"National Letter"
The character "Xu"?
Ji Yunshu's mind jolted. She clenched her fists and stood in a daze for a few seconds. Then, she took two steps and walked over quickly.
The maidservant heaved a sigh of relief. "So it's not jade. That's good, that's good."
As she spoke, Ji Yunshu took the embroidered box from her hands.
"Teacher Ji?"
The two maidservants were dumbfounded.
They looked at each other.
Ji Yunshu stared at the character "Xu" on the handkerchief and did not speak for a long time. She carefully took out the handkerchief and held it in her hands. She then realized that it was not a whole handkerchief, but half of it. It was cut in the middle of the red jasmine flower embroidered on it.
No one would tattoo a red jasmine flower on a yellow handkerchief, but she seemed to have seen this half jasmine flower somewhere before.
She rubbed her fingertips over and over again. Suddenly, she thought of something.
Chen Xin was stunned.
Yes, she had seen it before. It was at the memorial hall.
What a coincidence!
What a coincidence!
She held the handkerchief and asked the two maidservants, "Whose is this?"
One of the maidservants pointed at the big box. "It's in Old Master and Madam's belongings. It's all young master's belongings."
"I mean this handkerchief."
The maidservant stammered, "It should be …"
Before she could finish her sentence …
"It's young master's too. Old Master and Madam are very protective of it. They have always kept it in this big box. No one is allowed to touch it."
It was Uncle Fu's voice!
He walked over and said, "All the things in this box belong to young master when he was young. Old Master and Madam have always kept it well. They usually don't allow anyone to touch it. This time, because the house there was a leak, they moved it to the West Court. Teacher Ji, is there a problem with this handkerchief? "
Not only was there a problem, but it was a big problem.
Ji Yunshu felt as if a huge stone had been dropped from her chest to the ground. Her mind was filled with all kinds of messy thoughts.
Then, she pieced them together bit by bit.
He finally understood the entire sequence of events.
Thud!
Her hands trembled and the embroidered box fell to the ground.
Uncle Fu quickly bent down to pick it up and asked, "Sir, what's wrong?"
Holding the handkerchief, she said in a heavy tone, "Uncle Fu, can I have a look at this handkerchief?"
"This …"
"I won't damage it. I'll return it tomorrow morning."
Uncle Fu thought to himself, 'It's just a handkerchief, it's not worth much. Besides, he's Teacher Ji, so he naturally has to trust him. Thus, he said, "Teacher Ji, since you've asked, you can take it if you want to see it."
"Thank you."
She nodded and turned to enter the courtyard.
Uncle Fu placed the brocade box in his hand back into the big box and reprimanded the two maidservants, "Look at you two, why are you so clumsy? These are Master and Madam's belongings, so you must not damage them. Fortunately, they are all soft and sturdy objects. If they were filled with porcelain or jade, I would definitely teach you a lesson if they were smashed or damaged."
The maidservant felt wronged, "Uncle Fu, we know we're in the wrong. The iron hoop rusted and broke on its own. You can't blame us."
"Alright, alright. Quickly pack up and move these things to the West Courtyard. Then, find a blacksmith to fix this iron hoop."
"Oh."
The two maidservants tidied up the box, closed the lid, and carried it away.
Uncle Fu stood rooted to the ground for a while, unable to understand why Ji Yunshu wanted something that belonged to his young master when he was young. It was just a handkerchief. Although it was yellow, it wasn't gold!
He couldn't figure it out, so he simply shook his head and left.
Ji Yunshu returned to her room and sat there motionlessly. She stared fixedly at the handkerchief spread out on the table. First, she stared at the bright red jasmine flower, then at the character 'Xu' written on it.
She took out the orange-red jade pendant, aligned it with the 'Xu' character on the handkerchief, and gently overlapped it.
After a long time, she called out, "Zijin."
Shi Zijin's figure landed at the door and walked in.
She cupped her hands, "Teacher, what orders do you have?"
She glanced sideways, "Go to the yamen's study in secret. There's a book called 'Guojian' on the top shelf on the left. Bring it to me immediately."
"Yes."
"Wait. Don't tell anyone, including His Highness."
"Yes."
Shi Zijin didn't question further and complied without hesitation. She left the room and disappeared with a leap.
About an hour later, she returned with the 'Guojian' and handed it to Ji Yunshu.
She couldn't help but ask, "Teacher Ji, what book is this?"
"The surname of our Great Lin's imperial family."
"Why are you looking for this book?"
"I want an answer."
Huh?
Shi Zijin saw that Ji Yunshu was flipping through the book with a frown on her face and knew that it wasn't anything good.
She silently left the room.
Ji Yunshu usually flipped through books quickly, but not only did she flip through the 'Guojian' very slowly, she also read every word carefully, afraid that she might miss a single word.
The 'Guojian' was densely packed with names from the founding of the Great Lin to the present day. It recorded the surnames, first names, characters, titles, and titles of all the members of the imperial family.
A few years ago, when the imperial court sent this book to the Jinjiang yamen, she briefly flipped through it, but found it boring and threw it aside. Sometimes, she even used it to prop up an unstable table. Later on, that muddle-headed Liu Qingping saw it and was scared out of his wits. He hurriedly bent down to retrieve the book from under the table. To prevent it from being used as a stepping stone again, he hid it at the top of the bookshelf and even covered it with several other heavy books.
Hence, she had long forgotten about the existence of that book.
If she hadn't seen the 'Xu' character on the handkerchief, she probably wouldn't have remembered it either.
At this moment, she was flipping through the book very carefully, from the first page to the previous emperor, and then from the previous emperor to the present. The hope in her heart gradually turned into disappointment as the pages slowly dwindled.
Could it be that she was overthinking things?
Until …
When she flipped to the fifth last page, her hand paused. Her gaze fell on a name on the page.
Her hand trembled, and the 'Guojian' almost fell to the ground.
Although she had already guessed it, it still gave her a fright.
The Imperial Duke!
That page happened to be the Imperial Duke's personal letter!
His name, character, and even his title were all written in great detail.
She read the information on the page over and over again. After an unknown amount of time, she closed the book and gently placed it aside. She sat there in silence, not saying a word.
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