The second floor was spacious, and the shelves on the second floor were all shorter than a person's height. As soon as someone spoke, they could hear an echo. Yu Shu and Feng Zhaomiao both heard the voices coming from the second floor. Yu Shu put down the scroll in her hands.
It can't be so coincidental, right? Yu Shu turned her head and stood on her tiptoes to take a look. Her line of sight passed through the rows of shelves and saw two female students in yellow standing at the staircase, talking. She even recognized one of them. What a coincidence.
Feng Zhaomiao immediately sat up from the ground and looked outside. When she saw who it was, she quickly retracted her head and gently pulled Yu Shu's sleeve. She winked at her and waved her hand at her to tell her not to make a sound. She pointed to the rows of bookshelves behind her, silently signaling her to hide first.
Yu Shu understood. She casually grabbed the file that she had just been reading and bent down to hide under the bookcase. She quietly moved back. Feng Zhaomiao quickly closed the few open bookcases and also bent down to follow her.
There were at least a hundred shelves on the second floor, so it wasn't difficult to hide here. Yu Shu and Feng Zhaomiao went under the shelves on the northernmost side and hid behind them. There was an aisle that was as wide as two arms' length between them.
Feng Zhaomiao pricked up her ears and listened. She covered her mouth with one hand and whispered to Yu Shu on the other side of the aisle, "Unlucky. It's Zhao Liu 'er and Ji Xingxuan. Ji Xingxuan has seen you before. I have a grudge against Zhao Liu' er, so I can't let her find out that I sneaked in with someone else. Otherwise, she'll definitely make trouble for me. Let's hide first and find a chance to sneak out later."
Yu Shu nodded. She and Ji Xingxuan also had a grudge against each other. In this kind of situation, it would be best if she could avoid meeting Ji Xingxuan. Otherwise, if Ji Xingxuan saw her here, it would be hard to guarantee that she wouldn't cause trouble.
Just as she was thinking about this, they heard footsteps approaching their hiding place. They walked on the carpet and stopped after a few steps. They must be searching the shelves nervously. Yu Shu and Feng Zhaomiao looked at each other. Feng Zhaomiao slightly poked her head out and quickly retracted it. She gently waved to Yu Shu and pointed behind her. She mouthed, "They're coming. go to the back."
Yu Shu stuffed the file in her hand into her cotton-padded jacket, pressed her hands on the ground, and crawled to an aisle at the back. Feng Zhaomiao nimbly leaped over and followed closely behind her.
"Sister Xingxuan, I found it! It's here. Come quickly! "A woman's shout came from the aisle, and there was hidden joy in her voice.
Then, there was a burst of hurried footsteps. Yu Shu knew it was Ji Xingxuan coming this way. She crawled a few steps forward and heard the footsteps slow down.
"Sister, look, it's the exam paper from the Feng Shun era, right?" Zhao Liu-er excitedly took out a file from the bookcase and showed it to the person opposite her.
"Shh, lower your voice."
Ji Xingxuan warned her in a low voice. But when she saw the signature on the file, her eyes lit up with joy.
"What are you afraid of? Mu Xiu, everyone in the study garden went to visit the Headmaster. Who would come to the Dao-Carrying Building for no reason?"
"Alright, hurry up and find all the files from the Feng Shun era. Look through them and see where the exam paper is." The two girls stood in front of the bookcase and searched. At the other end of the bookcase, Yu Shu and Feng Zhaomiao were hiding and happened to crawl past. Hearing their conversation, their curiosity was aroused. They stopped at the same time and pricked up their ears to eavesdrop. There was only one thought in their mind: What were they looking for?
After about five minutes, Yu Shu heard the strange girl's disappointed voice again. "There's nothing in these two files. What about yours?"
"… I don't think so. If I look carefully, I might have missed it."
The voice was close to the wall. Yu Shu's eyelids suddenly twitched. Curious, she turned her head and saw a gap between the bookcases. She couldn't help but move closer and peep through the gap. First, she saw a coral red skirt. She looked up and saw a white hand holding a red paper scroll. Behind the scroll, only half of a veiled nose could be seen.
"Let's go." Feng Zhaomiao's soft voice drifted into her ears. Yu Shu was about to retract her gaze when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. She saw a snow-white wrist flipping through a book on the other side of the cupboard. The sleeve slid down, revealing a red string. A touch of lustrous yellow jumped out.
Yu Shu's eyes suddenly widened. She stared unblinkingly at the small yellow bead falling from the red string. Gradually, it overlapped with a round little thing in her memory. "Yellow frost, is it the Yellowfrost Stone!?"
Feng Zhaomiao saw that Yu Shu was stunned and didn't leave. Fearing that she would be discovered later, she pulled Yu Shu's sleeve again.
Yu Shu suddenly came to her senses. She lowered her head and frowned. Without saying a word, she followed Feng Zhaomiao out of the corridor and trotted downstairs.
Feng Zhaomiao stuck her head out from the corner of the stairs. Seeing that there was no one downstairs, she beckoned to Yu Shu and the two of them ran out of the Dao-Bearing Tower like rabbits.
The hunch-backed old man, who was standing under the bookshelf sorting out the scrolls, turned his head and looked at the door that the two of them ran out of. His old eyes were glazed over, and he coughed twice.
On the second floor, only Ji Xingxuan and Zhao Liuer were left. They had flipped through the Feng Shun era's papers, but they didn't find what they were looking for.
Zhao Liuer bit her finger and muttered, "What's going on? Master clearly said that the Dayan exam paper for Yun Hua Yi Zi was placed in the Feng Shun era. Did I hear it wrong?" Ji Xingxuan didn't make a sound. She looked at the stack of scrolls on the bookshelf and thought for a moment. Then, she looked for the dates and months marked on each of the scrolls and found a problem. "The scroll for the eighteenth year is missing."
"Ah? A scroll is missing? "Zhao Liuni hurried over to take a look.
Ji Xingxuan handed the scroll to her, then stood on her tiptoes and looked around. Her gaze fell on a wrinkle on the carpet not far away. Her expression suddenly changed, and she strode towards the stairs.
"Hey, where are you going? Aren't you going to look for it?" Zhao Liuer called out from behind her. Seeing that Ji Xingxuan didn't respond, she could only shove the scrolls into the bookshelf and jog to catch up with her.
The two of them went down to the second floor. Ji Xingxuan stood on the stairs and looked around. She found the back of the old man who was sorting out the books. She quickly walked down the stairs and asked, "Uncle Qin, did anyone come to the Dao-Bearing Tower and go up to the second floor?" The old man slowly turned around. His two cloudy eyes seemed to be unable to see people clearly. He raised his eyelids and carefully looked at Ji Xingxuan. Then, he tilted his head and put one hand over his ear, asking loudly, "What did you say?"
Ji Xingxuan lowered her head and raised her voice. "I'm asking you, did anyone go up to the second floor just now?"
This time, the old man heard an "oh" and replied slowly, "… No."
Then, he coughed twice and turned back to his work.
Zhao Liuer pulled on Ji Xingxuan's arm and asked nervously, "What happened?" Ji Xingxuan said in a low voice, "That scroll must have been taken away by someone else."
"Ah?!"
Feng Zhaomiao led Yu Shu out of the Dao-Bearing Tower and stopped a long distance away. He patted his chest and panted, "That was close, that was close. If that stupid girl saw me, I would have been in big trouble. No wonder my eyelids kept twitching this morning." Yu Shu also rested her feet on the railing. She turned her head to look at the location of the treasure that was set up by the lake. Her eyes flashed thoughtfully, and her heart was filled with doubt and confusion.
Unless she was blind, there was another stone that looked exactly the same in this world. Otherwise, the one she saw just now must be the Yellowfrost Stone that Jing Chen gave her.
But how did it fall into the hands of Ji Xingxuan? Could it be that she found it after she lost it in Yiyang City?
That wasn't impossible. She carefully thought back to the days when she lost the Yellowfrost Stone. Yu Xiaoxiu had visited the Ji family and heard that Ji Xingxuan had returned home from the capital. Her days were not bad.
But why did she have to be so lucky to have picked it up by herself!
Yu Shu was depressed. Look at the other person's luck, and then look at her own. The other person randomly picked up a treasure, but she didn't even know what it was, and lost it in a muddle.
Now, how could she get the Yellowfrost Stone back?
She could directly find Ji Xingxuan and explain to her, "You picked up my thing, now return it to me." This would most likely not work. Ji Xingxuan had eyes. She could see that Ji Xingxuan used a red string to thread the bead and carried it with her. She knew that Ji Xingxuan knew what it was. Even if she didn't know the origin of the Yellowfrost Stone, she knew that it was a good thing. Otherwise, why would the Fourth Miss of the Ji family randomly carry a small stone with her?
She was afraid that Ji Xingxuan knew what it was. In this world, there were only a few people who didn't pocket money they picked up. Even if she was a petty person, if Miss Ji was a noble person and would rather return the stone to its owner, she would have no way to prove that she lost the stone.
Besides, not long ago, Ji Xingxuan asked her to teach her the Six Lines Cutting Method. She even played a trick on her. Who knew if Ji Xingxuan was as narrow-minded and vengeful as her? It would be good if she didn't take the opportunity to make things difficult for her. Give it back to her and keep dreaming!
Feng Zhaomiao looked at Yu Shu shaking her head and sighing alone. She thought that she was regretting that she couldn't read more papers, so she comforted her, "It's okay. Come back tomorrow. I will take you in again."
Hearing this, Yu Shu had an idea and asked, "This is not safe. What if I encounter a situation like today again? Isn't it scary enough? Can't you take a few files out for me to read?"
Feng Zhaomiao shook her head without thinking, "How can I do that? You don't know that the books in Taishi Library are absolutely not allowed to be taken out. They can't even leave the building. Once you are caught, you can forget about staying in school. Otherwise, why would I take the trouble to sneak you in? I can just find those files for you to read."
"I see." Yu Shu nodded with understanding. She thought that the rules of this Taishi Library were quite strict. No wonder there was no one to look after such a big place. There was only an old man to clean it. They were not afraid of people stealing books. It turned out that there was such a severe punishment. As long as you were caught stealing a book, you would be expelled from school.
It was really terrible. "Let's go. Maybe Brother Rui is already waiting for you outside."
"Okay."
Not far from the gate, Feng Zhaomiao sent Yu Shu out. Xue Rui hadn't arrived yet. Feng Zhaomiao happened to meet an acquaintance and was dragged to drink. Seeing the child's hesitant face, Yu Shu knew that he wanted to play with someone, so she took the initiative to let him go first and made an appointment to come back tomorrow morning.
As soon as Feng Zhaomiao left, Yu Shu didn't stand alone at the door in the cold wind. Instead, she went to the teahouse across the street. She didn't eat lunch, so she felt hungry. She asked for a pot of hot tea and snacks. When she reached into her pocket, she felt a roll of paper.
She hurriedly took it out and saw that it was a dossier she had stuffed into her bosom. Because she was wearing thick winter clothes, she had forgotten about it.
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