Bring the Living Back First

When Yuan Yu got up the next morning, Qian Renxue had already gone to the Archive Room.

He opened the door and caught the scent of freshly steamed pastries in the courtyard. Ling Yuan was coming out of the kitchen with a plate. Seeing that he had not even tied up his hair, she put the pastries straight into his hands.

"You only got back yesterday, and you're leaving again today?"

"I'm going to check a seal first. I'll take one for the road."

"Just one?" Ling Yuan pushed the whole plate into his arms. "You weren't this polite when you secretly drank all my wine as a child."

Yuan Yu laughed, took a pastry, and ate as he walked toward the Archive Room. Beneath the corridor, two guards were carrying a heavy wooden cabinet. Qian Renxue stood at the doorway, directing them to set it down flat. Dust already stained her cuffs.

"You could've said something last night." Yuan Yu offered her a pastry.

"Would you have gotten up early if I had?" She took it. "Come help me lift the left side."

The cabinet held impressions of Elder's Private Seals retired four years ago. The nick she had spotted on the Order Paper yesterday appeared on the old seal in the archive too, in precisely the same place. But the faint vertical scratch near the paper's right edge was missing, though it showed clearly on the archived impression.

"Someone used an Old Rubbing to carve a new seal." Qian Renxue held a fine needle against the paper. "The rubbing was made before this scratch appeared."

"Who could get their hands on the rubbing?"

"The Papal Hall, the Elder Hall, and the verification officers posted elsewhere each kept a copy. Don't rush to arrest anyone. I'll pull the access