Chapter Two (Continued)

Masterlist of posts, character list, and collection of idioms

Everyone gathered in the official conference hall, seated on either side. Zhuo Yichen distributed documents. “This is everything from the casefile about the water ghost. Read it first. These past few days, you’ve been packing bags and preparing to leave.”

Heads lowered and everyone carefully read the file. Outside the hall, the only sound heard from within was the shuffle and turning of papers.

The spread-out scroll lay on a table not far from Zhuo Yichen’s right-hand side. Some faint, drifting unease entered his mind, though he didn’t know why. Intuition told him there was a problem with the scroll.

He closed the scroll in his hands and grabbed the other from the table. He peered closely, examining the handwriting. The contract was exactly as Wu Yan had read aloud, the very same with no mistakes and nothing unusual.

Wen Xiao noticed, her expression as worried as his. “Xiao Zhuo, you think there’s something strange, too? They went to so much trouble, it couldn’t be just to have us sign a contract.”

Two people, one before them and one behind, one a hero and one a villain, were clearly laying a trap.

Zhao Yuanzhou said blandly, “So, the whole play was to get us to sign the contract.”

“You didn’t even sign it!” Bai Jiu replied.

“I didn’t sign that contract, but I signed another one.” Zhao Yuanzhou looked in Wen Xiao’s direction.

Was it to make the signing of the document more logical for them?… Something flashed through Zhuo Yichen’s mind, and he closed his eyes to try to recall it. His thoughts halted on a singular sentence spoken by Wu Yan’s attendants.

His heart suddenly constricted in fear. “Put your stamp at the end of the scroll.” This instruction wasn’t right!

Zhuo Yichen hurried to look at the end of the scroll where his mark lay among the others. Everyone stared at that blank spot as, gradually, black ink appeared like it was soaking in from beneath the parchment.

Bai Jiu didn’t understand. “How…how can this paper write ink on itself?”

“This isn’t ink…it’s blood,” Wen Xiao said, shocked. “Mengji’s blood…In the Wilderness, there’s a beast called Mengji…it has the shape of a panther. It’s written that its body is white and able to become invisible. After death, it will become visible.”

So, she feared that by now Mengji was already…dead.

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Idioms that appear in this section:

大动干戈 (dàdòng-gāngē) – go to war; get into a fight; fig. To make a big fuss over something

唱白脸 (chàngbáiliǎn) – wear the white mask of the villain; play the villain

唱红脸 (chànghóngliǎn) – wear the red mask of the hero; play the hero

顺理成章 (shùnlǐ-chéngzhāng) – (of a statement, argument, etc.) logical; well-reasoned; follow a logical train of thought