Who in the world does not know you?

Chapter 42 Catching the Thief

They were originally from different backgrounds, like two parallel lines in life, and should not have met here.

Ye Zi didn't think that her encounter with Yun Luobai was a special kind of fate. After all, when she was pleading with the madam Liu Niang in the Rouge Pavilion, Yun Luobai chose to stand by and watch coldly.

Yun Luobai always appeared as a refined and gentle gentleman in front of others, but Ye Zi could sense the coldness in Yun Luobai's emotions.

Ye Zi didn't know if this was Yun Luobai's true nature. Perhaps she had glimpsed his true colors, even if only for a very short moment.

"How about you do a divination for me? I'm penniless, and we're all family, so please don't charge me."

"You're telling me you're family now? Maybe I won't be able to find you by tomorrow before the sun rises."

Sensing the hidden meaning in Yun Luo's words, Ye Zi smiled, rested her elbow on the smooth stone table, and looked up at him with a smile.

"What's wrong? Has Young Master Yun developed feelings for me, and now he can't bear to part with me?"

"Women with your looks are a dime a dozen in Ningzhou Prefecture. After you leave, I can easily hire ten or eight more maids to work at home."

"Young Master Yun is truly superficial. Even if I am of average appearance, perhaps you might like my personality?"

"What's so good about your personality?"

"I am very gentle."

"I can't tell."

Ye Zi curled her lips, glancing at the white cloud bracelet on Hao's wrist out of the corner of her eye. She then let out a cold snort, as if she regarded the gift from Yun Luobai as her own trophy.

"Don't be smug. If you leave me in the future, you will remember me when you see it. Every time I appear in your mind, I will make you feel irritable, but you will be helpless."

"Can't I just throw it away?"

"You won't."

"You're being presumptuous again. What makes you think I'd cherish it so much?"

"Because I know divination."

"Then I'll just throw it away, so your calculations will be inaccurate, and I can use that as an excuse to ruin your business."

"Now you know why I closed up shop so early."

"..."

Moon stars are rare.

The cool, bright moonlight bathed the two people sitting in the courtyard.

A bad feeling suddenly arose in Ye Zi's heart.

Perhaps from the very beginning, Yun Luobai had a clear understanding of everything.

If that were the case, he should have exposed her identity on the spot when he specifically led her to the outside of the yamen today.

But he didn't.

Aside from being reluctant to part with himself, Ye Zi couldn't think of any other reason to explain Yun Luobai's behavior.

If she wants to leave, Yun Luobai definitely can't stop her.

But she doesn't want to leave, at least not now.

She came to Ningzhou Prefecture for a reason.

She had been somewhat skeptical before, but now she was absolutely certain that her purpose in coming to Ningzhou Prefecture was inextricably linked to Yun Luobai.

As the night deepened and the dew grew heavy, only the faint sound of the wind and the rustling of insects could be heard in the vast mansion.

Yun Luobai lay flat on the bed in the room, and the room was so quiet that not a sound could be heard.

Suddenly, a thin tube quietly pierced the window paper and entered the room, and the next moment, a faint smoke began to rise from it.

A long, thin tool was inserted through the crack in the door to pry open the latch. With a slight sound of the door opening and closing, an uninvited guest appeared in Yun Luobai's room.

She took out a tinderbox from her bosom and lit the candlestick on the table. The warm yellow light illuminated her night clothes, which covered her completely from head to toe.

She covered her face with a black cloth, making it impossible to see her features.

In the dead of night, she first uses a sleeping potion before opening the door, and with this outfit, anyone who sees her at this moment will shout "Thief!"

That's alright, after all, she is a thief.

Her gaze fell on Yun Luobai, who was lying flat on the bed. Seeing that the latter did not react, she felt relieved.

"Don't worry, my incense isn't poisonous. It even has a calming and sleep-inducing effect, so you might get a good night's sleep..."

She muttered to herself, and after confirming that Yun Luobai was sound asleep, she tiptoed around the room, rummaging through drawers and cabinets as if searching for something.

Lying flat on the bed, Yun Luobai slightly turned his head and opened one eye to look at the black-clad thief who was searching the wardrobe with his back to him. At the same time, he reached out and fanned his breath in front of his nose. Before the other party noticed him, he turned his head back and closed his eyes.

Various subtle sounds emanated from the room until a sigh filled with frustration was heard, at which point all the sounds ceased.

"No……"

She murmured to herself, then suddenly looked at Yun Luobai on the bed.

The confident smile on that kind face kept flashing before her eyes, and she suddenly felt that, given Yun Luobai's personality, he might keep important things close to him.

She moved step by step to Yun Luobai's bedside, looking at the figure fast asleep on the bed.

She didn't want to act so quickly, but the problem was that Yun Luobai had already noticed her disguise skills, so it was only a matter of time before he discovered her true identity.

To be precise, he has already discovered her identity, but he just hasn't exposed it yet.

After listening to Yun Luobai's account of the findings and conclusions of the investigation in the prison, she realized that her identity had been exposed because she was not carrying a knife at the time.

Yun Luobai is indeed a very intelligent person, Ye Zi has to admit.

But she also felt that the female thief in the prison disappearing into thin air was one thing, and her disguising herself as Ye Zi, the maid beside Mu Li, was another.

Yun Luobai had no reason to discover that she wasn't the real Ye Zi.

She was very confident in her disguise skills, and even her limping gait was remarkably lifelike.

With mixed thoughts in mind, the female thief, dressed in black and masked, stretched her arm over Yun Luobai's body and groped around the bed.

Unfortunately, her hands found nothing but soft fabric.

No?

There's nothing there?

Returning empty-handed?

The masked female thief in black gritted her teeth, and just as she was about to withdraw her hand to search elsewhere, her wrist, which was forcibly stopped in mid-air, came from a cold touch.

A slender, fair hand grasped her wrist and pulled her into an embrace before she could react.

Surprised, she hurriedly looked down, and the familiar face was already right in front of her.

The atmosphere froze for a moment. The candle on the table in the room was still burning quietly. She had been standing by the bed with her back to the candlelight, blocking seven or eight tenths of the light. Now, the light was shining directly on Yun Luobai's face.

She could feel Yun Luobai's steady breathing even at great distance, and could see his fair and delicate face, as fair as a woman's.

He still had his eyes closed, and appeared to be fast asleep.

She had never been so close to any man before, and at that moment she could feel even her heartbeat slow down.

As if possessed, she listened intently to Yun Luobai's heartbeat, only to find that his heartbeats seemed to sink deeper into the sea, growing heavier with each beat.

If it weren't for the fact that there would be another throbbing, she would have thought she was leaning on a dead person.

Yun Luobai was still holding her wrist, and she was confused about what was going on.

What is this?

Sleepwalking?

Swimming with only one hand?

She hurriedly tried to pull her hand away and get up to leave, but dared not use too much force for fear of waking Yun Luobai.

Just then, Yun Luobai uttered some muttered words.

"Thief! Thief!"

He finished speaking softly, and the hand that was gripping her wrist seemed to lose all strength and instantly loosened, falling to her chest.