Master Qiao nodded. “Please follow me.”

Though the Qiao family mansion couldn’t compare to the Yan family’s, its furnishings were still exquisite and opulent. Along the way, winding paths led through quiet courtyards — a most pleasing sight.

The south courtyard where the Elder Master resided sat in the deepest part of the Qiao estate. Bamboo and evergreen trees were planted all around, and within this small grove even a modest nunnery had been built.

The surroundings were tranquil and peaceful — the ideal place to spend one’s twilight years in quiet contentment.

Passing through a bamboo grove, there stood a small dwelling with gray-tiled roof and white walls, like a landscape ink painting.

“Father has lived here since he fell ill more than a decade ago. He sees almost no one except for me,” Master Qiao explained. “Father has an eccentric temperament. If he gives offense in any way just now, I ask the Young Marshal and Young Madam to please bear with it.”

Shi Ting said, “It is we who are intruding so boldly.”

“Young Marshal, please.”

The small courtyard was kept immaculately clean. A woman in a teal cotton jacket was drawing water at the well. When she saw people coming in, she first started, then stepped forward to bow. “Master.”

“Nanny Du, has Father woken?”

“The Elder Master has been up for a while now — he’s reading,” said this Nanny Du, who had served the Elder Master year-round and managed all matters of his daily life, food, and lodging single-handedly.

The Elder Master disliked being disturbed by outsiders and had kept only Nanny Du as a servant.

Nanny Du was careful and thorough, and her cooking was delicious. She had earned the Elder Master’s complete trust.

Nanny Du wiped her hands on her apron and led the group to the study.

She knocked on the door several times, then raised her voice a little. “Elder Master, the Master has come.”

Master Qiao explained, “Father is a bit hard of hearing. You will need to speak up a bit louder when talking to him.”

“Come in.” The voice from inside was resonant and full of vitality, carrying not the slightest hint of infirmity.

Yan Qing could detect no signs of illness whatsoever in that voice. She had no idea what ailment this Elder Master Qiao suffered from, that he had been ill for over a decade.

Upon entering, they saw an old man in a black cotton jacket sitting on a low couch, a pair of spectacles perched on his nose, squinting at the book in his hands.

The Elder Master turned his head. Seeing that there were others besides his son, he said with displeasure, “How rude — who gave you permission to bring outsiders in?”

Master Qiao introduced them awkwardly. “Father, this is the Young Marshal and the Young Madam.”

“I’m an old man — what do I care about any Young Marshal or Young Madam? I’m not receiving anyone,” the Elder Master waved his hand and let out an irritated grunt.

Master Qiao could only offer Shi Ting an apologetic smile.

Shi Ting shook his head to indicate it was fine.

“Elder Master, were you once a barefoot doctor?” Yan Qing’s voice rose gently, clear as a silver bell.

The Elder Master paused and raised his head from his book. “How did you know? You couldn’t just be guessing from the medical text I’m reading, could you?”

Yan Qing smiled and pointed to a cabinet nearby. “There’s a medicine chest over there — that’s the kind used by barefoot doctors when they practice medicine.”

The Elder Master let out a grunt. “I thought you were particularly gifted. You just noticed the chest, that’s all.”

Though his manner was still dismissive, his tone was noticeably softer than before.

“Elder Master, this edition of traditional Chinese medicine texts you’re reading is the old version,” Yan Qing said. “Many things haven’t been included in the older editions.”

“Old version?” The Elder Master turned the book toward himself to look at it again.

“If you don’t mind, I have a newly revised edition. It’s quite comprehensive in its catalogue of medicinal formulas.”

The Elder Master finally looked over with a serious expression, adjusting the spectacles on his nose. “Young lady, did you study medicine?”

“More precisely, I am a forensic medical examiner. Traditional Chinese medicine is something I taught myself.”

“A forensic examiner?” The Elder Master’s eyes went wide. “Spending all day with corpses? And you — a slight, small young woman at that?”

Yan Qing smiled. “I don’t have to carry or haul bodies. Of course I can manage it.”

The Elder Master couldn’t help but show an expression of admiration. “You’re not afraid?”

“At first I was afraid. Now that it’s my profession, the fear is gone.”

The Elder Master nodded. “You’re a remarkable young woman.”

Seeing the Elder Master’s attitude finally beginning to shift, Master Qiao said, “Father, the Young Marshal has come because there is something he would like to ask your advice on.”

“What is it?” The Elder Master was noticeably less warm when facing Shi Ting.

But Shi Ting paid no mind to such things. Instead, he reached into the paper bag and withdrew a painting, a plate, and a round decorative object.

“Elder Master, please take a look at the patterns on these two items. Have you ever seen them before?”

The Elder Master looked at them with suspicion and took them. When he raised his spectacles a little higher, the patterns gradually came into clear focus.

Shi Ting saw the Elder Master’s face visibly go pale. The hand gripping the painting suddenly tightened, and his pupils contracted sharply.

Master Qiao also noticed the change in his father. He leaned over to look at the painting, and when he made out the pattern within, his expression changed as well.

“How… how did you come to have these two items?” The Elder Master’s expression turned grave, his earlier indifference entirely gone.

“Elder Master, I will be straightforward with you. This painting came from a family named Xu, and this round decorative object came from a family named Chen. As for this plate, it was found at the former site of Zhiqing County — now the village of Jiuyang,” Shi Ting said, his gaze fixed on the Elder Master’s face. “All three items bear what appear to be family crests. The patterns on these crests are identical in every detail except for the animal in the center. So I surmise that these three items must be connected to one another.”

Shi Ting produced an amulet. “Similarly, I found a comparable pattern on the Qiao family’s amulet. Would the Elder Master be willing to explain to me what these patterns represent, and why they have been scattered to so many different places?”

“Why don’t you ask the Chen and Xu families directly?” The Elder Master frowned, his expression solemn.

Shi Ting said, “Both the Chen and Xu families were wiped out overnight. There were no survivors.”

The Elder Master and Master Qiao both looked utterly shocked.

“Annihilated?”

Shi Ting nodded.

Father and son exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with countless unspoken thoughts.

“Elder Master, the Chen family and the Xu family are hundreds of li apart from each other, and both are thousands of li from the present-day Jiuyang Village. Why would this pattern appear in three such different places? Is their connection also tied to the Zhiqing County that once perished? If they all came out of Zhiqing County, then who ruthlessly annihilated these two families — and what was their purpose?” Shi Ting looked at the two of them with grave intensity. “First the Chen family, then the Xu family. Could the Qiao family be next?”

Those words fell like a heavy hammer blow. The color drained from both the Qiao father and son’s faces.

After a long moment, the Elder Master said slowly, “Since it has come to this, I no longer wish to conceal anything. You are right — the Chen, Xu, and Qiao families do share an inseparable connection. Not because they are relatives, and not because they had business dealings with one another.”

“Then what…”

The Elder Master exhaled a long, weary sigh. “This goes back twenty years.”

Twenty years ago, in what is now Jiuyang Village, there existed a remarkably prosperous county called Zhiqing County.

Zhiqing County was rich in produce and abundant in precious medicinal herbs.

Several families in the county who dealt in medicinal herbs had grown wealthy on traditional medicine, gradually becoming the local well-to-do.

The fortunes these families had accumulated over long years had reached a staggering sum. There was a saying that their wealth was sufficient to sustain an army of two hundred thousand.

But this was merely hearsay. Only the heads of the households truly knew how much money these families held.

One family had a crest made for itself as a symbol of prosperity, using the totem of the local divine temple in Zhiqing County. The other families, seeing this, rushed to follow suit — each using the divine temple’s totem as a base to create their own family crest. The crests appeared only on items of particular sanctity and were never used casually.

Those peaceful days did not last many years before the warlord conflicts began.

These warlords fought from the south to the north, from the east to the west. Wherever they passed, they burned, killed, and plundered — leaving nothing alive.

As the warlords drew ever closer, fighting their way to the opposite bank of the river, the people of Zhiqing County fled with their belongings. But these wealthy families had so much — their homes were mountains of valuables — and there was no way they could simply roll up their belongings and flee like the poor.

As the people of the county gradually escaped one by one to seek refuge, these families also grew desperate. After all, before mountains of gold and silver, life was more precious — without life, everything else was nothing.

And so the heads of three families gathered together. After deliberation, they devised a plan.

They decided to bury the combined wealth of the three families deep in the mountains. Once it was buried, they would draw a map and divide it into three parts, tattooing each part onto the backs of their respective eldest sons.

After the three families agreed upon this plan, they returned home to make preparations. On a calm and peaceful night, they hired more than thirty porters from the docks, mobilized dozens of horse carts, and had them transport all the valuables deep into the mountains.

The dozens of carts made trip after trip throughout the night before emptying the three families’ combined wealth, loading everything into a cavern through a secret tunnel they had previously had excavated.

After completing this task, a cartographer drew the map, and it was tattooed onto the backs of the three eldest sons.

It was thought that this was the end of it. But what the porters hadn’t anticipated was that the three families had poisoned their food and drinking water. After eating, the porters fell ill from the poison and died.

The three families threw them into a pit. Fearing that some might not be dead, they struck each person’s head with a shovel, then covered them with layers of earth.

That night on the mountain, ghostly wails filled the air amid a storm of wind and rain — at times it seemed as if the earth itself were trembling.

After dealing with these witnesses, the three families agreed to meet at the same location twenty years hence and dig up the wealth.

At the time, the area around Qian Guan Cheng was engulfed in warfare, while only Shun Cheng remained relatively peaceful. So all three families decided to take refuge in Shun Cheng.

“Twenty years have passed, and the appointed day draws ever closer,” the Elder Master murmured, as if speaking to himself. “Yet I find I no longer want that wealth.”

Shi Ting thought of the mass pit he had seen in Jiuyang Village — at the time, Yan Qing had said those people had died of poisoning, and he too had determined them to be porters.

It hadn’t occurred to him that every single one of them had died at the hands of these three families. They had thought they were taking on a lucrative job — yet what awaited them was the end of their lives.