After Zhou Gu and He Zheng left, Fen Ling seemed restless.
He suggested to Su Rong, "Master, why don’t we sneak into the Book Pavilion tonight? With Young Master Zhou and Commander He busy investigating, it’s the perfect chance. The monks at the temple are on edge and won’t pay much attention to us."
Su Rong nodded, "Agreed."
She turned to Ye Guixue, "Will you come with us?"
Ye Guixue shook his head with a smile, "Just the two of you should go, I will stay behind in the courtyard. If anyone comes, I can handle it. Let Yin Yue keep watch for you. If too many people go, it may alarm the guard monks."
Su Rong felt that made sense. Looking outside, she saw it was already dark, "We can’t light a lantern, did you bring anything like a luminous pearl for illumination?"
Given how fast she reads, she would naturally just read the book there and leave, it wouldn’t be honorable to steal it.
"Already prepared." Fen Ling pulled out a medium-sized luminous pearl that could only illuminate a small area, sufficient for viewing the inscriptions on the scrolls, and showed it to Su Rong.
Su Rong nodded, satisfied, and got up, "Let’s go now, we won’t wait until late. The moonlight is good tonight, it should blend with the glow from the luminous pearl and we won’t be easily spotted."
Fen Ling put the luminous pearl in his chest and clapped his hands, "Sis, aren’t you going to change your clothes?"
Su Rong, thinking her current outfit was decent, but realizing that it wasn’t as practical as night clothes or men’s clothes, asked Ye Guixue, "Did Yin Yue not buy me any night attire?"
Ye Guixue replied, "He should have, I specifically told him to. When mounting the mountain earlier, I heard Fen Ling’s words and asked Yin Yue to purchase what you would need."
Su Rong immediately smiled, "Well then, I’ll go and change."
She turned and went into her room.
Soon, she emerged in her night attire and waved at Ye Guixue, "We’re leaving now, if anyone comes, just tell them I’ve gone to bed."
Ye Guixue nodded.
With Fen Ling at her side, Su Rong quietly left the courtyard. They avoided people on their way, tracing a path Fen Ling had earlier scouted to the Book Pavilion. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶
The Book Pavilion at the Big Buddha Temple was situated at the highest point of the temple, and guarded by martial monks. Tonight, there were only two monks guarding the Book Pavilion, who were discussing Duke Zhou’s young son and Commander He of the Imperial Guard leading an investigation. The whole temple was being probed, the guards here had been called away for interrogation, leaving only these two. Those who had been questioned would replace them later, and they too would undergo questioning.
Fen Ling, already familiar with the layout, navigated with Su Rong past the main gate guarded by the two monks and climbed up from a slant at the back, to perch on the roof. Then from the rooftop, they quietly slid down to the eaves, inverted. Fen Ling used a specially made long wire to pick the lock and with a soft click, the door was open.
Light as feather, Fen Ling dropped to the ground near the door, unfastened the lock quickly, opened the door, and slipped inside.
Su Rong followed him in, not requiring to do anything herself.
As they moved inside, the ever-present Yin Yue relocked the door, and disappeared into the shadows again. He would wait for a signal to unlock the door and let them out.
The two monks were clueless. While they were busy chatting, someone had infiltrated the Book Pavilion and locked the door again, all in the time it took to drink a cup of tea.
Approaching early winter, the falling leaves rustled in the cold wind, concealing any faint noise.
The Book Pavilion was enormous. A glance showed rows and rows of scripture books - it was obvious someone had been regularly cleaning and tidying the place, it was spotless and well-ordered, without any dust or dirt.
It was a three-story building; the first floor filled entirely with religious scriptures. They directly ascended to the second floor where there were collections of various books on astronomy, geography, travel journals, historical records, and other common books.
They then ascended to the third floor. Here, there were some rare and valuable books, though as Su Rong flipped through them, they were either copybooks or notes by scholars. Nothing seemed to be extremely valuable.
"This doesn’t make sense." Fen Ling scratched his head, "It’s said that without the powerful Arhat Array of the Big Buddha Temple, this place would have long been looted. But these books, there’s nothing particularly extraordinary about them."
At least in the Crown Prince’s study, there were even more valuable books to be seen.
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