Ch. 545 - The Illegitimate Son of Duke Zhou

Originally, someone like Sun Shaozong, who frequented and had a marriage relationship with the Jia family, could be led directly to the Yihong Courtyard by a servant.

But since Qiu Yunfei was by his side, he had to follow the usual procedure and wait in the front hall, waiting for the servants of Rongguo Mansion to invite Jia Baoyu out to speak.

However, this Rongguo Mansion covered a vast area, and Jia Baoyu was restless. He only spent his days wandering around the garden, so it was not easy to find him. Therefore, the two of them waited for two full moments in the front hall.

When Jia Baoyu hurriedly entered the door, wrapped in a navy blue cloak, Qiu Yunfei had already twisted out eighteen different shapes on the chair.

“I couldn’t welcome you two promptly, and the two brothers must have been waiting here for a long time. I am truly guilty, guilty!"

As soon as Jia Baoyu stepped over the threshold, he bowed to the bottom and pleaded guilty. When he looked up again, he saw that his forehead and temples were covered in fine beads of sweat.

Upon seeing this, Sun Shaozong couldn't help but laugh and said, "Are you trying to cover yourself with prickly heat, or are you planning to advance the winter? Why did you flip out your cloak in early September?"

"Second Brother Sun is somewhat unaware."

Jia Baoyu smiled helplessly, took off the cloak from his body, carefully folded it, and draped it over his arm before continuing, "Yesterday, Sister Feng celebrated her birthday. I don't know if she had eaten a few more cups or something. She was confused and caught a cold."

"When the Old Lady heard about this, she just insisted on having someone reward the Elders with a few cloaks. I was thinking about putting them on for the Old Lady to see first, and then replacing them later. Coincidentally, the two Brothers arrived."

Wang Xifeng was sick again?

This spicy chicken seemed to have been lying in bed several times this year. Shouldn’t it be an incurable disease?!

If they were to say whether she was alive or dead, she had nothing to do with Sun Shaozong at first, but now the timber business in the south was booming; how could he miss the knocking of Wang Xifeng?

Sun Shaozong had the intention to inquire carefully, but it was difficult to speak rashly due to the great defense between men and women.

***Cough***

As he was pondering how to sidestep and avoid being caught off guard, Qiu Yunfei couldn't resist his temper and coughed dryly next to him, reminding him, "My Lord, do you think we should first handle the business before chatting with Brother Bao about everyday matters?"

"Business?"

Jia Baoyu was taken aback by the word *’official business’* and exclaimed in surprise, "Are you two brothers here for official business?"

As he spoke, he suddenly became excited again and patted his chest, saying, "Is there any big case? If it's to solve a case, if there's anything I need my help with, just give orders, Brothers!"

He has always had an extraordinary interest in solving cases, so when he heard that it was because of *’official business’* that he came to his door, he not only didn't feel scared but also rubbed his hands and was eager to try.

"I won’t say it was about any orders."

Sun Shaozong gave way and naturally said, "Let's sit down first."

However, Jia Baoyu did not feel that he was dominating but rather felt a sense of entitlement.

After the three of them sat down as guests, Jia Baoyu was even more active than Qiu Yunfei. He leaned half of his body on the armrest, his neck stretched out, and his eyes widened. He urged Sun Shaozong to quickly explain his intentions.

Sun Shaozong did not directly reveal his words, but spread his hand in front of Baoyu and said, "Where's your telepathic jade? Take it out first and let me have a look."

Although the elders in the mansion were protecting the jade-like eyeballs, Jia Baoyu never took it seriously and often felt it was a burden. Therefore, when Sun Shaozong asked to see it, he quickly pulled it out of his pocket without saying a word.

As he took off the collar hanging around his neck and handed it to Sun Shaozong, he couldn't help but wonder, "It's just a stone. How could you suddenly want to look at it?"

Sun Shaozong didn't answer either, but silently took out Zhou Xi's piece from his sleeve and held it in his hand for careful comparison.

Although he had seen Jia Baoyu's *’Supernatural Jade’* before, he had never carefully played with it, so he only had a vague impression that the styles of these two jade pieces were different.

However, when compared together at this moment, the differences were much greater than imagined.

Firstly, although the sizes of the two jade pieces seemed to differ and both have elliptical and flat shapes, if he used the text above as a reference, Jia Baoyu's jade was standing, while Zhou Xi's piece was lying horizontally.

Secondly, Zhou Xi's supernatural jade appeared flawless, with only some colorful cloud patterns surrounding it; as for Jia Baoyu's piece of jade, although it also has a circle of colorful cloud patterns, it has a white to red color inside.

The more it was placed in the sunlight, the more brilliant and bright the red color became, just like the red glow on the horizon.

Another thing was the font. Sun Shaozong saw early on that the writing on Zhou Xi's piece of jade was reluctantly carved by an outsider, and the font was crooked, not to mention some depth differences.

Now, after comparing the two pieces, it was discovered that not only did the carving level differ, but also the font used was vastly different. Zhou Xi's jade was in regular script, while Jia Baoyu's jade was in small seal script.

This kind of difference made it difficult to believe that they were from the same source and biased towards two written contents, yet they were completely identical.

Was one of them a counterfeit?

Who was trying to impersonate whom?

The story of Jia Baoyu carrying jade has been publicized by the Rongguo Mansion for over a decade, and it was unlikely that he would plagiarize someone else's copy.

As for Zhou Xi's part…

Just looking at the appearance, it did seem like a defective product that was randomly imitated from hearsay.

But who would hide the precious counterfeit products in the interlayer of the incense burner?

Moreover, Zhou Xi's entire family has been silenced, which was likely related to the origin of this jade

"Brother Sun."

Sun Shaozong was thinking about the relationship between the two jades. He had already come to Jia Baoyu, but he couldn't help being curious. He repeatedly asked, "Where did you get this jade? How could the words engraved on it be the same as mine?"

"This..."

"My Lord, please show me too!"

Sun Shaozong was about to speak, but Qiu Yunfei beside him became anxious and stared at the two pieces of jade with a look of desire and dissatisfaction. He wished he could pull out his eyeballs and stick them directly onto them.

Just now, when Sun Shaozong had seen almost everything, he casually handed two pieces of jade to Qiu Yunfei and explained the origin of the jade to Jia Baoyu.

He explained that this piece of jade was related to seven human lives. Jia Baoyu was both shocked and excited and quickly pulled Sun Shaozong to inquire about many details.

Sun Shaozong picked up what he could say and answered one by one, then said seriously, "Brother Bao, now I have a question that I'm afraid I have to ask you. Are you really born with this jade?"

Jia Baoyu spread his hands and said helplessly, "Since I can remember, the Old Lady, my parents, the midwife, my wet nurse, and even my deceased brother all said that this jade was spit out from my mouth."

If this were true, there would be no place to plagiarize.

If this matter was false, hearing Jia Baoyu mention this long chain of evidence, it was obviously a well-prepared plan, let alone extracting a few sentences from similar objects and randomly engraving them on them.

Especially, these twenty-four words were not famous quotes or aphorisms. At least since Sun Shaozong's time traveling, apart from these two pieces of jade, he has never heard of similar words elsewhere.

It seemed that Zhou Xi's piece was undoubtedly a replica.

But who exactly imitated this?

What was the purpose of imitation?

Why hide in a secret place?

There was no answer to this series of question marks when suddenly Qiu Yunfei's excited voice came from beside him, "My Lord, I have an immature inference here!"

Sun Shaozong turned his head in surprise and saw Qiu Yunfei holding onto the two pieces of jade and looking proudly, clearly showing some confidence in his inference.

Did this guy really realize something?

Sun Shaozong couldn't help but wonder, "First, let me hear your inference and see if it makes sense."

"Yes sir!"

Qiu Yunfei leaped up and said in a playful voice, then stared intently at Jia Baoyu, saying word by word, "Perhaps your father still has a son, an illegitimate child who has been separated for many years!"

This was really amazing!

Jia Baoyu was so intimidated by him that his eyes stuttered, and Sun Shaozong couldn't help but lose his voice, saying, "Are you saying that Zhou Xi is the illegitimate son of Uncle Jia?"

"That's right!"

Seeing that even Sun Shaozong was startled, Qiu Yunfei's face lit up, and he paced back and forth in the living room, speaking confidently, "Judging from the appearance and physique of Brother Bao, Duke Zhou must have been a graceful and elegant young master back then, and also a legitimate official from the Rongguo Mansion. Having two beautiful confidants outside is not a strange thing."

"It is believed that after the woman became pregnant, Duke Zhou was hindered by etiquette and was afraid of people's words, so he dared not take her into the mansion. The woman was disappointed and left in anger. Before leaving, she entrusted her son to someone else, who was Zhou Xi's adoptive father and mother!"

"At that time, Zhou Xi's foster mother may have had a miscarriage or her children died young, so she raised Zhou Xi like her own son."

"And that jade pendant is exactly the token left by Zhou Xi's birth mother!"

"A few years later, for some unknown reason, Duke Zhou regretted it again and searched for the child, but couldn't find it. So he came up with a whimsical idea. He followed the woman's words and created a new spiritual treasure jade, then falsely claimed that Brother Baoyu was born with jade!"

"The purpose of doing this is naturally to hope that the illegitimate son will come to his door to recognize him after hearing this rumor."

This story…

Roughly speaking, it really made sense!

Especially the way it was explained why the Rongguo Mansion was rumored to produce a jade-carrying vessel.

And Jia Baoyu's dull appearance was obviously in a state of doubt about life due to this inference.

Sun Shaozong also pondered for a while before questioning, "So why did the masked man shoot Zhou Xi to death?"

"Perhaps it has nothing to do with this supernatural jade."

Qiu Yunfei first spread his hands and then stared directly at Jia Baoyu, saying, "Perhaps there is still some secret hidden in that Zhou Xi, which may implicate Rongguo Mansion!"

This was almost questioning whether Rongguo Mansion was the mastermind behind that masked person!

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