Old Granary City

"What?" Xia Yunhe asked, her brow furrowing slightly as she listened, "Did you say the county has no grain reserves?"

How could that be possible?

As a vital border fortress, Yin Prefecture never lacked granaries—prefectural granaries, county granaries, military granaries, and ever-normal granaries were all in steady supply. When disasters struck, these granaries were meant to support one another, either providing army rations or opening to dispense disaster relief. How could there be no surplus grain?

Lost in these thoughts, Xia Yunhe's attention was suddenly caught by a round-bellied, plain pottery jar in the corner of the room. She hurried over, knelt down, and removed the lid. Inside, the contents were pitch black, with only the vaguest trace of grain. Xia Yunhe reached in, grabbed a handful, and spread it across her palm...

"What is this?"

Everyone in the room held their breath in an instant, none daring to speak another word. Village Head Jian wore a strange, helpless expression as he forced a grin and said, "We call it the Eight-Treasure Rice. Moldy rice, sand, pebbles, coarse bran, rice husks, barnyard grass, rat droppings, and small insects—not one more, not one less, exactly eight ingredients."

Moldy rice, sand, pebbles, coarse bran, rice husks, barnyard grass, rat droppings, and small insects... Exactly eight ingredients indeed, except... was this truly something meant for human consumption?

Xia Yunhe's expression grew cold and stern. Clenching her back teeth, her eyes filled with sheer disbelief, she asked, "Can... can this actually be eaten?"

As soon as these words fell, the surrounding atmosphere grew even quieter, the oppressive air making it difficult to breathe.

After a long silence, someone murmured softly, "Something is better than nothing."

Silence descended once more.

Seeing this, Xia Yunhe said no more. She silently returned the "Eight-Treasure Rice" to the jar, pressed her lips into a thin line, and walked out of the house.

The courtyard was gradually filling with people—local villagers who had come to help with the funeral arrangements, every single one of their faces etched with the exhaustion of starvation. Pair after pair of curious eyes turned toward her, tinged with a faint trace of fear. Xia Yunhe sighed, turned around, and asked Village Head Jian in a low voice, "Which way leads to the Old Granary City?"

Village Head Jian led her and Third Master Fu out of the courtyard gate to a small earthen mound at the edge of the village. The old man pointed toward the western mountains, "Walk about two li from here, deep inside the mountain basin, built against the mountain—that is the place."

Bidding farewell to Guotuo Village, Third Master Fu drove Xia Yunhe toward the western mountains.

At that time, the world was stark and pale, the wilderness desolate. Mountains ran parallel to the rivers, and waters flowed beneath the valleys. As the autumn wind rose, carrying the damp chill of melting snow, it slipped into the carriage. Xia Yunhe involuntarily pulled her sleeves tighter around her, unable to suppress a fit of coughing. The steady clatter of hooves echoed clearly across the valley.

As they traveled further west, the mountains swelled and converged, the narrowing road hugging the roaring riverbanks. The scenery grew bizarre, precipitous, and perilous. After rounding a narrow pass, a walled city vaguely loomed into view.

So this was the granary city. The entire fortress was firmly embedded in the mountain, its walls constructed along the contours of the terrain as if fused with the living rock. A moat guarded its perimeter. Above, the walls featured crenellated towers that provided vantage points for archers; below, backed by green mountains and surrounded by water on three sides, it stood loftily, overlooking the entire basin—a location exceptionally easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Xia Yunhe stepped down from the carriage and, alongside Third Master Fu, walked up the steps toward the granary city. The surroundings were utterly silent, save for the sound of their own footsteps. Crossing the vine-choked stone steps, she stood directly beneath the main gate and saw the heavy doors flung wide open. A deep, gloomy path led into endless darkness. The oil lantern hanging from a pillar was coated with a layer of soot, presenting a scene of utter ruin and neglect.

Third Master Fu reached for the flying dagger at his waist, confirming it was pressed securely against his inner lining, which brought him a measure of comfort. He tentatively asked Xia Yunhe, "Young master, with a place this damp... can grain really be stored here?"

His voice was not loud, but the cavernous hollows amplified it, the echo startling him. Carefully shielding Xia Yunhe behind him, he heightened his senses to scan their surroundings, "Young master, do you think this place is haunted?"

Xia Yunhe glanced at the oil lantern on her left, a faint smile touching the corner of her lips, "Does Third Master fear ghosts?"

"This place sends a chill straight down a man's spine. Young master, aren't you afraid of ghosts?"

Xia Yunhe paused for a moment before returning to her usual composure. She reached up to take down the oil lantern, examining it closely, and felt the handle. With a smile, she said, "Where there is no fear, there are no haunting thoughts; where there are no haunting thoughts, the eye sees no illusions."

"That may be what people say... but it's still terribly gloomy here..."

She smiled, naturally brushing off Third Master Fu's words, and instead lifted her gaze to the stone steps on the left. She rubbed her fingers together, lowered her head to toy with the lantern for a moment, and then returned it to its original place. She instinctively held her right index finger up to the light—not a single speck of dust touched it.

Xia Yunhe instantly felt suspicious and pointed to the stone steps on the left, "Third Master, let's go up and take a look."

***

Third Master Fu acknowledged the command and took the lead, ascending the steps. Seeing no immediate danger, Xia Yunhe followed closely behind. Reaching the western ramparts, they found a warning drum, but unfortunately, the drumhead was tattered, and the drumsticks were nowhere to be found. The nearby walls were weathered in numerous places, with withered yellow grass poking through the cracks in the masonry, crushed alongside patches of residual snow—a picture of extreme decay.

What could this dilapidated granary city possibly have to do with Madam Qidiao's hint?

As she pondered this, a sinister voice rang out from behind—Who goes there!

The two of them whirled around sharply to see a shadowy figure approaching beneath the walls. The man wore an ill-fitting garrison uniform, the cuffs and trouser legs noticeably too short by half. His eyes slanted upward, revealing a fierce, predatory glare like that of a wolf—definitely no ordinary person.

Staring up at the two of them, the man slowly curled his hand around the hilt of his weapon at his waist, his voice rigid and strange, "Who are you? How did you find this place?"

Third Master Fu felt a prickle of alarm, but his expression remained unchanged. A dagger slipped silently down his sleeve into his steady palm. Silently shielding Xia Yunhe behind him, he demanded in a deep voice, "Who are you? Why are you wrongfully wearing a garrison uniform?"

The man suddenly broke into a grin, letting out a rough, raspy chuckle, "What this lord chooses to wear is none of your Chu business!"

Before the words had even faded, the man suddenly raised his hand and flicked it toward Xia Yunhe. A sleeve-arrow came hurtling straight at her. Fortunately, Third Master Fu was well prepared; with a flick of his wrist, he deployed his flying dagger, knocking the sleeve-arrow out of the air. Instantly following up with a backhand throw, a streak of black light shot straight toward the man's glabella. Before he could dodge, the dagger pierced straight through his forehead. Without even a groan, his eyes wide with disbelief, the man slumped heavily to the ground.

No sooner had one crisis passed than another arose.

"Tu Wu, what are you yelling and shouting about over there? Where's the wine you went to fetch?"

A muffled, boorish voice suddenly rang out from behind the high wall, causing both Xia Yunhe and Third Master Fu to inwardly start.

The language that man was speaking... was actually Northern Rong!

The two of them raised their heads in unison toward the source of the sound, only to see a barbarian with a fleshy face and the build of a bear, his eyes wide and bulging, glaring at them tigerish-ly.

The man rolled his deadened, somewhat sluggish eyes. Suddenly, his pupils constricted, and phlegm-thickened words rumbled heavily from his throat, "You... killed... Tu Wu."

He spoke in fluent Chu Chinese, yet every word seemed steeped in a thousand poisons, bubbling and churning in his throat like water dancing fiercely on a hot stove—sharp and piercing, grating agonizingly on the ears.

Abruptly, his brows pulled down, a violent expression twisting the corners of his eyes, and he hauled himself up onto the top of the wall, preparing to vault over. "Chu dogs! Vicious Chu dogs! I'll kill—"

Before he could finish, a flying dagger from Third Master Fu pinned him right through the throat. The man hissed twice, clutching his neck as he tumbled backward off the top of the wall, crashing heavily to the ground. His head, neck, and torso twisted into a bizarre angle. A second later, blood had already soaked the earth beneath him.

Xia Yunhe steadied herself against the city wall, remaining silent for a long time.

Third Master Fu said nothing either. He single-handedly searched the upper and lower levels of the wall, and upon confirming that there were no other Northern Rong barbarians about, he came down, hid the two bodies, wiped his flying dagger and regular dagger clean, tucked them back into his belt and sleeves, and only then spoke leisurely to Xia Yunhe, who had finally recovered her composure, "Young master, there's no one else left here."

Xia Yunhe pressed a hand against her dizzy forehead, rubbed her temples, took a breath, opened her eyes, and said slowly, "Let's head to the granary official quarters. Since the barbarians have infiltrated this far into the granary city, they must have been plotting this for a long time."

With that, Third Master Fu supported Xia Yunhe as they walked step by step toward the official quarters behind the wall.

Descending the stone steps, they found a wide, lengthy path that unexpectedly connected to the very cave they had seen earlier. This was a granary built by leveraging the natural terrain; natural caves and tunnels had naturally partitioned the grain cellars and pathways. Now, those grain cellars were completely empty. The official quarters stood on the right side of the path. Xia Yunhe pushed the door open, and a wave of foul, sickening stench assaulted her senses, causing a wave of dizziness. She hurriedly pulled out her handkerchief to cover her nose, and once Third Master Fu pulled out a flint to light a torch, the scene before them left them utterly horrified.

A severed limb hung from the roof beam, and half of a gnawed human leg bone rested upon a table, while speckled bloodstains splattered the entire wall.

Xia Yunhe felt her hair stand on end, her stomach churning violently. She and Third Master Fu retreated from the quarters in unison, leaning against the wall and retching for a long time, their legs trembling with weakness.

"Truly worse than beasts!" Third Master Fu cursed fiercely, wiping the corner of his mouth after he finished vomiting.

"Young master, we should hurry back right now and report this to County Magistrate Wang. These Northern Rong scoundrels truly deserve to die!"

"No!" Xia Yunhe drew a deep breath, suppressing the fear in her heart, and raised a hand to halt Third Master Fu. She said in a solemn voice, "We go further back. Let's take a look!"

***

"Ah? I think it's better to bring more people along. Everyone together gives us courage and provides mutual support."

Xia Yunhe wiped the corner of her mouth, her gaze sharpening like a blade as she lifted her eyes. "The Northern Rong are acting this recklessly; there's no guarantee the city doesn't have insiders working with them. If we startle the snake in the grass, all our previous efforts will be wasted. The wandering souls of the dead will guide our way—there is nothing to fear. More often than not, the living are far more terrifying than ghosts."

She closed her eyes, exhaled a breath, straightened her posture, and continued forward. Seeing this, Third Master Fu plucked a torch from the wall, ignited it, and strode ahead of Xia Yunhe to scout the path for her.

Moving further ahead, they came to a receiving and dispatch hall, used for registering grain movement and managing accounts. Xia Yunhe pushed the door open—it was empty still. To the left of the main gate of the granary yard stood a Granary Deity Shrine. The statue was covered in spiderwebs, the offering table thick with a heavy layer of dust, and the shrine walls carved with densely packed niches on both sides. Even though it had fallen into decay long ago, a lingering aura of solemn majesty remained.

Third Master Fu held the torch high, illuminating the couplets flanking the deity statue: "May the divine be above and beside us, their reputation brilliant, their spirit pristine; year after year of timely sun and rain, our millet stands orderly, our panicled panicled and lush."

"Young master, look."

Following the direction of Third Master Fu's finger, Xia Yunhe saw a folded booklet being used to prop up a wobbling table leg. Seeing this, Third Master Fu steadied the torch with one hand and forcefully lifted the offering table with the other. Xia Yunhe bent down to retrieve the booklet, and by the light of the torch, she recognized it as a registry. Flipping through it, she found rosters of granary commissioners, granary officials, Erudites, Junior Lords, and others. In a place like this, recovering such a lost registry was truly a stroke of great fortune for her.

After the two of them retreated from the Granary Deity Shrine and searched the remaining grain cellars with no further findings, they retraced their steps.

The moment they emerged from the cave, Third Master Fu drove the carriage eastward along the official road.

The leftover human bones in the old granary, the cannibalistic Northern Rong scouts—these matters certainly needed to be brought to Wanganyan's attention. Yet the moldy grain in Guotuo Village... made Xia Yunhe harbor deep suspicions about this former classmate of hers. As the old saying went, "Iron-clad yamen, flowing county magistrates." Even if subordinates engaged in deception and concealed the truth from their superiors, could Wanganyan really be completely unaware of it all?

Reflecting on this, Xia Yunhe lifted the carriage curtain and said in a deep voice to Third Master Fu, "Hurry to the Luoxia County Office."

Third Master Fu acknowledged the order and urged the horse to run faster.

Xia Yunhe dropped the curtain, pulled the registry out from inside her robe, and carefully reviewed it. This roster began on the first day of the seventh month of the fifteenth year of Yuanhua and ended on the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month of the twenty-seventh year of Yuanhua, documenting the terms of office for various granary officials.

Such an important registry—why had it been treated like mere clutter and used to prop up a table leg?

Xia Yunhe raised a hand to massage her brow, closed her eyes, and sank into thought. Suddenly, the carriage jolted sharply and then came to a gradual halt.

At that moment, a mocking voice drifted in from outside the carriage, "Isn't this Third Master Fu?"

"Why is the Third Master in such a rush? Are you off to peddle contraband goods, or are you up to some shady business?"

Listening to the familiar voice, Xia Yunhe opened her eyes, steadied herself, and quickly shoved the registry back into her sleeve.

Third Master Fu lowered his voice, his tone stern, "Prince Qin, please do not block the road. The person inside this carriage is Lord Xia, and we have urgent business to attend to."

The person outside the carriage scoffed and said lazily, "When the same excuse is used too many times, it loses its effect... I insist on seeing what you're hiding in your carriage!"

A flash of white light sliced through the air as a long sword flipped open the carriage curtain. The sharp, fierce brows looking in froze instantly. The curve of Xie Yi's mouth stiffened, his expression instantly softening as his voice turned gentle, stumbling and stammering over his lips.

"Eld... Elder?"