It was the night when the street lamps were first lit, and the night market on the city bridge became lively again.

  The Zhoubao Paifang is not on the Zhoubao Bridge but at the entrance of the night market. It was originally a symbol of the night market.

  Chen Ke appeared under the archway and immediately spotted the tall woman among the crowd.

  The girl also saw him at a glance, her lips moved slightly, but she didn't speak.

  "Hey, you're here early." Chen Ke lazily walked over.

  "It's you who is late." The woman said expressionlessly.

  "Ah, I was waiting for the moon, but it's cloudy tonight." Chen Xiao chuckled and said: "What should we call each other? We can't keep saying 'you' all the time." He then introduced himself: "My surname is Chen, what's yours?"

  "My surname is Liu." The woman said calmly.

  Her voice was a bit small and couldn't be heard clearly in the noisy environment. Chen Ke said: "Uh, Miss Liu..."

  Chen Ke spoke with a hint of Sichuan accent, and Liu Niang didn't notice anything out of place, so she nodded and said: "What do you plan to do?"

  "Look." Chen Qian gestured to the distant row of connected shops on the Zhou Bridge: "The Zhou Bridge is a hub that connects all directions, and everyone who strolls through the night market will pass by here."

  "Uh-huh."

  "If I were a kidnapper," said Chen Ke, "I would definitely choose to look for prey at Zhou Bridge."

  "You're quite experienced." Liu Niang gave him a suspicious look, thinking that he was indeed a lecher.

  "Hey......" Chen Ke said displeased: "If you continue with this attitude, I won't care anymore."

  "......" The willow girl was indeed threatened and muttered softly: "I didn't say anything."

  "Come less often." Chen Ke smiled and said: "Let's go." After finishing speaking, he walked inside.

  Liu Niang didn't ride a horse this time and quickly caught up with long strides.

  Two people walked side by side in the night market, and it was a rare sight. The Song Dynasty was not lacking in handsome men and beautiful women, but it was rare to see such tall and handsome men and women. Chen Ke was already over six feet tall, and Liu Niang was almost at his eyebrows. According to Chen Ke's estimate, she should be around 1.75 meters...

  Feeling his thief-like eyes sizing her up, Liu Niang gave him a vigilant glance and only then discovered that this guy was incredibly tall, half a head taller than herself... If all the men in the world were this tall, it would be great, Liu Niang thought to herself, but forgot to scold him.

  Chen Ke walked while buying this and that at the stalls he passed by, and soon his hands were filled with two bags of snacks.

  "What are you going to do?" Liu Niang endured and endured, but still couldn't help saying: "I don't have the time to accompany you on a leisurely stroll."

  Chen Ke ignored her and continued to buy a box of pickled watermelon, which the vendor packed in a bright red box and put into his oil-paper bag.

  Liu Niang couldn't deal with this kind of person and could only hatefully say: "You're going to choke to death!"

  "I'm starving to death." Chen Ke picked up two bags and walked a couple of steps before stopping and saying, "Let's go in."

  "Yu Xian Lou?" thought Liu Niang, what's the point of coming here? But she guessed that the other party still wouldn't answer, so she simply didn't ask.

  As soon as he saw Chen Ke, the five horses rushed up to greet him, smiling like a flower: "Master, you have time to come again today!" Although it had been several days, who could forget this generous master?

  "I'm not eating today," Chen Ke handed him two bags of things and said: "Find a suitable place for Grandpa, I want to enjoy the view."

  Zhang Wu looked at Chen Ke, then looked at Liu Niang, and suddenly understood: "I get it, I get it. The young master really has a good sense of humor, following me up here just like that."

  "Second floor, no..." Chen Ke ordered: "Too high, can't see clearly."

  "Alright." Zhang Wu then led the two of them to the outer corridor on the second floor. It was just about time for dinner, and all the guests were inside clinking cups together, so there wasn't a single person in the outer corridor.

  Chen Ke chose a location that faced directly towards Zhou Bridge. Zhang Wu moved another set of tables and chairs, and carefully arranged the wine, water, and meal boxes.

  "It's all right." Chen Ke placed a silver coin in his hand and said, "You go ahead with your business."

  "I know, I know." Zhang Wu smiled slyly and said: "I won't disturb the great official anymore."

  "Go ahead." Chen Ke nodded and smiled: "Don't you want to eat a bit?" Zhang Wu had already left, but this was said to Liu Niang.

  "Not hungry." The willow girl leaned on the railing and gazed out for a while, then turned her head back to see him holding a cup in one hand and a string of roasted lamb's tongue in the other, sitting there enjoying himself with relish. Suddenly she was furious: "You're not only a lecher, but also a glutton!"

  "Even saints cannot escape the temptation of food and sex." Chen Xiao picked up a piece of braised lamb intestine with his chopsticks, put it in his mouth, and chewed slowly, saying: "It's really delicious, don't you want to try some?"

  "I've been eating since I was a kid!" Liu Niang spat out a long mouthful of turbid air and said: "I thought you were quite formidable, but outside the lights are shining brightly even at night, and from such a high position, it's impossible to see people's faces clearly!"

  "Take it easy, with your intelligence you can find the problem," Chen Qian said casually while sipping his wine: "What I didn't think of ahead of time?"

  "You!" Liu Niang finally couldn't bear it anymore, grabbed his collar with one hand and shook her pale fist, saying "Want to get beaten up or what?"

  "I am wounded."

  "Just be honest!"

  "You're ruthless..."

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  "What is this? I've never seen it before" Liu Niang fiddled with a copper rod, curiously saying: "These two sides are water jade, such big pieces..." She was naturally discerning.

  "A thousand-mile mirror, a small toy invented by our humble person." Chen Ke adjusted his collar and secretly cursed: "A lifetime of not finding an old husband, violent woman!" Unbeknownst to him, he was also seen as a violent man in others' eyes: "It can be used to observe distant, dim objects."

  "How to use?"

  "One end is placed in front of the eye, and the other end faces the direction you are looking at." This thousand-mile mirror was made by Chen Ke when he observed the battle of Kunlun Pass. He deeply felt that in the era of cold weapons, commanding a war without binoculars was impossible. After returning, he first asked people to use ordinary glass to grind lenses, and after repeated experiments, they obtained the most ideal arc degree. Then, from a jewelry store, he bought two egg-sized water jade... which is transparent crystal, carefully grinding out lenses, and then finding copper craftsmen to make retractable mirror tubes, personally assembling this world's first telescope.

  He had originally intended to give it to Di Qing, but this time when he came to the capital, he discovered that Director Di might never need this thing again, so he didn't take it out.

  Liu Niangniang did as he said, putting one end of the monocular telescope to her eye and pointing the other end at the night market. Suddenly, she exclaimed with surprise: "Really, there are people... but why have they become smaller?"

  "Big head outwards." Chen Ke took a sip of fine wine, looking at this tall girl, like a child fiddling with the telescope, and couldn't help but curve up a smile at the corner of his mouth.

  "Long time ago..." The willow girl turned the thousand-mile mirror over, and suddenly saw people and things on the street rush into her eyes, scaring her to drop her hand, and the thousand-mile mirror fell down.

  “……” Chen Ke barely had time to open his mouth, when he saw her right foot suddenly lift up, using a kicking motion, tap the Thousand Mile Mirror once. The next moment, the copper pipe returned to her hand. Liu Niang hurriedly inspected it twice, seeing that it was undamaged, she patted her chest and let out a gentle sigh. She smiled at Chen Ke with an apologetic expression, revealing a rarely seen little girl's demeanor.

  Liu girl saw the hunting heart joy, holding a thousand miles of mirror to see this and that, it took half a day to remember the matter at hand, and then carefully observed the faces on the bridge. After watching for half a day, it was clear that it was clear, but how could she distinguish the fake one?

  She turned back to look at Chen Ke, this time not daring to question him, but with a face full of inquiry.

  "The reason you can't see is because... " Chen Ke ate another thin slice of sashimi, and comfortably narrowed his eyes: "The scoundrels haven't gone to work yet."

  "How did you know?"

  "It's too early now, there aren't many people in the market yet, and people's attention is focused, it's not easy to make a move." Chen Ke explained: "Coming out early is useless, it's better to sleep more."

  "Hmm..." The willow girl nodded, she found that in front of this guy, she always nodded like an idiot, and somewhat resentfully said: "Then, why did you call me so early?"

  "Eat something, how can you catch a thief on an empty stomach?" Chen Ke pointed to the full table of food and said: "I've also bought a share for you."

  "......" The willow girl narrowed her eyes and looked at him for a while, then sat down with a sullen expression: "I don't like to eat meat."

  "It's really not easy to grow up like this."

  "You..." Liu Niang had lost count of how many times she had been infuriated by him, and was probably driven mad.

  "Open and take a look." Chen Ke said with a smile.

  Liu girl hesitantly opened a plum-red food box, and found that it was fine rice balls, then opened another one, which was ice-cold glutinous rice balls. She continued to open more, finding fragrant rice balls, machine head rice balls, sesame seed rice balls, mustard melon seeds, as well as various types of calabaza products... She was stunned for a moment before softly saying: "Thank you..."

  "Don't say that, I'm not used to it..." Chen Ke smiled and stood up with the telescope, saying: "I'll keep watch, you can eat at ease."

  Liu Niang looked at Chen Ke's broad back for a long time before lowering her head and taking small bites.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  After a while, she was sucking on a thin cigarette in an unrefined manner when suddenly a low voice shouted: "It has appeared!"

  "Cough, cough, cough......" Caught off guard, she was so startled that she almost sucked it up her nostrils, but she didn't have time to care about anything else. She sprang up at once, snatched the telescope and asked: "Where?"

  "In front of Hou's family ring cake stall," Chen Ke hadn't reacted yet, his two hands were empty, and he stared blankly ahead saying: "That one wearing long-sleeved black clothes."

  "Wait... I see it." The willow girl said tensely: "How come I can't see anything unusual?"

  "From his expression, movements and clothing."

  The willow girl looked for a while longer, but still couldn't see anything.

  "Stupid, it's almost May and he's still wearing long sleeves. Eight out of ten, it's to cover up the tattoos on his arms. And look at him wearing all black in the middle of the night, isn't he afraid of being knocked into? And see how he's yawning nonstop, it's just past midnight, it can't be that he's sleepy, clearly he just got up not long ago," Chen Ke analyzed step by step: "And most importantly, it proves that he's not a thief. Look at his gaze, always staring at the big girls and little wives..."

  Liu Niang heard this and looked at him with a glance, secretly thinking: 'You're also like that...' However, she didn't say it out loud.