Unparalleled medical and martial arts skills, saving the CEO's fiancée at the start.

After descending the mountain, Ye Chen and Jiang Ruoxi did not return to the Jiang family villa, but drove directly to Meixi County.

It wasn't just the two of them who went this time.

Aygul followed, and the ghost servant went too.

Han Song and Song Tiezhu stayed in Jiangcheng to continue counting the remaining Blackwater forces and, incidentally, to conduct another round of sifting around the area surrounding Longyin Mountain.

Su Qinghan did not go.

She took the three silver bells back to Medicine King Valley, saying she needed to hurry up and sort out the ley lines of Dragon Hidden Mountain again.

Before leaving, she said to Ye Chen alone, "Your mother lived in Meixi for a long time back then, and she might have left something behind. Jiang Yuanshan can read the earth's veins, and your mother wasn't just a woman who could only embroider. As husband and wife, they would always keep some secrets together."

Ye Chen kept these words in mind.

When we arrived at Meixi, it was just getting dark.

The old county town remained as quiet as ever, with a few bright yellow streetlights shining in the narrow alleys, and the bluestone slabs gleaming wetly after the rain.

Jiang Ruoxi stood at the entrance of the alley for a moment before leading them inside.

The shadow of the magnolia tree towered high above the courtyard wall. When the wind blew, the rustling of the leaves filled the alley, like someone clapping softly in the dark.

Ye Chen had already replaced the old lock on the iron gate. Jiang Ruoxi opened the gate and went in. The weeds in the yard were even deeper. The pit where the copper box had been dug a few days ago was still there, like an old scar.

Ye Chen had Ayiguli and the ghost servant guard outside the courtyard, while he and Jiang Ruoxi went into the east room.

The plum blossom patterned handkerchief was laid on the dressing table. Ye Chen slanted the flashlight and examined the fine lines embedded in the pattern bit by bit.

Jiang Ruoxi also joined them, the two of them almost touching head to head.

After looking at it for a long time, Ye Chen suddenly exclaimed and pointed to a very dense stitch in the lower right corner of the handkerchief: "This is not a pattern, it is words, extremely small, as if embroidered with the same color thread sandwiched in plum branches. When your mother embroidered this handkerchief, she may have hidden some clues inside."

Jiang Ruoxi rummaged through the drawer for a long time and found an old pair of tailor's scissors and an old magnifying glass with a stand.

Ye Chen spread the handkerchief under the lamp and examined it inch by inch with a magnifying glass.

After a moment, he straightened up, his eyes filled with undisguised surprise: "Ruoxi, your mother didn't embroider a road, she embroidered half a picture. This picture needs to be overlaid with the water vein map of Longyin Mountain in the notes to see the whole picture."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Ruoxi quickly pulled up the water vein map she had taken on her phone and covered the screen with a handkerchief.

As the light shone up from below, the faint needlework between the plum branches perfectly matched the water vein nodes on the screen.

The extra part on the handkerchief resembles several roads extending from the old house in Meixi, eventually converging into a mountainous area north of the county town.

"This is it, Beishan." Jiang Ruoxi pointed to the place where the lines on the cloth converged.

Ye Chen carefully put away the handkerchief, looked up and said, "Your mother left the map in this handkerchief, so only you can take it up the mountain. Let's go to North Mountain."

The two went out and called for Ghost Servant and Ayiguli, and under the cover of night, they headed north of the city.

The night in Meixi was extremely quiet, with few pedestrians on the streets, except for the occasional bark of an old dog in some unknown courtyard.

The further north you go in the city, the narrower the road becomes and the fewer the lights.

At the end of the last stone-paved road was a long-abandoned earth god temple.

Behind the temple, there is a narrow path overgrown with weeds that winds its way up the mountain.

Ye Chen led the way, his sword sheath parting the grass as easily as water, while Jiang Ruoxi followed behind, holding Ayiguli's hand tightly, afraid she might slip.

The ghost servant brought up the rear, whispering, "The air in these mountains is extremely damp. There might be an abandoned well ahead. If your feet feel soft under your feet, don't step on it."

The group wandered around in the mountains for more than half an hour before finally stopping in front of a shady earthen slope.

The earthen slope was covered with ivy, and the thick vines and leaves covered the entire slope.

Ye Chen and the ghost servant used their swords and iron rulers to clear a section of the vines, revealing a narrow opening underneath that could only allow one person to pass sideways.

The opening was blocked by several boulders, which were covered with moss.

Ye Chen reached out and felt a very fine breeze seeping out from the cracks in the stone, carrying a very faint scent, like that of ripe plums.

"It's here," Ye Chen said.

He pressed his ear against it and tapped it again.

The sound was hollow and distant, as if there was an extremely long tomb passage below.

Jiang Ruoxi also came over and stuck the jade pendant on the stone surface.

The few scattered rocks moved very slightly, as if something was slowly waking up from within them.

Seeing this, the ghost servant and Ayiguli rushed forward to help.

The four of them worked together to move the rubble aside, revealing a narrow opening, and a stronger fragrance of plums wafted out.

Ye Chen led the way, and the others filed in.

The cave is not deep, with only one downward-sloping stone staircase. After about twenty steps, there is a half-collapsed brick room.

The brick room was small, with peeling paint on the walls and some old pottery shards and a few rusty iron nails scattered on the ground.

On the central stone platform sits a very small stone box, its surface covered with a layer of green moss, and its lid is cracked, as if it had been smashed.

Jiang Ruoxi walked over and gently opened the stone box.

There was no gold or silver inside, only a roll of something tightly wrapped in oilcloth and a tiny silver locket.

The lock plate was only the size of a fingernail, and it was engraved with three characters: "Ruoxi Lock".

Jiang Ruoxi picked it up, and her whole body seemed to have been frozen in place.

Ye Chen put his arm around her shoulder from behind and said in a low voice, "This is what your mother left for you. She kept things here, including your name."

Jiang Ruoxi sniffed and opened the oilcloth package.

Inside were several very thin sheets of paper, written in Jiang Ruoxi's mother's handwriting. The writing was slow, and in some places the ink had blurred, as if she was crying while writing the letter.

The letter said that she had long known how dangerous her husband, Ye Changfeng, and Su Youdao's actions were, and that one day those people would come to Meixi.

So she divided Jiang Yuanshan's belongings into two places in advance: half under the tree in the old house and half in this small cave in the North Mountain.

The letter ended with the sentence: "Ruoxi, my little girl, don't go too deep. If he is worth it, go with him. If you are afraid, come back. Mom will be waiting for you under the magnolia tree."

When Jiang Ruoxi finished reading, she couldn't hold back any longer and buried her face in Ye Chen's arms, crying so hard that her shoulders trembled.

Ye Chen didn't speak, only patted her back gently again and again. Ghost Servant and Ayiguli silently retreated to the outside of the brick room.

After Jiang Ruoxi calmed down, Ye Chen picked up the rolled-up oilcloth.

The cloth depicts an old city defense map, showing an old wharf and streets in the south, with two characters in the lower right corner: "Wuyi".

Ye Chen's eyes narrowed.

This is a map of the Blackwater headquarters' lair. Jiang Ruoxi's mother had already left a way for her daughter to come and find them.

Ye Chen put the drawing away and then looked at the four walls of the brick room. There were faint traces of chalk drawing on the walls, which had been eaten away by the dampness and were now just white marks.

He took a closer look and saw that they looked like a few very simple Medicine King Valley runes.

Ye Chen's heart stirred, and he rubbed it with his fingertips.

A few small words appeared beneath the rune: "Ye Changfeng has arrived." His hand trembled, and he froze, remaining motionless for a long time.

This trip brought back not only Jiang Ruoxi's mother's letter, but also some old traces of Ye Chen's father from thirty years ago.

Beishan Cave is like a mailbox sealed by time, entrusting the words of two generations to them.

Ye Chen and Jiang Ruoxi stood in the cave, neither of them urging the other.

After a long time, Ye Chen finally took Jiang Ruoxi's hand and walked towards the cave entrance.

The night breeze blew in from outside the cave, carrying the scent of plums and a faint coolness from the valley.

They walked out slowly, as if waking up from an extremely long old dream.