Chapter 159: The Ghost Tailor's Cipher

"This is a win-win deal for you. If we get killed by that Sun Congwen in your family's forbidden grounds, you wouldn't lose anything. Since you've painted Sun Congwen as such a scoundrel, it's one thing for me, but these two youngsters are soft-hearted. Even without your trade, they'd be filled with righteous indignation to help you. Besides, I'm a loyal person; I certainly wouldn't let them plunge into deep trouble on their own. So, whether I like it or not, I have to take on this deal, Sun Liancheng. But at the least, you need to show some sincerity—for instance, how about proving that you know the whereabouts of Sun Zhongmou?" said Fatso.

After Fatso finished speaking, I gave him a thumbs-up. I had to admit that in many aspects, Fatso appeared much more mature and composed than Xiao Qi and me. Sun Liancheng opened another bottle of beer and said to me, "Where is the thing your older brother left for you?"

I slapped my forehead. That thing was still in the back seat of the car. I had been so nervous earlier that I completely forgot about it. I hurriedly stood up and ran to get it. It was a very ordinary paper box with nothing on it, and I couldn't tell what might be inside. Just as I was about to open it, Fatso pressed his hand down on mine. Looking at Sun Liancheng, he asked, "Kid, what do you think is inside this?"

Sun Liancheng looked at Fatso with a smile and said, "I don't know the exact details, but this item comes from the Ghost Tailor. You certainly don't know who the Ghost Tailor is, but I do, and I know the Ghost Tailor's cipher."

"What the heck?" I blurted out, stunned. What did the Ghost Tailor's cipher mean? I had guessed that the item left by my older brother was Han Xue's wedding dress, but what on earth was a Ghost Tailor cipher?

"You're not lying, at least you know this is the Ghost Tailor's handiwork," Fatso muttered. With that, he opened the box.

The moment the box was opened, I was left completely dumbfounded. Women have no resistance to beautiful clothes. Xiao Qi stood up and picked up the garment. When unfolded, the clothing was even more breathtaking. It was a white, lightweight gauze dress—resembling a wedding dress, yet distinctly different. One could immediately sense that both the fabric and the craftsmanship were exceptionally exquisite. Xiao Qi picked it up and held it against herself. Though she was already a very pretty girl, this simple gesture—even without wearing it—made her look as ethereal as a fairy descending from the heavens.

"As expected of the Ghost Tailor. With craftsmanship like this, if Han Xue wears it, won't she look just like the Moon Goddess Chang'e?" Fatso muttered.

I nodded. Although I couldn't truly speak for Han Xue's tastes, if this dress were brought back, she would undoubtedly adore it. Even Xiao Qi pouted and said, "Since Grandma also knows that Ghost Tailor, why didn't she ask him to make me a dress? When I get married, I want a dress just like this."

"Well, if the Ghost Tailor is still alive when I marry you, I'll have him make you a Celestial Raiment," Sun Liancheng said.

Hearing this, Xiao Qi rolled her eyes at Sun Liancheng and retorted, "Just a moment ago you painted yourself as so deeply affectionate, and the next second you're talking absolute nonsense. I don't know which of your words are true and which are false."

"They're all true. Over all these years, you're the only girl who made my heart skip a beat at first glance," Sun Liancheng replied.

"Oh, give it a rest. This is just a pretty dress. Tell us, what is this Ghost Tailor cipher?" Han Xue said, putting the dress down.

"I don't understand why, as descendants of the Four Gates of the Ghost Path, your families haven't told you anything about the Ghost Path. You don't even know who the Ghost Tailor is," Sun Liancheng said. "Unlike the Four Gates, the Ghost Tailor can be considered the strategist of the Ghost Path. Back when the Ghost Path started, it was essentially an underground operation, so a lot of information was transmitted through the Ghost Tailor's garments. Back then, however, the method simply involved sewing slips of paper into the clothes. Later, after Guo Zhongyong died, the Ghost Tailor used his own unique method to pass down that news, allowing the survivors to find a way out in time. After the Ghost Path declined, on the surface there were still the Li, Sun, and Ye families, but none of these three families dared to walk the world under the banner of the Ghost Path ever again. Exactly because of the close ties between the Ghost Tailor and the Sect Master's lineage, whenever members of the Sect Master's lineage traveled, they needed the Ghost Tailor's artifacts to prove their identity. Back then, didn't the Guo family of the Ghost Path use an embroidered shoe made by the Ghost Tailor to force Ye Tianhua to his death? The moment Ye Jiangnan saw that embroidered shoe, he knew what he had to do."

"However, after Guo Zhongyong's death, the Ghost Tailor's personality changed drastically. For reasons unknown, he rarely made clothes after that. Later, he wrote a personal letter to each of the Four Gates of the Ghost Path, stating that he would transmit the most core secrets of the Ghost Path through his works—not by sewing paper slips into clothes anymore, but through a completely new method. I call it the Ghost Tailor cipher. Whoever decodes this cipher will learn the secrets Guo Zhongyong didn't have time to reveal. And the embroidered shoe that the Guo family members used to prove their identity back then was actually the first piece of information the Ghost Tailor transmitted to Ye Jiangnan, as well as the only piece transmitted outward all these years. Obviously, your grandfather Ye Jiangnan couldn't decode this cipher even after twenty-some years. To outsiders, it was just a shoe; looked at a bit deeper, it merely showed how difficult the shoe was to make," Sun Liancheng explained.

"How do you know all this so clearly?" Fatso frowned, staring at Sun Liancheng.

"Because of all these years I spent enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens, Sun Congwen truly believed he could control me, so he told me everything. Besides, to tell you the truth, Sun Zhongmou came to me a few days ago, asking for my help to decode the Ghost Tailor cipher on that embroidered shoe—in other words, the message the Ghost Tailor conveyed to Ye Jiangnan," Sun Liancheng said.

I swallowed hard, still puzzled. "Even if that old bastard told you this secret, my grandfather, my maternal grandmother, and even my older brother couldn't understand the Ghost Tailor's so-called cipher. What makes you think you can?"

"It's a matter of brainpower. You might not believe it, but the Ghost Tailor understood Morse code. That's why I call his signal transmission method the Ghost Tailor cipher. But his method is also slightly different from standard Morse code; it's much more obscure and difficult to comprehend. Every single stitch on the garments he made was completed by his own hands. You don't understand weaving, let alone traditional weaving. At a glance, the needle holes look identical, but in reality, every single stitch is different, and the distance between stitches varies as well. Therefore, every single stitch represents a specific, special meaning. So it's extremely difficult, but fortunately, I am simply too smart. Ha, well, I admit that nobody would ever expect the Ghost Tailor to use such a method. Although Morse code is no longer in use today, to the older generation, it was undoubtedly high-tech—something unimaginable to people of their era. It's only natural they couldn't decode it. After all, they were old antiques, and your older brother was, in truth, an extremely rigid person," Sun Liancheng shrugged and said.

After listening to Sun Liancheng's words, we looked at each other in dismay. He was right. People like my grandfather, Old Lady Li, and even Sun Congwen belonged to the older generation; they certainly wouldn't have encountered Morse code, and even ordinary people like us wouldn't know anything about it. For the Ghost Tailor to transmit the secrets of the Ghost Path through such a method felt as though it wasn't meant for that generation to understand at all.

Thinking of this, a person suddenly popped into my mind.

My father, Ye Tianhua.

He was a legendary king of soldiers, and Morse code had once been applied very extensively in the field of military radio. Could my father have understood the cipher on that shoe back then?

That was something I had no way of knowing.

"So, what does the Ghost Tailor's shoe say?" Fatso frowned, looking at Sun Liancheng at that moment.

"I can't tell you that. I can only tell Ye Zi, because it seems to relate to his family background," Sun Liancheng smiled. He beckoned to me with a smile and said, "Come here. If I don't tell you now, this fat guy definitely won't agree to help me. To prove my innocence, I have to make some concessions."

I looked at Fatso. He nodded at me, signaling for me to go over and listen to Sun Liancheng's secret whisper. I walked toward Sun Liancheng, and he leaned in close to my ear and whispered softly:

"He will come back."