Back in Place
As the door to the stone house was pushed open, the afternoon sun streamed in, casting a bright, rectangular patch of light on the ground. Long Tieshan paused for a moment outside the threshold, his gaze sweeping over the layout of the house—two rooms, one inside the other, with thick stone walls, a newly repaired roof, and Yu Jin still burning from the previous night in the hearth. Two old quilts were folded in the corner, and several earthenware jars and bags of dry food sat on a shelf against the wall. It was as simple as it could be, yet it possessed a warmth honed by the everyday warmth of life.
He stepped over the threshold and went inside, sitting down on the low stool by the hearth. The stool's surface had been worn smooth by long hours of sitting. Long Tieshan's hands rested on his knees, palms facing upwards, the lines of his palms inlaid with years of rust and ash, marks of years of labor, just like the patches on his old cloth shirt. Long Tian squatted by the hearth and added some firewood, the flames leaping up again and illuminating half the room. Mu Shuang closed the door, leaned against the shadows in the corner, took off her cloak, folded it, and placed it aside. Yu Jin took a clay pot from the shelf and began boiling water, his movements practiced, as if he had done it many times before.
Long Tieshan watched Yu Jin boil water, his gaze lingering for a moment on the boy's thin shoulders before turning to his son. Long Tian squatted by the stove, stirring the charcoal. The aura of his five Soul Ring receded into his dantian, with only the grayish-white of the Origin Return Pearl showing through as a faint bright spot on his chest. Long Tieshan quietly watched that bright spot, saying nothing, but the wrinkles between his brows slowly relaxed a little.
The water was ready. Yu Jin poured four bowls of mountain tea and brought one bowl to each person. When Long Tieshan took the bowl, he cupped the sides of the bowl with both hands, the warmth of the tea seeping into the lines of his palms through the earthenware bowl. He lowered his head and smelled the aroma of the tea. It was a common coarse-leaf tea from the mountains, with a hint of firewood, just like the tea he used to drink at the blacksmith's shop in Starfall Town.
"Tell me your next plan," Long Tieshan looked up at Long Tian.
Long Tian sat down opposite him, holding his bowl, and took out the roll of silk, spreading it on the ground between them. The ink lines on the silk were fine and precise, clearly marking the meridian pathways and the path to the Return to Origin. Around the dantian's confluence point, there were a dozen or so annotations using shorthand symbols Long Tian had never seen before. He frowned slightly as he looked at the symbols. Long Tieshan leaned down and pointed to a few. "That's the shorthand used internally by the Iron Guard, the style Meng Changyuan used back then. These annotations mean changing the confluence order of the path to the Return to Origin from top to bottom to top. After the order is reversed, the stability of the fusion will increase by two levels."
Long Tian carefully memorized the meanings of the symbols, then rolled up the silk again and put it away. He looked up at his father. "The equipment on the Meng Changyuan basement level will be operational by the end of the month. Mu Shuang knows the route of the ventilation ducts; if we can cut off the main power switch, we can bring the experimental subjects out from the backup area at the back of the equipment room. But I can't open the level six door in the core area."
"There are two ways to open a Level 6 restriction." Long Tieshan took a sip of tea. "First, use Soul Power of Level 6 or higher to force it open. Second, use a special key card from the Iron Guard, which is given to every captain and above. Meng Changyuan has one, and his deputy has one too. If you can get your deputy's card, opening a Level 6 restriction won't be a problem."
Mu Shuang spoke from the corner, "The deputy's surname is Wei. He leaves the main building every night at 3:45 PM to eat at the camp canteen. His office is the third room on the east side of the second floor. The key is in the second drawer on the left on the desk; he never locks it."
Long Tian mentally reviewed all this information. His deputy, Wei, left his post at 3:45 PM; his office key and drawer were unlocked; he had his key card. The timeframe was roughly within the time it takes to eat a meal.
Long Tieshan put down his teacup, glanced at Long Tian, then at Yu Jin, and finally his gaze settled on his hands resting on his knees. "You'll need to enter the Iron Guard camp twice—once to retrieve a card, and once to rescue someone. I'll go with you the time you retrieve the card; I know the camp's layout better than you do. For the rescue, have Mu Shuang guide you and Yu Jin through the ventilation ducts; I'll provide backup from the outside."
"Father," Long Tian asked, "How long can your Soul Power last?"
Long Tieshan paused for a moment. "If I use all my strength, I can last about fifteen minutes. After that, I'll need to rest for most of the day to recover. Don't let your father do it unless absolutely necessary."
Yu Jin squatted by the door, holding a teacup, and finished half a bowl. He then poured the remaining tea leaves onto the ground outside. As he stood up, his robes billowed in the breeze. He glanced back at Long Tieshan, his eyes flashing for a moment in the golden-black Yu Jin of Yu Jin's eyes, before turning back to look at the slanting sunlight filtering through the mountain wall outside the door. Long Tian knew he was listening, thinking, and meticulously placing their words into the corresponding positions on the map in his mind.
After nightfall, Yu Jin Mu Shuang rested in the inner room. Long Tian sat on the outside of the threshold, gazing at the Star Dou. Long Tieshan came out of the house and sat down next to him. The father and son sat side by side on the threshold of the stone house, just like many years ago when they sat in front of the blacksmith's shop in Starfall Town, watching the street. The night wind blew in from the gap in the mountain wall, carrying the scent of pine and damp earth. The stars overhead were cold and bright in the cloudless night sky.
Long Tieshan didn't look at Long Tian, but gazed at the blurry outline of the mountain ridge in the night ahead, and asked, "How is your mother?"
"Lin Mo sent a message when he left Starfall Town last time, saying that Mother is in good health, but she misses you." Long Tian glanced at his father, "You miss her?"
Long Tieshan didn't answer, but his fingers, resting on his knees, clenched and then slowly relaxed. He looked down at the calluses and charcoal stains on his palms, and after a long while, he said very softly, "Once this matter is settled, Dad will go back and make her a new iron pot."
Long Tian gazed at his father's profile. The firelight from the furnace shone through the crack in the door, casting a warm glow on the edges of his face and making the white hair at his temples shine. He remembered that night in the small hut in the backyard of the blacksmith's shop, when his father laid out that tattered blueprint before him—now that blueprint had been replaced by a complete path to the Return to Origin on silk, the fire in the furnace was still burning, and the line between the two generations was still stretching forward.
"Father," Long Tian's voice was soft in the night breeze, "Once this matter is settled, you can teach me blacksmithing."
Long Tieshan glanced at him sideways, his eyes filled with a complex emotion, as if something soft had bumped into his chest. He didn't say whether it was good or bad, but simply raised his hand from his knee, touched Long Tian's arm with the rough back of his fingers, and then withdrew his hand.
The two sat on the threshold for a while longer. The night wind gradually pushed the clouds from the horizon, obscuring most of the stars. Long Tian stood up, dusted off his clothes, and reached out to pull his father up from the threshold. Long Tieshan straightened up with his father's help and walked into the house. As he crossed the threshold, he paused, glancing sideways at his son's left hand hanging by his side—the gray ring rune on his ring finger glowed faintly in the darkness, like an open eye.
Long Tieshan withdrew his gaze and stepped into the house. The stone door closed behind him, shutting out the night wind and starlight. The Yu Jin in the furnace maintained a small, dark red glow in the darkness, like a charcoal nucleus that had not yet been extinguished, burning continuously and silently.