The Old North Gate Post Road: The First Team-Building Activity of the Business Trip
Before the words spelled out by the black mist had even dissipated, Zhou Yu had already placed the fish belly meat into Dania's bowl.
Dania lowered her head and blew on her face twice, the warm breath making her cheeks flush. Before she could react, those four words had already caused all the weapons in the side hall to change positions.
Qiu Yuan's bamboo-scabbard sword was half an inch off the ground. Chisa's hand rested on the hilt, and a bell rang. Sigelica lifted her riot shield from her feet, the shield hitting the chair leg. Linnai choked on a pastry in her mouth. Aimis reached for her teacup, and the lid spun halfway around from her touch.
Changli stared at the black mist in mid-air, his finger pressing on the location of the old post road at the north gate of the topographic map. The paper was wet with rainwater, and a small patch of it had smudged.
"The Fractsidus know we're going through the north gate."
Qiu Yuan put the cracked jade talisman into his palm, and the black mist dissipated through his fingers. He listened for a moment, and the sound of rain outside the screen continued, while the sound of the Patrol Department changing shifts came from afar.
"I'll go scout ahead first. If the three pavilions are sealed off, it'll take an incense stick's worth of time to break through."
"One stick of incense is enough to make Dania go hungry twice." Zhou Yu put down her chopsticks, took the voucher stamped with the red seal of the Magistrate's Mansion, folded it, and put it in her notebook. "Depart at dawn, breakfast packed, eat on the way. Anyone who delays keeping the soy milk warm because of their heroic speech will have their day's fieldwork meal allowance deducted."
Sigelica slung her shield over her shoulder, a twitch at the corner of her mouth. "Can't you at least show some respect for the enemy's declaration of war?"
"A formal letter is required to declare war." Zhou Yu stood up and zipped up his canvas bag. "They use black talismans to write small advertisements on the walls; it's under the jurisdiction of the city construction management."
Changli stopped reaching for the map. After a while, she instructed a maid to bring a package of oiled paper. Inside the oiled paper were sugar cakes, meat pies, and several warm bamboo tubes of soy milk. Dania carried the largest package, and as she walked, she lowered her head to smell it, her eyes crinkling into a smile.
At the beginning of the hour of Mao (5-7 AM), the bluestone road outside the North Gate was soaked into a dark color by the drizzle.
The old post road leads to the foot of the mountain, with bamboo groves hanging down along the way, raindrops falling from the tips of the leaves into the mud. Three dilapidated pavilions stand in front, their eaves broken, their pillars wrapped with black talismans. The talismans, though pasted on, have not softened in the rain, and the black lines have climbed up the wooden beams.
The first pavilion blocks the main road, the second is wedged by the ditch, and the third blocks the entrance to the herb-gathering path, thus sealing off the road outside the north gate in three places.
Dania lay sleepily on Zhou Yu's back, her arms draped over his shoulders, sugar powder still smeared around her mouth. Zhou Yu supported her legs with one hand and carried the canvas bag with the other. The old-fashioned digital watch was wet from the rain, water pooling in the scratches on its surface.
Qiu Yuan walked to the front, his toes stepping over a piece of broken tile. A faint scraping sound came from beneath the tile. The sound mark on his palm lit up, and his bamboo-sheathed longsword pointed diagonally at the ground.
"There are people in the pavilion, a talisman array beneath it, and explosive spikes buried in the roadbed. A direct attack will alert the sentries at the mountain pass. You must retreat thirty paces."
Chisa drew her sword an inch from its sheath, raindrops fell on the back of the blade and rolled to the ground. Sigelica held her shield horizontally in front of her. Chisaki crouched by the roadside, pressing her tablet close to the muddy surface to scan; red dots on the screen converged on the three ruined pavilions.
"There are fifteen heat sources, located on the roof beams, behind the columns, and in the underground mezzanine. The Fractsidus has turned the abandoned pavilion into a complex trap, making it difficult to dismantle."
Linnai peeked out from under the umbrella and glanced at the black talismans. "They're quite ritualistic; they even cover the road with patterns just to block it."
Aimis, clutching her breakfast bag, moved back. "I can play a pre-battle motivational playlist, but the speakers are prone to getting wet in the rain."
Qiu Yuan raised his sword, raindrops dripping from the bamboo scabbard onto the ground. He tilted his head slightly towards Zhou Yu, his voice low.
"Manager Zhou, I'll lead the way. You take her across the ditch to the left of the second pavilion."
Zhou Yu yawned. Dania, who was on his back, rubbed against his neck and hummed sleepily. He reached out and pressed down on Qiu Yuan's sword sheath, pushing the sword back into place.
"Don't make it so bloody on the first day of your business trip. Team building activities should prioritize safety."
Qiu Yuan's finger hovered over the sword hilt. "Safety in production?"
Zhou Yu pulled a folded piece of paper from his canvas bag. Raindrops hit the paper and slid off the plastic seal. The paper was titled "Safety Assessment Form for Paid Field Trip to Mt. Firmament," and it was divided into four columns: road risks, building risks, catering risks, and team member calorie consumption.
The last column already lists Dania, with the note saying to feed her anytime.
After seeing the title, Sigelica shrank back half an inch behind her shield. "Damn it, he even has a watch for mountain roads."
Zhou Yu tapped the pillar of the first abandoned pavilion with the cap of his ballpoint pen. "Master Qiu, look at this thing. It's been in disrepair for years, blocking the main passage, with illegally installed black talisman lines, and people are even hiding on the roof. The fire escape width is zero. Did the Fractsidus get a construction permit?"
Qiu Yuan faced the ruined pavilion, his hand holding the sword paused for a moment. Rainwater dripped down the edge of his straw hat, splashing mud at his feet.
"They would ambush and kill people without usually reporting it to the Patrol Department."
"That makes things easier." Zhou Yu affixed the assessment form to the nearby boundary marker, took out his old-fashioned digital watch, and pressed the small button on the right side. "Unlicensed building, clear the site."
The digital watch screen lit up with a dim green light, and lines of tiny characters appeared.
[Invoking the environment physics component.]
[Target: The load-bearing pillar of the abandoned pavilion on the old post road at the North Gate.]
[Collision volume parameter retrieval in progress.]
Chisaki's tablet displayed a string of gibberish, and the screen reflected a green glow through the lenses. "He bypassed the rune array and directly altered the physical properties of the wooden pillar."
Sigelica peeked half her face out from behind the shield. "Does the rune array reinforcement work?"
"The rune array strengthens the structure," Chisaki's fingers flew across the keyboard as she typed. "What he deleted was the structure's eligibility to participate in collisions."
Chisa sheathed her sword, and the bell rang once in the rain. She turned to the pavilion roof, where the heat source hidden behind the beam began to move. Several crossbow bolts emerged from the gaps in the black talisman, their arrowheads aimed at Zhou Yu.
Qiu Yuan was about to draw his sword when Zhou Yu pressed the last button.
[Z-axis collision volume: 0.]
[Implement.]
The four pillars of the first abandoned pavilion had lost their load-bearing capacity, the eaves remained in place, and the beams could find no support. The black talisman glowed with a dark red light, trying to pull the beams back. Just as the talisman straightened, the entire pavilion collapsed from the middle.
With a deafening crash, tiles, beams, talismans, and the black-clad figure hidden on the pavilion roof all slammed into the mud. Crossbow bolts flew wildly, three embedding themselves in the bamboo grove, and two bouncing back between the beams. Several muffled groans came from beneath the ruins, and someone cursed that Fractsidus secret signals before being gagged by a roof tile.
Dania was awakened by the noise. She lifted her head from Zhou Yu's shoulder, her pink hair sticking messily to her cheeks. "Xiao Yu, is dinner ready?"
Zhou Yu took a piece of sweet cake from the oil paper package and brought it to her lips. "It's alright, the construction team is demolishing things, just have a bite to tide you over."
Dania bit into the sugar cake, glancing vaguely at the ruins. A man in black, half-exposed under a beam, his face covered with his family's black talisman, was foaming at the mouth and twitching his legs. She chewed twice and commented seriously, "They weren't sleeping comfortably."
Linnai almost burst out laughing, but Sigelica nudged her with the handle of her shield. Aimis held her breakfast bag high to avoid the splashing mud, muttering to herself that the playlist was no longer needed.
Chisa walked to the edge of the ruins, and with her scabbard, she pried open a still-glowing black talisman. The talisman burned to ashes after leaving the wooden beam.
Qiu Yuan stood still, his longsword half-drawn from its bamboo sheath. He could hear the aura of the people on the pavilion roof change from murderous intent to disheveled state, and he could also hear the exploding nails on the ground going silent one by one due to the change in their angle under pressure.
What was supposed to be a bloody battle was ultimately turned into a landslide accident by a watch and an old digital watch.
Zhou Yu peeled the assessment form off the boundary marker, checked the box for "road and building risks," and walked toward the second abandoned pavilion.
"First section cleared. The remaining personnel are to be bound and dealt with by Hero Qiu. Sigelica, use your shield to block the rain, don't let Dania's sweet cakes get soggy. Chisaki, record the extent of the landslide, then report the clearing costs to the Magistrate's Office later."
Sigelica's face peeked out from behind the shield. "What did you just say, Fee?"
Zhou Yu tapped the edge of the table twice with the tip of his pen, then rephrased it. "Special expenditure for road safety maintenance."
"I'll understand you even if you change your name!"
Qiu Yuan finally sheathed his sword. He groped his way to the ruins, dodging the misfired pylons with his toes, and with a tap of the bamboo scabbard, the black-clad man trapped under the beam was knocked unconscious.
The black runes on the second abandoned pavilion began to twist erratically. Seeing the fate of the first pavilion, some of the assassins from the Fractsidus hiding inside the pavilion jumped down from the back eaves, trying to slip into the bamboo forest.
Zhou Yu raised his wrist, and the digital watch lit up with a green light.
"Don't run, it's not your turn for the physical exam yet."
The second abandoned pavilion lost its support first, causing the entire pavilion to tilt towards the ditch. The black talisman dragged the wooden beams, making a tearing sound. Just as the assassins climbed over the railing, the floor beneath their feet flipped upside down, pulling them all into the ditch.
Mud splashed up to waist height, Aimis cried out in surprise, hiding behind Chisa. Chisa raised her scabbard to deflect the flying tiles, and the bells rang clearly in the rain.
The third abandoned pavilion is the furthest. Inside the pavilion, black runes coalesce into a black human face with a split mouth and a hoarse voice.
"The Cradle will return to where it belongs."
Dania slowed her chewing. Zhou Yu tightened his grip on her arm slightly, while his other hand crumpled the candy wrapper into a ball and tossed it into the side pocket of his canvas bag.
He turned to the black-faced figure with the runes, his expression turning cold.
"They're constructing without a permit and harassing the family members."
The beeping of the electronic watch drowned out the raindrops.
The third ruined pavilion, along with the black-faced figure, collapsed into the entrance of the herb-gathering path. Before the black mist was dispersed by the broken tiles, Qiu Yuan's mental mirror detected a lower sound wave, which was drilling from under the ruined pavilion toward Mt. Firmament. In the distance, the sound of an empty bronze bell could be heard.
He raised his hand to stop the crowd, his expression turning sharp.
"There's an echo chamber underground. The pavilion that collapsed just now woke things up."