The unfinished words were interrupted by the sudden explosion of fireworks.
Thirty-six orange flares exploded in the night sky, spelling out the alliance's black bird totem.
The contact person rushed up on the creaking wooden ladder, holding a secret letter box half a person's height in his arms. Each wax seal glowed with a bronze halo in the moonlight.
"leader!
Seventeen secret agents in Xishi were summoned at the same time! "He was so excited that his goatee was trembling, and the information in the box poured out like snowflakes,"The guard rotation rules of the Qi family granary, the structure diagram of the underground ice cellar, and...what is this? "
Chen Yao was quick to catch the falling silk cloth, on which was painted a strange mechanical structure diagram with indigo dye.
Mou Xuan suddenly pulled open his cloak, revealing a fully formed bronze compass mark on his collarbone. The dark patterns matched the gears on the blueprint perfectly.
"This is the time anchor point." He flicked his finger on the icicles on the eaves, and the crisp cracking sound was mixed with the clicking sound of mechanical rotation. "He Yunshen saw this pattern ten years earlier than us."
As the noise of the celebration banquet spread to the bell tower, Chen Yao was pouring hot ginger soup into the gilded hand warmer.
Mou Xuan leaned back on a throne covered with white tiger skin, the dark lines on his collarbone shining from the vapor of alcohol.
Analyst Yu was holding a magnifying glass to study the mechanical diagram when the lens was suddenly wet by splashing wine - it was the drunk messenger Qi who was demonstrating how to chop an icicle with a knife.
"This gear set is similar to the differential engine of the steam age." Analyst Yu was so excited that he knocked over the inkstone, and the ink spread out on the drawing to form a star map. "But the location of the core power source... Look, Chief!"
Mou Xuan suddenly pressed the wine cup on a certain place on the drawing, and the amber liquid just filled the gear groove.
Chen Yao smelled the familiar lotus fragrance coming in through the window - it was her special calming incense, but now it was mixed with a faint smell of rabies vaccine.
"Congratulations, the agent is here." She suddenly thrust the hand warmer into Mou Xuan's palm, and the bronze pattern glowed red when it was heated. "He is using an allergic reaction to offset the time mark."
The moment the wooden door was blown open by the cold wind, twenty wind-killing lamps went out at the same time.
He Yunshen stood at the door wrapped in a sable-skin cloak, holding half an icicle in his left hand and three empty vaccine bottles lying in the palm of his right hand.
The ice on the soles of his boots refracted the moonlight at strange angles, casting a shadow of mechanical gears on the blue brick floor.
"Chief Mou is very calculating." He took off his hood, revealing bronze patterns on his collarbone. "He used my allergic reaction as bait to locate the time anchor point and verify the authenticity of the mechanical diagram."
Chen Yao suddenly overturned the wine table, and the falling plum wine condensed into ice beads in the bronze mist.
She recognized the scar at the corner of He Yunshen's eye - the mark left by the ice spike when Binghe saved her seven years ago.
But at this moment, the scar was wriggling, and a metallic luster was faintly visible under the skin.
The noise of celebration floated in from downstairs, and the contact person sang the "Pozhen Music" in a drunken manner and in a weird tune.
The compass on Mou Xuan's wrist suddenly beeped, and the dark pattern on He Yunshen's clavicle began to turn at the same time as the gears on the blueprint.
At a certain moment, Chen Yao saw the same bronze star map reflected in the pupils of the two people.
"You share a time mark?" She suddenly pulled out the ice cone hidden in her sleeve and pointed the sharp blade at He Yunshen's throat, "It was not an accident seven years ago..."
The sound of an explosion interrupted the questioning, and a column of indigo smoke rose from the direction of the granary in the west of the city.
He Yunshen leaned back in the air wave, and half a fragment of a bronze compass slipped out of his cloak.
When Mou Xuan dragged Chen Yao towards the white tiger skin couch, he saw that the peony pattern on the fragment matched the golden melon seeds in his arms perfectly.
"Be careful with the heating pipes!" He Yunshen suddenly threw out an icicle that pierced through the wall, causing the hidden steam pipe to explode.
The boiling hot water instantly freezes into ice crystals when it comes into contact with the air, and together with the analyst's treasured mechanical drawings, they are suspended in the ice mist to form a three-dimensional image.
Mou Xuan protected the back of Chen Yao's head while rolling, and the compass on his wrist made a harsh friction sound as it rubbed against the ice crystals.
When the ice fog dissipated, He Yunshen had long disappeared, leaving only a warning spelled out with ice on the floor: Gears have started, anchor point will appear soon.
The cheers at the celebration banquet continued, and none of the drunken alliance members noticed that the bronze tiles on the top of the bell tower were weathering silently.
Chen Yao lay on Mou Xuan's chest and heard his heartbeat gradually synchronized with the mechanical sounds under the ice.
"You already knew his identity." She reached out and touched the dark lines on Mou Xuan's clavicle that were getting increasingly hot. "The person who saved me back then..."
Mou Xuan suddenly lowered his head and sealed her lips, a kiss that was as cold as ice and mixed with the smell of blood.
From downstairs came the cheers of Messenger Qi as he smashed the last icicle, and on the bronze screen behind them, two entangled shadows were slowly piecing together to form a complete compass totem.
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