"Knock, knock, knock."
The calm and rhythmic knocking on the door broke the silence. Shen Qingci froze, and his right hand clasped the short blade in his sleeve almost instinctively. She stood up, grabbed a broom, pretended to be sweeping, and asked coldly: "Who?"
"I'm Xiao Jingyuan, a poor scholar who lives in the alley next door. I was in a hurry when I returned home last night and seemed to have left some pen and ink on the wall of your house. I came here to look for it."
The voice coming from outside the door was as clear and gentle as the gentle breeze, with a hint of gentleness unique to scholars, without any hint of aggression.
She pulled the latch, and the wooden door let out a harsh groan.
There was a young man standing outside the door. He was wearing a slightly faded blue shirt, and his hair was tied up with an ordinary wooden hairpin. His face was handsome and delicate, and his brows exuded the purity of a scholar. But the first thing Shen Qingci saw was not his face, but a jade cicada hanging from his waist. It looked ordinary in texture, but the knife skills were extremely exquisite. It was definitely not something that a poor scholar could afford.
"Sorry to bother you, girl." Xiao Jamyuan bowed slightly and smiled gently, but the smile floated on his eyes and never fell into his eyes.
The moment he stepped across the threshold, his toes seemed to accidentally run over the edge of the green brick where Shen Qingci had sprinkled powdered medicine. He smelled it. It was a very light smell, a mixture of anti-theft powder and some ancient medicinal properties. He had seen this smell in the sealed files of the Imperial City Department, which belonged to the medicine garden of the former Prince's Mansion that had long since been burned down.
"The girl's courage is amazing. This house... There are rumors that it is not clean." Xiao Jamyuan looked around seemingly casually, his eyes passing over Shen Qingci's dust-stained fingertips.
