Who in the world does not know you?

Chapter 39 Unless

Ye Zi's mind went blank for a moment.

She looked at Yun Luobai's handsome face, which was smiling, and time seemed to stand still at that moment.

"Perhaps she escaped through that small window used for ventilation?"

She tentatively answered, but it was clear she wasn't sincere; it was more of a perfunctory response.

Previously at the Honggu Restaurant, Yun Luobai had mentioned to Ning Qi and Qingchuan his investigation in the prison. Ye Zi was also present at the time and was equally aware of what Yun Luobai had seen and heard in the government prison.

Ye Zi's memory isn't that bad, and neither is Yun Luobai's.

He naturally remembered that Ye Zi was also present when he described the structure of the cell where the female thief disappeared, but this time he was being very patient.

"I checked it, and the wooden strips on that small ventilation window haven't been tampered with. That window is so small that even a relatively slender woman would have a hard time squeezing through it, let alone the fact that it's located high up in the cell."

Yun Luobai slowly and deliberately told Ye Zi about the small window in the prison cell that he had observed up close.

He once again displayed his confidence, because the moment he walked out of the prison, he already knew the truth about how the female thief had vanished into thin air inside the prison.

As time passed, the sun, high in the sky, gradually shifted. Although the warm sunshine of early spring, approaching midday, should have brought people a more comforting feeling, Ye Zi did not focus on appreciating the beautiful warmth of the world.

Ye Zi's throat bobbed, and a smile appeared on her face, which looked decent but not outstanding, though it seemed rather forced.

"So how do you think that female thief vanished from the prison?"

"Didn't I just say that? There are only two possibilities for her to disappear from the cell. Either she escaped through the small window used for ventilation, or she escaped through the cell door."

Behind the two standing side by side, a passerby pushed a cart past. The monotonous sound of the wheels rolling and rubbing against the ground blended with Yun Luobai's calm tone, yet it did not cause any disturbance.

"How is that possible? According to you, she didn't escape through that small window, so she could only have escaped through the cell door. But let's not even talk about how every cell door is locked. Even if it wasn't locked, she couldn't just walk away so easily after leaving the cell. Are the prison guards blind?"

Yun Luobai raised an eyebrow and nodded in satisfaction.

"Yes, you've hit the nail on the head."

He had anticipated Ye Zi's remarks.

He displayed that inexplicable confidence again, which had always infuriated Ye Zi, who felt he deserved a beating.

Beneath the leaf sleeve, a pair of fair hands clasped together, blinking as she gazed at the high walls of the government office before her. She knew that Yun Luobai had brought her here on purpose.

"unless……"

Yun Luobai deliberately drew out his tone.

He was waiting for Ye Zi to ask a question, and Ye Zi also knew that he was waiting for her to ask a question.

But she couldn't help but ask anyway.

Because whether she asks or not, the result will be the same: Yun Luobai will definitely tell her.

She simply didn't believe in superstitions; she didn't believe he could always be so prescient and insightful.

His fortune-telling tricks were all lies; she had seen it with her own eyes.

"Unless what?"

"Unless the jailers didn't recognize her."

"What...do you mean by that?"

"She left in disguise, so the guards on duty didn't notice."

Upon hearing this, Ye Zi's throat bobbed, and she noticed the increase in her heart rate.

"That's very interesting. Even if she left in disguise, she would at least have the clothes and makeup needed for the disguise. I asked my father, and he said that the female thief didn't bring any bundles or anything with her when she was put in jail. That means she had prepared the clothes she needed for the disguise before she went to jail."

"How is that possible? Even if the cell isn't exactly clean and tidy, shouldn't it be checked before a prisoner is detained? If these things were prepared in the cell beforehand, the guards couldn't possibly have missed them. Besides, how could that female thief possibly know which cell she was being held in?"

Yun Luobai smiled slightly.

"She knew. To be precise, all she needed to do was make sure she was locked in a south-facing cell."

"What do you mean?"

Yun Luobai pointed again to the small windows in the cell that were set up side by side for ventilation.

His gaze toward Ye Zi held a deeper meaning. After a brief eye contact with him, Ye Zi looked away, her eyes following the direction he was pointing.

"The north-facing prison cells face directly into the government office. If the necessary disguises are prepared on the roof, even if they are covered with black cloth, once people come and go inside the government office, someone will notice and climb up the ladder to check, and then the deception will be exposed."

"The outer wall of the south-facing prison cell faces the street. The flow of people near the yamen is not particularly dense, and passersby are in a hurry, so no one will pay attention to whether there is anything on the roof. Even if someone does notice, with the idea of ​​minding their own business, no one will bother with the affairs of the government. Besides, the clothes needed for the disguise were not left idle on the roof for long and were put to use soon."

"This female thief surrendered herself. She had long planned to go to jail and knew my father's character well, knowing he was a kind man. Jail is dark and damp, and the south side is relatively better, so whenever there are vacancies in the south-facing cells, he always locks prisoners in them. In this way, as long as she can enter the expected south-facing cell, she can use her unique tool to reach out through the small window, hook onto the rope above, and pull the disguise clothes that have been prepared on the roof into the cell."

"I saw through her trick because I noticed that the wooden slats on the small window of that cell, although they hadn't been moved or dismantled, were quite clean and didn't have much dust on them. Naturally, no one would bother to clean that kind of place, so it's only possible that she wiped off the dust when she dragged her clothes into the cell from there."

Yun Luobai sighed helplessly, then spread his hands towards Ye Zi, looking quite regretful.

"Able to easily open the cell door locks and possessing a level of disguise skill extremely rare in the Central Plains martial arts world today, how could such a thief be an ordinary person? Why go to all this trouble just to take a stroll inside that prison?"

Yun Luobai muttered to himself, as if talking to himself.

Every word he uttered touched Ye Zi's heart, making her look at the handsome young man beside her with new respect.