Chapter 271 Auspicious Clouds
Qin Yuwei told Zhu Lan all the information she knew. In order to conceal her tracks, she did not have time to eat in Yuxiang Pavilion. After explaining everything, she put on her hat again and left through the back door of Yuxiang Pavilion.
Zhu Lan stayed alone for a while after Qin Yuwei left, and then went out through the main gate in broad daylight.
She had to go back to the Hanlin Academy in the afternoon, so she took advantage of the lunch time to go to the place she had agreed with Chu Xin and tell her about Chu Xiuning.
"Sister Zhuangyuan, you said... my aunt is no longer in the palace?" Chu Xin was a little stunned after hearing this. His eyes were blank at first, and then he became anxious.
"Could it be that she has already returned to Tongzhou? But, but I went through so much trouble to come to the capital just to find her..."
As Chu Xin spoke, his eyes turned red and he squatted on the ground and started crying.
"Both my parents are dead. Before he died, my father asked me to come to the capital to find my aunt... I finally got here, but I didn't know how to enter the palace to find her. Woo woo woo... I finally met you and sister Tanhua. I thought I could see my aunt, but she left again..."
Chu Xin cried harder and harder. Zhu Lan couldn't bear it anymore and squatted down to comfort her: "But there may be good news. Your aunt is probably still in the capital."
Chu Xin raised his little face, "...really?"
"Yes." Zhu Lan nodded, "But the capital is so big, we don't know where she is. Chu Xin, think carefully, do you remember your aunt ever mentioning to you that she has any relatives or friends in the capital?"
Chu Xin thought for a long time after hearing this, then shook his head in confusion, "The last time I saw my aunt was a long time ago."
When she said this, Zhu Lan was also in a dilemma for a moment.
Without any clues and in such a vast sea of people, how could she help Chu Xin find that aunt?
"By the way, Sister Zhuangyuan." Chu Xin suddenly wiped away his tears and took out something from his arms. It turned out to be the sandbag that Zhu Lan and Zhu Qingyan picked up last time.
"Isn't this what your father left for you?" Zhu Lan asked.
"This sandbag was actually sewn by my aunt and was kept at my house. Before my father died, he told me to bring this with me to see my aunt, but before he could explain clearly, he had already..."
Seeing Chu Xin's expression darken again, Zhu Lan patted her shoulder gently and took the sandbag in his hand to check it again.
However, apart from the word "辛" embroidered on it, there is nothing special about it.
But now this is the only clue.
Zhu Lan thought about it and asked Chu Xin softly if he could take the sandbag back to have a look.
Chu Xin bit his lip and nodded vigorously, "Although there are many bad people in this world, I believe that Sister Zhuangyuan is a good person!"
So Zhu Lan took Chu Xin's sandbag and left.
After finishing their business in the Hanlin Academy, Zhu Lan returned to their residence with Zhu Qingyan. On the way, Zhu Lan told her about Chu Xiuning and the sandbags.
After returning to the house, Zhu Lan handed the sandbag to Zhu Qingyan. However, after Zhu Qingyan looked through it for a long time, he still could not find any information on it other than the embroidered words.
Zhu Lan felt even more puzzled. Why did Chu Xin's father suddenly ask her to take this sandbag to find her relatives before he died?
"Wait." Zhu Qingyan suddenly found something wrong. His brows slightly tightened, and he took the sandbag under the candlelight to examine it carefully.
Then she asked Zhu Lan to help her get a pair of scissors so that she could cut the sandbag open and see how it goes.
Zhu Lan hesitated for a moment when he handed the scissors to her. After all, this sandbag was given to her by Chu Xin's father before he died. If she cut it open rashly, what if there was nothing inside...
"Look at this embroidered word." Zhu Qingyan pointed at the word "辛" on the sandbag and said to Zhu Lan.
"Generally, simple embroidery would not use such complicated stitches. This is double-sided embroidery."
Zhu Qingyan picked up the scissors with a firm tone, but did not cut it roughly. Instead, he picked out the threads little by little along the original sewing line of the sandbag, so that it could be sewn again later without damaging the appearance.
This sandbag has two layers. Zhu Qingyan carefully unwrapped the outer coarse cloth and saw that the reverse side of the embroidered words was actually a pattern of auspicious clouds.
This auspicious cloud pattern was somewhat different from ordinary ones and was obviously designed, but Zhu Lan and the others had never seen it before.
Chu Xiuning came from the palace, and someone in the clothing bureau might have seen this pattern, but Zhu Lan himself was not convenient to go to the clothing bureau, and Yu Wei could not have such frequent opportunities to enter the palace to help inquire about these things. At this point, he could only wait for a day off to go to a larger silk and satin shop in the capital to ask.
While Zhu Lan was thinking, he heard brisk footsteps outside the door and he knew who it was.
Qiao Youyou hummed a song and walked into the yard with light steps. She was holding a food box in her hand. It seemed that she bought dinner for a few people on the way.
"Why did you come back so early today?" Zhu Lan teased.
She knew that the Ministry of Revenue had been extremely busy recently, and the director of the Department of Revenue had intentionally put many things on Qiao Youyou's shoulders, so she hadn't returned on time for several days.
The results will be reported to the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue tomorrow, and I don’t know how she is preparing.
Qiao Youyou smiled proudly and said that he, a mountain man, had his own clever plan.
Last night, she failed to pull an all-nighter because of Wenren Yuebai, but a good night's sleep also gave her enough energy. Later, with the help of Wenren Yuebai, she finally sorted out the remaining account books.
And... there was also a little unexpected gain.
Doesn’t Min Yuan want to make a fool of himself in public tomorrow to embarrass himself?
But now she has sorted out the account books that were originally supposed to be counted by ten people by herself. Let’s see what Min Yuan has to say!
"Hey, what is this, a sandbag?" Qiao Youyou noticed the opened sandbag on the table and immediately became interested. She picked it up and examined it curiously.
Zhu Lan shook his head and said it was nothing. He was about to put the sandbag away to eat dinner, but accidentally dropped the outer coarse cloth of the sandbag to the ground.
Qiao Youyou bent down to pick it up, and when she saw the auspicious cloud pattern on it, she was suddenly stunned.
"This pattern..."
"Do you know him!?" Zhu Lan and Zhu Qingyan asked at the same time.
"This is the logo of Tongyun Money House. I have checked his family files and have naturally seen it." Qiao Youyou said seriously.
Zhu Lan was a little puzzled. Tongyun Money House was the largest money house in the capital, with branches all over the city, but why did he have no impression of this logo?
"Oh, this was their logo a long time ago, and it was later changed. It was changed about... ten years ago."
Zhu Lan and Zhu Qingyan looked at each other. They had never thought that Chu Xiuning would be related to Tongyun Money House, and that he was using the logo of this money house from many years ago.
"But speaking of it, the boss of Tongyun Money House is really capable. Now that the imperial court is gradually relaxing its policies towards merchants, this boss can actually think of lending money to these merchants. I really want to get to know him if I have the chance!" Qiao Youyou said happily.
Zhu Lan nodded. He believed that he was not an ordinary person and could have such advanced ideas.
She had also heard Li Duchang mention before that Tongyun Money House relied on the reputation and credibility of the merchants to decide whether to agree to lend money.
The Anju Real Estate Company, which was suspected of colluding with the fake brokerage firms, was determined to distance itself from those brokerage firms at all costs in order to borrow money from the Tongyun Money House.
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