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墨書 Inktalez
As the Hour of the Rat approached, Geng Lou Sheng penetrated the layers of palace walls. I leaned against the lamp tree adorned with Azure Luan, my fingertips tracing the lipstick patterns on the gilded invitation. Consort Shu was to host a floral banquet in Xiefang Garden three days hence, and the invitation now exuded an eerie sweetness—infused with Crane Top Red and Passion Fruit Juice, it would unleash deadly poison when heated.
"Your Highness, Miss Cui Lyu from the Laundry Bureau requests an audience." Zi Juan entered, holding a gilded hand warmer, frost still clinging to her eyelashes. I fiddled with the dying silver charcoal in the brazier, watching sparks dance and leave scorch marks on the Bronze Azure Lion incense burner lid. "Let her enter through the secret door in the west side hall."
As the tenth snowflake landed on the window sill, the mechanism behind the lattice quietly shifted. A drenched palace maid collapsed onto the Persian Velvet Blanket, snowflakes still clinging to her hair. Trembling, she pulled out an Oil Paper Package from her skirt's layers; bloodstains had seeped across half of a Plain Silk Imperial Map.
"I... I found this in Consort Shu's Menstrual Band..." Cui Lyu gasped like a broken bellows, dark purple bruises marring her neck. I pried open her tightly clenched palm to reveal three barbed silver needles embedded in Lao Gong Xue—the Heart-Piercing Needle commonly used in the Hall of Punishment.
A sudden gust of wind extinguished seven of the Nine Branch Pearl Lamp's lights outside. Cui Lyu suddenly lunged at me, her vermilion nails aimed at my eyes. I spun around, kicking over the Jade Case of Azure just as she lunged; I threw my cloak towards the Shark Silk Canopy hanging from above. The poisoned silver needle pierced through the Decorated Gold Screen as my silken thread wrapped around her neck.
"Who sent you?" I tightened my grip on Tian Can Si, watching her face turn increasingly red. Cui Lyu grinned through her bloodied lips, a raspy laugh escaping her throat. "Doesn't the princess want to know... about the Southern Liang Kingdom envoy... three days later..."
Her voice cut off abruptly. Cui Lyu's pupils dilated suddenly, and she collapsed to the ground like a rag doll, blood oozing from her seven orifices. I crouched down to lift her collar and found a Scarlet Wolf Head Pattern tattooed on her shoulder blade—marking her as a servant of Murong Chongying Wei, the ruler of Southern Liang Kingdom.
When Zi Juan entered with a Medicine Bowl, she stumbled upon me spreading the blood-stained Imperial Map across an ice-cracked porcelain table. The sheepskin map outlined twelve Dark Channels leading to the imperial city; Azure Dragon Square was marked with Dripping Blood Curved Blade annotations beside it: Hour of the Dog at three quarters past.
"Go fetch Shan He Zhi," I instructed, tracing my finger over the winding dark red marks on the Imperial Map as memories surged like venomous snakes—on the seventh day of the twelfth lunar month in Yongding First Year, an explosion at Azure Dragon Square's Gunpowder Storehouse sent flames racing through Dark Channel towards Tai Cang, incinerating Million Stones Disaster Relief Grain. That day was...
"Your Highness!" Zi Juan's startled cry coincided with Tong Lou announcing that it was now Hour of the Ox. The Green Plum Blossom in the Ice Crackle Porcelain Vase suddenly shed its petals; golden powder shimmered under candlelight as I broke apart its branches. A pill rolled out from within its hollow stem and dissolved into Blue Smoke upon contact with air.
As Dark Guards burst through the window, I had already pushed Zi Juan into a secret chamber. The leader wore a Blacksteel Mask engraved with Yazi Mark; glinting coldly from his Curved Blade reflected my disheveled hair. In an instant, as Violent Rain Pear Blossom Needle shot forth from my sleeve, I kicked over the Azure Bronze Lamp Tree, spilling scalding Whale Oil onto the Crimson Gauze Window and igniting a towering inferno.
"The water has broken!" A palace maid's scream shattered the snowy night’s silence. Using the thick smoke as cover, I leaped onto a beam and watched as the last assassin was riddled with bolts from a hidden crossbow.
When Zi Juan approached with a black lacquered food box and opened it to reveal half of a Tiger Talisman—perfectly matching a gap in Cui Lyu's Imperial Map—I knew we were running out of time.
At three quarters past Hour of the Rat, I donned my night cloak and appeared by West Sixth Bureau’s Abandoned Well. As I embedded the Tiger Talisman into a groove in Well Wall, a decayed Pulley Wheel began to turn automatically, revealing a secret passage leading to Dark Channel. Fresh blood handprints marked moss-covered Stone Steps extending into darkness.
"I started collecting each lady’s Menstrual Band three months ago," Cui Lyu's voice echoed ominously in my mind as blood seeped from Dark Channel's walls under Tiger Talisman's ghostly glow—revealing Rouge Marks identical to those on Menstrual Bands.
Clenching my Tiger Talisman with a cold smile as its edges pierced my palm, droplets of blood fell onto icy ground just as a dull roar echoed from the southeast. Fiery light illuminated half of the night sky; that direction was none other than... Azure Dragon Square.
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