Lou Tianming sat quietly in his bamboo dwelling, his purple pupils gazing at the painting on the opposite wall. From the woman in the painting downward, sweeping past the shadowy corner, straight to the solitary bluebird—he gazed like this in silence. After a moment, Lou Tianming shifted his gaze and said with a light laugh, “Catcher Li, how fast you are!”
“Hmph! It should be called the net of heaven is vast—nothing escapes its mesh. Budong Manor is now ablaze. All the exits have long been stationed with my people. The three lives you harmed earlier, followed by over a hundred more lives—even if you died a hundred times, it would be difficult to offset your evil crimes. If you still have even a bit of conscience, quickly surrender and follow me back to the yamen.” Li Si stepped through the doorway, his form blocking all paths. Having been careless moments ago and letting Lou Tianming escape was already wrong. He absolutely couldn’t make the same mistake again.
Li Si saw that on the soft couch beside Lou Tianming, Qingdie covered in blood was already barely breathing, her face deathly pale. Li Si’s expression was ice-cold. His hand was already on his blade. But at this moment, Lou Tianming suddenly spoke: “Catcher Li, haven’t you always wanted to know the reason for everything I’ve done? The reason is right here.” As Lou Tianming spoke, he extended a pale finger. What he pointed to was not elsewhere, but the wall painting behind Li Si.
Li Si furrowed his brow and shook his head: “I don’t understand what you’re pointing at.”
“Can you see what’s different in the painting?” Lou Tianming said calmly.
“Different?” Li Si repeated, his gaze searching through the painting once more. This time, a strange imagery made Li Si’s heart suddenly halt. He unconsciously stepped closer: “Here?”
Lou Tianming nodded slightly: “Yes.”
The place Li Si saw was precisely the bluebird in the painting. At this time of deepening dusk, thin moonlight spilled in. Li Si indeed saw something different from what he’d seen in daylight. The bluebird’s entire body of feathers—blue-green with darkness, clearly layered, just like real feathers—except at the bluebird’s chest position. Though feathers were also painted there, the color was pale and white. It didn’t look real. Li Si stared transfixed. Suddenly his heart trembled. He reached out his hand and gently began counting aloud: “One, two, three?”
Li Si took three blue bird feathers from his bosom as if he’d gained something. These bird feathers were precisely those obtained from the black wooden box. Li Si carefully pasted the bird feathers one by one onto the bluebird’s chest position. The three blue feathers instantly merged as one with the other bird feathers. And next, Li Si saw an even more incredible scene.
The bluebird in the painting suddenly moved slightly, then a second time. The bluebird began continuously beating its wings in the painting, as if it had come alive. Li Si stared dumbly. The scene of the entire wall painting began to change. As the bluebird beat its wings, the scenery in the painting slowly faded away, like a muddied landscape painting. Finally only thick ink color remained. Li Si watched as only the beautiful shadow of the white-clothed woman in the painting didn’t fade. The last to disappear was the bluebird that could never truly take flight. The instant the bluebird disappeared, the shadows in the corner of the painting rapidly expanded. One, two, three, four—four people emerged from the expanding shadows. The shadows gradually grew larger, occupying the entire painting. Li Si finally saw clearly the faces of the four people. He couldn’t help but gasp. These four people were precisely the already-dead Western Region merchant, Yan Ying, Sun Miao, and the other was none other than Lou Ao.
In the shadows, the four people were forcing the white-clothed woman—Lou Tianming’s mother, Ziqing—to the cliff’s edge. All four wore evil smiling faces, each holding weapons in their hands. Ziqing swept her icy gaze across each of the four faces, finally glaring hatefully at Lou Ao. Even at this moment she couldn’t believe that the man with whom she’d promised a hundred years together, whose love was deeper than the sea, would push her into hell! Li Si saw Ziqing’s left hand hidden behind her back move slightly. In the direction of that movement, behind a huge black rock, Li Si saw a young child. His face was grave, his eyes full of sorrow and anger, his body trembling violently. It was Lou Tianming. Lou Tianming watched helplessly as his mother was forced into a desperate situation by four vicious people, among the evildoers even his own blood relative. How could his heart not ache? How could he not be indignant? Ziqing took one last look at the black rock where Lou Tianming was hiding. Her body flew through the air, like a fairy departing from the mortal world. Just like that, like that, she plunged straight into the deep abyss.
Li Si finally saw the faces of the four people after they succeeded. He turned his head, not wanting to see anymore.
“Special pigments, dim moonlight, and the blue feathers returned to their original position—they recreated the scene that occurred many years ago.” Lou Tianming said quietly. “This is what you wanted to know.”
“Why did they want to harm your mother?”
“Because my mother didn’t want me to live my entire life under the enormous shadow of Budong Manor. So she decided to take me away from the manor. But unfortunately, Father’s eyes were blinded by greed. He only recognized that secret manual the whole world dreamed of. He stubbornly believed that Mother had found the secret manual and wanted to take it out of the manor alone. So he gathered his former evil friends and caused my mother’s death.” After Lou Tianming finished speaking, he exhaled lightly. A trace of long-absent tranquility appeared on his face. “So speaking the secrets in one’s heart is such a liberating thing. It’s a pity that people in this world bury too many secrets in their hearts, bury them very deeply. So for their entire lives, they live under an enormous burden.”
“I’ve said what I should say and done what I should do. I won’t leave here. If you wish, you can use the weapon in your hand to take me away.” Lou Tianming closed his eyes and said no more.
Though Li Si hesitated, he still drew his blade. In one stride, the blade’s edge rolled up air waves attacking Lou Tianming. But just as the blade’s edge scraped Lou Tianming’s neck, Li Si suddenly twisted his body, flipped like a hawk in midair, and landed swift as a flying shadow beside Lou Tianming. His hand shot out like lightning and struck down. What Li Si struck were several of the body’s major fatal acupoints. Li Si’s movements were executed in one smooth motion. He then watched quietly and said, “You don’t need to pretend anymore. You can get up now.”
“Qingdie! Or should I say Ziqing?” Li Si blurted out.