Nightwatcher

# 81. What Does the Green Light Represent

The three days of daily patrols passed by in a similar manner. That night, Xu Qi'an, Song Tingfeng, and Zhu Guangxiao formed a team, wearing black uniforms, a short cape hanging over their shoulders with bronze gongs hanging on their chests and sabres by their waists. Attired like this, they leisurely walked the streets of the inner city.

The night was cooler, and flowers began falling to the ground and turning to frost.

The capital city was silent at night. As it was winter, even insects and birds weren't giving off sounds. It was so quiet that Xu Qi'an felt as if he was in the leisurely countryside.

Occasionally, sounds of uniform footsteps and the clattering of armour plates could be heard.

That was the sound of the Imperial Guards patrolling the city.

After patrolling the streets for half an hour, Song Tingfeng led his two colleagues to the top of a small building that overlooked the crisscrossing streets.

"Inspection of the streets is the job of the Imperial Guards. We are mainly responsible for the guys who fly over the roofs and walls." Standing on the roof and facing the night wind, Song Tingfeng narrowed his eyes in concentration, "Only go up to the roof when looking for clues. Unless you encounter a serious case, don't jump over eaves and walls. The capital is deep and there are countless masters here, both in the open and in the dark. If you walk around the roof, you may be killed by a sword coming from any corner."

After pausing for a while, he added, "Of course, the Nightwatchers will surely avenge you, collect your body and give a pension to your family."

"How much is the pension?" Xu Qi'an asked.

"For bronze gongs, It's three hundred taels of silver." Song Tingfeng said, "It's quite conscientious too, three hundred taels of silver are enough for your wife and children to live a prosperous life."

*However, With three hundred taels of silver, you can only sleep with Fuxiang, whose rates are skyrocketing, five times...* Xu Qi'an joked, "Of course, then your wife will remarry, and other men will spend your money, sleep with your wife, and beat your children."

"..." Song Tingfeng stared at him, dumbfounded, and choked out a sentence after a moment had passed, "I'm suddenly glad that I haven't started a family yet."

Zhu Guangxiao nodded in a muffled tone.

…

At noon the next day, Xu Qi'an got up energetically after sleeping for just five hours.

He dipped some tooth powder into his bristle toothbrush and squatted under the eaves to brush his teeth.

Tooth powder was an ancient version of toothpaste, which contained nine traditional Chinese medicines: Ginger, Chinese Honey Locust, Cohosh, Chinese Foxglove, False Daisy, Chinese Scholar Tree, Manchurian Ginger, Sacred Lotus, and Lake Salt.

In addition, another ingredient was used that Xu Qi'an had never touched in his previous life; an “Impurity Cleansing Pill”.

It directly improved the cleaning, whitening, and bad breath removal effects of the tooth powder by several levels.

The toothpaste in his previous life was far inferior to the tooth powder of this era.

It was undoubtedly the work of the alchemists in the Sitianjian.

The existence of Masters of Alchemy helped to make the lives of the common people at the bottom more convenient and healthy.

They were actually very formidable, but the Arcanist system had a relatively short history and still hadn't formed a comprehensive theoretical foundation yet.

And Xu Qi'an's chemistry just happened to make up for the shortcomings of the alchemists.

After he went over the wall to the main house, His aunt and sisters had already had lunch by this time.

In the afternoon, he went to circulate and refine Qi and tried to comprehend One Blade of Heaven and Earth. So, he didn't have time to go to the Goulan to listen to music and have dinner. Xu Qi'an asked to have the leftovers heated up in the kitchen, and devoured them sloppily.

He didn't immerse himself in cultivation right away, but went to the inner courtyard to tease Xu Lingyin for a while, then went to the seventeen-year sister with delicate facial features to discuss Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai with her.[^1]

"I'll write something for my sister later, as reading material within the boudoir." Xu Qi'an laughed.

"Will it be a love story similar to the one between Zhu Yingtai and Liang Shanbo?" Xu Lingyue's blushing face looked like a flower.

"No, It's even more exciting than those two."

"What is it?" Xu Lingyue's face blushed even more upon hearing the word "Exciting".

"Yosuga no Sora"[^2]

*It's a pity that my writing isn't so good, and I can't remember many things I read in my previous life... Otherwise, I would have made a lot of money by relying on Little Yellow Books*[^3]... Xu Qi'an sighed helplessly.

Upon passing by Xu Cijiu's room, he heard the sound of reading from the inside.

"Cijiu, Weren't you in the academy?"

"I was looking for you, elder brother." Xu Cijiu took a booklet out of the desk, walked to the window, and handed it over to Xu Qi'an.

"This is from my teacher, Mr. Mubai and Mr. Youping. They asked me to hand it over to my elder brother. You were still sleeping when I had come back."

Xu Qi'an curiously opened the booklet, flipped through a few pages at random, and found that the contents in the booklet were very strange.

There was text, as well as pictures. It seemed like all sorts of things were put together haphazardly in the booklet.

Xu Xinnian explained, "This book records the unique skills of the major cultivation systems. The three great scholars put these together and asked me to give them to you."

*I seem to smell something souring...* Xu Qi'an's eyes shone brightly.

He continued to say, “The sixth-ranked Confucians were called Confucian Scholars. The core of the realm is ‘Learning’. They can attach the spells they have seen to their brush and record them on paper. Elder Brother can ignite the paper with your qi and use the spells recorded in the paper.”

*Confucianists are simply invincible supports.* Xu Qi'an controlled the corners of his mouth to hold back his joy, and nodded, "Thank you. You can pass on to the three Great Scholars, I'll come to pay respects and discuss poetry with them someday."

It is said that man should reciprocate politeness. The three Great Scholars gave gifts without reason, the action naturally had some meaning.

Xu Xinnian said "Yes" and waved his hand, "Brother, you go. Don't disturb my study. I'll go back to the academy tomorrow."

*Don't be so jealous, Cijiu. Big Brother still loves you.*

Xu Qi'an left happy.

...

At dusk, Xu Qi'an changed into a Nightwatcher uniform and rushed to the constabulary without stopping at all.

He arrived just before the inner city gate was closed, met with the two colleagues, and started the evening shift as a social animal.

The night in the inner city was quite peaceful. Until late at night, Xu Qi'an and the others only caught two thieves who had managed to escape the patrol of the Imperial Guards by chance.

According to Song Tingfeng, this sort of achievement was only worth five cash of silver at most.

Xu Qi'an stood on the roof of a restaurant, overlooking the night view of the capital.

Song Tingfeng asked while chewing on fried beans, "Ningyan, What is your unique skill, and what are its characteristics?"

Xu Qi'an told the truth, "It's very practical and explosive, but It's not very durable... Well, After slashing once, I'll enter a short period of weakness."

*There is nothing in the world that requires multiple slashes, If it does, run away...* At first, Xu Qi'an thought that it was the author acting strange.

He didn't expect that these words were really expensive words of gold and jade. The essence of this unique skill was that of a one-second real man, slash once and collapse.

The advantage was that it had strong explosive power. Xu Qi'an suspected that he could cross ranks to fight others if he cultivated it to a very high level.

Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao looked to the side at the same time. The former smilingly asked, "Does Miss Fuxiang know that your endurance is low?"

Xu Qi'an was a lowly person, raised his fingers, and said emotionally, "They've been calloused recently.[^4]"

Zhu Guangxiao didn't understand what he was talking about. Song Tingfeng was stunned for a few seconds before cursing, "Fucking, you really are a fucking one-second wonder."

After chatting for a few hours, When Song Tingfeng and Zhu Guangxiao weren't paying attention, he took out the booklet given by the Great Scholars from the small jade mirror, and tore off a page.

A pair of clear eyes were drawn on the page, and the corresponding spell was Sitianjian's "Qi Watching Technique".

There were many such low-level spells in the booklet, and it was an auxiliary spell, which was relatively less precious.

Xu Qi'an intended to have fun and familiarize himself with the booklet.

"Tzshh!"

As the qi ignited the paper, a flame lit up instantly, which attracted the attention of Zhu Guangxing and Song Tingfeng.

Xu Qi'an felt his eyes hurt, as various colours appeared in his sight, and the whole world seemed to have turned into a richly coloured oil painting.

White was the most common and also the densest, and it was scattered in strands. It was followed by red: light red, crimson, and was followed by purple.

*Red with a tinge of purple, light purple, thick purple...* The last one came from the direction of the imperial city.

*This is qi... The Qi that exists in everything in the world...* An understanding emerged in Xu Qi'an's mind.

At the same time, he saw a strange colour located in the direction of the imperial city. It looked magnificent, like a rainbow.

*Colorful... It's very different from the purple qi that represents the royal family but lives in the imperial city... Daoist Jinlian said that I have a relationship with the woman who rode in that royal carriage. The Daoist's evaluation of that woman was that her qi was magnificent and rare in the world...*

*Clear Qi... Is also in the direction of the imperial city. I remember Caiwei saying that Clear Qi represented Confucianism or Daoism... Um, Could it be the Human Sect?*

*Hey, why is the color of the Jiaofangsi dark green... Many of the women in the Jiaofangsi are the family members of criminal officials... I should have thought too much. I should ask Caiwei what this green qi represents... Ehh, It's gone?*

He saw the little dark green qi above the Jiaofangsi flicker for a while before disappearing.

Finally, he turned his gaze to the Sitianjian, to the Star Observatory overlooking the mountains.

"Ahhh!" Xu Qi'an suddenly screamed and fell off the roof of the restaurant.

He rolled all over the ground in pain, covered his eyes, and continued to scream.

Zhu Guangxiao and Song Tingfeng were terrified. They jumped off the roof. The former drew his knife to guard while the other stepped forward to check.

"What's the matter with you?" Song Tingfeng said anxiously.

---

[^1]: 梁山伯 Liang Shanbo and 祝英台 Zhu Yingtai, Butterfly Lovers. The girl cross-dresses as a male and goes to an academy and falls in love with a man. She is engaged to another man, so she elopes with her love, but they fall off a cliff. their grave is said to have butterflies appear above every night.

[^2]: Yosuga no Sora is an anime about twincest(Yes twincest) iirc. You know what Xu Qi'an and the author are implying, right?

[^3]: Erotica, Erotica had yellow covers in china if you were to look for them in a bookstore.

[^4]: Those who don't get it, calloused by water.