A Beijing socialite stole my boyfriend; she went crazy after I got married.

Jiang Chu looked at him speechlessly. "This doesn't match the style of my room at all, does it? Why would I put an incense burner here?"

Xie Jing seemed indifferent. "If you're happy, then leave it there."

Jiang Chu: "I didn't intend to move... but is all of this true?"

"Yes, they're all real." Xie Jing looked at her with amusement. "Most of them have been passed down for two hundred years, and some were brought back from overseas auction houses in the last century and just casually placed here."

"You're just leaving them out like that?" Jiang Chu gasped. "Not even a glass case? What if someone accidentally breaks them while cleaning, or... what if a thief breaks in? Just one of these items could buy several courtyard houses in Beijing!"

Xie Jing chuckled softly, pointed to a very hidden shadowy spot above the multi-treasure pavilion, and then pointed to the edge of the carved window frame.

"Although this old house looks dilapidated, it has been completely upgraded with a new security system."

He took Jiang Chu's hand and led her to the window, gently pointing to a very thin gap in the wooden window frame that gleamed with a faint metallic sheen.

"The courtyard is equipped with infrared thermal imaging radar, and the compartments storing valuables are equipped with gravity sensors and micro-displacement sensors. As long as unauthorized personnel approach within 30 centimeters of these antiques, the terminal will react immediately. As for the windows—all the wooden windows here are fitted with high-strength alloy mesh and bulletproof electronic locks. Once the alarm is triggered, the entire courtyard will instantly lose network access and lock, not even a fly can get out."

Xie Jing held her hand in his palm, his tone regaining its usual calmness and control: "The people living here are all elderly, trustworthy people."

Passing through a half-closed hidden door between the flower hall and the main hall, there is a side room that is slightly smaller than an ordinary dressing room.

The furnishings are simple. Against the wall is a rosewood cabinet with a top panel, the doors of which are engraved with a lotus scroll pattern in copper. Next to it is a dressing table made of chicken wing wood, the wood grain of which is as delicate as layered landscape.

Xie Jing walked to the row of cabinets on the left and pulled open a hidden drawer on the third shelf.

It wasn't locked, but the wooden tenons were tightly interlocked, and he used a bit of skill to pull it open.

The drawer was lined with old blue velvet, and a few pieces of jewelry lay quietly inside, gleaming with a deep luster in the thin light that filtered in on a winter afternoon.

"...This is my great-grandmother's dowry."

Jiang Chu held her breath and leaned closer to take a look.

It was a set of silver-gilt headdresses, with extremely fine craftsmanship. The main part was a hairpin with a phoenix holding a pearl in its bead.

The phoenix tail feathers are made out with extremely fine filigree, with each feather vein clearly visible. The phoenix beak holds a perfectly round old mine tourmaline.

Its color is as rich as solidified pomegranate juice.

Beside it are a pair of hair ornaments, shaped like broken plum blossoms, with tiny rice beads embedded in the stamens, each one perfectly round and with a warm, lustrous sheen.

Scrolling down further, you'll find a jade bracelet made of mutton fat.

The jade is warm and delicate, almost translucent white, with a very light sugar-colored stain on the inside, like a stroke of light ink left by time on the white jade.

Below it was a gold filigree plum blossom hairpin, with slender branches and a blooming plum blossom made of extremely thin gold sheets hammered together.

The petals curl slightly at the edges, and a string of tiny gold beads hangs from the center of the flower.

Jiang Chu was overwhelmed by the sights, exclaiming, "My God..."

Xie Jing gently handed it to her.

Jiang Chu carefully took it.

When your fingertips touch the gold sheet, you can feel the extremely subtle undulations left by the craftsman's hammer blows, those marks that remain clear even after generations of hands.

She imagined a newlywed lady from hundreds of years ago wearing it as she stepped through the main gate of this mansion, walked along the blue brick path outside, and entered this house.

Jiang Chu handed it back.

Xie Jing took the hairpin from her hand, looked down at it, and said, "Sit."

He pointed to the embroidered stool in front of the chicken-wing wood dressing table.

Jiang Chu was taken aback: "What are you doing?"

"...I'm asking you to sit down."

Before she could react, the man had already placed his hand on her shoulder and led her to sit down in front of the embroidered stool.

Jiang Chu looked up at him in the bronze mirror.

The mirror is old and polished to a high shine, but it's not a modern mercury mirror. The reflection of people in it has a very faint warm tone, as if it has been filtered by time.

Xie Jing stood behind her and gently untied her casually styled high ponytail, letting her jet-black, shiny hair fall down.

He slowly gathered his slightly wavy black hair, his movements clearly not very skilled, and then used his fingers instead of a comb to comb it from the top of his head to the ends.

The man's fingertips, calloused, brushed against her scalp, sending a subtle, tingling sensation through her.

Jiang Chu unconsciously shrank her neck.

Then he slowed down, parted her hair into two sections, and tried to coil them upwards.

Jiang Chu hesitated, as if she wanted to say something but then stopped.

Xie Jing twisted his hair a couple of times, and then his hair loosened and slid down.

He tried again, this time using a few more fingers, and managed to gather his hair into a bun at the back of his head, but the shape was not very neat, crooked to the left, with a few strands of hair falling from his temples and neck.

Xie Jing was silent for a moment, then said, "...Let's leave it at that. Anyway, you're so pretty, you'll look good no matter what."

Jiang Chu silently looked at the crooked bun on her head in the mirror.

—It's obvious this is his first time doing this.

Xie Jing picked up the plum blossom hairpin, aimed it at the crooked hair bun, and carefully inserted it.

The plum blossoms made of gold filigree slowly bloomed in her dark hair, and the gold bead tassels hanging from the center of the flowers swayed gently, drawing tiny, shimmering traces of light in the reflection of the bronze mirror.

The golden hue against the girl's black hair and fair neck was exceptionally beautiful, like the most stunning stroke of color finally falling into an old painting in an old house.