Chapter 84: Han Jian’s Request

Han Jian settled He Yu into the inner room to rest, and the two of us sat in silence on the living room couch. He brewed a cup of tea using a few small tea leaves, handed it to me, and then we just stared at each other.

I really didn’t feel like talking, nor did I know what to say. The minor clash with Lu A’yao had already sunk my mood to rock bottom. I couldn’t understand how Han Jian and Lu A’yao had ended up teaming up, and from the looks of it, they clearly had some sort of “plan” in motion.

Tracing it back, the two of them first met at my Fourth Brother’s shop. At the time, Han Jian had been openly wary of Lu A’yao. I couldn’t figure out how they’d gone from that to suddenly deciding to work together.

And when it came to the Lu family, I had this vague but deep-seated sense of trust. Whether it was the friendship between my grandfather and Lu Xiaosu back in the day, or my own personal reasons, it was why I’d refused to hand over the jade to Qiao Sangui no matter what. But looking at it from another angle, it seemed like the Lus didn’t see me as a friend.

In this power struggle involving multiple factions, I could tell that Lu A’yao had always had a goal. He never stopped pursuing it, no matter what happened, and he never told anyone what that goal was, not even out of personal feelings.

Fourth Brother was searching for something, and so was Lu A’yao. But I had a vague feeling that what they were looking for wasn’t a physical object. The reason? Fourth Brother had been proactive throughout the whole ordeal, while Lu A’yao had been reactive.

We sat in silence until the sun was nearly setting. Finally, Han Jian let out a sigh, stood up, and pulled two maps from between the cushions of the couch. He swept everything off the table and spread the maps out for me to see.

I glanced at them. Han Jian had brought out two maps. The first was a standard color-annotated map of the Nu River tributary basin in Yunnan Province. The second was a bit different—slightly blurry, clearly a hand-drawn map that had been scanned and copied. It depicted a section of the Nu River’s tributaries.

“What’s this?” I crossed my arms and leaned back on the couch, taking the Luan Bi from around my neck and slapping it down on the maps. “Aren’t you guys all about secrecy? Don’t worry, you don’t have to say anything. I’m not interested. Once He Yu’s better, we’re out of here.”

“Hey, come on. He Yu’s injured right now. You can’t drag him around asking questions, can you? That’d be too much,” Han Jian said as he topped off my tea.

That gesture immediately set off alarm bells. The fact that he hadn’t called my mom to tattle on me was already suspicious. Now he was even showing me maps? It was clear he wanted me involved in whatever they were planning next.

So I probed a little. “Does your brother know you’re here? Wait, aren’t you supposed to be job-hunting in Henan right now? Don’t tell me he doesn’t know you came to Yunnan. Did you sneak out too?”

The moment I said that, Han Jian’s expression stiffened. Just for a second, but I caught it. This guy had definitely snuck out. If his brother, who ran an antique business, found out, he’d probably break his legs.

Han Jian coughed a couple of times and awkwardly changed the subject. “Well, I’ve been helping my brother manage one of his branch stores lately. I picked up a Rubbing Manuscript from the Republic era that traces a waterway’s branches. I noticed something odd about it and figured I’d come check it out in person.”

He swapped in the second map. The original Rubbing Manuscript must’ve been small—very small, actually. Han Jian had probably gotten a copy made and then enlarged it to this size, but some of the details were still pretty blurry.

Rubbing Manuscripts weren’t my area of expertise. This was something he should’ve asked He Yu about. The copy was covered in dense, branching waterways, and just looking at it made my scalp tingle.

So I said, “I can’t help you with this. Wait until He Yu wakes up and have him take a look.”

But as soon as I said that, something felt off. Han Jian had clearly been camped out here for a while. Judging by Lu A’yao’s state, he’d been here a long time too. If it was just about a Rubbing Manuscript, Han Jian could’ve just asked Lu A’yao.

Sure enough, Han Jian shook his head. “It’s not about the Rubbing Manuscript. I found something else. When I first got it, the manuscript had all these splatter-like marks. At first, I thought I’d been duped and bought a damaged piece.”

He pointed to the black dots scattered across the enlarged copy and continued, “But later, I happened to befriend someone from a family that does fortune-telling. He told me the pattern of these black dots was interesting. If you connect them, they form a picture.”

As he spoke, Han Jian pulled out a blank A4 sheet from his backpack on the table. He leaned over the coffee table and started sketching based on the arrangement of the black dots. He clearly had no background in drawing—the lines were all crooked and uneven. When he finished, he slid the paper over to me.

“Doesn’t it look like a tower?” Han Jian asked.

I picked up the paper and straightened the copy on the table, comparing the two. I studied fine arts in high school, so I’m pretty sensitive to visual patterns and colors. I didn’t even need Han Jian’s shaky sketch to see it. The black dots on the copy really did form the outline of a collapsed tower.

The whole tower lay sideways along the river, and many of the black dots were scattered in the water. After a moment of studying it, I said, “Could just be a coincidence. If you connect the dots differently, it wouldn’t look like a tower at all.”

“I thought the same as you at first,” Han Jian said. “So I decided to trace it back to its previous owner and ask if he knew anything about this Rubbing Manuscript. But when I got to his house, it was completely empty. Not only that, his family told me he’s been missing for a long time.”

By now, developments like this no longer surprised me. I unfolded the map and said, “So you think his disappearance is connected to this thing, which is why you came to Yunnan behind your brother’s back?”

“There’s probably some connection,” Han Jian replied. “I can’t say for sure, but I have a hunch there’s something fishy going on near the Nu River.”

“This is an old house that belongs to a friend of mine. No one lives here, so they let me use it. I’d only been here for a day when I ran into that guy at the antique market. He was injured, had lost his ID, and didn’t seem to know what he was doing here. He paid me for the room and said he needed to stay for a week.”

Han Jian pointed to the bedroom across from us, its door tightly shut, then spread his hands.

“So don’t get the wrong idea. We’re not working together. As for the rumors that suddenly started spreading, I don’t know much about them either. But it seems like the whole industry has already assumed he’s dead. The Lu family has always had bad luck, and I don’t really want to talk to him. I only spoke to him today because I was trying to help you guys.”

I was still fuming. I looked at him, my eyes full of distrust, and waved him off. “You don’t need to explain. I barely know him. Give that jade back to him later. I’m not interested in your so-called tower. Once He Yu wakes up, we’re leaving. Don’t worry, we won’t stick around a minute longer than necessary.”

Han Jian quickly stepped in to block me. “Wait, you can’t leave!”

My mind had already started working again. Truthfully, from the moment Han Jian willingly showed me the map, I’d suspected he had an ulterior motive. He must’ve already discovered something through the Rubbing Manuscript. The fact that Lu A’yao arrived here at the same time as him suggested they might be headed to the same destination.

That would explain why they teamed up temporarily. Han Jian mentioned Lu A’yao was injured, which only reinforced the idea. If his condition had worsened, he’d need a partner to avoid dying alone down there without anyone knowing.

But they’d been stuck here for quite a while now, which likely meant they’d run into some serious trouble along the way—something that had stopped them from reaching their goal.

Han Jian’s intentions were clear. Showing me the copy of the Rubbing Manuscript was his way of trying to rope me in. But Lu A’yao’s attitude earlier was just as telling. Either the two of them had never agreed on a plan from the start, or they were playing good cop and bad cop, trying to con me together.

“Gan Ji, I need your help,” Han Jian finally said, dropping all pretense.

Looks like he was even more desperate than I thought. He couldn’t even wait for me to probe him—he just blurted it out.