Kyoto has been rainy recently.
In this season of withering, the world seems desolate.
Raindrops fall on the black tiles of the Yan Mansion, like dancing white jade beads. Soon, the walls are stained and painted into an ink scroll.
In the ink painting, there is a small pavilion called "Night Rest."
Next to the pavilion, there were originally many mint plants, lush and refreshing. However, the attendants are now carrying dozens of pots of mint, preparing to move them elsewhere.
Because an unexpected guest has arrived at the Night Rest Pavilion, all the flowers and plants in the palace have to suffer.
As for the unexpected guest herself, she is now lazily leaning on a bamboo wheelchair, letting a pretty little maid tie up her hair.
Wearing the snow fur coat that Princess Zhao Hua sent her yesterday, holding a warm sleeve heater in her hand, Xiao Jin suddenly felt that her life had become complete.
The attendants lifted the flower pots, but they didn't know where Xiao Jin wanted to move these mint plants. They could only ask in fear, "Your Highness, where would you like to move these flowers and plants?"
Xiao Jin took the tea that the butler handed over, but did not drink it immediately. Instead, she lifted her eyelids and glanced at those mint plants.
"Since these flowers were sent by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, they cannot be thrown away casually. I have heard that mint has the effect of improving eyesight and cooling blood, and it can be used as a medicine. Let's take them to Cangjin Lane, where Doctor Su should be able to use them."
After hearing Xiao Jin's words, the attendants were dumbfounded.
Even if She Highness valued Doctor Su, or had other plans, she shouldn't give wild mint plants as a gift.
Who gives green mint as a gift?
In fact, Xiao Jin had no ulterior motive for Doctor Su, she just couldn't think of anyone else to give the plants to, so she gave them to her.
Besides, mint is a good thing, it can improve eyesight, cool blood, and can also be used as a medicinal material. Both its properties and color are very suitable for Doctor Su.
Repaying kindness with kindness, a true gentleman.
However, the reason why Xiao Jin wanted to move these mint plants was because she accidentally heard from a servant's mouth that all these potted plants were originally sent by the Crown Prince to the original owner and had been placed in the pavilion for many years.
Although mint itself is an innocent plant, once she knew that these plants were moved from the Eastern Palace, according to the common plot in online novels, Xiao Jin always felt that there was likely to be a chronic poison in the potted plants, the kind that slowly wears down a person.
Therefore, just a few days after arriving, Xiao Jin began to transform the original owner's courtyard and moved away everything that the male lead had given.
Watching the servant struggling to lift the glass flower vessel and then looking at the suddenly empty courtyard, Xiao Jin couldn't help but sigh, the male lead gave too much.
She planned to stack some of the things in the warehouse first, and if conditions permit, she would check if there was any colorless and tasteless poison applied to them.
After combing her black hair, the maid picked up a black hairpin and helped Xiao Jin put her hair up.
Xiao Jin picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea, and then looked at the steward standing beside her.
After staring at the wrinkles on the steward's face for a while, she suddenly remembered that in the original novel, the funeral jade objects prepared for the original owner's burial were apparently arranged by the Crown Prince and this person.
So she squinted, put down the teacup, and suddenly asked, "Old Zhang, I heard that you seem to have some knowledge about antique jade objects?"
Steward Zhang was stunned, feeling somewhat surprised that the prince would know he liked collecting jade objects.
Having been in the mansion for twelve years, he knew that this master was very suspicious, so he smiled respectfully and answered truthfully, "In response to your highness, this old servant dares not claim to know much about antique jade objects, only that I have some knowledge of them."
"Only some knowledge, huh..."
Xiao Jin absent-mindedly played with the token in her hand and casually handed it to Old Zhang, "Then help me take a look, is there anything wrong with this token?"
Old Zhang, the steward, looked at the token that Xiao Jin had handed him. Although he couldn't quite figure it out, he still respectfully took it.
He examined the patterns on it carefully, and then carefully extended his hand to touch the bronze token. Where his finger touched it, he seemed to feel some scratches.
Xiao Jin lowered her gaze, seemingly staring at the patterns on the cup lid, but in fact, she was observing Old Zhang's expression out of the corner of her eye.
The funeral ceremony of the original owner was arranged by the Crown Prince and this person. If the latter was the Crown Prince's spy in the household, it was not impossible.
If Old Zhang was really the Crown Prince's man, and if the assassination was the Crown Prince's doing, he would surely have a strange reaction when he saw the token.
However, it turned out that when it came to the field of appreciation, Old Zhang was very passionate.
As he touched the hard lump of a token, he was as focused as if he was holding his wife in the palm of his hand, not even blinking his eyes, let alone showing any unusual behavior.
Realizing that she had underestimated him, Xiao Jin couldn't help but sigh inwardly. It seemed that a bystander like Old Zhang would definitely not have any hidden identity card.
But she didn't want to show her thoughts too much, and Old Zhang's expression became serious.
Xiao Jin was interested and remained calm on the surface, waiting for Old Zhang's next move.
Sure enough, after holding the token for a moment, Old Zhang moved his lips and respectfully asked, "Your Highness, may this old servant have a sniff of the token's smell?"
Xiao Jin remembered the pungent odor and nodded, "Yes. But this thing smells bad, so a shallow sniff will do."
"Thank you, Your Highness."
Old Zhang felt that the prince's temperament had really improved a lot, so he worked harder. Even though the token was extremely foul-smelling, he still endured the discomfort in his nose and sniffed it carefully.
After a while, he shook his head and said, "Your Highness, this token should not be made of ancient bronze, but rather of aged purple copper."
"Oh?" Xiao Jin was greatly shocked in her heart.
She never expected that there would be such a talented antique appraiser by her side, who could even identify the type of metal used in the token. She couldn't help but ask slowly, "How do you know this?"
Old Zhang held the token and explained, "In response to Your Highness, if you want to imitate ancient bronze with purple copper, the most critical thing is to remove the red color from the purple copper and make it black, giving it an ancient feel."
"So antique dealers often use oil walnut to rub the purple copper, and then repeatedly wipe it with sulfur to gradually turn the purple copper into a dark color, which is identical to the color of ancient bronze." [Note]
Xiao Jin frowned, "So the pungent smell on this token comes from sulfur and oil walnut?"
Old Zhang returned the token to Xiao Jin and nodded, "Your Highness is correct, that's exactly it."
Therefore, this token must have been deliberately imitated by someone else in order to frame another person.
Xiao Jin was lost in thought, trying to recall who in the original story liked Ziwei, when a guard hurriedly came in from outside.
The guard came to the pavilion and knelt down, presenting a letter, "Your Highness, this is a letter from the Ministry of Justice."
Taking the letter, Xiao Jin only glanced at it and immediately got a headache.
The entire letter was written in traditional Chinese characters and classical Chinese, which made her, a person with limited cultural literacy, feel embarrassed.
Xiao Jin was already dizzy from the characters and didn't want to read them, so she handed the letter to the butler: "Old Zhang, you read it."
Old Zhang stared at Xiao Jin, feeling honored and surprised that the prince would let him read such a confidential letter.
He had no idea that Xiao Jin was simply too lazy to read the traditional Chinese characters and classical Chinese.
Facing Xiao Jin's calm eyes, he was so moved that his hands trembled. He took the letter and read it aloud powerfully.
Xiao Jin automatically filtered out the sour sentences and reluctantly extracted the key information.
The assassins who were trying to kill her were probably dead men from the martial arts world, and their identities couldn't be traced, nor could it be known whom they were serving.
With such a clean identity, it was obviously suspicious. She just didn't know whether the Ministry of Justice was intentionally concealing something or whether it was really clean.
After all, the Chief of the Ministry of Justice was undoubtedly a supporter of the Crown Prince. If the male lead wanted to target her, it was natural for the Ministry of Justice to conceal it.
Fortunately, she still had a corpse hidden away. She could find a reliable forensic expert with professional knowledge to examine the body and see if she could find any clues.
Xiao Jin's mind was filled with the image of a person dressed in green and a white parrot named Zha in a cage.
Not bad, she would ask Su Tan to examine it tomorrow.
The system always controlled her life span very accurately. After she completed two tasks last time, her life span increased by nine days in total.
So these few days were her free time, until her life span was about to run out, and the system would release the next task.
But the system kindly reminded Xiao Jin: "The host can investigate the truth of the assassination during this time in order to complete the main and side tasks in a few days."
The fact that the system said this meant that the truth of the assassination was definitely related to the main and side tasks.
With only four days left, Xiao Jin decided to find some useful clues.
But she was hesitant about where to start. She felt that there weren't many trustworthy people, and if she told others about the token and the corpse, it would seem too reckless.
At this moment, Xiao Jin thought of Chu Shao.
As soon as she thought of Chu Shao, the image of the sleeve soaked in blood inevitably appeared before her eyes. And the posture of strolling leisurely like a dance in the midst of the sword light.
Chu Shao walked calmly, holding a silver sword like a kind spring god, lightly swinging the dewy willow branches and sprinkling sweet rain on the earth.
But what dripped from the sword was not rain, but blood.
Chu Shao was a very dangerous person, but Xiao Jin had a hunch that this person had many secrets and perhaps she knew something about the Purple Wei Flower token.
In this world of the novel, she felt that madman were more trustworthy than those who secretly spied on her.
Thinking of this, Xiao Jin made up her mind and decided to talk to Chu Shao about it. So she slowly said to the steward, "Later tonight, please invite the princess to my room. Tell her that I have important matters to discuss with her."
Old Zhang was first stunned, then looked up at the dim sky.
Meeting Xiao Jin's meaningful gaze, he immediately understood and smiled, "Rest assured, your highness, I understand."
...
That night.
After finishing her dinner, Chu Shao sat boredly in her chair, playing with the dagger in her hand.
The dagger was a gift from the Empress Dowager, with exquisite floral patterns engraved on the blade, sharp enough to pierce through someone's heart without the need for poison.
With a slight movement of her wrist, the dagger would be pulled out, and the blood would splatter on her body from the victim's chest.
However, this kind of pleasure was too routine and not novel to her anymore.
The blade glimmered with silver light, reflecting on Chu Shao's eyebrows and eyes.
She looked at the beauty mark under her eyes and suddenly remembered the ice crystals blooming in the snow and the blood scattered everywhere. She longed to hear the children sing the ballad again, to remember the few beautiful notes. But it had been so long, and she had already forgotten some of it.
As Chu Shao was lost in thought, a knocking sound came from outside the door.
She snapped out of her reverie, put away the dagger, and smiled gently: "Come in."
~~~~~~~~~
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TO BE CONTINUE...