Amid the sound of heavy rain hitting the iron roof of the arcade, Su Chen dipped his tea in cold water and sketched on the Eight Immortals Table. The photos of the dead that Tang Ren brought back from the police station were spread all over the table, and the foreheads of the seven corpses were all dotted with cinnabar to mark the Tiangang position.
"This is the Seven Star Soul Locking Formation." Su Chen pushed the teacup away, and the water stains on the glass surface formed the shape of the Big Dipper. "The murderer is here, using Taoist magic to change your fortune."
Qin Feng was about to speak when there was a sudden explosion from the Buddha amulet shop at the alley entrance. When they rushed into the smoke-filled shop, Tang Ren picked up a half-broken peach wood sword from the pile of broken glass. The sword body was engraved with Lei Wen and Su Chen's grandfather's notes and a talisman to ward off evil spirits.
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The plaque of the century-old brand "Yongshunlong" was covered with cobwebs. Su Chen stroked the dusty mortise and tenon sample rack, and his fingertips stopped at a wedge. Tang Ren picked up a hammer and smashed open the secret compartment, and sawdust flew everywhere, revealing a half-broken Lu Ban.
"One foot four and three meters." Su Chen wiped the rust off his sleeves and calculated it according to the "Construction Code". "It corresponds to the width of the shops on Sanpin Street." Qin Feng suddenly grabbed the wood and turned it towards the sky: "There are layers in the scale!"
Hidden on the mulberry paper, the remaining chapter of "The Art of Hating Victory" written in Chaozhou dialect turned yellow under the light. Next to the diagram of "Beam Pressure Evil", there was a diagram of the building structure of the recent crime scene.
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The dead man was lying on his back under the main beam, and his posture made Su Chen's hair stand on end. His fingertips brushed over the bat relief on the beam, and he felt a bulge on the third bat's wing. Qin Feng used a silver hairpin to pry open the secret box, and twenty-three jade peace buckles fell out, each with its birth date engraved on the inner wall.
"Yiwei year, Wuyin month..." Su Chen took out his pocket watch and calculated the Chinese zodiac, "This is the twenty-first year of Guangxu..." Before he finished speaking, Tang Ren suddenly pointed at the beams and shouted in surprise: "These ink lines are bleeding!"
Tung oil mixed with cinnabar was flowing along the ink line, forming an arrow-shaped pattern on the ground. When they followed the blood line into the cellar, the camphorwood box that had been sealed for a hundred years suddenly exploded, splashing a piece of overseas Chinese letter from Southeast Asia with half a moldy certificate of transfer—the signer turned out to be Su Chen's great-grandfather Su Henian.
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The yellowed seal was revealed under ultraviolet light, and Su Chen recognized it as a "charcoal-painted secret letter" unique to Chaoshan. Tang Ren chewed betel nuts and complained, "Who can understand the earthworm-like words all over the paper!" Su Chen, however, felt a chill all over his body - the hidden pattern at the end of the seal was the Su family's ancestral "two fish around the beam" seal.
"July 14, 3:45 pm." Su Chen shook out the twenty-three letters with postmarks, "These are all sinister letters sent by the emperor!" Qin Feng suddenly splashed tea on the wall, and the water marks showed a route map pointing directly to Beipan Alligator Lake.
A sudden rainstorm came, and Su Chen stood at the bow, holding the ancestral compass tightly. The compass needle of Tianchi swung wildly, and finally pointed to the abandoned tin mine wharf in the center of the lake.
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The light from the miner's hat swept across the cave wall, and Su Chen felt the indentations that formed the 40th image of the Tui Bei Tu. Tang Ren smashed the weathered hexagram brick with a mining pick, revealing a wall hole filled with talisman paper on the back. Qin Feng pulled out a yellow talisman, with a cinnabar-painted picture of the generals of the Thunder Department and half a bloody jade belt buckle under it.
"Kan represents water, Li represents fire." Su Chen calculated the combination of hexagrams with his fingers, "Water and fire are not yet in harmony, and there will be obstacles in the way..." Suddenly, a heavy object fell to the ground from deep in the mine. They followed the sound and found a camphorwood coffin at the bottom of the well. When they opened it, they were immediately filled with the smell of decay - seven modern corpses were lying together with the dry bones from the Guangxu period, and each skeleton held a tin ingot engraved with the word "Cheng".
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The copper double fish lock on the door ring of the ancestral house was corroded by green rust, and Su Chen pressed seven jade peace buttons into the fish's eyes. Tang Ren suddenly pressed his wrist and said, "Think it through, there is no turning back once you start."
The mechanism turned with a bang, and the Su family genealogy appeared on the screen wall. Next to the great-grandfather's name, there was an extra cinnabar circle with the character "承" (inherited), which corresponded to the birth date of the first deceased in the Seven Stars Case. Qin Feng scraped open the partition with a dagger, and fell into the rosewood box, where a whole volume of "Pisces Record" lay. The last page was written in blood, which was so strong that it could be seen through the back of the paper: "The successor should judge the yin and yang."
Morning light penetrated the stained glass windows, Su Chen knelt in front of the ancestral tablets to burn the case files. Tang Ren suddenly pointed at the incense burner and exclaimed: "The ashes are reorganizing the hexagram!" The floating paper ashes condensed into a new Big Dipper pattern, pointing to the skyscraper under construction on the other side of the Chao Phraya River - the steel frame of the building just formed a huge "Cheng" character.