Empreinte de main en sang

Chapitre 42

They all walked down the circular corridor together, passing through two more open doors. In the third door, they saw an old man sitting on the bed, reading a newspaper. Hearing the noise, he looked up and was clearly startled to see so many people suddenly enter. The newspaper slipped from his hand and fell to the ground.

Chapter 26

In the hospital, in a private room, Qin Ge and He Lan pushed open the door and entered. The woman sitting against the headboard stared blankly at them.

"You're Chu Yan?" Qin Ge said casually. "Your brother and I are friends, good friends."

"Then you must be Qin Ge," the woman on the bed said. "Big Brother doesn't have many friends here."

Qin Ge wanted to laugh, but he was extremely dizzy. He must have caught a chill from jumping into the sea in the middle of the night, and the stress of running around to several places that night had exhausted him. Back at the criminal investigation team, although he changed out of his wet clothes, his body hadn't warmed up yet, which was why he developed a fever. At the hospital, He Lan wanted him to see a doctor first, but he insisted on seeing the woman he had rescued first.

“I’ve heard your brother mention you quite a bit these past six months.” Qin Ge sat down on the stool by the bed. “How are you? If you’re still feeling unwell, just tell the doctor. Once you’ve recovered, I can give your brother a proper explanation when he comes back.”

"I'm fine, I just fell asleep and woke up here."

"Asleep?" Qin Ge asked skeptically. "You sleep so soundly, how could you not hear a sound after everything happened?"

Chu Yan paused for a moment, as if considering how to say it.

"Tell me what's going on. I know everything about you." Qin Ge said casually. "Six months ago, your brother and I went to Shanghai and were pushed off a building by that Ba ethnic assassin. I was in the hospital for two months. During that time, your brother would come to visit me whenever he had free time and told me everything."

Chu Yan nodded: "Big brother definitely didn't tell you about Xuncao."

Qin Ge paused for a moment, then shook his head.

Chu Yan explained, “My father once told me that a kind of grass called Xun grass grows in the Ba tribe’s territory. The Classic of Mountains and Seas says that this grass has yellow flowers and red fruits. Eating the fruits can make women beautiful. But in fact, Xun grass also has another effect. When burned, it has a fragrance that has a strong hypnotic effect. People can fall asleep quickly after smelling it.”

"You just smelled the grass?" Qin Ge said.

"I don't know if it's Xuncao (a type of herb), but I seem to smell a faint fragrance every time I fall asleep." Chu Yan paused for a moment. "Something must have happened last night. Tell me, why am I in the hospital?"

Qin Ge thought for a moment and then recounted what had happened the previous night after he and Ma Nan went to Xingxiutai. As for why they went to Xingxiutai, he only said that he and Ma Nan had discovered the flame chrysanthemum pattern left by the Ba people.

Chu Yan's expression darkened, and she said, "That pattern was actually left to me by my father."

Six months ago, on Peach Blossom Mountain, Batu and many of his clansmen perished in the maze. At the last moment, Chu Yan took Ma Nan away. Just as Ma Nan asked Chu Yan why she saved him, his father, Ba Rong, finally appeared. Ba Rong was cautious throughout his life, but his plan, meticulously crafted for over a decade, had finally succeeded, killing Batu and his clansmen in one fell swoop. He was understandably smug and thus completely unprepared for the subsequent fatal blow from the Ba tribe assassin, Yu Lei.

As Ba Rong collapsed, in his final moments, he extended his hands to Ma Nan and Chu Yan respectively. Ma Nan, knowing the old man's intentions, finally stepped forward, grasped his hands, and called out in a trembling voice, "Father."

Barong finally closed his eyes, seemingly hearing Ma Nan call him "Father," and he died without regret.

At that moment, Chu Yan had already grasped Ba Rong's other hand. She noticed something in her father's palm and was about to look down when her father suddenly squeezed her hand hard, as if to stop her.

Before his death, Chu Yan left a small piece of paper with a picture of flames and chrysanthemums drawn on it.

“After my father died, I didn’t want to stay by my older brother’s side anymore. After telling him about Sister Hongmian’s whereabouts, I quietly left.” Chu Yan said in a low voice, “I knew my older brother would definitely look for me, so I wandered around for a long time. In the end, I had nowhere to go, so I went back to Shanghai. I’ve lived in Shanghai for so many years, so at least I still have some friends there.”

Qin Ge remained silent, listening quietly to her speak.

“I thought everything was over and I could go back to my old life, but unexpectedly, two months ago, the Ba people suddenly found me again.”

Qin Ge sighed. Although all of this was within his and Ma Nan's expectations, hearing Chu Yan say it herself still made him sigh for her. She was Ba Rong's daughter, so her life was destined to be much more turbulent than others.

“I know the Ba people want revenge for Batu and their people, and they definitely won’t let me go. You know, without me, my father’s plan wouldn’t have succeeded, so I’m also the murderer of Batu.” Chu Yan paused for a moment, as if recalling something very painful for her. “To help my father carry out his plan, I betrayed my four older brothers who grew up with me, causing them all to die at Yu Lei’s hands. That’s why I didn’t want to stay by my eldest brother’s side. In this world, I have no more relatives. Dying at the hands of the Ba people will allow me to see my father and brothers again, and for me, that might be a kind of relief.”

"But the Ba people didn't kill you; in the end, they even let you go," Qin Ge said, puzzled.

“I thought I was definitely going to die this time, but in the end, the Ba people told me that if I helped them find the sacred object that my father had stolen, they would let me go.”

"So, you gave them that picture of the chrysanthemum with flames."

“I have no idea where the sacred objects are, and even if I did, I wouldn’t be interested in them. In fact, I even hate them a little. If it weren’t for them, my father might have lived a peaceful life, and we children might still be living happily together right now. So, I think if the note my father gave me before he died really has something to do with the sacred objects of the Ba people, then I’ll give it to them,” Chu Yan said.

“You said the Ba people found you two months ago. Now that so much time has passed, something else must have happened.”

Chu Yan thought for a moment, then shook her head: "I didn't know so much time had passed. All I know is that after I handed them the note my father left, I went into a daze and lost consciousness. I don't know how much time passed, but when I woke up, I found myself in a very simple house. The house had no windows, only one door leading to a circular corridor. There were several other doors in the corridor, but they were all closed. I spent so much time there until today, when I woke up to find myself in the hospital."

"Has the Ba people not contacted you again for so long?" Qin Ge asked, frowning.

Chu Yan shook her head, her face showing extreme fear. For two months of imprisonment, no one spoke to her, and aside from eating and sleeping, there was nothing to pass the time. Moreover, she didn't know how the Ba people would ultimately deal with her, so emptiness and fear made her live in a nightmare every day.

Fortunately, all of that is in the past, and now she is back by her older brother's side.

"Big brother." Chu Yan suddenly thought of Ma Nan and asked anxiously, "You said you found me at Xingxiu Terrace with Big Brother last night. Why didn't Big Brother come? Is he still resentful that I betrayed the brothers?"

Qin Ge frowned even more, staring blankly at Chu Yan, before finally saying, "Ma Nan has disappeared. We believe the Ba people took him away."

"Ah!" Chu Yan was stunned, her gaze even becoming somewhat blank.

“Now that we’re certain the Ba people are in this city, we want you to think it over carefully and see if you can provide us with any valuable clues. A lot has happened recently. Besides trying to retrieve their sacred object, it seems the Ba people are planning to do something else.” Qin Ge looked worried as he thought about the Ba people’s methods of killing.

"Will the Ba people hurt my brother?" Chu Yan asked in alarm, seemingly not understanding Qin Ge's words at all.

“I don’t think Manan is in any immediate danger,” Qin Ge said. “Since the Ba people let you go, they certainly won’t harm Manan either. I suspect they might need Manan to do something for them.”

"You just said that your trip to Xingxiutai was a clue that your elder brother got from that painting of flame chrysanthemums?"

“That’s right, Ma Nan seems to have discovered something on the Star Platform.” Qin Ge hesitated for a moment, then continued, “I’ve already called a friend of mine to go to the Star Platform. He’s an expert in archaeology and folklore, and he’ll definitely be able to find any clues on the Star Platform.”

Chu Yan sighed to herself, "Could it be that the picture my father left me really holds the whereabouts of the sacred artifact of the Ba people?"

"Forget about the sacred objects of the Ba people for now. Think carefully and see if there's any way we can find the place where the Ba people imprisoned you," Qin Ge said.

Chu Yan remained silent, deep in thought, but finally shook her head. Her face was pale and she looked unusually haggard from prolonged lack of sunlight. Now, knowing that Ma Nan had been taken away by the Ba people, she was filled with even more panic. The Ba people must have released her because she posed no threat to them; how could she possibly reveal where she was being held?

“I want to see someone,” she suddenly said.

"Who?" Qin Ge asked.