During the rainy season, the bluestone pavement shimmers with water. Su Chen put away his oil-paper umbrella and stepped into the threshold of the "Songhetang" pharmacy. Tang Ren was squatting in front of the rosewood medicine cabinet, counting the brass pull rings on the drawer: "Guiqi, agarwood, borneol... Oh, why is this 'Hedinghong' locked alone?"
The old shopkeeper came out of the back hall holding a celadon teacup. When he heard the words, his hand trembled, and the Biluochun tea in the cup splashed onto the red silk on the table. The Su embroidery that was prepared for tribute suddenly had strange patterns - the gold thread peony faded in the tea stains, revealing the embroidered Big Dipper pattern.
"This happened to Shu Jin just the other day!" Apprentice A Bao suddenly ran out of the warehouse, and the cloth in his arms fell to the ground. Qin Feng leaned over and picked up the reel, and said in surprise: "This, this is the remaining page of the loom diagram of "Tenkaimono"!"
The copper bells on the eaves rang, and there was a sound of something heavy falling to the ground outside the door. When everyone rushed out, the delivery cart overturned at the entrance of the alley, and the driver fell on his back with blood all over his body, holding half a silver needle with teeth marks in his palm. Su Chen wrapped the weapon with a handkerchief, and the spiral pattern at the end of the needle was blue in the rain - it was the "peacock gall" uniquely tempered by Songhetang.
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The banana leaves outside the window were dripping with water, and Su Chen's fingertips brushed across the blood-stained Shu brocade. Tang Ren raised a magnifying glass and moved closer: "This silk thread is mixed with gold foil!" Before he finished speaking, a bird suddenly started flying in the garden, and the sound of a loom creaking came from behind the rockery.
Following the sound, I passed through the moon-shaped gate and found a large water-powered spinning wheel hidden under the century-old wisteria trellis. Twenty yarns were spinning at a constant speed, each wrapped with a different color of silkworm silk. Qin Feng tore off a strand of green silk and brought it close to his nose: "Yes, it smells like mugwort!"
Su Chen turned the waterwheel's hinge, and the spinning wheel suddenly turned sharply. The silk threads intertwined in the air to form a web, and a star map with the letter Q was projected on the white wall. When Tang Ren kicked open the secret door of the rockery, a skeleton was kneeling in a shape of a Chinese character "品", and the title page of "Yun Jin Lu" under his knees read: "At 5 pm, the silkworm turned into a butterfly."
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The setting sun stretched the tower's shadow, and Su Chen stood by the sword pond, gazing at his reflection on the water. Tang Ren threw stones into the pond, and the ripples twisted the wind-riding beast head on the seventh-floor tower eaves, revealing the inscription on the iron horse at the corner of the eaves - "Bingshen year, Wuxu month, 19th day of the 11th month".
"This, this day 20 years ago!" Qin Feng flipped through the calendar on his phone. The tower bells rang without wind, and a white gauze Zen robe fluttered down from the top of the tower, unfolding into a complete picture of Suzhou City in the twilight. Su Chen caught the jade cicada that fell from his clothes, and the pattern on the cicada's wings turned out to be the micro-carved "Ziji Inherited Manuscript".
When the night watchman passed by, the Zen robe suddenly caught fire. The unmelted gold thread in the ashes outlined the outline of Hanshan Temple. Tang Ren dug out half of the bloody shuttle from the scorch marks.
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The lanterns on the painted boat reflected the shimmering water, and Su Chen stood in front of the ebony door sill of the "Jinxiufang". The plaque on the lintel that read "Jiangnan Weaving" had a fine seam, and Qin Feng picked out the golden silkworm embedded in the seam with a silver hairpin: "This, this is the dragon silkworm mentioned in the "Cangshu"!"
The dye vat suddenly boiled, and the indigo liquid splashed into the shape of a dipper. Tang Ren lifted the partition at the bottom of the vat, and the secret compartment was filled with silver ingots with tooth marks. Su Chen dipped the dye into the rice paper and drew, and the tooth marks formed the waterwheel structure in "The Farming and Weaving Picture".
"Heart!" The moment Qin Feng pulled Su Chen away, twenty spinning hammers fell from the beams. Tang Ren picked up the embroidery frame to block them, and a bloody handprint suddenly appeared on Shu Jin, with the remaining fingers showing the logo of the Q organization.
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The midnight bell startled the crows, and Su Chen touched the crack of the seventh stele in the stele gallery. Tang Ren's folding paper illuminated the interlayer, and a golden shuttle was nailed in the center of the yellowed "Xuan Ji Tu". Qin Feng turned the lotus button at the end of the shuttle, and the sound of gears biting came from underground.
"This, this is a water-powered astronomical observatory from the Song Dynasty!" Tang Ren's exclamation echoed among the bronze celestial instruments as they slid down the secret passage into the underground palace. Su Chen pressed the jade cicada into the twenty-eight constellations disk, and the star map suddenly came alive, and a locked iron box appeared at the intersection of the beams.
The remaining pages of the Secret Scroll of Heaven in the letter fell down, and each page had a picture of the improved loom. Qin Feng suddenly raised the remaining page to let the light in: "There is a name written in blood on the back!"
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The rainstorm washed over Guanyun Peak, and Su Chen unfolded the translucent pages. The bloody names flashed in the lightning, terrifying and frightening—"Shen Wanli, Huang Daopo, Song Yingxing..." Tang Ren counted on his fingers: "They are all ancient craftsmen!"
A chilly wind suddenly blew up in the corridor, and twenty puppets fell from the beams. Su Chen tore the control thread, and silver needles with teeth marks rolled out of the puppets' bellies. Qin Feng used the silver needles to spell out a star map, and Tang Ren suddenly pointed at the pond: "Look! The brocade carp is arranging the hexagrams!"
The red carps in the pond gathered to form the Kan hexagram, and the seams in the rockery cracked. A fresh corpse lay in the secret compartment, and on the incomplete copy of the "Kao 꺲記" held tightly in his hand, all the characters for "巧者" were circled in cinnabar.
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On the secret door covered by vines, the seven-ring exquisite lock glowed with copper green. Su Chen turned the lock core according to the "four rings of the spring" method recorded in the "Lu Ban Jing", and the mechanism inside the door roared like thunder. Tang Ren knocked over the antique shelf while holding his head and ran away, and half of the blood-stained "Prosperous Picture of Suzhou" floated out of the blue and white jar that fell to the ground.
"This, this glaze is made of bone powder!" Qin Feng scraped off the porcelain powder. Su Chen spread the blood picture on the stone table, and the missing door was facing the dark window of the secret room. The moonlight shone through the window, casting a paper-cut shadow with the word Q on the wall.
When Tang Ren tore off the window paper, the entire stained glass window suddenly flipped over. The tablets of twenty generations of textile production supervisors were lined up in a solemn manner, and the last tablet was engraved with the name of the current owner of the brocade shop.
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The lights of the canal boats reflected the canal, and Su Chen stood at the bow and unfolded the "Secret Scroll of Heaven". Tang Ren suddenly pointed at the mast and shouted in surprise: "There are words on the sail!" Qin Feng pulled the sail rope, and the ink flowed on the raised hard sail, revealing the watermarked "Twenty-four Things of Silkworm Weaving".
"Don't worry!" Su Chen pushed Qin Feng away, and the poisoned shuttle flew past his ear. A man in black jumped out from behind the pile of goods, and the scar after the tattoo on his wrist was being washed off. During the struggle, the "Secret Scroll" fell into the river, but blood-red comments instantly appeared in the water - next to the loom diagram improved by craftsmen of all generations, the names of apprentices who died in vain were densely written.
When the morning mist cleared, the official ship carrying the prisoners left the dock. Su Chen stroked the recovered jade cicada and sighed, "God's will should not be stained with blood after all." Tang Ren chewed a mint cake and responded vaguely. Qin Feng suddenly pointed to the water surface - on the remaining pages of the drifting "Secret Scroll", the dark patterns that had not been destroyed were forming a new star map.
(Foreshadowing: half of a Luoyang shovel rubbing with tooth marks is revealed on the edge of the remaining page)
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