At six o’clock the next morning, a brisk autumn drizzle began to fall over Sky-Crown City, washing the coal dust from the eaves of the working-class South Ward.
Outside the front gate of Willow-Breeze Courtyard, however, a crowd of more than three thousand early-rising dockworkers, night-soil carters. Vegetable peddlers had already gathered in the lane, roaring with laughter so loud it drowned out the rain.
Hanging upside-down by their ankles from the massive timber crossbar of the South Ward public bulletin board were twelve muscular men dressed only in white cotton underpants and iron crow half-masks.
Their hands were still glued together with hardened black-licorice taffy. Stapled right across the chest of their leader, Shadow-Captain Crow, was a three-foot sheet of red accounting paper written in Grandpa Fu’s boldest calligraphy:.
> [WILLOW-BREEZE COURTYARD — OVERNIGHT GARDEN PEST INVOICE]
> Item 1: Twelve Masked Turnip-Tramplers Caught at 1:00 AM — Cleanup Fee: 1,200 Silvers.
> Item 2: Fourteen Crushed Sweet-Turnip Leaves (Belonging to Young Miss Nuannuan) — Emotional Damages: 8,800 Silvers.
> Total Due upon Claiming Your Assassins: 10,000 Silver Taels (Cash Only, No Royal IOUs).
“Bwahaha! Look at their hands—they’re stuck together with black sugar candy!”
“Wait, look at the crescent tattoo on that big fellow’s shoulder! Aren’t those the noble lords’ private shadow-killers who used to extort the river docks?!”
At the front of the crowd stood Big-Hammer Tie—a six-foot-six, bare-armed dockworker foreman with a beard like iron wire who led five thousand stevedores at the South Canal piers. Big-Hammer Tie squinted at the twelve shivering assassins, then turned his head toward the wide-open gates of Willow-Breeze Courtyard.
There, beneath a row of newly erected oilcloth rain-awnings, Gu Changsheng, Auntie Qin, and Grandpa Yao’s plush turtle had set up four giant iron cauldrons over roaring charcoal stoves.
Thick, creamy white steam billowed out into the chilly morning drizzle, carrying the rich, savory aroma of slow-simmered pork-bone broth, shredded ginger, diced green scallions, and plump five-grain rice!
Even better, wooden signs hung beside the cauldrons in plain, large characters that every laborer could read:.
> [GU FAMILY PEACE PHARMACY & MORNING CONGEE STALL]
> [Warm-Stomach Ginger & Pork-Bone Congee: 100% FREE for All South Ward Working Folks, Orphans & Seniors!]
> [Cold-Dispelling Herbal Tea: FREE! Bring Your Own Bowl or Use Ours!]
“Foreman Tie, stop staring at those clowns in their underwear and come get a hot bowl before you head to the docks,” Gu Changsheng called out warmly. Wearing his coarse gray cotton apron and wielding a long bamboo ladle with steady, practiced grace. “Autumn rain gets into old knee joints if you haul cargo on an empty stomach.
Auntie Qin added three-year dried ginger and crushed spirit-pepper to the pot—one bowl will keep you sweating until noon.”
Big-Hammer Tie hesitated, his rough, calloused hands tightening around his empty clay lunch-jar. “Physician Gu... yesterday you drove off those extortion thugs in the alley, and today you’re giving away real meat congee with spirit-ginger to dockworkers for nothing?
There’s twenty-five thousand laborers and poor families living in these six streets—you’ll go broke by afternoon!”
“My kids like having noisy neighbors who look out for each other,” Gu Changsheng said deadpan. Filling Big-Hammer Tie’s clay jar to the brim with bubbling pork-bone congee and topping it with two big spoonfuls of crispy fried shallots. “Consider it our housewarming gift to the South Ward.
Just make sure the little ones in the lane don’t skip breakfast.”
Sitting on high stools behind the counter, nine-year-old Gu Nian and seven-year-old Su Nuannuan handed out warm steamed buns from bamboo baskets with bright smiles.
“Uncle Big-Hammer, here are two extra meat buns for your apprentices!” Gu Nian called out.
“And drink your ginger soup while it’s hot so you don’t catch a cold!” Su Nuannuan chirped, waving her small hand.
Big-Hammer Tie took one gulp of the scalding, savory pork-bone congee.
Instantly, a gentle wave of Warm-Hearth medicinal heat spread from his stomach straight into his rain-chilled lower back and scarred shoulders, melting away years of damp dockside ache!
The burly foreman’s eyes turned red. Stepping back from the stall, Big-Hammer Tie pounded his massive chest with a fist that sounded like a war drum and bellowed down the rainy street:.
“Brothers of the South Canal Docks! Physician Gu and his little young masters are treating working folks like real family! From this day on, anyone who dares touch a single brick of Willow-Breeze Courtyard—whether they’re street rats or palace guards—has to step over Big-Hammer Tie and my five thousand dock brothers first!!”
“LONG LIVE PHYSICIAN GU!!”
“PROTECT YOUNG MASTER NIAN AND LITTLE MISS NUANNUAN!!”
Twenty-five thousand dockworkers, laundresses, carpenters, and poor families lined up along the lantern-lit street in orderly rows, their heartfelt gratitude rising like a warm tide over the South Ward. Golden system notifications chimed non-stop in Gu Changsheng’s ears:.
[System Notification: Free Morning Congee Stall Opened in South Ward!]
[Dockworker Foreman ‘Big-Hammer Tie’ Warmth: 55/100 -> 85/100 (Sworn Neighborhood Guardian)!]
[25,000 South Ward Laborers Fed & Warmed — Total Protected Citizens: 50,000 -> 75,000!]
[Daily Income Surge: +1,300,000 -> +1,500,000 DP/day!]
All through the rainy morning and afternoon, the congee cauldrons boiled without stopping, turning Willow-Breeze Courtyard into the beating heart of the South Ward.
Around noon, when the rain grew heavier, Grandpa Fu set up a long wooden bench under the gatehouse eaves and began registering elderly widows, disabled canal boatmen. Orphaned street children for free winter charcoal vouchers. Beside him, Grandpa Yao’s [Rank 3 Jade-Turtle Plush Doll] sat perched atop a pyramid of bamboo medicine jars.
Booming out cheerful medical advice to every dockworker who walked past with a sore shoulder or a barking cough.
“Hey, you there with the braided hemp vest!” Grandpa Yao’s voice echoed out of the stuffed green turtle, making a burly grain-hauler jump in surprise. “Stop rubbing cheap horse-liniment on your left collarbone!
That’s an old wind-damp blockage in your lung meridian!
Drink two bowls of Auntie Qin’s ginger-scallion bone broth, stick this warming plaster behind your shoulder blade, and stop sleeping on wet barge planks without a straw mat!”
“T-Thank you, Immortal Turtle Grandpa!” the grain-hauler stammered, bowing three times to the plush doll before hurrying off with a steaming bowl and a dry herbal plaster.
Every time a grateful grandma patted Envoy Zhao on the shoulder. Called him “such a polite young man in pink,” Envoy Zhao’s scarred face twitched with an unfamiliar warmth in his chest [Envoy Zhao Warmth: 48/100 -> 54/100].
Meanwhile, five miles away in the opulent Eastern Palace, the atmosphere was anything but warm.
At 6:30 PM, as the evening drum sounded across the Inner City. Palace Steward Liu stumbled into Second Prince Qian Ye’s private study with rain dripping from his hat and his face as white as chalk.
“Y-Your Highness!” Steward Liu dropped to his knees on the black marble floor, trembling violently. “Shadow-Captain Crow and all twelve Rank 3 Night-Crow Assassins...
we found them!”
Qian Ye, who was soaking his hands in a basin of medicinal blood-orchid water to scrub away the last stubborn traces of yesterday’s red tracking dye. Looked up with a cold glint in his eyes. “Did they bring me the Hundred-Herb Medicine King Furnace and that father’s head?”
“N-No, Your Highness!” Steward Liu choked out, pressing his forehead to the floor. “At dawn this morning, someone hung all twelve Night-Crow Assassins upside-down in their underpants on the South Ward public bulletin board!
Their poisoned daggers were melted into black-licorice candy, Shadow-Captain Crow’s iron mask was caved in by a child’s fist, and an old butler pinned a ten-thousand-silver invoice for ‘trampled sweet-turnips’ to Crow’s chest!
Worse still—when our scouts tried to cut them down at noon, five thousand South Canal dockworkers armed with cargo hooks chased our men out of the district!”
CRASH!!
The porcelain washbasin shattered beneath Qian Ye’s palms, splashing red blood-orchid water across his dark gold robes.
For a long moment, the Eastern Palace study was dead silent.
Qian Ye stared down at his wet, trembling palms. In his previous life, he had climbed over ten million corpses to become the Supreme Blood-Emperor; he knew every secret treasure, every hidden genius, and every political weakness in the Great Qian Kingdom.
Yet ever since that nameless physician in a gray apron rolled into Sky-Crown City forty-eight hours ago. His Dragon Marrow had been boiled into radish soup, his Medicine King Furnace had been turned into a chestnut roaster. He paid fifty thousand silvers for a chamber pot.
Now twelve elite Rank 3 assassins had been stripped to their underwear by children!
“Once is coincidence. Twice is luck. Three times...”
Qian Ye whispered, a terrifying, paranoid chill creeping up his spine as his pupils contracted to needles.
“That man in the South Ward isn’t guessing. Somehow, he knows my exact schedule! And if Shadow-Captain Crow was stripped and searched last night...”
Qian Ye’s breath caught sharply.
“Crow was carrying my midnight confirmation order for Coffin Alley!” Qian Ye snarled, whirling on Steward Liu. “The ten-year-old beggar boy with the Innate Sword Heart and Sword Eyes—Ye Xiao!
If that South Ward monster read Crow’s letter, he knows I scheduled the live organ extraction for midnight tonight!”
“Your Highness, should we cancel the surgery and move the boy?!” Steward Liu gasped.
“No! If we move him through the streets, that thief will intercept the carriage!” Qian Ye’s mind raced with cold, ruthless calculation.
“He expects the surgery to happen at midnight according to the letter!
Take my fastest blood-steed to Coffin Alley right now! Order Chief Surgeon Cruel-Scalpel Mo to start the extraction FOUR HOURS EARLY—at 8:00 PM sharp tonight! Have him carve out that boy’s Sword Eyes and Sword Heart before eight o’clock, and activate the Rank 3 Peak Bone-Flaying Blade Array in the ice-cellar to shred anyone who walks down those stairs!”
*
Back in Willow-Breeze Courtyard, the iron streetlamps flickered on as the clock approached 7:45 PM.
As dusk deepened into a stormy black evening and Auntie Qin took Gu Nian and Su Nuannuan inside to wash up for dinner. Gu Changsheng finally wiped down the last cauldron, dried his hands on a clean linen towel, and stepped under the veranda lantern.
He reached into his robe and pulled out two items: the blood-stained Coffin Alley Surgical Order taken from Shadow-Captain Crow last night, and his leather-bound [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook].
“Let’s see,” Gu Changsheng murmured, flipping the Notebook open to Page 12—the entry for Child #3: Ye Xiao (The Destined Blood-Shadow Sword Fiend). “In the original timeline, the Royal Blood-Surgeon Guild in Coffin Alley isn’t supposed to strap ten-year-old Ye Xiao onto the ice-table until midnight tonight. That gives me four hours to stroll over after putting Nian’er and Nuannuan to bed—”
ZZZZZT—CRACKLE!!
Before Gu Changsheng could finish his sentence, the leather cover of [Dad’s Plot-Spoiler Notebook] turned scorching hot in his palm!
Blood-red sparks leaped off Page 12 as the black ink describing the midnight timeline twisted, smoked, and dissolved like burning paper, rapidly rewriting itself in jagged crimson letters right before his eyes!
[URGENT PLOT-BREAKER WARNING — FOREKNOWLEDGE DECAY: 22%!]
[Cause of Timeline Shift: At 6:30 PM, Second Prince Qian Ye learned that all twelve of his Night-Crow Assassins were hung in their underwear in the South Ward!]
[Regressor Panic Response: Realizing an unknown enemy in the South Ward is intercepting every single one of his past-life assets on schedule, Second Prince Qian Ye has grown fiercely paranoid!]
[SCRIPT REWRITTEN BY TARGET ‘QIAN YE’:]
[1. Instead of waiting until midnight, Qian Ye sent a secret courier to Coffin Alley an hour ago. Ordering Chief Surgeon Cruel-Scalpel Mo to perform the live extraction of 10-year-old Ye Xiao’s Innate Sword Eyes and Sword Heart FOUR HOURS EARLY — at 8:00 PM SHARP TONIGHT!]
[2. Worse: Expecting the South Ward thief to show up, Qian Ye pre-installed a Rank 3 Peak ‘Bone-Flaying Blade Array’ inside the Coffin Alley ice-cellar to shred any rescuer on sight!]
[3. Current Time: 7:48 PM! Time Remaining Before the Scalpel Cuts Ye Xiao’s Right Eye: 12 MINUTES!]
Twelve minutes.
The gentle, sleepy warmth vanished from Gu Changsheng’s face as if sliced away by winter steel.
Under the veranda lantern, the air around the tall father in the gray cotton apron dropped twenty degrees in a single heartbeat. The porcelain teacup on the bamboo table beside him cracked silently in two from the sheer, suffocating pressure of his Rank 3 Peak aura.
In the original novel, ten-year-old orphan Ye Xiao—a starving boy who had fought twenty guards with a piece of rusty scrap iron just to protect his dead beggar-grandfather’s ashes—had his eyes. Heart dug out alive on that freezing stone slab. Second Prince Qian Ye watched from the shadows.
Turning a loyal child into a blind, half-mad demon who bled to death in hatred.
And now, because Qian Ye was afraid of losing his “future weapon,” he had moved the butcher’s knife up four hours early to eight o’clock tonight.
“Master Gu?”
Standing by the courtyard gate with his rain-cloak over his broad shoulders and fifty burly dockworker sentries behind him, Big-Hammer Tie shivered as he felt the terrifying, silent storm radiating from the veranda. “What happened? Did the Second Prince’s dogs come back?”
Gu Changsheng didn’t waste a single breath explaining.
He reached behind the kitchen door, picked up a heavy black oiled-paper umbrella in his left hand, and gripped his seasoned [Iron Wok Spatula] in his right.
“Foreman Tie,” Gu Changsheng’s voice was calm, low, and cold enough to freeze the rain in midair. “Keep your men at the front gate and watch Nian’er and Nuannuan while Auntie Qin and Grandpa Fu lock the inner doors.”
Big-Hammer Tie straightened up instantly, slamming his iron hammer against the flagstones. “Rest easy, Physician Gu! My five thousand dock brothers are rotating shifts around this street all night—not even a fly will get past this gate!
Where are you going in this downpour?!”
Gu Changsheng stepped off the porch into the pouring rain, his gray robe snapping in the wind as he looked north toward the dark, labyrinthine slums of Coffin Alley three miles away.
[System Alert: Emergency Dad-Rescue Mission Activated!]
[Target: Future Child #3 — Ye Xiao (Age 10 | Current Darkening: 91% — Critical!)]
[Distance to Coffin Alley Underground Cellar: 3.2 Miles]
[Countdown to Eye-Extraction: 00:11:45]
“A ten-year-old boy in Coffin Alley is waiting for his dad to pick him up from a. Bad clinic,” Gu Changsheng said softly—and with a thunderous BOOM that cracked the wet cobblestones beneath his boots. He vanished into the curtain of black rain like a golden lightning bolt!