Baorunzhai, located in the northwest of Longshengfang, is mainly made of jade and stone, and it also serves as a variety of woodcarving businesses. Although it is not comparable to the industry leaders of Mingyufang in terms of its background, it is also worthy of being a leader.
Passing through the four-opened ebony door, you will be greeted by two long rosewood marble cases, on which are more than ten samples of jade wood carvings. Or ingenious to complement the sky…
Of course, this is only for ordinary people. Sun Shaozong is now rich and wealthy, and he has just come out of the luxurious place like Rongguo Mansion, and when he looks at these objects, he will only feel that they are ordinary.
Everyone was scanning the jade items, and the shopkeeper brought his staff to greet him, and bowed his knees and said, "I have seen the thousand households, I don't know if you came to the shop to buy some ready-made things, or are you ready to go? Make some utensils?"
Sun Shaozong was originally going to work in the company of Fu Company in Beizhen, and he was naturally dressed in the robe of a black dragon swallowing clouds, the dignified and upright five-grade standard, and the fierce name of the dragon guard, so the shopkeeper couldn't be more careful.
Seeing his look of sincerity and fear, Sun Shaozong smiled genially, and reported to his family: "This official is Sun Shaozong in the Shuntian government. Because there is a jade article involved in the case, I hope that your name will help you, but I don't know where your name is right now. Is it inconvenient?"
Hearing the words 'Sun Shaozong', the shopkeeper's spine suddenly softened a bit, how could he dare to be inconvenient
Hastily nodded and bowed in response, and then invited an old craftsman from the backyard who was over 500 years old to introduce to Sun Shaozong and others: "This is Master Hu from a small shop. He is known as the Eight-armed Arhat, but there is no one who Master Hu does not know about the jade industry in this capital!"
That Master Hu was a dull man. Hearing the shopkeeper touting him, his face turned blood red, and after a long while he squeezed out the phrase 'don't dare to do it', but there was no other words.
It was not until Sun Shaozong handed the piece of jade to him that Master Hu suddenly regained his energy.
He took out the glasses from the sleeves and put them on, holding the jade to and fro, not knowing how long he looked intently, then he took off the glasses again, and his face was dull.
"how?"
Sun Shaozong couldn't wait to ask: "Master Hu, can you see anything from this piece of jade?"
"Go back to the words of the adults."
Master Hu held the jade in his hand, lowered his head and muttered: "Little old man has clumsy eyes, and he can't see much, but he can only see that this jade should have passed through the hands of three people one after another."
"The first one is a Southern-style carver, and he should be a good hand in the industry. The moire carving is extremely fine, and the front and back sides are also very shiny. Unfortunately, a lot of good materials have been ruined."
"The second place should not be in our line, and the foundation of calligraphy is good. Unfortunately, I have the power of writing, but I am defeated by the carving knife."
"The third is the Northern School carver, who pays the most attention to materials, so after removing the jade from the utensils, he only did some repairs along the cloud pattern - unfortunately, this person's craftsmanship is poor, and the imitation cloud pattern is only there. Its shape has lost its charm, and anyone with a discerning eye can detect the traces of repairs as long as they look carefully."
This old man really has a way!
He was a little stumped at first, but then it became smoother and smoother, and his remarks were roughly consistent with Sun Shaozong's inference, and he even added a lot of details.
Qiu Yunfei didn't hold out much hope at first, but at this time, when he heard the 'mysteriousness' of what he was familiar with and from the Southern Pai Northern School, he couldn't help but ask: "Then can you tell that this thing is the hand of that school of scriptures? ?"
"This… "
Master Hu looked embarrassed and hesitantly said: "In the end, most carvers in the capital can do this repair work; as for the master of the Southern School in front of him, he is not an unknown person - but this circle of cloud patterns alone can do it. , I just want to recognize whose handwriting, but it is absolutely impossible."
"Besides, looking at the pulp on this jade, I'm afraid it has been around for more than ten or twenty years. During these years, the southern-style carver in the capital has also changed several times. In addition, the Neifu often recruits people from the south. It will be released again in the next year…”
"and many more!"
Sun Shaozong suddenly interrupted him and asked: "Can you judge the specific year of this jade more carefully? Is it more than ten years or more than twenty years?"
"This… "
The sadness on Master Hu's face was even more intense, and he said embarrassingly, "Just for those who play often and those who don't play often, the pulping can make a big difference - the second child can only judge based on experience, the shape of this piece of jade is at least as good as More than ten years, but probably no more than thirty years."
"As for this repair, it's about three or five years, and the paste is obviously thinner."
It's only been removed in the last three or five years...
Sun Shaozong compared this time period with his own speculation, and his mind suddenly became a little more confident.
Qiu Yunfei was rather disappointed, so he dragged Master Hu to ask if there was anything.
During the period, he can't say that he has gained nothing. At least he asked that in the capital, he wanted to ask the masters of the Southern School to carve such a piece of jade, and he was afraid that it would cost at least a dozen taels of silver.
But this made Qiu Yunfei even more puzzled - since he had paid a lot of money to hire a famous artist, why did he imitate it so differently
You must know that the Rongguo Mansion has never been hidden, and has always spared no effort to promote the story of 'born with a jade'. If you ask carefully, you can imitate the appearance of the piece of jade.
But he said that he couldn't ask anything else, and Sun Shaozong told the shop owner not to disclose what happened today, so he left Baorunzhai with everyone.
When he was out of the house, Qiu Yunfei asked again what he was doing.
This time, Sun Shaozong was determined to get rid of him, and after finding a reason, he rode alone towards the Beizhen Fusi.
Seeing the vicinity of Beizhen Fusi, he turned his horse's head again, randomly selected a small street shop, and filled his stomach without knowing the taste.
After eating and drinking, guarding a table with messy cups and plates, and looking at the Beizhen Fusi not far away from the window, Sun Shaozong was caught in a dilemma.
And what made him in a dilemma was the whimsical brain hole mentioned above:
When he was in the Rongguo Mansion, Qiu Yunfei once believed that Jia Baoyu's piece was a counterfeit product, and deduced that Zhou Xi was Jia Zheng's illegitimate son.
But as the argument of 'illegitimate children' was completely overturned, there was no reason for the Rongguo Mansion to copy it - after all, it was something that was used to make a child famous. If there was no special reason, who would copy the same item indiscriminately
Therefore, it can be basically concluded that Zhou Xi's psychic jade is a counterfeit.
So the mystery that needs to be solved most urgently at the moment is that Zhou Xi spent a lot of money to get the four dissimilars. What is the purpose? Is there a direct relationship with his killing
Sun Shaozong was at a loss for a while. After all, it was only inferred from common sense that he would not even ask about it, but he spent a lot of money to make a difference and put it in the mezzanine, which is really unreasonable.
But when he was in Rongguo Mansion, he suddenly thought of another unreasonable possibility—perhaps the owner of the jade began to imitate it before the birth of the psychic gem!
This sounds even more illogical at first. Without a reference, how can we counterfeit
But don't forget, there are traversers in this world, and Sun Shaozong is not the only one!
Although Sun Shaozong had not read "A Dream of Red Mansions", he also judged from the name of the piece of Jia Baoyu that this piece of psychic gem must be one of the important props in the book.
Imagine if a traveler who had read the Dream of Red Mansions, traveled to before Jia Baoyu was born, and learned that he was in the world of Dream of Red Mansions through the existence of the Rongning Second House, so he had not seen the psychic treasure with his own eyes. It is understandable to make such a piece of four different things.
That's right, this is exactly the imprisoned Prince Yizhong!
And Sun Shaozong's speculation is not an unsubstantiated fantasy.
First of all, when Prince Yizhong was young, he liked the white dragon fish dress the most, and he went into and out of brothel brothels. It was not until Emperor Guangde ascended the throne that he restrained his hobbies in this regard.
And that Zhou Xi's father, who first served as an official in the Ministry of Rites and Jiaofang Division, and later became a musician, went into and out of brothel brothels, and had an intersection with each other, which is a reasonable guess.
Second, if Qiu Yunfei's 'illegitimate child' inference is applied to Prince Yizhong and Zhou Xi, it seems to make more sense.
Of course, the theory of prostitution during the mourning period certainly does not exist.
The reason why Prince Yizhong did not dare to recognize this illegitimate child was probably because Zhou Xi was indeed born by the Zhao family - and that Zhao family was already married to Zhou's father at that time.
in addition…
With the story of Zhao Ji and Lu Buwei in front of him, and the fact that he had no children in these years, Prince Yizhong was probably not 100% sure that Zhou Xi was his own son.
Third, Zhou Xi's parents both died in the autumn of the eighth year of Guangde, and it was at the turn of the summer and autumn of this year that Prince Yizhong was imprisoned for his attempted treason, and most of his party members were implicated.
According to Master Hu's inference, it was during this time that the jade was removed from the ornament.
If you follow the previous line of thinking, Zhou Xi's parents both passed away, I am afraid it may not be a story of "life is the same school, death is the same acupuncture point", but the chain reaction after the bad incident of Prince Yizhong!
After the death of her parents, Zhou Xi removed the counterfeit Baoyu and hid it in the interlayer of the incense burner. It is very likely that she already knew her 'real life experience'.
Based on this, the masked man would be afraid that Zhou Xi would fall into the hands of the government, shoot him and then commit suicide, and...
wrong!
There seems to be something necessary missing here!
Just because he was afraid that Zhou Xi would fall into the hands of the government, he shouldn't kill him directly.
You must know that it is the 'son' of the owner of the house - even if it is only suspected, it is not something that can be sacrificed casually!
And the masked man later apologized for his death, obviously not afraid of being implicated by Zhou Xi.
Besides, since he has waited until Zhou Xi was captured by the government, and promptly notified the party who had contact with Zhou Xi and let him transfer in advance, how could he be willing to shoot Zhou Xi with one arrow
unless…
There are some earth-shattering secrets hidden behind this, either implicated in the struggle for the throne or endangering the life of Prince Yizhong—of course, it is very likely that it is both.
Therefore, the masked man will not hesitate to kill the killer, and then apologize to death.
Thinking of this, Sun Shaozong became more and more embarrassed.
That Prince Yizhong had old grudges with his own family. Once Prince Yizhong made a comeback and even usurped the throne, even if the Sun family would not be turned over, they would never be used as much as they are now.
Therefore, considering his own interests, Sun Shaozong should expose it, or at least verify his inference first.
But the problem is...
This inference is based on the premise that Prince Yizhong is a transmigrator, otherwise the whole thing will be difficult to make sense.
However, Sun Shaozong didn't dare to say anything about the transmigrator.
So things got stuck in a dead end, and people were in a dilemma!
Thanks to the book friend 'Bauhinia Lizard' for the reward.