Chapter 678 Wouldn’t your mother carry the key with her and bury it in the ground?
The box was made of agarwood, intricately carved with lotus patterns, and had a brass lock in the middle.
"Where is the key?" Qian Zhenyun asked in a low voice, looking around.
Lin Jiayou pursed his lips and began to search the drawers of the dressing table. Gu Qingchen followed suit and ran to check the low cabinet next to the bed.
There were bottles, jars, odds and ends, everything, but there was no key to open the box.
At this moment, there was a sound of light footsteps outside the yard, accompanied by the deliberate whispers of two servants.
"Did you hear any movement in the princess's room?" a trembling voice asked, "No, could it be the princess's ghost that has returned?"
"Go and take a look." Another voice sounded calmer.
"Heaven and earth, every wrong has its perpetrator. Princess, if you want to find trouble, go find the Zhao family, but don't come back to scare me. I'm a coward."
"What nonsense are you talking about! Let's go take a look. What if a thief takes advantage of the mansion's lax guards and breaks in?"
"Which thief is so bold as to rob the Princess's Mansion?"
"If we lose something, we'll be in big trouble!"
The three children in the room turned pale instantly and froze in their movements.
The sound of approaching footsteps hit their hearts like a heavy hammer.
"Hurry! Put the things back!" Lin Jiayou reacted the fastest. He shouted and hurriedly stuffed the scattered jewelry into the box.
Gu Qingchen and Qian Zhenyun were also panicked and tried frantically to push the heavy wooden box back under the bed.
In the chaos, Lin Jiayou pressed his palm hard on the base of the dressing table. There was a slight "click" sound, and a secret compartment popped out.
But he didn't have time to take a closer look, as the sound of the bolt being pulled came from outside the door!
"Under the bed!" Lin Jiayou made a quick decision. He picked up the jewelry bag with one hand and grabbed Gu Qingchen and Qian Zhenyun with the other hand. Together with the box that had not been completely stuffed in, the three of them used their hands and feet to crawl under the bed.
The three of them held their breath, like three frightened wild cats, clinging to the cold ground, not daring to breathe.
“Squeak—”
The door was pushed open, and a beam of dim light shone in, casting two swaying figures on the ground.
A servant holding a lantern came in cautiously and shone the light around the room.
"Look, there's nothing going on here. It's just the wind that's making the windows rattle."
"Let's go, let's go," the timid servant said in a trembling voice, still feeling frightened. "This place is very spooky. What if the princess is just being nostalgic?"
As he spoke, he even bowed to the four corners of the room, muttering to himself, "Princess, rest in peace. I'll go buy some yellow paper tomorrow and burn some for you."
The door was closed again, and the footsteps outside gradually faded away.
The three people under the bed dared to breathe heavily. Qian Zhenyun patted his chest and said in fear: "I was scared to death. I almost got discovered."
They crawled out from under the bed covered in dust and dirt.
Gu Qingchen looked around the room and said worriedly, "This room is so small, we've almost searched everywhere, why can't we find the key?"
"Hey, Lin Jiayou, your mother didn't take the key with her and buried it in the ground, did she?"
Qian Zhenyun's mouth twitched. He thought that Gu Qingchen was such a good person, but he had such a mouth.
Lin Jiayou ignored her, just glanced at her coldly and walked straight to the dressing table.
"I found the key."
He squatted down, reached into the secret compartment that he had accidentally opened just now, and took out a small brass key.
He took the key, walked to the wooden box, aimed it at the keyhole, inserted it gently, and turned it.
With a "click", the lock opened.
The lid of the box was slowly opened, and with the moonlight shining through the window lattice, a silver light instantly dazzled the eyes of the three people.
"Wow!" Gu Qingchen couldn't help but exclaimed, "Why is there so much silver?"
Lin Jiayou and Qian Zhenyun were quick to act and covered her mouth at the same time, one on the left and one on the right.
"Keep your voice down!" Qian Zhenyun said anxiously, "Do you want to call the servants over again?"
Gu Qingchen's mouth was covered, so he could only nod vigorously.
Lin Jiayou found another piece of cloth and spread it on the ground, then took out the silver ingots from the box one by one.
Under the silver ingot was a thick stack of silver bills, each of which had an astonishingly large denomination.
At the bottom of the box, there lay quietly a green-covered account book and several land deeds.
Lin Jiayou picked up the account book and opened the first page.
In the moonlight, one could see the accounts of several shops clearly recorded in delicate small characters - Jinxiu Cloth Shop, Linlang Pavilion, and Zhenbaozhai.
Gu Qingchen came over to take a look, tilted his head and said, "This Jinxiu Cloth Shop, why does the name look so familiar?"
Lin Jiayou did not give her any extra time to think. He carefully wrapped the banknotes, account books and land deeds in oil paper and stuffed them into his arms. He also wrapped the heavy silver ingots tightly in a bundle.
After doing all this, he locked the empty box again and worked with Qian Zhenyun to stuff it back to its original place under the bed.
The three of them carried two heavy bags and returned the same way, taking advantage of the cover of the rockery and flowers.
Taking advantage of the night, they quietly climbed over the high wall and disappeared again into the darkness outside the princess's mansion.
The three of them ran a long way in a dark alley before finally stopping and leaning against the wall, gasping for breath.
Lin Jiayou took off the bag full of pearl hairpins and jewelry, and took out the bag of banknotes, deeds and account books from his arms and handed them to Gu Qingchen.
"Since I'm leaving the capital, I can't take all these things with me." He looked at Gu Qingchen with an unprecedented seriousness in his eyes. "Please keep them for me first. I'll ask you for them when I come back."
His mother's dying words echoed in his mind, and as he looked at the girl in front of him, a strange feeling arose in his heart.
Giving her the most important thing seemed to be able to bind the fate of the two of them tightly together.
"Okay!" Gu Qingchen agreed very happily. She took the heavy bag without hesitation. "Don't worry, I will hide it well for you. No one can find it!"
Lin Jiayou took out a silver note from another bundle, and stuffed a few pieces of silver into his purse. Except for his clothes, he pushed the rest to Gu Qingchen.
Qian Zhenyun stamped his feet anxiously, "Let's go back quickly! It's almost dawn. If the people from the Zhenguo Mansion find out we're missing, we'll definitely get beaten up again!"
"What are you afraid of?" Gu Qingchen pouted, looking nonchalant. "It's already like this. I'll get stabbed if I stick my head out, and I'll get stabbed if I hide my head."
She seemed to suddenly think of something, her eyes lit up, and she patted Lin Jiayou's shoulder.
"Let's go! Let's go straight to the escort agency! Lin Jiayou, you're going to Jinguan City, and you're unfamiliar with the place. Why not hire an escort who can lead the way and protect you?"
Lin Jiayou and Qian Zhenyun were both stunned for a moment, and then they felt that this idea was simply a stroke of genius.
"Sister, your brain has finally opened up!" Qian Zhenyun praised sincerely.
The three of them hit it off immediately and instead of returning home, they went straight to find the Weiyuan Escort Agency, the largest agency in the capital.
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