Li Lan'er insisted, and Wen Qingkong did not refuse.
The fact that she had such thoughts proved that helping the mother and daughter had been worthwhile.
"Good. There's nothing else to do for now."
"It's still noon. I'll only wash the dirt off him for the moment. The stitching will have to wait until tonight."
Li Lan'er nodded lightly and hummed in acknowledgment before taking the initiative to prepare lunch.
Wen Qingkong gave Zhao Xuan a brief cleaning, washing away the dust he had picked up in prison. He then left the corpse on the cold couch, intending to begin stitching after nightfall.
"Caw! Caw! Caw!"
Suddenly, a familiar birdcall rang by his ear, harsh, hoarse, and mournful enough to irritate anyone who heard it.
Wen Qingkong pushed open the first-floor door and looked up. On the tree outside stood nine Harbinger Birds, their pitch-black eyes fixed on him.
Wen Qingkong could not help but laugh. "You lot got laid off too?"
With the Corpse Seamstress Workshop disbanded, the Harbinger Birds specially raised to determine whether Corpse Seamstresses had died naturally became useless as well.
"Caw! Caw!"
One of the Harbinger Birds kept calling at Wen Qingkong.
Wen Qingkong recognized it as the Harbinger Bird that had once been assigned to him.
He shook his head and beckoned for the bird to fly inside.
Unexpectedly, all nine Harbinger Birds seemed to understand him. They darted through the open door and into the first floor.
Wen Qingkong found this rather curious and shut the door.
He fetched some millet and scattered it across the floor.
The nine Harbinger Birds landed and began pecking at it.
"What adorable little birds."
"Uncle, where did you get them?"
Sun Shuang'er's sweet, childish voice rang out as she cautiously approached the Harbinger Birds.
This was the first time anyone had called Harbinger Birds adorable.
Wen Qingkong could not help shaking his head.
"These are Harbinger Birds. The Ministry of Justice used to raise them to assist Corpse Seamstresses in their work."
"Now that the Corpse Seamstress Workshop is gone, I suppose the Ministry of Justice no longer wants to keep them. They probably think the birds are unlucky."
"They know this place well, so they all flew back."
"This can count as a place for them to settle. During the day, we can leave the second-floor windows open and let them come and go as they please."
Li Lan'er was cooking. After hearing Wen Qingkong's words, she wiped her hands on her apron. "We'll do as you say, sir. Having all nine of them around would be nice too."
Before long, they finished the millet.
The nine Harbinger Birds did not fly away. They simply hopped about on the floor.
Sun Shuang'er tried to pet them, and they did not avoid her.
Even Wen Qingkong was astonished by their intelligence.
Wen Qingkong found a sturdy tree branch around thirty feet long and set it up in a corner of the first floor, making it the perfect perch for the nine Harbinger Birds.
As he looked at the nine Harbinger Birds, another idea faintly formed in Wen Qingkong's mind.
The nine Harbinger Birds had originally assisted Corpse Seamstresses. During the stitching process, they could watch the burning of the Three Incense Sticks. If anything went wrong, they could cry out to warn him.
Otherwise, while stitching alone, he would have to keep checking on the Three Incense Sticks from time to time. It was rather inefficient.
Soon, it was three quarters into the Hour of the Dog, and the sky had completely darkened.
After dinner, Li Lan'er took her daughter Sun Shuang'er upstairs to sleep.
Full from food and wine, Wen Qingkong began today's stitching.
He looked at the nine Harbinger Birds lined up along the branch.
"Watch the Three Incense Sticks closely, and keep an eye on whether the corpse changes in any way."
"Tell me immediately if anything happens."
"If you understand, call out once."
"Caw!"
The Harbinger Bird that had originally followed Wen Qingkong called once.
To distinguish the nine Harbinger Birds, Wen Qingkong named them Little One through Little Nine according to the room numbers they had been assigned in the Corpse Seamstress Workshop.
Seeing Little Nine call out, Wen Qingkong smiled. It truly was intelligent.
Wen Qingkong turned toward Zhao Xuan's corpse, his expression solemn. He cupped his hands and said, "Chief Zhao, I know you died unjustly. But every grievance has its cause and every debt has its debtor. I'll stitch you up and preserve your corpse intact. If you seek revenge, do not undergo a Corpse Transformation here."
After saying that, Wen Qingkong lit the Three Incense Sticks and placed them in the incense burner before the corpse's head.
As soon as the Three Incense Sticks began to burn, Wen Qingkong immediately got to work. He first carefully washed and groomed the corpse, then changed it into a new set of clothes. He also applied some makeup to the face to conceal the deathly pallor.
Only after finishing all that did Wen Qingkong begin stitching.
With the enhancement of his martial arts, his stitching was so skillful and swift that few could compare.
The wounds left by the executioner, in particular, were even more suited to his skills.
A little over ten breaths later, the stitching was complete.
His craftsmanship remained superb. There was not the slightest trace of stitching on the neck, as though Zhao Xuan had never been beheaded.
Corpse Seamstress, life's flashback, witness the mortal world, obtain supreme treasures The host has stitched one corpse. Life's flashback has appeared.
The system's mechanical voice rang out in Wen Qingkong's mind once more.
Chief Zhao's life gradually unfolded before Wen Qingkong like a long painting.
Zhao Xuan's father had also been an escort. His lifelong wish had been to own an escort agency of his own. Unfortunately, during one escort mission, Zhao Xuan's father had been killed while protecting a shipment from the Thirteen Bandits of White Wolf Mountain, Shaanxi.
That year, Zhao Xuan was only fifteen.
Then, to everyone's surprise, fifteen-year-old Zhao Xuan rode for three days and three nights alone, charged into White Wolf Mountain, and slaughtered all thirteen bandits by himself.
Zhao Xuan became famous in a single battle and joined his father's former escort agency—the Capital City Dongan Escort Agency.
An Tong, the chief escort of Dongan Escort Agency, greatly admired Zhao Xuan. When Zhao Xuan was nineteen, he married his only daughter, An Ya, to him—the elderly woman Wen Qingkong had seen that day.
The following life's flashback showed Zhao Xuan escorting shipments, training in martial arts, living lovingly with his wife, having a daughter named Zhao Anmin, and later seeing Zhao Anmin married, among many other events.
Zhao Xuan's reputation among the escort agencies of Yujing City grew greater and greater, as did the fame of Dongan Escort Agency.
This continued until this year.
This time, Zhao Xuan was to escort an exceptionally unusual shipment.
It was a palm-sized box made of golden-thread nanmu wood, carved with intricate patterns and fashioned with refined elegance. It was secured with a mechanism lock.
According to the person who had delivered the box, if anyone tried to force it open, the item inside would be destroyed.
Wen Qingkong noticed that the person who had hired Zhao Xuan was a handsome and refined scholar. He memorized the man's features, feeling that they might meet again someday.
The scholar had entrusted Zhao Xuan with delivering the wooden box to the Jiangnan Yan Family.
If the mechanism-locked wooden box had already made Zhao Xuan wary, then the scholar's offer of ten thousand taels of silver astonished him even more.
Just what was inside this wooden box?
Why was the price so high?
Zhao Xuan had not wanted to accept this escort job, but his daughter and son-in-law both urged him to take it.
Ten thousand taels of silver was worth three years of their hard work.
Zhao Xuan also knew that his family had many expenses. After his daughter and son-in-law repeatedly pleaded with him, he ultimately accepted the job. He personally led Dongan Escort Agency's most elite forces in escorting the shipment to the Jiangnan Yan Family.
Who could have expected that this very escort job would bring Zhao Xuan a catastrophe beyond measure?
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