[To Become a River of Stars] Dong Xiange - Chapter 94

“Just as I thought.”

A spark of interest lit Li Xuanci’s eyes as he gazed at the open door behind Jin Zhan, a smile playing on his lips.

“I said he was taken through a window, but I never said it was this room’s window.” Li Xuanci flicked his robe and strode outside, glancing around the corridor before walking toward its end.

Shiliu and the others hurried after him. At the end of the corridor was a small, high window barred with wooden strips, likely for ventilation.

Li Xuanci went to inspect it first but refused to touch it directly. Instead, he drew his sword and used the tip to poke at the wooden strips casually. A trace of cold satisfaction flashed in his eyes before he lightly flicked his wrist and sheathed the sword again.

Shiliu rushed over, looked at the small window, and asked, “There are wooden bars here. Even with gaps, this space is too narrow for a child to pass through easily.”

Li Xuanci glanced at her with his beautiful eyes, half-mocking as he said, “See for yourself, then it’ll be clear.”

The window was high up, so Shiliu could only manage by jumping repeatedly with some effort. From outside, one would only see a fuzzy head occasionally popping up at the windowsill.

Just as Shiliu prepared to jump again, Li Xuanci reached out and pressed down on her eager head.

“Being born a short melon is one thing, but even your jumps are comical—that’s truly a unique talent.”

He teased without mercy, a sly, amused glint in his eyes.

Shiliu, held down like a groundhog poking its head out of a field hole, felt her heart stop racing, her pulse calm, her bones stop itching. She wasn’t flustered or out of breath—she was almost on the verge of ascending to immortality right then and there.

Simplicity is the truth.

She thought peacefully, feeling that yet another obstacle on her long path of cultivation had been removed.

Watching her unconsciously pursed lips, the amusement in Li Xuanci’s eyes deepened. He sheathed his sword, then wrapped an arm around her slender waist and lifted her effortlessly.

Shiliu hadn’t expected this and was suddenly airborne. Her hands instinctively grabbed—one pressed against his shoulder, while the other caught the red cord tying up Li Xuanci’s high ponytail.

She felt her palm tighten, afraid to pull too hard on the thin cord, but she didn’t let go.

“Can you see now? Why are you spacing out?”

The arm holding her tightened slightly, and his laughter-laden voice drifted up lazily from below. Shiliu snapped out of her daze and quickly turned toward the window to examine it carefully.

At a glance, she let out a soft “ah” and turned to her senior brother. “One of the wooden strips at the bottom is loose.” She reached out and shook it, confirming that the lower part had indeed come loose, creating a larger gap that a child could pass through.

She leaned in for a closer look, frowned, then patted the arm holding her, twisting to be let down.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, Shiliu ran back alone. He Chong looked puzzled, but she returned shortly, panting as she said, “I… I figured it out.”

He Chong and Jin Zhan still looked bewildered, but Li Xuanci curled his lips and said lightly, “Not entirely hopeless.”

Shiliu ignored him and turned to her senior brother. “The White Child must have escaped through here.”

“But even with the loose wooden strip, the gap is only big enough for a child. Could it be that the Red Child took him?” He Chong guessed.

Shiliu shook her head. “The break in the wooden strip started from the inside. The cracks are deeper inside and shallower outside, meaning it was broken from within. But no one came upstairs during that time, and the Red Child couldn’t have appeared out of thin air.”

“What took him wasn’t human, nor was it a fully formed spirit—it was rats,” Shiliu said seriously.

“Rats?” He Chong also frowned.

“Earlier, when I looked at the wooden strips, I saw tooth marks—all paired, thin and long. Clearly, rats gnawed through them.”

“So, I went back to the White Child’s room to check. I should have bolted the door when I left, but now that I think about it, when I returned, my hands were full, so I pushed the door open with my back without touching the bolt. Yet, the door opened anyway. When I checked carefully just now, I found similar tooth marks on the door bolt.”

“The White Child once told me there’s a ‘Lady Mouse’ around him. I suspect these rats were sent by that Lady Mouse. With enough rats, they could pile up to help him climb to that ventilation window or even link tails to form a rope to lower him down by the waist.”

Shiliu could imagine such a bizarre scenario because of the White Child’s mention of “Lady Mouse.” But how had Li Xuanci figured it out? She voiced her confusion.

Li Xuanci, however, only gave her a meaningful look and said, “I was keeping an eye on the upstairs earlier. No one came up, and aside from you, there was no movement upstairs.”

“If it were just a child passing by, that would be one thing. But an adult carrying a child, damaging the window, and climbing out—such commotion would hardly escape my notice.”

“You were right nearby, and we were downstairs. If any suspicious person had appeared, they couldn’t have gone unnoticed. Yet, it managed to sneak in silently and take him away just as quietly. Either it has no feet, or it’s extremely small—something you wouldn’t find strange even if you saw it.”

“Then, looking at the tooth marks on the door and window, everything becomes clear.”

He Chong also nodded. “If a demon were nearby, the two of us would definitely detect its aura. But if it’s rats, they really could sneak around everywhere to gather information and take him away without a sound. After last night’s fire, even if people saw rats in broad daylight, they’d just assume they escaped from the burned buildings.”

Shiliu bit her lip and said, “But even if we know rats took him, how do we find them?”

At that, her senior brother fell silent too. The child was already gone—who knew which rat hole they had hidden him in?

But Li Xuanci raised an eyebrow, treating the difficult problem as if it were trivial. “What I promise, I never fail to deliver.”

Shiliu’s eyes lit up. “Really? You know how to find him?”

Li Xuanci curled two fingers and tapped her forehead, his eyes holding a trace of arrogance as he said effortlessly, “Did you think everyone’s brain is as muddled as yours?”

Then he turned and pointed toward the distant room.

“When you returned, the door was closed, but the window was open?” His tone lifted at the end, with meaning deep and long.

Shiliu knew he was dangling bait in front of her again, wanting to show off his intellect and methods like a preening peacock or a crowing rooster.

But a small unwillingness stirred in her heart. Although she could lower herself to ask him and still get the answer, she preferred to figure it out herself.

Shiliu’s head was full of wisdom, not mush.

She pondered hard. The door was closed, but the window was open. The door was closed, but the window was open.

Suddenly, it clicked.

“I get it! They didn’t actually escape through the room’s window, but they deliberately opened it and closed the door before leaving to mislead us into thinking they escaped that way.”

“Not entirely foolish,” Li Xuanci said with a hint of a smile in his eyes. “And these wooden strips—though already loose, they only gnawed the bottom and carefully realigned the cracks. Clearly, they didn’t want to be discovered.”

“This place is right at the edge of town. The room’s window faces south, leading not far to the southern market of the town, where blending into the crowd would make them hard to find. But this small window faces west, right behind the tall buildings, with only a long, narrow alley and no exit. And beyond this narrow alley, there aren’t many households—it leads to the City God Temple.”

“You’re saying they went to the City God Temple and deliberately misled us to search in the town? But how can you be sure that going west means they went to the City God Temple?” Shiliu still didn’t understand.

“Last night’s fire affected the entire city. Even the county office wouldn’t use government buildings to house so many displaced people. Many have nowhere to go, so they naturally gather at the City God Temple—a spacious place that still offers some shelter.”

“And that White Child is closely connected to this fire. Whoever took him must be related to it as well. Searching the City God Temple is far more reliable than you running around like a headless fly.”

He couldn’t resist taking a jab at her at the end.

But Shiliu didn’t care anymore. She immediately wanted to go to the City God Temple to find him.