"I've heard that your shop's brocade jackets are excellent," Yongzheng said, his voice deep and resonant like the sound of pine trees.
His gaze swept over the ready-made clothes displayed next to the counter, revealing a section of wrist bone protruding from the cuff, its lines sharp as if carved by a knife.
Lin Yun smiled and nodded, pouring tea discreetly, but out of the corner of her eye she noticed another customer looking at the shelves.
The man was half an inch shorter than his companion, and his right leg seemed to have an old injury, so it always landed three times lighter than his left leg.
She pushed the rain-washed sky-blue teacup over and suddenly noticed the gold thread embroidered on the inside of the other person's collar, which was actually a five-clawed dragon pattern!
The tea soup rippled in the cup.
Lin Yun gripped the tray tightly, her face still bearing a polite smile: "The brocade jacket needs to be tailored to fit perfectly. May I ask what pattern our distinguished guest prefers?"
Her heart pounded like a drum as she turned to get the measuring tape.
The two men were dressed in fine clothes but not ostentatiously; their demeanor was more like that of people who had long held positions of power than ordinary merchants.
The taller one, in particular, had a thin callus on the second joint of his index finger from years of holding a pen when he took the teacup; that spot was clearly worn down from long hours of writing.
"Fourth Brother..." Yinxiang suddenly lowered his voice and pointed to the "Snowy Landscape" screen hanging on the wall.
Yongzheng raised his hand to stop him from continuing, but his gaze fell on a silver hairpin in Lin Yun's hair. The hairpin head was carved with intertwined peonies, and the center of the flower was inlaid with the jade ring he had seen on the drawings yesterday.
Lin Yun pretended not to hear the word "Fourth Brother," but her fingertips trembled slightly as she took his measurements.
As the measuring tape passed over Yongzheng's shoulder, she smelled the scent of agarwood mixed with ink from his sleeve. She had also smelled this scent on Xie Yu; it was the imperial ambergris ink.
The measuring tape slipped from her hand. She bent down to pick it up and happened to see the kui dragon pattern embroidered in gold thread on Yongzheng's black boots, only half of its scales and claws showing under the hem of his clothes.
Yinxiang, who was watching from the side, saw clearly that his fourth brother, who was usually inscrutable, had his Adam's apple bob slightly at this moment.
He quickly smoothed things over, saying, "These clothes in the shop are really nice, young lady."
Lin Yun felt it was too close, so she quickly took half a step back and bumped into Yinxiang, who was looking at the fabrics on the side.
The moment the Thirteenth Prince helped her up, she saw clearly the jade thumb ring on his thumb, the mark of the Imperial Household Department's workshop clearly visible in the sunlight.
Suddenly, the sound of a candy vendor hawking his wares came from outside the window.
Taking the opportunity to extricate herself, Lin Yun smiled and said, "You have good taste; our designs are all exclusive."
Then he took out a piece of moon-white satin with a subtle pattern from the curio cabinet and said to Yongzheng, "This fabric suits your demeanor."
"You can pick up your clothes in three days. What is your surname?" Lin Yun asked, bowing her head to record the measurements, stray hairs falling from her temples.
“Fourth Master Zhao,” Yinzhen said slowly.
Lin Yun covered her suddenly contracting pupils. When she wrote the three words "Fourth Master Zhao" in the ledger, the ink was three times darker than usual.
Yongzheng nodded, and before leaving, he suddenly looked back: "The young lady's peony hairpin..."
He lightly touched his hair bun with his fingertip, saying, "If you turn Yang Guifei's hair counterclockwise three times, there will be a surprise."
Lin Yun stood frozen in place.
Only after the two figures disappeared at the end of the long street did she slowly raise her hand to touch the hairpin.
She never showed the design drawings of that mechanism to anyone.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
