After Xiao Yuan left, Guichen Studio became quiet again.
Su Muchen stood in front of that door, looking at the cloud-and-water pattern on it as it gradually fell silent again. Only after a long while did he slowly let out a breath.
See you tomorrow.
Those words seemed to still linger beside his ear.
It was clearly just a very ordinary sentence, yet Xiao Yuan had said it as though it were some kind of promise.
He knew Xiao Yuan kept his promises. From the very first “Wait for me” to the current “See you tomorrow,” he had never once broken his word.
Su Muchen raised a hand and rubbed his ear, feeling as though it was still a little hot.
Xiao leaned against the counter and spoke quietly.
“Muchen.”
Su Muchen immediately turned around.
“If you say my ears are red again, starting tomorrow, I won’t buy you food anymore.”
Xiao blinked innocently.
“I just wanted to say, put that box of gold away properly.”
Su Muchen: “……”
He was silent for two seconds before turning around to get the account book.
“I know.”
Su Muchen pretended not to hear the low laughter coming from behind him.
He weighed the gold Xiao Yuan had brought over again, recorded it, and put it away in batches.
This gold could not be processed all at once.
Every box had to slowly be turned into usable money through the “safe channels” Xiao had mentioned.
Part of it would be used to repay the debts.
Part would be used to purchase supplies.
And part had to be kept as operating capital for Guichen Studio.
Su Muchen had never managed this much money before.
The numbers he was most familiar with were his student loan bills, rent, living expenses, and that little salary estimate the hospital had given him.
Now, looking at the amounts converted from the gold one entry after another in the account book, he felt both relieved and uneasy.
What relieved him was that he was finally no longer being strangled by debt, little by little suffocating.
What made him uneasy was that this money had come in such an unusual way.
They were like winds blowing from behind the door.
They could save him.
They could also push him into an even deeper storm.
After Su Muchen finished writing the last entry, he raised his head and looked at Xiao.
“The Sheng Corporation will continue investigating.”
Xiao nodded. “Definitely.”
“If they can’t find the flow of money, they’ll investigate people.”
“Definitely that too.”
“They’ll investigate your channels as well.”
Xiao smiled. “Let them investigate.”
Seeing how unconcerned he looked, Su Muchen frowned slightly.
“You’re sure there won’t be a problem?”
“At least there won’t be a problem in the short term,” Xiao said. “The Sheng Corporation does indeed have a long reach in Yunjing, but no matter how long their reach is, they can’t touch every corner.”
His smile was mysterious and extremely confident.
Su Muchen was silent for a moment.
“Today, at the Sheng Corporation building, I realized something.”
“What?”
“Sheng Chengxiu won’t let this go.”
Xiao’s smile faded somewhat.
Su Muchen lowered his head and looked at the account book, his voice very soft.
“The way he looked at Guichen Studio wasn’t like he was looking at a shop.”
He paused.
“And the way he looked at me wasn’t like he was looking at a debtor.”
Xiao was silent for a moment.
Then he said, “So, don’t go see him alone in the future.”
Su Muchen nodded.
“I know.”
This time, he truly knew to be afraid.
The danger posed by someone like Sheng Chengxiu was not that he would immediately turn hostile, but that he could smile while gradually narrowing the space in which his prey could escape.
Money, debt, work, legal procedures, even public opinion.
Modern society did not need swords to force someone into a dead end.
Su Muchen said quietly, “I need to sort out the debt chain first.”
Xiao asked, “Now?”
“Now.”
Su Muchen sat back behind the counter and spread out all the debt documents related to the Sheng Corporation.
He used a red pen to mark the creditors.
A blue pen to mark the companies related to the Sheng Corporation.
A black pen to mark the interest, collateral, and breach-of-contract clauses.
The more he looked, the darker his expression became.
The Sheng Corporation had not suddenly set its sights on Guichen Studio.
They had already begun wrapping one line after another around him while Su Jiancheng was still alive.
Bank loans.
Private guarantees.
Investment loans.
Asset collateral.
They appeared scattered, but in reality, there were traces of the Sheng Corporation behind all of them.
Su Muchen’s finger stopped on one large loan.
“This one is wrong.”
Xiao walked over and took a look.
“What’s wrong with it?”
“Although Su Jiancheng was greedy, he wasn’t bold enough to touch a high-risk contract like this.” Su Muchen frowned. “This money looks like someone deliberately lured him into signing it.”
Xiao’s eyes curved slightly.
“Looks like the Sheng Corporation started making its move earlier than you imagined.”
Su Muchen raised his eyes.
“I need evidence.”
Xiao looked at him, his smile fading somewhat.
“Muchen, you want to investigate the Sheng Corporation?”
“It’s not that I want to.” Su Muchen closed the documents. “It’s that I have to investigate.”
He spoke very calmly.
“I don’t recommend that you investigate the Sheng Corporation too deeply. With your personal strength, it would be difficult to contend with the entire Sheng Corporation conglomerate.”
Xiao spoke matter-of-factly.
Su Muchen had no identity, no background, and even less any force supporting him from behind. The Sheng Corporation was not someone he could afford to provoke. If Su Muchen really discovered some unspeakable secret, he would only end up being silenced.
Su Muchen naturally was not foolish enough to think he could fight a conglomerate alone.
But he could not simply sit and wait for death.
“But I have to take action. Otherwise, I’ll always just be running after them.”
◆◇◆◇◆
At the same time.
On the official road of Dasheng, night had descended deeply, and the wind howled outside the relay station.
The northbound party had temporarily stopped here.
Xiao Yuan sat in an empty room in the back courtyard of the relay station. The room had thick walls, small windows, and a floor paved with solid slabs of bluestone. The surrounding area had already been cleared by the hidden guards.
Chi Banyue walked around the room once and frowned.
“Can this place be used?”
Xiao Yuan looked toward the corner of the wall.
A simple directional mark had already been drawn there, meeting the conditions Xiao had mentioned for a temporary door point.
Quiet, enclosed, few people coming and going, thick walls, stable ground.
Although it was not as secure as the secret chamber in Prince Su’s residence, it was already the most suitable place in this relay station.
Xia Lansi sat to one side wearing a snow-white fox-fur cloak. His complexion was still pale, with only a faint feverish flush on his cheeks, adding even more to his sickly beauty.
He held the care guide written by Su Muchen in his hand and said softly, “We can try first. If the door can be opened steadily, then in the future, whenever we stop at a place along the way, we’ll need to find a similar room to temporarily serve as a door point.”
Chi Banyue looked at him.
“Aren’t you supposed to rest?”
Xia Lansi paused slightly.
“I was only saying one thing.”
Chi Banyue waved the piece of paper in her hand.
“Doctor Su wrote that your allotted document-processing time for today is already up.”
Xia Lansi: “……”
For the first time, he deeply experienced that although the doctor from another world was not by his side, he seemed to be everywhere.
Xiao Yuan ordered quietly, “Rest.”
Xia Lansi could only shut his mouth.
Chi Banyue satisfactorily put away the paper.
“I now feel that Doctor Su is practically the greatest support I have on this journey.”
Xiao Yuan ignored her.
He walked to the center of the room and closed his eyes, sensing.
After leaving the capital, the door’s pull had become much fainter than it had been in Prince Su’s residence.
It was like a thin thread passing through the night and distant space, faintly connecting toward a certain direction.
He knew that direction was Guichen Studio.
He also knew that someone was waiting there.
Xiao Yuan raised his hand and reached into empty space.
Coldness seeped out from deep within the stone walls.
In the next moment, the air trembled slightly like the surface of water, and a line of cold white light slowly appeared.
Chi Banyue held her breath.
A look of astonishment rose in Xia Lansi’s eyes.
Although they had already seen it many times, watching a nonexistent door slowly open inside an empty room with their own eyes still felt absurd.
Even more absurd was that the other side of the door was connected to another world.
The light was initially unstable.
It was even fainter than it had been in the secret chamber of Prince Su’s residence.
A thin layer of sweat appeared at Xiao Yuan’s temples. His waist and abdominal wound was secured with a binding band. Although it had not split open, it still ached faintly.
Chi Banyue immediately stepped forward.
“Your Highness, stop if you can’t hold on.”
Xiao Yuan said, “I can open it.”
In the next instant, the door fully took shape.
Within the cold white light, the familiar wooden door pattern on the other side could vaguely be seen.
Guichen Studio.
Xiao Yuan’s eyes shifted slightly.
At this moment, he suddenly truly realized that this path had not been severed by his departure from the capital.
As long as he could open the door.
As long as Su Muchen was still there.
No matter how far this road was, he could return.
◆◇◆◇◆
When the white light lit up again in the middle of the night at Returning Dust Studio, Su Muchen had just finished organizing a diagram of the Sheng family’s debt connections.
He raised his head and immediately stood up.
“Xiao Yuan?”
The crack in the door opened.
Xiao Yuan stepped out from the light. His complexion was a little paler than yesterday, but he stood very steadily.
He was still holding a wooden box in his arms.
Su Muchen’s first glance went to his waist and abdomen.
His second went to his complexion.
Only on the third did he look at the box of gold.
“The wound?”
Xiao Yuan said, “It hasn’t split.”
“Was it difficult to open the door?”
“More difficult than at the Prince’s residence.”
Su Muchen frowned. “Sit down.”
Xiao Yuan did not resist.
This time, he even sat himself down on the familiar wooden chair.
Xiao sat beside them watching, and said with a smile, “Your Highness is really getting more and more practiced.”
Xiao Yuan gave him a cold look.
Xiao took a sip of tea, pretending he hadn’t seen it.
Su Muchen took Xiao Yuan’s temperature and then examined his wound.
The abdominal binder had indeed worked.
Although there was still some redness and swelling around the wound, it had not split open again.
Su Muchen’s expression eased slightly.
“It’s still okay.”
Xiao Yuan asked in a low voice, “Okay?”
Su Muchen lowered his head and tidied the gauze. “It just hasn’t gotten bad enough to make me want to scold you.”
A faint smile surfaced in Xiao Yuan’s eyes.
“Then that’s good.”
Su Muchen: “……”
Was his standard for being scolded too low?
After finishing the examination, Xiao Yuan pushed the box of gold over.
“Today’s.”
This time, Su Muchen did not ask again, “You brought more?”
He simply opened the account book and recorded it as usual.
“Where are you stationed now?”
“At an inn sixty li from the capital.”
“Is the door stable?”
“Not as stable as the Prince’s residence, but usable.”
Su Muchen immediately picked up his pen and recorded it.
“Temporary Door Point One: stone house in the rear courtyard of the inn. Can be opened. Stability is medium-low. Opening consumption increased.”
Xiao Yuan watched him write.
His handwriting was still not good-looking, but by now, he could barely recognize it.
He even felt that those messy strokes carried a subtle sense of familiarity.
Su Muchen asked, “How is Xia Lanshi’s condition?”
“The high fever has subsided, but he is still weak.”
“Has Chi Banyue been taking care of him according to the instructions?”
Xiao Yuan paused for a moment.
“She is very serious about it.”
Su Muchen was somewhat surprised.
“Really?”
Xiao Yuan said, “She carried the paper you wrote and took care of Xia Lanshi and me the entire way.”
Su Muchen imagined that scene and couldn’t help letting out a soft laugh.
It was very brief, but Xiao Yuan caught it.
Xiao Yuan looked at him.
Su Muchen immediately put away his smile.
“What are you looking at?”
“You smiled.”
“Can’t I smile?”
“You can.”
Then he added in a low voice, “It’s quite good.”
The tip of Su Muchen’s pen paused.
The tips of his ears began to heat uncontrollably again.
Su Muchen couldn’t help beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with him.
Otherwise, how could someone else’s casual sentence make his whole body feel strange?
He had even kept suggesting that Sheng Chengxiu go see a psychiatrist. Perhaps… he should make an appointment himself too?
Xiao silently lowered his head and drank tea from the side, trying his best to reduce his presence.
After all, if he laughed out loud again, he probably really wouldn’t have any dinner tonight.
◆◇◆◇◆
The supplies handover that night was even more cautious than before.
Because the temporary door point was unstable, Su Muchen did not try to send too much. He only prepared one cart of the most urgently needed supplies for the journey.
Oral rehydration salts, portable water filters, fever reducers, wound-treatment kits, nutritional powder, and warming patches.
There was also a small box that had been newly added.
Xiao Yuan looked at the small box.
“What is it?”
Su Muchen said, “A carriage-bump care kit.”
Xiao Yuan was silent for a moment.
“Inside are a spare abdominal binder, soft padding, elastic bandages, painkillers, and a wound observation chart for the journey.”
Su Muchen took out the chart.
“Check it once every morning and evening. Any oozing blood, redness and swelling, fever, or worsening pain must be recorded.”
Xiao Yuan accepted it.
The chart was neat and orderly, and the writing was a little better-looking than Su Muchen’s usual handwriting, probably because he had deliberately written it slowly.
Xiao Yuan looked at the sheet of paper and asked quietly, “You prepared this for a long time?”
Su Muchen avoided his gaze.
“Just happened to.”
Xiao nearly spat out his tea from the side.
Just happened to?
Last night, he had clearly seen Su Muchen revise this chart three times. He had even nearly made himself angry to death because the boxes were drawn crooked.
Glancing at Xiao’s reaction, Xiao Yuan did not immediately expose him.
He merely carefully put the sheet away.
“I’ll have Chi Banyue record it.”
Su Muchen nodded.
“Mm. She’s more reliable than you.”
Xiao Yuan: “……”
He actually could not refute that.
When the cart was pushed through the door, the white light flickered.
Su Muchen immediately became tense.
“Stop for a moment.”
Xiao Yuan steadied the cart and closed his eyes, sensing it for a moment.
“Still possible.”
Xiao, however, said, “Only this one cart tonight.”
Su Muchen looked at him. “Are you sure?”
“Certain,” Xiao said. “His Highness’s door itself is already unstable. Any more, and something could go wrong.”
Su Muchen immediately said, “Then we’ll only send this cart.”
Xiao Yuan looked at the remaining supplies and did not force the matter.
He already knew that Su Muchen cared more about the safety of the door than the quantity of supplies.
And the same was true for him personally.
Thinking of this, the coldness in Xiao Yuan’s eyes unconsciously softened a little.
Just before Xiao Yuan prepared to leave, Su Muchen suddenly called out to him.
“Wait.”
Xiao Yuan turned back.
Su Muchen took out a small bag from beneath the counter.
“This is for Chi Banyue.”
Xiao Yuan accepted it. “What is it?”
“Hand cream, lip balm, and a few warming patches,” Su Muchen said. “She has to take care of you and Xia Lanshi, so the journey should be hard on her too. It’s cold heading north. She can use these.”
Xiao Yuan looked at the small bag in his hand, his gaze shifting slightly.
“You really thought of everything.”
“She is the primary caregiver,” Su Muchen said. “If the person taking care of the patients collapses first, the patients will be troublesome too.”
Xiao Yuan said quietly, “Is that all?”
Su Muchen looked up. “Otherwise?”
Xiao Yuan said nothing and simply put the bag away.
He knew that Su Muchen could always find the most reasonable excuse for his softness.
Saving him was because he did not want anyone dying in his shop.
Looking after him was because he was a customer.
Preparing things for Chi Banyue was because she was the primary caregiver.
But Xiao Yuan could see it.
Su Muchen simply could not bear seeing someone work so hard with no one to look after them.
A person like this, if he had been born in Great Sheng, would probably have lived a very exhausting life.
Fortunately, he had been born here.
And unfortunately, he had encountered him.
Xiao Yuan suddenly said, “Muchen.”
Su Muchen had gradually grown accustomed to him calling him that, yet he still felt somewhat uncomfortable.
“What?”
Xiao Yuan looked at him.
“Are you afraid to go to the Sheng family by yourself?”
Su Muchen had not expected him to ask this again.
He was silent for a moment.
“Afraid.”
Xiao Yuan’s gaze darkened.
But Su Muchen continued, “But being afraid doesn’t mean I can’t go.”
Xiao Yuan looked at him.
Su Muchen said quietly, “You went to the northern border not because you weren’t afraid either.”
Xiao Yuan did not answer.
Su Muchen raised his eyes, his tone a little gentler than usual.
“So we each deal with our own battlefield. You survive in Great Sheng, and I protect Returning Dust Studio here.”
Xiao Yuan looked at him for a long time.
Finally, he said quietly, “Okay.”
This time, the okay was very soft.
Yet it seemed to fall upon some invisible promise.
◆◇◆◇◆
When Xiao Yuan returned to the stone house at the inn, Chi Banyue was waiting by the door.
Seeing him push the cart back, she immediately went forward.
“Your Highness, the wound?”
Xiao Yuan: “It hasn’t split.”
Chi Banyue raised an eyebrow.
“Do you think I’ll believe that?”
Xiao Yuan handed her the observation chart Su Muchen had written.
“He wants you to record it.”
Chi Banyue took it and looked at it, her eyes lighting up.
“Doctor Su is really thoughtful.”
She flipped to the back and saw the bag of hand cream and lip balm.
“What are these?”
“For you.”
Chi Banyue froze.
She picked up the small tube and looked at the label that Su Muchen had carefully reattached.
—For protecting lips in cold weather. For external use. Do not eat.
She opened the cap and sniffed it. A faint, sweet fruity fragrance drifted out, so pleasant that it really made one want to taste a little.
Chi Banyue was silent for a moment, then suddenly smiled, feeling a warmth spread through her heart.
“Do not eat?”
Xia Lanshi, leaning against the soft cushion, weakly raised his eyes and looked over.
Chi Banyue handed him the label.
After reading it, Xia Lanshi could not help letting out a soft laugh as well.
“Doctor Su is indeed thorough.”
Chi Banyue lowered her head and looked at the small bag of things.
She had struggled and fought her way up since childhood in a place like a brothel. She had long been accustomed to having to fight for everything herself, snatch everything herself, and guard against everything herself.
Being handed a knife did not surprise her.
Being handed poison did not surprise her either.
But this unremarkable little bag left her somewhat speechless.
It was not a treasure.
Yet it was as though someone had casually remembered to make a note of her.
So it turned out that when she was taking care of others, there was also someone who remembered that she would get cold, hurt, and tired.
Chi Banyue gave a soft snort, concealing her feelings as she said, “No wonder Your Highness keeps running over there.”
Xiao Yuan looked at her indifferently. Seeing her holding the little bag in both hands, clearly very pleased, he said nothing.
Chi Banyue immediately restrained her smile.
“This servant didn’t say anything.”
Xia Lanshi lowered his eyes, the smile still lingering at the corners of his lips.
The night wind was cold.
But this night seemed somewhat warmer than the night before.
◆◇◆◇◆
At the other end of Yunjing City.
The Sheng Consortium building was still brightly lit.
The assistant delivered the latest surveillance information to Sheng Chengxiu.
“President Sheng, after Su Muchen returned to Returning Dust Studio, he hasn’t gone out again.”
“What about around Returning Dust Studio?”
“We’ve already arranged people to watch it. But the surveillance cameras in that alley are old, and the signal is poor in some areas, and…”
Sheng Chengxiu raised his eyes. “And what?”
The assistant said quietly, “Our people said that the equipment around Returning Dust Studio sometimes briefly malfunctions. The surveillance footage will experience interference.”
Sheng Chengxiu’s fingers paused.
“Interference?”
“Yes. The periods are very short and irregular.”
Sheng Chengxiu slowly sat up straighter.
He suddenly remembered several lines left in an old book of the Su family.
“The Gate of Returning Dust cannot be illuminated by ordinary fire, nor recorded by ordinary instruments. When the path of wealth opens, yin and yang both fall into disorder.”
In the past, he had regarded it merely as some ancestor’s deliberately mysterious nonsense.
Now, it seemed that there really was something hidden inside that shabby shop.
Sheng Chengxiu said quietly, “Send more people.”
The assistant said, “Yes.”
“Don’t get too close,” Sheng Chengxiu added. “Watch the person first. Don’t touch the shop.”
The assistant froze.
“President Sheng?”
Sheng Chengxiu’s eyes were deep.
“Su Muchen is like a rabbit that has been driven into a corner but hasn’t completely revealed its burrow yet.”
He smiled, his smile cold.
“Push him too hard, and he’ll bite.”
The assistant lowered his head.
Sheng Chengxiu picked up the photograph of Returning Dust Studio again, his fingertip slowly brushing across the three characters on the signboard.
Returning Dust Studio.
He had waited for so many years. He could afford to wait a few more days.
It was just that this variable, Su Muchen…
was even more tempting to seize with his own hands than he had imagined.
◆◇◆◇◆
Late at night.
Su Muchen finally finished organizing the last batch of information.
He closed the account book and looked toward the depths of Returning Dust Studio.
The door stood there quietly.
As though nothing had ever happened.
But he knew that on the other side of the door, Xiao Yuan and the others were heading north through the night.
They carried injuries, illness, supplies, and a dangerous path to survival.
And on the modern side, the net of the Sheng family was also slowly tightening.
The troubles of the two worlds were like two ropes.
One was tied to Xiao Yuan.
One was tied to him.
Yet that door had happened to tie the two ropes into a single knot.
Su Muchen leaned against the back of his chair and said quietly, “What a hassle.”
Xiao walked in from outside, carrying a bag of late-night food.
“Want some?”
Su Muchen glanced at him.
“Weren’t you not allowed to have dinner?”
Xiao smiled naturally.
“So I bought two portions, trying to bribe the boss.”
Su Muchen was silent for a moment.
In the end, he still reached out and accepted it.
“Don’t do it again.”
Xiao smiled. “Okay.”
Changning Alley outside the shop was silent.
The lights of the distant new city could not reach this place.
Returning Dust Studio was like an old nail hidden in the shadows of the modern city.
Unremarkable.
Yet it firmly pinned down the fate of two worlds.
Su Muchen took a bite of the still-warm food and suddenly remembered the “okay” Xiao Yuan had said before leaving.
He pursed his lips, picked up his pen, and wrote a line at the end of the account book.
—Preparations for tomorrow: Standard checklist for temporary door points in the northern border.
After writing it, he paused.
Then he added several lines beside it.
—Also prepare: Soothing tea for the journey, for Xia Lanshi.
—Additional hand cream, for Chi Banyue.
—Xiao Yuan’s wound observation chart, second edition.
Xiao saw it and let out a low laugh.
Without even raising his head, Su Muchen said, “Laugh again, and you won’t have dinner tomorrow either.”
Xiao immediately shut his mouth.
But the smile in his eyes still could not be hidden.
He was merely somewhat worried.
Xiao looked toward the pitch-black world outside the window.
Someone was reaching out toward this place.
And he… had a reason he had no choice but to protect.