Reach Heaven Via Feng Shui Engineering, Drug Trade And Tax Evasion

The ink. It must be at the front.

With Lei Kou's trust secured, it was time to move onto the next step of Qian Shanyi's plan. She needed the ink for the formation, and she needed two witnesses to help her - but it was best to start with the former. If she couldn't even get the ink, the whole scheme would have to be scrapped.

Before heading to the front, she made a brief stop in the kitchen car to look for the chefs - but they were not at their stations. Most likely fled, once they felt Lei Kou's presence - she'd need to look at the passenger manifest to know where they were staying.

Fortunately, she knew just where to find it, and it was on the way to the front. Zhang Xiaogang already showed it to her - he kept it in his cabin. And so she confidently stepped through into the next car, before stopping in her tracks.

There was blood on the floor. Drips and drops, a trail heading toward the front of the sandpiercer.

Qian Shanyi pursed her lips. When they fled the dining cart, they left Zhang Xiaogang's body where it fell. She was of half a mind to think that Lei Kou had simply transmuted it into dirt, but someone must have carried it away.

Qian Shanyi followed the trail, carefully stepping around the blood, worries swirling in her mind. She had no real choice - there was only one path through the corridor. And so she continued on, hoping that her fears of what she might find on the other end would prove false.

She wouldn't have to wait long to find out.

The trail had led her all the way to Zhang Xiaogang's cabin, where the closing door had spread blood into long crescent streaks all across the floor. Qian Shanyi stopped before it - she could hear Svarggam Xiaochun inside, her voice ragged yet determined. She was chanting something - perhaps a prayer, but that was merely a guess on Qian Shanyi's part. She couldn't really make it out through the door, and besides, it was clearly in Maliyad.

She knocked politely, but got no response - the chanting continued uninterrupted.

Qian Shanyi glanced down the corridor. Certainly, she needed the manifest - but it could wait. She could recall much of it from her memory in the first place. She should just get the ink first, and leave Svarggam Xiaochun to whatever rites they performed in these parts when someone died.

But Qian Shanyi didn't step away from the door. Glancing down at the blood, something about the shape of those streaks, this chanting… It unsettled her.

She knocked again, a little harder this time. Nothing.

Perhaps she was just being paranoid. Her meeting with Lei Kou still weighed heavily on her mind, and the knowledge that he could easily sense exactly what she did at any given time did not help at all.

With a little hesitation, Qian Shanyi pushed those feelings into the back of her mind, and headed toward the front.

The quarters of the Steel Torrent sect were separated from the rest of the sandpiercer, to give the disciples a degree of privacy from the rest of the passengers. The line of separation passed through the middle of one of the wagons, with a metal door awkwardly installed right in the middle of the corridor.

Qian Shanyi wasn't sure why they built it that way: to her eyes, it seemed as if it would have been easiest to simply lock a pair of doors between two different cars. Perhaps they wanted to conserve space, or to keep one car as a sort of "transitional" space.

Whatever the case may be, the door was guarded by a pair of disciples - though perhaps better to say it was attended to. The two men were playing cards, and despite a few wary glances thrown her way, clearly didn't expect any danger to come from this side of the train. They were both young, only one of them a cultivator - and from Qian Shanyi's recollection, not even a particularly strong one. Either low refinement stage or at best early middle stage - probably just a junior relegated to a formal duty nobody else wanted to do.

"Fellow cultivator, have you lost your way?" he called her out, when Qian Shanyi confidently headed towards the pair. He was dressed in the dark gray robes of his sect, with metal inlays around his shins and elbows, though he must have adjusted the cut slightly to emphasise his long neck. It suited him well.

If Qian Shanyi came here on her own, she would have opened with a smile. Something to put the man at ease, to let her probe him for information without him noticing.

But she wasn't alone. Lei Kou's spiritual energy swirled all around her, and she came here on his behalf, spoke with his authority. She had to act in accordance with how he expected his servants to act - and Lei Kou didn't seem like a man who cared for smiles.

Qian Shanyi only stopped when the other cultivator stepped right in front of her. She looked him over from head to toe with her best dismissive look, her lips turning in mock disappointment. "I am here to inspect the front," she said coldly.

She tried to recall his name from the passenger manifest - it was Deng-something.

Deng Mu, Deng Yu? Probably Mu.

"Fellow cultivator, the front of the sandpiercer is the domain of the Steel Torrent Sect," said Deng Mu, bowing. "It is not possible for us to allow any… inspections of the sect property."

His tone was polite enough, but Qian Shanyi could tell that he wished that the crazy woman would simply go away.

Qian Shanyi scoffed. "Allow?" she uttered, tossing her hair over her shoulder, and leering down on the man. "I represent the lord who holds this entire sandpiercer in the very palm of his hand, you fool! You best show the respect that he is owed."

The two disciples would have had to be blind to not realise who she was referring to, to not feel the dense spiritual energy choking out the air. But in their eyes, in the careless way they carried themselves - Qian Shanyi could see that the news of Zhang Xiaogang's murder had not reached them. They must have thought this was simply some bored golden core flexing his powers.

"What gives this self-proclaimed lord the right to order the Steel Torrent Sect?" Deng Mu said sharply, drawing himself up to his full height. Not quite enough to match hers - he was a little shorter, and her sandals added another three fingers of height on top.

It was a perfectly reasonable question. Unfortunately, Qian Shanyi simply could not afford to be reasonable.

She could have explained that Lei Kou could slaughter them all like pigs with as much difficulty as scratching his ass, and so they had no choice but to obey. But if she said that, then she would be acknowledging the fact that Lei Kou was only deserving of respect by virtue of his strength and the terror he inspired - and not because of any inherent qualities.

That was not something Lei Kou's trusted servant and an ambitious ass-kisser would ever do, and she was in no position to bend her role.

"Are you questioning the authority of his highness duke Lei Kou?" Qian Shanyi said instead, meeting Deng's eyes with a challenging stare.

As soon as the name had left her mouth, she felt the spiritual energy around her shift, twist, intensify - and a presence settled down upon her shoulders, as if she was a mere ant beneath a magnifying glass held by a curious child. One that could merely observe or burn.

Abominable Lei Kou told her that his soul would hear his name. She needed to know exactly what he meant. The souls of golden core cultivators were supposed to grow independent - so would Lei Kou know she said his name, or only his soul?

It was only when she said it that she realized her mistake. She could feel this presence, but Deng Mu clearly could not, not with his spiritual energy senses locked down to the confines of his body. What she thought would be a good demonstration of the truth of her words, an obvious flash of Lei Kou's attention and thus approval, was going to be utterly useless if nobody else could sense the difference.

Deng Mu had absolutely no idea that there was now a sword hanging directly over his head.

"I am asking what gave him this authority, fellow cultivator," Deng said through half-clenched teeth.

Qian Shanyi wanted to warn him. But she could not, not without breaking her character. Worse still - even if she told him that Lei Kou might kill him, why would he believe her? If he thoughtlessly blurted out the existence of the fourth imperial edict, her entire scheme would go up in flames.

"The only thing that ever matters," she scoffed, furiously trying to come up with a way to warn him without stating anything outright. "Will you speak of laws and traditions before a truly divine existence?" She gestured to the faces of the two disciples with her fingers, as if trying to pull out their tongues. "You would best comply quickly and with your tongues held still. Duke Lei Kou wishes to know more about the cultivators that occupy this sandpiercer - and so you will bring me to your disciples, and show me how this machine moves. Now move!"

The presence on her shoulders shifted slightly, its attention moving onto the ignorant Deng. She had just called on Lei Kou's name, and gave an order. As Lei Kou's servant, it was no different from the man himself giving it. Would Deng Mu comply?

Qian Shanyi's mouth went dry. She hoped she didn't just sign this fool up for his own execution.

Deng Mu looked her over one more time, but he clearly did not understand her message. "Fellow cultivator, what you ask for is absolutely impossible," he said decisively. "The best I can offer is to take your request up to the sect."

Qian Shanyi felt the presence shift again - but this time, like a hungry cat, preparing to strike. She only had mere moments to frame what would happen next.

"You dare defy his highness Lei Kou?" Qian Shanyi hissed, hoping she guessed Lei Kou's intentions right. "I-"

Deng Mu was tossed into the wall, his body slamming into it with such force that it left a dent, and the man collapsed down to the ground, screaming in agony. Judging by the shape of his limbs, at least a dozen bones in his body had been shattered.

Qian Shanyi breathed out a sigh deep within her soul. She fully expected to see a second man die just now.

"I should have hoped the Steel Torrent sect would know better," she said, with a sneer, "Kindly thank Lord Lei Kou for his mercy in sparing your miserable life." Her eyes turned towards the second disciple, who had backed away from her with horror plain on his face, and she snapped her fingers in his direction. "You there! Open the door at once. Or do you wish to tempt the fate of your entire sect any further?"

She had already joined this game. At this point, the only way out was through, no matter the costs.

To the Steel Torrent sect's credit, they understood the shape of the problem without any need for further examples of Lei Kou's cruelty. It must have helped that Qian Shanyi kept her questions to the most general topics - things she could have easily learned if she ever traveled to the city where their sect had its residence. Certainly, much of it was private - but it was the sort of private they could have been expected to disclose to a spirit hunter who had a legitimate interest.

She was certainly glad that nobody made it a point of principle. She did not want to call on Lei Kou's name any longer.

The last person she spoke to was one Su Feng, a refiner responsible for the operation of the sandpiercer's engine. He was as thin as the rails they rolled over, with a long white beard - one that meant that even though he was in the peak refinement stage, any further advancement was now likely far beyond his health.

"Explain the principle that drives this sandpiercer," Qian Shanyi said, when he showed her around the front cabin - though to her regret, all the mechanisms were hidden from view, leaving only strange gauges and meters whose purpose she could only guess at.

Su Feng grimaced, looking her in the eyes with a pleading stare. "Fellow cultivator, you are asking me to go back to my sect and tell them that I have betrayed our deepest secrets?"

He didn't quite agree to her request, but neither did he outright rebuke her. It was good, because it gave Qian Shanyi plenty of freedom to let the question slide, without needing to outwardly back down - something she could not afford to be seen to do, with Lei Kou watching.

"I am certain that my lord will find an equitable deal with your sect and the empire," she said, making a dismissive gesture. "There is no need to speak of that any further."

In truth, she outright couldn't speak on it any further. Lei Kou did not grant her any power to negotiate on his behalf, and the last thing she needed was to inform him of how the modern imperial law functioned. The man no doubt imagined that killing someone, let alone merely breaking the bones of some lowly sect disciple was something he could easily patch over with the heads of their respective organisations. After all, a golden core powerhouse was a truly legendary existence. What kind of sect would try to make an issue of such an inconsequential slight?

Perhaps two hundred years ago he might have even been correct.

"But if you are truly so concerned about your secrets," Qian Shanyi continued, "then duke Lei Kou did not request the exact details of your operation. A simple summary would suffice."

Lei Kou, in fact, requested absolutely nothing, and, at least as far as Qian Shanyi knew, held no special interest in the sandpiercer machine. But she needed some topic she could use as a distraction if he ever asked her about the wider world. He could simply never be allowed to come into contact with any reliable information about history, and even discussing the more recent news was somewhat dangerous.

Su Feng did not answer her right away. He grimaced, fighting against himself, and licked his lips twice, before he stepped over to the corner of the control room and pulled out some paper.

"The spiritual energy is pulled into a heating element that turns water to steam," he explained grimly, drawing a diagram that was so simplistic as to explain practically nothing. Qian Shanyi still stepped closer to him to take a look, mostly out of deference to him making the effort. "The pressure of this steam drives the wheels and pulls the rest of the carts along."

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"Pressure," Qian Shanyi deadpanned, suddenly getting a terrible feeling. "Are you saying this machine can explode?"

Su Feng gave her a dirty look, as if she just implied his firstborn son might regularly shit his pants in public. "It is highly unlikely," he grumbled. "There are many safeguards in place."

"Hmpf," Qian Shanyi snorted, deciding to let this lie. "Why do you even bother with the steam? I know there are formations that could move the wheels directly."

"Efficiency of energy conversion," Su Feng replied, not even dignifying her with a look. Qian Shanyi got the distinct feeling she had stumbled on an old argument, one the man had rehashed with his fellow refiners hundreds of times.

"Interesting," Qian Shanyi said, deciding to throw him a bone. "I imagine you might even find a way to make it work with other fuels - wood, coal. That would make this machine far cheaper to operate."

This at least got her a look that was slightly warmer. "I can't speak of the future, fellow cultivator."

Qian Shanyi nodded. She could sense that there was more he could say about this subject, but she was going for a broad understanding, not the specifics. It was time to move on. "You said that this element merely heats the water," she said. "You do not produce your own?"

"It would be a waste of spiritual energy," Su Feng said, shaking his head. "We simply refill the boiler at the end stations. The economy of spiritual energy is essential to keep the machine running at all."

"I see. How do you move the wheels?"

"With a system of pistons."

"Show me."

He drew another diagram, of a rod that connected a wheel to the piston, making it spin any time the piston moved. "This illustrates the fundamental principle," Su Feng said, turning it over to Qian Shanyi.

It, too, seemed oversimplified - from Qian Shanyi's admittedly scarce experience working with pressure vessels, she could immediately tell that the diagram entirely omitted all the finicky parts of the system, the way that the piston stayed sealed in motion, the way that the rods connected to each other without being shaken apart, and from her vague memory of how the wheels of the locomotive looked from the outside, even the proportions were wrong. Even though he was cooperating, Su Feng was still doing everything in his power to protect his sect's secrets.

She could have forced him to reveal more - she had a metaphorical sword to his throat. They probably had the real blueprints stored somewhere in here. But her idle curiosity wasn't worth it.

"Hmpf. Thank you for this consultation, fellow cultivator," Qian Shanyi said, handing the diagram back. She had a distinct feeling he would burn it as soon as she left the room. "I will convey my approval to lord Lei Kou."

"Fellow cultivator is far too kind. That is entirely unnecessary."

Read: you self-conceited whore, why would I be grateful to you for forcing me to welcome you into my sacred sanctum?

Qian Shanyi's lips quirked slightly. Even though she got on Lei Kou's side to kill the man, she couldn't deny that having this man bow to her every demand was addictive. Fortunately, she was self-aware enough that there was no chance of it getting to her head.

"Do you keep any spiritual ink for formation repairs?" she said, already turning back towards the doors.

"Some."

"Then bring me an inkwell, and that should be all."

It took Qian Shanyi close to an hour to deal with the Steel Torrent sect and question all their disciples. They only had seven cultivators on the train, and the questioning itself was quite quick - it was letting them adjust to the new reality that took the most time.

She didn't bother questioning Deng Mu. The man had to be sedated, and left to recover in his cabin with the help of a lot of healing pills. She doubted Lei Kou would have any interest in him until he had healed.

With any hope, by then it would no longer matter.

But now that she was done with the sect, she needed to move quickly. Lei Kou only gave her two hours to collect the information, and half of that time was already gone. And so she headed back to Zhang Xiaogang's cabin to finally get the passenger manifest.

Svarggam Xiaochun was still inside, still chanting. If anything, she had gotten louder - this time, Qian Shanyi could hear her some distance down the corridor, not merely right in front of the door.

Qian Shanyi frowned. She didn't want to disturb the woman, but time was running out. She knocked on the door again, far more insistently this time -

- only for the door to swing open slightly. It wasn't locked. The sight beyond made hair stand up straight on Qian Shanyi's head, sending a terrified shiver down her spine.

Zhang Xiaogang was laid out on his bed, the blanket wrapped around him like a shroud. She couldn't see what was left of his head, but the blood had soaked clean through, a wide, irregular blotch of red on otherwise pristinely white fabric.

Svarggam Xiaochun kneeled in front of him, her sword drawn and stabbed through the floor, hands clasped on the handle. Angular symbols of no language Qian Shanyi had seen before had been drawn on her face in blood, and all across her face and arms, veins pulsed with rainbow light. Even simply looking at that light made Qian Shanyi's teeth ache.

"Oh no, Xiaochun -" Qian Shanyi gasped, pulling the door open fully. She rushed into the room and dropped down on her knees, pulling the foolish, reckless woman into a hug - and away from her sword.

Svarggam Xiaochun had cut off mid-word, grimaced, and coughed up a bit of blood. It dripped down her chin, staining the collar of her dress. Her eyes fluttered open, and she turned a hollow, lifeless gaze towards Qian Shanyi. "You shouldn't be here, Qiaoli," she said with great difficulty. Her voice echoed slightly against itself, every word resounding twice. "Please leave."

That rainbow light was in her eyes as well, at the edges of her iris. It hurt to look at, and Qian Shanyi failed to suppress a wince at the spike of nausea coming from her stomach.

"How could I leave when you are suffering?" she said, fighting against the pain, and trying - and failing - to push the sheer horror at the realization of what Svarggam Xiaochun did, what she knew, into the furthest reaches of her mind. "You haven't - you haven't finished, have you?"

"Not yet," Svarggam Xiaochun said, closing her eyes. It made the pain fade a bit. "Close."

Sweet mercy, to think I could have been too late. An entire sandpiercer full of madmen.

"I cannot allow you to do... to do this to yourself," Qian Shanyi said, reaching up to wipe the bloody symbols off Svarggam Xiaochun's cheeks. The woman didn't resist, at least - though perhaps these symbols were no longer necessary.

"I must," Svarggam Xiaochun muttered. She sounded strained, flat, completely unlike how she was the last time Qian Shanyi saw her. A hollowed out shell of her former self. "My brother is dead. Please, you have to go."

Qian Shanyi could only stare at Svarggam Xiaochun in muted horror. She understood revenge, of course she did, but this? Against a golden core? If Lei Kou was merely building foundation - perhaps she could have at least hoped for something.

You madwoman, can you not see the mount Tai right before your eyes? You cannot hope to learn to fly by leaping off a cliff. You will simply splatter on the rocks below.

Qian Shanyi thought her fury had no more place to go, but she had been quite wrong. It instantly doubled in scope and heat, boiling and overflowing the confines of her mind. Svarggam Xiaochun was mad, yes, but the abominable, malicious Lei Kou… He must have known exactly what she was doing. He grinned, he looked toward this car, when he spoke of fruits budding on this sandpiercer -

He could have stopped her at any point, and yet, he simply let her keep at it. To watch, observe her like a specimen, a curious little sapling in a pot. She was no threat to him regardless.

Calm. Not here, not before this malefic light. Sweet mercy, I can't even trust my own damned mind.

Svarggam Xiaochun was like a wounded animal, looking for any outlet for her vengeance. She had none, and so she picked this. But if she had something else… Surely she would see reason?

Could Qian Shanyi afford to show her another way out?

It was a chilling thought, but impossible to avoid. Qian Shanyi doubted that Lei Kou would care one way or the other, but if she told Xiaochun her plan, even hinted at it, then she might break their little conspiracy wide open by sheer accident. As the saying went, two could keep a secret if one of them was dead.

She needed two witnesses, and Svarggam Xiaochun could be one - but out of all of the possibilities, she was quite possibly the worst choice. Qian Shanyi needed those who could remain calm under pressure, not someone who thirsted for vengeance.

Then again… Even if Qian Shanyi hated admitting it, in a sick sense it did take more than a little bravery to decide to burn your life and soul and summon a demon.

Where did she even learn this vile ritual?! If anyone else saw this, she'd get branded a demonic cultivator on the spot! Sweet mercy, if I did not know her situation, I might have done so myself!

Qian Shanyi felt her composure start to crack again. Lei Kou's omnipresent senses, the Heavens, Yonghao's luck, and now this… It was starting to be too much.

Fuck it.

She'd help the careless woman. She'd rather regret acting wrongly than not at all. But how in the Netherworld's name could she manage to bring her on board? Lei Kou could hear everything she said, read anything she wrote.

She could hardly even hint at her intentions. To speak by implication required some common ground, some stories one could refer to with but a couple oblique words - and what did the two of them have in common? They grew up in different cultures, different societies. Even the languages they learned as children had been different. The risk of her hints simply flying right over Svarggam Xiaochun's head seemed unavoidable.

But there was one thing. One set of stories that Qian Shanyi could be certain that Svarggam Xiaochun would have read.

Those accursed romance novels that Wang Yonghao read aloud exclusively to annoy her.

Even if she had an entire decade to do it, Qian Shanyi could never hope to describe the sheer spectrum of feelings that passed through her soul at that particular realization. She was thankful to have found a way forward, yes, but for it to be this…

Seventeen hundred curses upon Lei Kou's abominable head for putting me into this position. Let his spirit rot from the inside out.

At least she didn't have to worry about Lei Kou questioning her about what she said. The chance of him deciding to read further than the first page into any one of those horrible stories was exactly null. She just needed to pick the right ones to convey her message, and hope that what little she remembered of the plot proved sufficient.

"Xiaochun... Do you imagine yourself in the shoes of Bai Yao?" Qian Shanyi said after an entire minute of deliberation. "Do you not recall what had happened to those around her?"

Bai Yao was the main character of the only halfway decent story Qian Shanyi had read in the Spring of Plums. It was a tragic tale, her childhood love killed by a powerful noble, causing Bai Yao to set off on a path of vengeance that tore her family apart. Once she was done, she had realized that she actually loved a different friend of hers - but by then, it was already too late, for he fell in the final battle.

Svarggam Xiaochun sniffled slightly. She seemed… lethargic, in a sense - as if acting out her role through a thick sheet of glass. "Who is around me?" she said, her lips twisting slightly. "My brother is d-dead."

"I am around you."

"That is why you should leave. I must do this, Q-qiaoli."

She stuttered slightly and reached up to wipe a tear from her eyes. That strange, rainbow light still shone from them, even if it had slowly started to fade, without the ritual to sustain it.

"Xiaochun, please, listen to me," Qian Shanyi said, gently turning Svarggam Xiaochun to face her. "I could no more convey how much I understand your pain than Chuulu Shan could have conveyed his love for Minnal Na. My tongue is simply tied up in knots."

Chuulu Shan and Minnal Na were a tragic pair - their romance utterly forbidden, he the lowest of the low, a mere sweeper in the sect, she the daughter of the sect patriarch, separated by station as well as caste. Qian Shanyi could barely even recall what the story was about - not the least because she was actively trying to tune Wang Yonghao out when he read it aloud, and even briefly considered pinching the nerves in her ears to temporarily render herself deaf - but she did remember that the two could never speak for fear of Minnal Na's father overhearing them, and had to communicate in other ways. It was an utterly ridiculous premise, for of course a patriarch that powerful could sense the two of them meeting without relying on his ears - but it still stuck in Qian Shanyi's mind.

Despite everything, Svarggam Xiaochun gave her a curious glance. Thankfully she had picked up on Qian Shanyi's meaning right away. "What good are those knots if you still speak?"

"I am a cultivator, and so are you. How could some knots stop us?" Qian Shanyi sighed. "But please. The path of Bai Yao is not the one for you, I know this much. Think… of Mao Long. At least his family had lived, had it not?"

Mao Long's tale was not dissimilar to Bai Yao - another tragic death, and far too much pining and far too little action. But unlike Bai Yao, Mao Long had joined the sect of his enemies, and sought to poison them. The only thing notable about him was that in the way he was described, he was heavily implied to be gay, though the cowardly authoress pathologically refused to state it outright.

But Qian Shanyi did not bring him up because of his romantic proclivities. She brought him up because the first half of the story had him working as a maid, and serving his mortal enemies - even as he plotted to murder them.

Svarggam Xiaochun's eyes immediately widened. "You wish me to -"

Qian Shanyi clasped a hand over the other woman's mouth. "Shh," she said, looking directly into Svarggam Xiaochun's eyes, "I know it hurts to bow your head. But there is no other way for you, you know this. Come with me. I will introduce you to our lord. And then you can serve as well as Mao Long."

She kept her hand there until Svarggam Xiaochun managed a shaky nod.

"What good is service?" Svarggam Xiaochun said bitterly, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. "I do not have his skills. I cannot be a… maid. There is only one path for me."

Yet for all that she stubbornly insisted on her earlier decision, Qian Shanyi could tell that Svarggam Xiaochun was listening. She hadn't panicked, hadn't revealed their little shared secret.

She understood that Qian Shanyi had a way to kill Lei Kou. Now all she needed to do was turn their discussion onto how.

"There is more than one way to be a maid, Xiaochun," Qian Shanyi said lightly. "Think back on Wang Luan. Had she not learned a hundred new things in her search for love? Had her skills not served her well?"

It was frustrating how many of those romance stories hovered just on the edge of being interesting and still completely missed the target. Wang Luan's was one of them: supposedly a tale of court intrigue within the imperial palace, it had the foundations of an incredible battle of wills; but once the plot got going, it had been shafted into the closet, to make way for seven hundred varieties of pining.

"She had," Svarggam Xiaochun said, watching Qian Shanyi carefully. "What of it?"

"Do you not know how to cook?" Qian Shanyi reasonably said. "Our chefs had fled, and you could easily take their place. Do you not know how to read and write, or how to talk to others? Have you no hands with which to draw a simple formation?" Qian Shanyi reached into her robes, and pulled out the small vial of ink she had received from the Steel Torrent sect. "I have brought this ink to gift our lord with a simple noise cancelling formation. If I showed you the diagram, could you be the one to draw it?"

Svarggam Xiaochun's breath caught, and Qian Shanyi had to watch her like a hawk to make sure she would say nothing suspicious - but she needn't have worried.

She really underestimated this little woman. With any hope, so would the abominable Lei Kou.

"Perhaps I could," the other woman finally said.

"And will you serve, to make up for your brother's misstep?"

Svarggam Xiaochun's hands fell, all strength finally leaving her body. She squeezed her eyes, tears beginning to roll again, and nodded shakily as her chest began to shake in silent cries.

Qian Shanyi hugged her again, patting her hand gently. "I am glad that you have seen the light."

They sat together for a while, while the rainbow veins faded from Svarggam Xiaochun's delicate face. But time was of the essence. Before Qian Shanyi could present Svarggam Xiaochun to Lei Kou, she still needed to do a lot of work.

"Clean up quickly, Xiaochun," Qian Shanyi said, rising back to her feet. "A maid must be well-put together."

Just one more witness, Qian Shanyi thought as she quickly searched through Zhang Xiaogang's things for the passenger manifest. Just one more witness, and your days are over, Lei Kou.