiderman and that he was even holding a large metal claw? Did you see him? To be honest, recently, we've received quite a few reports of burglaries at high-rise buildings."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Was the amount stolen large?"

"Speaking of that, it's strange. Out of the few cases of break-ins, most of them were unsuccessful. Only one case reported the loss of a card wallet. I ask you, what's the point of this little thief stealing cards? Up to now, today's case is the most serious one, with physical injury," Yu Yan said. "All the homes that were broken into were above the sixth floor, and all were broken into via the windows. Is there such a qinggong in the world? Surely it's not really Spiderman?"

Yu Lanchuan thought for a while. "Come with me."

He led Yu Yan to squeeze out of the crowd and went down to the sixth floor. Old Master Yang lived in 608. His granddaughter was there on the orders of her parents to take care of her grandfather. She didn't like that the old man had lots of scoundrel friends and was unwilling to stay with him, hence she rented the next door apartment. Even then, the grandfather and granddaughter fought everyday.

Old Master Yang seemed to know in advance that they would come and had long since prepared tea while waiting.

Yu Lanchuan flattened the piece of paper. "The Spiderman they are speaking of climbed to the outside of my balcony window and stuck this paper there. Grandpa Yang, do you know who this descendant of Tang Qian Yan is?"

Yu Yan jumped up in a fluster. "This is evidence! How can you just touch it like that!"

"How would I know it was evidence? When I tore it down, I didn't know there were high-rise burglaries." Yu Lanchuan paused. "But the window on the eight floor was broken after he stuck the paper on my window, and the window was also broken by someone escaping from the inside. The person who ran away after injuring someone is probably not the same person who stuck this paper."

"But that doesn't prove that the previous burglaries are not related to him," Yu Yan said. "This building of yours, the side with the enclosed balconies is very flat. At that time, he was sprawled on the outside of a tenth floor window. If someone entered from the eighth floor, he would definitely have seen them, so they might be in the same gang. Those who break-in and steal usually belong to gangs."

"Breaking and entering is one thing… but to even join a gang." At that moment, Old Master Yang picked up that piece of paper. After a while, he heaved a long sigh and laughed bitterly. "This is really, really… Ai!"

"Back then, our friends in the jianghu flattered us and crowned us old things with the title of Five Supremes," Old Master Yang said slowly. "Xiao-Chuan, all those years, there was nothing anyone could criticize about your granduncle's conduct. He had the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang, sword shining like snow, and so he was called Han Jiang Xue. Fuliang Yue referred to a respected brother back then. His surname was Han and he practised a Taoist style of martial arts. Their ancestor was a disciple of Wudang Mountain. The later descendants amalgamated with the now extinct Qi sect that studied the eight trigrams. They were very righteous and had saved your granduncle's life during the war with the Japanese. But, the old brother was quite a bit older than the rest of us. He passed away more than twenty years ago. One of his grandchildren stayed here and works as a civil servant. I saw that his body shape is not far from the three highs, he must have abandoned his ancestor's teachings long ago.

"Chuan Lin Feng refers to my family. I don't have much capabilities; in the first place, I'm not worthy of being talked about in the same breath as the rest of them. It was just that I had managed Beggars' Sect for a few years before liberation, so everyone was very courteous with me. As for Tang Qian Yan… I remember his surname was Yan, full name Yan Ruofei. He was originally from the south. He had lived in seclusion for a long time and was persuaded to leave the mountain during the years of chaos. I've met him a few times. He was a very shy person and blushed the moment he laughed. He was like a scholar but his skills were truly excellent, leaving no trace in a thousand miles. On his own, he could burst undetected through layers of bodyguards, killing three traitors with a blade in his hand. The wanted posters were hung everywhere from the main roads to the little alleys. Countless evildoers could not sleep peacefully at night because of him."

Yu Lanchuan asked, "And later on?"

"Later on, he sacrificed his life," Old Master Yang said. "The Japanese and the traitors were looking everywhere for him. Someone sold out the place he and a few friends were staying. He thought that he would be able to escape since he knew qinggong, so he covered their backs and let them run first… but even though the sparrow could outfly the shadowless wind, he was still not as fast as the fired gun."