My father ordered me to kill the emperor, but His Majesty bestowed a princess upon me instead.

When the winch broke, the old sluice gate made a loud noise.

Everyone downstream looked up.

The river is still rising.

But it wasn't as fast as before.

Yan Xiaoyi cut the main cable with his knife, and the gate was stuck in the half-open position.

The water will continue to drain.

At least it won't swallow up the entire shed in one go.

The cost was that the old gate was basically rendered useless.

Tao Kun's face turned even more grim when he saw the broken rope than when he saw the corpses in the embankment.

"This is the imperial river sluice gate!"

Yan Xiaoyi said, "I know."

"Destroying the river sluice gate is a serious crime!"

"Record it in Shen An's account."

I turned my head.

He has already gone far away.

In such situations, the reaction time is very fast.

I looked at Tao Kun.

"Put it on my tab."

"If the sluice gate is not destroyed today, I will hold accountable no matter how many people die."

"We'll settle it all after the case is closed."

Tao Kun stopped talking.

He probably had never seen an official take the initiative to admit wrongdoing.

Who do court officials usually approach first to sign off?

Who built it?

Who was the last to touch the rope?

I don't like to bear the guilt.

But rather than washing away living people, carrying an old sluice gate is just as good as carrying one.

Anyway, I already have a lot of debts.

Adding one more page won't make the booklet much heavier.

All the workers in the shed were evacuated to higher ground.

During the headcount, Qingfeng River workers found 82 people on the high ground.

Including the twelve Qingfeng River workers who were just rescued from the lime kiln truck, there are a total of ninety-four people.

Another 24 people rescued from the vehicle came from a new batch of people who died from the epidemic in Nanxian County, Qingzhou. They were registered separately and not included in the original list of Qingfeng County.

The original register of Qingfeng contains 126 people.

Twenty-three people filled the embankment.

Eight people were transferred to Qingxia last month.

One person escaped and went missing.

Ninety-four people remain.

Just right.

The tent was finally closed.

But their harmony is anything but joyful.

Twenty-three people were inside the dike.

Eight people went to Qingxia.

There was another person who escaped, but it's unknown whether they are alive or dead.

Du Cheng sat on a high rock, gazing at the riverbank.

"I know Xu Mu and his gang are dead."

I looked at him.

How much do you know?

"I know seven."

Why was the number twenty-three changed to a movable book?

"It was added later."

"Who will fix it?"

"An old accountant in Qingfeng."

Where are they?

"He died last month too."

"How did you die?"

"Fell into the water."

Another fall into the water.

The way people die at the river works site is very uniform.

As long as you're near a river, anything can be considered an accident.

I asked, "If you knew someone was going to die, why did you still send someone here?"

Du Cheng remained silent for a long time.

"Because if they are sent to Qingfeng, eight out of ten will survive."

"If we stay in Yuan County, maybe one out of ten will survive."

"So you think it's worth it?"

"At the time, I felt..."

"And now?"

He looked at the twenty-three light-colored stone troughs at the foot of the embankment.

"I don't dare to feel that way anymore."

I didn't press them any further.

It's not forgiveness.

Some accounts require the person in question to see them in order to know how to verify them.

Du Cheng is not Wang Song.

He did not use the imperial court to shield himself.

It also did not mention any necessary losses.

He simply made a choice.

Save some.

Sacrifice a portion.

Later, that part grew larger and larger.

There were so many that he dared not count them anymore.

The most common mistake people make is not choosing the wrong option the first time.

After realizing the mistake, because they had already gone too far, they continued forward.

Bai Zhi led her men to search the accounts at the River Works Office.

Tao Kun still wanted to delay.

It was late at night.

They say the river water hasn't receded yet.

They said the key to the accounting office was in the county town.

After listening, Bai Zhi picked up a stone from the ground and smashed open the cabinet.

"No need for keys."

Ah Liu looked at her.

"Miss Bai is looking more and more like Master Yan."

"no the same."

Yan Xiaoyi leaned against the tree.

"She paid for the cabinet."

Bai Zhi said, "Record it in Tao Kun's account."

I think this team has learned it.

If anything breaks, first find someone who can raid the house to record it.

There are four books in the cabinet.

River Works Grain Register.

Transfer booklet.

Loss and damage record.

There is also a thin book without a cover.

The first three books match each other.

It looks very clean.

The fourth book only records the location of the stone trough.

One slot, one number.

Twenty-three.

Bai Zhi flipped to the last page and found that the twenty-fourth groove had already been drawn.

It is located at the end of the embankment.

The number is not filled in.

"Who are they for?"

I asked Tao Kun.

"have no idea."

"You're the one who had the trench dug."

"Reserved for dike repair."

"Are you also reserving straw mats for shrouds?"

Next to the twenty-fourth trough, lime, straw mats, and a pair of iron shackles were already placed.

It's not about repairing a dike.

It's waiting for the next loss.

Du Cheng walked over and glanced at the markings on the iron shackles.

"mine."

The iron plaque reads:

Jia Ling.

The first page of the alteration booklet is not numbered.

Du Cheng was the one who established the register.

He was also the first person to die in the live warehouse.

Jia Ling.

If he goes to Qingfeng with the car tonight, Lan Gu will make him the twenty-fourth casualty.

They filled it into the living dam they built themselves.

fair enough.

The accounting process is always fair to those who know too much.

Du Cheng pulled a loose stone slab from under the iron shackles.

This wasn't a trough before.

"What is it?"

"Storage box location".

He had the stone slab removed.

There was a small black lacquered box behind it.

The box is not big.

It was wrapped in three layers of oilcloth.

The lock was rusted shut.

Yan Xiaoyi pried it open with the tip of his knife.

Bai Zhi immediately shouted, "Don't move!"

Yan Xiaoyi stopped.

"Is there a secret agency involved?"

"There is an account."

She pointed to the extremely fine sealing line on the edge of the box lid.

Double-lined blue pattern.

It is not the single-line broken orchid used in the later accounting process.

It is the double witnessing line used in the first batch of genuine amulets by the late Empress.

The box had been sealed for at least eleven years.

Du Cheng looked at the box, and for the first time, his expression truly changed.

"I thought it had been washed away by the water."

"You hid it?"

"Bai Song hid it."

"What's inside?"

"My cards."

The first genuine old account card.

Du Cheng owned it back then.

Later he said he couldn't find a single one.

It's not that he didn't know the location.

He thought the box had been lost during a breach in the riverbank.

But Tao Kun has been continuously repairing the dike over the years.

They dared not demolish the old foundation.

The box, however, remained inside.

I didn't open the angelica root directly.

She instructed Du Cheng to report the official seal according to the rules of that year.

"Double lines, left over right."

Du Chengdao.

"Bai Song on the outside."

"Me, the inside player."

"What are you testing for?"

"The Ending of Bai Song's Story"

"Du Cheng's left hand has burn marks."

Angelica dahurica was first tested and sealed.

The ending of the storyline does indeed leave room for the Bai family to finish off.

The inner indentation resembles a three-finger palm.

It corresponds perfectly to Du Cheng's missing left hand.

Both witnesses are present.

The box can be opened.

When the black lacquered cover was lifted, there was no toxic smoke inside.

There was only one old wooden plaque.

The four characters on the front:

Settle old accounts.

An Chaogang was not there.

There is a line of small characters engraved on the back of the card.

Part 1.

Du Chengchi.

Eleven years later, the first real card finally came to light.

There was also a letter under the sign.

The paper has turned yellow.

The recipient was not Du Cheng.

It is written as:

To Mr. Shen.

Signed: Bai Song.

I didn't dismantle it immediately.

According to the rules for verifying the identity of the three parties, neither Xiao Lingyi nor Gu Xingzhi were present.

But there was another small piece of paper underneath the envelope.

It was not sealed off.

There are only three lines above.

If Shen's descendants come to investigate.

First, open the living account.

We must not open Qingxia first.

I looked at the last sentence.

Madam Wang asked me to go to Qingxia.

Aunt Lan asked me to go to Qingxia.

Shen Lie's fake letter also made me drive Qingxia Road.

Now, the words Bai Song left behind eleven years ago say that Qingxia should not be opened first.

It's not that I don't want to go.

We cannot go there first.

Because there are 109 people in Qingxia who were written as dead and then re-enlisted as soldiers.

There was also a system that could identify anyone as a member of the imperial army, the southwestern army, or the Wang family's grain protection team.

If the live granaries along the way are not opened up first, once Qingxia is in chaos, everyone will become a nameless rebel army.

At that time, the court will only need to fire arrows.

Shen Lie only needs to withdraw his troops.

Anyone can claim that they killed the enemy.

Bai Zhi flipped over the first real card.

There are also six very small engravings on the bottom of the back of the card.

The first one has already been cut open.

The other five remain sealed off.

There is a character next to each engraving.

Shen.

White.

orchid.

驿。

long.

Clothes.

The holder of six cards.

The Shen family.

Bai Song.

A person in blue.

Qingxia Post Station.

An envoy from Changning arrived.

The knocking coming from behind the gate was not a random sound.

Three short, one long, then two more short.

After listening to it twice, Tian Cheng suddenly rushed to the embankment.

"Someone inside is calling out numbers."

"What should I report?"

"With each round of knocking, one less is struck."

The dike contains more than just river workers.

As the water level rose, the people inside were losing their voices one by one.

Physician Song pressed his ear against the wet mud and cursed.

"Open the air vent first."

Yan Xiaoyi led his men to climb up the old stone crevice and used short knives to pry open the mud blocking it little by little.

When the first breath came out, it carried the smell of mold, blood, and human heat.

Someone inside is coughing.

It's very light.

But it made everyone who was digging the dam twice as fast.

The bill can be paid later.

The first thing to do right now is to let the talking embankment breathe again.

There is also someone who only writes "clothes".

Du Cheng's expression suddenly changed when he saw the last word.

"The sixth one is not Han Shangfu."

"Who is that?"

"The late empress gave her last card to someone who shouldn't be alive."

"Who?"

Du Cheng looked up at me.

"Feng happy".