Hearing Xiao Qing’s question, Ding Songyan tried to respond.

"Yes."

The moment the word left his mouth, a surge of elation rose in his chest.

Good. I can answer this question!

Delight and satisfaction appeared at the corners of Xiao Qing’s eyes and brows. She pressed eagerly, "So it’s someone at the Zhen estate... Is it Patriarch Zhen?"

"No," Ding Songyan answered quickly.

This did not involve the dungeon or Yan Changqing, so he did not forget.

Xiao Qing’s eyes flickered.

"One of the Zhen household’s retainers?"

"No. Not a retainer." Ding Songyan tried to make his answer more precise and detailed.

He did not forget, nor was he affected.

"A Zhen family member?" Xiao Qing narrowed the range.

When Ding Songyan shook his head again with the same denial, she looked confused.

"Not a retainer, not a family member. It can’t be one of their servants, can it?"

"No." Ding Songyan gave another negative.

"Strange..." Xiao Qing’s gaze went blank as she sank into thought.

Ding Songyan wanted to give her a hint, but had forgotten what he wanted to hint at.

After a moment, Xiao Qing’s eyes turned once more, their liveliness returning.

"Not someone from the Zhen household, but hidden within it?"

Ding Songyan did not answer. He had forgotten what she asked, and forgotten what his answer would be.

"You didn’t say no, so that means yes." Xiao Qing smiled, radiant enough to hold one’s gaze. "Sometimes not answering is itself an answer."

Suddenly, inspiration struck her.

"You specifically asked me the other day whether I knew someone named Yan Changqing. That was completely out of nowhere, and I had no idea where you’d heard the name...

"So, the person who told you about the Moth-God Sect is him? Hidden inside the Zhen estate but not one of them?"

Clever! She made the connection! Ding Songyan was overjoyed.

He had always thought Xiao Qing was sometimes naive and sometimes absent-minded, making her not sharp enough. But now it was clear she was fundamentally intelligent. She was simply inexperienced, and often too lazy to think things through. With her powerful background, she did not fear danger. Even if she made mistakes, her elders would clean up afterward.

From this, Ding Songyan also discovered a method for bypassing the hazy "seed’s" restrictions.

He reasoned that Yan Changqing was imprisoned in the Zhen household’s dungeon and could not follow him around, monitoring in real time. Theoretically, the seed could only influence his thoughts through preset mental priorities, avoidance conditions, and a list of people and topics that could not be mentioned.

This meant the externally imposed thought-pattern was rigid, mechanical, and inevitably incomplete. It could not cover every situation, especially indirect and roundabout ones.

And finding blind spots and loopholes in such rule-based systems was something Ding Songyan had always been good at. It was like figuring out how to get around content filters.

In this case, he had mentioned Yan Changqing days ago, when it had nothing to do with the Zhen household and he had no thought of using it to leak information to Xiao Qing. The question had come out naturally. Tonight, likewise, he had not planned to directly reveal matters regarding Yan Changqing. He was only thinking of deepening the impression that both he and the Zhen household were mysterious. That easily skirted the seed’s restrictions. What Xiao Qing then thought, how she connected the dots, was her own business and beyond the seed’s control.

Splitting an unspeakable matter into multiple parts, delivering each piece on different days through other contexts, and letting the target speculate, connect, and assemble the truth on their own. That was the workaround Ding Songyan had discovered.

It required planning ahead, as well as sufficient time.

Ding Songyan did not answer Xiao Qing’s question. After the elation came blankness.

What was she asking?

What was I going to say?

Well... I still remember the method I discovered...

Seeing Ding Songyan fall silent again with a slightly lost expression, Xiao Qing nodded with satisfaction.

"Not answering yes or no suggests there is indeed some connection, but my description isn’t entirely accurate?"

She wore an expression of "this is actually fun" and continued thinking aloud.

"I’ll tell my second uncle all of this later. Let’s see if he can figure out what’s going on and why you can’t speak about it."

Good, good, good! Ding Songyan wanted to applaud her.

He thought for a moment and had another idea.

"Miss Xiao Qing, could I come with you later to visit your second uncle? I have important information to tell him."

"What important information can’t be told to me?" Xiao Qing expressed her displeasure.

"You can listen in when we get there. I just don’t dare say it right now," Ding Songyan explained hastily.

He had never expected to actually get the words about Yan Changqing and the Zhen household out of his mouth and tell Xiao Qing’s second uncle directly. His real plan was to openly display the abnormality for the other party to witness.

Once Xiao Qing told her second uncle in advance that Ding Songyan had important information to share, and then Ding Songyan "forgot" what he wanted to say right in front of him, the problem would be laid out in plain sight.

Ding Songyan was confident that Xiao Qing’s second uncle, as a seasoned veteran of the jianghu, would deduce something from this. He might even identify which art was influencing him. After all, Yan Changqing’s divine art was so powerful and extraordinary that it could hardly be unknown in the martial world.

"Fine." Xiao Qing assessed her own strength, then agreed with a touch of reluctance.

After Ding Songyan finished writing tonight’s story and she finished reading it, Xiao Qing stood and glanced out the window.

"Make your own way to Tianyang Hall. I’ll make a move now and let my second uncle know."

She immediately lowered her voice.

"Ren Youyang and his guard are still watching the tail for you from the shadows. I’d rather not be spotted by him. With him around, you don’t need to worry about danger."

"Got it." Ding Songyan indicated his agreement.

As foreigners not belonging to Great Zhao, Xiao Qing’s side would naturally prefer to keep their identities hidden.

After Xiao Qing left, Ding Songyan packed his things, put on the pretense of cooling off, stepped out of the courtyard, and locked the door.

He had long since learned where Tianyang Hall was, having prepared it as a refuge for emergencies.

He walked all the way to Fengshui Bridge and was about to turn onto the path Xiao Qing had taken when he spotted Ren Youyang sitting at a grilled-meat stall, smiling and beckoning to him.

The True Spirit Sect disciple wore a light gray scholar’s robe. His canine ears stood relaxed in the night breeze. The bruising and scabs on his face had faded or healed, no longer marring his bearing as a martial practitioner.

"Out for a stroll?" Ren Youyang asked with a smile.

Ding Songyan sat down.

"Writing tomorrow’s story left me drenched in sweat. Came out for some air."

Ren Youyang, acting close and familiar as ever, pointed at the grilled lamb before him.

"Have some. A few cups?"

Before Ding Songyan could agree, he lowered his voice.

"Since you came back from outside the city, the moth-man following you left. I didn’t make a move. I’m thinking long-term—let the line run to catch the big fish, find the moth patriarch or moth matriarch. But these moth-men are a bit different from the intel I got this evening. I can’t determine who the moth matriarch or patriarch is yet.

"Also, the authorities now have someone following you in the shadows too. Add me, and you’ve got enough for a game of Horse Hanger."

Horse Hanger was a popular card game played by four people.

You don’t even know about Xiao Qing’s side... Ding Songyan wanted to mention what made these moth-men special, but after lifting his wine cup, he had already "forgotten" the thought.

......

Xiao Qing walked with her maidservant through streets and lanes dappled with moonlight swaying through tree shadows, making their way toward Tianyang Hall.

They had just stepped into a quiet, secluded alley when a black figure dropped from a tree above.

Xiao Qing shifted her footing, sidestepping in a flash.

Immediately after, the crisp crack of a whip-tip splitting the air sounded without warning. Yet no whip was visible anywhere.

The black figure retreated sharply, kicked off the alley wall, and flipped backward over it like a startled bird, disappearing into someone’s courtyard.

Crack!

With another crack of the whip, two marks appeared on the wall where the figure had just kicked. One was very deep, splitting the bricks, while the other was relatively shallow. Fine dust kept falling, and wherever it reached seemed to have become soft.

The two lash-marks crossed each other, yet from start to finish, no physical whip had appeared in the alley.

"Leaving already?" Xiao Qing stood akimbo, looking unsatisfied. "What was the point of that? Just saying hello?"

After this murmur, something occurred to her. She looked up at the distant, tall watchtower.

She quickly grabbed her maidservant’s hand. Their figures became ghostly and unreal, dissolving into the night and vanishing.

Back at Tianyang Hall in the eastern part of the city, the moment Xiao Qing stepped into the front hall, she was already complaining loudly.

"Second Uncle, I ran into a very cunning enemy. They deliberately forced me to act, trying to expose us to the Southern Zhao authorities!"

Xiao Qing’s second uncle sat in the front hall with a teacup, using its lid to brush aside the tea leaves. He looked up. "Someone attacked you?"

He was dressed in a wide robe and had loose black hair. His facial features bore some semblance to Xiao Qing’s. His face was small, and the corners of his eyes were slightly upturned. He was refined with a mature temperament. He appeared to be in his early thirties.

Xiao Qing nodded rapidly. "They forced me to use my invisible whip!"

She recounted the ambush in full detail first, then relayed the information about the Moth-God Sect and the mysterious person named Yan Changqing at the Zhen estate.

Her second uncle set down his teacup, stood, clasped his hands behind his back, and paced slowly.

"The situation is complicated. Starting tomorrow, stop visiting that Ding Songyan at night."

Seeing Xiao Qing about to protest, his expression turned stern.

"Your father sent you here to see the world and gain experience, not to take risks for fun. If you truly insist on going, I’ll have to accompany you."

"Fine," Xiao Qing agreed, looking aggrieved.

Her second uncle thought for a moment, murmuring to himself.

"What is the Moth-God Sect after... What the Zhen household is scheming is probably bigger than what we want...

"The name Yan Changqing, I’ve certainly never heard of it..."

The handsome man looked at Xiao Qing once more.

"Qingli, is there anything else?"

Xiao Qing thought carefully, then shook her head.

"No."

......

After finishing the wine and grilled meat with Ren Youyang, Ding Songyan bade him farewell and walked slowly back to Chengyu Lane.

Near the Ding family courtyard, a thoughtful expression crossed his face.

Did I forget something...

After pondering for a while without result, he opened the courtyard gate, returned to his room, lay on his bed, and quickly fell asleep.

It was a dreamless night.