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

As soon as Su Xiaochun returned the pages, many old accounts immediately changed color.

Her left arm was broken in a fall from a bridge when she was seven, and she recognized blue glass beads. She could imitate Gu Qinghe's handwriting, but couldn't write the character "禾" (He) from Gu Qinghe's real name. This line stopped everyone in their tracks; her mother had previously recognized the fake signature. It was precisely because the character "禾" had a protruding top line that Su Xiaochun could imitate her handwriting. However, she couldn't write her real name, which perfectly matched the list of forty-one people receiving guests. The fake Gu Qinghe signature was very likely written by Su Xiaochun. Lan Yue's face paled. "Who did she write for?" The page continued: July 26th, the fourteenth year of Chengxi. Gu Qinghe's second letter to the capital failed. Wang Shi investigated Gu Qinghe herself and the messenger. To separate the pursuers, Su Xiaochun volunteered to wear Gu Qinghe's outer garment.

She volunteered to wear Gu Qinghe's clothes to lure away the pursuers; later, however, she left false signatures on several grain transfer slips. She had saved lives and also worked for the Wang family. The last time anyone saw her alive was at the old post station in Qingxia. Several months later, a woman's corpse was dug out from a gap in the old wall; the location of her old broken left arm matched that of Su Xiaochun. Her name could be returned, but the grain transfer slips still needed to be checked.

Su Xiaochun's original description of the border is clearer than later legends. The mission has only three days: wear Gu Qinghe's old clothes, carry an empty ration, and deliver the order through the old post station at Qingxia to distract the pursuers from the real messenger; you must not lead troops, enter the palace, change your registration, or live under Gu Qinghe's name for an extended period. Bai Song also specifically wrote, "This is only to mislead the pursuers; do not fabricate a record of Gu Qinghe signing the ration order." The fake ration that appeared later was precisely where the border was crossed.

Looking at that page, the mother didn't say "she died in my place," but only had Bai Zhi cross out the words "Gu Qinghe's substitute" and change it to: Su Xiaochun, who voluntarily wore Gu Qinghe's old clothes to divert the investigation; her subsequent actions will be investigated separately. The mother then had someone add a sentence at the end: Wearing Gu Qinghe's clothes did not grant her Gu Qinghe's identity, nor did it make her responsible for any of Gu Qinghe's subsequent actions.

Unaware that she would forge a signature, Bai Zhi continued reading the marginal notes. Bai Song's note: "Only to mislead pursuers; do not fabricate the fact that Gu Qinghe has signed the grain order." Below was Zhou Qi's note: "If no signature is found." The pursuers didn't believe it, and there was another line below. The handwriting matched the forged receipt: "Gu Qinghe verified." The character "He" (禾) was slightly raised, indicating that Su Xiaochun had indeed signed it. Violating Bai Song's restrictions, the problem was that she acted on her own initiative. Or did Zhou Qi make her sign it? On the back of the page was a handover note: July 27th. Su Xiaochun arrived at the old post station in Qingxia; Yi, Kongling, and Lanzhu were all there. Recipient: Zhou Qi, who then disappeared. Lan Yue suddenly looked up. "Zhou Qi saw her." "That's what it says on the page."

In the attestation section for the renaming, Lan Yue didn't just write "Lan Zhu and I are alike." She added several things that weren't required by the official records: Su Xiaochun was afraid of the dark, ate with her left hand, liked to bite off loose threads, and could sing the second half of the Nanqiao nursery rhyme. Bai Zhi didn't consider these as irrefutable evidence for identifying the body, but left them as they were. If the renaming process ultimately only resulted in an old broken bone and a glass bead, that person would still just be a new autopsy number, not truly returning from the paper.

This sentence seems redundant.

But over the past eleven years, it is precisely this kind of "already taken over once" that is most easily exaggerated. Su Xiaochun helped her mother for a while, and later some people tacitly accepted that she could continue to sign for Gu Qinghe, disappear for Gu Qinghe, and even die for Gu Qinghe. The real clothing token is still in the imperial mausoleum and will not be taken away. Everyone only makes rubbings and seals the edges.

The back of the second page records the last handover: On July 27th of the fourteenth year of Chengxi, Su Xiaochun arrived alive at the Qingxia Old Post Station. Yi, Kongling, and Lanzhu were all there. The recipient was listed as "Zhou Qi." He Xiu admitted to having seen her and also admitted that the "Gu Qinghe" on the fake grain order was signed by Su Xiaochun at her request, arguing that without a signature, the pursuers wouldn't believe her. However, she still claimed not to know how Su Xiaochun later died. The only confirmed fact is that Su Xiaochun was alive when she was handed over to this line of inquiry and later died inside the walls of the Old Post Station. The murderer cannot be listed first simply because He Xiu is the most suspicious.

Before the test ended, page 41 provided another direction. When Zhou Qi was brought back to the He family in Qingfeng, Bai Zhi pushed that page in front of her: "He Xiu?" Her finger paused for a moment.

He Xiu wasn't immediately given her original name just because she said "yes." The three points on page 41—the burn mark on her left wrist, the needle mark on her right ear, and her inability to embroider—had already been verified. The remaining piece of paper in the original name section only had half a "He" character left, so it could only be written as "suspected surname He." It wasn't until she confirmed that her father's name was He Cheng and could say the names of Qingfeng Nancang, the real and fake grain measures, and the father-daughter nickname "Xiu'er" that the original name column was changed from "suspected to be He Xiu" to "confirmed by the person as He Xiu." In the past, she was most good at recognizing people based on a single sentence from others, but this time no one allowed her to get through the test based on just one sentence from herself.

"Which one is 'embroidered'?" "The 'embroidered' one." "Can you embroider?" "No."

Ah Liu couldn't help herself and looked up, revealing her original name for the first time: He Xiu.

Her father, He Cheng, was a minor official at the Qingfeng South Granary. Before the grain measure scandal broke, he discovered that the measures used in the granary were incorrect. While all were labeled as one measure, some were filled to the brim, while others had a raised layer underneath. He Cheng tried to investigate, but his records were initially written as indicating someone had died of illness.

He Xiu said that the South Granary had two sets of measuring cups that were almost identical in appearance. When grain was being loaded, the full measuring cup was used, but when grain was being distributed, someone would raise the bottom of the cup, still marking the ten-liter mark, meaning there was actually nearly a liter less. He Cheng had made a measuring cup with the same appearance and accurate capacity, intending to replace it during a public granary inspection so that the years of grain shortage would become apparent. On the first day, a huge discrepancy was indeed found, and the measuring cup was replaced on the second day. The records only stated "the wooden measuring cup was damp," and He Cheng was later recorded as having died of plague.

After her father's "death," He Xiu received a message: "Xiu'er, don't look for him." For eleven years, she took this as proof that He Cheng was still alive. Only when we asked who the messenger was did she say it was a man with a limp on his left side. This limp was precisely the distinguishing feature that appeared repeatedly later in the story. Real private matters could be brought by decoys; the letter from Qian Fang's family that Zhao Mei received had already proven this once. For the first time, He Xiu had to admit: the proof she most wanted to believe might just be a statement, not her real father.

"Is he really dead?" I asked.

He Xiu shook her head: "I don't know."

"You never knew?" "I only knew that someone had collected a salary under his name for three years."

Her father was written to be dead, so the daughter hid her own name as well. She stopped working as He Xiu and became an accountant whom anyone could mistake for "Zhou Qi." Her mother asked, "You hid your name to protect him?"

"At first it was." "And then?"

He Xiu did not answer.

Next to the genuine clothing plaque was a smaller wooden plaque. In the original manuscript, it was once considered the "sixth genuine plaque," but after comparing it with the old system of granaries, it was confirmed that it was not another identity plaque, but a secondary verification plaque for measuring grain. One side of the wooden plaque was engraved with ten shallow lines, and the other side read: Qingfeng South Granary, sufficient grain measure. Su Musheng's name was also on it.

At the bottom of Su Xiaochun's original page, there is also a handwritten note from the late Empress: "Su Musheng met He Cheng; one grain measure was real, the other fake; if the clothing page can be opened, first ask the carpenter in Nanqiao." Two fathers and two grain lines are connected for the first time, but they cannot be considered one person simply because they both live in Qingfeng. Su Musheng died of plague but had no body, while He Cheng was written as dead but someone still received a stipend in his name; the two men's states of "death" were inherently different.

The ten shallow lines on the measuring cup's secondary label correspond to a full ten liters. Bai Zhi placed it side by side with a rubbing of a nine-liter cup that she later found; the difference wasn't just the size, which was immediately noticeable, but rather the presence of an extra thin layer underneath. A little less from each household might not be apparent at first, but accumulated round after round, it would create a huge void in the granary. Therefore, the next section of the grain account would no longer begin with "who stole how much," but with the most fundamental question: was one dou truly one dou?

He was Su Xiaochun's father. He Xiu's testimony stated that Su Musheng had made a batch of standard measuring cups for Qingfeng. Later, someone raised the bottom of the cup, turning a ten-liter cup into a nine-liter one, and then forced him to sign a "voluntary reform document." Not long after, Su Musheng was also written as having died of the plague, with no body found. Bai Zhi placed the clothing tag, Su Xiaochun's page, and the measuring cup's side by side.

"Where is Su Musheng?" Zhou Qi's expression changed noticeably for the first time. "What does the second page say?" "The late Empress said." "Su Musheng saw He Cheng." "One grain measure is real, the other fake." "Ask the carpenter at Nanqiao first." Zhou Qi closed her eyes, and after a long while said, "Su Musheng is dead." "Evidence?" "I saw the body." "The face?" "Intact." "Old wounds?" "A wooden chisel wound on the right shoulder." "Who examined him?" "He Cheng." "When did you see He Cheng?" "August of the fourteenth year of Chengxi." "Were you there too?" "Yes." "Where is the body?" "Under the well at Qingfeng South Granary." "Why wasn't it reported?" "Su Musheng was silenced by Wang Shi."

A name returned from the clothes, a name emerged from the grain measure. He Xiu stared at the measuring cup's label for a long time, then suddenly said, "Don't seal the well in the old Qingfeng granary yet."

"Why?" "If my father were still alive, he might be there." "If he were dead?"

She remained silent.

"It's there too."

The next day, we set off for Qingfeng. When we arrived outside the warehouse, He Xiu didn't call for her father first. She stood at the well's edge and heard someone cough from below; her face turned pale instantly. A very old voice came from the bottom of the well.

The well wasn't opened immediately. First, the granary was sealed, the day's rations were distributed, and then two men who didn't recognize He Xiu were sent down. When the old man at the bottom of the well was lifted up, his legs were too weak to walk straight, but his hands were calloused from years of repairing buckets. His name was He Cheng, and he knew that his daughter had stolen dried dates at the age of seven and stuffed the date pits into the cracks of the bucket, and that she had burned off a tuft of hair behind her left ear when she was little. He Xiu stood about two zhang away, waiting until she had memorized all this before taking a step forward.

"Xiu'er?"

She gripped the edge of the well, her hands taut and blue. I thought she would immediately send someone down. But instead, she took a half step back.

"a priori."

The sound was very soft.

"Don't release them yet."