The charcoal fire crackled in the tent. Mou Xuan flicked his finger and flicked away the intelligence file stained with cinnabar. The parchment rolled out dark red lines on the sandalwood table.
Chen Yao tilted her wrist slightly, and the light reflected by the wooden tower pendant just happened to cover the painted paper strips that fell into the lotus pastry. The childish patterns on the bronze stakes actually resonated with the Khitan characters that were gradually burning on the edge of the charcoal basin.
"The intersection of longitude and latitude is 40 miles southwest of Dunhuang." Chen Yao used the tip of a silver hairpin to scratch the crumbs of puff pastry. The sweet osmanthus fragrance was mixed with the smell of saltpeter. "The supply station where the scientific expedition team disappeared seven years ago."
Mou Xuan suddenly grabbed her hand holding the hairpin, and the cinnabar on the hairpin left a bloody line on the pattern of the bronze stake.
The moment the two looked at each other, the sound of Envoy Qi's impatient pacing was heard outside the tent, and the crisp sound of the iron soles of his military boots crushing the frozen soil was accompanied by sparks.
As eighteen bronze candlesticks illuminated the military tent, intelligence analyst Yu was checking the rubbings with tweezers and a magnifying glass.
The reflection of the lens cut a cold line on his nose: "The coordinates of the Xixia armory provided by Jiang's informant overlap with the location of the bronze stakes drawn by the children at a rate of 97.6% - so accurate that it seems like a trap carefully designed by someone."
"You can only catch the fox's tail in a trap." Envoy Qi suddenly supported the edge of the table, and the sword at his waist hit the bronze candlestick, causing it to vibrate.
The blue veins on his neck reflected the candlelight, like an earthworm eager to break out of the ground. "By the time you nerds have calculated the probabilities, the Tartars' horses will have already flattened the Great Wall!"
Chen Yao suddenly chuckled.
She twisted the lotus crisp crumbs between her fingertips and scattered them on the sand table, and the icing sugar piled up snow lines on the Dunhuang topographic model: "The hydrological map that agent He sent in the evening just happened to be missing this tributary of the Shule River." The silver chain hanging from the wooden tower pendant suddenly entangled the bronze compass beside the sand table, and the magnetic needle shook violently and pointed to the coordinates provided by Jiang's informant.
The argument stopped abruptly.
Mou Xuan picked up the broken pieces of the Kongming lantern on the edge of the sand table. The words of "Taibai Yinjing" on the lantern paper were fading under the influence of cinnabar.
He suddenly pressed the fragment against the back of the bronze compass. The sound of the two fitting together made the intelligence analyst's glasses slide down his nose.
"A blood letter from the Protectorate three hundred years ago..." Mou Xuan turned the compass, and the star map on top of the tent began to project interlaced light. "It uses blood sand specially made by the Liao Dynasty official kiln. When it encounters bronze oxidation, it will produce peacock blue patterns." His fingertips brushed across the pendant on Chen Yao's wrist, and those small Khitan characters suddenly swam in the star map, and finally formed the same pen strokes as the annotations of Agent He.
The intelligence analyst suddenly opened his collar, revealing a small copper kettle hanging around his neck.
He trembled as he poured out a few grains of lapis lazuli powder and sprinkled them on the star map projection. Three glowing longitude and latitude coordinates appeared where the powder was suspended: "The bronze stakes painted by the children, the armory given by Jiang's informant, and..." His Adam's apple rolled as he looked at Mou Xuan, "The ruins of the ancient city where your parents disappeared seven years ago."
The sword of Envoy Qi fell to the ground with a clang.
Chen Yao's silver hairpin had been pressed against his lower back at some point, and the cinnabar on the hairpin had left blood spots on his coarse military uniform: "Three hours ago, you said you were going to check the beacon tower defenses—" She gently lifted the tip of the hairpin, hooking out an indigo thread that was exactly the same as the frayed thread on Agent He's cuffs.
Mou Xuan suddenly grabbed the translation manuscript that was about to burn in the charcoal basin, and rearranged the charred Khitan text in the firelight.
He dipped his hands in wolfberry juice and drew three interlaced red lines on the military newspaper: "Before sunrise tomorrow, leak these three coordinates to the Hu merchants in Xishi at the same time."
"You want to use the real ruins as bait?" The intelligence analyst's voice was like a taut bowstring.
"The best fake..." Mou Xuan threw the cinnabar pen into the charcoal basin, and the exploding sparks turned into fireflies in the projection of the star map, "It must be mixed with 90% real gold." As he spoke, his eyes swept across the flushed face of Qi the messenger. The young messenger was staring at the direction of the tributaries of the Shule River on the sand table, his thumb unconsciously stroking the newly engraved flying eagle pattern on the handle of the knife - that was the "exclusive code" he had shown off this morning.
Suddenly, a night owl cried outside the tent, and the broken pieces of seventeen Kongming lanterns were blown by the wind and hit the copper bells on the eaves.
Amid the clanging sound, Chen Yao retracted the silver hairpin and brushed past Envoy Qi's sword. Peacock blue rust quietly appeared on the blade, which was exactly the same as the pattern on the blood letter from the Protectorate.
(Continuation)
The night wind blew the wreckage of the Kongming lantern past the burning tips of Qi's ears, and the knuckles of the young man's fingers turned white as he gripped his sword.
When he bent down to pick up the indigo thread that had just fallen, the blade accidentally picked up the copper bell tie at the corner of the tent curtain.
"There is a camel caravan station three miles east of the beacon tower." Envoy Qi suddenly stood up, his sword scraping the edge of the sand table, making a sharp sound, "I will take people to fake the route now..."
Before he finished speaking, the bronze compass in Mou Xuan's palm suddenly began to buzz.
The wooden tower pendant on Chen Yao's wrist shattered, and seventeen lapis lazuli beads rolled onto the sand table, gathering into the Big Dipper pattern at the location of the Shule River tributary.
Mou Xuan's pupils suddenly shrank - this was a sign before the time ability was triggered.
"Squat down!"
Mou Xuan's loud shout scared away the night owl outside the tent.
The messenger Qi was still in the posture of lifting the curtain. The moonlight reflected by the sword at his waist had already illuminated the silver eagle pattern on the camel bells of the Hu merchant thirty steps away.
At this moment, time and space produced strange folds. The lapis lazuli beads that flew from Mou Xuan's fingertips hovered in the air, reflecting the scene of the next ten minutes: the reckless camel caravan of Envoy Qi would collide head-on with the secret sentry of Agent He, and the indigo silk thread would entangle the beacon fires on the banks of the Shule River.
Chen Yao's silver hairpin was the first to pierce through the solidified time.
When she turned around, her crimson skirt swept over the charcoal basin, and sparks of fireflies floated in the still space and time, just blocking the moonlight coming through the gap in the tent.
Taking advantage of this fleeting shadow, Mou Xuan grabbed Envoy Qi by the back of his collar and threw him towards the screen behind the sand table.
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