Proofread by Prof Zhu Yuan
He looks startled for a moment, and then a light ripple rises in his black eyes. He seems pleased and says, "A hundred thousand taels of gold, she is really a good liar.”
Wei Chu, too, is a little shocked. A hundred thousand taels of gold is not a small amount to him, even though he works for the regent. Of course the Nangongs can afford it, but why did they send it to the Regent’s Mansion?"
“My lord, do you mean to say that the money is sent by Miss Nangong?"
With a sneer, Jun Qianye says, "Nangong Luo is now the crown prince's father-in-law, so he would only send money to the East Palace where the crown prince lives. Who else would do such a thing except the girl?"
That's right! Wei Chu nods unconsciously, but still feeling surprised.
"Miss Nangong's really……Smart!" Within two hours of her return to the Nangong Mansion, she has secured a hundred thousand taels of gold.
Has he belittled her?
Then Jun Qianye says in a cold voice, “Take this money and carry it into the storeroom."
"Yes," the steward answers outside, and leaves.
Wei Chu at this time in the mind is inexplicably a little excited, also saying, “My lord, I also go to handle affairs."
Jun Qianye’s eyes lingered on his face for a moment, and then he only nods slightly.
After Wei Chu goes out, Jun Qianye is alone in the study, whispering.
"Nangong Ning, don't let me down."
Nangong Ning is sitting in Nangong Mansion’s dining room, having dinner with the Nangongs.
In order to please Nangong Ning, Madam Yang cooks seven or eight dishes Nangong Ning likes. Her cooking is really good, and after confirming that the dishes are non-toxic with her bracelet, Nangong Ning begins to eat up.
Seeing Nangong Ning eat with relish, Madam Yang's face shows a satisfied look. She winks at her husband as she serves food to Nangong Ning.
Nangong Luo is less reassured than his wife. He makes eye contact with his daughter from time to time, and they exchange a lot of information over the course of eating half a bowl of rice.
Nangong Ning is satisfied to chew the food that Madam Yang cooks for her. She scans slowly the table, raises her eyebrow and slightly smiles, saying, “Uncle, do my sister and you not like aunt's food? You have not eaten a bite. I must do justice for aunt."
Nangong Luo’s face stiffens. He hurriedly picks up dishes with his chopsticks and says with a smile, “I was so busy looking at you and forgot to eat."
Nangong Qingyao feels very uncomfortable in her mind, and she also expresses her feeling, “Sister, all the dishes that my mother cooked are your favorite food, so I have nothing to eat."
"Is that so?" Nangong Ning curls her lips and it seems that she is trying to show a smile, and she says, “But I remember very well that you and I like almost the same dishes. Probably because you are now the prince's concubine, and the food in the East Palace is more delicate than food here, so you don't like ours."
Nangong Qingyao changes her face.
Everything she says sounds innocuous, but it is always to the point.
What is the East Palace? The rules in there are very strict, and she is just the crown prince's concubine, so that the food she eats and drinks is strictly regulated. In contrast, the clothes she wears and the food she eats in the East Palace are not as good as those in the Nangong Mansion, because the Nangong family is one of the largest commercial giants in the country. As a young lady of the Nangong family, she is extremely extravagant in terms of food, clothing and living expenses. Nangong Ning is obviously satirizing her!
She stares at Nangong Ning, while Nangong Ning eats her meal with a placid face that makes her feel insulted, and when Nangong Luo sees that his daughter does not control her expression well, he gives her a warning look, then looks at Nangong Ning and says, "When did you wear phoenix bracelet?" The phoenix bracelet belongs to Nangong Ning, the eldest daughter of Nangong family, which is the fact that he, even the head of the family, cannot change. But before the prince got married, she had never worn phoenix bracelets.
If Nangong Qingyao had not seen the phoenix bracelet in Nangong Ning’s hand when she pushed her down the poison deep, they would have thought it was still locked in its place. The place where the phoenix bracelet is placed has prefect security system composed by many mechanisms that protect the bracelet from being stolen. She has never tried to get the bracelet, so they aren’t sure if she could open the mechanisms. Now it looks like she has kept her own counsel?
“I don’t remember it,” Nangong Ning says calmly. She indeed doesn’t know when she put on the bracelet. After she returns to Nangong Mansion, she regains her memory and understands that the bracelet was locked in a secret room, but after waking up in the poisonous abyss, the bracelet was on her wrist. She thought it was her poison bracelet, but her poison bracelet could only detect poison and avoid poison. And this phoenix bracelet on her wrist, not only has the function of her poison bracelet, but also can transfer poison. To her, the bracelet is her poison bracelet, but to others, it is the phoenix bracelet of the Nangong family. She is also puzzled and wants to see if the Nangong family's phoenix bracelet is really the one on her wrist.
Knowing what her husband means by the way he looks at her, Madam Yang asks appropriately, “What do you mean by saying that? I don't understand.” Nangong Ning glances lightly at Nangong Ningyao who is suddenly alarmed, saying, "Sister, why are you looking at me?"
“Aunt, it's my sister’s fault if you say you don't understand.” Nangong Ning says and smiles gracefully.
“What do you mean, sister?” Nangong Qingyao says in a disagreeable tone with a cold face.
Nangong Ning’s tone is lukewarm, as if she is talking about someone else's business, "If you hadn't poisoned me, how could I not even remember what I did?"
"What do you mean?" Nangong Qingyao starts to his feet. She hasn’t expected that Nangong Ning would say so directly and Nangong Luo also looked at her in shock. With an easy smile Nangong Ning who is facing the shocked three, holds a boiled prawn and flings it expertly, graciously delivering it to her mouth and chewing it slowly.
The Nangongs look at him, stiffening their faces. They cannot understand her. Is she stupid? Or because she died once, and became more enlightened? Or is it just a struggle of grief and anger?
Nangong Ning wipes his hands elegantly with her handkerchief, and then she takes the tea from the maid and gargles, saying "I haven't come back for a few days, and I want to go to An Hall to see my grandparents’ memorial tablet and let them know that I am safe."
As soon as he hears the two words "An Hall", Nangong Luo suddenly becomes nervous. Nangong Luo makes eye contact with his daughter and they get a conclusion: it is coming. But she brings up the subject herself before they try to direct her in that direction.
"Uncle, why do you look like that? Is there anything wrong?" Nangong Ning asks, looking at him faintly.
Nangong Luo quickly restrains his emotions and begins to play the role of a good uncle, solemnly saying, “How can it be wrong? You are the eldest of the Nangong family, how can it be wrong for you to go to An Hall?"
“That's good. I'll go now, and you and my aunt and sister can continue to enjoy the food." Nangong Ning says, getting up and going upstairs.
Nangong Qingyao almost gets up to follow her, but Nangong Luo’s eyes stop her. She watches Nangong Ning disappear by the door and says, “Father, if we don't follow her, how can we find that thing?" Nangong Luo shakes his head, "An Hall is in our mansion and won't go away, so you needn’t be so impatient. Moreover I think she's weird right now, so we have to be careful. We can't deal with her in the open, but in the dark." "Father, do you have any good ideas?" Nangong Qingyao asks eagerly, and her eyes glow with excitement at his words.
Nangong Luo’s eyes are dark and piercing, and he says, “Damn that girl! She is very smart, and what we can do is……poisoning her!”
When Nangong Ning goes out of the dining-room, she lets no one follow her, and goes to the innermost part of the Nangong’s Mansion. The mansion is large and full of paths and winding corridors. It takes her about fifteen minutes to reach a yard. The other buildings in the palace are in the Jiangnan style and look very delicate. But the yard before her is very special. It looks very solemn, and because it covers a large area, it will give a psychological sense of oppression. This is the most special presence in the Nangong’s Mansion, An Hall.
An Hall is actually the ancestral hall of the Nangong family, where the tablets of the ancestors of the Nangong family are enshrined. But that's not the point. An Hall is very important because there is a secret room where the Nangong family's most precious treasure, the phoenix bracelet, is kept.
Nangong Ning walks in the yard and goes into the main room. In the hall of the main room, the ever-burning lamps never go out all the year round and the offerings are extremely rich. Even the ancestral hall of Nangong family temple is more luxurious than the ordinary family’s.
Nangong Ning goes to the middle of the hall, and she takes three joss sticks and burns them, kneeling down and making a solemn worship.
In the memory of original Nangong Ning, her dead grandparents loved her very much, and they were totally different from the Nangongs.
After planting the joss sticks, Nangong Ning gets up and goes outside the main house, and she looks around. Usually there is no one in An Hall, only outside the courtyard there are some servants on duty, so there is no need to worry about being disturbed. Making sure there is no one around, she goes to the side room. In An Hall, except the main house, all the rooms have complicated mechanisms.
For example, the side room she's going into right now.
She pushes the door open and goes in. As she entere, she pauses, remembering how she walked in step by step, under her grandmother's guidance, when she was a child, and then she walks in, following the route she remembered.
As she walks inside, the bracelet on her wrists keeps sending messages to her mind. Many of the mechanisms here are poisonous, but because she avoids them in the way she remembered, she needn’t have to pay any attention to them.
Soon she takes the last step and lets out a sigh of relief. She walks quickly to an object shelve. On the shelve there is some extremely small objects, each of them is a priceless treasure. But she doesn’t touch them. The poison bracelet tells her that the surfaces of the treasures are covered with poison. This is the most basic way of preventing theft, simple but effective.
She counts and finally finds a very delicate jade monkey. This jade monkey is yellow and is carved from a piece of best topaz.
Proofread by Prof Zhu Yuan
He looks startled for a moment, and then a light ripple rises in his black eyes. He seems pleased and says, "A hundred thousand taels of gold, she is really a good liar.”
Wei Chu, too, is a little shocked. A hundred thousand taels of gold is not a small amount to him, even though he works for the regent. Of course the Nangongs can afford it, but why did they send it to the Regent’s Mansion?"
“My lord, do you mean to say that the money is sent by Miss Nangong?"
With a sneer, Jun Qianye says, "Nangong Luo is now the crown prince's father-in-law, so he would only send money to the East Palace where the crown prince lives. Who else would do such a thing except the girl?"
That's right! Wei Chu nods unconsciously, but still feeling surprised.
"Miss Nangong's really……Smart!" Within two hours of her return to the Nangong Mansion, she has secured a hundred thousand taels of gold.
Has he belittled her?
Then Jun Qianye says in a cold voice, “Take this money and carry it into the storeroom."
"Yes," the steward answers outside, and leaves.
Wei Chu at this time in the mind is inexplicably a little excited, also saying, “My lord, I also go to handle affairs."
Jun Qianye’s eyes lingered on his face for a moment, and then he only nods slightly.
After Wei Chu goes out, Jun Qianye is alone in the study, whispering.
"Nangong Ning, don't let me down."
Nangong Ning is sitting in Nangong Mansion’s dining room, having dinner with the Nangongs.
In order to please Nangong Ning, Madam Yang cooks seven or eight dishes Nangong Ning likes. Her cooking is really good, and after confirming that the dishes are non-toxic with her bracelet, Nangong Ning begins to eat up.
Seeing Nangong Ning eat with relish, Madam Yang's face shows a satisfied look. She winks at her husband as she serves food to Nangong Ning.
Nangong Luo is less reassured than his wife. He makes eye contact with his daughter from time to time, and they exchange a lot of information over the course of eating half a bowl of rice.
Nangong Ning is satisfied to chew the food that Madam Yang cooks for her. She scans slowly the table, raises her eyebrow and slightly smiles, saying, “Uncle, do my sister and you not like aunt's food? You have not eaten a bite. I must do justice for aunt."
Nangong Luo’s face stiffens. He hurriedly picks up dishes with his chopsticks and says with a smile, “I was so busy looking at you and forgot to eat."
Nangong Qingyao feels very uncomfortable in her mind, and she also expresses her feeling, “Sister, all the dishes that my mother cooked are your favorite food, so I have nothing to eat."
"Is that so?" Nangong Ning curls her lips and it seems that she is trying to show a smile, and she says, “But I remember very well that you and I like almost the same dishes. Probably because you are now the prince's concubine, and the food in the East Palace is more delicate than food here, so you don't like ours."
Nangong Qingyao changes her face.
Everything she says sounds innocuous, but it is always to the point.
What is the East Palace? The rules in there are very strict, and she is just the crown prince's concubine, so that the food she eats and drinks is strictly regulated. In contrast, the clothes she wears and the food she eats in the East Palace are not as good as those in the Nangong Mansion, because the Nangong family is one of the largest commercial giants in the country. As a young lady of the Nangong family, she is extremely extravagant in terms of food, clothing and living expenses. Nangong Ning is obviously satirizing her!
She stares at Nangong Ning, while Nangong Ning eats her meal with a placid face that makes her feel insulted, and when Nangong Luo sees that his daughter does not control her expression well, he gives her a warning look, then looks at Nangong Ning and says, "When did you wear phoenix bracelet?" The phoenix bracelet belongs to Nangong Ning, the eldest daughter of Nangong family, which is the fact that he, even the head of the family, cannot change. But before the prince got married, she had never worn phoenix bracelets.
If Nangong Qingyao had not seen the phoenix bracelet in Nangong Ning’s hand when she pushed her down the poison deep, they would have thought it was still locked in its place. The place where the phoenix bracelet is placed has prefect security system composed by many mechanisms that protect the bracelet from being stolen. She has never tried to get the bracelet, so they aren’t sure if she could open the mechanisms. Now it looks like she has kept her own counsel?
“I don’t remember it,” Nangong Ning says calmly. She indeed doesn’t know when she put on the bracelet. After she returns to Nangong Mansion, she regains her memory and understands that the bracelet was locked in a secret room, but after waking up in the poisonous abyss, the bracelet was on her wrist. She thought it was her poison bracelet, but her poison bracelet could only detect poison and avoid poison. And this phoenix bracelet on her wrist, not only has the function of her poison bracelet, but also can transfer poison. To her, the bracelet is her poison bracelet, but to others, it is the phoenix bracelet of the Nangong family. She is also puzzled and wants to see if the Nangong family's phoenix bracelet is really the one on her wrist.
Knowing what her husband means by the way he looks at her, Madam Yang asks appropriately, “What do you mean by saying that? I don't understand.” Nangong Ning glances lightly at Nangong Ningyao who is suddenly alarmed, saying, "Sister, why are you looking at me?"
“Aunt, it's my sister’s fault if you say you don't understand.” Nangong Ning says and smiles gracefully.
“What do you mean, sister?” Nangong Qingyao says in a disagreeable tone with a cold face.
Nangong Ning’s tone is lukewarm, as if she is talking about someone else's business, "If you hadn't poisoned me, how could I not even remember what I did?"
"What do you mean?" Nangong Qingyao starts to his feet. She hasn’t expected that Nangong Ning would say so directly and Nangong Luo also looked at her in shock. With an easy smile Nangong Ning who is facing the shocked three, holds a boiled prawn and flings it expertly, graciously delivering it to her mouth and chewing it slowly.
The Nangongs look at him, stiffening their faces. They cannot understand her. Is she stupid? Or because she died once, and became more enlightened? Or is it just a struggle of grief and anger?
Nangong Ning wipes his hands elegantly with her handkerchief, and then she takes the tea from the maid and gargles, saying "I haven't come back for a few days, and I want to go to An Hall to see my grandparents’ memorial tablet and let them know that I am safe."
As soon as he hears the two words "An Hall", Nangong Luo suddenly becomes nervous. Nangong Luo makes eye contact with his daughter and they get a conclusion: it is coming. But she brings up the subject herself before they try to direct her in that direction.
"Uncle, why do you look like that? Is there anything wrong?" Nangong Ning asks, looking at him faintly.
Nangong Luo quickly restrains his emotions and begins to play the role of a good uncle, solemnly saying, “How can it be wrong? You are the eldest of the Nangong family, how can it be wrong for you to go to An Hall?"
“That's good. I'll go now, and you and my aunt and sister can continue to enjoy the food." Nangong Ning says, getting up and going upstairs.
Nangong Qingyao almost gets up to follow her, but Nangong Luo’s eyes stop her. She watches Nangong Ning disappear by the door and says, “Father, if we don't follow her, how can we find that thing?" Nangong Luo shakes his head, "An Hall is in our mansion and won't go away, so you needn’t be so impatient. Moreover I think she's weird right now, so we have to be careful. We can't deal with her in the open, but in the dark." "Father, do you have any good ideas?" Nangong Qingyao asks eagerly, and her eyes glow with excitement at his words.
Nangong Luo’s eyes are dark and piercing, and he says, “Damn that girl! She is very smart, and what we can do is……poisoning her!”
When Nangong Ning goes out of the dining-room, she lets no one follow her, and goes to the innermost part of the Nangong’s Mansion. The mansion is large and full of paths and winding corridors. It takes her about fifteen minutes to reach a yard. The other buildings in the palace are in the Jiangnan style and look very delicate. But the yard before her is very special. It looks very solemn, and because it covers a large area, it will give a psychological sense of oppression. This is the most special presence in the Nangong’s Mansion, An Hall.
An Hall is actually the ancestral hall of the Nangong family, where the tablets of the ancestors of the Nangong family are enshrined. But that's not the point. An Hall is very important because there is a secret room where the Nangong family's most precious treasure, the phoenix bracelet, is kept.
Nangong Ning walks in the yard and goes into the main room. In the hall of the main room, the ever-burning lamps never go out all the year round and the offerings are extremely rich. Even the ancestral hall of Nangong family temple is more luxurious than the ordinary family’s.
Nangong Ning goes to the middle of the hall, and she takes three joss sticks and burns them, kneeling down and making a solemn worship.
In the memory of original Nangong Ning, her dead grandparents loved her very much, and they were totally different from the Nangongs.
After planting the joss sticks, Nangong Ning gets up and goes outside the main house, and she looks around. Usually there is no one in An Hall, only outside the courtyard there are some servants on duty, so there is no need to worry about being disturbed. Making sure there is no one around, she goes to the side room. In An Hall, except the main house, all the rooms have complicated mechanisms.
For example, the side room she's going into right now.
She pushes the door open and goes in. As she entere, she pauses, remembering how she walked in step by step, under her grandmother's guidance, when she was a child, and then she walks in, following the route she remembered.
As she walks inside, the bracelet on her wrists keeps sending messages to her mind. Many of the mechanisms here are poisonous, but because she avoids them in the way she remembered, she needn’t have to pay any attention to them.
Soon she takes the last step and lets out a sigh of relief. She walks quickly to an object shelve. On the shelve there is some extremely small objects, each of them is a priceless treasure. But she doesn’t touch them. The poison bracelet tells her that the surfaces of the treasures are covered with poison. This is the most basic way of preventing theft, simple but effective.
She counts and finally finds a very delicate jade monkey. This jade monkey is yellow and is carved from a piece of best topaz.
