After being forced into a marriage with a wealthy family, the virtuous wife caused a huge uproar.

"The Zhao family is a family of scholars. The Empress's grandfather was the Grand Tutor and the Emperor's mentor. Although he has passed away, the Emperor has always remembered his kindness in teaching. The Emperor's smooth ascension to the throne was largely due to the Imperial Tutor's contributions."

If the second prince hadn't gone missing back then, Yuwen Yi would never have been made crown prince, and the empress's position would have been unshakeable, because the emperor and empress were childhood sweethearts.

"So we can just buy a painting or calligraphy by a famous artist and give it to Madam Zhao." Gu Ce had already planned this out.

Through their time together, he had long since realized that Rong Yingluo was completely clueless about managing household affairs and interpersonal relationships.

Fortunately, she now has her grandmother to teach her.

He still couldn't figure out how the Rong family raised their daughter.

Gu Ce led Rong Yingluo to an antique and calligraphy shop called Baibaozhai.

As soon as she stepped inside, Rong Yingluo smelled a pleasant, subtle fragrance of ink.

There was also a faint spiritual energy lingering in the air. This kind of spiritual energy is generally imperceptible to ordinary people, but she was a Taoist priest and could sense it easily.

When she walked to the innermost side against the wall and saw many antiques on the shelves, she realized why she could sense spiritual energy.

Antiques acquire a unique spiritual quality over the long course of time.

This is why Taoist priests often use ancient objects as their ritual implements.

Rong Yingluo had also studied this. She left Gu Ce behind, walked quickly to the antique shelf, and began to admire it.

Her eyes lit up when she saw a plate placed on the far side.

This wonderful product is just sitting in the store, unsold.

"Wow, this gilded silver plate with a double fish design is at least five hundred years old," Rong Yingluo murmured. "Husband, come and see this."

Gu Ce was being led by the shopkeeper to look at calligraphy and paintings when he heard Rong Yingluo's voice and walked over in a few steps.

I saw Rong Yingluo staring at an inconspicuous plate, so old that it had no aesthetic value whatsoever.

"Husband, this is a good thing! It can be used to test for poison. If you use it to hold food, it can detect most kinds of poisons," Rong Yingluo exclaimed excitedly.

Gu Ce glanced at the plate with a hint of disdain: "Are you sure?"

"Of course." Rong Yingluo nodded firmly.

Gu Ce thought to himself, "I doubt anyone would dare to touch this plate of food."

"Mrs. Gu, how did you figure that out?" The shopkeeper was extremely surprised. This item had been in the shop for almost a year, and no one had shown any interest in it.

The shopkeeper assumed it was an old silver plate, and because of its age, the surface was completely blackened and worn, making it impossible to tell that it was made of silver. Otherwise, he wouldn't have left it out there like that.

Several times he tried to give them away as a bonus, but he couldn't manage to give them away.

"I have my own trick. I can't tell you." Rong Yingluo picked up the plate, looked at it from left to right, and liked it more and more. "Shopkeeper, how much is this?"

"Mrs. Gu, is this really as good as you say?" The shopkeeper wondered if Mrs. Gu was simply blind.

"Just tell me how much you'll sell it for?" Rong Yingluo just wanted to know the price.

"Young Madam Gu, ten taels of silver will suffice. We have a dozen or so similar plates in our storeroom, even older than this one. Would you like them?" The shopkeeper thought that since they were going to be thrown away anyway, it would be good to sell them for some silver.

"Bring them all out so I can see them." Rong Yingluo was even happier when she heard there were more than a dozen left.

The shopkeeper had someone bring over those dozen or so.

Rong Yingluo examined them one by one, and found them to be even older than the one displayed outside. Some of them had bubbles or pits on the surface, making them completely worthless for collection or use. No wonder they were kept in a corner like trash.

"I'll take them all. Please name your price, shopkeeper." Rong Yingluo wasn't short of money, so she certainly wouldn't let go of anything she liked.

These things may seem worthless now, but they'll be different once they've been in her hands.

"Mrs. Gu, do you really want it?" The shopkeeper was a little confused.

"certainly."

"There are eighteen in total, so I'll give you one hundred taels." The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment before raising his price considerably.

Gu Ce wanted to stop her, but Rong Yingluo had already agreed.

"Yinghong, put everything in the carriage. Remember to buy a few pounds of vinegar and some cheap tea leaves. When you get back, boil water and brew two vats of strong tea," Rong Yingluo instructed.

"Yes, Miss." Yinghong picked up the plate and left.

The shopkeeper was startled; he hadn't understood what Madam Gu had said.

"Madam Gu, what are the vinegar and tea leaves you mentioned used for?" the shopkeeper asked.

"Of course it has a wonderful use! If you want to know what I use it for, you can exchange it for silver." Rong Yingluo smiled mischievously.

"How much silver do you want?" The shopkeeper had already guessed that it was for restoring the plates.

"One thousand taels," Rong Yingluo demanded, making an exorbitant demand.

"This..." Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper realized that asking for a thousand taels of silver was simply outrageous.

"You don't want to? Then forget it." Rong Yingluo didn't care; she could keep this skill and open her own antique shop.

Rong Yingluo continued to look at other items.

Although Gu Ce wasn't particularly interested in antiques, he could appreciate them.

He followed behind Rong Yingluo, examining each item one by one.

He saw a deep purple inkstone with a delicate and warm texture and natural "fish brain jelly" stone patterns on it. This Duan inkstone caught his eye.

He reached out and picked it up, examining it closely. There were inscriptions underneath, indicating the origin and production date of this Duan inkstone.

It has been more than a hundred years since then.

"Lord Gu, this Duan inkstone was used by an imperial censor from the previous dynasty 180 years ago. It was recently brought to our shop by a tomb raider," the shopkeeper explained.

"That's fake." Rong Yingluo didn't even turn her head, looking at the vase in her hand, before saying that the Duan inkstone was a fake.

"Madam Gu, you can't just say things like that. This is an antique that our boss personally appraised," the shopkeeper retorted.

If word gets out, he can forget about doing business in his shop.

"If I say it's fake, then it's definitely fake." Rong Yingluo put down the vase in her hand, took two steps forward, picked up the inkstone, and gently touched the inscription on the bottom of the inkstone with her slender fingers.

"The inscription 'Made in the Renyin Year of Yucheng' has too even force at the turns of the strokes, which makes it lose the charm of the carving at that time and seem too deliberate."

I know the former imperial censor you mentioned. In his later years, he was confiscated for embezzlement, and all his belongings were seized and confiscated by the state treasury. How could he possibly be buried with the emperor?

It's even less likely to fall into the hands of tomb raiders. And most importantly, this inkstone doesn't possess the spiritual energy of heaven and earth accumulated over time," Rong Yingluo analyzed.

The shopkeeper's expression changed slightly, but he still forced a smile and said, "Young Madam, you may not know this, but this inkstone was used by that high-ranking official when he was an honest and upright official. Later, he gave it to a friend, who put it in the coffin when he was buried."

"Shopkeeper, think about it. In the end, he had to rely on his friends to collect his body. Would his grave attract the attention of tomb raiders?" Rong Yingluo didn't know how to educate this shopkeeper anymore. He didn't even understand such a simple principle.

"Husband, smell it carefully," she said, bringing the inkstone close to Gu Ce's nose.

Gu Ce sniffed hard.

"Can't you smell much ink fragrance?" Rong Yingluo asked.

"There's not much ink fragrance," Gu Ce said, expressing his feeling.

"A genuine old inkstone, after years of being soaked in ink stains and used by its owner, has, over time, allowed the ink to penetrate deep into the stone, its essence becoming one with the stone, resulting in a deep and smooth texture."

However, the ink fragrance on this inkstone is mixed with the smell of beeswax, which is to make the newly carved antique patina look more lustrous.

This kind of antiquing technique is a common trick used by several counterfeit workshops in the south these days. Rong Yingluo handed the inkstone to the shopkeeper so that he could smell it too.