Black Pine Ridge did not immediately descend into chaos.
At least, not on the surface.
After the first whistle came from the direction of the main stronghold, silence quickly returned. The mountain forest remained blanketed in snow, the shadows of the pines heavy and dark. If Xiao Yuan had not personally seen several black figures leave through the secret passage behind the stronghold, he might almost have thought Black Pine Ridge was still the same as before—a dead mountain concealing a bandit den.
But the quieter it became, the more it indicated that the people inside had already begun cutting their losses.
When real bandits lost their grain and had their warehouse breached, their first reaction would usually be rage, a mountain-wide search, and pursuit.
The people of Black Pine Ridge did not.
They first suppressed the whistles, then extinguished two open fires.
Finally, they sent out three groups, heading west, north, and southeast respectively.
This was not the reaction of bandits who had been robbed.
This was someone rapidly cutting the lines.
The guards lay crouched behind the snowy slope and lowered their voices. “Your Highness, should we follow all three groups?”
Xiao Yuan watched the traces gradually disappearing into the mountain forest.
“The western group has the most people. They deliberately want us to see them.”
The guard was startled.
Xiao Yuan said, “The northern group has disordered footsteps. It looks like they’re carrying wounded people. The southeastern group has only two people. Their tracks are the faintest, yet they’re moving the fastest.”
The guard immediately understood.
“The southeast group is delivering a message?”
“Mm.”
Xiao Yuan looked toward the southeast.
The southeastern road circled around the outskirts of Qingshi Village. It could avoid the southern route sealed off by the light cavalry from Hanchuan, and it also led toward the temporary relay station of the Northern Border Transport Office. If the people in the main stronghold truly intended to report to whoever was behind them, they would not take the most conspicuous western road.
They would take a route that seemed inconspicuous, yet could deliver the message out the fastest.
“Send two men after the southeastern group,” Xiao Yuan ordered. “Do not alert them. If they enter the relay station, record the people and the messenger, but do not act.”
“Yes.”
“Follow the northern group as well. If they have wounded people, they may seek a hidden doctor or an established contact point.”
“And the western group?”
Xiao Yuan said indifferently, “Let them see us pursuing them.”
The guard lowered his head. “Understood.”
The western group was bait.
If they did not bite, Black Pine Ridge would know that Prince Su had seen through their route.
So they had to bite.
But only once.
Enough to make the other side believe they had fooled him.
Xiao Yuan stood on the snowy slope, watching his guards disperse.
The sky was already bright. The snow reflected its light onto his face, making his features appear particularly cold.
After being awake all night, fighting at the Western Pass and the Western Warehouse, then personally arranging the pursuit, anyone else would have been utterly exhausted. Yet his expression remained calm. Only a faint layer of bloodshot color lingered beneath his eyes.
It was not that he was not tired.
It was simply that he could not afford to be tired yet.
The Northern Border grain route had only just revealed a corner of itself. The person behind the Sheng name had yet to show himself, and Zhao Ping’s testimony had not yet been sent back to Hanchuan.
And the person on the other side of that door was still hidden beneath the shadow of the Sheng family.
Xiao Yuan withdrew his gaze and said quietly, “Go to the main stronghold.”
The guard was startled.
“Your Highness, now?”
“Now.”
They had let go of the people who ought to be released.
The rest should be cleared out.
◆◇◆◇◆
The main stronghold of Black Pine Ridge was far more dilapidated than the Western Warehouse.
Bandits’ dwellings were crude to begin with—wooden walls, earthen huts, sheds covered in animal hides. Everywhere reeked of alcohol, blood, and the moldy smell of damp timber. From the surface alone, it was easy to assume this was merely an ordinary bandit stronghold.
Until a guard lifted a concealed panel behind the main stronghold.
Beneath the panel was an underground storeroom.
There was no grain inside.
Only paper.
Paper that had been half-burned.
Several men in gray robes had tried to destroy the documents before retreating. Unfortunately, they had been too pressed for time. The fire had not burned through them before snowmelt extinguished the flames. Charred scraps of paper were scattered across the floor, while a small wooden box remained in the corner, apparently not taken away in time.
A guard carried the wooden box out.
Inside were not account books, but several letters with different seals.
Some seals had already cracked.
Others had never been opened.
Xiao Yuan took out the letter on top.
There was no signature on it, only one sentence.
—If Qingshi succeeds, return the grain to Warehouse Jia; if Qingshi fails, abandon Black Pine and take the Sheng route.
The Sheng route.
Xiao Yuan’s fingertips paused slightly.
Sheng again.
This time, it was no longer a name appearing independently in an account book.
It was explicitly being called a route.
He continued flipping through the letters.
Another letter read:
—If Prince Su reveals miraculous medicine, investigate the medical sect; if you encounter a physician surnamed Su, do not kill him. Capture him first.
The warmth in Xiao Yuan’s eyes instantly sank to an extreme low.
Do not kill him. Capture him first.
Those words were like a knife. They had not fallen upon him, yet somehow angered him even more than if they had.
They had already begun to make Su Muchen a target.
Even if it was merely based on the false lead of “Physician Su of the Returning Dust Medical Sect,” it was dangerous enough.
The guard noticed that something was wrong with his expression and asked quietly, “Your Highness?”
Xiao Yuan folded the letter and tucked it into his robe.
“Seal this one separately.”
The guard saw the veins faintly rising on the back of his hand and did not dare ask further.
Xiao Yuan turned over the remaining letters.
Most concerned the relocation of grain carts, informants within the Northern Watchpost, and escape routes from Black Pine Ridge. One letter mentioned the three characters “Sheng Yuanli,” but half of the writing had been burned away. Only “Sheng Yuan” remained clear, while the final character was charred beyond recognition.
It still could not serve as ironclad evidence.
But it was enough.
The thread was gradually becoming clear.
The Ministry of Revenue’s grain transport.
The Northern Border Transport Office.
Black Pine Ridge.
The Sheng route.
And someone hidden even farther behind them, someone capable of directing all these people.
Xiao Yuan closed the letters.
“Collect all the ashes. Piece together whatever can be pieced together. Seal away even the pieces that cannot.”
The guard quietly acknowledged the order.
Su Muchen had said before that evidence did not always appear whole.
Fragments had their uses too.
Especially when fragments from different places could be pieced together to point in the same direction. At that point, they were enough to make it impossible for anyone to continue pretending not to see.
Xiao Yuan walked out of the underground storeroom.
Outside the main stronghold, most of the bandits had already been subdued. Some had escaped with the western decoy group, while others knelt in the snow with their hands bound.
Those who were genuine bandits had terrified expressions, mostly because they feared death. But several men in gray robes were clearly different. They were unnaturally quiet, as though calculating their next opportunity to bite down on poison, throw themselves against a blade, or provoke the guards into killing them.
Xiao Yuan glanced at them.
“Bring them back alive.”
The guard asked, “What if they seek death?”
“Then let them be unable to die even if they want to.”
His voice was very even.
Yet the faces of several gray-robed men kneeling in the snow immediately turned pale.
Xiao Yuan raised his eyes toward the highest point of Black Pine Ridge.
This stronghold could not yet be considered completely taken.
But it was no longer a blade buried in the shadows of the Northern Border by the Crown Prince.
The hilt of that blade had already fallen into his hands.
◆◇◆◇◆
Before the hour of Chen in Qingshi Village, rumors began spreading.
First, a woman fetching water at the village entrance whispered that something had happened again at the Northern Watchpost last night, and that His Highness Prince Su seemed to have been injured.
Then several coachmen from Hanchuan sighed beside a brazier, saying that Commandant Zhao was probably beyond saving, and no one knew where the grain carts had gone.
Later, several villagers who had been rescued heard only half of the story. By the time it was passed along, it had become—
“His Highness Prince Su suffered a setback at Black Pine Ridge.”
“The Northern Watchpost commander is dead.”
“The grain hasn’t been recovered.”
“Qingshi Village still has to remain closed and guarded.”
These words became mixed with the anxiety caused by the snow disaster, injuries, illness, and grain distribution. They sounded chaotic, yet believable.
Xia Lanshi sat inside the carriage, listening to Chi Banyue report the rumors spreading in various places. He lightly nodded.
“That is enough.”
Chi Banyue crossed her arms.
“I think you people have far too many schemes in your heads.”
Xia Lanshi raised his eyes at that. His pale gaze was utterly innocent, as though he possessed no schemes at all.
Chi Banyue said, “His Highness lays the bait, you cooperate by spreading rumors, and Physician Su can guess people’s hearts even from behind a door. Every one of you looks refined and proper, but all of you are calculating people.”
Xia Lanshi smiled.
“Doesn’t Miss Banyue do the same?”
“I kill people,” Chi Banyue said. “You people make others jump into pits themselves. Fiery pits.”
Xia Lanshi said, “If the pit was dug by them in the first place, letting them jump back into it themselves can also be considered justice.”
Chi Banyue looked at him.
“The more you talk, the less you sound like a frail Chief Assistant, and the more you sound like a black-hearted bookkeeper.”
Xia Lanshi: “……”
He fell silent for a moment, feeling that the title really did not sound very pleasant.
Chi Banyue, however, laughed.
After laughing, she looked again at the several letters and copies of account books on his table.
“You really aren’t going to sleep?”
Xia Lanshi said quietly, “I’m waiting for the second report from His Highness.”
“Waiting won’t make the message come any faster.”
“I know.”
“You know, and you’re still waiting?”
Xia Lanshi’s fingertips lightly rubbed the edge of the paper.
“Because if I fall asleep, I’ll still be waiting in my dreams.”
Chi Banyue froze.
The words were spoken very softly, yet for a moment, she suddenly did not know how to refute him.
After a while, she sat beside the carriage door and laid her short saber across her knees.
“Then I’ll wait with you.”
Xia Lanshi looked at her.
Chi Banyue did not turn around. She only looked at the snow outside the carriage.
“Anyway, I can’t sleep either.”
The carriage fell silent.
Wind and snow landed on the roof, making faint, delicate sounds.
Xia Lanshi lowered his head and looked at the red silk cord around his wrist and the white jade peace token.
He suddenly thought that once everything had temporarily settled down, perhaps he really should ask Xiao.
Even if the other party refused to answer, even if the answer was not what he wanted to hear.
He still wanted to ask him personally once.
—Did you save me?
—Did you know long ago that I would be in danger?
—Why do you arrive so perfectly on time every single time?
But those questions circled around the tip of his tongue once before he pressed them back into the depths of his heart.
It was not the time yet.
Just as His Highness could not immediately uncover everything behind the word “Sheng.”
Some threads would break if pulled too hard.
◆◇◆◇◆
In the old storeroom of the Returning Dust Studio, Su Muchen went through account books until midnight.
Xiao had initially tried to persuade him to rest.
Later, after discovering that persuasion was useless, he settled for the next best thing. He brought him a chair, hot water, an eye-protection lamp, and even prepared biscuits and hot coffee beside him.
Su Muchen looked at the pile of things on the table and said expressionlessly, “You’re really encouraging me to stay up all night.”
Xiao calmly replied, “As your cousin, I can only try to minimize the damage.”
Su Muchen: “……”
Fine.
This man was already beginning to get used to being his cousin.
He opened the second old account book.
This one was older than the first. The handwriting did not belong to his grandfather, but had been left behind by the generation of his great-grandfather. The Sheng family appeared in it quite a few times. In the earlier years, most of the entries concerned ordinary transactions, but later, some strange annotations began appearing.
—The Sheng family inquired about the source of the medicinal fragrance.
—The Sheng family requested an audience with the shopkeeper. Refused.
—The Sheng family offered a large sum to purchase the registry of “Returning Dust Guests.” Refused.
Returning Dust Guests.
Su Muchen frowned.
“What is a ‘Returning Dust Guest’?”
Xiao came over and glanced at it.
“A designation formerly used to conceal guests who came through the sect.”
“Guests from the sect?”
“People who conducted transactions through the Door. If outsiders asked, we would simply say they were Returning Dust Guests.”
Su Muchen’s expression became complicated.
“So the Su family was already very good at making things up back then.”
Xiao smiled.
“That’s called tradition.”
Su Muchen lowered his head and continued reading.
The Sheng family wished to purchase the registry of Returning Dust Guests.
That sentence made him very uncomfortable. If they merely wanted to purchase goods, that could still be considered a transaction.
But wanting to purchase the registry was different. It meant they did not merely want to know the source of the goods.
They wanted to know the people.
He added the following to the “Sheng Family Investigation” file:
The Sheng family once attempted to purchase the registry of “Returning Dust Guests.”
Risk assessment: They may intend to track guests who came through the Door or people who had dealings with the Su family.
After writing it down, he continued flipping through the pages.
Clipped to the third page was a very small slip of paper.
There was only one line written on it.
—The Sheng family possesses a strange book, suspected not to have originated from this world.
Su Muchen’s fingertips stopped.
“Xiao.”
Xiao immediately looked over.
Su Muchen handed him the slip of paper.
Xiao took it. After reading it, his expression slowly darkened as well.
A strange book.
Suspected not to have originated from this world.
Those words were even more chilling than “inquired about the Door.”
If the ancestors of the Sheng family had truly obtained a book that did not belong to the modern era, then it would not be strange for them to know that the Returning Dust Studio had something unusual about it.
But the question was—
Where had that book come from?
Had it leaked out from the Door?
Had someone from Dasheng left it behind?
Or had the Su family made a mistake at some point, allowing something that should never have fallen into outsiders’ hands to end up in the hands of the Sheng family?
Su Muchen looked at Xiao.
“Do you know about this strange book?”
Xiao was silent for a long time.
“I’ve heard of it.”
Su Muchen’s eyes darkened.
“How much can you tell me?”
Xiao looked at the slip of paper.
“The ancestors of the Sheng family once obtained a fragmentary book. It recorded some fragments concerning Returning Dust, the Su family, and the Door. But the book was incomplete, and there were errors and omissions in its contents. They probably learned from that fragmentary book that the Returning Dust Studio wasn’t an ordinary shop.”
Su Muchen asked, “Where is the book?”
Xiao shook his head.
“It should still be with the Sheng family.”
Su Muchen slowly leaned back against the chair.
That was troublesome.
The Sheng family possessed a fragmentary book.
The Crown Prince’s people had begun searching for the Returning Dust Medical Sect and Physician Su.
The dangers on the two sides of the Door were like two rivers that had originally flowed separately, but were gradually converging somewhere unseen.
Su Muchen asked quietly, “How much might Sheng Chengxiu know?”
“Uncertain.”
“Guess.”
Xiao glanced at him.
Su Muchen said coldly, “I need speculation right now, not a cautious answer.”
Xiao was silent for a moment before saying, “He at least knows that the Returning Dust Studio is connected to the Door, and he knows that the shop cannot be transferred easily. As for the ‘Door,’ he may know that there is a ‘route,’ but he may not know that it is a Door, much less where the Door leads.”
Su Muchen nodded.
That matched Sheng Chengxiu’s current actions.
He had pressured them to sell, probed into the old items, sent the association to approach them, and monitored the flow of funds.
Yet he had not directly targeted the Door in the back room.
That meant he had not grasped the complete picture.
At least, not yet.
“Then we cannot let him know more,” Su Muchen said.
Xiao nodded.
“Mm.”
Su Muchen took a photograph of the slip of paper and archived it.
Then he added another item to the document.
The Sheng family is suspected of possessing a fragmentary copy of a “strange book.”
Its contents concern Returning Dust, the Su family, and the Door, but may be incomplete and contain errors or omissions.
Priority objective: Confirm the contents of the fragmentary book and its holder.
After writing this line, he suddenly stopped.
“Could Sheng Chengxiu also be looking for the registry?”
Xiao’s eyes shifted slightly.
Su Muchen said, “If the ancestors of the Sheng family wanted to purchase the registry of Returning Dust Guests, and Sheng Chengxiu is now watching the Returning Dust Studio, perhaps he doesn’t merely want the shop. He may also want to know everyone who has had dealings with the Returning Dust Studio throughout the generations.”
“Possible.”
“Then is there a registry in the old storeroom?”
Xiao fell silent.
Su Muchen slowly raised his eyes.
“Cousin?”
Xiao sighed softly.
“There is.”
Su Muchen put down his pen.
“Take it out.”
Xiao did not move immediately.
Su Muchen looked at him.
“Xiao, the Sheng family has searched for this thing before. Now they have their eyes on me, and they may also be looking for this thing. Hiding it won’t make it safer. It will only leave me unaware of what I’m actually protecting.”
Xiao looked at him.
After a long while, he finally nodded.
“All right.”
He walked toward the iron chest bearing the old Su family insignia at the innermost part of the old storeroom.
The iron chest had three locks.
A copper lock, a hidden catch, and an old talismanic seal that required Su bloodline to open.
Xiao placed his hand on it.
The talisman did not light up.
He turned back toward Su Muchen.
“You have to open this.”
Su Muchen froze.
“Me?”
“Direct bloodline.”
Su Muchen was silent for a moment before walking forward.
Xiao handed him a sterilized needle.
Su Muchen looked at the needle and suddenly felt a strange sense of familiarity.
Not long ago, Xiao Yuan had still been here, having his blood drawn, his temperature taken, and his wounds bandaged by him.
Now it was his turn to drip his own blood onto the ancestral iron chest of the Su family.
Life was really becoming more and more like a fantasy medical record.
He pricked his fingertip and pressed a drop of blood onto the talisman.
The talisman soon seeped with a faint, dark-red glow.
A very soft mechanical click came from inside the iron chest.
It opened.
Su Muchen instinctively looked at Xiao.
Xiao said, “Looks like the Door acknowledges you as the direct heir of this generation.”
After the iron chest opened, there was no thick genealogy book as he had imagined.
There were only three things inside.
A thin black book.
An old copper key.
And a letter bearing the words, “To Muchen, Open Personally.”
Su Muchen’s breathing hitched slightly when he saw the letter.
It was his grandfather’s handwriting.
He picked up the letter but did not immediately open it.
Because beside it, written on the cover of the black book, were four characters.
—Record of Returning Dust Guests.
Su Muchen stared at it, and an indescribable premonition suddenly rose within him.
It was as though once he turned another page, he would see many names he should not have learned this early.
Xiao stood beside him, his expression unusually solemn as well.
“Muchen.”
“Mm?”
“Think carefully before you open it.”
Su Muchen lowered his eyes to the black book.
“Is this also something the Door doesn’t want me to know?”
“No,” Xiao said. “It’s that after you know, you may no longer be able to pretend that you were merely caught up in this.”
Su Muchen was silent for a moment.
Then he smiled.
“When was I ever able to pretend?”
He reached out and turned open the first page.
There was only one line on the first page.
—A Returning Dust Guest asks not of their origin, nor of their destination. All who enter this record have a cause connected to the Door.
Below it were densely packed names.
Some were the names of modern people.
Some were the names and courtesy names of people from ancient times.
Some were nothing more than aliases.
Su Muchen turned the pages one by one, then suddenly stopped on a certain page.
The handwriting on that page was very new.
There was a name.
Xiao Yuan.
Seventh Prince of Dasheng, Prince Su.
Beside it was another line in small characters.
—Bearer of Imperial Blood.
Su Muchen’s fingertips trembled violently.
He stared at those words for a long time without speaking.
He and Xiao Yuan had only met recently. Why was there already a record of him in the Record of Returning Dust Guests?
Su Muchen suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
Xiao stood beside him without urging him.
Su Muchen lowered his head and continued reading.
Beneath Xiao Yuan’s name were several blank fields.
Should be recorded, but is not.
To be filled.
The Door’s cause is undetermined.
Those words were like a fine thorn piercing his heart.
Xiao Yuan’s karma had not yet been determined.
Therefore, this Record of Returning Dust Guests had only given him a beginning.
Su Muchen suddenly closed the black book.
Xiao looked at him.
“Not reading anymore?”
“Not for now.”
He was afraid that if he continued reading, he would see more things he could not bear yet.
Even more, he was afraid of seeing his own name.
Xiao seemed to understand and did not ask further.
Su Muchen placed the black book back on the table, then picked up his grandfather’s letter marked “To Muchen, Open Personally.”
This time, he opened it.
The paper was very thin.
There were only a few lines.
—Muchen, if you have seen the Record of Returning Dust Guests, it means you are no longer merely saving one person.
—Remember, the registry is not a Book of Fate.
—What is recorded above is cause, not consequence.
—The Door may draw people together, but it cannot walk the road in their place.
—If you are afraid, stop for a while. If you are still willing to move forward, then see the person behind every name clearly, rather than looking only at their fate.
The final line was written more slowly than those before it.
—You save him not because the Door recorded him. It is because you chose him.
Su Muchen stared at that sentence, and his eyes suddenly grew hot.
He lowered his head and remained motionless for a long time.
It was as though his grandfather were reaching across many years and still placing a hand on his shoulder.
Not forcing him.
Not ordering him.
Only telling him:
You are allowed to be afraid.
You are allowed to stop.
But if you continue moving forward, it is not the Door making the choice for you.
It is you who choose.
Su Muchen closed his eyes.
When he opened them again, his gaze gradually steadied.
He folded the letter back up and placed it inside the document envelope.
Then he opened “Sheng Family Investigation” and “Dasheng Long-Term Support Plan,” adding a new note at the very top.
All plans shall place “people” at the core, not the Door.
Xiao looked at those words, his eyes shifting slightly.
Su Muchen raised his head and looked at him.
“I won’t read the Book of Fate.”
Xiao said softly, “That isn’t a Book of Fate.”
“I know,” Su Muchen said. “That’s why I cannot treat it as one.”
He looked toward the silent Door again.
“Xiao Yuan isn’t supposed to live because his name was written in the registry.”
His voice was soft, yet perfectly clear.
“He was supposed to live anyway.”
◆◇◆◇◆
The main stronghold of Black Pine Ridge finally descended into chaos before the hour of Wu.
The false information had already been spread.
The panic among the refugees in Qingshi Village was soon overheard by the scouts stationed around Black Pine Ridge.
Zhao Ping of the Northern Watchpost was dead.
The grain carts had disappeared without a trace.
Prince Su was seriously wounded.
Qingshi Village had sealed itself off and refused to let anyone in or out.
These statements, truth and falsehood mixed together, were like a handful of broken grains scattered into water, causing the fish to begin testing the waters.
The main stronghold of Black Pine Ridge sent out two groups.
One headed toward the Western Pass to scout for the grain.
The other headed southeast to deliver a message.
The group going toward the Western Pass was deliberately allowed to approach by Hanchuan’s light cavalry. After they discovered the empty carts and traces of blood left behind, they were allowed to escape back.
The southeastern group, meanwhile, was followed from a distance by Xiao Yuan’s men.
They did not go to the public relay station of the Transport Office.
Instead, they circled around to a ruined temple at the foot of a mountain.
Someone was waiting inside the ruined temple.
The person waiting was not a bandit, but a middle-aged man wearing a blue fox-fur coat.
He stood beneath the eaves of the ruined temple with only two guards beside him. Yet those two guards stood extremely steadily. At a glance, it was obvious they were private soldiers raised by a powerful family in the capital.
The guards following them did not dare approach too closely. They could only record the man’s build, clothing, and the subtle insignia on the carriage from a distance.
The insignia was very small.
It looked like a half-open flower.
After recording it, the guard quickly withdrew.
By the time the information was delivered into Xiao Yuan’s hands, he was examining the ashes of the papers recovered from the underground storeroom of the main stronghold.
After hearing the report, he raised his eyes.
“A blue fox-fur coat, with a half-open flower insignia?”
“Yes.”
Xiao Yuan was silent for a moment.
He had seen too many family crests in the capital.
Half-open flower insignias were not uncommon.
But if it was connected with the Ministry of Revenue and the Sheng route, the possibilities immediately narrowed.
The family crest of Sheng Yuanli’s residence was a branch of half-open peonies.
A chill flickered in Xiao Yuan’s eyes.
Finally, a corner had been exposed.
“Do not touch him.”
The guard was startled.
Xiao Yuan said, “Record his movements. Investigate the wheel tracks. Investigate his guards. Find out where he goes after leaving.”
“Yes.”
“Also, release the false accounts deliberately left behind in the main stronghold.”
The guard froze for a moment.
“False accounts?”
Xiao Yuan lowered his eyes to the empty ledger recovered from one of the gray-robed men.
“An account written for them to see.”
The guard understood.
The other side was testing how much Prince Su had discovered.
Then they would show the other side a little.
If they showed too little, the other side would not panic.
If they showed too much, the other side would cut off the tail.
It had to be just right.
Just enough to make Sheng Yuanli’s side believe that Prince Su had obtained some accounts, but had not yet touched the deepest part of the “Sheng route.”
Only then would they hurry to make up for the loss.
And once they tried to make up for it, they would move more people.
Xiao Yuan dipped his brush into the ink and personally wrote several code names into the empty ledger.
Warehouse Jia.
Liang.
Black Pine.
Northern Route.
But he deliberately avoided the word “Sheng.”
After finishing, he put down the brush.
“Let them steal it.”
The guard lowered his head.
“Yes.”
Xiao Yuan looked toward the ruined temple, his expression tranquil.
Sheng Yuanli.
Before he had evidence, this was merely a name.
Now, that name had begun to become entangled, little by little, with Black Pine Ridge, Northern Border military provisions, the Ministry of Revenue’s grain transport, and the Crown Prince’s faction.
He was not in a hurry.
The larger the net, the less one could afford to panic when drawing it in.
He wanted the other side to believe that he was still standing outside the net.
Then he would wait for them to personally hand him the most crucial thread.
◆◇◆◇◆
In the old storeroom of the Returning Dust Studio, Su Muchen placed the Record of Returning Dust Guests back inside the iron chest.
He did not continue reading.
At least, not tonight.
When Xiao locked the iron chest again, he glanced at him.
“You really aren’t going to read it?”
Su Muchen said, “No.”
“Not curious?”
“Curious,” Su Muchen said. “But I’m afraid that after reading it, I’ll be unable to stop myself from treating people as some kind of mission.”
Xiao fell silent.
Su Muchen looked at the iron chest.
“Right now, I’m saving Xiao Yuan because I know him, because every time he comes here, he’s covered in injuries, because he tells me to wait for him, because he saves people in the Northern Border, and because I don’t want to watch him die.”
He paused.
“Not because the book says he carries Imperial Blood.”
Xiao said quietly, “That’s good.”
Su Muchen looked at him.
Xiao smiled.
“It really is good.”
This time, he did not tease him.
Su Muchen did not argue either.
The two of them locked up the old storeroom again. When they returned to the first floor, the rain outside had already stopped.
The sky was on the verge of brightening, yet had not quite reached dawn.
There was a particular kind of exhausted silence inside the Returning Dust Studio after staying up all night.
Su Muchen sat back down behind the counter. He had just intended to shut down his laptop and rest for half an hour when a very faint sound suddenly came from the back room.
It was not a vibration.
Nor was it an echo.
It was a familiar white light seeping through the crack beneath the door.
Su Muchen abruptly raised his head.
Xiao also turned around, his expression changing.
“The Door is opening.”
Su Muchen stood.
His heartbeat suddenly accelerated so violently that it almost hurt his chest.
The white light grew brighter and brighter.
This time, it was steadier than before.
It did not resemble a crack being torn apart by wind and snow.
It was more like someone on the other side had finally grasped the door ring and was steadily pushing open a passage.
Su Muchen quickly walked toward the back room.
Through the crack, the light of snow and the smell of blood surged in together.
The next moment, Xiao Yuan’s figure appeared behind the Door.
His black clothes were stained with blood, snow resting on his shoulder.
His complexion was colder than when he had left, and he was more exhausted as well.
But he stood steadily, still holding a sealed leather pouch in his hand.
The instant Su Muchen saw him, half of the breath he had been holding in all night finally loosened in his chest.
Then the other half turned into anger.
Because he saw the wound on the back of Xiao Yuan’s hand.
It was not deep, but it was obvious.
Su Muchen’s expression instantly darkened.
“Hand.”
Xiao Yuan was just about to speak.
Su Muchen had already reached out and pulled him inside, saying coldly, “Treat the wound first. Talk afterward.”
Xiao Yuan looked at him.
The chill brought by a night of wind and snow, bloody battles, setting traps, and tracing the lines suddenly faded somewhat at this moment.
He said quietly, “I’m back.”
Su Muchen’s fingers paused.
The next moment, his frown deepened.
“I can see that.”
He slammed the medical kit onto the table.
“Sit down.”
Looking at his terrible expression, Xiao Yuan surprisingly showed no displeasure at all.
Instead, he gave a low laugh.
“Okay.”
Xiao stood to the side, looking at the two of them. For a moment, he said nothing.
The wind and snow behind the Door had not stopped.
The light of dawn after the rain was faintly breaking before the Door.
The two worlds, separated by a single Door, had finally connected once again.
And this time, what Xiao Yuan brought back was not only his injuries.
He also brought the ledgers from Black Pine Ridge, the suspected trail leading to the Sheng family, and a secret letter bearing the words:
“Do not kill him. Capture the physician surnamed Su first.”