Chapter 37 Bamboo Silk Yarn
After returning to the palace, Qiandeng personally led the Jin family to Jinfeng Pavilion where Jin Tang lived during his lifetime.
All the young men's residences were simply furnished due to their hasty move-in. Only Jin Tang, a famous playboy in Chang'an City, had all his daily necessities extremely complicated. His small residence was filled to the brim with furnishings.
A small agarwood table, a screen inlaid with various gems, a tray carved from rhinoceros horn, and glazed cups and bowls...
All the luxurious and dazzling utensils still shine brightly and dazzlingly after their owners pass away.
On the parrot stand under the corridor, Jin Tuantuan was squatting there, looking around. Seeing someone coming, he flapped his wings and chirped joyfully: "The county lady is here! The county lady is so happy! Why isn't it the county lady? When will the county lady come to find me..."
Things have changed and people have changed. The ignorant bird is still calling out to the county lady for its owner, but it doesn't know that its owner will never come back.
The people in the Jin Mansion packed up their belongings in dejected sorrow. The head of the household reached for the parrot stand, but hesitated for a moment and asked Qiandeng for his advice. "County Lady, this parrot has been with my husband since he was little. I heard it once had a fight with a wild cat, and you saved its life. It's been living with my husband in the palace ever since, so it must be familiar with the surroundings... I wonder if you, County Lady, would be willing to keep it?"
Qiandeng nodded silently and signaled the maid to take down the parrot stand and take it to her courtyard.
After seeing off the Jin family, Qiandeng returned to the front yard and saw Aunt Xuanji standing under the eaves looking at the parrot, her face also covered with tears.
Qiandeng walked to her side and looked at the parrot with her. Both of them were silent and sad, unable to speak for a long time.
"Among the many young masters in the backyard, I've had the most interactions with Young Master Jin regarding renovations... He may appear flashy, but he's actually quite honest. Our palace was saved thanks to his help after the war. Otherwise, we'd probably still be in ruins like the other mansions in the capital..."
Aunt Xuanji choked up as she wiped away the tears rolling down her cheeks. She asked, "County Lady, do you think the person who killed Mr. Jin... could it really be Ji Jishi?"
"I don't know." Qian Deng slowly shook his head. "The case is still confusing and we need to continue investigating to find out the truth."
The most suspicious person at the moment should be Ji Linyou.
But... Qian Deng was thinking this, and the scene of Ji Lin swimming over there suddenly appeared in front of his eyes.
All his relatives escorted him here, forcing her to agree to keep him in the palace.
How could those hot-blooded men know that the danger in her backyard was no less than the battlefield they were on.
Of the fifteen gentlemen who had ever set foot in the backyard of her palace, more than half had already died young.
How could she believe that the person who repeatedly committed murders could be this good man sent by a family of loyal heroes?
After adding some food and water to the parrot, Aunt Xuanji noticed that the wind was blowing under the corridor, so she advised Qiandeng to go back to the house and rest for a while.
She took out the cloth she had just brought and compared it to Qiandeng's body. "It's getting hotter in the summer, and this bamboo silk yarn is cool and breathable. The plain white color is also suitable. It's perfect for making two daily narrow-sleeved shirts for the county lady."
Qiandeng casually touched the material. He was about to nod his head and forget about these trivial matters, but when he picked up the cloth, he suddenly felt a little surprised and asked, "What kind of material is this?"
If she remembered correctly, the fabric felt very similar to the one worn by the corpse in the canal. The only difference was that the corpse's was bamboo green, while she was still in mourning, so the fabric she chose was plain white.
After the incident, they went to the cloth shop to inquire, but have not received any definite information so far. It seems that the material is not common.
Aunt Xuanji explained, "This is called bamboo silk yarn. It's not available in the capital. It's a material unique to the Jiangnan West Road. Summers there are hot and humid, so the weavers by Dongting Lake blend fine linen and silk to make this material. It has the lightness and softness of silk, yet is as breathable as linen. Even when wet with sweat, it's light and thin, not clinging to the skin. The county lady has been suffering from frequent dreams and night sweats, so Madam specially sent someone to find this material there and made several sets of underwear for you."
Qiandeng was lost in thought: "Dongting Lake..."
"That's right. It's Mr. Meng's hometown. The Meng family's ancestral home is there."
She suddenly became suspicious.
Because of his age, height and old leg injuries, they initially determined that the deceased who left the blood letter was Su Yunzhong.
But how could Su Yunzhong wear the unique clothes of the Dongting Lake, escape back to Beijing and drown in the canal?
After twisting the piece of bamboo yarn again, Qiandeng frowned slightly: "Have I ever worn this kind of material before? Why don't I have any impression of it?"
"Of course, the County Lady has never worn something with this texture," Aunt Xuanji explained. "This material is mixed with fine linen, so it's a little prickly when worn next to the skin, which is unsuitable for the County Lady's delicate skin. So, after the garment is cut, it must be washed and pounded repeatedly in water until the linen fibers inside become soft and loose before it can be worn by the County Lady."
"I see. Are other families like this?"
"No, that won't happen. This material is mixed with silk and has a bright luster. It's considered expensive for ordinary people and they wouldn't wear it as underwear. Besides, ordinary people prefer new and thick clothes. Even cloth clothes must be washed and smooth to be considered decent. They are not like us who wash and soften the material before wearing it for daily comfort."
The gap between people is as huge as heaven and earth. No wonder none of them could recognize the fabric.
Cui Fufeng came from a prominent family and had broad knowledge, but he was unable to understand the lives of ordinary people in detail; Ling Tianshui came from the Northwest Army and was a million miles away from the lives of the people in the south of the Yangtze River; and she, the county lord, was born into a pampered family and had no idea of the sufferings of the people.
In this case, could the body in the canal be Su Yunzhong?
He was a native of Ganzhou. Something happened in Chang'an, and his family was implicated and exiled to Bohai. Since the rebellion, searches for displaced persons have been conducted across the country. Having narrowly escaped death, why didn't he seek his family in the remote northeast, where the emperor was far away? Why didn't he return to his hometown in the northwest to hide? Instead, wounded, he went to hide in the western part of Jiangnan. How did he return so quietly?
There was wind and rain at night, with lightning and thunder.
In the pouring rain, Meng Lanxi, holding an oil-paper umbrella, came to the front yard and whispered to the maid who was keeping watch: "I think the weather is not very good today. I wonder if the county lady slept well?"
It was Liuli who was on guard today. She looked inside and saw that the county lady was turning around in the tent, so she quietly asked Meng Lanxi whether she should increase the intensity of the incense.
Meng Lanxi listened to the noise inside and said, "Then I'll give the county lady some more as appropriate."
He had been taking good care of the county lady for the past six months, and this was his usual practice. Liuli was used to it, and yawning, she asked him to sit down in the outer room, then turned around and took out the incense burner from the inner room and placed it on the small table.
Meng Lanxi added a few more incense powders to the incense burner and pressed them carefully and evenly. After thinking about it, she took out the box from her sleeve and carefully shaved a few strands of agarwood and put them in.
The lights are dim and the sound of rain is sleep-inducing.
Meng Lanxi mixed the spices, held the incense burner and looked up. The hypnotic incense had a remarkable effect. Liuli was leaning on the back of the chair and dozing off, and didn't even notice that he got up.
The sound of Qiandeng's uneasy breathing could be heard from the inner room. In this silent night, he knew that he should not step into the county lady's sleeping place, but the people around him were silent, and the maids waiting in the outer room and next door did not notice that the county lady was calling softly for someone to fetch water.
He hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided not to wake up Liuli and the other maids.
With a sense of luck and dark joy, he secretly stepped into the county lady's bedroom holding the incense burner.
After placing the incense burner on the table, he poured a cup of tea from the still warm teapot, walked to the county lord's couch, half-knelt across the curtain, and handed the tea to the front of the tent.
Qiandeng turned around in a daze and stretched out her hand from the gauze embroidered with flower branches.
The branches of crabapple, peach blossoms and lilies on the curtains were so bright that they made her hand look as white as snow.
She gently grasped the teacup he handed over, her cool fingertips brushed lightly across his palm, and took the tea.
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