Chapter 53: Treading on Grass (Part 4)
“I’ll talk! I’ll talk!” the young man nodded frantically.
“Are there other types of abacus beads at Manyu Bank?” Xu He Xue asked, picking up an abacus from the table and letting the beads fall with a soft clatter, drawing the young man’s gaze.
“Yes, but they only changed the design once, about five years ago,” the young man replied truthfully.
“Why did they change it?” Xu He Xue asked calmly.
The young man, an apprentice at the bank, had been there for five years but hadn’t had the opportunity to use the expensive abacuses, only the cheap jujube wood ones. He leaned against the railing, his voice trembling. “I heard from my master that the old beads were too heavy and difficult to manipulate, so the owner in Daizhou ordered new ones.”
“What else do you know? About the abacuses,” Ni Su asked, walking over to Xu He Xue.
The young man cautiously looked up at her, her face hidden behind the veiled hat, her voice young and feminine.
“What are you looking at?” Xu He Xue’s cold voice made him flinch. He quickly lowered his gaze, staring at the white robe. “Abacuses… let me think…”
“Experienced accountants are sensitive to the weight of the beads. They’re very particular about it. If the weight is off, it affects their speed, so the owner changed them. I also heard that the owner considers abacuses to be our livelihood. He had them inlaid with gold and jade for good luck and as a reward for skilled accountants. If they perform well, train their apprentices diligently, and retire, they receive an abacus as a gift.”
This was why he had been an apprentice at Manyu Bank for five years, hoping to earn an abacus, even though few received such a reward. Even if the abacus itself was useless, the gold and jade inlays were valuable.
Ni Su thought for a moment. “So, there’s no precedent for giving someone a single abacus bead?”
“No,” the young man shook his head. “Even damaged abacuses are stored carefully. Some have tried to steal them, but few succeed. Although the abacuses are on display, there are guards at night.”
“But the Yin Ye Si has sealed the building. There aren’t many people left. Only I’m inside tonight… the others are patrolling outside.”
Ni Su frowned. The old servant had been at the Wu residence for years. He wouldn’t have the skills of a bank accountant, nor the opportunity to obtain such an abacus bead. And they had only found one bead in his house.
The neighbors had said the old servant had a grandson, but he hadn’t been seen lately. Had someone used his grandson to threaten him? Was that why he had risked harming Wu Dai?
Had that person given him the Manyu bead? But why give him a single bead when they had given him banknotes?
“Where are the old abacuses stored?” Xu He Xue asked, leaning closer. The lantern light from the courtyard below was dim. The young man felt a chill as he approached, a coldness that seeped into his bones.
Being near him was like being near a winter storm.
“I… I know…” the young man stammered, his lips trembling.
The guards in the courtyard below paced back and forth, yawning in the long night.
“I wonder if our bank will survive…” someone said.
“They’re saying our owner is responsible for Wu Dai’s illness, based on a single abacus bead. That’s why they sealed the building,” another said.
“People steal abacus beads all the time. Some get caught, some don’t. How can they accuse our owner based on that?”
“They haven’t convicted him yet. The fact that we’re still here tonight means the Yin Ye Si doesn’t have enough evidence. Besides, our owner has powerful connections,” the leader said, interrupting them impatiently. “Just do your job! Stop gossiping about the owner!”
Ni Su and Xu He Xue followed the young man to the third floor, unnoticed. The third floor was sparsely furnished. A locked storeroom stood at the end of a long corridor. The young man’s face was troubled. “I don’t have the key. It’s with Second Manager, and he’s being held at the Yin Ye Si.”
The storeroom’s lock was more elaborate than ordinary locks.
But a flash of cold light, a shower of shimmering dust, and the lock fell to the ground.
The blade pressed against the young man’s neck again, and Ni Su caught the falling lock.
“Go inside,” Xu He Xue said.
The young man, his face pale, opened the storeroom door and stumbled inside.
The room was dark, but a faint light followed him. He didn’t dare turn around, only pointing towards a cabinet. “They’re in there.”
The locks on the cabinets, designed to protect the abacuses, were even more intricate. Ni Su saw the shimmering dust, but the young man didn’t seem to notice.
She looked down at the faint, white shadow on the floor and listened to the locks click open, effortlessly.
But she knew his effortless actions came at a price.
The young man, assuming the blade at his throat was exceptionally sharp, trembled with fear, carefully retrieving an abacus from the cabinet.
“This… this is the old design,” he said, holding out a worn abacus, its frame and rods loose, its beads smooth and shiny from years of use.
Xu He Xue glanced at it but didn’t take it. He looked at the young man through his veiled hat. “If you’re smart, you’ll pretend you know nothing about tonight’s events. After all, we wouldn’t have found this place without you.”
“I understand! I understand!” the young man said quickly.
He wouldn’t dare tell anyone. This was a clear warning. Even if he told the manager, he would still be implicated.
He felt the blade move away from his neck and was about to sigh in relief when the hilt struck the back of his head.
He collapsed, unconscious.
Xu He Xue caught the falling abacus, then, holding the loose wooden frame, pulled it apart and retrieved a bead.
Ni Su walked closer and examined the bead in the lantern light.
It was smooth and shiny, the inscription faded, but still legible: “Manyu.”
“It’s the same as the other one,” she said.
Xu He Xue held the bead in his slender, strong fingers. “No, it’s not,” he said after a moment.
“What do you mean?” Ni Su asked, confused. “The wood, the jade ring, the inscription… they’re identical.”
Xu He Xue looked at the unconscious young man. “Remember what he said? Manyu Bank only changed their bead design once, because the old beads were too heavy.”
Ni Su nodded.
“Although this one looks the same as the one we found at the old servant’s house, the weight is different,” Xu He Xue said.
“The weight is different?” Ni Su took the bead and weighed it in her hand, but she couldn’t feel any difference. She hadn’t paid attention to the weight at the old servant’s house.
Xu He Xue took back the bead and squeezed it, the veins and bones in his hand standing out.
The bead cracked, revealing a small iron plate beneath the jade ring.
Banks exchanged banknotes for copper coins. The owner of Manyu Bank, who inlaid his abacuses with gold and jade, wouldn’t be short of iron.
“So that’s why it was heavier,” Ni Su said, picking up the thin iron plate. “The bead at the old servant’s house was a fake.”
“Which means whoever is behind this deliberately planted it. They harmed Wu Dai to draw the Yin Ye Si’s attention to Manyu Bank?”
From Du Cong’s ledger to this, everything seemed to point to Manyu Bank.
“There’s another possibility,” Xu He Xue said, picking up the lantern. “Perhaps Wu Dai wasn’t harmed at all.”
“Perhaps he orchestrated this himself, to make the Yin Ye Si investigate Manyu Bank.”
The dementia was real, the bead was fake. If Wu Dai was truly this ruthless, he must be desperate, hoping to turn the tables, or perhaps, drag someone down with him.
“That’s… impossible,” Ni Su said, stunned. She was about to ask again when Xu He Xue suddenly turned his head. “Someone’s coming,” he said.
Ni Su saw a light flicker on the railing outside the storeroom door, then heard an angry voice. “Where’s A-Ping? Why isn’t he here? Is this how he cleans while I’m at the Yin Ye Si? I told him to work harder after he broke my things, and he’s still slacking off!”
“Master, don’t be angry. He must have stepped out for a moment. You can scold him when he returns,” another voice said, fawning.
The approaching footsteps were loud. Hearing the word “Master,” Xu He Xue knew it was the manager, who had been released from the Yin Ye Si.
“Ni Su, hide,” he whispered.
Ni Su nodded, quickly hiding inside a large cabinet. “What about him?” she asked, looking at the unconscious young man.
Xu He Xue walked over to her, the gauze of his veiled hat brushing against her face as he leaned down. “Are you afraid of being in there?”
Ni Su hugged her knees and shook her head. “Hurry and close it,” she urged.
Xu He Xue closed the cabinet door, his gaze falling on the broken lock. He touched it, and shimmering dust enveloped it, restoring it to its original form. The footsteps outside grew louder. He calmly reattached the lock to the cabinet containing the abacuses, then turned to mist and carried the unconscious young man outside, silently.
The storeroom door closed, the lock hanging securely in place.
“Did they search the storeroom?” the manager asked, ascending the stairs, his face pale with exhaustion after his ordeal at the Yin Ye Si.
“Yes, they had your key. They searched everywhere,” the middle-aged man following him replied. “They even examined the abacuses.”
“It’s all because of that abacus bead! This is a disaster! I need to check!” the manager said angrily, handing the key to the other man. “Open the door.”
“Master, they also searched the storeroom. No one has been inside since the Yin Ye Si’s search. You just returned. Why are you checking again?” the man asked, opening the door.
“Our manager was murdered! Wasn’t he good to us?” the manager said, entering the storeroom and lighting the candles on the table.
“He was very good to us,” the man agreed. “But he died so suddenly.”
“Indeed…” the manager sighed, counting the copper coins stored in the storeroom. “Normally, only the manager has the key to the storeroom, but that night, on the Lantern Festival, he gave me the key. I asked him if he was returning to Daizhou to see the owner, but he said no. I was puzzled. He didn’t seem like he was going anywhere. He didn’t even have any luggage. I only saw him tuck a book into his robe…”
“He never gave you the key before when he went to Daizhou. Perhaps he was planning to retire and wanted you to take over,” the man said, his words soothing the manager’s anxieties.
“Don’t be absurd,” the manager said, waving his hand dismissively.
Inside the dark cabinet, Ni Su heard their voices, then approaching footsteps. She clutched her skirt, her heart pounding.
“Master, I’ll open these cabinets and boxes for you,” the man said, his hand reaching for the copper handle.
Ni Su held her breath.
A sliver of light revealed his rough, dark fingers.
Her heart sank. She felt a cool breeze on her face, and the cabinet seemed to shrink. She turned and saw a pair of eyes close to hers.
So close she could see the crease of his eyelids.
Xu He Xue had removed his veiled hat and placed the lantern on the floor, its warm light filling the small space.
A cry of pain came from outside. The man had slammed the cabinet door on his fingers.
Ni Su almost laughed, but a cold hand covered her mouth. She blinked, smelling the faint scent of blood.
His sleeve was stained crimson, a fresh wound on his wrist, blood dripping from it.
“Look what you’ve done! That cabinet is for storing miscellaneous items, not copper coins! The cabinets with the abacuses are locked!” the manager’s voice boomed from outside.
The other man apologized profusely.
Xu He Xue listened to their conversation, then, as he was about to remove his hand, she grasped his fingers, her warmth against his cold skin making him tremble.
He could still feel the softness of her cheek against his palm. Her unexpected touch made him clench his hand and turn to look at her.
She hadn’t removed her veiled hat, but she lifted the gauze slightly, the candlelight illuminating half her face, her dark eyes and red lips.
A strand of hair fell against her cheek.
Xu He Xue, realizing she was looking at his wound, tried to pull away, but her fingers tightened around his.
A heartbeat was a sensation of the living.
He didn’t have one.
Ni Su, for the first time, truly saw the wounds inflicted on him, like stains on freshly fallen snow.
If it were a physical injury, she could heal it. But it wasn’t.
She gently blew on his wrist, her breath like a warm breeze. Xu He Xue gasped softly, his body trembling.
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