The Su family's cargo ships were modeled after the "sandboats" of the Lujiang region. They were wide and shallow, square at both bow and stern, and equipped with stabilizing timbers on both sides. This design ensured they remained far steadier in heavy waves than ordinary fishing boats—a modification specifically intended for heavy-load merchant vessels. However, after observing for a moment, Qin Jiuye noticed something peculiar: judging by how much of the stabilizing timbers were submerged, the ship’s draft was quite shallow. This meant the hold was not full; in fact, it was likely half-empty. Yet, the number of sailors and Su family servants entering and exiting the forward cabins was unusually high.
It was true that the Su family was wealthy and powerful, but Su Lin was a businessman. He would never waste manpower and resources letting an empty ship run the river.
Qin Jiuye gave a helpless, bitter smile in the darkness.
With a one-in-five chance, she had actually picked the right one. She was beginning to lose track of her luck today. Had the heavens put her on this "pirate ship" to grant her wish, or simply to ensure she suffered alone?
The cabin doors at the bow were tightly shut, and with the surrounding noise of the water, she lacked Li Qiao’s exceptional hearing. Even straining with all her might, she could only catch vague murmurs of human voices, unable to distinguish a single word. She began to pace in circles, frantic.
Knowing her footwork was clumsy, she didn't dare approach any closer to investigate. After some thought, her gaze fell upon the wooden planks of the deck beneath her feet.
If eavesdropping through walls was too difficult, she could listen through the floor. She had heard that back when Tang Shenyan was in a trade war with Manager Ma of Juxian Restaurant, he had once crouched in the cellar of the rival’s teahouse for half a month.
With that thought, Qin Jiuye waited for the helmsman to walk toward the stern before slipping out of her hiding spot. She quickly found the wooden hatch leading to the lower hold.
This was a ventilation port, also used by sailors to descend for inspections. It was a square opening just large enough for one person, currently secured with a wooden bolt. She pressed her ear to the gap between the planks; all was silent. Refusing to give up, she leaned in to sniff. She smelled only the briny scent of river water and the odor of dust.
Faint footsteps echoed on the deck again. Qin Jiuye hesitated no longer. She pulled the bolt, wedged it into a nearby crevice, and pulled open the hatch. She slipped inside, turned to pull the cover back—leaving only a sliver of a gap—and then felt for the wooden ladder to climb down into the hold.
The hold was pitch black. The torch brackets nailed to the sides of the ladder were empty. The light from the deck was gradually cut off as she descended. When Qin Jiuye stepped off the final rung, she looked around.
She had assumed that on a ship this large, the lower hold would be the size of several rooms. But perhaps because of the absolute darkness, as she looked around, she felt the hull walls were incredibly narrow. It felt as if she were trapped inside a sealed mountain cavern, an indescribable sense of suffocation washing over her.
Through the hull planks, the sound of the river slapping against the ship echoed within the hold, sounding as if it came from a great distance.
Did this ship truly contain the secret the Su family was so desperate to hide? Where was it? Why did the hold seem completely empty?
Qin Jiuye stood by the ladder for a moment, confirming there was no other movement in the darkness before she slowly began to walk.
Recalling the assassins at Tingfeng Hall and the eye she had seen through the hole in the wall during the birthday banquet, she didn't dare strike a fire-starter for light. She could only grope her way forward in the dark. Her vision blurred, but her other senses were magnified. She felt as if the floor were covered in fine, shredded straw. The smell of dust mixed with the straw created an unpleasant, musty odor that interfered with her sense of smell.
After a moment, her eyes adjusted to the gloom. She noticed several tung-oil wooden crates ahead that seemed to glow faintly. It was light from the forward cabin leaking through the gaps in the deck planks. Squinting, she carefully crept toward them and finally heard the muffled voices from the room above.
Most were the voices of middle-aged men, varying in pitch. There was clearly more than one person; occasionally, the sound of someone shifting their feet suggested at least seven or eight people were present.
The voices took turns speaking. She could vaguely make out mentions of ledgers and warehouse management; it seemed they were merely reporting on business matters. Then, a woman’s voice rang out—short and low. Qin Jiuye couldn't hear what she said.
Qin Jiuye froze for a second, then remembered the figure she had glimpsed from afar at the birthday banquet. She was seventy to eighty percent certain of the woman's identity. She had assumed Su Lin would oversee this personally to ensure everything went perfectly. But looking at it now, he was not only cautious but also selfish, choosing to command his eldest daughter to handle this dangerous task while removing himself at the final moment.
As she pondered, she carefully climbed onto one of the tung-oil crates, trying to get closer to the voices. However, in the next heartbeat, the light filtering through the deck vanished. After a flurry of footsteps, the surroundings returned to total silence.
Her only source of information had been cut off. Qin Jiuye couldn't hide her disappointment. She decided to continue searching the hold, but as she turned, her head bumped into something.
She had been so eager to catch their words that she had unknowingly moved too close. Her head nearly brushed against the cobwebs hanging from the beams. Startled, she instinctively reached out and caught the object just before it hit the floor.
Qin Jiuye’s fingers moved; she was holding an oil lamp that had been hanging from a wooden beam. Half the oil had spilled, leaking from the opening and staining her hand.
She let out a long breath and was about to hang the lamp back up. In the next moment, a familiar woman’s voice suddenly rang out from the darkness ahead.
"Is Shopkeeper Qin lost?"
Before the words even landed, the oil lamp in Qin Jiuye’s hand was suddenly lit by a spark from across the room. The lamp seemed to have been unused for a long time; the wick produced only a tiny, bean-sized flame, barely illuminating a small patch of space. Holding the lamp in the darkness, Qin Jiuye suddenly felt like a target standing in the void.
The lamp in her hand wobbled as the person hidden in the shadows finally stepped forward.
It was the same purple robe, the same skin-deep smile. Yet the expression in her eyes no longer held the cautious humility of a maidservant.
Qin Jiuye involuntarily took a half-step back on the wooden crate.
"Miss Xin Yu?"
"Shopkeeper Qin has a good memory, to still remember a lowly maid you only met once." The woman approached step by step, her voice growing softer and gentler. "Tonight is truly lively. If Shopkeeper Qin only has one life, she really, really shouldn't have come to join the fun."
The woman had been hiding in the darkness, and Qin Jiuye hadn't sensed her at all. This could only mean that Xin Yu was also a member of the martial world. Her presence here in the hold was clearly no coincidence. The quieter she was, the more she resembled a venomous snake coiled in a cave, waiting for its prey, ready to bared its fangs and strike at any moment.
Qin Jiuye forced a smile and scrambled down from the crate, inconspicuously moving toward the ventilation hatch she had entered through.
"What is Miss Xin Yu saying? I don't quite understand. I am out with the city's pharmacies to purchase stock. I was distracted at the docks and simply boarded the wrong ship..."
As she spoke, she reached with her hand behind her back for the smoke pellet hidden in her sleeve. However, in the next instant, a sharp pain shot through her fingertip. She only caught a glimpse of a hair-thin silver glint returning to the woman’s hand. When she looked down, a tiny hole had been pierced through the tip of her left finger.
"What is Shopkeeper Qin doing? They say healers have benevolent hearts, so why do you try to hurt someone the moment we meet?"
Qin Jiuye squeezed her fingertip, the truth dawning on her instantly.
The oil lamp in her hand had been lit by the sparks created when a flying needle struck the iron frame.
The person who had broken into Tingfeng Hall that night was her.
But Su Lin was merely a medicinal merchant. It was one thing to hire a killer, but why would he keep a martial arts assassin in his household? Or was there another secret to Xin Yu? Was her goal at Tingfeng Hall that night far more than just a message about a hired kill? And all of this was likely related to the truth Su Lin was so desperate to hide...
While Qin Jiuye’s thoughts raced, Xin Yu had already walked to the ladder at the exit, silently blocking her only way out.
"I have always preferred to do things securely. I wonder if Shopkeeper Qin has heard the saying: the most reliable thing in this world is the mouth of a dead person."
Qin Jiuye squeezed the blood from her fingertip and quickly determined that the needle had not been poisoned. Though the woman had attacked, she had clearly held back, not taking her life immediately. This meant there was still a chance to turn things around.
The pain in her finger didn't make her panic; instead, it made her calmer than ever before.
"I've also heard a saying: it's better to have one less problem than one more. I wonder if Miss Xin Yu has heard that one?"
Qin Jiuye said this with the conviction that the other woman was also being driven by someone else, doing their bidding, and held no real personal grudge against her. This gave her room to maneuver.
Sure enough, once she spoke, the woman made no further move. Her guess was likely correct.
"Shopkeeper Qin truly deserves to be the one who stayed until the very end that day. You do have some courage."
"I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare." Qin Jiuye grinned. She couldn't see her own expression, but she knew the smile must look hideous. "Judging by Miss Xin Yu’s appearance, could it be that you, like me, also boarded the wrong ship?"
Xin Yu gave a light scoff, her lips curling slightly. Remembering something, her tone took on a hint of lingering resentment.
"Merely forced by others, yet unwilling in my heart, thinking to get a little something for myself."
The words "forced by others" struck a chord in Qin Jiuye. She instinctively associated this with Su Lin’s old face, then thought back to the night at Tingfeng Hall, prompting her to probe further.
"Did you find what you were looking for before? If not, I am willing to offer my humble assistance. I have some acquaintance with the Master of Tingfeng Hall..."
As she spoke, she watched the woman’s expression. However, something subtle in the air was triggered, causing the atmosphere between them to shift instantly. At the same time, Xin Yu’s smile vanished completely. When she didn't smile, her eyes were exceptionally hollow, like two emotionless fish eyes that rarely blinked.
"Help me? If I needed help with everything, how would I have lived until today?"
The moment the words left the woman's mouth, Qin Jiuye knew she had asked the wrong thing. But she racked her brain and couldn't figure out where she had gone wrong. Before she could think of her next move, the woman began to close in.
"I thought that since you came with him, you wouldn't be stupid enough to investigate my affairs under these circumstances. It seems I overestimated you." Three silver needles appeared between Xin Yu’s fingers. She exuded the lazy air of a cat playing with a mouse. "Don't worry, the poison on these needles works quickly. If they hit a vital point, you'll be bleeding from your seven orifices and dead within half a cup of tea's time. If you cooperate, I promise you won't suffer for long."
*Came with him? With whom? Could it be...*
The image of the youth by the river handing her the signal smoke flashed through her mind, and Qin Jiuye’s heart jolted.
But she truly had no time to verify her internal suspicions, nor the leisure to let her emotions run wild.
She only knew that because of some hidden detail she hadn't known beforehand, this "negotiation" had utterly collapsed before it even began.
She was already in a weak position. Once she saw the situation clearly, she couldn't hesitate; she had to react immediately to save her life.
The moment Xin Yu raised her hand, Qin Jiuye loosened her fingers, and the oil lamp fell to the floor.
The decayed lamp frame shattered upon impact. The oil spilled out, and a few sparks jumped, igniting instantly and temporarily separating the two women.
Xin Yu paused, then let out a shrill, piercing laugh.
"You don't actually think this will scare me off, do you?"
Qin Jiuye retreated behind the flames, trying to hide her form in the darkness, her voice heavy as she spoke.
"This ship is coated in tung oil inside and out. The hold is kept very dry for waterproofing, and there's plenty of straw packed in the hold and stern to hide things. It will burn very quickly. You work for the Su family; if you botch the job and draw a crowd, you won't have a good end either."
That eerie smile returned to Xin Yu’s face.
"The Su family? What can a mere Su Lin do to me?"
*Not Su Lin?* There really was someone else behind Xin Yu. Who? Who was it...
The flames on the wooden floor spread slowly, but there was no telling when they would break through the thick hull. Qin Jiuye inconspicuously backed into a corner, raising her hand to feign wiping cold sweat from her brow while secretly observing the walls of the hold.
"I'm just a wandering doctor. Why does Miss Xin Yu need such a grand display?"
"I wouldn't dare look down on Shopkeeper Qin. They say in the martial world, only the small, slippery loaches live long. You must know this well."
Seeing that the woman was unmoved, Qin Jiuye had no choice but to throw out one last threat to bluff her.
"I didn't come alone today. If you're only focused on me, be careful someone doesn't take your rear."
This sentence seemed to remind the woman of something, and Xin Yu indeed hesitated for a moment. But only for a moment.
"If I can clear away all the stumbling blocks at once, I would be more than happy."
As she spoke, a murderous glint appeared in her eyes. Qin Jiuye had already used that brief hesitation to turn and run toward one side of the hold. There were a few solitary wooden crates standing there; she hid behind them and looked at the hull wall behind her.
Earlier, when she was standing in the center of the hold, she had vaguely felt that the cabin wasn't completely airtight. She had caught a faint scent of the river and noticed an inconspicuous wooden plank that was slightly protruding. Now that she was close, she saw it was indeed a board that had been hastily nailed on later.
She had traveled on boats with Qin Sanyou when she was young and was no stranger to the docks. Sailors who worked on ships year-round would secretly leave a small space in the hold to carry private goods to supplement their income. Ship owners usually turned a blind eye, but if they encountered a stingy master, the sailors would secretly leave a cargo port on the hull above the waterline. They would smuggle goods onto the ship when the owner wasn't looking. When not in use, it would be sealed from the outside; if one didn't look closely, it wouldn't be noticed.
Xin Yu’s footsteps drew closer, an inescapable curse.
Qin Jiuye took a deep breath and slammed her entire body weight against that wooden plank.
The board let out a muffled groan and creaked open just enough to fit a finger.
Seeing hope, she swung her fists with all her might, striking the loose board again and again. A faint breeze blew in through the gap. She struck again with another punch, and the loosened board finally gave way, a small piece falling into the river.
A hole about a palm's width appeared in the hull. She tried to squeeze her body through but failed. She turned to the hole and screamed at the top of her lungs, praying someone would notice.
"We are on the river. The sound of the water will drown out everything. By the time someone comes to check, you'll be long dead." Xin Yu’s voice sounded not far behind her, carrying the leisure of a cat cornering a mouse. "Where is this companion you spoke of? Could you be waiting for that newly arrived Protector? He has always been a busy man; why would he care about the life or death of a little shrimp like you?"
Qin Jiuye ignored her. She turned and pushed the nearest wooden crate forward to block herself. A sense of dizzy numbness from hyperventilation was slowly creeping over her body.
By now, quite some time had passed since they escaped Tingfeng Hall. Qiu Ling’s men should have reached the docks regardless. As long as she could stall Xin Yu for a few more moments, the fire on this ship would become the best signal, guiding the people on shore to investigate. Everything she hadn't yet uncovered—the truth of this ship—would finally be revealed to the world. She just didn't know if she would live to see that moment.
Her life's capital was so meager; she couldn't afford a single gamble. If there was even a one-in-ten-thousand chance of losing, she could fall into an abyss from which there was no return.
Qin Jiuye curled her body tightly. Her bleeding hand gripped the smoke pellet she hadn't had time to throw, and she quickly pulled out the fine needle hidden in her hairpin.
The hold was narrow and visibility was poor. She might not be able to escape through the smoke like a trained martial artist, but she could earn herself a chance to resist. When it came to identifying acupoints, she believed she was no worse than Xin Yu. But she couldn't use flying needles on strings; she could only fight at close range. But if she got too close, even with the smoke as cover, what were her chances of being faster than an assassin who used concealed weapons?
She had once sworn a solemn oath to Old Qin never to use her medical skills to harm others. But clearly, she couldn't worry about that now. Even if she used every trick she knew, she might not even be able to scratch the person before her.
In a daze, her thoughts drifted uncontrollably, thinking of absurd and strange things.
If she truly stabbed a martial arts expert to death with a single needle, would there be legends about her in the martial world? What should her needle be called? The "Sure Enough Needle"? It sounded rather useless...
*Crackle.*
That was the sound of the straw burning.
*Thump, thump, thump.*
That was the sound of her own heart racing out of control.
In the next moment, she felt her lips move, trembling as she softly breathed out two words.
"Li Qiao..."
Sometimes, in moments of extreme danger, a person involuntarily falls into a state where the body and mind separate. Before Qin Jiuye even realized it, her tongue had spoken the two words she was chanting in her heart.
Why? Why was she holding the smoke pellet and the needle meant to save her life, yet calling his name?
She couldn't understand it.
In the past, whenever she encountered trouble, the only person she could rely on was herself. Thus, she had never imagined she would call out another person's name in a moment of crisis.
The name of someone who couldn't possibly appear before her right now.
The fire grew stronger, casting Xin Yu’s ghostly shadow onto the walls of the hold. The shadow grew larger and larger before her eyes. she could almost see the woman's embroidered shoes, smell the pungent scent of her incense, and hear the contemptuous laughter trapped deep in her throat.
If this was the last thing one saw before death, the journey to reincarnation would feel quite pathetic, wouldn't it?
Qin Jiuye closed her eyes and hurled the smoke pellet with all her might. A moment before she held her breath, she heard herself let out an unwilling roar.
"Li Qiao—!"
The damp smoke pellet bounced twice on the ground before splitting open. Like a dud firework, it released a small puff of grey smoke and then went silent.
Qingyang was full of dishonest merchants; her ancestors had not lied to her.
Qin Jiuye gripped her needle in despair. Through the thin smoke, she only heard Xin Yu’s unrestrained laughter echoing erratically.
However, the laughter did not last long.
In the next instant, the thunderous sound of wood shattering exploded from one side of the hold. The night wind rushed into the lower hold, and the fire flared up instantly, burning even brighter.
Qin Jiuye felt something land behind her along with that gust of wind.
Then, a familiar voice rang out in her ear.
"I am here."
***
**Glossary**
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
---|---|---
沙船 | Sandboat | A type of flat-bottomed Chinese vessel used in shallow waters.
梗水木 | Stabilizing timbers | External wooden beams on the side of a ship to improve stability.
吃水 | Draft | The depth of water a ship draws.
底舱 | Lower hold / Bilge | The lowest compartment of a ship.
心俞 | Xin Yu | Character name; an assassin disguised as a maid.
督护 | Protector / Governor | A high-ranking military or administrative official (Duhu).
烟丸 | Smoke pellet | A small device used to create a smoke screen.
毫针 | Filiform needle | A very thin acupuncture needle.
我在 | I am here | The chapter title and Li Qiao's closing line.
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