Chapter 38 Discovery
Zhong Min is a person who clearly distinguishes between gratitude and resentment. Naturally, she would not have any other thoughts about Xier, who has not done anything to her.
When Xier heard Zhong Min say that he didn't blame her, she immediately felt relieved. They had a good relationship before, and now Zhong Min had been promoted because of a blessing in disguise, so she was even more unwilling to have any bad grudges with him.
"This is for you." Xier handed the bundle to Zhong Min. "These are all your things from before. I've been keeping them for you. I made sure nothing is missing."
Zhong Min hadn't expected Xi'er to give her Li Jin'er's belongings. She felt a little strange for a moment, wondering why it had taken so long to arrive. She didn't ask much, just took them and said thank you.
Xi'er seemed to have guessed Zhong Min's thoughts and quickly explained, "Originally, I wanted to send it to you after you started working at Mo Garden, but I was afraid that the Empress would scold me if she knew, so I never dared. A few days ago, the housekeeper asked me to look for your old things to see if they were still there. If so, I wanted to send them to you, so I dared to send them to you openly now."
"By the way, I also made a few new handkerchiefs for you and put them in here. Come back and see if you like them. If not, I can make you other styles." Xier smiled attentively, and her words were of course flattering, but they didn't make people feel too annoying.
When Zhong Min heard the word "handkerchief", he was stunned for a moment, but he didn't say much. He just said thank you and said that Xier had taken the trouble.
Seeing that the matter had been settled, Xier did not dare to chat any longer. Concubine Zheng was now extremely irritable, and if she went back late, she was afraid that she would be scolded again.
"Then I'll go back first, to avoid being bumped into by the Empress and being punished again." Xier sighed slightly and said enviously, "You are so lucky. You don't have to stay by the Empress's side anymore, and you can still work in Mo Garden."
When Zhong Min heard this, he didn't know what to say. He just smiled comfortingly, then said goodbye to Xier and went back to Mo Garden with his things.
Returning to the house and closing the door, Zhong Min unpacked the package. Besides a few sets of clothing, some simple hair accessories, and a few handkerchiefs Xier had made, there was also some loose change and a few strings of copper coins. Zhong Min had no idea how much the money was, but he assumed it was Li Jiner's old wages that had been saved. Beyond that, there was nothing else.
Zhong Min looked at it for a long time, feeling somewhat unwilling to give up. Thinking about Li Jin'er's secret identity, he felt that he should be able to find something else. However, he estimated that it would be placed more secretly.
After thinking for a moment, she unfolded the clothes one by one and carefully examined them, but unfortunately, she didn't find anything. Next to the clothes, Zhong Min focused her attention on the hair accessories.
Although the material is not valuable things like gold or silver, the workmanship is quite exquisite, especially the hairpin, which looks simple in shape but is particularly beautiful.
Zhong Min frowned slightly, as if something had occurred to her. Without hesitation, she took the hairpin in her hand, examined it carefully for a moment, and then reached out to feel around. After a moment, she weighed it in her hand again, feeling that its weight seemed inconsistent with its apparent size.
After a moment's thought, she held the hairpin to her ear with one hand and tapped it a few times with the fingers of her other hand. Zhong Min couldn't help but smile at the sound. As expected, it seemed there was something else going on.
She tugged at the hairpin with a little force, but there was no response. She increased the pressure, but there was no change. Seeing this, Zhong Min changed her method, twisting instead of pulling, and varying the strength and method of applying the force, but nothing worked.
Seeing this, she did not get discouraged, but stopped and carefully looked at the entire hairpin again. After a moment, she thought of something and tried to press the head of the hairpin with hidden force, just like using a modern automatic pen.
This time, she finally succeeded. The hairpin quickly split into two parts, and the long tube part was indeed hollow. When she lifted it up, it seemed that there was something stuffed inside.
Using a small needle, Zhong Min picked out the stuff stuffed inside. When he opened it, he saw that it was actually two silver notes with different denominations of one hundred taels and two hundred taels. He felt a little disappointed. It was hidden so cleverly and he thought it was something earth-shattering, but it turned out to be just a few silver notes.
However, upon reflection, this wasn't surprising. As a spy, gathering information required both personal investigation and gathering information from others. Silver was often very useful at this time. These two silver notes totaled three hundred taels, which, converted to modern prices, would be worth at least one hundred thousand yuan, right? For a spy's operating expenses, this was quite reasonable.
After thinking for a while, Zhong Min finally rolled up the banknotes and put them back in their original place, but he took the hairpin with him. This was not a bad idea; once he escaped, he would have money on him, making his journey much easier.
Just as he was about to pack these things, he heard the loud announcement from the guard downstairs. Seeing that Xiao Mingzheng was about to enter the study, Zhong Min quickly tied up the bag and put it in the small cabinet, then went out to do his job.
No one knew what good news happened today, but Xiao Mingzheng saw that Yun seemed to be in a good mood. Although he didn't smile or say anything else, he looked very energetic. It was rare to see him like this.
Although Zhong Min was a little curious, he naturally didn't say anything too much. After all, he was a professional and he didn't care about things that he shouldn't care about. He could always control his mouth.
Xiao Mingzheng didn't rush to attend to official business or read anything, but instead began painting. It was probably a landscape painting. Although Zhong Min didn't understand much about it, she found it quite pleasing to the eye. From her amateur perspective, the painting must have been quite good. As for other things like artistic conception and brushwork, they were just empty talk to her. She didn't understand, she didn't understand!
"What did you figure out?" After drawing the last line, Xiao Mingzheng put down his pen and asked Zhong Min unexpectedly.
"I can see that it's a very good landscape painting. The prince is really versatile!" Zhong Min didn't think much about it and continued the conversation. However, he kept muttering in his heart that with the quality of this painting and Xiao Mingzheng's seal, it would probably sell for a lot of money if it was sold.
"You also understand this?" Xiao Mingzheng was in a really good mood today. As he spoke, he picked up his seal and stamped it on the signature spot just as Zhong Min had expected.
"Although I'm an amateur, I can still tell the difference between good and bad." Seeing this, Zhong Min said half flatteringly and half nonsense, "Your Highness's painting is refined, lively and unconventional, with a novel perspective and profound artistic conception. It is truly refreshing to look at."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
