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墨書 Inktalez
As the blood flooded over the stage box, I grasped the iron bars of the air window, the putrid scent of Eastern Incense mingling with the Jasmine Hair Oil left by Sister Mei. Behind me, shards of shattered pottery from the earthen jar whizzed past my earlobe, while the hem of thirteen White Shadows' kimonos glimmered with phosphorescence, their Ballymen, Gold Thread, and Kiku Pattern twisting into the shape of a venomous snake's tongue in the firelight.
When I stumbled into the West Ear Room, the script of Dingjun Mountain in my arms scattered open, revealing yellowed pages stamped with Troupe Leader Zhang's private seal. Moonlight sliced through the air window, illuminating the indigo powder at the edge of a torn ticket stub—this was the stone blue used by Sister Mei when she sang Youyuan Jingmeng.
"This color suits you," I recalled Sister Mei holding a gilded brush, her rouge mixing with mascara as it dripped onto her plain white garment. That night she taught me how to paint Guan Gong's face, and suddenly in the copper mirror, I saw mud on Troupe Leader Zhang's riding boots. "Yun Sheng, go count the pearls on the phoenix crown three times."
As the sound of wooden clogs chased up from the basement, I felt for a leather bag at the bottom of an iron box. In seven photographs, Troupe Leader Zhang wore a Japanese military cap while inspecting boxes of sulfanilamide at Hongkou Dojo. The last document bore the Mei Mechanism seal, dated three days before Sister Mei took her last breath.
The copper ring on my finger suddenly burned like fire. Boss Lu's voice mixed with jasmine fragrance drifted down from above: "Do you believe it now?" He hung upside down from a beam, his long robe soaked in blood, and his bronze ring missing a notch. "The water sleeves around your sister's neck are bound with specially made piano wire number seventy-six."
The stage curtain suddenly turned to ash and white smoke as thirteen White Shadows emerged from the remnants. A woman in a kimono licked blood from her shuriken and gold tassels dangled from Sister Mei's Jade Earrings: "Little Junior Brother, Troupe Leader Zhang has reserved a box for you."
Three poisoned barbs flew from her sleeve and pierced through the document in my hand. As Boss Lu landed, he flung out seven copper coins that trapped the approaching shikigami in a Big Dipper formation. He tore open his blood-stained robe to reveal a tattoo of Sister Mei’s proud red plum blossom on his chest: "Your sister tattooed the theater deed on my flesh before she died, just to wait for today."
The mechanism wall suddenly flipped over as Troupe Leader Zhang's aide emerged holding a Nambu Pistol. When Boss Lu shoved me into a secret passageway, a bullet pierced through his left shoulder blade. The smell of blood mixed with lingering incense from the basement flooded my nostrils as I clutched that blood-stained document tightly, hearing the crisp sound of the aide pulling back his gun's bolt.
At the end of the passage lay twenty-three wooden crates plastered with Jintan Pills advertisements; pried open seams revealed German rifles' firing pins inside. A half-sleeve of Sister Mei’s water sleeves was caught at the corner of one crate, and blood-written characters were mottled by mold: "Concession Police Station July Ammunition Details."
Boss Lu coughed up blood as he flicked on a lighter; in its glow appeared an entire wall covered in clippings. Next to Sister Mei’s stage photo was a yellowing Shen Bao newspaper; beneath its headline circled in eyebrow pencil was Troupe Leader Zhang’s name: "French Concession Garrison Commander Zhang Xiaolian Awarded Order of the Rising Sun."
"She could have gone to Hong Kong with the merchant ship." Boss Lu tore open his shirt to bandage his wound, revealing a gun scar over his heart. "Last Mid-Autumn Festival, Mei Lan changed seventy-six certificates for good citizens at Xujiahui Church."
He kicked aside the mouse corpse at his feet, revealing a hidden Telegraph beneath the tiles. "Those girls are now battlefield nurses."
Suddenly, the underground passage shook, and the laughter of Troupe Leader Zhang mixed with the sound of military boots drew closer.
Boss Lu pressed a bronze ring into a crack in the wall, and a document bearing the Azure Sky White Sun Seal slid out from a hidden compartment. "Deliver it to No. 19 Xia Fei Road before dawn. Your Sister's revenge..."
As the steel blade sliced through the secret door, I rolled into the sewer clutching the document.
In the murky water floated Sister Mei's favorite Jasmine Powder, and a rat darted past me, clutching a piece of red silk—the very sash she wore during her last performance.
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