The drawer contained an old handkerchief and a half-new, half-old map.
The map was nothing special, just a sheepskin map from the Great Zhou’s nation-setting period, with a few locations circled for marking. Judging from the direction of the paths, it seemed like a route map connecting the north and south, with one endpoint being the capital city, and the other, Huzhou.
As for the handkerchief —
Princess Rong held it up to the Luminous Pearl, and only then did she see that it was a moon-white silk piece, the material not top-notch, but it had some years on it. Flipping it over, she saw an "Yi" character embroidered on one corner, next to which was a hard stain about the size of half a palm.
Bringing it closer for a look, Princess Rong suddenly put it down!
The hardened stain, turned black, was actually an ancient bloodstain!
Of course, Princess Rong had seen blood; on her way into the capital city with the Righteous Army, had she seen few casualties?
This was a bloodstain, she could tell at a glance!
Why would a bloodstained handkerchief be secretly kept here?
And this "Yi" character, it seemed like she remembered it appeared somewhere before...
She paused only for a moment and immediately opened the second drawer.
In the second drawer were just a few sheets of paper. There were no greetings or signatures at the top or bottom of the paper, but the handwriting on it — the handwriting was very familiar to her!
Scanning the content on the paper, she was so shocked she took a step back!
As she stepped back, her heel hit a brass knob below the threshold, and unexpectedly, a third drawer popped open automatically!
It turned out that the third drawer had its own intricate mechanism!
Princess Rong was breathing like a bellows as she looked at the fan lying flat in the drawer. Trembling, she took it out.
In the height of summer, the icy touch of the jadeite fan frame went straight to the bone. A phoenix was carved on the side, soaring through clouds vividly, and on the unfolded fan surface, one rib was blackened and scorched.
Princess Rong murmured. Looking at all of this, her limbs seemed beyond her control, and she clutched the fan tightly, trying hard to calm down, but she simply couldn’t!
"So it was , this was the secret... he, he wanted this plan!"
Xu Yin entered Prince Rong’s Mansion and told the steward who came to greet him that he had an urgent matter for Princess Rong. Knowing this gentleman’s significant influence in Prince Rong’s Mansion, how could he dare to obstruct? He immediately told him where to go.
Xu Yin stopped below the door, handed the steward a few silver notes with a friendly demeanor: "I have some urgent words to privately discuss with Princess Rong, it won’t take long. Please wait here for me. Or if you have other matters to attend to, feel free to go ahead."
Inside Prince Manor, the main figures were always scheming against each other. Those outside might not know, but surely the insiders did?
Yongping caused a huge scandal and lost his title, how could such a matter not matter to anyone? Recently, Xu Yin and Princess Rong have been in frequent contact; the two are close relatives of Yongping, so it wasn’t unusual for them to conspire secretly.
The steward naturally preferred to avoid hassles, and cupped his hands: "There’s something I happen to need to handle, Sir Minister, please proceed on your own. Excuse my rudeness, and please speak well of me before the Princess."
With that, he left without any hesitation. Official source is novel-fire.ɴet
Waiting for him to disappear into the night, Xu Yin strode towards the shrine.
As he reached the lower part of the door, several guards emerged from both sides and stopped him: "Vice Minister Xu, halt!"
Xu Yin said in a deep voice: "I have urgent matters about Yongping to report to the Princess, do you dare to obstruct?!"
The guards looked at each other but did not budge.
This situation felt increasingly wrong. Xu Yin looked around the shrine and then turned to walk outside.
In the darkness, he signaled to the guard who followed him inside: "See where they’re going?"
The guard immediately obeyed and jumped onto the surrounding wall.
In a few breaths’ time, they returned: "Master! Some of those guards were heading towards the ancestral shrine!"
Xu Yin’s eyes lit with determination as he gazed toward the direction of the ancestral shrine: "So it’s there after all!"
With those words, he also started striding towards the ancestral shrine!
Princess Rong looked at the items before her and had clenched her palms so tightly that they bled!
She staggered a few steps and gazed at the silent tablets filling the dark hall, cold sweat sliding down her temple, glowing chillingly under the silver luminescence!