Ch. 547 - Indulge in the Wildest Fantastic Brainstorming [Part 2]
The Famous Detective of the Red MansionThis chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
This chapter is broken. Please report this on discord.
Located in the northwest of Longsheng Lane, Baorun Studio mainly produced jade and stone materials, and also engaged in various types of wood carving business. Although its cultural heritage might not be comparable to that of the top companies in the Mingyufang industry, it could still be called a leader.
Passing through the four opened ebony doors, two pear-shaped marble long tables face each other, on which more than ten jade and wood carving samples were placed. The materials might not be very valuable, but they were exquisitely crafted, either finely crafted to the depth of the texture or cleverly crafted to complement the natural beauty
Of course, this was only for ordinary people. Sun Shaozong was now wealthy and had just come out of luxurious places like Rongguo Mansion. Looking at these objects, he only had a feeling that it was ordinary.
Everyone was scanning the jade artifacts when the shopkeeper, along with his staff, greeted them with a servile bow and said, "Greetings to the Thousand Household. I wonder if you're here to buy some ready-made items, or are you planning to order some?"
Sun Shaozong was originally going to work as an Inspector of the Northern Detective Department today. He naturally wore a Swallowing Cloud Robe, with a formal fifth-grade standard, and coupled with the notorious reputation of the Dragon Guard, the shopkeeper couldn't help but pay attention.
Seeing his anxious and fearful appearance, Sun Shaozong smiled warmly and reported his title, saying, "I am Sun Shaozong, the Governor of the Central Judicial Office. Due to a jade artifact involved in the case, I hope to have your account help me, but I am not aware that it is inconvenient today."
Upon hearing the words *'Sun Shaozong,'* the shopkeeper's spine suddenly softened a bit. How dare there could be any inconvenience?
He was busy nodding and bowing, and invited an old craftsman over 50 years old from the backyard to introduce him to Sun Shaozong and others, "This is Master Hu from the shop. Three of his generations of ancestors have been working in the jade industry, known as the Eight armed Arhat, he basically knows jade-related things in the Capital!"
Master Hu has a wooden personality. When he heard the shopkeeper praise him, his old face turned red with blood. After a while, he awkwardly squeezed out a sentence, "I dare not take it seriously," and there was nothing else to say.
It wasn't until Sun Shaozong handed the jade to him that Master Hu suddenly regained his energy.
He took out his glasses from his sleeve and put them on. He tossed and turned around holding the jade, and after a moment of focusing on it, he took them off again and regained his composure.
"How about it?"
Sun Shaozong eagerly asked, "Can Master Hu see anything from this jade?"
"Reply to Inspector Sun."
Master Hu held the jade flat and lowered his head, stuttering, "I'm not very discerning, and I can't see much. I only see that this piece of jade should have passed through the hands of three people, one after another."
"The first one is a Southern-style sculptor, who should be an experienced crafter in the industry. The cloud pattern carving is extremely fine, and the front and back sides are also exquisitely polished. Unfortunately, the crafter wasted a lot of good materials."
"The second one should not be in our industry, but the calligraphy foundation is good. Unfortunately, he has the power of writing, but he was defeated by the carving knife."
"The third one is a Northern-style sculptor who values material preservation the most. Therefore, after removing the jade from the object, only some repairs were made along the cloud pattern. Unfortunately, this person's craftsmanship is inferior, and the imitated cloud pattern only has its shape, but loses its charm. As long as a discerning person carefully examines it, they can detect the repaired traces."
This old man indeed has a way of doing things!
At first, he was a bit hesitant, but later he spoke more and more smoothly, and his words roughly matched Sun Shaozong's inference, even adding many details.
Qiu Yunfei didn't have much hope at first. Now, when he heard what this inexperienced master said about the Southern and Northern Factions, "It's so mysterious." He couldn't help but ask, "Can you see that this thing has gone through which craftsmen?"
"This..."
Master Hu's face showed a puzzled expression as he hesitated and said, "In the end, most sculptors in the Capital can do this repair. As for the master of the Southern, he is not an unknown person, but it is impossible to recognize whose hand it is based solely on this cloud pattern."
"Besides, look at the paste on this jade. It may have been around for ten to twenty years. During these years, the Southern-style carvers in the Capital have also changed several times. In addition, the Inner Court often recruits people from the south, and they are released again in three to five years..."
"Wait!"
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 twenty years?"
"This..."
Master Hu's face darkened with sorrow, and he sneered, "Craftsmen just playing with it often and not playing with it often can make a difference in patina. I can only judge based on experience that this piece of jade has been formed for at least ten years, but it should not exceed thirty years."
"As for this repair site, it was about three to five years ago, and the foreskin had noticeably become thinner."
It was only dismantled in the past three to five years…
Sun Shaozong compared this time with his speculation and suddenly gained some confidence in his mind.
Qiu Yunfei, however, was quite disappointed, so he pulled Master Hu to inquire about everything available.
During this period, it couldn’t be said that he gained nothing. At least he asked about the situation in the Capital where he wanted to invite a master from the Southern to carve such a jade billet, which might cost at least ten taels of silver.
However, this made Qiu Yunfei even more puzzled. Since he had paid a lot of money to hire a famous expert, why did he imitate everything so differently?
One should know that Rongguo Mansion has never hidden it, and has always spared no effort in promoting the story of *’being born with jade.’* Anyone who inquired carefully could imitate the shape of that piece of jade to be 70-80% similar.
But when he saw that he couldn't ask anything else, Sun Shaozong reminded the shopkeeper not to disclose today's events to the public, and then he left the Baorun Studio with everyone.
Upon leaving the door, Qiu Yunfei asked again about his departure.
This time, Sun Shaozong was determined to get rid of him and casually found a reason, so he rode alone toward the Northern Detective Department.
Seeing that he was approaching the department, he turned his horse and casually chose a small street shop, filling his stomach without knowing the taste.
Waiting till he finished eating and drinking, Sun Shaozong was caught in a dilemma while guarding a table of disheveled cups and plates, gazing through the window at the nearby Northern Detective Department.
And what left him in a dilemma was precisely the imaginative imagination mentioned earlier.
When in Rongguo Mansion, Qiu Yunfei once believed that Jia Baoyu's piece was a counterfeit and inferred that Zhou Xi was the illegitimate son of Jia Zheng.
But as the argument of *’illegitimate child’* was completely overturned, the Rongguo Mansion had no reason to imitate. After all, it was something used to make a name for the child. If there were no special reasons, who would randomly plagiarize from the same object?
Therefore, it could be concluded that Zhou Xi's jade was a counterfeit.
So the most urgent mystery that needed to be solved right now was that Zhou Xi spent a lot of money to make those four revisions; what was the purpose behind it? Did it have a direct relationship with his murder?
Sun Shaozong was also confused at one point. After all, based solely on common sense, he refused to even inquire, but spent a lot of money to make things look different. He even placed them in the middle layer, which was unreasonable.
While in Rongguo Mansion, he suddenly thought of another illogical possibility. Perhaps the owner of that piece of jade had started to imitate it before the birth of the Baoyu!
At first glance, this might sound even more illogical. Without a reference point, what about imitation?
Not to forget, there were travelers in this world, and Sun Shaozong was not the only one!
Although Sun Shaozong did not read *’Dream of the Red Chamber,’* he also judged from the name of that piece of Jia Baoyu that this supernatural jade must be one of the important props in the book.
Imagine if there were a traveler who had read the Dream of the Red Chamber and traveled to before the birth of Jia Baoyu, and through the existence of the Rong-Ning Mansion, found out that they were in the world of Dream of the Red Chamber. Without seeing the real supernatural jade with their own eyes, they would have created such a piece of in advance, which would be understandable.
Yes, that was exactly what Prince Yizhong, who has been banned, was talking about!
And Sun Shaozong's speculation was not an unsupported fantasy.
Firstly, when Prince Yizhong was young, he loved white dragons and fish clothing the most. He entered brothels, and it was not until Emperor Guangde ascended the throne that he restrained his interest in this area.
It was reasonable to speculate that Zhou Xi's father, who first served as an official in the Ministry of Rites and later became a musician, had some interaction with each other when entering brothels.
Secondly, if the inference of Qiu Yunfei's *’illegitimate child’* was applied to Prince Yizhong and Zhou Xi, it seemed more reasonable.
Of course, the theory of sexual activity during the mourning period definitely didn’t exist.
The reason why Prince Yizhong didn’t dare to recognize this illegitimate son was probably because Zhou Xi was indeed born to the Zhao family, and Zhao-Shi had already married Zhou's father at that time.
Also…
With the story of Zhao Ji and Lv Buwei at the forefront, and the fact that he has no children in recent years, Prince Yizhong was probably not 100% certain that Zhou Xi was his biological son.
Thirdly, both of Zhou Xi's parents died in the autumn of the eighth year of Guangde, and it was precisely at the turn of summer and autumn that Prince Yizhong was imprisoned for attempted rebellion, and most of his followers were implicated.
According to Master Hu's inference, it was during this period that the jade was unloaded from the ornament.
If he followed the previous train of thought, the death of both Zhou Xi's parents might not necessarily be a beautiful story of *’being born under the same blanket, and dying under the same hole,’* but rather a chain reaction after the bad deeds of Prince Yizhong!
After the death of his parents, Zhou Xi removed the counterfeit precious jade and hid it in the interlayer of the incense burner, which was likely to reveal his true identity.
If he inferred based on this, the masked person would be afraid that Zhou Xi would fall into the hands of the government, shoot him, and then commit suicide.
Wait! It still wasn’t right!
What necessary factors seemed to be missing here!?
Just because he was afraid that Zhou Xi would fall into the hands of the government, he shouldn't have directly targeted the assassin.
He should know that he was the owner's *'son,'* even if it was just a suspicion, it was not something that could be sacrificed casually!
After the masked incident, apologizing with death was clearly not a fear of being implicated by Zhou Xi.
Besides, since he had been waiting until Zhou Xi was captured by the government and promptly notified his accomplices who had contact with Zhou Xi to transfer him in advance, how could he be willing to shoot Zhou Xi with one arrow?
Unless…
What shocking secrets were hidden behind this, whether it was related to the dispute for the throne or could endanger the life of Prince Yizhong, of course, both might be involved.
Therefore, the masked person would spare no effort in killing the assassin and then apologize with death.
Thinking of this, Sun Shaozong's thoughts became increasingly difficult.
Prince Yizhong has an old grudge against his own family. If Prince Yizhong were to make a comeback and even usurp the throne, even if the Sun family were not to be overturned, they would never be as important as they were now.
Therefore, considering his interests, Sun Shaozong should first expose or verify his inference.
But the problem was…
This inference was based on the premise that Prince Yizhong was a traveler; otherwise, the whole thing wouldn’t make sense.
However, Sun Shaozong didn’t dare to even speak out about the matter of the interloper.
So things got stuck in a deadlock, putting him in a dilemma!