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墨書 Inktalez
"Liu Liu, you came back in the rain. Quickly, have some hot tea to warm yourself up."
As she spoke, she twisted her wrist, and the scalding tea was suddenly splashed toward me, propelled by a vicious gust of wind. I barely had time to react.
Xie Yao instinctively stepped in front of me, his broad back shielding me from the onslaught. The boiling tea splattered all over his left hand.
I heard him grunt softly, followed by the acrid smell of scorched fabric and the sizzling sound of burnt skin. My heart tightened in an instant.
Liang Yulan gasped, dropping the teacup onto the ground with a sharp crack. Tea splashed everywhere, and a perfectly timed look of panic crossed her face. "Oh no! Third Young Master Xie! Yulan didn't mean to! What should we do?"
I couldn't care less about Liang Yulan's poor acting; I rushed forward and grabbed Xie Yao's injured left hand. The skin was already turning red and forming tiny blisters. More alarmingly, a faint mark resembling a six-fingered imprint appeared on the burned skin.
This was the secret of his left hand that I had heard about; it revealed itself in such a hasty and dangerous moment.
"Third Young Master Xie, hurry! Go fetch a basin of cold water!"
I urgently instructed a maid and then pulled him quickly to a small pavilion in the courtyard. Next to the pavilion was a well, and I immediately drew out icy cold spring water, cupping it in my hands to wash his burn.
The cold water stung against his scalded skin. He let out a muffled groan but didn’t pull his hand away, allowing my cool fingertips to touch his searing wound. It was our first close physical contact, and an inexplicable current surged through my fingertips, making me shiver slightly.
After rinsing, I hurried back to my room to retrieve the mint ointment I had hidden away. This was a recipe left by my birth mother, made from mint grass found by the cold pool outside the city—cooling and pain-relieving.
I carefully dipped a clean cloth into the ointment and gently applied it to his injury. The ointment brought a refreshing coolness that soothed the burning wound. He relaxed his tense body, and his breathing gradually steadied.
As I applied the medicine, my fingertips inevitably brushed against his burning skin. That unusual warmth transmitted through me once again, prompting me to look up at him. His phoenix-like eyes held a hint of complex fatigue and gratitude, his thin lips pressed together in silence.
It was then that I noticed something hidden in his sleeve, something hard, like a book.
A little later, Xie Yao took his leave from Liang Wende, citing business to attend to, and left the Liang Residence with the item concealed in his sleeve.
In the evening, he sent a message to me through someone else, inviting me to meet at the abandoned old Xie Family residence on the outskirts of the city. I knew it was about the rice shop and the accounts, so I sneaked out.
The old residence was dilapidated, with only one study remaining relatively intact. On the desk lay several thick ledgers, and the air was filled with dust and decay, mingled with a faint scent of sandalwood from him.
"These are the ledgers for all the rice shops under the Xie Family name. I went through them and found many discrepancies. It's not just simple forgery; it seems some special method has been used to conceal them."
Xie Yao's voice was somewhat low and carried the weariness of the day. He pointed at the densely packed numbers and symbols in the ledgers, his brow furrowed tightly.
Using my photographic memory, I examined them closely. The numbers and symbols appeared chaotic at first glance but subtly hinted at a pattern. I attempted to decode them using several common encryption methods but failed each time.
"These symbols... seem somewhat familiar..."
I murmured softly, images flashing through my mind—illustrations from an ancient book in my father's study, some special markings my mother had taught me as a child, and... also that scepter adorned with luminous pearls that I had once caught a glimpse of Old Madam Xie playing with. The patterns at the end of that scepter seemed strikingly similar to these symbols.
Suddenly, a spark of inspiration hit me as I recalled an ancient mathematical method my father had mentioned, along with some obscure questions that had appeared in the imperial examination.
"The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art!"
I almost blurted out, pointing at the symbols in the ledger, "These must be encrypted using some kind of algorithm and symbols from 'The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art'!"
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