As Xiao Yuanhua finished speaking, Lu Wuxie's eyes narrowed slightly.
However, soon, with Xiao Yuanhua's subsequent words, he quickly resumed his usual flippant demeanor.
"It's from the palace. To be frank with you both, my mother was once a person of the palace before her passing. This hairpin is her memento," Xiao Yuanhua said.
Upon hearing this, Zhong Li instantly understood why Xiao Yuanhua had suddenly kowtowed to the heavens. It seemed he felt guilty about selling his mother's memento.
"What did your mother do before she passed? Which noble from which palace bestowed this hairpin upon her?" Knowing Zhong Li was unfamiliar with palace affairs, Lu Wuxie casually picked up her question.
Xiao Yuanhua's gaze fell upon Lu Wuxie, and he answered honestly, "My mother actually left the palace under a cloud of guilt."
"What do you mean?" Lu Wuxie pressed.
"You should know about the matter of the former Empress Ruan, Your Highness?" Xiao Yuanhua said.
Lu Wuxie nodded.
"My mother was a medical practitioner in the palace."
Hearing this, Lu Wuxie instantly understood. He looked deeply at Xiao Yuanhua, seeing his open and honest expression, and knew he wasn't lying. He then spoke, "Was your mother once a medical practitioner in the Jinyang Palace?"
Xiao Yuanhua nodded. "In the eighteenth year of Ningping, the Empress suffered from lingering illness after falling into water. In the twentieth year of Ningping, she passed away due to a relapse of her old ailment. The late Emperor, therefore, was angered at the entire Jinyang Palace. Especially the head maids who served Empress Ruan closely were exiled, dying far from home.
As for my mother, because she was merely a small medical practitioner, she was pardoned from exile. However, she did not escape the late Emperor's punishment. My mother, who was serving in the Imperial Physicians' Academy, was expelled from the palace and forbidden from practicing medicine for all eternity.
As for this hairpin..."
He paused to think and said, "I was young then, so I may not remember very clearly. It should have been in the tenth year of Ningping, during the Empress's thirtieth birthday banquet, when there was a large bestowal of gifts from the Jinyang Palace. Palace maids and eunuchs were rewarded with ten taels of silver. As for my mother, who had treated Empress Ruan, she was rewarded with this hairpin."
"Your mother was a medical practitioner, and she was rewarded with this hairpin. So, does this mean that all medical practitioners who served in the Jinyang Palace have this hairpin?" Zhong Li seized on a key point in Xiao Yuanhua's words and quickly pressed.
Xiao Yuanhua thought for a moment and nodded.
Zhong Li's heart tightened, and she turned and ran outside.
Before long, she returned with a painting in her hand.
Lu Wuxie glanced at her faintly, observing her breathless state. He then peeked through the window at the carriage parked outside the small grove and casually pushed the warm tea, which had been placed before him to cool, towards her.
"Do you recognize this person?" Zhong Li hurriedly opened the scroll in her hand and presented it to Xiao Yuanhua.
Xiao Yuanhua looked at it again and again, his expression filled with worry. "No... I don't recognize her."
A flicker of disappointment crossed Zhong Li's eyes.
"However..."
Zhong Li quickly raised her eyes to look at Xiao Yuanhua again.
"However, I think I've seen her somewhere before."
As soon as Xiao Yuanhua finished speaking, not only Zhong Li but even Lu Wuxie beside her were greatly astonished.
However, Xiao Yuanhua was no longer answering questions with a simple back-and-forth. He looked at Lu Wuxie, a hint of shrewdness in his eyes.
Lu Wuxie let out a cold sneer and casually drew a silver ingot from his robe, tossing it onto the table.
"Please wait a moment, Your Highness. I'll be right back." Xiao Yuanhua glanced at the silver ingot, snatched it, and stuffed it into his embrace. He then turned and walked into another side room within the house.
About the time it takes for a cup of tea to brew, Xiao Yuanhua reappeared, holding another scroll.
As he unrolled the scroll, a painting depicting over a dozen women was presented before the two of them.
"Your Highness and little brother, take a look. Is this the woman in your painting?" Before Zhong Li could focus, Xiao Yuanhua pointed to the person in the painting.
Zhong Li looked at the person Xiao Yuanhua indicated, then at the scroll in her hand. Indeed, they were the same person.
"Who is she?" she asked.
Xiao Yuanhua replied, "I truly do not know this woman. However, I can provide you and little brother with a clue."
Zhong Li remained silent, waiting for Xiao Yuanhua's next words.
"This painting is a portrait of all the medical practitioners in the Imperial Physicians' Academy, drawn by a palace artist in the twentieth year of Ningping."
...
When the two of them walked out of Guangxin Residence, the sky was already ablaze with sunset.
The fiery red light illuminated the grove. The sole small bamboo house in the woods seemed to be enveloped in a fireball, appearing exceptionally dazzling.
Lu Wuxie cast a final glance at the small house through the carriage curtain and said, "The place is nice, but the people living here possess a certain worldliness and restlessness."
Zhong Li glanced at the man opposite her, feeling a sense of amusement. When did the most restless person in the Southern Yue Kingdom start making such profound observations?
However, she had also realized by then. The moment she saw the cunning glint in Xiao Yuanhua's eyes as he unhesitatingly pocketed the silver that Lu Wuxie had thrown, she concluded that his kowtowing to the heavens for his mother was a pretense, a mere ploy to achieve his own goals.
It was likely that within a few days, the hairpin left to Xiao Yuanhua by his mother would reappear in the hands of someone in Willow Lane.
"Did Your Highness know from the beginning that Xiao Yuanhua was acting?" Zhong Li suddenly realized how adept Lu Wuxie was at discerning people, from Ma Su of the Jia residence to the magistrate of Anding County afterwards, then Tian Lianxue in the previous case, and now Xiao Yuanhua.
Lu Wuxie, who had been dozing, half-opened his eyes and glanced at Zhong Li, casually remarking, "One's true nature is hard to change." He then closed his eyes and continued to rest.
It took about two hours to return from the northern suburbs.
Zhong Li, being someone who couldn't keep things to herself, lifted the curtain and gazed at the scattered stars outside the carriage window. Occasionally, gray clouds would drift by, obscuring the nearly full moon and casting a hazy, misty veil over the entire official road.
She turned her face towards a sliver of light and took out three red coral lotus hairpins from her bosom. Following Lu Wuxie's earlier analysis of the hairpins, she began to examine them carefully.
"Any new discoveries?"
Just as she was concentrating, Lu Wuxie's voice reached her.
Zhong Li turned her head and met his deep gaze.
At this moment, Lu Wuxie appeared to have just woken up. The usual wildness was gone, replaced by a rare sense of peace and calmness.
"Aren't you sleeping anymore, Your Highness?" Perhaps due to the quiet of the night, Zhong Li's voice was tinged with a rare gentleness.
Lu Wuxie gently propped himself up, his gaze softening with her words. He extended his hand towards the woman opposite him. "Let me see."
Zhong Li handed him the hairpin but inadvertently caught sight of Lu Wuxie's loosely hanging robe. Her heart fluttered slightly, and she quickly turned her face away.
"Two are fakes from ten years ago, and one is genuine from now. Li'er, have you thought of something?" Lu Wuxie's fair fingertips gently traced the red coral, his eyes half-closed.
"Yes," Zhong Li nodded generously, but without giving Lu Wuxie the answer he sought. Instead, she said, "I have something I wish to ask of Your Highness."
"Alright." This time, Lu Wuxie agreed without even hearing what it was.