After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

Slowly opening my eyes, my vision was blurry and I felt disoriented. I heard a thunderous snoring sound in my ears, and a strong wind blew through the bamboo forest, making a sharp whistling sound.

San Zhuang lay on the ground with his eyes closed, his drool sticking to the grass. The moon peeked out from the thick clouds, casting a few rays of light. The drool clung to the tips of the grass, glistening.

Seeing this, Ning Nan exhaled a breath, took the cold steamed bun out of his mouth and put it in his pocket, then patted his face.

"I'm here to do something big!"

He shook his head quickly, stared wide-eyed, and gave the fast-sleeping Sanzhuang a hard push.

*Thud!* San Zhuang rolled over, his hand falling to the ground.

He slept on his back, and his snoring became a little louder.

Ning Nan remained silent, looked at the sky, where the bright moon hung high, and estimated that it was probably midnight.

"Luckily, I had a backup plan, so I didn't bother waking the kid up."

rustling...

Stepping on fallen leaves, Ning Nan crouched down and crept towards Li Yanting's backyard.

The lights in the house are already off.

It was pitch black ahead.

Ningnan Cat was in the bamboo forest, less than three zhang from the backyard, looking around in the cold, white moonlight.

no one.

But that doesn't mean there was no one there when I and Sanzhuang were asleep; it's possible the other person had already come by.

Ning Nan gritted his teeth.

Turning around, I glanced at a spot in the bamboo forest, where a branch swayed in the air.

The other party was in position, their eyes still following him. However, according to the agreement, the other party should arrive soon. In other words, there was a time gap between San Zhuang and the other party, which could be half an hour or an hour.

Ning Nan hunched over and hurried forward a few steps until he reached the back wall of Li Yanting's house. The wall was not high, only reaching the bridge of his nose.

Starting from the east side of the courtyard wall, he squinted and scanned the area inch by inch by the moonlight.

Previously, Li Xing had been asked to apply some wet yellow mud to the courtyard wall. Not much mud was applied, but it was applied to every spot, especially the low, easy-to-step-in gap, where much more mud was applied than in other places.

Whenever someone trespasses through the backyard, they will leave traces, either handprints or footprints.

Ning Nan held his breath and examined the entire backyard wall. His brows furrowed, but he found no marks.

"Not here yet?"

He slowly retreated back into the bamboo grove.

The chirping of insects and the croaking of frogs.

Ning Nan lay behind a sloping hill, parted a clump of grass, and frowned.

He couldn't tell whether it was good news or bad news.

This is quite a commotion today. It wasn't Miss Zhu sleeping in the inner room, but Dr. Jiang. Miss Zhu was moved to the main room.

This is just in case.

If the other party escapes from my grasp, or uses some method I can't fathom to see the woman in the inner room.

But once they realize that the woman they rescued is not Miss Zhu, they will naturally give up permanently and never come to Lijia Village again.

Just to be on the safe side, he left Li Yanting, the male lead, in the kitchen tonight to borrow some of his luck and suppress any possible accidents.

The bookworm naturally doesn't believe in himself and shouts, "Why should I listen to you?"

"A lecherous thief has heard of your sister's beauty and intends to harm her tonight."

Upon hearing this, Li Yanting dared not gamble anymore. If something really happened, he couldn't bear the consequences. He gritted his teeth, grabbed a stick, and stood guard in the kitchen with Li Xing.

There's a story called "The Boy Who Cried Wolf".

If the wolf doesn't come tonight, then the others might not be so cooperative next time I cry wolf.

Ning Nan took a breath.

Just then, the tree branch not far behind them started swaying again.

Before Ning Nan could turn around, he saw a figure walking towards him from the dirt road to the east, bending over.

The figure was rather thin, with his hands tucked into his sleeves. He walked cautiously, stopping every few steps to look around.

As he approached Li Yanting's house, he looked up and stared for a long time. After a while, he turned and stumbled into the path, heading towards the backyard.

Ning Nan lowered his body even further.

"Looking at that precious tree in the house, we can confirm through that tree that this is a family with a strong desire for education."

It's late at night and you can't see clearly, so you might be afraid of going to the wrong place. Doing it this way is definitely safer.

Ning Nan squinted and took a foot-long dagger from his waist. To prevent the moonlight from reflecting off it, he covered it with a black cloth.

He gripped the dagger tightly in his right hand, took out a strip of cloth with his left hand, hid it under the black cloth, and slowly wrapped the dagger around his right hand.

The earthen slope where they were hiding was about ten feet away from the backyard. Through the gaps in the bamboo grove, they could see the black figure crouching low, walking along the courtyard wall, seemingly deciding where to climb over.

Ning Nan stuffed a stick into his mouth and clenched his teeth to prevent himself from making any noise.

There's a high chance that the peddler during the day was suspicious.

Why did they have to come today of all days?

Coming from the other side of Yaoshan, after crossing the stone bridge, I made a few transactions at the bridgehead. Standing there, I could see at a glance that there were more houses on the west side of Lijia Village than on the east side, by quite a few.

But the peddler insisted on pushing his wooden cart eastward, hawking his wares along the way, and even lingered at Li Yanting's house for a long time, which was even more unusual.

If we can catch this spy today, under the pretext of interrogating a thief or a lecher, we can at least find out some of the truth about the other party.

The backyard wasn't large, and the figure in front soon reached the low opening and stopped.

The dark figure, whose face was covered by a cloth, looked around again.

He braced his hands against the gap, pushed off the wall with his feet, and nimbly jumped onto the courtyard wall.

Ning Nan bent over, held his breath, and placed the ball of his right foot on the ground. He slowly moved backward, scraping a muddy trail in the ground, ready to pounce.

At that moment, the dark figure on the courtyard wall lightly jumped down from above.

Ning Nan stared intently, counting in his mind as the dark figure stepped into the courtyard.

"one……"

"two……"

"three……"

click!

A cold, mechanical triggering sound rang out, and the dark figure immediately collapsed to the ground, letting out a muffled groan of suppressed pain.

Ta-da!

Ning Nan, biting on a wooden stick, strode forward!

"Thief!—"

A pig-like scream rang out from the kitchen; Li Xing's throat was almost hoarse from shouting.

As Ning Nan scaled the courtyard wall, Li Yanting opened the wooden door in the kitchen, grabbed a stick, and ran out.

"Shameless lecher! Die!" The bookworm's eyes were bloodshot.

A dim light shone into the inner room, and Doctor Jiang got up.

Then, several neighboring households were also disturbed by Li Xing's commotion. They grabbed hoes, opened their doors, and rushed over, shouting, "Where are you? Where are you?"

Ning Nan, holding a sharp knife, approached the man whose right foot was caught in a trap.

"Ahhh—ahhh—"

The man, who had been clenching his teeth just moments before, finally clutched his foot and let out a piercing scream as blood gushed from his ankle.

The trap that pierced the man's right foot was a specially made animal trap, which Ning Nan had Li Dahei make a few days ago. It was placed on the ground not far from the low opening and covered with some dead leaves.

"Hey." Ning Nan threw away the wooden stick in his mouth, spat a few times, spat out the dirt in his mouth, and laughed.

With a flick of his right wrist, the sharp knife in his hand gleamed like snow in the cold, white moonlight.

"It's me! It's me! Ningwa! It's me! Don't hit me! Don't hit me!"

At this moment, the figure on the ground was weeping and begging for mercy.

The stick that Li Yanting raised was suspended in mid-air, and Li Xing followed behind him with a lantern, looking excited.

Ning Nan frowned, took out his knife and moved closer. By the light of Li Xing's lantern, he finally managed to see the man on the ground clearly.