The next morning, a light rain fell over Changning Alley.
The drizzle landed on the bluestone pavement like a thin layer of mist.
As soon as the wooden door of Guichen Studio opened, the bronze bell was gently stirred by the wind.
Jingling.
Su Muchen stood at the doorway, looking at the black car that had been parked for quite some time at the end of the alley.
The windows were covered with dark tint, making it impossible to see who was sitting inside, but it clearly did not belong here.
Changning Alley was secluded. Normally, even delivery drivers were too lazy to come in, let alone a business vehicle that was obviously out of place in the old city district.
Su Muchen only glanced at it before withdrawing his gaze.
Xiao leaned against the counter, holding a cup of hot tea, his tone lazy.
“You saw it?”
“I saw it.”
“People from the Sheng family.”
“Figured.”
Su Muchen walked back behind the counter and opened the account book.
Today, he did not spread his notebooks all over the table. Instead, he had moved the important documents into the small storage room in the back courtyard.
The cloud was unsafe, his phone was unsafe, and his computer was unsafe.
The most primitive paper records had instead become the most reliable thing now.
“How long will they keep watching?”
Xiao smiled. “Depends on Sheng Chengxiu’s patience.”
“Then it might be a long time.”
“Or they might make their move very soon.”
Su Muchen’s pen stopped.
Xiao looked at the car outside the window, his voice turning slightly more serious.
“The Sheng family isn’t made up of ordinary businessmen. They may not wait for you to slowly repay your debt.”
Su Muchen raised his eyes. “What will they do?”
“Investigate your customers, investigate my channels, investigate the goods coming in and out of the shop.” Xiao continued, “If they can’t find anything, they’ll find a way to make you make a mistake.”
Su Muchen was silent for a moment.
“For example?”
“Entrapment.”
Xiao spoke slowly. “They could send someone to pretend to be a buyer and ask whether you can sell some goods of unknown origin. Or deliberately put some prohibited item inside the shop and then call the police.”
Su Muchen’s expression darkened.
“They’d dare?”
“Mu Chen.” Xiao looked at him. “After meeting Sheng Chengxiu yesterday, you should already know whether he dares.”
Su Muchen said nothing.
He did know.
A man like Sheng Chengxiu had never been afraid of dirty methods. He only cared about whether the final result ended up in his own hands.
Su Muchen lowered his head and wrote a line on the paper.
—Keep the shop’s surveillance footage.
After writing it, he crossed it out.
The surveillance cameras would stop working whenever the door opened.
Besides, if the Sheng family really could hack into the equipment, the surveillance footage might instead become a vulnerability.
He thought for a moment, then wrote again.
—All outside items must not be put into storage directly.
—Customers consigning goods must register their identities, take photographs, and retain receipts.
—Staff members are not permitted to receive goods alone.
When he wrote the words “staff members,” he looked up at Xiao.
Xiao smiled. “I have to follow these rules too?”
Su Muchen said flatly, “You especially have to follow them.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re the most suspicious.”
Xiao: “…”
He actually could not refute that.
After finishing, Su Muchen pasted the paper behind the counter.
“New Rules of Guichen Studio.”
Xiao looked at the sheet of paper and let out a low laugh.
“Mu Chen, you’re really starting to look more and more like the boss.”
Su Muchen said helplessly, “I don’t want to either, but what can I do? I have an unreliable employee, a cross-temporal major customer, and a conglomerate heir who covets my shop.”
Xiao nodded sincerely. “Sounds like you really are busy.”
◆◇◆◇◆
At ten in the morning, Guichen Studio welcomed its first unfamiliar customer.
The visitor was a man in his thirties, wearing an ordinary jacket and carrying a black cloth bag.
When he entered, he first surveyed the entire shop.
His gaze paused for a moment each at the shelves, the counter, and the hallway in the back.
Su Muchen stood behind the counter, his expression unchanged.
“Hello. Is there anything you’d like to look at?”
The man smiled.
“I heard you buy antiques here?”
Su Muchen said, “We do, but we need to see the item first.”
The man placed the cloth bag on the counter and opened it.
Inside was a small bronze cauldron.
Its shape was ancient and simple, and verdigris covered its surface. At first glance, it did indeed seem to have some age.
Su Muchen only looked at it once and did not touch it.
“Where did this come from?”
The man smiled. “It’s been passed down in my family.”
Su Muchen nodded. “Do you have proof?”
The man froze.
“What kind of proof?”
“An appraisal or collection certificate, purchase receipt, inheritance documents, or any materials that can prove its legal origin.”
The smile on the man’s face faded somewhat.
“Little boss, when shops like yours buy things, do you really ask this many questions?”
Su Muchen calmly replied, “Things are being checked strictly these days. I don’t accept items of unknown origin.”
The man lowered his voice. “The price is negotiable.”
Su Muchen pushed the cloth bag back toward him. “It’s not a matter of price.”
The man stared at him.
“You won’t even take a look? It might be genuine.”
Su Muchen said, “Precisely because it might be genuine, I can’t accept it casually.”
Beside the counter, Xiao let out a lazy laugh.
The man looked at Xiao.
Xiao held his teacup and said mildly, “Sir, our boss is timid. He doesn’t accept things with unclear origins.”
Su Muchen: “…”
Who was timid?
But with an outsider present, he could not scold him.
The man was silent for a moment before pulling the cloth bag closed again.
“Fine. I’ll look elsewhere.”
He did not leave immediately. Instead, he walked around the shop once. When he reached the hallway near the back, his footsteps slowed.
Su Muchen raised his eyes.
“That’s a private area. It isn’t open to customers.”
The man smiled. “I’m just looking around.”
Xiao put down his teacup and slowly stood up.
“Sir, you can look at the things in the front hall. The back is off-limits.”
The man glanced at Xiao.
The moment their eyes met, it was as if something pressed down on him. His expression changed slightly.
He quickly looked away and gave an awkward laugh.
“Fine.”
When he left, the bronze bell rang once more.
Su Muchen stood behind the counter, watching him leave the alley and eventually get into the black business vehicle.
The car did not drive away immediately.
Su Muchen’s expression turned cold.
“A probe?”
Xiao nodded.
“A probe.”
“What about that cauldron?”
“It could be genuine, or it could be fake,” Xiao said. “But whether it’s real or fake, the moment you accept it, you’ll have trouble.”
Su Muchen suddenly felt a heaviness settle in his stomach.
The Sheng family had moved faster than he had imagined. They had only finished their conversation yesterday, and today they had already sent someone to test him.
They were not waiting.
They had already begun closing the net.
◆◇◆◇◆
In the afternoon, Su Muchen received a call from an unfamiliar number.
The caller claimed to be a representative from an antiques platform. They said they had seen that Guichen Studio had reopened and wanted to invite him to join their platform, even offering promotional traffic support.
After listening, Su Muchen calmly asked, “Does your platform cooperate with the Sheng family?”
There was a two-second silence on the other end.
“Mr. Su, we only have ordinary business cooperation.”
“Then no need.”
He hung up.
Not long afterward, someone claiming to be a media blogger sent a private message to Guichen Studio’s social media account, saying they wanted to come and film a shop-tour video.
Su Muchen replied: We are not accepting filming at the moment.
The other party quickly responded: Are you hiding something? What’s there that you can’t film if you’re operating a normal shop?
Su Muchen looked at the message and immediately blocked the account.
Xiao sat beside him and watched the entire process. He sighed emotionally.
“The Sheng family is trying to poke at you from every direction.”
Su Muchen rubbed his temples.
“Are they really that bored?”
“They’re not bored,” Xiao said. “They’re testing where you’ll let something slip.”
Su Muichen turned his phone facedown on the table.
“Then don’t let a single one slip through.”
He lowered his head and continued organizing the information.
This time, beside the debt chain, he added a new category.
—Sheng Corporation’s probing tactics.
- Suspected bait-and-switch receiving.
- Inducement through platform cooperation.
- Pressure through media filming.
- Surveillance around Guichen Residence.
After writing it down, he stared at the sheet of paper and suddenly felt like laughing, yet he could not quite bring himself to.
To say he felt no pressure after Sheng Corporation had caused trouble again and again would be a lie. But he had to withstand it. Otherwise, once the door was seized by Sheng Corporation, what would happen to Xiao Yuan on the other side?
Everything might spiral out of control.
Because he knew Sheng Chengxiu was an exceedingly greedy man. Once he gained control of the door, he would exploit it to the fullest.
◆◇◆◇◆
On the other side, on the northern road in Dasheng.
Toward evening on the second day, the group encountered their first batch of refugees.
Those people had fled from the north. Their clothes were tattered, their faces sallow and their bodies emaciated. Some dragged children along, while others supported the elderly.
The snowstorm had not truly moved south yet, but the cold had already settled into everyone’s bones.
When the scout at the front reported the situation, Xiao Yuan was inside the carriage studying the map.
“Your Highness, there are refugees gathered by the roadside ahead, roughly a hundred people. Some have high fevers and vomiting. They are suspected of having an epidemic disease.”
Xia Lanshi’s expression changed slightly.
Chi Banyue immediately looked at Xiao Yuan.
“Your Highness, we cannot let them approach the group.”
This was not cold-bloodedness.
Rather, if the army were held back by an epidemic, the consequences would be even more frightening.
Xiao Yuan put down the map, his gaze turning heavy.
“Stop the group.”
Chi Banyue frowned. “Your Highness?”
Xiao Yuan said, “Handle them according to Su Muichen’s manual.”
Xia Lanshi immediately understood.
“Isolate them.”
“Mm.”
Xiao Yuan lifted the carriage curtain and looked toward the people shivering in the cold wind outside.
When those commoners saw the army, they were frightened at first. But then, as if they had seen their final glimmer of hope, some dropped to their knees and kowtowed, crying and begging for food and medicine.
Some soldiers instinctively stepped backward.
The mere words epidemic disease were enough to make people instinctively afraid.
Xiao Yuan ordered, “Draw a line thirty zhang away from the group. No one is allowed to cross it.”
“Put the sick in one area and the healthy in another. Water must not be shared. Caregivers must wear masks and wash their hands with soap after contact.”
One order after another was passed down.
The soldiers were somewhat bewildered at first.
But the secret guards of the Prince Su’s Residence had already practiced this procedure, and they quickly stepped forward to demonstrate.
How to wear the masks, how to wash their hands with soap, how to separate the patients, how to dilute the oral rehydration salts with water.
Chi Banyue personally took Su Muichen’s care guide and directed several reliable guards in distributing the supplies.
As she made the arrangements, she muttered, “I wonder if Physician Su would feel heartache if he knew we used so much of this stuff on the very first day.”
Xia Lanshi coughed once. “He should care more about whether the people are alive.”
Chi Banyue looked at him.
“You certainly understand him.”
Xia Lanshi lowered his eyes. “I could tell from the words between the lines.”
Every instruction in that manual was calm. There was not a single unnecessary word of comfort.
Yet every detail seemed to say: If you can save one person, save one.
A person like that probably would not admit with his own mouth that he was soft-hearted.
Thinking of this, Xia Lanshi could not help giving a faint smile.
Chi Banyue glanced at him. “What are you smiling about?”
“Nothing.” Xia Lanshi said softly, “I just suddenly feel like meeting Physician Su.”
Chi Banyue immediately became interested.
“Oh?”
The moment Xia Lanshi saw her expression, he knew she had misunderstood again.
He said helplessly, “It is only admiration.”
“I merely said ‘oh.’”
Chi Banyue smiled innocently.
◆◇◆◇◆
The most seriously ill among the refugees was a child of around ten years old.
He lay on a straw mat, his lips cracked and dry, his eye sockets sunken, his body trembling again and again.
His mother knelt beside him, crying until her voice had gone hoarse.
“Sir, save him. Please, save him…”
The accompanying physician took one look and shook his head.
“Unrelenting diarrhea, heat evil entering the interior. I’m afraid…”
Chi Banyue frowned and turned to Xia Lanshi.
Xia Lanshi opened Su Muichen’s manual.
There was a page circled in red ink by Su Muichen.
—For those with watery stools, vomiting, high fever, and weakness, prevent dehydration first.
—Do not drink plain water alone.
—Rehydrate in small amounts, repeatedly.
—If the patient can swallow, immediately give salt-sugar water or oral rehydration salts.
Xia Lanshi looked up.
“Oral rehydration salts.”
Chi Banyue immediately brought over a packet.
Following the proportions of the measuring spoon Su Muichen had provided, she poured it into water that had been boiled and allowed to cool.
The child could no longer drink much.
Chi Banyue had someone feed him little by little with a small spoon.
The child’s mother looked at the bowl of water, her eyes filled with both fear and hope.
“Can this save him?”
Xia Lanshi was silent for a moment.
He did not say that it definitely could. He only said gently, “Let him drink it first.”
At first, the child vomited some of it back up. Later, he finally managed to slowly swallow several mouthfuls.
One mouthful.
Then another.
Everyone watched in silence.
Xiao Yuan stood not far away, his gaze falling upon that coarse porcelain bowl.
He suddenly remembered the sight of Su Muichen bent over his desk, writing.
That man did not know this child’s name. He did not know what the child looked like.
He did not know that, on this desolate official road, the child would drink the oral rehydration salts he had prepared.
And yet at this moment, Su Muichen’s handwriting and Su Muichen’s supplies had indeed passed through that door and arrived here.
They had landed beside the lips of a dying child.
An indescribable emotion suddenly rose within Xiao Yuan’s heart.
It was heavy.
And warm.
As though someone had lit a faint lamp within his long-desolate heart.
It was weak, but warm.
◆◇◆◇◆
That night, the group did not immediately continue north.
Xiao Yuan ordered them to make camp nearby. The refugees were settled downwind, with the sick and healthy separated.
Some people in the army were dissatisfied.
“Your Highness, we are heading to the northern frontier. If we delay our schedule for these refugees—”
Before he could finish, Xiao Yuan cast him a cold look.
The man immediately fell silent.
Xiao Yuan said, “There will be more people like this outside the northern frontier cities.”
Everyone fell silent.
Xiao Yuan’s voice was not loud, but it was like an ice blade.
“If we cannot even handle the hundred people before us, then when we reach the northern frontier, are we supposed to watch tens of thousands die outside the city walls?”
No one dared speak again.
Inside the carriage, Xia Lanshi heard these words, and his eyes moved slightly.
Xiao Yuan had saved people before.
But his way of saving them had mostly been like military affairs—like weighing options, like making a calm calculation before choosing.
Now, however, there was something different.
It was not benevolence.
Nor was it impulsiveness.
Rather, he understood more clearly that—human lives were not numbers on a memorial.
The change might have been tiny, but Xia Lanshi could see it.
He lowered his head and looked at the manual in his hands, murmuring, “Physician Su really has changed some things.”
Chi Banyue leaned against the side, rubbing hand cream into her hands.
Hearing this, she looked up.
“Changed what?”
Xia Lanshi looked at Xiao Yuan’s distant back.
“His Highness’s heart.”
Chi Banyue’s movements stopped.
After a moment, she let out a quiet laugh.
“Now that’s something.”
She tucked the hand cream into her sleeve and said leisurely, “Being able to change His Highness’s heart is even more impressive than being able to cure an epidemic.”
Xia Lanshi laughed, but did not refute her.
◆◇◆◇◆
Deep into the night, Xiao Yuan tried opening the door again.
This time, the temporary doorway was in an emptied-out storeroom at a relay station.
It was less stable than the stone house from the previous night.
The white light emerged more slowly, and cold sweat quickly appeared at Xiao Yuan’s temples.
Chi Banyue frowned beside him. “Your Highness, if it won’t work, try again tomorrow.”
Xiao Yuan said, “I must go back tonight.”
Chi Banyue looked at him.
She knew he was not doing it for the supplies. At least, not entirely.
He wanted to return and tell Su Muichen that the things they had prepared today had been useful.
He also wanted to confirm that everything at Guichen Residence was safe, especially after learning that Sheng Chengxiu had set his sights on Su Muichen.
Chi Banyue did not expose him.
She merely said, “Then you’d better not let your wound split open. I haven’t finished filling out Physician Su’s observation chart yet. I don’t want to write in red on the very first day.”
Xiao Yuan: “…”
He closed his eyes and steadied his breathing again.
At last, a cold white light opened in the air.
◆◇◆◇◆
Inside Guichen Residence, Su Muichen was lying on the counter, taking a light nap.
His sleep was shallow.
The moment the door sounded, he woke up immediately.
When he raised his head, he happened to see Xiao Yuan stepping out of the light.
This time, his complexion was even worse than the previous night.
Su Muichen’s brows immediately furrowed.
“You forced yourself to open the door again?”
Xiao Yuan had not even spoken.
Su Muichen had already picked up the thermometer and first-aid kit.
“Sit down.”
Xiao Yuan obediently sat down.
“The wound hasn’t split.”
“I’ll be the one to decide after I look.”
Su Muichen removed the abdominal binder and outer bandages, confirming that the wound had indeed not split. There was only some redness around it, and only then did he slightly relax.
“How was today?”
Xiao Yuan looked at him.
“We encountered refugees.”
Su Muichen’s hands stopped.
“Epidemic disease?”
“Suspected.”
Xiao Yuan briefly described what had happened.
Separation, isolation, handwashing, oral rehydration salts, patient placement.
When he mentioned the child, he paused.
“He drank it.”
Su Muichen looked up.
“Did he improve?”
“It’s still too early to know,” Xiao Yuan said. “But at least he hasn’t died yet.”
Su Muichen fell silent for a moment.
“That’s good.”
It was only a few words, yet it was as though a breath that had been pressing against his chest had finally been released.
Those pages had not been written for nothing.
Those supplies had not been sent for nothing.
On the other side of the door, someone had indeed gained a little more possibility of surviving because of these things.
Su Muichen lowered his head and rebandaged the wound, his voice softer than usual.
“I’ll prepare more oral rehydration salts tomorrow.”
Xiao Yuan looked at him.
“Mm.”
“And a simplified refugee placement procedure. If you encounter people on the road again, you can’t deal with everything on the spot every time.”
“Okay.”
“And prepare signs, too. The patient area, water collection area, and excrement disposal area all need to be separated.”
“Okay.”
Su Muichen stopped halfway through speaking.
He looked at Xiao Yuan.
“Why do you keep saying okay?”
Xiao Yuan said, “Everything you say is right.”
Su Muichen froze, and the tips of his ears grew warm again.
He lowered his head and tidied up the things in his hands.
“Not everything. We still have to adjust according to the actual circumstances.”
Xiao Yuan said quietly, “I’ll have Xia Lanshi record it.”
Su Muichen nodded.
He was just about to say something else when he saw Xiao Yuan suddenly take out a piece of paper.
The handwriting on it belonged to Xia Lanshi. It recorded the preliminary situation after the refugees had been handled.
Su Muichen took it and saw the final line.
—If Physician Su has the time, Lanshi would like to ask: Can the weak and sick take nutritional powder from the other world? Are there any contraindications?
Su Muichen stared at that line.
“He’s really quite polite.”
Xiao Yuan said, “He wants to meet you.”
Su Muichen’s fingers stopped.
“Meet me?”
Xiao Yuan looked at him.
“Mm.”
Su Muichen subconsciously looked toward the door.
He murmured, “I can’t get through anyway.”
Xiao Yuan said nothing, but his eyes seemed to darken slightly.
He clearly knew in his heart that Su Muichen and he belonged to different worlds. He had also personally seen Su Muichen being rejected by the door and unable to pass through.
So why was there now this inexplicable sense of disappointment in his heart?
Xiao Yuan looked at Su Muichen, his eyes filled with deep emotion.
The intensity of his gaze made Su Muichen somewhat flustered, thinking that he had said something wrong.
He suddenly realized that when Xiao Yuan looked at him, there seemed to be an aggressiveness somewhat similar to Sheng Chengxiu’s—only without the same arrogance and recklessness.
Could it be that Xiao Yuan had his sights set on him too?
The thought had only just surfaced in his mind when he immediately rejected it.
Xiao Yuan was a dignified prince of Dasheng. He had heard that Xia Lanshi and Chi Banyue beside him were both peerless beauties, so how could Xiao Yuan possibly take a fancy to him?
Besides…
There could never be anything else between them.
The moment he thought of this fact, an inexplicable bitterness welled up inside him, though he did not know why.
Could it be that he really was sick?