"So many people..." After the paper burned out, Zhu Yu sighed softly, "Going through so much trouble to silence someone halfway, it can’t just be out of hatred, right?

Does the other side think that Zhao Bi’s harm to this extent might allow us to infer something from previous speculations, potentially threatening them, possibly exposing them, so they are in such a rush to silence him?"

"That’s indeed a possibility." Lu Qing nodded and took out a few sheets of paper from his pocket. Using a very fine charcoal stick, he quickly wrote on the paper, responding to Zhu Yu without looking up, "Zhao Bi’s death also completely dismantled all his past influence, with no chance of regrouping. Lu Zhang is left alone, with all the guests gone, and is no longer a threat."

Zhu Yu watched from the side as Lu Qing swiftly wrote on the paper, filling the small sheet with dense writing.

After these practices, Zhu Yu’s speed in understanding the contents has also been increasing.

When Lu Qing finished writing the note, he deftly reassembled the Mechanical Box, hiding the note inside. Zhu Yu stood up by the window and gently blew on the silver whistle around his neck.

Lu Qing stretched his hand out the window, and with a flash of a shadow, the Mechanical Box in his hand disappeared.

The night outside returned to its usual silence, and Lu Qing carefully closed the window.

"This time, we’re really fortunate for that Qilin pattern from your place." Zhu Yu, aware of Lu Qing’s intentions, wasn’t too surprised, "Otherwise, it would have been difficult for us to notice there, and we wouldn’t have had the discoveries afterward.

If Mu Hong can be trusted, then we’ve also found a way to address our biggest threat this time.

It’s just uncertain whether, after more than two decades, he’ll still remember it so clearly."

"We’ll know when we check tomorrow morning." Lu Qing spoke while reaching out to help Zhu Yu loosen his hair bun, "Your nose has always been reliable, and we’ll depend on you to give the all-clear tomorrow."

The next morning, they still got up early and left. Fu Lu was already gone, having set out at some point, heading in the direction indicated by the shop owner and his wife to procure the items they needed.

So the rune followed the two masters, and the three of them once again headed to the small wooden building. This time, Zhu Yu asked the rune to bring along the thick clothes the shop owner’s wife had bought for them.

When the three of them arrived at the small wooden building, as soon as they entered, Mu Hong eagerly climbed out from the tunnel. Surprised to see the three of them, he quickly pointed outside the door, "After you left yesterday, I repaired the copper bell outside during the night..."

"You did the right thing." Zhu Yu smiled at him and gestured to the rune beside him, "Haven’t eaten yet? We haven’t either, care to join us?"

Mu Hong promptly nodded.

With these people around to give him courage, and having endured more than twenty years, his spirits seemed to relax just a little.

The four of them sat in the shadow behind the stairs, and the rune unloaded the things he was carrying, putting them aside, and took out some freshly cooked biscuits that hadn’t completely cooled yet.

Even though it was just biscuits, to Mu Hong, who hadn’t tasted freshly cooked food for a long time, it was already irresistibly tempting.

He couldn’t help but keep swallowing as the rune handed out the biscuits to Zhu Yu and Lu Qing first, and when he got a piece, he devoured it hungrily.

Zhu Yu sighed softly. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

This person seemed as if someone had stolen over twenty years of his life; although his beard was already graying, his behavior and gaze still resembled that of a young man in his twenties. This bizarre contrast truly left one at a loss for words.

After eating enough, Lu Qing noticed that Mu Hong’s eyes were curiously glancing toward the thick clothes in the bundle. He cleared his throat and said, "These thick clothes are for you. Living in that tomb chamber, it must be hard to get through the winter.

For your safety and ours, you’ll have to stay here for a while longer—you can’t move elsewhere just yet. Let these clothes help you for now.

If you need anything later, just tell our people, and someone will find a way to help you."

Mu Hong nodded somewhat blankly, accepting the clothes and holding them, his eyes slowly welling up with tears before they finally overflowed.

"Thank you! Thank you!" He said, wiping his tears, sniffling, "All these years I’ve been alone, thinking I’d be like this until I died... I never expected... Given how I treated you all back then, you still treat me like this... I feel so ashamed..."

"You needn’t feel ashamed. There are no baseless kindnesses in this world, and our kindness isn’t without reason." Lu Qing shook his head, his expression very calm, his tone equally serene, "We can help you escape your current situation, and you will need to provide us with what we need."

Mu Hong nodded knowingly, and somehow, whether due to feeling more settled or having a full stomach, he was clearly more responsive than the day before. He quickly got up from the floor and ran to the tomb chamber below.

Before long, when he re-emerged, he carried an armful of various items, hardly light in appearance.

He brought this assortment to the group, carefully placing the items, wrapped in various colored cloth scraps, on the ground. When the small cloth bundles hit the ground, they made sounds suggesting they contained porcelain, clay pots, or the like.

Mu Hong carefully unwrapped one of the grayish cloth bundles, revealing a light yellow ceramic object inside.

The object looked strange, with a design and shape that Zhu Yu had never seen before.

The item was about palm-sized, resembling a somewhat thick saucer. Upon closer inspection, it was evident that it wasn’t a single piece but two separate parts fitted together.

Mu Hong then unwrapped the remaining cloth pieces one by one, each containing a similar ceramic "saucer," with slight variations in size and color, but all perfectly flush, suggesting they were a specific type of tool.

"What are these...?" Lu Qing glanced over the items on the ground, then looked at Mu Hong, whose expression was like a child’s showing off a treasure.

"These are the scents that I smuggled out, risking my life, those people forced my father and them to mix, along with some of the ingredients used to make them," Mu Hong promptly replied.