Chapter 2: Blood Words in the Blade

The wooden door of the abandoned pharmacy slammed shut behind them, a dull thud cutting off the relentless pursuit of footsteps and rain from the alley for a moment. Ye Guanlan leaned back against the damp wooden wall, rainwater dripping from his hair, spreading dark stains on the bluestone floor.

He quickly twisted the valve of the only oil lamp left with a flame. The dim, yellowish light flickered against the mottled walls, illuminating the mountains of aged medicine jars and dust-covered wooden shelves piled high inside. Jiang Wanzhou leaned against the wall, breathing hard, his short knife in hand still dripping water. His eyes scanned the surroundings with sharp alertness.

Liu Qingwu didn’t say a word. She walked straight to the corner where a legless table was propped up with a brick and slammed down the satchel containing the documents. Yan Guihong had already vanished into the shadows, leaving only a very soft whistle to indicate that the outer wall was covered by hidden lookouts. Ye Guanlan took out the disassembled ancient sword from his coat; the remnant scroll made of mulberry bark at the sword's spine had curled slightly from the rain.

He knew the real secret wasn't just on the surface of the paper, but in the bloodstains soaked deep into the paper fibers. Only specific temperatures and oils could awaken the sleeping Blood Letters. He lit a thick cotton thread soaked in oil, letting the thick black smoke fill the small space. It was choking, but necessary.

"You're insane." Jiang Wanzhou growled, reaching out to grab the cotton thread. "This smoke smell is too strong. The Xuanming Society scouts out there have noses like dogs; the moment they catch the scent of cooking oil, they'll swarm in."

"Can't rush it." Ye Guanlan didn't look up, his voice steady, almost cold. "Blood seeps three points into the paper. It needs the steaming of oil smoke to reveal the shadow of the cinnabar ink. Wait ten breaths."

Liu Qingwu finally spoke, her voice clear and cold: "Watch the end of the sword's spine. There's a crease there. The Blood Letters are often hidden in the fibers on the inside of the crease. Don't scratch it with your fingernails; you'll destroy the evidence."

Ye Guanlan nodded, laying the disassembled blade over the oil lamp, letting the scorching stream of smoke constantly lick at that layer of seemingly blank mulberry bark. At first, the paper surface just developed a layer of oily black sheen; nothing appeared.

Jiang Wanzhou paced impatiently, his soles screeching against the ground. He wanted to draw his sword and charge out immediately to kill those chasing him clean. But he couldn't. He had to watch Ye Guanlan complete this step, because the truth behind his master's murder was hidden inside.

Ten breaths passed quickly. Amidst the swirling smoke, a line of dark red characters slowly surfaced like ghosts, the strokes thin and long, carrying the unique stiffness of dried blood.

"The Xuanming does not perish, the Gu clan holds the sin."

Jiang Wanzhou’s pupils shrank. He lunged to the table, staring intently at the Blood Letters. "This is... this is Gu Chenzhou's handwriting!" His voice trembled with excitement. "In the Gu family massacre, everyone said the Ye clan colluded with the Xuanming Society. If this was written by Gu Chenzhou in his dying breath, it proves the Ye family was framed... or was merely a pawn dragged into it."

Liu Qingwu put on gloves, examining the Blood Letters closely, her fingertips gently tracing the fiber direction at the edge of the paper. "The brushwork is sharp, the entry hidden, the exit checked and cut. It really is Gu Chenzhou's habit. Gu Chenzhou was left-handed; the angle of that hooking stroke could only be made by a left hand. But why was this line of writing never made public?"

"Because he died suddenly." Ye Guanlan blew out the oil lamp and carefully put away the blade, his movements elegant and precise. "In the instant before he was killed, he used his last bit of strength to smear the blood onto the scroll wrapped around the sword. This scroll of blood-written testament should have been buried with the sword, but my father... took it."

"Took it?" Jiang Wanzhou turned, his gaze like a blade, stabbing at Ye Guanlan. "Your father, Gu Chenzhou? No, it's Ye Guanlan's father. Why did he take the evidence of guilt? If he was innocent, why didn't he bring it out sooner to clear the name? What exactly has he been hiding for these twenty years?"

The air seemed to freeze. A shard of roof tile flew in through the window. Yan Guihong, low-voiced, warned: "Keep it down. There's movement. Two Shadow guards are less than thirty zhang away from the pharmacy."

Ye Guanlan's face darkened slightly. He quickly rummaged through the wooden crate in the corner and pulled out a yellowed oilcloth bundle. He untied the knot; inside were not gold or silver, but a stack of yellowed ledgers and correspondence. These were the old archives his father had left behind. He had never shown them to anyone, not even to Jiang Wanzhou or Liu Qingwu.

He pulled out one page; the edge of the paper was charred black, clearly salvaged from a fire scene.

"Look here." Ye Guanlan pointed to an ink mark on the ledger, his finger trembling slightly. "On the night of the incident, the mansion's accounting room recorded only one expense. The amount was three thousand taels of silver, flowing to the Xuanming Society's money house. In the signature column, the name wasn't Gu Chenzhou, it was..."

"Ye Yuanshan." Liu Qingwu cut in, her voice ice-cold. "Are you saying that your father is Ye Yuanshan's son? That he was the accountant under Gu Chenzhou?"

Ye Guanlan was silent for a moment, then nodded. "Father used to be the accountant at the Gu Mansion. After Gu Chenzhou died, the Xuanming Society sealed the estate. Father fled the mansion with this page of the ledger. From then on, he hid his name, changed his surname to Ye, and lived in seclusion in the Old City. He thought that as long as he guarded this page of the ledger, he could protect the last bloodline of the Ye family. But he was wrong.

This page of the ledger isn't evidence to clear the name; it's evidence that invites the wolves into the house."

Jiang Wanzhou gripped his hilt tightly, his knuckles white. "So you've been keeping us in the dark the whole time? You knew the Xuanming Society had been looking for this page of the ledger all along, yet you just threw us the sword and sent us to our deaths?"

"I had no choice." Ye Guanlan met his gaze, his eyes holding a deathly stillness. "I was investigating. Investigating for twenty years. It was only today that I discovered the last person Gu Chenzhou saw before his death was my father. He might not be the killer, but he is definitely the key node in that conspiracy.

And I, raised carrying my father's sin, now have to wash it clean with my own hands."

Yan Guihong suddenly flipped through the window, soaked through, a fresh streak of blood on his left arm. He gasped, "The scouts outside have withdrawn, but the main force is still gathering. Su Jingxing's men will seal all exits in half an hour. We have to make a decision now."

Liu Qingwu quickly flipped through the old archives, suddenly stopping her finger on an interleaf.

"Here. Gu Chenzhou's private notes. Look at this annotation: 'The Xuanming Society intends to borrow the ritual of sacrifice to absorb the fortune of all jianghu sects to stabilize the situation. The Gu family refused to cooperate, so a scheme was set to lure them into the trap.' This means Gu Chenzhou wasn't a victim; he was one of the plotters.

He deliberately left an opening to lure the Xuanming Society into acting, then used this page of the ledger to pin the crime of the massacre on the Xuanming Society's upper echelons, thereby achieving a kind of political balance."

Ye Guanlan felt dizzy. Twenty years of endurance and pain collapsed and restructured in that moment. His father wasn't an innocent fugitive, but a discarded piece in this grand game of the jianghu, or perhaps a piece that was used. He remembered his father's cloudy, complex eyes before death, and those words: "Don't trust Su Jingxing."

So, even his father had been lying. Or rather, his father had finally seen the board clearly before he died.

"Su Jingxing just sent a message." Yan Guihong took out a black iron token from his coat; the Xuanming Society's cloud pattern was engraved on it. "He's demanding we hand over the Remnant Scroll. He claims the ritual requires a complete chain of evidence to maintain the yin-yang balance of the jianghu. He gave us one hour."

Jiang Wanzhou let out a cold laugh, drawing his blade halfway. The blade's edge reflected Liu Qingwu's calm face. "Maintain balance? He killed my master, ruined the Gu family, and now he wants to talk about balance? I'm going to take his head off and hang it at the pharmacy door. That's what real balance looks like!"

"Don't act on impulse." Ye Guanlan reached out and pressed on the back of Jiang Wanzhou's blade, the force not great, but steady as Mount Tai. "Su Jingxing is communicating remotely; he's not in the Old City right now. If we break through now, we'll just fall into the encirclement he's set up. The Xuanming Society's layout is never just about slaughter; it's about control.

We need to make him think the Remnant Scroll is in our hands but cannot be extracted. This will force him to hold his ground and continue observing until the ritual ends."

Liu Qingwu tucked the remaining page of the ledger into her robe, her expression grave. "So we just stay in this pharmacy? Su Jingxing won't wait until the ritual ends. He will comb the Old City. We need a reason to make him spare us for now."

"Make him think we've been turned by the Xuanming Society's internal elements." A faint, elusive smile appeared on Ye Guanlan's face; the smile looked especially eerie on his face covered in rain and oil stains. "Yan Guihong, go find a letter from a second-tier Xuanming Society scout.

Jiang Wanzhou, burn that old Gu family robe on you. Smear the ash on your face and pretend to be injured and fleeing. Liu Qingwu, hide this ledger in the secret compartment of the pharmacy. There's a ventilation duct there that leads directly to the docks."

The three divided the work clearly, their actions efficient. Ye Guanlan began using his artisan's skills to seal the doors and windows. He used a special adhesive to coat the door gaps, blocking the faint smell of blood and oil smoke from inside, and covered the window screens with a thin layer of lead paper to block the firelight from outside.

Jiang Wanzhou was dissatisfied, but he knew this was the only way to live. He gritted his teeth and complied, throwing the clothes into the fire basin. The firelight illuminated his young, angry face.

Half an hour later, Yan Guihong sneaked back, bringing a crumpled letter stamped with the red seal of a Xuanming Society branch. He handed the letter to Ye Guanlan and said in a low voice, "Su Jingxing's patience is limited. The main vanguard has reached outside the dye works and is checking house by house. We must leave here within a stick of incense's time and escape via the water route to North Port."

Ye Guanlan put the letter and the sword scroll together into a waterproof oil pouch on his back. He looked one last time at the page of the ledger hidden in the secret compartment. The heavy stone in his heart fell, only to be replaced by a new shackle. He had to stay behind alone to cover Jiang Wanzhou and Liu Qingwu's withdrawal via the water route.

Since Su Jingxing wanted a complete chain of evidence, he would need a living "restorer" to interpret the Remnant Scroll. This was Ye Guanlan's last bargaining chip, and his bait.

"Go." Ye Guanlan turned and walked toward the back door that was about to be broken open. His silhouette looked thin but resolute in the dim oil light. "Remember, no matter what you see, do not trust Su Jingxing. The truth is only in the last line of the Remnant Scroll."

Outside, the rain poured down like a curtain. From the distance came the dull sound of Xuanming Society scouts knocking on the water surface. Ye Guanlan took a deep breath and pushed the door open. The rain instantly enveloped him. He vanished into the vast night, leaving only that page of the old archive hidden in the secret compartment of the pharmacy, quietly recording in an unknown corner the blood debt of the father's generation and the earth-shaking secret.

What deal did Gu Chenzhou and Ye Yuanshan strike in their last meeting before Gu Chenzhou died? Where did that three thousand taels of silver actually flow? The answer lay in the darkness that Ye Guanlan was about to face.