Jiaohua

Chapter 1534 Stolen Jade

Shi Baijin left for a short while and came back soon.

She had only a few clothes left, so there was no need to sort them out. She asked her nephews and nieces to carry two small boxes in, and then she sent them away after they put them down.

After seeing them leave the courtyard with his own eyes, Shi Baijin turned back, walked to Xia Zhaoyi with his head down, and spread out his palms: "General A Li, this is it."

A delicate and small piece of Xiuyan jade lay in Shi Baijin's slender and beautiful palm.

Xia Zhaoyi was stunned and picked up the jade.

Shi Baijin said embarrassedly, "When I first saw it, I thought it was jadeite. After I stole it, I found out it was Xiuyan jade, which was not worth much, so I didn't sell it. I kept it and planned to sell it when I was really short of money. But later, I found that they helped Gai Tangcheng a lot and made my family's life better. I wanted to return it to him, but I had no chance because he would hide when he saw me and wouldn't let me get close to him."

After saying that, Xia Zhaoyi lowered her eyes to examine the jade body, and her fingers stroked the reliefs on the surface of the jade without answering. Shi Baijin was afraid that she would be angry: "General A Li, I was wrong. I will never steal again..."

"Okay." Xia Zhaoyi said.

Shi Baijin was delighted: "General A Li, you are not angry with me."

Xia Zhaoyi looked up at her and said, "Miss Shi, what you stole was not mine, but Liang Dechang's. So it is not appropriate for you to ask me this question. I have no right to be angry with you about this matter. You should ask Liang Dechang."

Shi Baijin curled his lips slightly: "I don't even want to talk to them anymore."

Xia Zhaoyi smiled faintly and placed the jade in front of her: "Find an opportunity and go talk to him in person."

Shi Baijin looked at the jade, which lay quietly on the round table. The color was very beautiful, and the hanging silk tassels and carvings on the jade were very delicate. When she first stole it, she would play with it every night before going to bed. However, she soon got bored of it. However, the patterns on it were very special, and she remembered them all.

"Alas!" Shi Baijin sighed, "Forget it. If I do something wrong, I have to accept the punishment. I'll go find him, right now."

She picked up the jade and said, "General A-li, you can pick any of these clothes. Once you're done, I'll have the little guys come over and carry them back."

"Okay." Xia Zhaoyi said.

Shi Baijin turned and left.

Xia Zhaoyi looked at her left hand holding the jade, and his brows furrowed slightly.

She was familiar with the carvings on this piece of jade, but she had never seen them concretely, and they were very fragmentary.

After thinking for a while, Xia Zhaoyi stood up and went to the desk. She took out a few sheets of paper from under the paperweight, and put ink into the paper. Silky lines were lightly drawn under her pen, and her writing was as smooth as a dragon.

Zhan Ning took the prescription to the warehouse to get the medicine. When he came back, he was followed by a group of soldiers carrying boxes of herbs.

Seeing Xia Zhaoyi standing behind the desk with papers covering the entire table, Zhan Ning turned around and signaled the soldiers behind him to be careful and put the things down before leaving.

"Second Miss." Zhan Ning walked over.

Seeing the patterns on the paper, Zhan Ning said, "Why do some of them look so familiar?"

Xia Zhaoyi said as he painted: "When I was in Hengxiang, I entered the peach forest and bamboo garden of the Jin brothers in the village water ridge. Some of the patterns are what I saw in the secret passage below. Some are painted on the coffin board of Zhang Tengfei, the former owner of the Perilla Dyeing Factory."

Zhan Ning said, "I remember that the coffin boards were torn into pieces by Guo Yunzhe when he went crazy."

"Ah."

"Miss Second has a photographic memory. She's amazing. She still remembers it now!"

Xia Zhaoyi stopped writing and said, "There are some more. They were found in the abandoned Chen family's old house in Xizhu Village in Hengxianglinbi Township when Yao Zhen investigated."

To be precise, the things she saw in the Chen family's old house were all things she had seen before in His Highness Qianqiu, including the head hidden in the secret compartment on the wall behind the calligraphy and paintings.

This magic trick can make a dead bone bloom. Zhan Ning nodded: "After the second lady said it, I remember everything."

"The last part is the veins that Su Yumei collected."

"Miss Su?" Zhan Ning thought for a moment, "Was it because of the crowded streets in Xucheng that something she was wearing accidentally fell off and was accidentally seen by someone, which led to her death? Yes, I remember it, it was Uncle Dan, Quan Jiuwei, Chongmenhui and that bunch of bastards. Second Miss, is it those?"

"Well, Shen Lie and I sorted them out later in Qianxue Mansion and found that the patterns that Su Yumei collected were exactly the same as the patterns that Shen An sent to Shen Lie all those years ago."

Zhan Ning frowned and looked back at the table full of drawings: "Second Miss, why do you suddenly want to draw these?"

Xia Zhaoyi put down his pen and said, "You and Shi Guoxin sometimes saw some patterns and said they looked familiar. Do you remember? Just like now."

"Ah."

"Do you remember the jade on Liang Dechang's body?"

Zhan Ning paused, then suddenly realized: "That piece of Xiuyan jade!"

"Ah."

"Yes!" Zhan Ning said excitedly, "I remember now, yes, it's that piece of Xiuyan jade! Although the jade is not worth much, the carvings on it are really delicate, and the tassel hanging on it is also very beautiful! At that time, I stared at the patterns on the jade for a long time! I was wondering why I always felt that some of the patterns were very familiar."

Xia Zhaoyi smiled, raised his hand to pick up the papers spread out on the desk, and folded and pieced them together one by one.

Janine stared intently.

But she moved a part of each piece of paper like a magician, and finally pieced together the complex, varied and entangled patterns on the Xiuyan jade.

Zhan Ning's memory suddenly became clear: "Yes! This is it!"

Xia Zhaoyi asked: "Do you still remember the name of that scholar?"

"Last name... Lin?"

"It's Meng," Xia Zhaoyi said with a smile, "His name is Meng Sixiang."

Zhan Ning held up his chin and said, "Now that I think about it, it's strange. Although his jade is not valuable, it can be worth a few taels of silver. How could he be so hungry and skinny, and then be picked up by Liang Dechang?"

"If it's a pursuit, would it make sense?"

“It seems to make sense.”

Xia Zhaoyi picked up the paper with the pattern that Su Yumei and Shen Lie mentioned, and said calmly: "At the beginning, Su Yumei mentioned the Luyan Township of Ningsi. I wonder if it is related to that."

"It's in the northwest, so why don't we go take a look?"

Xia Zhaoyi smiled and said, "The northern barbarians have not been annihilated yet, and the military is busy, so who wants to go?"

"So, send someone?"

"If there were enough manpower, why would I let Guan Chi, Fan Yu and the others completely withdraw from Gaitang City?"

"Yes, it's really difficult. Should I write a letter back to Hengxiang and ask Wang Fengnian to select a few people to go? It would be a long journey back and forth."

"Don't worry," Xia Zhaoyi started to organize the papers on the table, then went out to check the herbs in the boxes, and said with a smile, "Let's make the ointment and pound the pills first. Those people who are talking nonsense are just using their free time to exercise their brains and kill time."