Chapter 324 Return to Jiangzhou
When Zhu Lan and the others heard this, they immediately became nervous and asked her what she was talking about.
Chu Xin pointed at the page and said, "It's the Goose Formation. My father taught me how to play it when I was a kid."
Seeing that Zhu Lan and Zhu Qingyan were both confused, Chu Xin said "Oh" and explained:
"The Goose Character Formation is a word game in my hometown. You are not from Tongzhou, so it's normal that you don't know it."
Zhu Lan suddenly recalled that the first time she saw Chu Xin dressed as a storyteller on the street, she was telling the story of Concubine Lan who disguised herself as a man to take the imperial examination.
At that time, Chu Xin mentioned that the woman disguised as a man was from the same hometown as her, both from a county town in Tongzhou.
Zhu Lan's heart began to beat violently, and he quickly asked Chu Xin to explain in detail what the "Goose Formation" was.
Chu Xin thought for a long time and told the two of them.
It turns out that in her hometown, "V-shaped formation" is a word game, which usually arranges seemingly ordinary paragraphs of text in another way, and hides information by placing key words in a specific position.
"The arrangement of those characters is regular, just like a flock of geese in the sky, which form a specific formation when flying, so it is called the 'goose formation'."
Zhu Qingyan quickly took the book back and took a closer look. Sure enough, there were many meaningless blanks in the text of many annotation paragraphs.
Both Zhu Lan and I were born into a family of imperial examination candidates, so when we read a book, we would subconsciously pay more attention to the meaning of the words in the book, and ignore some unusual aspects of the text layout.
Zhu Lan also came over to take a look, and noticed that the words in the book were sometimes elegant, sometimes sloppy, and sometimes even did not seem to be written by the same person.
The two of them looked at it for a while, and although they found some clues, they still didn't know the specific arrangement of this "Goose Formation" and were still at a loss, so they had to ask Chu Xin for help.
Chu Xin scratched his ear and said with some embarrassment:
"This 'Goose Formation' was a game played by literate people in our area a long time ago. It was said to help train the brain. But because it was too complicated and had no practical use, the number of people who knew how to play it gradually decreased.
My father used to be a scholar and knew a little bit. He taught me when I was very young.
But I didn’t think it was fun at all, so I only learned the basics…”
Zhu Qingyan was a little anxious. Even if Chu Xin only knew a little bit, he asked her to take a look. Any clues she could find would be helpful.
She was really curious about what the secret was that even Zhu Lan couldn't figure out.
Chu Xin looked bitter and had to say that he would try it himself.
She found a pen and paper and drew some oddly shaped grids and some "人" shaped lines. Then, while comparing the contents in "Collected Annotations of Various Philosophers", she picked out some words and copied them onto paper.
Chu Xin was writing rapidly, and scratching his head from time to time. Zhu Lan and the other two did not understand what was going on, so they just waited silently by the side.
After nearly two hours, Chu Xin leaned back as if he had accomplished his task and exhaled.
"Is it done?" Zhu Qingyan asked hurriedly.
A trace of embarrassment emerged on Chu Xin's face. He said that he was not very good at it. He could only rearrange the paragraphs and then mark out some of the words in the "V-shaped formation" according to the method his father taught him.
Chu Xin pushed the paper in front of the two of them, with many circles and dots on it.
"Jiangzhou...Xiangyang County...Jin family...had two sons..."
Zhu Qingyan squinted his eyes and read out the circled words. There were some meaningless words among them, perhaps due to Chu Xin's lack of proficiency, but it did not affect the overall meaning.
The content that Chu Xin analyzed was not long and could only be connected into a short paragraph. The general idea was that there was a couple named Jin in Xiangyang County, Jiangzhou, who gave birth to a pair of twins, but later no one knew where the son went. In addition, the detailed birth dates of the twins were also mentioned.
Zhu Qingyan read this passage several times and wondered, "Is this the secret you mentioned?"
Zhu Lan was silent and thoughtful.
Based on the information Chu Xiuning told her before her death, Concubine Lan found out that the prince was indeed her biological son, and hid the evidence of the matter in a book.
I received another note last night, which mentioned the book "Collected Commentaries on Philosophers". Now I have found the clue.
It seems that this passage is the key information that can reveal the identity of the prince.
Zhu Lan stood up and said that he planned to go back to Jiangzhou to look for the Jin couple.
After she finished speaking, she went back to her room to pack her things. When she went out, she saw Zhu Qingyan and Chu Xin waiting at the door with their bags on their backs.
Zhu Lan was startled and asked them what they were doing.
Zhu Qingyan tilted his head and said, "I don't have to go back to the Imperial Academy to be on duty now. I'll go back to Jiangzhou to see if there are any problems."
"Both sisters have left, so I, I want to follow you..." Chu Xin said, holding Zhu Qingyan's sleeve tightly.
Zhu Lan thought about it and decided that it was a good idea. He and Zhu Qingyan had not been back to Jiangzhou since they started working at the Hanlin Academy. This was a good opportunity for him to go back and see his mother.
Chu Xin couldn't ride a horse, so Zhu Lan hired a carriage. After leaving a letter for Xiao Wan at home, the three of them set off for Jiangzhou.
…
Jiangzhou is very close to the capital, and even if you take a carriage, you can arrive there in less than two days.
The carriage entered Jiangzhou City. Chu Xin, who had never been to Jiangzhou before, lifted the curtain and looked around curiously.
"I didn't expect that Jiangzhou City is as prosperous as the capital. It has a unique flavor!"
Zhu Lan and Zhu Qingyan smiled at each other. Jiangzhou was located in the southern part of the city, a place of mist and rain. Even the air was filled with a faint gentle and elegant atmosphere, which was indeed different from the solemnity of the capital.
It was better that Zhu Lan came through time halfway. Zhu Qingyan grew up in Jiangzhou and was more attached to his hometown than Zhu Lan. After the three of them entered the city, they simply got off the carriage and walked to Zhu Mansion.
Zhu Lan and Zhu Qingyan were not wearing official robes, but only ordinary plain skirts. However, the demeanor of the two still attracted the attention of many people nearby.
A sharp-eyed neighbor recognized them and shouted, "The Zhu family's top scholar and third place scholar are back!"
As soon as this voice was uttered, the sound of doors opening was heard on both sides of the street, and many people hurried out to see these two extraordinary women who were well-known in Jiangzhou.
Chu Xin was traveling with the two of them, and his expression couldn't help but show a bit of pride.
"Sister Lan! Sister Qingyan!" Little Zhu Chao appeared out of nowhere, carrying a basket of books on his back, and jumped into the arms of Zhu Lan and the others, cheering.
"Hey, where did you come from, little kid claiming to be your sister?" Chu Xin glared at Xiao Zhu Chao with dissatisfaction, as if someone had snatched his sister away.
Zhu Chao glared back at her and said, "My two sisters have the surname Zhu, and my surname is Zhu too. Do you have any objection?"
Chu Xin pursed his lips and kept silent. This little brat looked less than ten years old, so he was not going to bother with him!
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