Early morning in Xiao Fen's assigned guest room at Yǎngshén Sect. Mist and jade light press against the paper windows while account papers lie beside her travel case.

The administrative quarter of Yǎngshén Sect, quieter than the training courts. Jade eaves, old stone steps, and hanging archive bells create a solemn, dungeon-like entrance.

At the archive reception desk. Piles of ledgers, abacuses, and bamboo slips surround tired clerk-disciples.

Inside the sect archive. Tall shelves vanish upward into green shadow; labels hang like talismans from drawers and scroll racks.

Fen performs tedious copying work while observing the filing habits of the archive clerks.

The reception desk later that day. Fen asks a safe question disguised as routine reconciliation.

Fen returns to her corner table after finding no departure record.

Over the next days, Fen becomes a useful, dull presence in the archive.

Fen is alone for a moment in a deeper aisle of the archive, surrounded by resident records.

Fen opens the imperial resident drawer and finds the files of the last three imperial cultivators assigned to Yǎngshén Sect.

Fen examines Xiao Rong's individual file, the most recent previous imperial cultivator.

Fen studies the medical terminology and pulse diagrams in Xiao Rong's file.

Fen compares the three imperial cultivator files side by side.

A clerk notices Fen with medical files and questions her access. Fen turns the question into more paperwork.

Fen now has official-looking permission to continue comparing medical attachments.

Fen learns the archive's concealment language by comparing official phrases against dates and consequences.

Fen is briefly interrupted while copying, and proves she is still performing ordinary archive work.

Late afternoon. The archive clerks talk about Fen as though she is furniture.

Fen compares medical seclusion dates with spirit-stone and tonic requisitions.

Fen checks ceremonial and transport records for Xiao Rong's supposed recall and finds nothing.

The proof becomes emotionally real to Fen, but she understands how dangerous and useless it is without protection.

Fen hides her copies inside ordinary accounting work before returning the originals.

Evening at the archive reception as Fen signs out with her copied backlog pages.

Night in Fen's assigned room. The archive copies are spread under lamplight, disguised among harmless calculations.