Chapter 44: Hiding Thunder in the Eye of a Needle: She Embroidered the Ledger into a Blade

The wind blew fiercely, howling across the courtyard and scattering debris as if it meant to overturn the very earth and sky.

Amidst this chaotic gale, a figure violently shoved open the courtyard gate and stumbled blindly inside.

"Sister Shen! Sister Shen!" It was Blacksmith Liu, his face as dark as the bottom of a cooking pot, his forehead dripping with sweat. Clutched tightly in his hand was half a crumpled sheet of paper.

Shen Guilan had just managed to steady an embroidery frame knocked over by the wind. Hearing the shouts, she turned her head, her gaze as sharp as the tip of a needle.

"Brother Liu, what has happened?"

Blacksmith Liu strode over to her in a few hurried steps, shoved the half-sheet of paper toward her, and gasped heavily, "This morning, when I was delivering goods to the town, I passed by the Merry Gambling House and picked this up from the ditch by the entrance! There are oil stains on it, and cigarette ash, and I reckoned... it looks like something from your embroidery workshop!"

Shen Guilan looked down, her eyes suddenly contracting.

This handwriting, this paper—it was precisely the private ledger of her workshop that recorded the sources of wild silkworm silk and labor tallies!

This ledger was her lifeline, concealing every single detail she could not afford to bring to light!

She took the paper, her fingers brushing against the sticky, greasy grime along the edge, and her heart leaped straight to her throat.

Without panicking, she simply said to Xiuyi, who was standing nearby, paralyzed with fright, "Go, check the hidden compartment beneath my embroidery frame."

Xiuyi ran over to look, then turned back with a shriek, "Sister, the lock... the lock has been pried open!"

Shen Guilan's heart went completely cold.

She strode quickly into the room. Upon the clasp of the hidden compartment, several distinct pry marks were clearly imprinted.

The words Xiuyi had spoken last night suddenly exploded in her mind—Madam Zhang, her mother-in-law, had been lurking stealthily outside the courtyard wall!

So it hadn't been idle trouble; she was trying to cut off her means of survival!

"Good, very good." Shen Guilan did not fly into a rage; instead, she laughed, though her eyes were as cold as ice.

She spread the half-torn page out on the table and said to Xiuyi, "Go, bring me that bolt of plain silk from the bottom of the chest, and the medicinal water from the needlework box."

Xiuyi did not dare to ask questions and hurried to obey.

Shen Guilan picked up the finest embroidery needle, dipped it into the colorless and odorless medicinal water, and gently wiped it across the handwriting on the paper.

A strange thing happened!

Bordering the original black ink characters, a faint circle of green light unexpectedly emerged.

This was the "Mountain Poison Detection Method" Guancheng had taught her—originally a crude folk remedy used to test whether wild herbs were poisonous, which she now applied to paper.

This green light proved that this piece of paper had been soaked in another kind of chemical solution specifically to secretly trace and copy the handwriting!

"They wanted to take my ledger to town and accuse me of stealing or robbing wild silkworm silk!" Shen Guilan sneered, a fierce light flashing in her eyes. "You want to use my own things to destroy me? In your dreams!"

She immediately set to work, spread out a fresh sheet of paper, took up her brush and wrote, rapidly copying out a "fake ledger."

In this ledger, she altered all the sources of the wild silkworm silk to read "Back Mountain of Li Family Village, gathered by villagers themselves," and even forged several names and fingerprint signatures.

Most crucially, on the page detailing the largest transaction, she threaded a silver needle with silver thread and quietly stitched in a silver wire button embroidered with the character "Mountain."

This button was recognized by no one except herself and Guancheng.

When she finished, she shoved the fake ledger back into the pried-open hidden compartment, acting as if nothing at all had happened.

Just past noon, the door of the embroidery workshop was kicked open with a loud bang.

Big-Tooth Zhao, the village ruffian, swaggered in flanked by two thugs.

Waving a crooked "debt contract" and spraying spittle everywhere, he roared, "Shen Guilan! When your husband was alive, he owed me ten silver pieces, in black and white! If you can't pay up today, this embroidery workshop belongs to me!"

The onlookers among the villagers broke into an uproar.

Shen Guilan didn't even twitch an eyelid; she merely cast a cold glance at the "debt contract."

At a single glance, she recognized the handwriting—it was a forgery written by her mother-in-law, Madam Zhang, mimicking her late husband's penmanship!

She made no fuss, created no scene, but calmly stood up, retrieved the fake ledger from the hidden compartment, and gently pushed it across the table.

"You want to settle a debt with this? Fine." Her voice was as cold as ice. "This is the master ledger of the embroidery workshop. Take it and show it to Manager Qian in town. If he acknowledges that this ledger is worth anything, I'll shut my doors and walk away right now."

Big-Tooth Zhao was stunned.

He had expected Shen Guilan to cry and make a scene, never imagining she would be so straightforward and even proactively hand over the ledger.

Suspiciously, he leafed through it and could find no flaw, but Shen Guilan's unshakeable, poised demeanor made him feel inwardly insecure.

He had been hired and paid by Madam Zhang specifically to cause trouble, with the sole aim of forcing Shen Guilan to hand over the embroidery workshop or ruining her reputation.

Now that he had the ledger in hand, he dared not linger. He snatched it up and left, casting one vicious glare at Shen Guilan before departing.

That night, in the chaotic woods outside the town, Big-Tooth Zhao stealthily handed the ledger over to a well-dressed household servant.

Up in the treetops, Guancheng crouched like a night cat, watching everything unfold.

Silently, he trailed behind the servant all the way to the back wall of the Qian family courtyard.

The servant tapped out a signal of three long and two short knocks. The side gate cracked open, and he slipped inside, heading straight for a brightly lit secret chamber.

With a light flick of his toes, Guancheng dropped softly onto the roof and lifted a roof tile.

Inside the secret chamber, the fat, greasy Manager Qian took the ledger, his face plastered with greedy smiles.

Without rushing to read the contents, he picked up a damp cloth and meticulously wiped both the cover and the inner pages of the ledger.

The next second, a pale green fluorescence emerged under the candlelight!

"Damn it!" Manager Qian's face turned ashen. He slammed the ledger down onto the floor and trembled with rage. "It's a trap! That woman knew all along!"

He had intended to use this ledger to force Shen Guilan into surrendering the secret of the wild silkworm silk.

He never expected to be played by her instead!

Just as he was flying into a rage, sudden horse neighing and shouting erupted in the courtyard, plunging everything into chaos.

Taking advantage of his distraction, Guancheng had already severed the carriage reins, stirring up enough disorder.

With a flash of his body, he entered the secret chamber and, before Manager Qian could react, shoved the ledger into his own bosom.

Before leaving, he drew his short blade and rapidly carved a deep slash across the inner lining of the ledger's cover.

Early the next morning, the Shen family courtyard was packed with people.

Madam Zhang sat on the ground wailing, cursing Shen Guilan for being unfilial and driving her to her grave.

Shen Guilan said nothing. She waited until everyone had gathered before walking out slowly.

First, she held up the real ledger with its smashed lock, allowing everyone to clearly see the pry marks and the residual medicinal watermark.

"Someone tried to steal my ledger and ruin my reputation."

Following that, she produced the fake ledger returned by Guancheng, opening the cover to reveal the deep slash carved into the inside.

"This is a secret signal passed among hunters in our mountains, which means—'Someone attempted to steal secrets, but they have been intercepted.'" Her gaze was like a knife, piercing straight at Madam Zhang, who sat paralyzed on the ground. "Mother, I always thought you were merely distressed for your grandson and wanted a bit more money. But I never imagined that for such selfish gains, you would collude with outsiders and try to drive me to my death!"

"I... I didn't!" Madam Zhang's face was as white as paper, her lips trembling wildly. Her eyes darted about frantically as she shrank back, crawling away.

Blacksmith Liu was the first to react. Remembering the torn page he had picked up outside the gambling house, he roared, "Search her room! See if there are any receipts or silver given by Manager Qian!"

The villagers surged with righteous indignation, and several women who usually helped Shen Guilan rushed into Madam Zhang's bedchamber.

Seeing this, Madam Zhang knew her reputation was utterly ruined.

Yet Shen Guilan, standing in the center of the crowd, wore not the slightest trace of triumph on her face.

She quietly watched the farce play out. In her eyes, there was no victory—only a profound and heavy chill.