"The ashes of a shattered past hide secrets that I must uncover—Mei."
———
Mei walked to Héng Village to visit the families who once worked for her parents. She hoped someone there knew what truly happened the day her family was killed.
At the first house, she heard children playing. She knocked and waited.
An old woman opened the door and stared in surprise.
"Meiying? We never thought we'd see you again," she embraced her and invited her in.
Inside, other relatives who knew her family greeted her warmly. They guided her to a seat by the fire and handed her a cup of hot tea.
When they settled, Mei asked how they had been. The old woman lowered her gaze.
"Your father was a good man. He treated us like family."
The others nodded.
"He paid us well and made sure we always had enough to eat."
Mei blinked back tears. Hearing their words reminded her how much her father was loved. She felt she had come to the right place. Someone here might know something that could help her find the truth.
"Your mother was also a blessing. She always thought of others. Even near the end, she only worried about us still being able to celebrate the Lunar New Year with our families."
"I remember her asking your father to give us the holiday early so we could travel home. It was small, but it meant so much to us."
The others nodded, smiling at the memory.
"Your father worked us hard, but he always encouraged us when we struggled," one man said. "I will never forget his kindness."
Mei's eyes filled with tears. Their words reminded her of how selfless her parents were. They left behind nothing but goodwill, which made their deaths even harder to understand.
The elderly woman sighed. "There was one problem your father had later in life. His relationship with his brother went bad."
Mei sat up at once.
"Your uncle felt ignored for years because your grandfather trained your father to run the business. It made his anger only grow."
A worker spoke carefully. "We were not there that night because your father had given us the week off. But the stories we heard were terrible. People said trained fighters broke in at night, beat the guards, and left no one alive."
Mei's breath shook.
Could her uncle's jealousy, combined with her father's growing success, have caused the betrayal?
It hurt to think the tragedy might have come from family, not outsiders.
She thanked everyone, bowed, and left. Then she began her slow walk back to her old manor.
When she arrived, Mei paused outside, gathering her courage. Finally, she stepped inside and began searching through each room.
She entered her father's study and saw letters and papers tossed across the burned desk.
Some pages were partly burned, their edges black and curled. A few held strange symbols and coded lines, hinting at secret messages. She also found torn family records, still clear enough to show ties to powerful people.
In the library, Mei ran her hand over old books and remembered the quiet days they spent reading. The study reminded her of nights he worked late but still greeted her with a smile in the morning.
Her mother's gardens made her think of tending flowers and herbs. The kitchen reminded her of family meals and shared recipes. Even in their rooms, she could still feel traces of laughter and love.
Overcome with memories, Mei began to cry. She remembered her father teaching her in the garden, her mother weaving flowers into her sister's hair, and the jokes they shared at dinner with Hui Fen, Xu, and Xiao.
Her sobs grew as grief, anger, and deep loneliness flooded her. The soft breeze carried memories, but every empty room only made her feel more alone.
Holding the medallion she had found in the ruins, Mei cried for all she had lost and for the words left unsaid. She cried until no tears were left.
She spent the rest of the day moving slowly from room to room, unable to leave until she had replayed every memory.
Night came as she sat in the courtyard where they once ate under the stars, now lit only by distant fireflies. She found no new clues, but walking through the manor gave her a final, bittersweet goodbye before she faced her bleak future alone.
Tired and drained, Mei went to her old room and fell onto the bed. As she lay there, her fingers brushed loose floorboards.
Curious, she lifted them and found a hidden space that had stayed secret for years.
Inside, she found scrolls and records in her father's handwriting. Most scrolls contained intercepted letters between her uncle and traders, arranging deals for luxury goods in exchange for inflated tax payments. Others detailed large funds from a royal construction project, funneled into an account through fake contracts.
A gasp escaped her as everything started to make sense, her uncle and others must have been involved in embezzlement and money laundering for years.
They must have been desperate to cover up their crimes. Perhaps her family had been silenced to keep them from uncovering this corruption.
Among the documents, Mei found a collection of ancient scrolls that triggered a distant memory.
As a young child, she had once discovered these very scrolls hidden in her father's study.
She unrolled one, revealing illustrations of fighting techniques that had once seemed beyond her imagination.
The graceful figures on the scrolls flowed between stances, attacking with fists, feet, and enchanted weapons.
One weapon, a beautifully designed dagger, stood out to her, it was the very same dagger she had carried with her for years.
She had spent hours studying these scrolls, captivated by their mysterious author, who had sparked her journey into martial arts and a life dedicated to mastering her body and mind.
But when her father had caught her with the scrolls, he quickly took them away, asking her to promise she'd never speak of what she had seen.
Mei carefully gathered all the records and scrolls, tucking them securely into her bag. While the evidence clearly implicated her targets, it still lacked enough details for her to act on.
She would carefully look more into them at a later time.