"Woof woof woof..."
The moment Yang Ge had finally fallen asleep, he was woken up again.
He stared at the pitch-black beams above him, listening to the "crack, crack" sound of tiles rubbing, rolling over from the other end of the beam in front of his face, so exhausted he almost wished he could grab a brick and rush up to smash the stupid thief on the roof to death.
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’Three times now!’
Clenching his bedding tightly, he yelled in his heart, "When will it ever end!"
He had tried to think from the perspective of those Jianghu people entering the town, how they would identify Zhang Mazi among the tens of thousands of residents in Lu Ting...
He had thought about simply creating an arena, challenging him to come forward and fight.
He had also considered that they might harm the people of Lu Ting to force him to come out and fight.
He even thought that they might pretend to be Zhang Mazi and stir up trouble to force him to come out and clear the situation.
What he had never expected was that these people would employ such a foolish method as sneaking into homes in the dead of night to search for Zhang Mazi!
And yet, they really did sneak into Zhang Mazi’s home...
Indeed, the most sophisticated games required the most primitive methods.
Huang’s barking gradually ceased.
The anger within Yang Ge gradually subsided as well, and he softly consoled himself, "Don’t be angry, don’t be angry. If you stoop to this fool’s level, you’ve lost..."
Before he had finished speaking, he heard a ’thud’ from the back yard, along with some indistinct muttering.
Huang, who had just shut up, immediately started cursing again.
Even though Yang Ge couldn’t understand the angry barks, he knew they must be filled with obscenities.
"Endless, truly endless..."
Mumbling as if obsessed, he got up, fumbling in the dark as he put on his cloth shoes, and pulled out his night clothes and willow leaf sabre from under the bed.
...
Yang Ge fastened his black iron mask and leaped onto the wall in one bound, soon leaving Chaimen Street by hopping light-footedly from one roof to another.
His movements were agile and graceful, making not a single sound upon landing.
Compared to those clumsy thieves whose poor skills made the tiles creak loudly under their feet, he was far more professional!
He returned near the ruined Fengyu Rice Shop and casually found a dark corner to rest with his knife.
Before long, he heard the rapid "crack, crack" of tiles coming closer.
The moment he opened his eyes, he saw under the moonlight, a thief-like figure in black, hunching over and rushing along the beam...
Yang Ge tiptoed forward and greeted warmly from the darkness: "Hey, brother!"
The person on the beam stopped at the sound, turning their head toward the direction of the voice.
The next second, a neat kick soared into the air, kicking the person in black right off their feet without even damaging the tiles underneath.
Yang Ge stood under the moon, looking down at the person who had fallen flat on their back, and demanded, "What’s with all this disturbance in the middle of the night? Don’t you have any civic-mindedness? Don’t your neighbors need to sleep?"
The person in black, clutching their lower back, rolled over twice, then sprang up and glared at Yang Ge under the moon, shouting angrily, "Who are you to obstruct the Changfeng Gang’s business? Are you tired of living?"
"Jiangzuo Changfeng Gang?"
Yang Ge had heard of this gang, a significant aquatic gang from Jiangnan known for dealing in contraband salt, smuggling tea, silk, and porcelain, quite reputable in the south.
"Did Lingguan send you?"
He asked.
"You know Lingguan?"
The man in black countered with a question before suddenly throwing a slew of shuriken.
Yang Ge effortlessly drew his sword and spun it, creating a floral pattern, and with a series of ’ding ding dang dang’ crisp sounds, all the shuriken shot towards him were deflected.
The shuriken only posed a minor inconvenience, lacking in force and not particularly skillful; he blocked them quite easily.
"Willow leaf sabre?"
The man in black landed on the beam, and seeing the long sabre in Yang Ge’s hand, he exclaimed in surprise, "You are Zhang Mazi!"
Yang Ge nodded: "Right guess, there’s a reward for you!"
He leaped up, springing like a giant flea, tracing a smooth arc in the night sky and smashing down towards the man in black.
Seeing this, the man in black threw another slew of shuriken with a flick of his wrist and turned to run, shouting as he ran, "Zhang Mazi is here, Zhang Mazi is here!"
Under the silent night sky, his shouts carried like the wind across the wilderness, traveling a mile or two.
Yang Ge swept the dense shuriken away with his sabre like a broom sweeping cobwebs, landed with a forward jolt, and in a blink, he caught up to the fleeing man in black, sweeping past him like a gust of wind.
"Pfft."
A palm fell to the ground, and the big shouts of the man in black immediately turned into screams of agony.
Yang Ge stood in front of the man, tapping his willow leaf sabre lightly on the ground, a drop of blood gathering along the blade: "I just mentioned you guys lacking civic-mindedness, and there you go littering again. Even if it didn’t hit me, what if it hurts some kids tomorrow?"
His expression was very calm.
But inside, he was anything but calm.
The man in black kept retreating, clutching his severed hand and howling in agony.
Yang Ge watched him, his gaze growing colder, his hand holding the sabre beginning to tremble...
Soon, a mass of shattering tiles was heard, and numerous figures leapt and bounded from the surrounding rooftops, swiftly approaching.
Yang Ge, without lifting his head, swung his sabre to the side.
A ’clang’ resounded sharply as a broken sabre flew through the air, embedding itself in the stone slab in front of Yang Ge.
The many approaching men in black halted abruptly at the sight.
Yang Ge retrieved his willow leaf sabre and said softly, "Is it because I did a good deed, or because I have not taken anyone’s life, that you dare come to trouble me so brazenly?"