[Thought it was a piece of human skin]

Huo Zhenye came downstairs for breakfast. He picked up his coffee and unfolded the newspaper. Today’s front-page headline read: “The Flower-Snatching Killer Cannot Escape Justice — Royal Candidates Compete Again in Grace.”

Several of the contestants had voluntarily donned mourning clothes to raise donations for the families of the two victims.
Reports now praised them as modern-day Hongfu Nu ^[1] A legendary Tang Dynasty heroine known for her intelligence and bravery, often used as a metaphor for a woman of extraordinary talent and virtue., saying their votes would surely rise in the next round.

Huo Zhenye set down his coffee cup and flipped through the paper. Although Liu Er had not yet stood trial, in the eyes of the press, he was already the murderer in both cases.

As for Liu Da—he had once been portrayed by reporters as a lustful scoundrel who abandoned his fiancée and killed for love. But now that the narrative had shifted, he was being framed as the scapegoat for his younger brother. Some gossip reporters even praised him as loyal and devoted.

To top it off, one reporter had visited the Han family courtyard the night before and, seeing Han Zhu still tending to her injured fiancé, wrote a moving piece hoping the “virtuous couple” could now live in harmony as husband and wife.

Huo Zhenye tossed aside the newspaper, wolfed down his buttered toast in a few bites, and headed out.

Da Tou stood straight in his uniform at the station entrance, waiting for Huo Zhenye. As soon as he saw him, he rushed forward, saying, “Young Master Huo! I’ve arranged everything you asked for.”

He had arranged for Han Zhu to see Liu Er before the latter was transferred to the central constabulary.

Liu Er was scheduled to be moved this afternoon, and then a court date would be set. Having murdered two people and gouged out their eyes in such a sensational case, it was all but certain he would face execution by firing squad.

Today would likely be their final farewell.

“Young Master Huo, the chief said I’ll be rewarded—thanks to you.”

Da Tou grew more and more excited, but when he noticed that Huo Zhenye didn’t look the least bit pleased, he fell silent again.

He thought Huo Zhenye was upset that the credit had gone to someone else. “Young Master Huo, how about becoming a consultant for the constabulary? You solved such a major case—they’d welcome you with open arms.”

Huo Zhenye smiled and patted his shoulder. “We’ll see.”

That only confused Da Tou more. Young Master Huo solved such a big case—why doesn’t he look happy?

Liu Er faced the wall. When he heard someone enter, he didn’t turn around or move.

Han Zhu handed some money to the constable guarding the cell, then stepped inside the low building. She squatted on the ground, opened a food box, and took out several dishes and a jar of aged rice wine.

Just from the sound of her footsteps, Liu Er knew it was his senior sister. His body trembled, but he didn’t dare turn to look.

There was no table in the cell. Han Zhu set the food on the straw mat. She took out two pairs of chopsticks and faced the empty bowl. Just like before, she called out to him: “Little Liu, time to eat.”

Liu Er’s eyes filled with tears. He quickly wiped them away and turned around, red-eyed, looking at Han Zhu. “Senior Sister…”

“Eat quickly, the food’s getting cold.”

Braised chicken with preserved fish, red-braised pork, crispy fried fish, stir-fried cabbage with bean curd sheets.

All his favorites—every holiday, he’d beg Han Zhu to make them. Finally, Han Zhu brought out a bowl of soft noodles with bits of vegetables and meat. “Eat up, isn’t this your favorite?”

Liu Er picked up the bowl, tears falling into the noodles. Afraid Han Zhu would see, he quickly stuffed his mouth, slurping down half the bowl of noodle soup.

Han Zhu sat across from him, watching. When she saw him eat too fast, she poured him a cup of rice wine. “Slow down. No one’s going to take it from you.”

With noodles still in his mouth and tears running down his face, Liu Er said, “Senior Sister, I didn’t want it to be like this.”

“I know. Little Liu just wanted our family to stay together forever.” He had joined the sect when he was just three or four. In the year of famine, if Liu Da hadn’t refused to abandon him, he would’ve starved. His loyalty now was only natural.

“Senior Sister, I wronged you.”

Han Zhu picked up her chopsticks and placed a piece of fried fish in his bowl. Her expression remained as calm as ever. “You didn’t wrong me. The one who wronged me—was him.”

Liu Er gritted his teeth to hold back his tears. “I won’t get to bow at Master’s grave. Senior Sister, tell Master for me—I’ll be joining him soon to serve him in the afterlife.”

Han Zhu’s face didn’t change, but at those words, her eyes reddened. She continued to fill Liu Er’s bowl with food, piling it high.

The two of them didn’t speak again. This meal was their final farewell. Liu Er no longer dared to hope that Han Zhu would ever forgive his brother. As she was about to leave, he called out softly, “Senior Sister.”

“Tell me the truth.” His brother had been preparing to leave Shanghai with Jin Dangui—why would he have killed her? The more he thought about it, the more it could only have been her.

Han Zhu poured herself a cup of wine, lifted it to her lips, and drank it all in one go.

With a *clack*, the porcelain cup was flipped upside down on the ground.
“It was me.”

Liu Er stared at her, lips trembling uncontrollably. He looked at her hands, tears welling up again.
“It was really you…”

Han Zhu gave a small smile.
“I just didn’t expect that Master Huo would turn out to be a man of conscience.”

If Huo Zhenye hadn’t refused to falsely accuse Liu Da of the murder in order to clear himself of suspicion, Liu Da would’ve already been jailed and waiting for the firing squad by now.

She wanted him to die slowly—day by day, with the dread of death creeping ever closer, and with the image of Jin Dangui’s eyes being gouged out forever burned into his mind.

Liu Er understood everything now.
“Senior Sister, what are you going to do with him?”

“He betrayed the sect. According to our rules, how should he be punished?”

Liu Er was speechless. He said nothing more. He finished every bite of food, then rolled himself up and got to his knees. He kowtowed to Han Zhu three times.

“Senior Sister, for the past ten years, you’ve washed our clothes, cooked our meals, mended our shoes and socks. I can’t repay that in this life—I’ll do it in the next.”

At last, Han Zhu couldn’t hold back. Tears slid silently down her cheeks.

The transport carriage arrived on time to take Liu Er to the central constabulary. Huo Zhenye watched him board, chest tight, feeling strangely suffocated.

Chief Song tugged at Huo Zhenye.
“Why didn’t you come to the banquet yesterday? You’re the hero of the case—how could we celebrate without you? You have to show up today.”

He was trying to flatter Huo Zhenye, and Huo Zhenye responded politely,
“You’re too generous, Chief Song. It’s thanks to your capable men and their hard work that the case was solved so quickly.”

Chief Song had long had business ties with the Huo family. Though he worked as chief constable in the foreign concession, he didn’t plan to limit his profits to just the concession.

“I’ve arranged for a reporter from Shenbao to come interview you. The credit belongs to you, Young Master Huo.”

He knew Huo Zhenye’s engagement to the Tao family had fallen through because of this case. But now that Huo Zhenye had become a famed sleuth, the Tao family would recover both face and reputation. The marriage could still be salvaged.

Huo Zhenye’s smile faded. He was annoyed at Chief Song for making decisions on his behalf.
“I didn’t realize, Chief Song had taken up matchmaking as a side job.”

Before the reporter from Shenbao arrived, a call came into the constabulary: Liu Er had escaped—and had injured the two constables escorting him.

The place erupted into chaos. Huo Zhenye’s first thought was Bai Zhun—could Liu Er have gone to the Bai residence?

He rushed out at once, only to be blocked by Shenbao reporters at the station gate. Glancing at the still-fuming Chief Song behind him, Huo Zhenye redirected the trouble:
“Now’s not a good time—the suspect just escaped and injured two constables.”

The two young reporters’ eyes lit up. They had thought this was just a routine puff piece to glorify Young Master Huo. But with a breaking story like this, they forgot all about him and dashed inside.

Huo Zhenye slipped away and drove to Yuqing Alley. He knocked urgently on the Bai family’s door.

Inside, Bai Zhun was fiddling with the gramophone. The machine could play music in Huo Zhenye’s hands, but under his own, it only made a scratchy “zzzzzz” noise.

Seeing Bai Zhun safe, Huo Zhenye breathed a sigh of relief.
“Liu Er’s escaped.”

Bai Zhun lifted the needle and said,
“You fix it.”
He looked up and noticed the sweat soaking through Huo Zhenye’s back and underarms, raising a brow with a hint of amusement in his eyes.
“What, he dares come make trouble at my door?”

That was exactly what Huo Zhenye was worried about. Bai Zhun’s paper soldiers might be good for dealing with ghosts, but how could they handle people?
Even if the paper general was Yue Fei himself, a punch could tear two holes through him.

He actually dares to look down on his paper men?

Bai Zhun had just started to lift the corner of his mouth when Huo Zhenye quickly backed off:
“Do you want some popsicles? I’ll go to Lao Dachang and buy a few more—or maybe I should just buy a fridge, and stock it with orange soda, sour plum soda—whatever you like. That way, whenever you feel like it, you’ll have some to eat.”

Before Bai Zhun could respond, he had already rushed out to buy everything.

As soon as Huo Zhenye left, Bai Zhun’s bamboo wheelchair rolled forward.
“Bring him down.”

“Mu Guiying” pressed her silver spear to Liu Er’s throat, forcing him down from the attic. Liu Er kept his neck stiff and didn’t dare move. He begged Bai Zhun:
“Seventh Master, please let me kneel before my Master one last time.”

“I beg you, Seventh Master.” Liu Er knelt before Bai Zhun, bowing low in desperate supplication. “I’m not trying to weasel out of punishment. I just want to fulfill my final wish. After that, I’ll return to the constables, and whatever they decide, I’ll accept.”

“If I break this oath, may I be struck by lightning and die with my body shattered!”

Bai Zhun sat in his wheelchair, looking down on Liu Er from above.
“Still not completely honest.”

Liu Er gave a bitter laugh and came clean:
“I want to ask my brother face to face—does he even have a heart?”

Brotherhood, his wife, their sect’s kindness—none of it could compare to beauty and wealth.

That hit the right note for Bai Zhun.
“Fine. I’ll allow it. But you understand what happens if you deceive me.”

Liu Er’s heart turned cold.
“Yes.”

Ah Xiu brought yellow talisman paper and a brush. Bai Zhun’s fingers stirred slightly, and he began to draw a face on the yellow paper. If he could craft a beauty’s face for Ah Xiu, then he could just as easily give Liu Er a new one.

With thin bamboo bones outlining the shape of a face and the drawn paper pasted on, a mask began to take form.

“This thing will only last for one day. Once the day passes, paper turns back to paper, bamboo back to bamboo.”

Liu Er had always known Bai Zhun was the master of the Seventh Branch and could control paper men, but even his Master had never mentioned a divine skill like this. He respectfully performed a deep bow to Bai Zhun again.

Bai Zhun lit incense and chanted a spell, embedding a yellow talisman inside the mask. Just moments ago, it had been a crude paper-and-bamboo creation, but in the blink of an eye, it softened and drooped like cloth in Bai Zhun’s hand.

If Liu Er hadn’t seen him draw the face on yellow paper himself, he would have believed it to be human skin.

“Bring your head over.”

Liu Er was afraid, but he closed his eyes. He felt a layer of paste being smeared on his face, followed by a *smack*—the paper was applied to his skin.

“Breathe.”

Only then did Liu Er realize he had been holding his breath. He exhaled lightly, and the mask clung to his face like a living thing, molding with every breath.

He could see, he could move. He was just about to touch it—

*Snap!* Bai Zhun tapped the back of his hand with a thin bamboo stick.
“Don’t stretch it or it’ll tear.”

Liu Er nodded carefully and kowtowed again. As he left the Bai residence, he kept his head lowered, afraid of being recognized. When he passed a tailor’s shop, he paused and peeked into the glass display case to see his reflection.

Staring back at him was a completely unfamiliar face. He slightly parted his lips—then immediately remembered Bai Zhun’s warning not to stretch the mask and clamped his mouth shut.

Huo Zhenye was directing workers to deliver the refrigerator. As he passed the long alley, he brushed shoulders with a young man standing in front of the tailor’s shop. Huo Zhenye stopped in his tracks, a flicker of suspicion crossing his mind.

The young man seemed to sense his gaze and turned back to look at him.

Huo Zhenye looked away and kept walking. The man’s posture was familiar—but the face was that of a complete stranger. He had never seen him before.

Wearing his new face, Liu Er hurried out of the city.