A painting?!

What kind of painting?

Yu Tang's heart started pounding and his breathing became rapid when he heard this.

"Can you read?" she heard herself asking in a hoarse voice.

"I can't read." The boy cried, looking like he had given up everything. "The manager of the casino asked me to steal it. He said if I could steal it, he would give me five taels of silver. It's a painting of two old men fishing by a river in the mountains..."

Two old men are fishing by the river in the mountains!

Yu Tang immediately thought of the painting "Fishing in Songxi".

She felt her heart aching, her breath short, and her hands and feet trembling.

"Is it this painting?" Yu Tang didn't know how she walked back to the room or how she showed the painting to the boy. She only knew that when she opened the painting, the boy's eyes lit up and he kept saying, "It's this painting, it's this painting. The manager told me that there is a seal on it that was stamped on the hair of the boy next to the old man. It's this painting for sure."

All the things that he had ignored in the past flashed through Yu Tang's mind one by one.

In the previous life, the Li family was robbed, and the Li family became rich... the two thefts in this life, the "Meilin" seal on the child's hair, and the "Chun Shui Tang" that replaced the "Meilin" seal... She seemed to understand, but also seemed to be confused and knew nothing.

"Atang, what's wrong with you?" Chen, Yuyuan, Shuangtao and others came over. Chen even held Yutang and asked in confusion: "Kid, how did you find this painting again? Is there something wrong with this painting? Or..." She asked, looked at the boy who stole things from their house, and then looked at Yutang.

Some things haven't been figured out yet...and, even if they were, her mother would have no other choice but to worry and be anxious.

"It's okay." Yu Tang tried his best to suppress the shock in his heart and said in a calm and indifferent tone, "He said he came to our house to steal the painting, so I asked him."

When the boy heard this, he immediately shouted, "That's it..."

Yu Tang pretended to be careless and hit the boy on the mouth with a scroll, making his words unclear, and said: "Mom, he can't read, and said that someone asked him to come to our house to steal things. I think we have to think about this matter in the long run and wait for Dad to come back. Now let him be taken care of by my eldest cousin, otherwise he will say this and that without telling the truth, and we will be anxious and angry." After that, she gave the boy a threatening look.

Chen had blind trust in her daughter and husband, so she naturally had no doubts. Yu Yuan, however, saw it clearly. He looked at Yu Tang carefully and spoke for Yu Tang: "Yes! Atang is right. I'm here, so you should go to bed early. You have always been in poor health. It would be troublesome if you feel uncomfortable again after all this trouble."

Yu Tang glanced at Yu Yuan and knew that Yu Yuan had seen the problem but was still helping her, so she followed Yu Yuan's words and said, "Mom, because of Lu Xin's funeral, our family still owes money to Tong the shopkeeper!"

Chen didn't dare to linger here any longer, but still asked doubtfully: "Could it be that someone mistook this painting for an authentic one?"

"That's possible." Yu Tang just wanted to coax his mother to sleep, and said with a smile, "Didn't Dad make a mistake at the beginning?"

Chen nodded and went to the inner room accompanied by Shuangtao.

The boy's mother came to ask Yu Yuan for help.

Yu Yuan stared at Yu Tang.

Yu Tang winked at him.

Yu Yuan understood and said to the boy's mother, "Don't worry, we are not mean people. It's just that this is my second uncle's business, and I can't make a decision at this time. I see you are tired, but I'm afraid you won't go back even if I ask you to. I think you should sleep with Mrs. Chen tonight, and I will take care of your boy for the time being. When my uncle comes back, we will discuss what to do."

The boy's mother thanked him profusely and watched him kowtow to Yu Yuan, scolding him for not having any ambition.

Mrs. Chen also noticed something was going on, so she stopped the scolding and took the boy's mother away.

Yu Yuan called Ah Tiao, tied up the boy and threw him into his room.

The brother and sister stood beside the bamboo bushes in the courtyard and talked.

"I just felt something was wrong. I lied to that kid a few times, and he told me something." Yu Tang told Yu Yuan all the information he had just asked about. "I don't know if it's true or not. Brother, if you don't come to me, I will ask you to help me find out."

After she finished speaking, she went to the study with Yu Yuan, relit the lights, spread the painting on the large desk, and carefully examined it while saying, "But I really can't figure out what's so special about this painting - even if it's an authentic one, it has to be exchanged for silver. When Mr. Lu sold this painting, he didn't just ask my father for it. If that person liked this painting, why didn't he just spend a few more taels of silver to buy it? Why did he go through so much trouble? Moreover, this painting is a fake, and it has been appraised by Tong the shopkeeper. If he had always wanted to get this painting, he should have known it."

Yu Yuan read more books than Yu Tang, and he was very fond of calligraphy and painting, and he was more knowledgeable about this than Yu Tang.

He looked at the painting carefully, but could not see any difference: "Could it be that Manager Tong has never made mistakes?"

Yu Tang was stunned.

Why does she think that Manager Tong will not make a mistake?

One is that there was no bad news about Tong the Shopkeeper in his previous life, so she had a preconceived idea; the other thing was that she had viewed this painting countless times in her hands in her previous life, so she would definitely not be wrong!

But Yuyuan's words were like water dripping into a frying pan, splashing oil everywhere.

What if her painting is a fake?

Yu Tang felt his heart suddenly brighten up.

Didn't she just have such a bold idea?

If this was the painting her father bought in her previous life, and this painting was brought to the Li family as her dowry, and someone replaced her painting when the Li family was robbed... then everything seemed to make sense.

This is the original painting!

Shopkeeper Tong was mistaken.

The painting that was in her hand in her previous life was the fake one!

But who replaced the original painting in her hand?

Yu Tang's mind was racing.

At that time, she had already married into the Li family with a tablet in hand. She was the chaste lady of the Li family. The whole Lin'an City was watching her, watching when she could bring back a chastity archway for Lin'an City and the Li family. She seldom went out, but whenever she went out, the people she met who knew her would feel three parts sympathy for her, three parts sighs, and three parts respect for her.

Who would be so stupid as to sneak into her place?

Who would be so brave as to sneak into Li's house?

Moreover, the theft from the Li family was a last resort.

She used to think that the Li family was afraid that bad rumors would spread and affect her widowhood.

But what if that's not the case?

What if the person who stole her painting was a member of the Li family?

The Li family's sudden wealth began not long after she lost the painting.

When Yu Tang thought of this, he felt extremely angry and his head was buzzing.

She moved two lamps to the desk and said to Yu Yuan, "Brother, can you tell what's different about this painting?"

Yu Yuan shook his head, looked at the painting from left to right for a long time, and said with a wry smile: "No wonder people say that you regret not having read enough books when you need them. I wish I had read more books."

Yu Tang immediately thought of Pei Yan.

She shook her head quickly, as if that could shake the thought away.

Pei Yan is the third elder of the Pei family. If she took a painting that was identified as a fake by the shopkeeper Tong to him for help in identification, Pei Yan would probably not only kick her out, but might even think that she was going to cause trouble.

She must be out of her mind to ask Pei Yan for help!

No wonder Pei Yan looked down on her before, she really was... someone who did things without thinking!

Yu Tang sighed and asked Yu Yuan: "Brother, what do you think? Should we show this painting to someone more powerful? I always feel that if that guy didn't fool us, we must be watched by the person who ordered him to steal the painting. If that person can't get the painting, he will definitely cause trouble. We don't know who he is. Even if we want to sacrifice money to avoid disaster, there is no way to give this painting to him!"

Yu Yuan thought for a moment and said, "I will go to my uncle tomorrow and tell him about this. Then I will ask Li Yayi to help me secretly ask the manager of that block to see if he can find out who wants our painting. If my uncle agrees, we will ask the manager of that block to be the middleman and sell the painting to the other party in a high-profile manner."

Yu Tang worriedly asked, "What if they think what we sold them is a fake?"

Yu Yuan was stunned, and after a while he said, "Well, what good ideas do you have?"

"I think it's better to find a way to figure out this painting." Yu Tang said, and suddenly thought of Lu Xin. She stopped talking and looked towards Yu Yuan.

Yu Yuan saw confusion, hesitation, worry, surprise, and even fear in his cousin's eyes.

His heart skipped a beat as he thought of the origin of this painting.

Could it be that Lu Xin’s death was also related to this painting?

Lu Xin was actually a very selfish person. Every time he drank too much, it was other people who paid for it. He almost never bought wine for himself. If he was greedy, he would mostly try to get free wine from others. When he couldn't get free wine, he would be heartbroken and drink two taels of wine.

"I, I'll go find my uncle right now." Yu Yuan jumped up. "We don't know exactly how Lu Xin died. We can only ask my uncle."

Yu Wen was busy with Lu Xin's funeral in another temple on the outskirts of the city.

"The man is innocent, but he is guilty of possessing the jade!" Yu Tang looked at the painting on the desk and wanted to burn it. "This is really an unprovoked disaster!"

But she didn't dare.

She was afraid that even if she really burned the painting, the person who wanted the painting would not believe her and would still come to trouble their family. Moreover, if they could not hand over the painting, their situation might be even more difficult than it was now.

Yu Tang looked at the clepsydra and said, "It will take at least two hours for the city gate to open. You should get some sleep first. I will ask Shuang Tao to call you. Then I will ask Ah Tiao to borrow a mule from Mr. Wu's house. It's early in the morning. If you can't hire a carriage, it's always faster to have a mule to ride than to walk!"

Yu Yuan knew that Yu Tang's arrangement was the best.

Although he felt heavy-hearted, he still forced himself to take a nap as Yu Tang had arranged.

Yu Tang didn't sleep all night.

She kept staring at the painting, hoping to find something different from her previous life. When it was almost dawn, she first called Shuangtao to help Yuyuan prepare dry food, then asked A Tiao to wake Yuyuan up and send him out.