bacchusnovels Chapter 470 The Paper-Dolled Accountant Appears
Chapter 470 The Paper-Dolled Accountant Appears
Shopkeeper Hu followed behind him on the left, carrying a small box. The white paper lamp only shone in front of him, not casting his shadow.
"If your right hand lights up again, give me a warning beforehand."
Mo Chengyue glanced at her.
"squeak."
Manager Hu kept his steps steady, and the silver hairpin slid from his sleeve to his fingertips.
"I'm not asking you to act like a mouse now."
Qin Wanzhuang spoke from ahead: "Stop being so nonsensical, watch your step."
Mo Chengyue lowered his head, and a thin, wet red line stretched out from the shadow of the reeds, about to touch the edge of his boot.
He pressed down with the blade of his left hand, the lightning and fire ash brushed across the ground, the red line shrank into the black water, leaving behind a few wet red salt crystals.
Manager Hu looked at the salt crystals, his fingertips tightening on the lampshade.
"Was this place really a salt warehouse before?"
Mo Chengyue replied, "Yes, later the river course was changed, and the salt was used by the Water Curse to nourish the paper."
Qin Wanzhuang asked, "Are paper figures kept with salt?"
"Salt can absorb water and also retain writing, making it perfect for storing replacement pages."
Shopkeeper Hu whispered, "So there's something inside the wall."
The collapsed walls of the old salt warehouse revealed their outlines in the fog, the black tiles half-buried in the mud, the wall plaster tinged with a damp white, and red water seeping out from the cracks in the back wall. The sound of the water was muffled by the thick wall, leaving only a low gurgling sound.
Qin Wanzhuang stopped outside the wall, the tip of her sword pointing at the crack.
"The thing that calls for the Jade Master is inside."
Mo Chengyue pressed the Rain Flower Sword close to the wall, and the ash from the talisman heated up on the sword's spine.
"Don't cut straight to the center, open the edges first."
Qin Wanzhuang asked, "Afraid of being silenced?"
"I'm afraid the evidence will crumble."
Shopkeeper Hu fastened the white paper lamp to the small box.
"How do I open it?"
Mo Chengyue used the tip of his sword to slice through three patches of salt frost at the base of the wall, and the salt frost was burned into yellow ash by the thunder and fire ash.
"Senior sister, the top left brick seam, the bottom right salt cave, and don't touch the middle one."
Qin Wanzhuang raised her sword, and the Blazing Sun Sword Intent cut into the brick seam. The damp wall made a muffled sound, and the wall plaster peeled off layer by layer, revealing the inner layer.
Piles of wet, red patchwork pages were crammed into the wall cavity, their edges sealed with salt frost. Red water dripped down the seams of the paper. The pages were densely covered with the old names of various families in Hongfengdu, their relatives' titles, the direction of their stoves, and the echoes in their dreams. There were also several other pages with incomplete red seals rubbings on their corners.
Shopkeeper Hu leaned forward slightly, then immediately pulled the small box back into his arms.
"Are these all missing pages from the roster?"
Mo Chengyue used the Rain Flower Sword to pry open the outermost layer of wet paper, without letting his hand touch it.
"It's not a missing page, it's a piece of fabric pieced together."
Qin Wanzhuang saw the tattered chapter on the corner of the paper and turned the sword hilt in her palm.
"Foreign Affairs Office".
Mo Chengyue said, "The rubbings of the fragments, with the seal edges soaked in water, were used to cover up fake documents."
Manager Hu asked, "Are external case files also being pieced together here?"
Mo Chengyue picked out a wet page with the three characters "Qingquan Peak" written on it; the corner of the page still smelled of the pine scent from the old wooden box.
"This place is responsible for connecting the old names on the shore, the red lantern boats' eyes and ears, and the sect's records together."
The sound of paper rubbing came from deep within the wall cavity.
A semi-transparent paper figure of an accountant shrank back from the interlayer, its paper face glistening from being soaked in water, and a small account card hanging on its chest, the words on the card already washed away by red water.
It was still holding a few scraps of paper in its hands, its paper fingers piercing through the salt on the wall, trembling as it retreated.
"Don't burn me, Jade Master, save me! Jade Master said I'm just keeping accounts."
Qin Wanzhuang had already raised the tip of her sword, and the line of fire was spread out at the feet of the paper figure and the clerk.
"It's an eyesore."
Mo Chengyue's Rain Flower Sword swept across, blocking the Blazing Sun Sword Intent.
"Senior sister, take our statement."
Qin Wanzhuang looked at him.
"The paper doll can run away."
"It can't escape the salt wall."
"It can relay messages."
"So let's shut up first."
The paper-figure accountant stuffed the patched pages into his robes, the red ink on his paper face smudged and crooked by the water.
"I don't recognize you, I only recognize the Jade Master. I only accept paper that comes from the water, I don't write the names of living people."
Shopkeeper Hu sneered, the silver hairpin gleaming with an old silver light under the lamp.
"If you don't write the names of living people, then were the terms of address for relatives on Zhou Ping's page written by a fish?"
The paper clerk shrank into a crack in the wall, a corner of his paper shoulder worn away by salt frost.
"Some people on the shore gave me things, and people in the village sent them to me. I just put together what I could. I just contributed what I could."
Mo Chengyue took out a calming talisman from his sleeve, the corner of which was stained with thunder and fire ash.
Who received the paper?
The paper effigy clerk closed its paper mouth, and red liquid dripped down from the corner of its mouth.
"You can't say it, or the salt will burn."
Qin Wanzhuang's sword fire pressed close to the wall cavity, the edges of the wet red patchwork pages curled white.
"Burn it even if you don't tell me."
The paper effigy immediately moved toward Mo Chengyue, its paper legs leaving red marks in the salt on the wall.
"Master Mo, you are an honored guest. Your right arm is crippled. You should know how to survive."
Manager Hu moved the lampshade forward to block the flame, forcing the red liquid from the paper figure back into the wall.
"If you use that phrase to provoke him again, I'll change it to 'having no arms' for you."
Mo Chengyue affixed the Qingxin talisman to the tip of the Yuhua sword. The sword tip did not touch the paper body, but only sent the light of the talisman to the forehead of the paper figure.
"One last question, who received the paper?"
The paper-figure accountant's paper fingers gripped the account board in front of his chest, pressing it inwards.
"On the shore, some seek survival; within the sect, some seek chaos."
Qin Wanzhuang asked, "Name?"
The paper mouth of the paper clerk opened and closed, while the wet red patchwork pages inside the wall cavity trembled, and all the rubbings of the broken seals seeped out red water.
"Those on the shore sell their dreams to the water, those in the clan sell their seals to chaos, I only see paper, not faces."
A cold red glow emanated from Mo Chengyue's right sleeve, the blood-stained inscription being pulled along by a distant road, causing the ash from the talisman on his sleeve to flip outwards.
Manager Hu immediately noticed that the white paper lantern had moved to his left.
"Your sleeves are shiny."
Qin Wanzhuang turned the tip of her sword toward the outside of Mo Chengyue's right wrist, and the fire line did not touch the fabric.
"Yu Lin Hong?"
Mo Chengyue looked into the depths of the cavity in the wall and pushed the calming talisman forward again with his left hand.
"She heard it."
The paper clerk suddenly threw away the patch, pressed his paper face against the crack in the wall, and squeezed out broken water sounds.
"Master, I didn't say the name, I didn't say the hand in the Foreign Affairs Hall, and I didn't say the next stop."
Qin Wanzhuang's sword fire was aimed directly at the paper doll's throat.
"It's trying to silence them."
Mo Chengyue pressed down on the Rain Flower Sword with his left hand, and the Thunderfire Ash spread out in a fine array under the feet of the paper figure.
"Grab the page first."
Shopkeeper Hu pointed the silver hairpin to the left side of the wall cavity and picked out a thin page that had not yet been swallowed by the red water.
"Can we get this film?"
"Don't touch the front, use the end of the hairpin to pick it up."
With a flick of his wrist, Manager Hu used the end of the silver hairpin to lift the thin page out of the wall cavity. The light from the white paper lamp immediately touched it, and the wet red stains receded to the back of the paper.
The paper effigy official raised its hand to grab it, but just as half of its paper arm extended out of the salt wall, a cold, red flame ignited from the effigy on its chest.
Before it could finish its cry, its paper mouth split open, and half of its body was swallowed by the red flames. The smell of burnt paper mixed with the salty smell rushed out of the wall.
Qin Wanzhuang's sword fire fell, severing the path of the red flames spreading into the pile of pages.
"They wiped it out really fast."
Mo Chengyue slapped the calming talisman into the remaining half of the paper, and the talisman's light only stabilized the edge of the remaining paper.
"One sentence left."
The paper clerk had half its face pasted onto the salt frost, and red water dripped down through the paper holes, while the sound leaked out from the cracks in the wall.
"The old salt warehouse is just a corner; even if the corner is broken, the game remains."
Qin Wanzhuang asked, "Who's playing chess?"
The paper mouths of the paper clerks were burned black by the red flames, and their words were blocked by water.
"When the Jade Master collects the debts, chaos ensues in the hall, and those seeking survival on the shore will open the door themselves."
Mo Chengyue pressed further: "Who in the Foreign Affairs Office takes over the supplementary pages?"
The paper-figure accountant raised the remaining paper hand and pointed to the thin page that Manager Hu had picked out.
"Next one, see for yourself."