Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

When Helian Jing bent down and carried her on his back, his arms went under her knees to support her. Her chest was pressed against his back, and she could feel his body heat slowly seeping in through the thick winter clothes.

He gripped the rope with one hand, stepped firmly on the first iron nail, and began to climb. Each step was extremely steady, and the iron nail made a slight creaking sound under his feet, but there was no sign of it loosening.

He climbed for about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, and the higher he went, the stronger the wind became, blowing the stray hairs that fell across her cheeks backward.

Her face was buried in the crook of his shoulder, avoiding the wind. His breathing became a little rapid as he climbed up, but his arms remained steady, preventing her from sliding down even a little.

As we approached the top of the cliff, a thick iron suspension bridge stretched across the last section of the vertical rock face.

A face peered out from the cliff top, clearly illuminated by the twilight. The face looked to be no more than thirty years old, with very wide brow bones, a high nose bridge, and naturally upturned corners of the mouth, carrying an ever-present smile.

The man wore an old gray-brown robe, with an extremely narrow longsword at his waist. The scabbard was jet black and shiny, as if it had been repeatedly polished. He lay on the edge of the cliff, watching the two people below climb up, and the smile on his lips slowly deepened.

"Helian Jing, who are you carrying on your back?"

Helian Jing took the last step to climb to the top of the cliff, and after putting Xi Yueli down from his back, he spoke: "She's mine."

Shi Xuanji's gaze shifted from Helian Jing's face to Xi Yueli's. His ever-smiling eyes lingered on her face for a moment, then he tilted his head slightly, as if he had discovered something interesting, and the curve of his lips deepened.

"Interesting," he said. "You came to see me about Yelan?"

Xi Yueli's gaze froze the moment he asked the question. She straightened up, her black cloak billowing slightly in the evening breeze. She met his smiling gaze: "How did you know, Young Master?"

Shi Xuanji took a half step back to make way for the entrance to the cliff top, and gestured for them to come in. He turned around and walked towards the stone house at the top of the cliff, his voice drifting back from the front, carrying a confident composure.

"Because there aren't many people who can take her away, and one of them happens to have a grudge against Shi."

Shi Xuanji's stone house was much tidier than Xi Yueli had expected.

The four stone walls were smoothed out, and a rough wooden bookshelf against the wall was filled with old books. A low couch by the window was covered with thick animal hides, and the charcoal fire was burning brightly, giving the whole room a dry warmth.

On the stone table sat a pot of warm wine and two rough porcelain bowls, as if the host had known all along that someone would come tonight.

Shi Xuanji sat down by the window, one leg bent and draped over the edge of the couch, his posture as casual as if he were sunbathing in his own backyard. He poured himself a bowl of wine, took a sip, and then spoke, his voice languid in the warmth of the charcoal fire.

"One night a month before Ye Lan disappeared, someone saw her walking in the direction of Daying Luoshi Town. It was raining that night. She didn't have an umbrella and walked very fast, as if she was hiding from someone or chasing someone."

Xi Yueli sat on the wooden stool opposite him, her gaze never leaving him as he spoke. "Young Master Shi, did you see it?"

"I didn't see it." Shi Xuanji put down the wine bowl, folded his hands on his knees, and deepened the natural curve of his lips slightly.

"But Master happened to be returning from Luoshi Town that night and found something by the roadside."

He took out an old wooden box about the size of a palm from a hidden compartment in his desk, pushed it across the stone tabletop, and revealed that most of the lacquer on the box was peeling off, revealing the grayish-white wood underneath, with a mark on one corner indicating that it had been repeatedly rubbed.

Xi Yueli reached out and opened the wooden box, inside which lay a broken black iron hairpin.

The hairpin was broken in two, with a very shallow dark line at the break, as if it had been repeatedly carved and smoothed out by something. When her fingertips touched the broken hairpin, a vein in the back of her head suddenly twitched.

She turned the broken hairpin over, and when her gaze fell on the dark pattern at the break, the nerve in the back of her head tightened even more.

She couldn't explain why, but the place, the hairpin, and Shi Xuanji's nonchalant tone of voice—each of these things, taken individually, shouldn't have bothered her, yet when they were all piled up, something was throbbing in the back of her head.

Helian Jing noticed the wrinkles between her brows. He leaned forward slightly, placing his hand on hers as she pressed her temple. "What's wrong? Headache?"

Xi Yueli put the broken hairpin back into the wooden box and pushed it back in front of Shi Xuanji: "It's nothing. It's just that the wind is strong on the mountaintop, and it's a bit uncomfortable to be exposed to it for too long."

Shi Xuanji watched as she pushed the broken hairpin back, his gaze lingering on her fingertips for a moment.

"Besides this broken hairpin," Xi Yueli stood up and pulled her cloak tighter, "does Young Master know anything else?"

Shi Xuanji leaned back on the couch, his hands behind his head, and looked out the window at the darkening sky: "Three months before Ye Lan disappeared, she was investigating someone."

"That man has no official name in the martial arts world, but he's very famous in the shadows—he's called 'Silver Shuttle.' He specializes in connecting people; he can connect threads that can't be untied, and he can dismantle threads that can't be connected. Ye Lan is looking for him, probably to investigate something."

He paused, then turned his gaze from the window to Xi Yueli's face. "I've been thinking for a long time about who can take Ye Lan away—"

"If Ye Lan was asked to leave, then the person who asked her to leave must have been faster than Ye Lan; if Ye Lan was taken away, then the person who took her away must have been more than Ye Lan. And Yin Shuo has something in his hands that can make people leave willingly."

Helian Jing stood up as soon as Shi Xuanji finished speaking, reached out and lightly touched Xi Yueli's elbow, his voice neither loud nor soft: "Thank you, Young Master Shi. The Tian Shu Division will investigate the Silver Shuttle."

Shi Xuanji did not get up to see the guest off; he merely tilted his head slightly towards the door and said, "Be careful going down the mountain. The wind is strong at night; she won't be able to withstand it."

Helian Jing paused at the threshold, turning his head to glance at Shi Xuanji. Shi Xuanji had already poured herself another bowl of wine and was drinking it, her ever-smiling eyes fixed on the surface of the wine, as if she were looking at something very far away.

He bent down and carried Xi Yueli back on his back, then descended the mountain along the rope. The night wind howled through the cliff face, making it several degrees colder than when they came up.

Xi Yueli lay on his back, her face buried in his shoulder, the vein in the back of her head still throbbing, one beat after another, muffled.

As soon as I stepped off the cliff and into the carriage, the warmth of the charcoal fire enveloped me.

"The Dark Pavilion has already investigated Silver Shuttle, but Third Sister said that the Pavilion Master is confident in Silver Shuttle's identity, so the chances of following this lead are slim," Xi Yueli said, pressing her temples with a puzzled expression.

"Furthermore..." he looked at Helian Jing and smiled, "Isn't it a bit too much for a mere martial arts hero to know about the secret of the Dark Pavilion Master's disappearance?"

Helian Jing helped her adjust her cloak. "It's alright. Tian Shu Si will keep a close eye on Mu Fengya's every move. This trip wasn't entirely fruitless."

Xi Yueli leaned against the cushion with her eyes closed. The small metal lamp above her head swayed, and the dull throbbing in the back of her head began to subside, replaced by a strange clarity.

She opened her eyes and looked down at her hands. Her fingers spread out, and her thumb and forefinger unconsciously pinched together, as if she were picking at some tiny round beads. The movement was so natural that she repeated it three times before realizing what she was doing.

She was using an abacus.