The green mountains wound endlessly, with craggy peaks and ridges. If not for the clustered burial mounds, this secluded forest wilderness would have been a spectacular sight of dense emerald woods.

The graves here were mostly uniform earthen mounds with nameless tombstones—presumably either people with nowhere else to be buried at life’s end, or ownerless lonely souls who died in early wars and plagues.

In the depths of night, hearing the mountain wind’s fierce howling in this desolate wilderness, despite Wu Pingting leading the way with a lantern ahead and A’Zuo and A’You protecting me closely behind, I still felt an eerie terror that made my flesh crawl.

Myriad Graves Hill had treacherous terrain. Fortunately, I had the foresight to change into men’s clothing before leaving. When Wu Pingting first saw my scholar-admiring-the-moon attire, she couldn’t help asking: “Why is the Princess still carrying a fan?”

I opened my gold-bordered folding fan with a whoosh and said nervously: “Thinking that I’m about to meet the legendary Pineapple, it wouldn’t be proper to go empty-handed.”

Wu Pingting: “…”

The mountain wind grew stronger with each gust. The higher we climbed, the taller the wild grass grew, almost creating hallucinatory illusions.

I was getting tired from climbing and sighed bitterly: “I heard the former dynasty’s Prince Rui was also a refined scholar in his early years. How could he think to place a secret location in such a place?”

Wu Pingting said: “My father mentioned that Myriad Graves Hill was once used to bury fallen soldiers from the former dynasty’s wars, so it probably has deep connections to that Prince Rui.”

I was slightly startled and paused with one hand on my waist to catch my breath, looking around: “But Myriad Graves Hill stretches so endlessly—which grave did your father tell you about before dying?”

Wu Pingting hesitated briefly before finally saying softly: “Southwest direction, under the white birch tree, beside the bluestone monument, within the ancient tomb.”

After speaking, she headed straight forward. A’Zuo and A’You both glanced at me, and I said quietly: “Follow along.”

Dark clouds covered the moon, vegetation rustled bleakly, and occasionally ghostly blue fires floated in the air above this vast wilderness of chaotic graves.

I sighed slightly in my heart.

Even if there truly were ghosts and spirits buried here, who would listen to whose lamentations? No one would grieve for anyone else.

After walking for about another incense stick’s time, A’Zuo suddenly pointed at tall trees in the distance: “Is that it?”

Wu Pingting hurried forward, raising her lantern to illuminate the area: “This is the place!”

Another nameless monument.

Except for the earthen mound being piled slightly higher, it looked no different from other graves.

Wu Pingting reached out to scrape away the earth covering the mound. Soil scattered sparsely to the ground, and soon a white stone was revealed beneath the mound.

Seeing this, A’Zuo and A’You also came forward to help. Very quickly, a small cenotaph appeared before us.

I held my fan and tilted my head, circling around it. I saw that the tomb entrance was quietly hidden behind the monument, but was only half a person’s height—difficult for ordinary people to notice.

“Among Green Qilin Mountain’s countless graves, no wonder that Feng Li couldn’t find it despite his scheming efforts.” I smiled: “Thanks to Miss Wu’s keen observation, otherwise searching for it in the middle of the night would truly be difficult.”

Wu Pingting glanced coolly at A’Zuo and A’You: “Doesn’t Your Highness plan to deal with Feng Li with just these two guards?”

“Miss Wu, you’re overthinking.”

I gestured slightly to A’Zuo and A’You. They raised their fingers and whistled, and clusters of firelight immediately appeared from all directions. Thirty-eight shadow guards appeared simultaneously, setting to work fastening torches to long poles and embedding the poles in the earth. In no time, this small grove was ablaze with light.

Wu Pingting didn’t understand: “What is this for?”

I smiled lightly: “Creating the illusion that we have superior numbers.”

Wu Pingting frowned beautifully: “This way, Feng Li will immediately discover our whereabouts and capture us all in one net.”

“He won’t.”

“How can you be certain?”

I thought about it and felt there wasn’t time to explain too much to her, so I said: “Because shortly after we climbed the mountain, the entire perimeter of Green Qilin Mountain has been surrounded by thousands of troops from the Regional Military Commission.”

A’You looked at me in surprise but didn’t ask more questions.

Wu Pingting looked at the low entrance of the cenotaph and tried pushing it, but saw no response: “Is this door sealed shut?”

I found a flat rock to sit on and beckoned A’Zuo over: “Dismantle this monument for me.”

A’Zuo made a sound of surprise: “Dis, dismantle a grave?”

I smiled sweetly: “Don’t make me repeat myself a second time.”

A’Zuo complied.

He used his family heirloom sword to dig for quite a while, but when he tried to move the monument with force, it wouldn’t budge even slightly.

A’You came forward to help, but the monument still wouldn’t move an inch.

They both looked to me for help.

I sighed and pondered: “Let me teach you something. Usually when you want to move something that clearly should be movable but won’t move, it means that thing has hidden mechanisms—it’s likely the key to activating them.”

A’Zuo and A’You had an epiphany and worked together to try rotating the monument left and right. Sure enough, as the stone tablet rotated an inch, the tomb entrance moved out a fraction. When the monument completed a full rotation, the tomb entrance opened completely, revealing a cave opening.

A’Zuo peered in: “There’s a passage inside with stone steps leading down. The bottom can’t be seen from here.”

I brushed the dust off my bottom and stood up, smiling at Wu Pingting: “Please lead the way, Miss Wu. I’ll follow you.”

Wu Pingting hesitated slightly, then nimbly drew a dagger from her boot, grabbed the lantern, and bent down to enter the cave.

I turned to A’You: “You follow behind me to protect me. A’Zuo guards the entrance—don’t close the door. Everyone else, hide and await orders.”

As soon as I finished speaking, the thirty-eight shadow guards disappeared like magic tricks. Looking across the mountain, it seemed as if only the three of us remained.

I put one foot into the secret passage when A’You grabbed me: “I’m afraid this subordinate alone cannot fully protect the Princess. Why not send more people along…”

I glanced at her coolly: “If Feng Li enters this secret passage, the shadow guards can reappear and follow closely behind, attacking from the rear—that’s much easier. If he doesn’t enter, and our group swarms in like bees, he could seal this stone door from outside and starve us for three to seven days or smoke us out. Then we’d truly be trapped with no escape.”

A’You thought briefly and nodded: “This subordinate understands.” Seeing A’Zuo about to speak, she cut him off: “Zuo, your door-guarding mission is crucial and cannot fail.”

A’Zuo sighed reluctantly and nodded.

The secret passage was initially narrow and difficult to navigate, but after a few steps, the stone walls gradually widened, becoming unexpectedly spacious.

I held a torch and looked left and right. With each step forward, dust could be seen rising in the air, permeated with the smell of years of dust and staleness.

A’You followed closely behind me. Since the secret passage stretched endlessly downward, she was quite uneasy: “Who knows what purpose that Prince Rui had for digging such a secret passage? To make Feng Li scheme so painstakingly.”

I said casually: “Places like secret passages usually hide either martial arts manuals or gold, silver, and jewels. That Pineapple sounds like he’s anti-government from the start. But seeing how he handles everything personally without even hiring subordinates, he’s probably quite short on money. Without money, one can’t move a step, let alone accomplish great things…”

Wu Pingting suddenly interjected: “Perhaps Feng Li simply doesn’t trust others. If he’s truly after vast wealth, he can’t guarantee others won’t develop greedy intentions.”

I nodded: “This shows Pineapple has considerable trust in Miss Wu.”

Wu Pingting looked back at me puzzled: “What do you mean?”

I shrugged and smiled: “If I were Miss Wu, unable to seek revenge alone, knowing this secret passage was extremely important to Pineapple, I would definitely draw a little map and post it everywhere, letting all the scholars, farmers, officials, and merchants in the capital know there’s former dynasty treasure hidden here. Then no matter how capable Feng Li is, he’d have no solution. Wouldn’t that anger him to death?”

Wu Pingting was stunned, apparently never having thought this could be considered a form of revenge: “Wouldn’t that betray Jun Jinzhi’s trust in my father?”

I said: “That’s why Feng Li trusts Miss Wu’s character greatly.” Just as I said this, we turned a corner and A’You suddenly exclaimed, pointing to the end of the secret passage where a high wall appeared.

This wall was roughly two zhang high and wide, built from square-shaped bluestone blocks.

Besides this wall, the other four stone walls connecting to it were all natural rock weathered by time, with no other exits to be found.

A’You said incredulously: “That’s… that’s it?”

I sighed: “Prince Rui couldn’t have just dug a pit wanting to instruct his son to bury himself here.”

Wu Pingting moved closer to look: “There are characters on the wall.”

Hearing this, I also approached and saw there were indeed characters carved on the stone wall. The character Wu Pingting pointed to was exactly the character “Wang” (王).

I stepped back slightly and raised my torch high, instantly illuminating the entire wall. I saw that each bluestone block had one character carved on it. Looking randomly, one row read “Cao, Xu, Qu, Feng, He, Sun, Gao, Ding…” and so on.

A’You was puzzled: “What are these?”

Wu Pingting looked around silently and pondered: “The Hundred Family Names.”

A’You looked carefully: “Family names are family names, but the order of these carved characters doesn’t seem to follow…”

“Exactly,” I surveyed the characters on the stone wall from top to bottom, left to right: “It’s the Hundred Family Names in scrambled order.”

A’You nodded slightly, then alertly checked the passage we came from to confirm no one was following, before asking: “What was Prince Rui’s purpose in building such a wall?”

I was about to speak when I saw Wu Pingting frowning and curiously placing her hand on a bluestone block beside her. My heart jumped: “Don’t—”

Before I could stop her, that stone block had already been pushed. I alertly looked down at the stone floor—fortunately there was no movement. Just as I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, I heard a “whoosh” as an arrow shot down my torch to the ground, followed by volleys of crossbow bolts shooting from stone crevices on both sides like swift wind, aimed at vital points!

A’You immediately drew her sword and positioned herself in front of me. For a moment, only the continuous clanging of metal on metal could be heard. I saw most arrows were aimed at the head and chest, so I simply crouched down and turned to look at Wu Pingting on the other side. I saw her with one hand behind her back, using her right hand to deflect the arrows with changing dagger techniques, her robes flowing like wind, graceful and free.

When no more hidden weapons were fired and the secret passage returned to silence, A’You quickly turned back: “Is the Princess injured?”

“I’m fine.” I slowly stood up, looking at the arrows scattered on the ground: “This mechanism is embedded in naturally weathered stone cracks—truly seamless craftsmanship.”

Wu Pingting’s face still showed lingering shock: “I, I didn’t expect there would be hidden weapons here. I nearly brought disaster upon Your Highness. I truly…”

“I expected this place would be full of traps.” I bent down to pick up the torch, fortunately the flame hadn’t died: “It seems that to open the stone door, we must press the stone blocks in the correct sequence.”

A’You asked curiously: “Sequence?”

“Miss Wu just pressed the stone block with the character ‘Zhao,’ but the hidden weapons still attacked us, proving this Hundred Family Names sequence isn’t the familiar ‘Zhao Qian Sun Li Zhou Wu Zheng Wang.'” I sighed: “I once heard that the former dynasty had a very bored emperor who whimsically ordered people to recompile the Hundred Family Names and Three Character Classic. After a few days he came to his senses, realized his behavior’s absurdity, and stopped in time. So the revised version never circulated. Perhaps Prince Rui chose this point to set up such a mechanism—only former dynasty royal descendants could possibly open this giant door.”

Wu Pingting wrinkled her brow: “Does the Princess know that former dynasty’s recitation?”

I looked at her like she was an idiot: “This Princess is current dynasty royalty, not former dynasty descendants.”

She said: “If that’s the case, how do we open this door?”

I tilted my head to look at her: “Why open it?”

Wu Pingting blinked her beautiful autumn-water eyes in surprise: “Having come this far, are we giving up without even trying?”

I raised an eyebrow and asked back: “Wasn’t our purpose in coming here to lure Feng Li into a trap and capture him?”

Wu Pingting was slightly stunned and only said: “Feng Li is sinister and cunning. I’m just worried that if we don’t truly enter the secret location, he might not be willing to show himself.”

I smiled: “Miss Wu jests. Feng Li has never been inside here—how would he know there are mechanism stone doors within the secret passage? Since he knows nothing, seeing us enter the cenotaph, he’ll naturally be unable to wait and find ways to sneak in… If he truly doesn’t show himself because we haven’t opened the stone door, then there’s only one possibility…”

I said unhurriedly: “He knew from the beginning that there was a stone door below this secret passage. At this very moment, he’s waiting for us to open the door, then he’ll appear and march straight in…”

Wu Pingting’s frown deepened: “I’ve never revealed this secret location to anyone. How could he know?”

I nodded noncommittally. She continued: “It’s just that today we’ve revealed the secret location. If Feng Li truly doesn’t show himself and we return empty-handed, if he comes back to explore later, wouldn’t that be greatly disadvantageous to the Princess?”

“There won’t be a later day.” I said slowly: “If we return empty-handed today, I’ll order this mountain blasted to ash.”

Wu Pingting’s complexion changed: “How, how can this be done?”

I stared at her matter-of-factly: “For anything that could become a hidden danger to our dynasty, there’s no more foolproof method than elimination.”

Wu Pingting stepped forward and flicked her sleeve: “This, this is the last path to lure out Feng Li. If the Princess makes the secret location disappear from this world, where, where can I find him to avenge my father and brothers?!”

I looked at her quietly, watching the abnormal flash in her eyes, and after a long moment finally said: “Fine.”

I handed my torch to A’You and casually drew the gold-bordered folding fan from my waist. Opening it, the inscription on the fan read “Only knowing that throughout eternity no game is the same, black and white alternate as sun and moon renew.” I extended the fan toward Wu Pingting and smiled slightly: “This Hang fan’s fine brushwork panorama was painted by the former dynasty’s famous artist Gu Xi. It’s sought after but unobtainable in the marketplace.”

The firelight made Wu Pingting’s pretty face flicker between light and shadow: “What does the Princess mean?”

“This folding fan is the meeting gift I prepared for Feng Li.” I paused and placed the folded fan in her palm, smiling: “A small token of respect. Please trouble Miss Wu to deliver it for me.”

Wu Pingting stood there dazed, looking at me in complete confusion: “What is the Princess saying? Are you suspecting I’m that thief’s accomplice…”

“Naturally not an accomplice,” I interrupted her: “What I mean is, from the very beginning, you’ve been a guide that Feng Li used to lead us here.”

“A guide?” Wu Pingting seemed to hear the most absurd thing in the world: “I spend my days playing qin and composing music at Inviting Moon Tower. Clearly it was the Princess who sought me out, interrogated me about the truth of the escort agency massacre years ago, and made me bring Your Highness here to lure out Feng Li…”

I looked straight into her eyes: “Do you remember what the first truth you confessed was?”

Wu Pingting was startled.

I recalled: “‘My father, my eldest brother, my fellow disciples were all killed by him.’ Isn’t that right?”

Wu Pingting said: “Correct. The entire escort agency was indeed slaughtered by Feng Li. What doubts does the Princess have about this?”

I smiled faintly but didn’t answer her: “Then you said Feng Li approached you, using your father’s relationship with Jun Jinzhi, to extract the shocking secret location Jun Jinzhi carried—which is where we’re standing right now. Isn’t that right?”

“Why does the Princess ask what she already knows?”

“Later, after your father let Jun Jinzhi escape, Feng Li suddenly appeared and sent troops in pursuit. When your father returned to the capital, Feng Li wanted to force the secret location from him and killed everyone in the escort agency before your eyes. Isn’t that right?”

Wu Pingting sneered: “Could the Princess suspect I conspired with Feng Li to kill my own family?”

I said meaningfully: “Miss Wu naturally wouldn’t do such unconscionable things. It’s just that while listening to your account, there are some questions I can’t understand no matter what… For instance, how could Feng Li… be so stupid?”

Wu Pingting was startled.

I paced as I spoke: “If I were Feng Li, knowing your father and Jun Jinzhi were old friends, I should have stood on your father’s side and slowly maneuvered to better extract the secret location, shouldn’t I? Using threatening methods to pressure a righteous jianghu person—ha, such foolish bandit behavior, how could it come from Feng Li’s hand?”

Seeing Wu Pingting about to speak, I raised my hand again: “Also, you said your father whispered the secret to you before dying to preserve your life. Ah, that’s even stranger. Since the old man knew the secret location himself, why not temporize and randomly tell a false one to fool Feng Li? There’s more than one mountain with burial grounds in the capital. Even if Feng Li discovered the deception later, living longer always means more hope. Why use such a tragic method—sacrificing the entire escort agency—to guard the secret?”

After Wu Pingting heard me out, she wasn’t in a rush to argue: “Following this logic, if the Princess determined I was lying when we first met at Inviting Moon Tower, why didn’t you say so then? Why arrange to meet me here tonight?”

I smiled gently and still didn’t answer her question, only saying: “Do you know where I sent my shadow guard A’You—that’s her before you—today?”

Wu Pingting pressed her lips together and glanced at the expressionless A’You.

I prompted: “It’s a graveyard, though not this one. Several people lie in that grave—Shangwei Escort Agency’s chief escort, the accountant, the escort chief’s son… Ah, you know what’s strange? In earlier years they all had people paying respects—the old incense burner is still there. Today is clearly their death anniversary, but the grave is overgrown with weeds. Hey, A’You, how long would you say those weeds have grown without anyone clearing them?”

A’You: “About a year.”

I raised my eyebrows at Wu Pingting: “I suppose you won’t tell me that for revenge, you even forgot about paying respects to your parents and brothers?”

Her complexion had already changed upon hearing this. I dropped my smile and said emotionlessly: “The real Wu Pingting is already dead, and you are fake—one of Feng Li’s people.”

She looked at me coldly, as if looking at a madman: “If I’m Feng Li’s person, why would I fabricate a story about Feng Li massacring the escort agency for you to hear?”

I looked sideways: “Who said that was fabricated? I never doubted that Shangwei Escort Agency was massacred by Feng Li.”

She said coldly: “Oh, then why don’t you tell me what you think the truth was back then?”

I shrugged: “Initially, I just didn’t understand—if Feng Li truly killed her entire family before Miss Wu’s eyes, with her full of hatred, how could she spend years using musical challenges as a pretext to search for her enemy? For an infatuated woman, this behavior doesn’t seem like seeking revenge, but more like harboring deep admiration, waiting for her beloved.”

“Wu Pingting” smiled contemptuously: “Just this?”

I shook my head seriously: “The escort agency’s dozen-plus people dying under Feng Li’s conspiracy might not be wrong, but it wasn’t necessarily done before Miss Wu’s eyes one by one. Moreover, if she truly knew the secret location, she couldn’t possibly have never thought of investigating it personally all these years. Going to look might mean encountering Feng Li; not going means no news at all.” I paced another circle: “So from the beginning, she was completely ignorant of the so-called secret location. Only her father knew. Feng Li is a smart person and would naturally use smart methods to approach her father, ultimately gaining his trust and learning the secret location.”

The “Wu Pingting” before me closed her eyes slightly, her voice extremely low: “Since he already got what he wanted, why kill the entire escort agency?”

“To monopolize this secret and prevent the old escort chief from finding Jun Jinzhi’s son, Feng Li would definitely kill him. As for why he massacred everyone… probably when he killed Old Escort Chief Wu, he was discovered by others, drawing the entire escort agency’s attention. Though causing such a commotion wasn’t necessarily advantageous, there was no choice but to silence them all.” I sighed leisurely: “I think Wu Pingting wasn’t home at the time, so she didn’t know who the real killer of her family was. Conversely, Feng Li would later appear as a protector, caring for and comforting her—this way he wouldn’t arouse suspicion.”

The Wu Pingting before me couldn’t even manage a fake smile anymore: “The Princess speaks so thoroughly, as if she witnessed it personally.”

I scratched my head apologetically: “My imagination has always been quite rich. Please don’t take offense, this… I don’t know how to address you.”

“Wu Pingting” indeed took no offense. By now she had stopped pretending and even revealed a cold expression: “The Princess has said so much, and it all sounds reasonable, but don’t forget—the person who personally came to Inviting Moon Tower for the musical challenge, wanting to meet me, was you, Princess. If I truly were Feng Li’s premeditated plant, how could I have known in advance that the Princess would come, and fabricated lies to deceive you?”

“Of course no one in this world can predict the future.” At this point I couldn’t help sighing regretfully: “All of this was just a trap laid by Feng Li.”

“Wu Pingting” stood there calmly, seemingly very interested in hearing my explanation: “Oh?”

This was truly a very large trap, so large that by the time I suddenly awakened, I was already deeply ensnared.

“First step, he had the long-missing Cai Mi suddenly appear at the Princess Manor, while simultaneously letting me discover a crucial letter. This way, I would naturally investigate the truth of that year and have people track Cai Mi’s every movement, naturally discovering Inviting Moon Tower through Cai Mi’s deliberate avoidance of Xian Ge Street while shopping for medicine, and discovering you.”

“Feng Li knew I wasn’t easy to fool, so he took such a roundabout approach just to bring out someone like you. He had you tell me a mix of truth and lies, knowing I might not believe everything, but to lure him out I would definitely risk coming to this secret location with you—that was the second step.”

“Wu Pingting” smiled eerily: “Then why did he want to lure you here?”

“At first I couldn’t understand either. Until I came in just now and suddenly realized.”

“Because of this.” I turned around and pointed at the wall carved with family names: “I think when Feng Li learned the secret location and immediately came to Myriad Graves Hill and entered the secret passage, he stopped here.”

“He couldn’t get in.”

“And he knew the person who could activate the mechanism was Jun Jinzhi’s son. But how could Jun Jinzhi’s son be manipulated by him?”

“Then only one person remained—his wife, which is me.”

The firelight flickered slightly, unable to illuminate this enveloping darkness.

I inexplicably remembered a phrase—all things have cause and effect.

Seven years ago, when Song Langsheng was still just my Big Brother, while testing me on the Three Character Classic and Hundred Family Names, he himself said the wrong words.

I even laughed at him, saying he couldn’t even recite the Hundred Family Names properly yet wanted to become the top scholar.

Big Brother said gloomily that it was his father’s fault—teaching him the wrong version as a child, and after so many years he still couldn’t break the habit.

I was still young then and full of curiosity about Big Brother, so I had him recite it once for me to hear.

Who could have imagined that youthful playful banter would become the key to a secret location’s mechanism years later?

“Wu Pingting” wasn’t surprised by my words. She looked at me calmly, the firelight casting a ghostly shadow: “You know?”

“Yes, I know,” I didn’t deny it: “And Feng Li must be certain I know, which is why he spared no effort in this step-by-step campaign to bring me here.”

Little Xiangyi, who always confided everything to Cai Mi, how could she not mention the amusing incident of Big Brother reciting the Hundred Family Names incorrectly? Cai Mi was Feng Li’s person, and after learning this, he set his calculations on me.

I stared woodenly at that cold stone wall: “I think Pineapple calculated everything except one thing—that from beginning to end, I have no interest in former dynasty secrets, so I won’t open this stone door.” I took a deep breath and shifted my gaze back to “Wu Pingting”: “Tell me, if he learns I plan to level this place, will he be willing to show himself?”

“If he learns,” I heard her laugh softly, “tonight, he probably won’t let the Princess leave this secret passage alive.”

Before she finished speaking, A’You suddenly raised her sword to her neck, but she didn’t dodge, nor did she show any killing intent. She just shook the folding fan and said: “If you kill me, Feng Li won’t receive the Princess’s gift.”

“Sigh.” I had talked too much tonight and felt quite tired: “This Princess prefers enemies who, when cards are on the table, reveal conspiracies after just a little prompting. Why keep playing dumb? When we set out tonight I already said—meeting Pineapple empty-handed would be very improper. That’s a meeting gift. What is a meeting gift? The Regent Princess’s word is her bond. If we haven’t met face to face, how could this gift be given?”

I smiled: “Don’t you think that’s reasonable? Miss Wu… oh no, perhaps I should call you… Master Feng Li?”

The air froze for an instant.

Then gentle laughter echoed in the empty passage. The laughter actually wasn’t frightening—objectively speaking, it was quite a pleasant voice. Only, it was a man’s voice.

“Since it’s Princess Xiangyi’s great gift, I’ll gladly accept it!”

——(End of Chapter)