Chapter Seventy-Ninth: Unraveling the Cocoon

  The next morning, when Akane carried the child to see Madame Zhang in the main courtyard, she seemed a bit distracted. Madame Zhang asked suspiciously: "What's wrong with you? Didn't you sleep well last night? You didn't used to have trouble sleeping, did you?"

  Qiu Ye had something on her mind, but since nothing was confirmed yet, she didn't dare to speak straightforwardly to Zhang Shi. She could only force a smile and say: "The child was being naughty last night and refused to sleep, I didn't fall asleep until the third watch, so I'm feeling a bit off."

  Her child is still young and naive, can't understand or speak, perfect for taking the blame.

  Mrs. Zhang immediately believed it and understandingly said: "It was my fault, your child is still so young, can't leave his mother's side, but I dragged you to work hard all night, it's all my fault. Today you come to help again, I'll take care of the kid for a day."

  Qiu Ye handed the child over to Zhang Shi, and took two maidservants and two women with her to the warehouse to check things according to the ledger. Lu Da Shou closely followed behind, his eyes fixed tightly, Qiu Ye's heart had already harbored doubts, seeing him so tense made her suspicions even stronger.

  She deliberately took extra care, carefully checking all the antiques, decorations, and paintings twice. The paintings had to be taken out one by one and shown to Zhang Shi. She knew her eyesight wasn't good, but Zhang Shi was very familiar with these paintings, so if someone tried to pass off a fake as real, she would surely notice at a glance. As for the miscellaneous items packed in boxes, Autumn Leaf checked them extremely carefully. If even one cup or bowl was missing, and it was marked on the inventory as broken, she would ask Lu Da Shou where the pieces were. The person who broke the item was recorded in the ledger.

  Lu Dajiu's forehead was sweating more and more, already exceeding the normal range. Zhang looked at him and felt strange, so he asked: "Are you feeling hot? Today's weather is fine, there are clouds, not too sunny."

  Lu Dazhou smiled and replied, "Tell the old lady that in the capital these days it's hot and dry, our house has many trees and the buildings are high. So we don't feel how terribly hot it is outside. I've always had a problem with summer heat, running back and forth like this makes me sweat even more."

  "Ah, poor thing! Order the kitchen to brew more cooling tea to dispel the summer heat and distribute it to everyone. You have two more bowls."

  Lu Dasou had to grit his teeth and go to the kitchen to pass on the message. Zhang Shi then said to Akira, "I know you're usually meticulous, but even if these cups and plates were broken, it would have taken a few years, not something that just happened. What's the point of asking about the fragments? Dasou is in charge of this house, but he's only a few years old, what can he understand? Even if there are some oversights, people will take advantage of them, it's inevitable. Let's just forget about it."

  Qiu Ye responded in a low voice and waited for Lu Da Shou to come back. She continued to check the items and saw that some worthless small things were damaged, so she didn't ask any more questions, but just wrote them down on the ledger as they were.

  However, whether she relaxed her requirements or not, the fact is that the white jade screen disappeared. After all the furniture, decorations, antiques were checked, and the gold and silver utensils and various porcelain pieces in the box were counted, the screen was still nowhere to be found, and Zhang immediately sensed that something was off.

  Lu Dazhou hastily knelt down to apologize: "I really didn't know about this matter, the things were all personally put away by my mother at the beginning, it's reasonable to say that they shouldn't have been lost. However, this book was compiled when we first divided the family property, perhaps after my family was driven out later, someone might have secretly taken some things away, who knows?"

  "Impossible," said Zhang, frowning and shaking his head. "This white jade screen is no ordinary object. If it had really been taken away, your mother would have noticed when she returned and checked her belongings. When she went south, she took the catalog with her and told me one by one if anything was missing or broken. It's absolutely impossible that she wouldn't have mentioned something as big as this screen. It must have disappeared after she left."

  It's obvious that the items in the warehouse are arranged according to the numbers on the ledger. On the day of the small long house, they had searched the house and moved many things away, only to hastily return them later. The numbers were not in disarray, there were only two possibilities: either Lu Ma rearranged the items according to their original numbers or she rewrote the ledger from scratch. Either way, she would have immediately discovered that the kang screen was missing.

  Lu Dazhou was speechless, earlier there were fewer cups and bowls, autumn leaves had to ask carefully, if he said that the screen was broken, she would also have to ask for the fragments. Such a large piece of white jade, as well as the purple sandalwood frame, cannot be compared with the fragments of cups and bowls, even if they are crushed into powder, they are still worth some money, it is impossible to disappear without a trace, where can he find the white jade fragments and purple sandalwood?

  He could only force himself to say that he really didn't know what the thing was, and he had never seen it before. He didn't know when the thing was lost. He knew he was in the wrong and asked his master to punish him.

  "Alright, your mother has arranged everything and sealed the warehouse door. No one is allowed to enter or exit. You should listen to her. It's not uncommon for people not to have seen each other before entering. Just be careful from now on. As for those people you brought in later, I don't know how many of them are truly reliable. If anyone is found to be dishonest, it's better to get rid of them sooner rather than later."

  Lu Dajiu hastily agreed, his palms already sweating. But having passed this test, he could also breathe a sigh of relief and hurriedly helped Akane sort out the things with even greater diligence.

  The furniture and objects have all been checked, leaving only fabrics, books and other items. Zhang thought that fabrics are the kind of thing that, if stored for too long, go out of style and lose their brightness, so it's a pity to just leave them there. She had Akira pick out the ones that wouldn't last long, including silk, cotton, gauze, and silk gauze, and set aside half for the maids in the house to make clothes with. The other half was packed up and taken back to Fengxian. Some of the more valuable fabrics were also taken back, while the mid-range ordinary satins were all given to Akira and his wife.

  The books, however, had to be carefully examined. Zhang herself opened box after box to take a look, put on moth-repellent incense, and saw which books were suitable for her three generations of ancestors, took them out and put them separately, also preparing to pack up the car and transport it back to Fengxian. After this packing, her luggage increased by three cars.

  After finishing all these things, the sky was about to darken again, so Zhang Shi invited Akira and his mother to stay for dinner. Lu Yunpeng came over to join in on the meal as well, and Zhang Shi was delighted. However, she didn't expect that after they finished eating, Lu Yunpeng exchanged a glance with Akira and his wife, then had the maid take the child away. They asked everyone else to withdraw, but left Zhao Wei behind.

  Zhang saw that Lu Yunpeng's expression was serious and knew that he must have something important to say, so she did as instructed. Zhao Wei personally closed the door and turned to ask Lu Yunpeng: "Sir, is there any instruction from the Guangping King?" He had just served as a secret messenger once before and was still in high spirits.

  Lu Yunpeng then said something that was beyond his expectation: "Autumn leaves mentioned that the old lady's usual white jade screen is gone. I remembered seeing a similar one at a colleague's house before, and thought it was just a coincidence. Today, I swapped shifts with someone and returned to the Imperial City for duty. After chatting with that colleague about some family matters, I made an excuse to visit his home and sat there for a while. Then I saw the similar white jade screen again."

  "Old Madam, do you still remember that year when Wei-ge was just over a year old? Second Madame brought him to your room and put him on the kang to play. You were copying scriptures at the time. Wei-ge was originally quite well-behaved, but suddenly started making trouble, kicking over the kang screen with one foot, which happened to fall beside the kang table. Then he kicked open the kang table with another foot. The inkstone was knocked over and ink flowed all over the kang. The kang screen didn't escape either. Afterwards, although the ink was wiped clean, because there was a mark left by a craftsman on the bottom of the purple sandalwood frame, half of it was stained black by the ink. You said at the time that it would be better to just paint the whole thing black, rather than having it look ugly with one half black and one half white."

  Zhou Wei's face turned slightly red, he had completely forgotten about this matter, but Zhang Shi remembered: "Indeed, there was such a thing, the craftsman also had a reputation, but only this one thing had an imprint, which was stained black by ink." Her eyes suddenly became sharp: "Does your colleague's white jade screen at home have this imprint too?!"

  Lu Yunpeng nodded: "Absolutely true. I used the excuse of admiring things to take the Kang screen into my hands and examine it carefully. Qiu Ye had previously drawn the style of the Kang screen and seal for me, and they all matched."

  Zhang's expression was somewhat complex: "Who is this colleague of yours?"

  His surname is Zhang, and his family background is not bad. However, there's one thing that the old lady should know. Lu Yunpeng paused for a moment, "He calls Princess Yingwang 'Aunt', and he's actually her nephew from a different branch of the family. This thing was given to him by his aunt. He said both he and his aunt like jade, and when Princess Yingwang was young and not yet married, even her hair combs and small boxes for cosmetics were made of jade. After she got married and became a princess, it's even more so. Nowadays, whatever jade objects are in the palace, they're all chosen by her first. But now that she's been bedridden for many years, the concubine is in charge of the household, and she still has to worry about her son's health, so she doesn't have the heart to care about these things anymore. Seeing her nephew liked it, she casually gave him the object as a gift. According to him, that screen was also given to Princess Yingwang by someone else."

  Madam Zhang's face was extremely unpleasant. The white jade screen was a gift from the Duke of Jun, a token of her husband's affection, and it was infuriating enough that it had been lost outside. If it had fallen into someone else's hands, it would have been tolerable, but why did it have to be the Weiyuan Marquis' residence? The Weiyuan Marquis, for his own selfish reasons, wanted to support the younger branch of the Zhao family and nearly caused the death of Zhao Zhuo, the head of the second branch, and his wife. Madam Zhang had long considered him an enemy.

  What's even more infuriating is that Akane reminded her of something: "Things that should be stored in the warehouse at home, why would they end up in the concubine's room? If it was taken during the robbery, Lu Ma would have said so when she arrived in Fengxian. She didn't say anything, which means the things were still there at the time. Da Shou looked at the mansion and how did he let someone take out such a large thing? If it was just a servant seeking wealth and stealing the master's belongings, why would they focus on this stove screen? Although it is worth some silver, it is not easy to sell, and if you want to hide it in your body and sneak it out, it will be easily discovered. Now, those miscellaneous gold and silver utensils and good tea sets are not stolen, but this thing with a name and a mark is taken. Is it possible that the person who stole the things was not just seeking wealth? This stove screen happens to be the first item on the list of famous jade utensils, and it's something that people can tell its value at a glance. Maybe the thief didn't just grab something valuable at random, but rather chose according to the catalog."

  One copy is in Feng Xian's hands, and the other is in Lu Da Shou's hands. If it was really taken according to the book, whose suspicion would be the greatest, simply no need to think about it.

  Zhao Wei couldn't believe it: "You mean that Lu Dasou took the things himself? But he's Lu Ma's son!"

  Zhang also thought it was impossible, but Lu Ma is Lu Ma, and Lu Dasou is Lu Dasou. Moreover, he has a wife too. She had already felt that there was something wrong with this child yesterday, but at the time she only thought that he was influenced by his wife, and as long as he was trained again, it would be fine. Now it seems that the problem is not small: "No matter whether it's him or not, he has the greatest suspicion in this matter. If he did it, who did he steal things for? And why did that person send the thing to the Weiyuan Palace?"

  Zhao Wei calmed down, narrowed his eyes: "Since that's the case, this time when we return home, let's bring him along! Isn't he wanting to follow us? And no matter why he insists on following us, once we leave the capital, he'll be without help, and what can't be asked?"