Chapter 549: Weird Ideas (Part 2)
Baorunzhai, located in the northwest of Longshengfang, mainly deals in jade and stone materials, and also engages in various types of wood carvings. Although its foundation cannot compare with the industry leaders such as Mingyufang, it still deserves to be called a leader.
Passing through the four-opening ebony door, you will see two long rosewood marble tables facing you, on which are placed more than ten jade and wood carvings. The materials may not be very expensive, but the carvings are extremely exquisite, with some being carefully carved to the depth of the texture, and some being ingeniously designed to complement the natural beauty...
Of course, this only applies to ordinary people. Sun Shaozong is now rich and has just come out of a luxurious place like Rongguo Mansion. When he looks at these items again, he finds them just ordinary.
As everyone was looking at the jade wares, the shopkeeper came up with his assistants and said servilely, "I am honored to meet you, Your Excellency. I wonder if you are visiting our shop to buy some ready-made items or to order something custom-made?"
Sun Shaozong was originally going to be on official business at the Northern Pacification Office today, so he was naturally wearing a Black Dragon Swallowing Clouds robe, a dignified fifth-rank uniform. Coupled with the Dragon Guards' notorious reputation, the shopkeeper had no choice but to be cautious.
Seeing his fearful look, Sun Shaozong smiled warmly and introduced himself, "I am Sun Shaozong, the governor of Shuntian Prefecture. I have a jade artifact involved in a case and I hope you can help me take a look at it. I wonder if you are not available right now?"
Hearing the three words "Sun Shaozong", the shopkeeper's spine suddenly softened a little. How could he dare to complain about any inconvenience?
He nodded and bowed in response, and invited an old craftsman over fifty years old from the backyard to introduce him to Sun Shaozong and others: "This is Master Hu from our shop. Three generations of his ancestors have been working in the jade trade. He is known as the Eight-Armed Arhat. There is nothing in the jade trade in the capital that Master Hu doesn't know!"
Master Hu was a dull man. When he heard the shopkeeper praising him, his old face turned red. After a long while, he awkwardly squeezed out the words "I don't deserve it", but he didn't say anything else.
It was not until Sun Shaozong handed the jade to him that Master Hu suddenly perked up.
He took out his glasses from his sleeve and put them on, then turned the jade over and over again. He looked at it intently for who knows how long, and then he took off his glasses again, returning to his dull look.
"how?"
Sun Shaozong couldn't wait to ask, "Master Hu, have you figured out anything from this piece of jade?"
"Reply to your Excellency's words."
Master Hu held the jade in his hand, lowered his head and stammered, "I am not very good at seeing things, but I can see that this piece of jade must have passed through the hands of three people."
"The first one is a Southern School carver, who should be a master in the industry. The cloud pattern he carved is extremely delicate, and both the front and back sides are also carved very smoothly. Unfortunately, a lot of good materials were wasted."
"The second one should not be from our industry, and he has a good foundation in calligraphy, but unfortunately he has the strength of the pen but fails with the carving knife."
"The third is a Northern School carver, who is most particular about saving materials. So after removing the jade from the object, he only made some repairs along the cloud pattern. Unfortunately, his craftsmanship is not good enough, and the cloud pattern he imitated only has the shape, but lacks the charm. Anyone with a discerning eye can detect traces of repairs if they look closely."
This old man is indeed a man of great skill!
He was a little hesitant at first, but later on he spoke more and more fluently, and his words were roughly consistent with Sun Shaozong's inference, and he even added a lot of details.
Qiu Yunfei didn't have much hope at first, but after hearing the novice and the experienced, the southern and northern schools talk so mysteriously, he couldn't help but ask, "Then can you tell which family made this thing?"
"this……"
Master Hu looked embarrassed and hesitated, "The last repair can be done by most carvers in Beijing. As for the Southern School master mentioned above, he is not an unknown person - but it is impossible to recognize the hand of this circle of cloud patterns alone ."
"Look at the patina on this jade, it's probably more than ten or twenty years old. Over the years, the southern carving workers in the capital have changed several times. In addition, the imperial court often recruits people from the south, and then sends them back every three to five years..."
"etc!"
Sun Shaozong suddenly interrupted him and asked, "Can you judge the exact age of this jade piece more carefully? Is it more than ten years old, or more than twenty years old?"
"this……"
Master Hu's face was filled with more worry. He said awkwardly, "The difference between a piece of jade that is often played with and one that is not often played with can be huge. Little Lao Er can only judge based on experience. This piece of jade must have been formed for at least ten years, but it should not be more than thirty years."
"As for the repairs, they were made about three to five years ago, and the patina has obviously become much thinner."
It was only removed in the last three to five years...
Sun Shaozong compared this time period with his own speculation, and suddenly felt more confident.
Qiu Yunfei was quite disappointed, so he pulled Master Hu aside and asked him a lot of questions.
It cannot be said that he gained nothing during this period. At least he found out that if he wanted to ask a southern master in the capital to carve such a piece of jade, it would cost at least ten taels of silver.
But this made Qiu Yunfei even more confused - since he spent a lot of money to hire a famous artist to do it, why did the imitation turn out to be so weird?
You should know that the Rongguo Mansion has never hidden anything and has always spared no effort to publicize the story of "being born with a jade in the mouth". As long as you inquire carefully, you can imitate the shape of the jade to 70% or 80% of its similarity.
However, seeing that he could not get any more questions out of them, Sun Shaozong instructed the shop owner not to disclose what happened today to anyone, and then he took everyone away from Baorunzhai.
After leaving the door, Qiu Yunfei asked again about his whereabouts.
This time, Sun Shaozong was determined to get rid of him. He made up an excuse and rode alone towards the Northern Pacification Office.
Seeing that he was near the Northern Pacification Office, he turned his horse around, randomly chose a street shop, and filled his stomach with food without any taste.
After eating and drinking his fill, Sun Shaozong was sitting in front of a table full of messy cups and plates, looking out the window at the Northern Pacification Office not far away, but he was in a dilemma.
What made him feel so awkward was the bizarre idea mentioned above:
When in Rongguo Mansion, Qiu Yunfei once determined that Jia Baoyu's jade was a counterfeit, and deduced from this that Zhou Xi was Jia Zheng's illegitimate son.
But as the argument of "illegitimate child" was completely overturned, Rongguo Mansion no longer had any reason to counterfeit - after all, it was something used to make the child famous, and if there was no special reason, who would randomly copy the same item?
Therefore, it can be basically concluded that Zhou Xi's spiritual jade is a counterfeit.
Therefore, the most urgent mystery to be solved is, what was Zhou Xi's purpose in spending a lot of money to make that Sibu Xiang? Is it directly related to his murder?
Sun Shaozong was also confused for a while. After all, according to common sense, it didn't make sense that he didn't even bother to inquire about the matter, but spent a lot of money to make such a weird thing and put it in the mezzanine with great care.
But when he was at Rongguo Mansion, he suddenly thought of another unreasonable possibility - perhaps the owner of the jade had started to imitate it before the birth of the spiritual jade!
This seems even more illogical at first glance. How can one imitate something without a reference?
But don’t forget, there are time travelers in this world, and there are more than just Sun Shaozong!
Although Sun Shaozong had not read "Dream of the Red Chamber", he judged from the name of Jia Baoyu that this magical jade must be one of the important props in the book.
Imagine if there was a time traveler who had read Dream of the Red Chamber and traveled back to before Jia Baoyu was born, and through the existence of the Rong and Ning mansions, he learned that he was in the world of Dream of the Red Chamber. It would be understandable that he created such a weird thing in advance without having seen the magical jade with his own eyes.
That’s right, this is talking about the imprisoned Prince Yoshitada!
Sun Shaozong's speculation is not just a fantasy without any evidence.
First of all, when Prince Yi Zhong was young, he loved the white dragon fish costume and frequented brothels. It was not until Emperor Guangde ascended the throne that he restrained his interest in this area.
As for Zhou Xi's father, he was first an official in the Ministry of Rites' Jiaofang Bureau, and later became a musician, frequenting brothels. It is reasonable to speculate that they had some interactions with each other.
Secondly, if we apply Qiu Yunfei's inference of "illegitimate child" to Prince Yi Zhong and Zhou Xi, it seems to make more sense.
Of course, the idea of committing adultery during mourning does not exist.
The reason why Prince Yi Zhong did not dare to acknowledge this illegitimate son was probably because Zhou Xi was indeed born to Zhao - and Zhao had already married Zhou's father at that time.
in addition……
With the story of Zhao Ji and Lu Buwei in mind, and the fact that he had no children in all these years, Prince Yi Zhong probably wasn't 100% sure that Zhou Xi was his biological son.
Third, Zhou Xi's parents both died in the autumn of the eighth year of Guangde. It was also at the turn of summer and autumn of that year that Prince Yi Zhong was imprisoned for attempted treason, and most of his followers were also implicated.
According to Master Hu's inference , the jade was removed from the ornament during this period of time.
If we follow the previous line of thought, the death of Zhou Xi's parents may not be a story of "sharing the same bed in life and the same grave in death", but a chain reaction after Prince Yi Zhong's bad deeds!
After his parents died, Zhou Xi took down the counterfeit jade and hid it in the interlayer of the incense burner, which shows that he probably knew his "true life experience".
If we infer from this, the masked man might be afraid that Zhou Xi would fall into the hands of the government, so he shot him to death and then committed suicide.
wrong!
It seems that something necessary is missing here!
Just because he was afraid that Zhou Xi would fall into the hands of the government, he shouldn't have killed him directly.
You have to know that he is the 'son' of your master - even if he is just suspected, he cannot be sacrificed so easily!
The masked man later offered to commit suicide to apologize, and it was obvious that he was not afraid of being implicated by Zhou Xi.
Besides, since he already knew that Zhou Xi was captured by the government, he could have promptly notified Zhou Xi's accomplices and asked them to move away in advance. How could he bear to shoot Zhou Xi to death with an arrow?
unless……
There must be some shocking secret hidden behind this, which may involve the fight for the throne or endanger Prince Yizhong's life - of course, it is very likely to be both.
That's why the masked man would not hesitate to kill and then die to atone for his crime.
Thinking of this, Sun Shaozong became more and more embarrassed.
Prince Yi Zhong has an old grudge against their family. Once Prince Yi Zhong makes a comeback or even usurps the throne, even if the Sun family will not be held responsible for the past, they will never be valued as they are now.
Therefore, considering his own interests, Sun Shaozong should expose the truth, or at least verify his own inference first.
But the problem is...
All of these inferences are based on the premise that Prince Yizhong is a time traveler, otherwise the whole thing would be hard to explain.
However, Sun Shaozong would never dare to tell anyone about the time traveler even if he was beaten to death.
So the matter has come to a dead end, leaving people in a dilemma!
