The lamp oil had run out. This small, unusual incident sparked plenty of speculation and debate among the servants.
"It must be that another courtyard needed a lamp, so someone poured the oil out of this one."
"Why pour the oil out? Wouldn't it have been easier to just take the lamp?"
"They're strange people. They think differently from everyone else..."
"Shh! Do you want to get yourself killed?"
"Look, there are soot marks on the wall. Someone must have lit a lamp in this room to study the diagrams."
"Impossible. Even I, though I know nothing about martial arts, can tell those diagrams are fake. If I were in charge, I'd have scraped them all clean long ago."
"Should we report it?"
"Probably."
"Dead men don't count as a problem, so what's the big deal about running out of lamp oil? If you want to earn merit, go ahead. Just see how you answer when the supervisor asks you questions."
After debating back and forth for a while, the servants reached a unanimous decision: refill the lamp, get back to work, and say nothing more about the incident. They certainly weren't to blabber about it in front of their superiors. No one expected them to report every little thing, after all.
Only after the servants had dispersed did Gu Shenwei realize how serious his mistake had been. He had left plenty of traces in several stone chambers, and any experienced Green Face could find clues in them.
He had to pull himself out of his obsession. He had gone too long without rest, and his stomach was empty. His strength was waning. Even if he learned every move right then, he still couldn't escape the Green Faces surrounding him.
Gu Shenwei moved to a stone chamber the servants had