In the mountains of northern Yuzhou, a solitary tea shed stood in isolation.
Successive heavy rains had washed out the nearby official roads. On the path heading north toward the borders of Yuzhou, this was the only place to rest. The owner of the tea shed was clearly a bold and ruthless individual, a firm believer that fortune is found in risk, determined to squeeze out every last copper even in the face of natural disaster. It was the workers who suffered; their complexions were sallow and grim, looking as though they hadn't slept for three days and nights.
The shed saw a constant stream of guests: merchant caravans passing through, scattered martial artists, wanderers seeking refuge, and boatmen from the nearby ferries. Many had lost their employers or their horses, hoping only for a moment’s respite in this wilderness to try their luck.
Among the various figures, one hunched and stooped man was particularly striking.
He was an old charcoal seller, covered in mud, with one straw sandal missing. It was clear he had suffered through the mountain floods and had barely managed to endure until he reached this spot.
He trudged heavily to the front of the tea shed, the yoke still on his shoulders. After hesitating for a long time, he finally spoke up to ask for a pot of coarse tea.
The owner of the shed didn't lift an eyelid from beginning to end. The busy waiters didn't spare him a single word either, but he had already read their eyes. Handing over a few mud-stained copper coins and bowing low as he took the pot of tea, he stood under the broad-leafed banana tree by the entrance to drink, never setting foot inside the shed.
Outside, it was raining heavily; under the water-logged banana tree, it drizzled. He stood in the rain, taking off his only straw raincoat to cover the two baskets of charcoal on his back.
That was his lifeblood, his rations for the coming month. It was far more important than himself. It absolutely could not get damp; if a buyer found fault with it later, he would lose a few more coppers.
He worriedly tucked the covering over the charcoal again and again. When he finally looked up, he was startled to find a round-faced youth standing before him, holding a shoe and staring at him without blinking.
"The Master told me to give this to you."
The old man looked at the shoe slowly, then timidly looked up at the youth's expression. It took a long moment for him to understand, and he jumped slightly in overwhelmed surprise.
"Oh, this... I couldn't possibly..."
The round-faced youth remained motionless, still holding out the shoe. It seemed that if the old man didn't take it, he would hold it there forever.
His right foot, soaked and rotted by muddy water and worn raw by miles of mountain paths, curled instinctively. He took one last look at the youth's face, then reached out quickly to take the straw sandal. He scraped the mud off his sole and slipped it on.
The shoe was neither too big nor too small; it fit perfectly.
At the thought that the rest of his journey would be free of such suffering, his mood brightened as never before, and he became talkative.
"Many thanks to you, young sir, and to your Master. This rain won't stop for a while; why don't you go into the shed, sit down properly, and have a cup of tea to rest your feet? I hear the Sparrow Tea of Ganyu is very famous, though it's quite precious—thirty wen a pot!"
Thirty wen. He would have to sell a lot of charcoal to earn that back.
The scholar, half-hidden behind the curtain of rain, looked toward the nearby tea shed. His gaze swept over the whispering, cursing martial artists and the hurried travelers. After a long silence, he spoke gently.
"I do not like crowded places. The air is foul; it always feels stifling."
The charcoal seller nodded as if he understood, chuckling and rubbing his hands.
"The Master is like an immortal from the heavens; only a very, very fine place would be worthy of you."
The scholar did not respond to this; his expression remained faint.
"Where is the old gentleman going?"
"Longshu Jiugao. My old customers are all over there, but the floods are too great this year, and boats are hard to find."
In truth, it wasn't that boats were completely unavailable, but he couldn't afford the large ones. Once the passage fare was deducted, how many coppers would he have left?
The surroundings fell silent. After a long while, the scholar spoke again.
"This place is not far from Jinping Ferry. There are still boats heading north there. Why doesn't the old gentleman go and try his luck?"
"North?" the man murmured, his dark, rough face flushing slightly. "Sir, you don't know... there are many nobles in the capital. I... I'm afraid my New Silla charcoal won't fetch a good price..."
Before he could finish, the scholar beckoned to the round-faced youth. The latter stepped forward, took something out, and handed it to the old man.
It was a silver ingot of a strange shape, but it had significant weight.
"This is to buy your charcoal. Is it enough?"
The charcoal seller froze. It took him a long time to react, stammering as he spoke.
"This... there are only two baskets of charcoal. I can't give you change for this silver..."
The youth also seemed stumped. He looked to the scholar as if for help, and the latter spoke.
"Then sell me your yoke and baskets as well."
When the rain lightened, the charcoal seller's figure disappeared at the end of the muddy path. With his new silver and the burden gone from his shoulders, his entire being seemed light, as if he could walk another ten miles of mountain road.
"Are we taking this charcoal too?" Ren Xiaohan stared at the two large baskets of charcoal, making no effort to hide the reluctance on his face. "Master clearly doesn't need this much charcoal. Why buy it?"
"I was just reminded of some things from the past."
Ding Miao's voice was soft, barely heavier than the sound of raindrops dripping from a banana leaf. Seeing this, the youth before him also lowered his voice.
"Master rarely mentions the past, so Xiaohan thought Master didn't remember."
How could he not remember? Even if he forgot what happened this morning, he would not forget a single detail of what he had experienced before.
But of his "remembering," how many others would remember?
In the tea shed not far away, several martial artists had finished their meal. They had been joking and chatting about the unusual movements in the martial world recently, but now they had fallen silent in unison. Their fingers lingered among the greasy cups and plates, but their eyes flickered toward the crooked footprints on the path. There was an imperceptible restlessness in the air.
For those who walked the martial world, keeping an eye on all directions was a mandatory skill. They had been watching everything that happened outside the shed, and their hearts were already forming a new plan to stretch their limbs.
What was the use of putting silver in one's pocket? If you couldn't guard it yourself, you couldn't blame others.
Seven or eight men laughed lowly. In the next moment, Ren Xiaohan's face appeared before Ding Miao again.
"We've been crouching here for so long. Hasn't Master heard enough?"
Those people were very noisy. Master clearly disliked noise, yet he insisted on listening. It was truly strange.
"What I wanted to hear, I have already heard. When the rain lets up, we will leave this place."
Ren Xiaohan stood up abruptly upon hearing this, but then remembered something, and his face fell.
"Those annoying tails from before just won't go away. It seems the Manor Lord is truly angry this time. After this is over, do we have to go back and receive punishment?"
Ding Miao smiled and said softly, "Don't be afraid. Don't you dislike going back? Before long, you will never have to go back again."
"Is it true? Is what Master says true?" He was so happy that he repeated himself, but then another thought occurred to him, and he asked anxiously for confirmation, "Xiaohan doesn't have to go back, and Master doesn't have to go back either. Right?"
"Right." Ding Miao gently patted the youth's head, then pointed toward the tea shed. "However, it seems someone has their eye on us—perhaps they want to report us. What do you think we should do?"
The martial artists in the shed seemed to sense something and looked up at the same time.
Many tangled gazes met in the thinning curtain of rain, stirring up a ripple alongside the falling water. But everything would end beneath the flash of a blade, dissipating into the mist and rain.
****** ****** ******
Gongzi Yan knew Ding Miao.
This wasn't even a deduction on Qin Jiuye's part; it was a powerful premonition in her heart.
But after she asked that question, the premonition rapidly became reality.
The Tang brothers withdrew along with the shadows, leaving only two people in the bamboo building.
"Why did Shopkeeper Qin agree to come to Chuanliu Courtyard?" Gongzi Yan did not answer her question immediately, instead speaking of other things. "Or let me rephrase. Why does Shopkeeper Qin think I sent Jia Shisan to deliver the message?"
He threw out two questions casually, instantly turning the tables.
What a meticulous and malicious mind. He had not only calculated the relationship between her and Li Qiao but had even anticipated that she would recognize him at a glance, which was why he had sent him to the boat. That poor youth had become the bait to lure her into the trap, and he was even willing to become a test subject for the medicine.
"I say this with no hostility; I only want you to know that our meeting is not a coincidence, but because we share the same predicament." He spoke again, his voice devoid of emotion. "Yuzhou is not peaceful right now, and Ju Chao is the most dangerous of places. You were willing to risk your life to go deep into it; surely it wasn't just to see a dying man like me?"
The silent battle had begun. Qin Jiuye understood that this conversation was both a search for each other's weaknesses and a test of their respective stances.
Currently, she was on Chuanliu Courtyard's turf. She wasn't facing Auntie Xiong, who could be swayed by a jar of wine, but the former Shadow Envoy of the Manor, the Master of Chuanliu Courtyard who hid within the wind, rain, and mist. If she wanted to pluck the tiger's whiskers and escape unscathed, she had to be incredibly careful.
Qin Jiuye collected her thoughts and countered his words.
"The descendant of the Qiu family has arrived, and I am but an obscure physician. You used any means necessary to invite me here; surely it wasn't just to see this broken wooden bucket?"
Her words were not polite, but they did not provoke him.
"You will soon know why I wanted to see you. You came for Jia Shisan, and everything I am about to tell you is also related to him. All the tragedies of my life began with him, yet I still chose to leave him a path to live; that is already great mercy." As Gongzi Yan spoke, he picked up a fragment of the wooden bucket. With a slight pressure of his fingertips, the wood instantly turned to powder and fell into the charcoal brazier. "I heavily wounded him on Qingping Road, and you were the one who saved him. Are you not curious why I sought him out?"
Qin Jiuye answered almost without thinking.
"He comes from the World's Greatest Manor and escaped with Li Qingdao. To you, he is a fine blade, is he not?"
Gongzi Yan shook his head gently.
"Thanks to the World's Greatest Manor, blades and swords sharper and more convenient than him are not hard to find. Though he is special, he was not so special that I would specifically go to retrieve him."
Hearing this, the vague premonition in Qin Jiuye's heart grew even stronger.
"Could it be... the reason you went to Qingping Road on Xizhu Mountain that night was because someone deliberately leaked information to you?"
"Correct. Information about Jia Shisan—or rather, information that the Outer Appearance Sect possessed a secret formula—was indirectly revealed to me by Ding Miao. From the Outer Appearance Sect to Qingping Road, he calculated layer upon layer, all to use my hand to drag Jia Shisan into the abyss. He knew my style of operation, and he knew the methods I've used over the years to gather people to deal with him. In a sense, the reason Jia Shisan was infected with the secret formula was because he was pushing from the shadows."
A cold, damp sensation crawled up her spine, and Qin Jiuye couldn't help but murmur her deepest doubt.
"But the two of them were strangers. Why would Ding Miao do such a thing to him?"
The broken wood began to burn in the brazier, soon turning into a charred mass. Gongzi Yan's face became somewhat ethereal and unpredictable in the glow of the fire.
"You have already met Ding Miao, haven't you? What kind of person do you think he is?"
What kind of person? It was strange; he seemed to be the kind of person one couldn't quite remember.
The blind nobleman savored her brief silence, his lips curling into a mocking arc, as if remembering an absurd past.
"I do not know what he himself thought back then, but I can be certain that Jia Shisan and Ding Miao were not without connection."
Qin Jiuye's heart beat faster and faster.
In a daze, she returned to that sweltering dusk, the small boat passing through the silent, windless expanse of lotus flowers, leading her toward a figure hidden among the green leaves. That person's face was blurred, but his gaze could pierce through time to look heavily upon her.
"Did they know each other at the World's Greatest Manor?"
"To be precise, it should be related to Jia Shisan's escape from the Manor. And the reason I know this is because I was the one who led the investigation into the entire matter."
Gongzi Yan's voice grew colder. Every breath he took and every word he spoke carried the frost of the past, which even the burning charcoal before him could not dispel.
"Jia Shisan, a disciple of the Jia Camp, was unruly and difficult to tame. Because he committed a great error, he was imprisoned deep within the West Offering Tower of Changu Valley. By a twist of fate, he rescued Li Qingdao, who had been imprisoned for many years. With the latter's help, he blinded the valley guardian, Li Kuquan, and escaped the Manor through a secret passage. This incident was the shame of the World's Greatest Manor and the bane of Di Mo. As the Shadow Envoy at the time, I naturally had to take over the investigation."
"I soon discovered that the so-called secret passage was merely a tunnel the Manor used specifically for transporting charcoal. It looked narrow and difficult for a person to pass through, but in fact, there were hidden alcoves where a person could turn around; with a desperate effort, escape was possible. The investigation should have ended there, but at the time, I believed such a conclusion would be an admission that my management had a fatal flaw—it would be a declaration of my failure and incompetence before the entire Manor. I could not accept this, and for that, I did not hesitate to stir up a storm of blood within the Manor. I interrogated, searched, and tortured day and night, refusing to let go of any suspicious person or matter. Finally, I discovered a clue. It turned out nothing was a coincidence. The reason the charcoal transport passage outside Changu Valley was open that day was because someone had made an appointment to meet the charcoal seller's young granddaughter there."
"With that key clue, following the trail and clearing everything up was only a matter of time. Soon, I locked onto a Manor servant. This person was from the Ding Camp, the camp with the most people in the Manor, where hundreds of people entered, left, lived, or died every year. But the first time I saw him and had him take off the waist token to hand to me, I found there were three holes in it. Two of them were worn through—marks made by wearing the same token for labor over many years. He seemed like someone who had been forgotten for many years, during which he had hardly spoken to anyone. He was incredibly thin and weak, with no decent martial arts to speak of. He looked to be fifteen or sixteen, yet no one in the entire Ding Camp remembered his code name. My only impression of him was that waist token with three holes."
Silence so profound it could return to nothingness at any moment.
This was also Qin Jiuye's first impression of Ding Miao. The silhouette of the figure looking at her from the lotus thicket became clearer, but the mist of doubt in her heart grew heavier.
"But why would such a person want to communicate with someone from the outside? You said he was from the Ding Camp and hadn't been given any important duties for years; how could he be acquainted or collude with someone from the Jia Camp?"
As the past was stirred, Gongzi Yan coughed lowly. It took a while for him to settle, and he continued, breathing shallowly.
"If I had possessed even half of your consideration back then, there might have been a turning point. Unfortunately, I was arrogant and at the height of my power; why would I spend even a moment's thought on a lowly Ding Camp servant? Moreover, Di Mo's fury was focused on the defectors. After summarily convicting him and throwing him into the West Offering Tower, I sent my men outside the Manor to hunt down Li Qingdao and Jia Shisan."
"The Manor is a place where the strong prey on the weak. Children born with weak bones who cannot practice martial arts are contemptuously called 'Renchan'—Human Toads—meaning lowly existences that can never leave the dark bottom of the tower. At that time, everyone in the Manor knew what a grave crime the newly imprisoned Ding Camp servant had committed. My frustration and Di Mo's fury became a brush that could write infinite charges. He became the greatest sinner in the history of the Manor. Everything that the escaped Jia Shisan and Li Qingdao did not endure, he endured alone. Eventually, punishing him didn't even require a reason; even the lowest servant in the Manor could vent their dissatisfaction on him. The bottom of the West Offering Tower became a microcosm of the darkness of the human heart, a place one dared not peer into."
Cries that can be heard are not the greatest tragedies; true suffering is often silent.
That night on Black Water Lake, hearing Jiang Xin'er tell of Li Qiao's past, Qin Jiuye had felt it was the ultimate evil she could imagine. Yet in that unknown corner, the interpretation of the word "evil" had no boundaries or end.
"Thus, the next time I saw him was three months later. A tower slave had died in the West Offering Tower, reportedly shot for trespassing into a forbidden area set by the Manor Lord. The forbidden area was in the deepest part of the tower's dungeon, where even the tower guards could not enter. I felt something was amiss and went to investigate personally. He, as the only witness to the entire event, was brought to see me."
"He was barely human anymore, like a skeleton draped in clothes; his bones seemed ready to pierce through the fabric. But the physical deficiencies were not a ten-thousandth of the change in his eyes. All the intense emotions of pleading and struggling had vanished, leaving only a pair of pupils devoid of desire or hope. At that moment, I understood that what I was looking at was not a still ancient well, but a ruin that had been destroyed."
Silent, cold, empty.
Qin Jiuye blinked. In her memory, the figure leaning against the boat window still looked at her wordlessly. The fireworks outside rose silently into the night sky, yet they could not illuminate or warm his pitch-black eyes.
In a ruin, neither desire nor warmth can grow. It can isolate all joy and pain, and it can also make a person cruel and indestructible.
"As the only survivor of the incident, he told me that the tower slave had accidentally discovered the Manor Lord's secret and wanted to take something for himself. He tried to stop him to no avail; the man seemed to have gone mad, tireless and oblivious to pain, which was why he was shot by the guards. Everything was seamless. Though doubt had arisen in my heart, I found nothing more. In those years at the bottom of the West Offering Tower, he had already seen through the human heart. Thinking back now, he must have deliberately left flaws to lure me into exposing it, all to seize this only opportunity to lead me step by step into the abyss."
"What Di Mo had hidden in the West Offering Tower—I had never cared about that question before that day, nor had I ever felt a moment's curiosity. But after that day, he planted that thought in my heart, waiting for it to take root and sprout. So when I appeared before him again, he wasn't surprised at all. He held a box out to me and said it was the reason the dead tower slave had gone mad, and asked if I wanted to create something that could replace Qingfeng Powder."
He did not elaborate on what that thing was, but Qin Jiuye had the answer almost instantly.
Although she had speculated before, hearing it with her own ears still made it hard to believe. So after the battle of Ju Chao ended, had Black Moon truly brought that terrifying thing out of Minshan? If not for Ding Miao's accidental intervention, would Di Mo have unleashed it at some point, and was Qiu Yan aware of it?
It was now nearly impossible for Qiu Yan to give her an answer, and Di Mo's thoughts were even harder to guess. Qin Jiuye could only focus her attention on the person before her.
"As the Shadow Envoy of the Manor, you should have known Di Mo's past. Did you never suspect the origin of that thing? How could you be so easily deceived by Ding Miao?"
Her questioning was not without reason. Even if Gongzi Yan had been momentarily deluded, as a man who had everything he wanted, Ding Miao's chips and situation at the time should not have been enough to draw him in.
"The origin of that thing was not important. What was important was the relationship between Di Mo and me at the time. I saw the World's Greatest Manor as a place to exercise my ambitions, while Di Mo could not accept any person or matter that was out of his control. The conflict between us was bound to be triggered sooner or later; Ding Miao merely brought the opportunity to me. As for your second question... I never intended to accept any of his persuasions. His purpose was not to convince me to do anything, but merely to have that one meeting with me." As he said this, the lines around his mouth changed, forming a nearly twisted smile. "After all, some things can only be done face-to-face."
The scene on Qionghu Island involuntarily appeared in her mind. Qin Jiuye asked instinctively, "Did he put that thing in your food or drink?"
Gongzi Yan smiled and lightly raised a hand, signaling her not to be anxious and to keep listening.
"I first refused his proposal, saying it was against the rules. After hearing this, he knelt on the stone steps and suddenly asked me a question: Who decides the rules of this world? And who is qualified to rewrite them? I thought he was merely unwilling to accept his lot, so I replied: There are actually no rules in this world; so-called rules are merely chains around the necks of the weak, existing only so the other end can be handed to the strong. He fell silent for a long time after hearing that, then told me he understood. He then handed the box containing that thing to me, saying it was only right for me to put it back in its place." Gongzi Yan's voice paused briefly, then he lightly rubbed his fingertips. "I have traveled the martial world for many years and prided myself on having seen many despicable methods. Unfortunately, I escaped all sorts of schemes, but I could not escape my own curiosity. I did not want the thing in the box, but I wanted to know Di Mo's secret. The moment I opened the box, something pricked my fingertip. At that time, I did not yet know that something which was not poison, yet was more potent than poison, had entered my body."
The fireworks outside exploded, turning into celestial fire that scattered and fell, burning for the glory of the rising stars of the martial world.
However, no matter how hot and bright those sparks were, they would eventually be swallowed by the cold lake water and the boundless night. And that was the true sight the person by the window was quietly observing.
At the thought that she had sat face-to-face with such a person at the same table that night, even exchanging toasts, eating the food and soup he had served her, and taking back the handkerchief he had returned, Qin Jiuye felt an indescribable shudder of revulsion.
"This is Ding Miao. This is his unknown past. What he wants has never been money, power, or anything with a price tag. What he wants is the collapse of rules, the subversion of order, and endless chaos. This is why he is difficult to deal with, and it is a fact you must understand."
That conversation, which had seemed sudden to Gongzi Yan, was perhaps a question that the tower slave Ding Miao had bitterly sought an answer to through countless days and nights. Gongzi Yan's answer had undoubtedly been cruel, and everything Ding Miao did afterward was a repeated demonstration of that cruel fact.
Ding Miao hated Sun Yan, he hated Di Mo, and he hated Jia Shisan.
Perhaps later, his hatred went far beyond that.
In the days and nights at the bottom of the West Offering Tower where the sun never shone, he must have thought of all the mistreatment and torture he had experienced since his earliest memories. Everyone could step on his back; everyone could strip anything from him; everyone could turn a blind eye to his misfortune and remain silent. And when a person hates everyone almost equally, he instead appears more gentle and calm than ordinary people. People cannot tell if he is a Buddha who cares for the world or a demon who wants to destroy it, until he places his final chess piece.
The long recollection seemed to drain the narrator's strength. Gongzi Yan coughed heavily again, looking like the last withered leaf in the autumn wind.
Qin Jiuye watched with a stern face for a while, but finally stepped forward and poured a cup of tea for him.
"Why are you telling me this?"
Gongzi Yan did not take the tea. He panted for a moment until the coughing subsided, then "looked" at her with his cloth-covered eyes.
"Do you not want revenge on Ding Miao?"
The teacup in her hand trembled, a drop of tea spilling out. His short sentence was like an assassin's dagger plunged straight into her heart. Qin Jiuye was unable to speak for a moment, but her silence gave him the answer.
Gongzi Yan casually wiped away the bloodstains he had coughed into his palm and held his hand over the charcoal brazier, as if feeling the scorching heat.
"Actually, about half a month ago, I no longer needed these braziers." He spoke, and his outstretched fingertips slowly lowered until they were only an inch from the fire. "I am just used to using them to confirm whether I can still feel this warmth."
Sparks flew from the brazier, landing on his hand, but the owner of the hand was completely oblivious. Instead, he moved his fingertips even closer. His sleeve, embroidered with fine patterns, was slowly pulled up, revealing a pale, thin wrist. Congested veins faintly showed through the skin like demonic tentacles, until blisters began to rise on the skin.
This Master of the hidden courtyard, who had only one breath left, was less respectable than he was terrifying. In these years of contending against Ding Miao and the World's Greatest Manor, he had already turned himself into a monster.
A monster who used any means necessary yet lingered on the brink of death.
"Even if I cannot see or hear, I can still feel the heat of the charcoal, just like the most primitive emotions of love and hate, which cannot be hidden. And from the moment you stepped in here, I felt the fire of hatred in your heart."
There truly were such contradictory people in this world, embodying both nobility and despicability, speaking the most cruel and cold-blooded facts in the most sensitive and soft tones.
By now, denial was meaningless, but Qin Jiuye did not intend to compromise.
"What happens between Ding Miao and me has nothing to do with you. To walk the same path as someone mired in a swamp only leads to perishing together."
"Then have you thought about how to take your revenge? Will you kill him? Or will you capture him and imprison him, torturing him day and night?"
Slaying the enemy with her own hands, cutting him into a thousand pieces—this was what Qin Jiuye had fantasized about most often during the three days she spent mourning Old Qin at Guoran Restaurant.
She was not afraid to admit the dark side of her heart, but after hearing of Ding Miao's past today, she suddenly couldn't be sure of what she wanted to do.
Would such a person truly fear death? No matter how cruel or heartless she became, how could she ever compare to the deeds of the World's Greatest Manor? Did she truly want to become a person more malicious than Di Mo for the sake of revenge?
But Old Qin and Old Tang could not have died in vain. She felt as if she were being torn apart. What exactly should she do to make him pay this debt with his very skin and bones?
"You must defeat him, not just kill him." Gongzi Yan's voice grew more urgent, the coughing making his voice sound somewhat strained. "That is what I failed to do. Now, I will give you this blade ground to a sharp edge and this ninety-percent-complete armor, as long as you can do it."
"There are thousands of people in this courtyard who want revenge, yet you picked the most useless and cowardly one." Qin Jiuye laughed, her voice tinged with absurd disbelief. "I have no strength to even truss a chicken; I trip if I walk too fast. I am not even a person of the martial world. Do you want me to deal with him, or do you want me to be your scapegoat?"
"You are indeed so, but so is Ding Miao. The sharpest things in this world are not just blades and swords; the ways to take a life are not just through martial arts; and the places that produce heroes are not just the martial world."
The charcoal that had been burning brightly was gradually turning grayish-white; before long, it would become a bowl of ashes. The color had completely drained from Gongzi Yan's face, and his dark, bruised lips opened and closed.
"Though the so-called secret formula is like celestial fire or a divine spring, without a body of flesh and blood to inherit it, it will one day decline and vanish, returning to dust. The reason it has survived until now is only because the human heart is unpredictable, never satisfied, and always longing for what it cannot have. It is like a dark fire; as long as the spark in the heart is not extinguished, there will always be a day when it starts a prairie fire again. We have no more time. You must make a choice."
the obsession of a dying man filled the room like choking smoke. After a long time, Qin Jiuye looked away from the glowing charcoal brazier and asked in a low voice.
"So... what happened to the charcoal seller and his young granddaughter?"
A long silence followed before two short words came through the air.
"Dead."
Gongzi Yan slowly turned toward the woman's position, his ears finely discerning the changes in her breath. He then revealed a somewhat strange smile.
"Have you ever thought that perhaps the reason you were able to reach this point today is because you and Ding Miao share similarities? Those fragile, tiny hopes in desperate situations are one such thing, and the hatred in your heart is another."
"There are more or less similarities between all people. I share similarities with the old lady who raises chickens in my village, but I can never be her, and she can never be me."
Qin Jiuye left these final words and walked out of the bamboo building without looking back.
As her feet stepped into the night, she suddenly heard Gongzi Yan's voice coming through the air, sounding as clear and low as if he were speaking right into her ear.
"Before sunset tomorrow, come to the path east of the bamboo forest. I look forward to your answer."
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 龙枢九皋 | Longshu Jiugao | A place name mentioned by the charcoal seller. |
| 赣庾 | Ganyu | A place name, likely known for its tea. |
| 雀儿茶 | Sparrow Tea | A type of expensive tea. |
| 津平渡口 | Jinping Ferry | A ferry crossing mentioned as a route north. |
| 新罗炭 | New Silla Charcoal | A type of high-quality charcoal. |
| 壬小寒 | Ren Xiaohan | The name of the round-faced youth following Ding Miao. |
| 人蟾 | Renchan (Human Toad) | A derogatory term for weak, non-martial servants in the Manor. |
| 丁字号营 | Ding Camp | The lowest-ranked division of servants/disciples in the Manor. |
| 蟾桂谷 | Changu Valley | Toad Laurel Valley, location of the West Offering Tower. |
| 西祭塔 | West Offering Tower | A prison/tower within the World's Greatest Manor. |
| 李苦泉 | Li Kuquan | The guardian of the valley blinded by Jia Shisan. |
| 孙琰 | Sun Yan | Gongzi Yan's original name. |
