Shen Hanshan tapped and knocked on the stone door, and carefully examined the surrounding area, but found no mechanisms or buttons. Only two barely noticeable grooves were found in the tightest part of the stone door.
He pressed his ear close to the stone door, closed his eyes, and listened to what was happening inside. But the stone door was too heavy, blocking out all sounds, and he couldn't hear anything.
Now that they had followed the clues to this place, Shen Hanshan was naturally unwilling to give up.
He sat down cross-legged on the spot, intending to rest for a while and recover his strength before using his internal energy to transmit his voice to see if he could let Zhao Zhi know that he was looking for her.
Inside the cave, Cui Shenghe took off his outer garment, carefully wrapped his mother's remains, and placed them on the spot. He then continued walking inside with Zhao Zhi.
The two walked forward about a hundred paces and found a stone door. The stone door was half open, and Cui Shenghe threw the sword in his hand inside. Finding nothing unusual, the two then cautiously stepped inside.
"This, this is actually..." Zhao Zhi was shocked by what she saw.
Her gaze swept over the furnishings that shouldn't have been there: a large wooden bed covered with a slightly worn brocade quilt, with several exquisite porcelain pillows on the headboard; beside the bed, a carved wooden table stood quietly, with not only a teapot and teacups on it, but also an unfinished chess game, the chess pieces scattered, seemingly telling of the leisure and elegance of the past.
Cui Shenghe's gaze fell on the inconspicuous tea canister on the table. He gently picked it up, opened the lid, and a faint aroma of tea instantly filled the air. It was the Tongue & Belly Tea that he knew all too well.
His heart raced, an indescribable excitement welling up inside him. "This tea... is the tea my mother loved most when she was alive," he murmured, his voice trembling slightly.
He slowly put down the tea lid, looked around, and saw a long desk at the back with various solidified paints on it and a stack of yellowed Xuan paper.
Cui Shenghe stared intently at the sheets of Xuan paper and strode over. But his hand hesitated when it touched the paper.
On the other side, Zhao Zhi found a seemingly ordinary box in a corner of the room, covered with a thin layer of dust and shrouded in several layers of spider webs.
She stepped forward, gently brushed away the dust, and held her breath the moment she opened the box.
Inside the box lay a rectangular jade seal, about the size of a palm. The seal was shaped like a coiled dragon, with a square body and the dragon's head serving as the knob. It was made of top-quality Hetian jade, warm and lustrous like cream, with a gentle, warm color.
"Brother, is this... the jade seal we're looking for?" Zhao Zhi said, turning to look for Cui Shenghe.
After waiting for a while without receiving a response, she noticed with a puzzled look that Cui Shenghe was solemnly examining a stack of portraits, seemingly unaware of her calls.
Zhao Zhi frowned slightly, thinking: What is my brother looking at? He's so engrossed in it. She took the jade seal in her hand and slowly walked towards Cui Shenghe.
As she got closer, she realized that the people in the portraits were all Cui Jiao. However, the Cui Jiao in the portraits were dressed less, suggesting that it was a private portrait taken in her boudoir.
She hesitated for a moment, then reached out from behind Cui Shenghe, snatched the portrait, and handed over the imperial seal. "Brother, look, isn't this the imperial seal we've been looking for?"
Cui Shenghe took the imperial seal in a daze, nodded, and choked up without saying a word.
After a long while, when he slowly turned around, Zhao Zhi noticed that his eyes were glistening with tears.
"Brother, don't be like this, you still have me." Zhao Zhi gently hugged him. She could feel his inner pain, as well as his confusion and helplessness.
She had never seen Cui Shenghe so vulnerable since they met.
"Zhizhi, promise me. The palace is a bottomless prison for me. Every day I stay there, I think of my mother being tortured and humiliated by that beast Yun Shu. I... I can't stay here any longer." Cui Shenghe hugged Zhao Zhi tightly, as if trying to draw endless strength from her.
Zhao Zhi was still hesitant.
"Zhizhi, you are the only family I have left in this world. There is no one else who can help me." Cui Shenghe's voice sounded particularly weak.
Zhao Zhi's heart softened immediately. "Okay, brother, I promise you. I, I'll become the empress."
Upon hearing her answer, Cui Shenghe's tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and his hands holding Zhao Zhi loosened abruptly, causing his body to lean back without warning.
"Brother—" Zhao Zhi was shocked and frantically tried to pull Cui Shenghe away, but was pulled down by his heavy body and fell to the cold ground.
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