The railway tracks ended exactly where the old woman had said they would.
Not gradually.
They simply stopped.
One moment, the tracks ran beside the warehouses, half-buried beneath weeds and dirt. Then the line disappeared beneath a collapsed section of fencing, leaving only a narrow path toward the river.
Yulan stepped over the broken rail.
"This place is cheerful."
Li Wei glanced at him.
"You're the one who wanted to come."
"I didn't say I wanted to enjoy it."
They continued along the path.
The western district grew quieter behind them.
There were no merchants here. No carts. No workers carrying crates.
Only the river and the occasional creak of an old building shifting in the wind.
Li Wei held the two brass keys in his palm.
"They must open something."
"Obviously."
"Thank you."
"I was being sarcastic."
"I know."
Yulan smiled.
They reached a wall covered in vines.
At first, it looked like nothing more than another abandoned structure.
Then Li Wei noticed a narrow metal ring hidden beneath the leaves.
He pulled it.
Nothing happened.
Yulan crouched beside him.
"Try the other key."
Li Wei inserted the first key into a small lock hidden beneath the stone.
It turned.
Something clicked inside the wall.
Yulan stared.
"That wasn't supposed to be that easy."
"It wasn't."
Li Wei inserted the second key.
The lock turned again.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then the stone wall shifted inward.
A narrow doorway appeared.
Cold air came from inside.
Yulan looked at Li Wei.
"After you."
"Why me?"
"You're richer."
Li Wei frowned.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"If there's a trap, at least you'll die in expensive clothes."
Li Wei almost laughed.
"You're ridiculous."
"And you're still going first."
He stepped through.
Yulan followed.
The passage was barely wide enough for two people.
Their shoulders brushed occasionally as they moved through the darkness.
The smell changed.
Old paper.
Damp wood.
Something metallic.
After several steps, the passage opened into a room.
Li Wei stopped.
There were shelves.
Dozens of them.
Boxes covered every wall.
Old shipping records.
Invoices.
Cargo lists.
Names.
Dates.
Seventeen years of documents that someone had hidden beneath the western district.
Yulan slowly walked toward the nearest shelf.
He pulled out a folder.
The paper crumbled slightly beneath his fingers.
"Compensation payments."
Li Wei took another.
"Shipping expenses."
Another.
"Warehouse repairs."
They looked at each other.
"The private ledger," Yulan whispered.
"Parts of it."
Li Wei walked farther into the room.
At the center stood a wooden table.
On it was a single empty space.
Something had been removed recently.
Dust surrounded the outline.
Yulan ran his finger across it.
"Someone took a book."
Li Wei nodded.
"Probably the ledger."
"Luo Ming?"
"Maybe."
Yulan looked around.
"If he took it, why leave everything else?"
"Because this isn't where he hid the ledger."
A sound came from the passage.
Both men froze.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Coming closer.
Yulan immediately reached for Li Wei's arm.
The footsteps stopped.
A man's voice echoed through the passage.
"You shouldn't be here."
Li Wei stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
No answer.
Yulan whispered, "Do you recognize the voice?"
"No."
The man spoke again.
"Leave the room."
Li Wei's expression hardened.
"Or?"
A pause.
"Or you will learn why this place was buried."
Yulan looked at the shelves.
Then at the doorway.
"Li Wei."
"I know."
The footsteps began again.
Closer.
Li Wei grabbed Yulan's wrist.
"Back door."
"There is no back door."
"There is always another way out."
They hurried toward the far side of the room.
Yulan spotted a narrow wooden panel behind a stack of boxes.
"Here."
Li Wei pulled it.
The panel opened.
A dark stairway descended beneath them.
Yulan stared.
"You were right."
"I usually am."
"Don't ruin the moment."
They climbed down.
Above them, the stranger entered the room.
Yulan heard the shelves being disturbed.
A box hit the floor.
Then silence.
The stairway ended beside the river.
They emerged behind an old retaining wall.
Yulan leaned against the stone, breathing hard.
Li Wei stood beside him.
Neither spoke for several seconds.
Then Yulan laughed.
Li Wei looked at him.
"What?"
"We keep finding secret rooms."
"And?"
"And eventually we're going to find one that doesn't try to kill us."
Li Wei smiled.
"Hopefully."
Yulan looked back toward the hidden passage.
"We need to go back."
"Not yet."
"Why?"
Li Wei reached into his coat.
He had taken something from the archive.
A folded sheet of paper.
Yulan opened it.
At the top was a list of names.
Most were unfamiliar.
But three were not.
Li Wenxiu.
Li Jian.
Zhang Guoren.
Yulan's smile disappeared.
Below the names was a date.
The night of the Warehouse Nine fire.
And beside it, one sentence:
Three witnesses entered. Only two returned.
Yulan stared at the words.
"Who was the third?"
Li Wei didn't answer.
He didn't have to.
They both knew whose name they needed to find.
Yulan folded the paper carefully.
"My mother."
Li Wei looked toward the river.
"Or someone they wanted us to believe was your mother."
Yulan looked at him.
For once, neither of them joked.
Because somewhere beneath the western district, someone had kept the records of that night.
And someone had deliberately removed one name.