The extinguished lamp was relit, and the dark room suddenly brightened up. Su Yuanyuan first blinked her eyes uncomfortably. After getting used to the light, she began to look around Cang Xuan's room.
Although he usually spent money generously and would give away the colorful pearls from the South Sea without hesitation, his room didn't look as luxurious as Su Yuanyuan had imagined. The ornaments on the shelves seemed quite ordinary, surrounded by a dull halo. In an antique shop, they would be worth no more than a few dozen taels of silver at most.
However, whether it was the cabinets, tables and chairs, or the screen and the canopied bed, they were all made of excellent mahogany. In Su Yuanyuan's eyes, these pieces of furniture exuded a faint golden light. One piece could be worth a hundred taels of gold.
Su Yuanyuan secretly rejoiced, her eyes curving into a smile.
She had thought she would see many portraits of women in Cang Xuan's room, since he had been selecting a princess consort for the Prince of Jin recently. Unexpectedly, his room was so clean, which suited her taste.
Just as she was marveling, Xiao Ba shouted excitedly in her mind, [Yuan Bao! It's the master! Xiao Ba senses the master's aura!]
Coming back to her senses, Su Yuanyuan asked curiously, [Your master? Where is he?]
She had just looked around the room, and there was no one hiding inside.
Xiao Ba said, [It's not that the master is here. There are the master's belongings here. Look at the table!]
Su Yuanyuan looked at the table beside the couch and saw two sets of almost identical sleeve arrows on it. Were these the things related to Xiao Ba's master that it had mentioned?
Her wrist was grabbed, and she was pulled over by Cang Xuan. She was half - embraced and sat on his lap.
Cang Xuan looked up at her slightly and asked with a smile, "Why did Your Highness the Princess come at this time? Isn't it the time when Your Highness is sound asleep?"
Looking at the face in front of her, Su Yuanyuan instinctively wanted to tell him the reason, but she quickly stopped herself just before speaking.
No, she couldn't let him know that she had come because she hadn't seen him for several days. Otherwise, it would seem as if she was eager to see him, and it might embolden him and make him even more insolent.
Xiao Ba had said more than once that this man was full of schemes, and she deeply agreed.
But she couldn't think of a good reason for a moment. After stammering for a while, she said, "Sister Wanrong's poison is almost cured. Every time I give her acupuncture, the blood she spits out has gradually returned to normal. She will recover in a few days."
There was a hint of a smile in Cang Xuan's eyes. He said, "Well, Your Highness's medical skills are getting better and better. Anything else?"
For some reason, Su Yuanyuan always felt that he was overly gentle tonight. That single "Well" made her heart flutter.
"Also..."
Steadying herself, she continued, "Also, since Tianbaozhai opened, it has earned 6,866 taels of silver in just ten days. All the jewelry displayed during the opening, whether it was the 'Twelve Solar Terms' or the ordinary and inexpensive hairpins, were sold out. The orders for custom - made hairpins at Tianbaozhai have been scheduled until next autumn."
She didn't mention that Xiao Zisheng and Su Zeqian had been waiting at the shop. Although Su Zeqian would go to Zhenmanlou every day, order a pot of tea, and sit there staring at Tianbaozhai from morning till night, as long as he didn't do anything, Su Yuanyuan simply ignored him.
And because of the princess - selection matter, Xiao Zisheng had no time to take care of Tianbaozhai, which gave her a sigh of relief.
"Brother Yunjian, do you know that since Tianbaozhai opened, Hanyuzhai has become desolate with few customers? The shopkeeper and the clerks there are so angry that their hair has turned gray. I wonder if Su Qingyu in the Eastern Palace knows about this. Will she be so angry that she goes crazy?"
As Su Yuanyuan talked about things related to herself, her eyes sparkled, the corners of her lips curved slightly, and the dimples on her lips appeared and disappeared.
As she was talking, she snorted and said, "Why am I telling you all this? The spies of Liuyun Pavilion are all over the city, and there are your people around me. I'm sure you've already heard about these things from others. I'm just being redundant."
Cang Xuan had already heard the complaint in her words.
She was complaining that he hadn't shown up these days, so she had no one to talk to.
Cang Xuan sighed softly and said, "It's almost the New Year. All departments are busy with performance evaluations, and there will be an additional imperial examination before the New Year to fill the vacancies in various departments. I've been tied up with many important matters and really couldn't get away for a while."
Su Yuanyuan snorted softly and said, "There's one thing you haven't mentioned. Caiyun has already told me that you're selecting a princess consort for the Prince of Jin. Not seeing you for so many days, Brother Yunjian must have been enjoying looking at the portraits of beautiful women in the mansion and forgotten about everything else, right?"
Cang Xuan didn't mention it because he didn't want to see her distracted by the matter of the Prince of Jin. Unexpectedly, she brought it up herself, and her tone sounded a bit sour.
So... did this mean that she cared about him looking at portraits of other girls?
This meant that in her heart, he was already more important than that disabled Prince of Jin.
Cang Xuan couldn't suppress the upward curve of his lips. He deliberately said, "Yes, there are so many beautiful girls that I don't know which one to choose for a moment. How about Your Highness the Princess of Fubao give me some advice?"
Su Yuanyuan was indeed a bit curious, but she didn't forget about Xiao Ba. She turned to the two seemingly similar sleeve arrows on the table in front and asked,
"Let's look at the portraits of beautiful girls later. Brother Yunjian, tell me first. What are these two?"
Cang Xuan thought she was just curious, so he explained, "These are sleeve arrows. You can tie them around your wrist and use them for self - defense in times of danger."
Urged by Xiao Ba, Su Yuanyuan asked carefully, "Can I pick them up and take a look?"
There was no poison on these two sets of sleeve arrows, so Cang Xuan said, "Sure."
Su Yuanyuan stepped forward and picked up the sleeve arrow on the far right of the table.
[Little Yuan Bao, turn over the inside of the sleeve arrow and let Xiao Ba take a closer look.]
Su Yuanyuan did as Xiao Ba said and turned over the inside of the sleeve arrow. Xiao Ba let out a soft cry of surprise and said, [This sleeve arrow clearly has the master's aura, but it wasn't made by the master. Little Yuan Bao, take a look at the other set!]
If it wasn't made by Xiao Ba's master, then was it made by Cang Xuan?
Su Yuanyuan secretly looked up at Cang Xuan and happened to meet his gaze. She smiled, then picked up the other set of sleeve arrows. She turned the inside of the sleeve arrow as Xiao Ba had instructed.
Then Xiao Ba let out a cry, [This is the hidden weapon made by the master! The master is still alive!]
The two sets of sleeve arrows were almost identical. With Su Yuanyuan's eyesight, she couldn't tell anything wrong. She was surprised and asked, [How do you know?]
Xiao Ba said, [When the master made hidden weapons, she was used to leaving her own mark at the buckle to prove that it was made by her.]
Su Yuanyuan turned over the sleeve arrow as Xiao Ba had instructed. In the flickering light, she indeed found a strange symbol at the buckle.
[Since Cang Xuan has the sleeve arrows made by the master here, he must know the whereabouts of Xiao Ba's master. Little Yuan Bao, please, you must help Xiao Ba find out the news about the master!]