Yu Lanchuan asked, "What did you say?"

"Maybe more than that," Han Dongsheng continued to say. "Little Master Yu was still young at that time. I don't know if you remember, over ten years ago, there was an explosion at a flour factory at Xiaogang Village in the neighbouring province. In total, eighteen people lost their lives. In the beginning, this incident was handled as an accident."

Yu Lanchuan didn't have much of an impression of the incident. During the time before social media was widespread, it was difficult for regional news to leave a strong impression in people's minds. He asked, "It wasn't an accident?"

"No. Later on, they found two bodies… two incomplete bodies. The other parts of the bodies were either burnt or exploded. There were only these two pieces, with heads still connected to the necks. Someone had slit both necks with a blade. The weapon was extremely sharp. The wound was like a curve drawn by an artist with a single brushstroke, exactly three cun and two fen^[1] in length, not a fen longer, not a fen shorter."

The heating was warm enough to make a person feel parched. Yet, Yu Lanchuan felt a sinister chill from Han Dongsheng's words.

"Little Master Yu, you should know that even drawing a curve that is three cun and two fen long in a single brushstroke on a piece of paper isn't that easy, what more using a knife to carve it on a person's neck." Han Dongsheng paused, then continued to say, "I remember back then, everyone from the older generation who was still alive gathered at No. 110 Courtyard. Everyone said that it was Wan Mu Chun's mark."

Before he realised what he was doing, Yu Lanchuan refuted, "That's not necessarily the case, is it?"

Han Dongsheng looked at him in surprise.

Yu Lanchuan thought for a while. "Before you moved in, a few people who claimed to be from Wan Mu Chun's sect had come here to this apartment, 804. They looked quite the part too. It seems like there are quite a lot of people impersonating them."

"I've heard other people talk about what happened to the previous residents of this apartment. But that's not the same." Upon saying that, Han Dongsheng shivered slightly. "I saw it with my own eyes. They traced the wounds on the neck of those bodies in the flour factory separately on paper. Both lines matched up perfectly."

Yu Lanchuan had practised the Seven Secret Arts of Han Jiang all the way until where he was now but he still did not know what level he was at. The "benchmarks" he had around him were all sloppy and unreliable jokers.

He had never seen this kind of godly "workmanship."

The two of them stared at each other for a while.

Yu Lanchuan thought, This is too incredulous.

"Old Mr. Chun had already passed away then. Counting the years, the young lady from upstairs had to be less than ten years old. It couldn't have been the old one or the young one," Han Dongsheng said. "Wan Mu Chun only has a single branch and everything is passed on to a single disciple. The only person who could have that ability was Wei Xiao."

Yu Lanchuan felt that if he were to cut in with "Is there DNA evidence?" the scene would turn a bit strange. But he still felt that if the basis for the conclusion could not be used as evidence in a court of law, then this basis was likely to be not rigorous enough in some way.

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Was this Wei Xiao caught after that?"

Han Dongsheng said, "An elusive professional killer like him basically can't be caught. Wei Xiao almost never showed his face to others and you also wouldn't know if it was his real face or a fake one."

"I thought human-skin masks were just stories."

"The 'human-skin mask' that Officer Yu and the others speak of are of course just stories but clever disguises do exist. To the naked eye, real and fake can't be distinguished. It's just that neither you nor I know how to do it," Han Dongsheng said. "When people like that commit crime, they wouldn't leave even a single fingerprint or footprint. The CCTVs wouldn't be able to capture them at all. They wouldn't take the routes the police can investigate. After killing their target, they would blend in with the crowd and leave only the mark of their unique supreme skill at the crime scene as proof to be used to collect payment from their patron. The vagrant who brushed past you on the streets might just be a killer who had just washed their hands clean."

Which was to say, firstly, this person could not be found and secondly, it would be difficult to find evidence to indict them.

Han Dongsheng said, "When Old Mr. Chun was still alive, he had already announced that his sect had washed their hands clean of their old ways and had stopped working their old trade. Of course, we weren't the police and whether or not Wei Xiao obeyed his master's words was not something we could manage. But most of the eighteen people who died by his hand that day were local villagers who had come out to work during the off season for farming. The furthest place they had been to in their entire lives was the main city in the province. There was even the factory boss's little son among them, he was barely twelve years old. It was too much, too demented. But despite that, Elder Yu, Sect Leader Yang and the others were still unwilling to make a judgement. Elder Yu said that he could be considered to have seen Wei Xiao grow up and he didn't believe that someone of Old Mr. Chun's conduct could result in this kind of disciple. But there were people who came to make a ruckus every day. That year's Martial Arts General Assembly was a pandemonium. Everyone wanted to expel Wan Mu Chun from the Five Supremes."

Yu Lanchuan recalled what Elder Yang had told him and asked, "Was it because when Wei Xiao had attended the Martial Arts General Assembly previously, he had offended a lot of people?"

"Did Sect Leader Yang tell you about it?" Han Dongsheng nodded. "When Wei Xiao was young, he attended the Martial Arts General Assembly on his shifu's behalf. There were people who took a dislike to him and challenged him to a spar after the event… Actually, it was very common for young people to challenge each other. It was just to learn from each other, superficial and not in depth. But Wei Xiao readily turned hostile and fought viciously on the spot. Back then, the medical treatment available wasn't what you could get today. If your limbs are crippled, that's it. From then on, there was a grudge between Wei Xiao and a group of friends. After that, even if he came, it was only in private to visit Elder Yu and the others. He never again showed his face in public. Wan Mu Chun's reputation also started to fall into disrepute from then on."

Having been "challenged" before, Yu Lanchuan didn't make any comments and only thought in his heart, He who provokes first is in the wrong.

All those who were so idle that they had nothing better to do than to look for trouble after the tea party had something wrong with them and deserved the beating they got.

"Unable to withstand the crowd's anger, Elder Yu announced an Alliance Leader's Command. But I heard the older generation say that in the end, the old alliance leader didn't pass judgement on Wei Xiao or say that the eighteen people at the flour factory were killed by him. His Alliance Leader's Command was an 'interrogation.' He was calling out to Wei Xiao across the distance and saying that if he didn't commit the crime, then he should hurry up and say something so that he doesn't destroy his sect's reputation," Han Dongsheng said. "But even though Elder Yu went through this trouble, the other party did not respond at all.

"A few more years later, there was internal conflict within Travellers' Sect. Someone from Wan Mu Chun meddled in the affair and only then did Elder Yu know that Wei Xiao was hiding right here in Yanning. In that case, there was no way he wouldn't have heard the Alliance Leader's Command. If there was really something going on behind the scenes, he should have come to find Elder Yu long ago. Silence was the same as admittance."

Yu Lanchuan stared blankly. He suddenly realised that back in that year when he ran away from home, when he went to Mudpool Backlane on his own and was kidnapped, he had caused trouble for Granduncle. And, Gan Qing saving him had actually also made a mess of things for her own family.

"What happened after that?"

"I heard the older generation say that even though the person who took action was from Wan Mu Chun, it could be seen that their skill was still superficial," Han Dongsheng said. "Furthermore, the way they acted was a little… erm, overly spirited. They didn't dare cause serious injuries to other people so it was probably not Wei Xiao himself. It could have been his little disciple being mischievous. Even though Elder Yu was disappointed at that time, he still wanted to protect Wei Xiao, so he privately erased all marks. But he didn't think that the police would find a dog's body and that we would also have some loose-lipped people on our side. The matter couldn't be covered up and spread out in the end. As far as I knew back then, many people seemed to go berserk and wanted to dig a meter into the ground to unearth Wei Xiao. But with the old alliance leader putting pressure from the top, all these were done in private. They didn't dare do it openly and with great fanfare."

Yu Lanchuan's heart suddenly tightened. "Did they find him?"

"About that, I don't know anymore." Han Dongsheng shook his head. "During that period of time, my father's health was failing. I was frazzled taking care of things at home and didn't have time to find out. But after a few years, those people who had a grudge against Wei Xiao all stopped. The atmosphere at the Martial Arts General Assembly slowly became less hostile and ready-to-fight. I heard rumours saying that Wei Xiao had died."

For so many years, Yu Lanchuan had always worried over whether or not the girl back then would suffer any injury because of him. It had practically become a sickness of the heart for him. It was only when he finally found her some time ago that he realised that it was all a waste of his feelings. As he laid his worries to rest, he was at the same time a little embarrassed and angry because his dark history was in her hands.

He had never thought that behind this little incident, there would be so many implications.

If Wei Xiao was really dead, if Wei Xiao's death was related to jianghu grudges…

Then… was Gan Qing aware of it? Was she aware that because she had meddled in other people's business back then, she had incurred those incidents? Had the enmity between her shifu and other people involved her? How did her hand become that way?

Why had she appeared in Travellers' Sect territory today? Was it purely to help them break out of the siege?

Why had Liang-ge, whose boldness was greater than the sky and was a big hoodlum who dared to gather other hoodlums to attack the police, been so terrified to see her?

All of a sudden, Yu Lanchuan had a very restless and impulsive urge to get up at once and look for Gan Qing.

As for what he would say when he saw her, he hadn't thought about it yet. But he had to see her now.

Hence, he rose immediately and hurriedly took his leave of Han Dongsheng.

But Han Dongsheng suddenly called out to him. "Little Master Yu, I'm not someone who talks indiscreetly, don't worry. The less people who know about the background of the young lady from upstairs, the better it is. The martial arts world is not as peaceful as it seems. You should tell Yan Hao and Officer Yu that it's best if they don't talk about it to anyone."

Yu Lanchuan nodded his thanks to him. Then, he moved his legs and left.

Gan Qing's phone was switched off. The last update in her WeChat Moments was three days ago.

Yu Lanchuan first went up to knock on 1003's door. This time, Madam Zhang Meizhen was annoyed by his knocking and shouted at him through the door. "She isn't back! I don't know! Go look for my nephew! Next time, I'll write it in the tenancy agreement—'Having a romantic relationship with the neighbour is not allowed.'"

Yu Lanchuan couldn't be bothered to argue with this mouthy old lady. He got a cab and headed directly towards Mudpool Backlane's Tianyi Crayfish.

The next door Star Dreams was closed and locked. Yu Lanchuan glanced at it, then charged into the hot and smoky back kitchen.

"What are you doing!" A server carrying a pot of soup nearly crashed into his chest. "Who are you looking for- Hey!"

"Little Master Yu?" Meng Tianyi was not in the back kitchen. He had just come in from outside, his heart heavy with worries. He looked up in surprise at Yu Lanchuan. "Why are you-"

"I'm looking for Gan Qing." Yu Lanchuan pulled him to a stop. "It's urgent."

Meng Tianyi said rather evasively, "Ah… her? It's so late, she isn't home yet? I see that she has locked the shop…"

"What do you mean 'locked the shop,' she didn't even open the shop today!" Yu Lanchuan cut him off. He lowered his voice into a whisper, speaking quickly and softly beside Meng Tianyi's ear. "She dressed up like Wei Xiao today and, in front of the police, snapped a Travellers' Sect leader's arm!"

When Meng Tianyi heard the two words "Wei Xiao," his face changed. When he heard the rest of the sentence, he was sweating.

Yu Lanchuan's voice was lowered until it stayed only in the gaps of his teeth. "I guessed that she wanted to snap other parts of his body too so I stopped her at that time. But the scene was too much of a mess. I looked away for just a second after that and she disappeared. Do you want me to find her or do you want the criminal police to find her in the future? Boss Meng, let me ask you again. Where. Is. She."

The corner of Meng Tianyi's eye twitched uncontrollably for a while. "Route 707… She went to the other side of the road to take the Route 707 bus. The last stop is the cemetery in the eastern suburb… When she goes there on her own, she doesn't like people following her… Little Master Yu!"

But Yu Lanchuan had already disappeared.

A few days ago, there was snowfall in Yanning. Apparently, in total, there were tens of millions of snowflakes, about the same as the population of Yanning, but no one saw them. It turned out that they had all landed in the eastern suburb. A delicate layer of hoar frost had formed on the lawn in the cemetery while the vapour breathed out by the evergreen pine trees gave rise to a thin mist, ice-cold and damp, closing in densely to penetrate the gaps between a person's bones.

The lighting in the deepest part of the cemetery was spoiled. No one had repaired it for a long time. Crow-dark and ink-black, only the dim light of the moon fell there, sketching out a long shadow…

At this place, at this time, this shadow of a human looked more like a ghost.

On the tombstone, the name engraved was "Wei Changsheng^[2]."

Wei Xiao was a name that made people tremble in fear. Wei Changsheng, on the other hand, was a cook who was easy to talk to.

The second-hand bicycle that he rode was even a women's bike. He could never extend his legs fully and was slightly hunched when he was cycling. He cycled very slowly. The little girl waiting for him would leap up onto the pillion seat… It was still possible when she was young; when she was a little older, she could no longer sit there. The bicycle's pillion seat was very narrow and was just for show. It wasn't meant to carry passengers. When Gan Qing was twelve years old, she broke this joke of a pillion seat and her butt landed right on the back wheel, dealing a severe blow to her dignity.

Her bad luck-bringer shifu laughed until he had to hold the wall for support, making her so angry that she had a good cry. From then on, she swore to diligently practise her qinggong.

...Not that it came to anything.

Shifu was an old-fashioned believer in "high scores in exams." She remembered that when she was young, he was still willing to teach her some martial arts. When she was a bit older, he didn't like to teach her anymore. From day to night, he only took up the calculator and compared her marks against the kid from next door. Prying a move or two from him was extremely difficult; he seemed to not expect her to become good at it at all.

When Gan Qing was young, she had even secretly suspected that he might be afraid of "when the disciple masters the skills, the master starves to death." Even those evil sects in wuxia stories that didn't treat their disciples as humans weren't as miserly as her shifu.

"Until now, I'm still just a half-assed dabbler whose shifu had not properly admitted me into the sect." Gan Qing brushed away the pine needles that had fallen onto the tombstone. She had stood there for an unknown period of time. A layer of dew had fallen on her body. She pulled up the hood of her coat and started walking to the exit. "By chance, if my skills happen to be not good enough and I die by someone else's hands, you can't blame me…"

Right at that moment, a shadow suddenly charged out from the pine trees. Shrouded in the sharp and piercing sound of the wind, it arrived before her eyes in just a flash and grabbed hold of her.

Late in the night, in a cemetery, in pitch darkness. A lonely pebble path, the two rows of tombstones on either side gazing at her with a smile that was not quite a smile… and she had just spoken ill of the dead.

Even if Gan Qing's boldness was greater than the sky, she was nearly scared to the point of heart failure. She screamed and shouted, "Shifu, I was wrong!"

T/N:

[1] The length of the cuts found on the throats of the bodies is 三寸二分 (3 cun and 2 fen). Initially, I translated it to 3.2 inches because I personally prefer to use measurement units that are immediately recognisable to English readers, especially for a story set in modern times, and because cun is sometimes called the "Chinese inch." However, since this phrase is used many times in the story and the precision of the measurement is emphasised repeatedly, I decided to use the Chinese measurements. (It is also my preference not to italicise terms kept in Chinese.)

One cun is a little longer than an imperial unit inch, 1.26 of an imperial unit inch to be exact, while fen is 1/10 of a cun. Converted to imperial units, three cun and two fen comes up to about four inches.

[2] Wei Xiao 卫骁 - "Xiao" means "brave and powerful." Wei Changsheng 卫长生 - "Changsheng" means "long life."