FID – Chapter 780

Chapter 780: The Seventh Prince of Yan, Yan Rongjin

While the two were speaking, the boy took out a jade piece from his robe, poked Liu Yusheng with his index finger, and placed it into her hand.

Liu Yusheng’s attention was immediately drawn to the object in her palm, missing the sudden change in the middle-aged man’s expression.

The jade was carved in the shape of a small auspicious cloud qilin, only about half the size of a palm. It was a vivid, translucent green, delicately lifelike.

“You want to use this to pay for your treatment?” Liu Yusheng asked.

The boy nodded, pointed at her, then at his own throat, and finally cupped his hands and bowed in gratitude.

“No need to thank me. I’m being paid for this,” she replied. “Judging from this jade’s value, it’s no small sum. I’ll hold onto it for now. Once your treatment is complete, I’ll return the difference if it exceeds the cost, or we’ll settle if more is owed.”

The boy smiled and nodded.

The middle-aged man standing beside them looked like he was about to faint.

“Here, this bottle contains three anti-inflammatory pills. Take one per day, dissolved in water. Once I’ve found a place for you to settle, someone will come inform you.” She handed the medicine bottle to the boy, then drifted away gracefully with her maid.

As soon as the courtyard gate closed behind them, the middle-aged man rushed to the entrance of the main hall. Staring at the boy who still held the medicine bottle and smiled faintly, he opened his mouth to speak, hesitated, and ended up pacing in circles several times beside him.

“Young Master, how could you casually give that thing away! Have you forgotten that we… we…” The reason they had escaped death so many times and ended up in such dire straits was all to protect that item.

And now, just like that, he had generously handed it over!

That was the Imperial Jade Seal!

After putting away the medicine bottle, the boy looked at the middle-aged man. He waited until the man’s agitation had somewhat subsided before beginning to gesture with his hands.

The gestures were not overly complex, and the man—though somewhat confused—managed to roughly piece together the boy’s meaning.

“Young Master, you’re saying that leaving that item with the Princess Consort is safer than us carrying it ourselves?”

The boy nodded and gestured again.

“There’s been strange activity in the capital recently. Have those people caught up with us?”

The boy nodded once more, then made no further gestures.

The middle-aged man had been with him since childhood and could easily understand his thoughts.

Those people had already caught up with them, and if they were captured, they would undoubtedly search for the Imperial Jade Seal. Given their current situation, they were in no position to protect it from falling into the wrong hands.

Rather than keep it on them and invite disaster, only to offend their enemies in the process, it would be better to give it to the Princess Consort.

The middle-aged man fell silent.

As his Young Master said, the Jade Seal was safer in the hands of the Princess Consort than anywhere else.

She was someone at the tip of the King of Nanling’s heart, with tight security around her. No one could easily harm her, and no one would dare to act against her.

Most importantly, no one would suspect that he would hand the Imperial Jade Seal over to a woman he had only met a few times.

If they ever managed to escape, retrieving the Jade Seal wouldn’t be difficult.

But the real concern was whether the Young Master had planned to use the Princess Consort, and if the King of Nanling ever found out, the consequences might not be good.

However, for now, there really wasn’t a better option.

They had no choice but to go along with it.

After leaving the Dahuai Lane, Liu Yusheng didn’t head directly back to the palace but instead went to the fabric shop under the Liu family’s name.

Previously, the shop had been managed by her sister-in-law, Fu Yuzheng. After she married her elder brother, the shop was renamed with the Liu surname.

It wasn’t because the Liu family was coveting the small dowry Fu Yuzheng had brought. Rather, Fu Yuzheng disliked having the shop retain the Fu surname, as she had always harbored a deep resentment toward it.

At the fabric shop, she asked the shopkeeper to clear out two rooms in the back courtyard, tidy them up, and then go to Dahuai Lane tomorrow to pick up the boy. The shop was currently short of workers, and the two of them could work there to earn their keep.

Once she had arranged all of this, she headed back to the palace.

Feng Qingbai had not yet returned, so Liu Yusheng went to the Yuqing Courtyard. After their marriage, they had been living in the main courtyard.

She took out the qilin jade the boy had given her, studied it for a moment, then casually placed it on the table and lit the medicinal furnace to refine some medicine.

This was her daily routine—whenever she was at the manor and Feng Qingbai wasn’t around, she either refined medicine or organized the herbs in the space warehouse.

A faint scent of medicinal herbs slowly filled the room.

Following the fragrance, Feng Qingbai found his little girl.

He stopped at the door, leaning slightly against the doorframe, quietly watching her.

He observed how she completely immersed herself in her domain once she began her work, fully absorbed in the task at hand.

The woman didn’t notice his arrival, her attention entirely on the medicinal furnace in front of her. She focused intently, adjusting the flames and precisely adding the herbs. Her movements were calm, unhurried, and methodical. Her expression was serene.

It wasn’t until the medicine pills were finished and she was cleaning out the residue from the furnace that the man took a step forward and embraced her from behind, picking up the qilin jade she had placed beside her.

“Do you like jade?” There were quite a few jade pieces stored in the warehouse that he rarely organized. If she liked them, he would have Uncle Ding bring them over.

Caught off guard by the sudden embrace, Liu Yusheng wasn’t startled at all because the familiar scent that enveloped her was one she knew well.

She smiled softly and replied, “It’s not that I like it. It’s payment for my medical services. My patient gave it to me.”

“Is it that mute boy?”

“He’s not mute. His throat was burned by a hot iron, injuring his vocal cords.”

Feng Qingbai raised an eyebrow and looked down at the jade in his hand.

A fleeting, unusual glint passed through his eyes.

He slowly flipped the qilin jade over, with the cloud design facing up, the bottom smooth and clean.

“Shengsheng, this is your payment. It is all yours. How about giving it to me?” Feng Qingbai said.

Liu Yusheng turned around and looked at him with a teasing gaze. He rarely asked her for anything.

Why was he acting so strange today?

“If you like it, just take it. Do you still need me to give it to you?”

Her things were, after all, his.

The corners of his eyes curved up slightly, a smile of pleasure forming.

He leaned in to steal a kiss from the corner of her mouth. “It’s time for dinner, let’s go out.”

As for the qilin jade, he didn’t take it but returned it to its original place.

In the dead of night, after the woman had fallen asleep, Feng Qingbai quietly pulled back the blanket and got up.

He put on his outer robe and walked over to the long table. In the dim light, his dark eyes focused on the jade. Finally, he picked it up and headed for the study.

“Master, is there something wrong with this jade?” Wei Zi appeared.

His master had been unusually focused on the jade today.

After sitting down, Feng Qingbai lit the candle a little brighter and once again turned the jade over, with the cloud design facing up.

Afterward, he gently tapped on the smooth bottom, pressing and slowly pushing it open.

It actually moved.

A thin jade piece, as delicate as a cicada’s wing, emerged from the bottom!

The area that the jade piece had covered was unexpectedly carved with intricate patterns!

When Wei Zi saw the pattern, his eyelids sharply contracted. “Master, this…!”

“Yan, the surname of the Dongyue Kingdom,” Feng Qingbai’s voice was faint, his gaze cold. “This is the lost imperial seal of Dongyue.”

“This jade was given to the princess by that young man. If that’s the case, then he is from the royal family of Dongyue!”

“From Dongyue, the Seventh Prince of Yan, Yan Rongjin.”

Feng Qingbai sneered.

That gossiping fool, Duan Ting, finally had some use for his occasional chatter.

If it weren’t for his gossip that day, he wouldn’t have guessed the boy’s identity so quickly.

The Seventh Prince had escaped to Nanling!